Donkeyshott & Xuitlacoche

Vasilievsky Island I went out with a sweet, blond Intourist guide who was 20, a little younger than I was at the time. She decided it would be very romantic to go to Vasilievsky island in the Neva in Leningrad and wait for the bridges to rise, separating us from the mainland. She didn't tell me what she planned. It must have been an idea inspired by a romantic film she had watched. We are on the island, it's evening, and she surprises me: 'We are stuck on the island together all night. The bridges are up.  Isn't this romantic?' And I think. 'How sweet. And then: It's bloody cold...And then: I really want to pee.' and I so, after congratulating her on her sense of humour and romance, I ask her:  'Is there a toilet nearby?   'Toilet!' she says. 'You are ruining it. A toilet? Now?' 'Yes I have to go.' I said. She is very annoyed. There is no toilet. I try to hold it in but I can't, so I say. 'I am...

Hi Phil, The last few days I've been thinking about Eve and Tony and their house, and, surprisingly I can remember very little. I have a bit of a visual picture of the house with a long hallway to the right and living room leading into dining room leading into kitchen on the left. I feel I should remember more as I lived there for a short time - in the garage. But maybe it was actually for a shorter time than I thought. I do remember that there was ALWAYS a huge pot of vegetable curry on the stove that fed god knows how many people.  and there were always people in the house, visiting, hanging out, talking, arguing, sleeping, staying over.  of course they were people of all races.  If you were black of course you could not leave till the morning because of the curfew, so I think a lot of people stayed over.  It was a very laid back, welcoming place - and of course very interesting.  Lots of journalists and music people I think. Tony was seriousl...

'If you are ready,' said the Walrus,  'now we we can begin to feed.' Discussions over how to help poor oysters proceed  at the 2011 conference in Davos Awkwardly, Jesus said: 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven.'  That is the real message for Davos. Last night The Moral Maze on Radio 4 chose to discuss the topic of happiness and well being, and whether society should aim for it. I agreed with Claire Fox when she said that it was disquiet that caused people to act and change society for the better. However, I didn't listen carefully to the whole discussion. I think Michael Buerk lead it in the wrong direction. There was an arts programme later on that night: 'If you were not a moral being, I said to my wife, wouldn't you abandon the work that you do, the concerns that you have for others' welfare and just dedicate yourself to arts and crafts. I wonder what my parents would h...

  Defend your cyber-reality. It may be your only one.  A 'real' singularity Bidisha's article today is just a little dollop. She doesn't say very much at all. It's a throw-and-run Guardian online type article. A keep-your-name-floating-about in-cybespace without-saying-too-much article. But I'll respond to it anyway. I chose my new Guardian log in (shortly to be banned no doubt) after A.C. Clarke's comment that the computer age would end in a ' Cyberclasm' a catastrophe. But the alternative view is that it will end in the singularity. Ray Kurzweil elaborates. People are noticing that being electronically connected has changed the very way we think. The Internet can form a sort of cybershell for the mind. What is Cyberspace? Read the latest novel of Ian Banks,Transition Bidisha should read far more science fiction. How provincial people can be who find their intellectual edge in selectivity. You have to be omnivo...

Private morality is not public morality.  Savitri Hensman The personal doesn't intersect perfectly with the public . What is personal and experienced by you is not a guide to what is injustice for the whole of society. Some Pakistani men in Leicester groom young white girls as prostitutes.But this localised truth about a criminal gang in Leicester, whether it is recounted heartbreakingly by a young girl in care in Leicester really doesn't give us a sense of what is going on on society. That is why what Jack Straw said was reprehensible. A woman I knew was raped by a black man. She hated men, but she also hated black men as a result. Where is the intersection of the personal and the public here? If she challenged black men would she be challenging rapists? If the girl in Leicester challenged Pakistani men would she be challenging gangs of pimps? Take the example of an errant father not accepting his son because he is gay as an example of a public injustice. ...

Amrullah Saleh, former Afghan chief of Intelligence   By Arif Salimi Yesterday we heard the news that the Afghan Chief of Intelligence has been forced to resign by Hamid Karzai. The reason is because he exposed a $500 million drugs deal that Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai  carried out of Bagram airbase, with the approval and involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America. The rumour is that not only did Karzai want Amrullah Salah gone, but the US government also wanted him to go. And because he has been very effective in combating Al Qaeda and those elements of the Pashtun Taleban that support Al Qaeda, the Pakistani intelligence services, the Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), who use these extremist groups to extend their influence in Afghanistan, also want him gone. The ISI tried to kill Karzai. When Salah found out that the ISI was behind the 4 assassination attempts on Hamid Ka...