3/5/02 - You've got to admire the old fool:

"PRINCE Philip put his foot in it again yesterday when he met a blind woman with her guide dog. He joked to Susan Edwards: "Do you know they now do eating dogs for the anorexic?""

28/4/02 - Peep surgery:

"One of the great mysteries of the Peep species is that these creatures are always born as conjoined quintuplets... We thus applied the advances of modern medicine to attempt this miracle separation of these 5 brave volunteers."

28/4/02 - Hehe:

"Doctors in Birmingham have discovered what many people have long suspected - that anoraks can be unhealthy." 

Professor Roche often has cameos in Jonathan Demme movies - he was the TV evangelist shown on the TV outside Hannibal Lecter's cell in The Silence of the Lambs.

28/4/02 - Media scaremongering on crime:

"Here we go again. The newspapers are talking about a “wave of crime engulfing Britain”. They are referring to increased levels of street crime. Let’s put it into perspective:

• In the last decade overall crime fell by 20% – a fact verified by the authoritative British Crime Survey.
...
In April 2002, “fear of crime” was the reason given by French political commentators for the rise in popularity of the far right. Daily Mail journalists should probably ask themselves whether they might be causing more damage to society than teenage cell-phone snatchers."

"News just in...Jarvis will be appearing as Rolf Harris on Celebrity Stars in their Eyes, performing "Two Little Boys". I have a feeling it might be broadcast next Saturday night..."

"Awareness of anatomy is not Ensler's forte. A long sketch soon after the opening of the show tells a cautionary tale about a woman whose husband insisted on shaving her vagina, a procedure that is not only impossible but unimaginable."

28/4/02 - A new interview with Matt Groening: [Warning: Times reg. req.]

"...We once had an episode where George Bush Sr was a neighbour of the Simpsons and got into a fight with Homer. We’re talking about having an episode in which George W Bush comes back to Springfield to avenge his father. The twist is that he and Homer get along very well. They see eye to eye on a lot of issues."

The painting, of a young lady who seems to have forgotten her clothes, is by Archie Dickens.

27/4/02 - More stuff on George W. and his language problems:

"Terrible news from Washington, where the White House has started cleaning up George W. Bush's reported words. Each week they produce a booklet including every word uttered in public by the president, and back in the late 1980s I used to plunder this for the wonderful Bushisms uttered by his father. Now they are cutting out the bloomers and inanities - "improving them" as they call it."

27/4/02 - If I was up at 4am on a Saturday it would be a shame to miss this Radio One show: (via qwertyuiop)

"Artists featured will include Chris Coco, Coldcut, DJ Food, Schneider TM, To Rococo Rot, Sigur Ros , Royksopp, Lemon Jelly, Tarwater, Andrew Weatherall, Plone, Plaid, Aphex Twin, 4 Hero, Air, Orbital, Boards of Canada, Richard Hawley, Calexico, Lambchop, Kings Of Convenience, Turin Breaks, Beechwood Sparks, Beth Orton, Zero 7, Low, Quasi, Yo La Tengo, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Mazarin, Kingsbury Manx, Ed Harcourt and more."

27/4/02 - A list of fiction and non-fiction bestsellers from 1900 to 1998.

27/4/02 - A wonderful collection of classic adverts: (via memepool)

27/4/02 - Rolling Stone's 50 coolest albums is just wrong, wrong, wrong.  Too many 'best of' and 'various artists' collections.  This puts Chuck Berry in at number 4, which would be OK on a singles chart but albums?  But the missing artists are just ridiculous- no Stooges, Patti Smith or Sonic Youth. Or Robert Johnson. Or Portishead. Or Sun Ra.  And some of the choices.  Who has ever said "You've just bought Madonna 'You Can Dance'? You're so cool!"

27/4/02 - This wowed the crowds at the ACS in Orlando, a 3d stereoscopic projector from VREX.

27/4/02 - Tommy Boyd on TalkSport got sacked after letting a caller express his forthright opinion:

"Boyd, his producer and technical operative sat speechless after the caller - who claimed to be a republican - said he would like to "shoot the fucking lot of them", on the Sunday night following the announcement of the death of the Queen Mother."

27/4/02 - Spent several hours at the Magna Science Adventure Centre.  Well worth a visit, although I didn't get to try the JCBs, far too many kids, not enough of us big kids to overpower them.

27/4/02 - Record streaming mp3s to your PC with Streamripper. (via Boing Boing)

27/4/02 - The amazing world of Dubyaspeak: (via Splinters)

"I want to appreciate the Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle, for being here today.
-- He wants to appreciate Tom Daschle, but presumably cannot, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Apr. 24, 2002"

27/4/02 - The best current advert?  Zurich and their flying pigs: