This was on Gabriel's third solo album, which was released in 1980 under the title Peter Gabriel. It made number 4 in the UK singles chart. 'Games without frontiers' is a literal translation of the French phrase 'Jeux sans frontières'. That was the title of the inter-European version of the game show It's a Knockout, and Jeux Sans Srontières was just about my favourite viewing as a small boy in the 1960s. So the song seems to be abuot trivial games, but also namechecks what sound like world leaders to suggest a deeper political meaning. As American Songwriter comments: "Games ...
As ever, there is a Yes, Prime Minister or Yes Minister sketch for the political situation. In this case, to explain Boris Johnson's coronavirus strategy.
As Livejournal continues its sad decline, it becomes paradoxically a bit easier to pick out the posts that got the most engagement over the year. The biggest by far was my Brexit post on 31 January, which I had been brewing for three and a half years. The second biggest was my full Hugo details post, which I was able to get done a bit more promptly thanks to being a deputy administrator this year. Only two posts got more than five comments, my review of Titus Groan with eight: and my review of a fascinating paper on Tolkien (which ...
Facebook have made it even more difficult than before to track the impact of your posts. Luckily I had already tallied the first half of the year, so it was a bit less tedious to scroll through and tally manually. And unlike Twitter, there are only three things to measure - reactions, comments and shares. Most comments: a rather toxic debate on 'cancel culture', though I feel I owe it to my trans friends (and indeed my trans enemies) to spell out where I stand. Basically, if you are not prepared to use people's preferred pronouns, I don't really want ...
Only three metrics here: likes for pictures, views of videos and comments on both. The most comments went to the small montage for F's 21st birthday. View this post on InstagramA post shared by Nicholas Whyte (@nwbrux) The most likes went to our reunion picture with B, on her birthday, after we had not seen her for three months. View this post on InstagramA post shared by Nicholas Whyte (@nwbrux) And the most viewed video was of B and her not-very-secret boyfriend earlier this month. View this post on InstagramA post shared by Nicholas Whyte (@nwbrux)
The year isn't over yet, but I am guessing that I may not tweet anything very significant in its remaining eleven days. Here are my top tweets of 2020 in all the various metrics offered by Twitter, plus where the top tweet(s) didn't have original content from me I've drilled down for the top tweet in that category that does have original content, plus one that isn't actually top in any one category but has the best aggregate score of them all. Most permalink clicks (I had completely forgotten even posting this one): I like this one.https://t.co/obcAJ7PaPz — 𝙉𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙖𝙨 𝙒𝙝𝙮𝙩𝙚 ...
About three years ago I was contacted by the young actor, Edwin Thomas, who was playing the character of Robbie Ross in Rupert Everett's imaginative biopic of Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince. He was holed up in a hotel on location somewhere on the Continent and had just read my biography of Robbie. Could I [...]
If it wasnt bad enough that refugees fleeing war, famine, torture and the devastating effects of climate change were being herded into 'prison camps' by this Tory government, the Mirror reports on a new low for the Home Secretary. The paper says that Priti Patel plans to dump 300 cross-Channel refugees in a "prison camp" with no drainage, mains water or sewage and little health care: The Home Secretary is using special powers to bypass planning regulations to get the camp up and running in a Hampshire village by January 1, when Brexit transition ends. Local Tory MP and former ...
From 2010 to 2015 the President of Nigeria was His Excellency Goodluck Johnson . Presumably "Goodluck" is a literal translation of a first name common in Nigerian culture, just as my name, Peter, is a translation of Rock, and Irene means peace, and probably originally given in the hope that the child will be endowed with some of the finer aspects of the name. Following that reasoning it would have been appropriate to give the name "Goodnews" to our Prime Minster, Alexander* Johnson, since he has the undoubted gift of proclaiming Good News in all sorts of circumstances ("word beating," ...
Sat, 12:56: RT @ChrisGiles_: Harrods and fishing - a thread For the benefit of @christopherhope who was correct on the telly today and Paul Stains -... Sat, 14:48: The Flaws in Europe's Digital Markets Regulation https://t.co/TyXPBqBd2o @DirkAuer explains. Sat, 16:05: Trying to be better at online political debate (around Brexit, and perhaps more widely too) https://t.co/aXtMQJIjhX Wise from @JonWorth. Sat, 16:34: I've spent several weekends working on a presentation of twentieth-century science fiction set in the year 2021, and here is the fruit of my labours, a 21-minute video. https://t.co/09eAXfbFhD Sat, 17:09: RT @nickjbarlow: When 2021 turns out worse than ...
We will be doing our best to take a Christmas break this year. We have all had a tough year, including the LDV team, so we need some down time. We will be taking a festive break between 23 and 27 December. Of course, there are things that may crop up that will inspire us to put digital pen to paper. After all, who knows what the situation will be with the Brexit trade deal? If you are inspired to send us pieces, please do, and we will deal with them from 28th December. Mark Valladares would be delighted to ...
Maghull presently has two railway stations both on the Merseyrail Northern Line to Ormskirk but it once had what was then the town's second station on the former Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway which ran from Aintree Central Station to Southport Lord Street Station. The station closed on 7th January 1952. I've blogged about this long lost station, which was actually called 'Sefton & Maghull', previously and here's the most relevant link back to one of my postings:- I return to the subject of this station now because of some historic photographs from the 1960's which have been ...
Sun 20th
09:16
Covid Watch: Boris Johnson junks Christmas for many and brings in Tier 4 as mental health fears grow
Yesterday, there was a provisional explanation on why it has been proving near impossible to bring the rate of Covid-19 infections under control in the South East. The virus has mutated. The new variant is not known to be more dangerous in health outcomes - illness or death - but it is spreading much faster. That's pushed the R number - the reproduction rate of the virus - up to danger levels. That's why Boris Johnson has bowed to scientific advice and all but abandoned plans for a socially mixed Christmas. And yesterday he put around one third of England ...
The book, which I discovered courtesy of my growing niche book collection, is appositely dedicated to "All poultry judges and exhibitors in the interests of the poultry fancy".
i) births and deaths 20 December 1943: birth of Jacqueline Pearce, who played Chessene in The Two Doctors (1985), Prime Miniister Sherilyn Harper in Big Finish audio The Fearmonger (2000), Admiral Mettna in the webcast Death Comes to Time (2001-02) and of course Servalan in Blake's 7. 20 December 1978: birth of Eddie Robson, author of many Big Finish audios and various short stories. ii) broadcast anniversaries This is the first day since 28 August (arguably 21 August) with no broadcast anniversaries, and the last such day in the calendar year. iii) date specified in canon 20 December 1992: St ...
Further to my update yesterday on Xplore Dundee Christmas bus services, you can read details of Stagecoach festive season bus services here.
