We sat down, my wife and I, during a quiet period that could otherwise have been a little gloomy, to watch as many feature films directed by Aki Kaurismäki as we could lay hands on. We watched them in chronological order, so this could have been an interesting article about the director's development from his… Continue reading Films by Aki Kaurismäki
Category: Good Things
Notes on the Minolta SR-1 (Model A)
The SR-1 is a model of 35mm film SLR camera made by Minolta (Chiyoda Kogaku) from 1959 onwards. It was the second SLR that Minolta released. As was typical at the time, their first was a more expensive model, the SR-2 in 1958, which they then cut down for a cheaper alternative by removing the… Continue reading Notes on the Minolta SR-1 (Model A)
Learning to read Arabic writing: one of my better ideas
I live in London not far from Paddington, where Arabic writing is often seen: I spent my first few years in the area a bit oblivious to this (shops are shops), but eventually I started to wonder about simple things like: are these all the same language and script, or do they just look similar?… Continue reading Learning to read Arabic writing: one of my better ideas
Why I will be voting “in” this Thursday
Although the public debate about this week's EU referendum in the UK has become absurdly bitter on both sides, I have had some constructive talks about the subject with people around me, even where we have disagreed. There is, or was, a reasonable debate to be had and it's a pity we haven't seen a… Continue reading Why I will be voting “in” this Thursday
Comparative advantage
One of my favourite ideas from economics (a subject I know very little about) is that of comparative advantage, a theory that shows how two countries can trade to mutual advantage even if one of them is better at everything than the other is. A fairly clear example is described here.What I like about this… Continue reading Comparative advantage
T40p, T60p, T540p, go!
I recently replaced my desktop machine at work with a Thinkpad T540p. This laptop has had some bad reviews online: terrible trackpad, keyboard a great disappointment, Windows drivers problems, not the proper colour for a Thinkpad (it's dark grey instead of black), installing Linux will brick it. I read a few of these and did… Continue reading T40p, T60p, T540p, go!
The Breakfast Post 