This will all end. Just not yet.

This description of the completely over the top Moscow nightclub scene reads so totally like descriptions of the Tokyo bubble circa 1988. That ended gradually after the stockmarket and real estate bubbles collapsed. However, Japan's political system was and is something resembling a democracy, and the Japanese economy was real, and modern, and actually made stuff, or at least some portions of the Japanese economy did, whereas Russia is becoming darkly repressive and the "economy" is just high energy prices and nothing else. An economic or political shock could be nasty, one fears.

Somehow, though, one expects Zaphod Beeblebrox to show up at any moment. The unending party on Stalin's boat sounds almost like something that Douglas Adams made up. Adams' work is even funnier now than it was in 1979. He had the ability to parody the future, somehow. Just the other day, an ATM did actually tell me that it was always glad to serve me. Really.

(Link via Arts & Letters Daily).

Is it just me?

Or is there something deeply endearing about the thought of Natalie Solent as a little girl, her kind and sympathetic Miss Marple like Englishness and razor sharp mind already there, (her destiny as a libertarian no doubt in place, but a way to go to get there), hiding behind the sofa from the Daleks, observing the precise details of the sofa carefully, and just generally figuring out the important questions of life (How the hell do they go up a set of steps?) faster than most of us.

I don't mind this answer

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Update



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That was just awful

Italy eliminated Australia from the World Cup with a very dubious penalty with five seconds of stoppage time to go. Obviously, I don't care, and the sick feeling I feel in my stomach came for some other reason.

Place dropping, and I am making some attempt to be back

When I last posted to this blog three months ago, I was in China. Since returning to Britain on that trip, I have been to Ireland, Australia, Singapore, Malta, and Switzerland, and I have been quite busy back in London. I think things shall be a little quieter for the next few months, and I am hoping to get back into the swing of blogging a little. But we shall see.

Some problems are common

I am informed by a neutral third party that OxbloggerPatrick Belton is in Pakistan, and that he is able to post to that blog but not read it, as blogspot is blocked but blogger is not. As it happens, I am in exactly the same position, as I am presently in Shanghai in China, and blogspot is blocked by the great firewall of China. Blogger sems to be fine, however.

Yes, there is a problem with the pictures on this blog

I need to move them to a different host site. Hopefully I shall have time to do this in the next few days.

I didn’t go to evil medical school for seven years to be called Mr Evil!

My countryman Patrick Porter over at Oxblog takes slight issue with co-blogger David Adesnik referring to him as "Dr", because although he has done everything he has to do to get his Ph.D. (or actually as this is the other place, I suppose it would be a D.Phil), because he has been informed by his university that he cannot use the title "Dr" until he has been granted "permission to supplicate". I have not heard that phrase before, because although Oxford and Cambridge are very similar instituions, one way in which they are distinguished is by having different weird archaic language for weird, archaic customs that are in fact exactly the same. (I was once told that I could not use the title myself until "I had had the degree conferred upon me by a congregation of the Regent House").

However, it is a truth universally acknowledged by doctoral students (and doctoral graduates) everywhere that one may use the title the moment one has been informed that one has passed, whether or not this information is conveyed officially or unofficially. Another equally well understood convention is that if one has passed, examiners will inform you of this immediately upon completion of the oral exam, whether or not they are supposed to or indeed allowed to. (This leads to a certain amount of euphemism. My oral exam concluded with one of my examiners raising his eybrows at the other, the other examiner nodding, and then the first examiner informing me that "The Board of Graduate Studies forbids me from telling you the result of this examination now. However, you have nothing to worry about". In truth, although I had been nervous at the start of the examination, I wasn't terribly worried by this point, as I was aware that I was handling the questions I was being asked petfectly fine).

So typically, therefore, people start using the "Dr" title, when they have been informed that they may not use the title, and indeed when they have been informed that they may not be informed whether they will be allowed to use the title in future. But they do anyway.

In my case, although I could have had the degree conferred in absentia, I put off having it conferred for a further three years, as it took this long for me to arrange a time when both I and my family could come to England again to attend a graduation ceremony. (Sorry, I mean a Congregation of the Regent House). Although I was technically not supposed to use the title "Dr" for those three years, I did. And nobody cared. I had gone through what Patrick described as the King Hell Road Trip that is a Ph.D. and I had earned it, damn it. (However, the bureaucratic exercise to get from this point to the degree can still take a while, and people know this and therefore ignore it. Don't get me started on how the Board of Graduate studies lost my dissertation). A few months after my exam I received a letter from the university informing me that the degree had been approved (and reiterating that I was still not supposed to call myself Dr), and if anyone (an employer or a professional registration board, generally) wanted proof that I had the degree, this letter was perfectly adequate for them.

So congratulations Dr Porter. Enjoy the blogging.

Of course, it is also generally considered okay to be pompous about the "Dr" for six months or so after starting to use it. After that, we generally only use it professionally, when writing particularly rude letters to organisations that have given us particularly bad customer service, when filling out credit card applications, or when talking to Germans. (And then there is the question of whether one should put "Dr" before one's name or "Ph.D." after when using it professionally). Any use of it in excess of this is considered a bit of a wank. As indeed may be this post.

Update: Actually, thinking about it some more, there is one time when "Dr." is frequently used, and that is when greeting a colleague who you know from your Ph.D. program, particularly when you haven't seen them for a while. ("Dr Jones. Good to see you.". "Dr Jennings. How are you? I am absolutely splendid."). I suspect military types who went through boot camp together have similar rituals.

That Palace of Culture does get around

More from last weekend



The Saxon Market in Warsaw is build around a disused football stadium. The market isn't exactly inside the stadium, but it is built on the rim at the top of the stadium, the various stairs and slopes on the outer sides of the stadium, and the ground around the stadium. When I was there last weekend, the inside of the stadium was covered with snow. It is really a remarkable place.

I think it may actually be more a matter of "Polish parents want their kids to love English, actually.



That said, to fully function in the modern globalised world, I think you do need English, so you might as well start early.

I've been lazy about my redirections, but here is a roundup.

I have just posted a piece on Samizdata about the classic geek movie Tron, and why it didn't win an academy award for Best Visual Effects.

A couple of days ago, I posted a piece about searching for Danish cheese in a Carrefour in Warsaw.

The day before that, I posted a piece on Stalinist-Gothic-Vampire architecture in Warsaw.

I have a couple of other posts that I put up in the last couple of months for which I cannot presently find beacuse Samizdata's archives are screwed. I will post even more belated redirections when I do find them.

This is me trying to be too arty

I love the modern globalised world

I am sitting in my flat in London, eating some delicious kabanosy Polish sausage, that I bought a few hours ago in Poland. I think this is cool.

The English language could use this word



The sign just points to one of those little shops that selll computer components and accessories, and where the owner builds made to order computers for customers and does laptop repairs, often on a "no fix no fee" basis. (These shops often have one or two pay for use internet computers in the corner, too, so they can be useful if you can't find a more conventional internet cafe).

I am in Warsaw

I had a very trying trip here this morning, which involved (amongst other things) having my credit card eaten by a ticket machine at King's Cross Thameslink railway station, and sitting in an aeroplane on the ground at Luton airport for more than two hours before we were able to get underway. But I had a pleasant afternoon just the same. I was last here in 1992: at that point the city was a huge expanse of grey concrete blocks going in all directions to the horizon, surrounding a small but very beautiful centre that was rebuilt post war and one of the most ludicrous Stalinist buildings ever created. The ludicrous Stalinist building is still there, but it is now surrounded by a variety of other stuff. And the rest of the city has much more colour, and there are newer buildings. I am going to try to explore some of the outskirts of the city tomorrow. I suspect that some of the more interesting new developments have occurred there. (As always, that would be easier with a car, but I am doing this trip without one).

Obviously

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and donâ??t enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you. Serenity (Firefly) 94% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 94% Moya (Farscape) 88% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 81% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 69% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 63% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 56% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 56% SG-1 (Stargate) 44% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 31% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 31% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 6% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

Redirection

I have a sort of tangentially on the winter Olympics but mainly on the Australian Institute of Sport piece over at Samizdata.

What am I?

Yesterday, I went into a travel agent to enquire about fares to Australia at Christmas. The rather bubbly and helpful girl behind the counter gave me some information and then asked me "Have you been to Australia before?"