confused of calcutta

… I plan to visit Kensal Green Cemetery again. Haven’t done so in over 25 years. The last time I did it, sometime in 1982, I didn’t get the chance to see all I wanted to. Some people have this real thing about cemeteries, I am not one of them. Until I discovered Kensal Green [...]

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There was a strange story making the rounds a few years ago: apparently someone had thought up the idea of etching images of house flies on public urinals; boys being boys and men being men, they “took aim”. And suddenly “spillage” was reduced by lots and lots. You can see the story here.
When I was [...]

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I had been looking forward to meeting Umair Haque at Supernova a few weeks ago. But it was not to be; sadly, Umair’s mother was ill and so, quite understandably, he couldn’t make it.
There are many reasons for my wanting to meet Umair; just take a look at what Terry Heaton wrote about him some [...]

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I don’t particularly like e-mail, not because it is bad per se, but because we have made it into a one-size-fits-all collaboration and communication tool. I have particular dislikes for the misuse of the cc button and the very existence of the bcc button, something I have written about before.
Even those dislikes pale into insignificance [...]

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I love chillies, particularly when they are seriously hot; I’ve written about it before here and here. So it came as a pleasant surprise to me that my father’s day present was this:

Absolutely brilliant stuff. I made myself a sandwich this evening (we usually eat only one “cooked” meal a day, and fend for ourselves [...]

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I blame David Weinberger. It was him. He made me do it. He made me follow his tweet and watch this video.  Joe Cocker, with subtitles for people who find his accent and delivery style hard to comprehend. Be careful. Be very careful. I hurt.

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We live in interesting times.
Last week, it was reported that the Advertising Standards Authority had decreed that the word “bespoke” could now be used to describe suits that weren’t entirely handmade.
Moustache quivering in indignation, I went over to Wikipedia to see what it said about the word “bespoke”:
Bespoke is usually a British English term for [...]

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It’s been a long day, coming at the end of a long week, tiring yet ultimately very fulfilling. I wanted something to read, something very special and very specific. Whatever I chose, it needed to meet the following criteria:

escapist and lighthearted yet not superficial and empty of meaning
easy on the brain, not a taxing read, [...]

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Take a look at this. Man throws money into the air, wanted to “spread a little sunshine”. Blog post, quotes, video, the lot.
Every time we mention “citizen media”, we will keep hearing horror stories about unchecked facts, downright lies, superficial reporting, poor use of language, bias and corruption.
But it’s happening. And will continue to happen. [...]

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I just love this story. Tommy de Carlo, a 43 year old Home Depot credit manager in North Carolina, lifelong fan of Boston, is heartbroken when Brad Delp, the lead singer, committed suicide last year. So he sings his heart out on a bunch of tracks, uploads them to his MySpace page as “tribute”, and [...]

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