1. Following the 'Mr Shreddy' van (we shred any docs dot com, we shred any docs dot com), today the government agency opposite had two removal vans and a flat-bed truck. Not sure what on earth THAT was transporting. Probably a giant squid now grown sufficiently large that it can take its place in the cabinet. Unrelated to the giant squid (probably), periodically they have a strange mobile body-shop arrive, basically with a tent like a bouncy castle that the cars are driven into. I assume that it / they have a contract to fix minor dents etc. in the vast number of job cars that people at their office have. I guess the spreadsheets show this is the most cost efficient way. As the saying goes 'when you own the world you can do everything in-house'.
2. Bizarrely, I found a CD on my iPod I don't remember acquiring. I suspect I bought about 4 at once (something like the number I buy in a normal year) and didn't get as far as listening to it, it is
the John Baker Tapes. Hadn't read the obit before, very sad. I have a soft spot for his stuff, though I wouldn't put him in the same 'genius' category as Delia and Daphne. There is, however, a definite 'Protect And Survive' undertone of 70s menace to a lot of things that are probably supposed to be completely innocuous (although I see that the beeps on the Protect And Survive films were by Roger Limb).
3. I don't think it was announced when I paid 25 quid for a ticket to see William Gibson that he was in conversation with Cory Doctorow. I wonder how much more tickets for Bill G
without Cory Doctorow would cost?
4. O Canada. The existence of the Massey Lectures
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massey_Lectures somehow passed me by. I cannot help thinking that the list of people looks much more inspiring than the Reith Lectures. But then I would... Stafford Beer and Douglas Coupland. Obviously the fact that 'Designing Freedom' was the Massey Lecture is something I didn't notice. It appears that it was available on CD at one point, though not currently as far as I can see.
5. My search for the CDs reminds me of my number one wish for Google. The THANK YOU I HAVE READ THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE, I DO NOT WANT TO SEE 50 COPIES OF IT AS THE NEXT 49 LINKS button.