PR Nightmare:
Scientists find tumour-causing gene – hurrah!
Scientists give tumour-causing gene lawsuit-causing name – pika! pika![…]

GLORIA 1: THE CASE OF THE BILINGUAL BALLOONS
Thankyou for your many comments on the thorny question of whether Nena’s German original “99 Luftballons” is better than “99 Red Balloons”. We have fed the two records, your c[…]

The all new Assault On Precinct 13 is good value for money. A Frankenstein film of epic proportions, it gobbles up the original (an odd word given this plot) Die Hard 2, The Matrix and any film in which Gabriel Byrne has been rubbish in (all of them)[…]

oliphaunts vs mumins: WHO WILL DIE?
in the interests of havin a social life clearly mumin wins, in the sense that to watch 10 hours-worth* of DVD-mumins IN GERMAN at starry’s house w.various pals = bettah than stayin in and watchin ep3 of the […]

APPLYING OCCAM’S RAZOR — Part 2 of 2
(The first part of this post can be found at the Brown Wedge.)
While Martin Gardner’s book on Urantia’s crazy-quilt scheme of science (fiction) Christianity was a flawed mess, the impulse t[…]

APPLYING OCCAM’S RAZOR — Part 1 of 2
URANTIA
by Martin Gardner
For many years, I was a subscriber to the Skeptical Inquirer, the quite marvelous journal dedicated to a basic principle: treat any claim involving the paranormal with scienti[…]

Monty Python’s Fliegender Zirkus — after some delay I’ve finally gotten around to seeing the first of two of the strangest comedy ventures ever, namely the nearly hour-long German-only episodes (nearly all of which, a couple of mome[…]

DAFT PUNK
Human After All
Yes, it’s hardly out yet or anything, but after the leak on Monday I witnessed what had to be one of the most intense fracturings of opinion over a long-expected album in a while. To pick just one example, the ILM thr[…]

Adventures In The Alaskan Skin Trade by John Hawkes
Hawkes had been on my mental list for a while, since he seemed to be grouped with some Postmodernist writers I love – there are blurbs on the back of this from Barth, Gass and Barthelme, rathe[…]

The Physics Detective Part Two — The Investigation Begins
This week’s installation was about 100 times funnier than last week’s. As a result, I now have the enthusiasm and motivation to see this story through to the end — and […]