MetaFilter posts tagged with theguardian

This Much I Know

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:33:24 -0800

In The Guardian's This Much I Know, celebrities share the lessons they have learned in life. Sometimes they get a bit silly or self-absorbed, but among them are a few insightful -- or at least amusing -- nuggets. It's worth trawling the archives; but as it spans 21 pages, here's a taste: -------- Every child born on this earth starts by being interested in the natural world. You have only got to turn over a stone and see a worm or earwig underneath and the child is fascinated. Sir David Attenborough, Naturalist, 81, Surrey When I hear really fabulous music by somebody else, I can feel as small as the dot in the 'i' in nit. Brian Wilson, musician, 66, London As a joke I asked my four-year-old daughter Martha, 'What do you want to do with your life?' She thought for a moment and said: 'Keep it.' That stopped me in my tracks. Jeremy Vine, broadcaster, 45, London My earliest memory is slipping out of my mother's thighs and looking at surgical instruments on a table in an operating theatre. Many people do remember their births, but they deny it. Yoko Ono, artist, 76, London I'm out of the restaurant business now, but the secret, apart from your choice of chef, is having great bread and coffee. The bread's the first thing they taste and the coffee the last. Michael Caine, actor, 76, London What makes me laugh? I like people falling over. Never fails. Matt Lucas, comedian, 35, London I spent 10 days in a pathology lab at a medical examiner's office. I thought it would allow me to accept my own mortality, but it taught me was that everyone I love is going to die. David Sedaris, humourist, 51, London Paradigms change one funeral at a time. Deepak Chopra, guru, 61, Dublin I'm not going to space. No way, are you crazy? One little tile burns and you drop to your death? William Shatner, Actor, 75, Los Angeles A lot of guys say that they have to treat a woman like shit in order to get her to like them. I don't know if that's so true. It has served me to try and understand men rather than try to kill them. They're a little more complicated than I would have given them credit for! Alanis Morissette, musician, 31, London The US-British relationship resembles a divorced couple who still fancy each other. America's gone off and married Latino and Britain's gone off and married Europe, but they still recognise a fantastic connection. Then there are the post-divorce custody battles: who owns freedom, who owns Shakespeare, who owns culture? Simon Schama, historian, 60, London One of the great con tricks that life can pull on the conventional and the obedient is that rewards so often seem to go to those who choose other paths than those which are laid down. Stephen Fry, writer and actor, 47, London When you're given yak-butter tea - or, as our cameraman called it, liquid gorgonzola - take little sips and smile a lot. Michael Palin, broadcaster, 61, London I'm not what you call superstitious. I'm not worried about ladders or umbrellas or any of that shit. But I know you should never get a blowjob before you go on stage. Slash, guitarist, 38, Los Angeles -------- Ages given are at the time of original publication.

Glass Ceilings in the UK

pharm — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:45:59 -0800

Allan Milburn MP has just published a report [pdf] on social exclusion from the professions in the UK. Polly Toynbee of The Guardian newspaper opines. The Guardian has a few problems on that score of its own however.

"I notice the 'wank' has remained fairly constant."

Artw — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:18:04 -0800

"The editor's guidelines are as follows: First, remember the reader, and respect demands that we should not casually use words that are likely to offend. Second, use such words only when absolutely necessary to the facts of a piece, or to portray a character in an article; there is almost never a case in which we need to use a swearword outside direct quotes. Third, the stronger the swearword, the harder we ought to think about using it.Finally, never use asterisks, which are just a cop-out." - Swearing in The Guardian: A chart

Tom Gauld

Rinku — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:42:30 -0800

Tom Gauld draws cartoons for the Guardian. Unfortunately, not all of Gauld's work is available over the internet, but you can find excerpts of his printed work at his online store. You can find even more at Cabanon Press's Gallery and its archive, and more on Gauld's profile. Here are some of my favorites.

The miner and the copper

fearfulsymmetry — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:08:23 -0800

It is one of the abiding images of the 1984 coal strike - Guardian photographer Don McPhee's picture of a picketing miner facing up to an officer. But what happened to the two protagonists?

Love Thy Neighbor: Why Have We Become So Suspicious Of Kindness?

jason's_planet — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:54:33 -0800

Love Thy Neighbor: Why Have We Become So Suspicious Of Kindness? Most people, as they grow up now, secretly believe that kindness is a virtue of losers. But agreeing to talk about winners and losers is part and parcel of the phobic avoidance, the contemporary terror, of kindness. Because one of the things the enemies of kindness never ask themselves - and this is now an enemy within all of us - is why we feel it at all. Why are we ever, in any way, moved to be kind to other people, not to mention to ourselves? Why does kindness matter to us?

Long Exposure

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:50:53 -0800

100 years of Guardian photography. Including Don McPhee and Denis Thorpe.

Politcal Sketch

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:35:25 -0800

"As he walks past I am struck by the way, from his default gloomy expression, he constantly flashes his rictus grin at people, like a doomed and slightly out of control belisha beacon" - The Guardian's cartoonist Steve Bell on drawing Gordon 'Gordy' Brown (video). He's in the process of producing a number of sketchbooks covering the conference season - Liberal Democrat, Labour 1, Labour 2. And he covered this year's Democrat and Republican conventions and also visited 'Manifest Hope' (video), an art exhibition based around images of Barack Obama. Previously.

Max Gogarty Hits the Road

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:22:51 -0800

Guardian travel writer's teenage son given travel blog, gets savaged. Highlights here.

To be standing by the flag not feeling shameful, racist or partial.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:21:08 -0800

Morrissey makes some controversial remarks to the NME. Defensive explanations by the interviewer, attempts at defusing the situation and threats of legal action ensue, as does satire.

Homeopathy

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 11:20:31 -0800

The Guardian discusses homeopathy: Jeannette Winterson supports it, Ben Goldacre opposes it.

But who wants to do math? Math is hard. Scaring ignorant people is easy.

Artw — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:04:09 -0800

Wi-fi Routers: Silent blinking death. Via badscience.net, where it was posted in response to what sounds like a truly awful show. Electrosensitivity previously discussed here.

10 Easy Steps to American Fascism

byronimation — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:18:36 -0800

Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps: a good read from The Guardian.

It's pointless for you to comment on this

Artw — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 09:56:11 -0800

"For half a nanosecond I was tempted to join in the discussion. And then I remembered that all internet debates, without exception, are entirely futile. So I didn't." - Charlie Brooker on Internet discussions.

bounce wid de wickedness

thirteenkiller — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 14:28:21 -0800

Baron Winston of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham: Why do we believe in God?

Baddest science in the whole damn town

Sidhedevil — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 12:57:08 -0800

My fab fave UK public intellectual was somehow overlooked in the popularity contest discussed yesterday, and I was surprised that nobody had ever FPPd him here (at least, as far as the search function can determine...)

Why I made that film

ascullion — Thu, 20 May 2004 02:11:02 -0800

Why I made that film. The Guardian gets the first interview with the unknown, female, 21-year-old American star of "the most explicit mainstream movie ever" (copyright all newspapers, everywhere).

Le Guin on Taoism, Utopia, and Feminism

KirkJobSluder — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 09:37:13 -0800

The Guardian has a nice interview with Ursula K. Le Guin about utopian science fiction, anthropology, ethnicity in Earthsea and the differences between her two Earthsea trilogies. She also comments on the upcoming miniseries.

The Lathe of Heaven is a taoist novel, not a utopian or dystopian one.... There is an old American saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The novel extends that a bit - "Even if it's broke, if you don't know how to fix it, don't."

The 40 Best Film Directors According To The Guardian

MiguelCardoso — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 08:00:11 -0800

Is David Lynch Really The Best Director In The World? The Guardian, along with many other Europeans, seems to think so, in an impressive but very subjective (not to say that dreaded word quirky) list of the best 40 film directors. (More inside.)

Guardian names names

insomnia_lj — Tue, 30 Sep 2003 19:49:51 -0800

Journalists say off the record "it was Karl Rove that I spoke to..." (RealPlayer)
Julian Borger of the Guardian reveals that several journalists have revealed "off the record" that Karl Rove revealed the identity of the CIA operative, but that the reporters aren't publicly admitting it, in order to protect their source. But aren't they also material witnesses to a federal crime? Does not revealing their source make them accessories to that crime?

He's jus' spoutin' crayzee talk. /sarcasm

Blue Stone — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 02:45:21 -0800

Met by "howls of outrage" and questions about his sanity, Michael Meacher, the ex-Environment Minister for the UK, known mostly for his opposition to GMOs, and revelations about the less than honest and upright behaviour surrounding the issue, has spent some time thinking, free from the constraints of Ministerial duties. "the PNAC blueprint of September 2000 states that the process of transforming the US into "tomorrow's dominant force" is likely to be a long one in the absence of "some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor". The 9/11 attacks allowed the US to press the "go" button for a strategy in accordance with the PNAC agenda which it would otherwise have been politically impossible to implement."
- Commentary - Commentary - Commentary

Dear baby, welcome to dumpsville. Population: you.

Ufez Jones — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 12:39:15 -0800

Fifteen ways to leave your lover. In seventh grade, my then girlfriend had her best friend dump me. On the bus. I thought that was hell. I was wrong. The Guardian, in tribute to a Malaysian man that divorced his wife via text message, lists the fifteen harshest break-ups in history.

Salam's Story

MintSauce — Fri, 30 May 2003 02:31:48 -0800

Salam Pax, the Baghdad Blogger is finally tracked down.

My Drugs Hell

grahamwell — Fri, 23 May 2003 09:31:42 -0800

Elliott could no longer bear the waste. He had six staff and a budget of £3.5m a year. He had a potential client group of 25,000 users ... but at the end of all his work and all that public money, the total number of detox beds he was able to provide was five. The Guardian reports from the front-line of the drugs war. (part two) You may have no interest in Drugs or the UK but read this superb piece for a profile of a bureaucracy in farcical, tragic, total collapse.

Drowners and Beetlebums and Vaseline

Reggie452 — Thu, 08 May 2003 11:32:10 -0800

Love and Poison tells the story of BritPop's love triangle -- Blur's Damon Albarn, Suede's Brett Anderson, and Elastica's Justine Frischmann. These articles from The Guardian are an excerpt from John Harris' "The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock."