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I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum
Emily Nussbaum is The New Yorker‘s TV critic, and this is a collection of her writing about TV from that magazine and others that she had worked for previously. There are often short introductions to these pieces, and a couple of brand new pieces – one of which takes up a significant proportion of the…
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Painted Lady
Only seen every ten years or so, there are currently millions of Painted Lady butterflies in the UK. At the weekend, I saw them everywhere, and the above is one of my favourite images. Note the curled proboscis – effectively the butterfly’s ‘tongue.’ More photos over on Flickr.
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RAJAR Q2 2019
This post is brought to you in association with RALF from DP Software and Services. I’ve used RALF for the many years, and it’s my favourite RAJAR analysis tool. So I am delighted that I continue to be able to bring you this RAJAR analysis in association with RALF. For more details on the product,…
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Eight Seconds
This year is the 30th anniversary of what in my lifetime has been the greatest Tour de France of all time. In 1989, American Greg LeMond defeated Lauren Fignon by just 8 seconds with everything coming down to a unique final stage time trial. Usually, the end of the Tour is a processional stage followed…
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Need For The Bike by Paul Fournel
My Tour de France inspired cycling themed book marathon continues with Need For The Bike, a classic that I’d somehow never heard of. Paul Fournel is a French writer, poet, publisher, and cultural ambassador – a wonderful job description to have, I’m sure you’ll agree. He’s also been in love with bikes since he was…
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Lego Apollo 11 Lunar Lander
Yes – I built one of these. I even queued at the London Lego store to pick one up in person. It’s fantastic!
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Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar
Continuing my non-stop cycling reading during this year’s Tour de France, I turned to a volume has been sitting around on my bookshelf* for a number of years – David Millar’s book where he digs into his life story, and in particular the years that he doped. I’ve always liked David Millar, and latterly he’s…
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Cindy Sherman – National Portrait Gallery
The Cindy Sherman exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London right now is well worth visiting.
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Apollo 11: James Burke and Helen Sharman
Earlier this week I was thrilled to be able to go to the Science Museum where they were both screening Apollo 11 on their IMAX screen, and following it with a conversation between Helen Sharman and James Burke. Burke, now in his eighties, is as sharp as ever, and it seems a real shame that…
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The Cycling Podcast Mug
I was delighted to receive this in the post today. Stacey Snyder has been making these mugs during the Grand Tours this year to help raise some money for good causes in association with The Cycling Podcast (on which I am a producer). They sell out quick, so listen to The Cycling Podcast and check…
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Three Weeks, Eight Seconds: The Epic Tour de France of 1989 by Nige Tassell
Channel 4 burst onto UK TV screens in 1982 – a new commercially funded public service broadcaster. One of the things it would do was cover sports that the traditional BBC and ITV weren’t showing. They would show highlights of the NFL and even kabaddi. But for me, the sport that Channel 4 would really…
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Twitter’s Algorithmic Toxicity
This piece started life as a Twitter thread – ironically – which I posted recently. Read the thread here, or read on. Introduction I’ve recently come to the conclusion that many of Twitter’s toxicity issues essentially come as a consequence of their own software’s behaviour. Algorithms affect so many systems and businesses these days, that…
Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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Yellowface/All The Lovers In The Night
Yellowface by R F Kuang I first came across R F Kuang with last year’s very enjoyable Babel, an alternate history of the British Empire told in a world where magic exists and is controlled by an elite group of individuals. Yellowface is very different, but no less enjoyable. It’s a book about books, and…
Hadrian’s Wall
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