The Filter^

Book review of the day

The Economist:

“The Age of the Unthinkable” is a thought-provoking book. Unfortunately, one of the thoughts that it provokes is that its central argument is wrong.

If you love women so much...

I've just seen this superb website, "Speak your brains". The premise is simple: (STEP 1) quote actual comments left by members of the public on the BBC's "Have your say" site. Such as:

Does this mean that ‘anyone’ can effectively stake out my house or the houses on a street? So, for example, if this works in anything like ‘realtime’, a criminal could ‘watch’ my house from his PC (as opposed to lurking about suspiciously), work out my usual routine and then plan his business accordingly. I can think of a lot of other reasons why this and Google Earth could be a very handy tool for certain unsavoury members of society!
Johnny PH, Leeds

(STEP 2) mock them:

I started off feeling a little bit sorry for Johnny and thought perhaps it was too easy to mock someone who doesn’t understand modern technology. Then I realised we’re not talking about someone who doesn’t understand the difference between a router and a hub, or someone who can’t distinguish between emails and webpages. This is someone who not only believes that Google has invented magic, invisible techno-eyes but also imagines that, faced with the chance to virtually visit anywhere in the world, people have decided they’d rather watch some cunt from Leeds going about his “routine”

There is something fundamentally dangerous about the democratisation of opinion that leads to expert judgment being curtailed for the thoughts of the general public. I appreciate how elitist that sounds, but I am speaking as a member of the general public. If I'm watching a news story about heart disease, I would rather hear from a respectable authority on the issue than a token person off the street. Which is why I don't watch the news anymore.

GORDON BROWN SUICIDE

You know what it's like - a few days after a night out you're looking through your phone and discover photos that you can't remember taking. It makes you glad that camera phones weren't about when you were at uni, and also curious as to what the rest of this headline was.

Speaking of Gordon Brown, this video is fantastic

Finno-Ugric Joke of the Week

A Finno-Ugric joke tells of migrating tribal forebears finding a signpost on the steppe reading: "To civilisation". Those that could not read it went north and became Finns. Those that could went to Central Europe and became Hungarians. (Finns tell the story the other way around).

(From The Christmas Economist 2005, previously posted on January 10th 2006)

50 Greatest comedy clips

Are here. Very US-centric, but the challenge is to list the ones that should have made it. For me:

• The Two Ronnies - 'Crossed Lines'
• Newman & Baddiel's 'History Today'
• Does 'The Day Today' count?

What else makes you go ha-bloody-ha?

Seinfeld: The challenge

For a while now I've had an idea for a new episode of Seinfeld. Rather than do the full screenplay, I'll just write up the main plot. The challenge is to make it as Seinfeld-like as possible.

I have the basic storyline but am now trying to pepper it with recurring character behaviour. Historically these probably occur less often than we imagine, but since this is speculative fiction the challenge is to incorporate as many as possible. The types of behaviour I'm thinking about are things like:

• Elaine pushes someone (possible shouting "get OUT!")
• Jerry ends up paying lots of money
• Kramer using one form of social convention in an inappropriate environment
• Kramer engaging in slapstick comedy

So help me out - what are some other Seinfeld conventions?

(Select) Bibliography

In completing my thesis - Chivalry, Chauvenism or Schaudenfreude: Some Aspects of Socio-pathological Historiography for Penetrating Wagner's Ring - the following sources were both enlightening and indispensable.

Dropping in on Jerry: A Lighthearted Account of the Dresden Bombings / Wing Commander "Bullseye" Fortescue, VC, The Peacock Press, November 1991

Carpet Bombing Never Happened / Julie Birchill, The Brighton Imprint, January 2007

Radioactive Roustabout: Who's Afraid of Contamination? / Norton Quiz and Games Books, Rhyl, August 2005

Nailbiting in Bournemouth versus Bed-Wetting in Poole: Action and Amelioration / P. Hurst, Journal of Psychology, March 1980

Teaching Stockbrockers Ring Dancing / H. Ford, Practical Mental Health, January 1975

'Daddy, Mummy's Mad.' 'Good.' / A. Sikorski, Practical Mental Health, February 1976

Repressing People who Laugh Alone: Towards Effective Public Transport / H. Ford, The Bus, October 1975

Gerald Kaufman says 'Fuck Golf!' / G. Kaufman, Publish Yourself Books, September 2006

Where are Diana's Knicker Elastics? / David Starkey, University College London Press, November 2001

With apologies and much admiration to Will Self, Jonathan Coe and Armando Iannucci!

Trapped in a Closet

R Kelly is a comic genius. Watch and admire...

Britishness

Being British is about driving a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then grabbing an Indian curry (or a Turkish kebab) on the way home, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV.

And the most British thing of all?
Xenophobia!

The Mary Whitehouse Experience

Last night on BBC4 David Baddiel (once again) complained about the fact that The Mary Whitehouse Experience has never been released or repeated. Fear not though! Go to this website and download some MP3s. It's stood the test of time.