I’ve been tagged by Ben to list six random things about myself. Here goes. My superpower is the ability to detect minute quantities of cucumber from large distances. It is rarely of use to anyone. I bake terrible cakes. The last book I read was The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I finished it on …
Category Archives: true stories
Rationality 1 : Superstition 0
On 3 March 2008, in a popular TV show, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged India’s most “powerful†tantrik (black magician) to demonstrate his powers on him. Minutes turned to hours as the tantrik tried spell after spell against Sanal Edamaruku, attempting to kill or harm him. Live on TV (attempted murder in …
Nutters on the tube
The paragon of comfort and convenience that is the London Underground plays host to a fair number of oddballs, weirdoes and downright nut-cases. These mainly inhabit the central portions of the network. Unfortunately, living as I do, out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy out …
A good scientist takes care of his optics…
I, on the other hand, managed to dissolve two of mine today. Ok, they were both unknown quantities that had been rescued from a junk pile years ago and left to gather dust at home. Today I remembered them and took them to work to see if they’d be any use. A quick blast from …
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Tech support to random neighbours…
The door bell rang earlier – I answered it to one of the lesser seen neighbours carrying a laptop. “Hello, I’m Brian from number 18, I wondered if you could do me a favour, Tony says you are good with computers.” “Hello, Er, Ok. What’s the problem?” Brian had been using someone else’s WiFi connection …