Caution - Wet Floor - Trailing Cables



My favourite photograph ever. This is in the Phaidon Century book.

(From the The La Trobe Journal)

Wish I was listening to Seventh Tree by Goldfrapp

Actually Listening to Beyond Even by Robert Fripp and Brian En0

I promise to stop ranting about the tax system today. In fact I promise not to rant about anything today. I will instead recommend How To Bring Up Your Parents by Emma Kennedy who is probably lying in the periphery of your memory rather than in the "OHMYGODTHAT'SHERFROMTHETELLY" bit. This book, while laugh-out-loud-funny-won't-you-look-silly-on-the-train, is slightly strange for a reason I can't quite define. The anecdotes seem so odd that they must be genuine, rather than being edited versions. HMG and WDT are very likeable despite being maddening and the dog (Poppy My Most Excellent Beagle) is just adorable. If I wanted to be negative I would say that it is a might too long but then again I often feel that books of this sort are slightly too short.

Should every book have an ideal length that is defined as a product of various parameters not all of which can be defined mathematically? Which reminds me of the Horizon programme about how to make better decisions. Now I have not watched this yet (it is on Toppy My Most Excellent PVR) but it seems to be based entirely on those naff pseudo-mathematical equations that seem to crop up on the news every so often which I am sure are entirely the result of the dean of some university suggesting to the mathematics department that they come up with some stupid equation to get the department on the news, hopefully resulting in some interest in the press which helps to prove that not all mathematicians have the social skills of a thermo-nuclear device and smell ever-so-slightly of peat. How can you parameterise attractiveness? Or Happiness? You can of course decide on a fuzzy range but surely the resultant equations cannot have any guarantee of accuracy. I am thinking French Philosophy here (though not Jacques Derrida of course - we like Jack).

All the great French philosophers of the 20th Century seem to be dead. Are we just left with the rubbish ones now? is there an equation that will help me decide whether I should steer clear of modern French philosophers?