Another British Obituary

This is another superbly written British obituary from the Times of London. The subject is the film composer Sir Malcolm Arnold, who won an Oscar for the Colonel Bogey March (the whistling song) in Bridge on the River Kwai. Here in the States we turn mawkish and sentimental and non-judgmental when people die; in England the obit writers take the opportunity to give a clear-eyed and fair summation to a life.

Hi I'm Back-- Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

Sorry for the nonposting. Had a bad month. I intend to get back in the swing of things now that school has started, &c.

Did you hear the story yesterday about the "fact" that Howard Stern is tanking on Sirius Radio? (I'm not a Stern fan, really, but the story was everywhere)-- well, this Slashdot post debunks that story; turns out that it came from "Hits-Link," a phony internet statistical agency. Today that same agency is pushing a story about a decline in Apple OSX market share. Both stories are phony press-agent plants. Don't believe everything you read.