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November 20, 2009

How to play like the Beatles

Want to know how the Beatles made their music? Here are three extraordinary segments of Beatles music with accompanying commentary split down into individual instruments.

It's simply amazing stuff.

Posted by Daniel Finkelstein on November 20, 2009 at 04:57 PM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Today's Web Grab

Web_grabYou might enjoy:

  • AllahPundit in Hot Air: How Palin could win the nomination
  • Jacob Sullum in Reason: Maybe we need more tax cheats in high places
  • Adam Boulton in Boulton and Co: Rumpy and Cathy
  • James Ridgeway in Mojo: How we pay for big pharma’s malpractice
  • Charles Bremner in Le Blogue: The obscure new chiefs of Europe

Posted by Hattie Garlick on November 20, 2009 at 04:55 PM in Web Grab | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Ideas and their enemies

This guy has designed a series of wonderful doodles as part of an advertising campaign in Portugal.

Each one illustrates a brilliant kind of idea and the modern day evil that's out to scupper it.

The captions, unfortunately, are in Portuguese but the pictures are witty enough to get the message across ('focus group' seems to be unfortunately universal and Yoko Ono's shades are Yoko Ono's shades in any language).

Ideas 

(Hat tip: Kottke)

Posted by Hattie Garlick on November 20, 2009 at 04:30 PM in Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Ashton, Miliband and the Labour party's future

Mil What impact might the appointment of Cathy Ashton as EU High Representative have on the battle to lead the Labour Party after the election?

If this seems like an odd question, I'll explain.

Friends of David Miliband have been arguing over the last couple of weeks that Miliband's decision to stay in Britain rather than take the job made him a much stronger leadership candidate.

This was for two reasons.

First, it showed he was a fighter and wanted to dedicate himself to the party.

And second, the very offer (and it is clear there would have been one, I think) showed that he is a big figure. He was offered a big job after all.

In fact, a Blairite former Cabinet Minister told me that he believed that Miliband had even put himself in position to succeed before the election.

But now along comes Baroness Ashton.

Whatever talent she may have, in British political eyes this reduces the prestige of the appointment. It suggests that Miliband did not need to be regarded as a major figure by other European governments in order to be appointed.

I'd say that whatever edge the whole EU High Representative thing gave him, and it was quite an edge actually, he has now lost.

Ed Balls had a good day yesterday.

Posted by Daniel Finkelstein on November 20, 2009 at 02:41 PM in Labour Party | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Magazine Rack - Issue 540

Magazine_rack

You might enjoy:

  • Robert Fulford in National Post: Snide and Prejudice
  • Mark Bathgate in The Spectator: Fatal Inexperience
  • Carsten Volkery in Spiegel Online: Europe Chooses Nobodies
  • Allison Samuels in Newsweek: A Frog of a Different Colour

Posted by Hattie Garlick on November 20, 2009 at 02:35 PM in Magazine Rack | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

10 most bizarre sexist adverts

There’s a good something doing the rounds on the blogs at the moment, one that has a Friday kind of feeling to it.

A number of blogs have been picking their Top 10/Top 20/Top 105 Vintage Sexist Adverts.

I’m not sure ‘Top’ is the best way of describing them, but there’s such an astonishingly rich pool of material to pick from that I couldn’t resist making a quick Comment Central selection. 

Ad1

Ad3

Continue reading "10 most bizarre sexist adverts" »

Posted by Hattie Garlick on November 20, 2009 at 11:53 AM in Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBack (0)

Theirry Henry's handball

All the talk about Thierry Henry's handball reminded me of one of my favourite columns of the past few years - Martin Samuel's superb explanation of the real problem with using video technology in football.

It's worth reading even if football isn't really your thing and you are only interested in good column writing.

Posted by Daniel Finkelstein on November 20, 2009 at 11:08 AM in Football | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Ballack moonlights

Michael Ballack claims to be injured, but he has clearly been otherwise employed.

 Twilight

Posted by Daniel Finkelstein on November 20, 2009 at 11:03 AM in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The real concern about Ashton

Ashton

The appointment of Cathy Ashton prompted UKIP's Nigel Farage to say this:

Baroness Ashton is ideal for the role. She's never had a proper job, and never been elected to public office.

I don't agree with either of these criticisms.

It is not true that she has not had a proper job. She was head of Business in the Community, a highly successful and innovative charity for several years. And she was very good at it, incidentally.

And it is more revealing about Nigel Farage than about her that he doesn't regard that as a proper job.

It is true that she has never been elected to anything. But I don't regard that as a disqualification.

One of my concerns about the job, and reason for opposing the Lisbon treaty, is that politicians used to elected office would take a role to which they had not been elected, and which should be diplomatic rather than political, and turn into a political platform. 

My concern is different.

What makes Cathy Ashton's appointment "surprising" as she noted herself, is that she has little background in foreign policy.

She has, I suppose, been trade commissioner for a year. But aside from that, her one demonstration of interest in international affairs was as an employee and later Treasurer of CND.

I don't regard that as reassuring.

Posted by Daniel Finkelstein on November 20, 2009 at 10:57 AM in Europe | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Friday's comment from the papers in...

Daily_fix_top_20

    Today in Times comment

          • Antonia Senior: Care in old age: we won’t pay, the State can’t
          • Frank Skinner: Viewers’ choice: our talentless Everyman
          • Charles Bremner: France would have preferred to lose than win by Thierry Henry’s handball
          • Bob Balchin: More promises, more children’s chances ruined
          • Hugh Thomson: Win hearts and minds in Afghanistan in win the war
          • Hugo Rifkind: Memo to the poor: go forth and don’t multiply
          • Leading article: Calling Karzai to Account
          • Leading article: A Disappointed Bridge
          • Leading article: Professional Foul

And from the rest of the papers:

          • Jeff Randall (The Telegraph) – Gordon Brown is joking if he thinking he can outlaw his own profligacy
          • Con Coughlin (The Telegraph) – Barack Obama may come to regret giving America its moment of vengeance
          • George Pitcher (The Telegraph) – What exactly are atheists so scared about?
          • Leading article (The Telegraph) – The media revolution needs a modern response
          • Simon Jenkins (The Guardian) – A love affair with a city like London demands much more than an air-kiss
          • Jessica Valenti (The Guardian) – Hockey mom or president – Sarah Palin can’t have it both ways
          • James Harkin (The Guardian) – Quangos in a Tory quandary
          • Leading article (The Guardian) – Broke but not bust yet
          • Johann Hari (The Independent) – The real reason Obama is not making much progress
          • Steve Richards (The Independent) – Party leaders still fear the Holiday Test
          • Terence Blacker (The Independent) – A great day for famous do-gooders
          • Leading article (The Independent) – The Afghan strategy is finally beginning to shift
          • Quentin Letts (The Daily Mail) – It was ‘Hi’ from Ed Balls… and ‘Bye’ from nearly everyone else
          • Roula Khalaf (Financial Times) – Why Saudi Arabia should rethink its Yemen strategy

And from the rest of the world…

          • Paul Krugman (The New York Times) – The Big Squander
          • David Brooks (The New York Times) – What Geithner Got Right
          • Robert Aronowitz (International Herald Tribune) - Addicted to Mammograms
          • Joe Queenan (The Wall Street Journal) – Stop Picking on Fat People
          • Heather Ridout (The Australian) – Pass the carbon deal

Posted by Hattie Garlick on November 20, 2009 at 08:19 AM in The Daily Fix | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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    is Chief Leader Writer of The Times and writes a weekly column. Comment Central is his rolling guide to the best opinion on the web.
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