For those who feel compelled to say "twitter is for twits" and "everyone on there is a wailing baby", you misunderstand it.

Today I learned several things appropriate to my interests: that IE6 support is dropping (today from youtube), how to create wordpress widgets, how to create an iPhone style password field, 10 tools to create web design wireframes, that there is a nokia boycott and how that works, there is a preview of Max for Ableton Live, that the Venus probe suggests it once had oceans and plate tectonics, etc.

none of that is reminiscent to me of babies crying or of 'twits' wittering. All of that information is either useful for my work, educational for other reasons, or simply entertaining.

Don't believe the nega-hype. Twitter is essentially a micro-blogging tool, it is not a method for random teens to tell you about breakfast. The fact you have overlooked : You subscribe to INTERESTING channels.

simple eh?

SpuriousLogic is aptly named

Son : "I feel ill mother"
Mother : "Hang on and I'll fetch the medicine, Father have you finished with it yet?"
Father : "Nearly, nearly, wait a moment. Got it"
Son :"Actually, you know what, I suddenly feel a lot better"

I think the 'in' in inflamable does not come from the same latin root as the 'in' which occurs as a negative modifier . For example in 'indecent'.

I think 'in'flamable is similar to 'in'cantation, or also possibly 'en'able . IE it refers to an inherrent property of the nouny thing.

I'm guessing here. I didn't take Latin at school, I just know it's a tricky beast.

My favourite changed meaning is more of a reversed meaning. You are looking at one, a Screen. The word has recently evolved from hide into also meaning show.

Screen
1: To conceal from view with or as if with a screen
2: To show or project (a movie, for example) on a screen.

Of course, it's easy to imagine the recent history of this development.

The odd thing about Neanderthals is that their brain was up to 20% larger than our brains

Prof RALPH HOLLOWAY: The first thing that really grabs your attention I think is its size, it's much bigger, and significantly so than the normal modern human homo sapien's brain.

NARRATOR: Measuring the volume of our Neanderthal's brain shows it to be twenty percent bigger than the average for a modern human.

BBC program transcript
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/neanderthal_trans.shtml

Hitler looks a lot less "Hitlery", now all he needs is a more bouffant hairdo.

I love the nonsensical sentence : "... graphics editor, who ran it through a program called TinEye that detects visual enhancements to standard art."

Erm, What?

Er, that's not what it does. Tineye is a reverse image search; you point it at a picture and it finds other places on the web where that picture lives and also finds similar pictures (IE modified variants).
http://tineye.com/

It's very handy for photographers to see if people have used their images on websites, or stolen their images to use in ad campaigns.

I think "suck it and see" comes from tasting boiled sweets, what Americans call 'candy'.
If you don't know the flavour of a boiled sweet, how would you find out? You suck it and see. Well, that's just my guess at the origin.

"suck it and see" certainly means that the only way to find out about something unknown is to actually try it

the only thing I can say about this (after reading the linked article) is that the tattooist really needs a more interesting looking pair of glasses.
They don't really go with the rest of his look do they?

Wait. Did I miss the point?

@ you are assertive that Banksy is worthless, but that opinions doesn't really match how other people feel. A lot of other people. That makes your assertion pretty weak.

Banksy art has established financial worth.
Banksy has social worth, otherwise we wouldn't be talking about him. He has social currency.

all you are saying is you don't like him, but then - I don't like Hannah Montana. My preference there matters not, because I am not the audience for it.

Hanhah Montana has value to her audience. Just because I am 'ME' does not mean my preferences override everyone esles. Just because I am 'right' for me, does not mean everyone else's appreciation of H. Montana is 'wrong'

@BadBubby
Henry VIII's toilet attendant was called the “Groom of the Stool”.

Going to the toilet was still a social occasion back then, as with the ancient Romans. So the elite would all get together and discus policy in “The Great House of Easement” at Hampton palace !

wow, incredibly lame criticisms that seem quite ill-supported.
I suspect that Bristol will see a massive surge in vistor spending across local businesses, hotels and taxis. I bet this exhibition brings in much more than it costs.

As far as frauds for my taxes, I quite like a bit of juvenile humour for my money thanks, that's exactly what I want it spent on.

I recommend trying his other works too, the non-fiction. Especially Down and out in Paris and London, or Homage to Catalonia, also his short essays. It's all good stuff.

one thing I've learned from all this is - if you have a silly name on the internet and happen to post a viral thread somewhere, then the whole damn internet will be digging up your past. 8 billion sleuths trying to figure out if you are a 14 year old girl with a penchant for books, or actually a 50 year old mediastudies lecturer playing an evil trick on the poor innocent timewasters of the interweb.

I must remember, never post anything interesting on the net, or I will find my garden full of youtube commenters shouting "TeH Fake!" and "yr ghey!"