"In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others." - Andre Maurois

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Top Gear Pacific Rims

"Jeremy & James try out a lot of Korean and Malaysian cars, whcih (sic) are all dreadful
One of them was even granted as (sic) THE worst car of 2004"

Narration: "Maybe we'll fare better with something from Malaysia. A Proton. Now, the last Proton I drove was something called "The Impian". It was a very long journey, and the car was so awful that, to be honest, I wanted to harm myself.

But this is the new Gen 2, at 9500 pounds. And it seems much more promising. I like the look of the thing, I really do. I like the price. I don't even mind the gold larme (?) gear modern stereo.

Proton these days owns Lotus, and Lotus has helped them develop this twin-cam 1.6 litre engine, and various bits of the suspension. Because of its connections, Proton is claiming sporty handling for the new Gen 2.

But I can't help feeling that at this level, it's not really the priority. And I mean I'd gladly trade the Lotus-developed suspension for some Toyota-developed door trim.

Our quest to find a decent car from Korea or Malaysia was not going well."

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It's A Wonderful Life (1946) - "It was actually a box-office flop at the time of its release, and only became the Christmas movie classic in the 1970s due to repeated television showings at Christmas-time when its copyright protection slipped and it fell into the public domain and TV stations could air it for free."
Hurrah for decent copyright terms. Incidentally, the moral of the movie is: if you dedicate your life to other people and don't live for yourself, you're going to end up very miserable.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews more likely to jaywalk - "It is rarely said that religious types live dangerously, but it seems they do when it comes to crossing roads. A new study in Israel suggests devout Orthodox Jews are three times as likely to be risk-taking pedestrians as their neighbours in secular communities."

Learn the Art of Dancing Dirty - "If you ever wanted to learn how to dance dirty, but can't stand Patrick Swayze, there's good news for you. Learn the Art of Dancing Dirty, 1988 is an instructional video that has nothing to do with Patrick Swayze, showing you erotic dance moves with the help of two creepy "Dance Instructers" Felix and Marla. And when I say creepy, I mean it. These people couldn't make your skin crawl more if they were covered in hissing spiders dressed like Dracula."

Convert Graffiti 2 to Graffiti 1 on Palm device - "This is a Graffiti 1 conversion for Palm Zire 71, Tungsten C and Tungsten E/T2/T3 users"

The politics of publication - "Rather than assessing the research itself, those who distribute the money and positions now evaluate scientists by performance indicators (it is much easier to tot up some figures than to think seriously about what a person has achieved). Managers are stealing power from scientists and building an accountability culture that "aims at ever more perfect administrative control of institutional and professional life". The result is an "audit society", in which each indicator is invested with a specious accuracy and becomes an end in itself."