With the Wall Street Journal added to the Murdoch empire, I look forward to seeing Page Three Girls in that distinctive engraving style.

Madhu, on his way out of town, treated me to a tasty buffet lunch at Turmeric in Sunnyvale. I got there ahead of him and had time to loiter in the street, feasting my nose; the whole of Murphy Avenue between Evelyn and Washington was redolent (a word I’ve never used before) of temptations. A very good thing to know, next time I’m hungry in Santa Clara County.

The last episode of series 3 of A Bit of Fry and Laurie had a courtroom skit in which one could be forgiven for thinking the judge represented the present occupant of the White House, as the actor in that role (a Canadian) resembled him physically and mangled words in a way widely parodied — but it was first shown in February 1992, before whatsisname sought the gubernatariat of Texas.

Glasshouse is Charlie Stross’s best fiction yet, so far as I know.

I’ve been catching up on Heroes (the link is to the first episode on NBC’s website). Episode 18 “Parasite” has an establishing shot of Las Vegas, an aerial view in daylight, which I did not recognize because establishing shots of Las Vegas are traditionally street-level and nocturnal, emphasizing the blinkenlights. (Though if the shot were longer I might guess it from the eccentric architecture and the distant mountains.) I knew it was Vegas because Hiro, last seen there, was in the next shot. I wonder what fraction of the viewers were as clueless as I was.

(by Glenn Gould)

2016: The embedding doesn’t work anymore, presumably because it used Flash; so here’s a link.

time flows differently in the funnies (except Gasoline Alley and For Better or For Worse)

how to argue with a libertarian (Degrees of Freedom)

arguments against state support for schools, including some that I had not encountered before