lloyd shepherd dot com

Classic Top Of The Pops (by TVGCity)

Lloyd Shepherd — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:57:58 +0000

Classic Top Of The Pops (by TVGCity)

Amazing photo gallery of beautiful bookshops

Lloyd Shepherd — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:39:47 +0000

Amazing photo gallery of beautiful bookshops, to warm the cockles of the Franzen heart - ht @tom_wat

Happiness Takes (A Little) Magic

Lloyd Shepherd — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:03:50 +0000

I’ve never seen a world-class sized publication that was founded in the past decade do world class quality work. It’s not because the people running them are dumb–it’s because they don’t have enough time to think their work through because there’s no short term incentive to. There’s an excuse there aren’t enough resources to go around, but that’s bullshit. It just takes a little confidence in the long game.

Happiness Takes (A Little) Magic | The Wirecutter

Letters of Note: To My Old Master

Lloyd Shepherd — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:19:07 +0000

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well.

Letters of Note: To My Old Master

A wander round Hogarth’s House

Lloyd Shepherd — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:13:05 +0000

The house in which William Hogarth lived is on the A4, the main road out of London, right up against the Hogarth roundabout with only a beautiful wall between it and six lanes of modern traffic. It’s a lovely place, and I went there for the first time a week ago with a bevy of charming historical authors – Essie Fox, Lynn Shepherd, Kate Mayfield, Denise Meredith, Kate Colquhoun – as well as publisher Lisa Highton and London Historians supremo Mike Paterson. Thanks to them all for organising and being such lovely company, and thanks to Val Bott, who’s been instrumental in organising the recent renovations for the house and who gave us a fantastic introduction (including exclusive access to the attic).

The house is, as you’d expect, festooned with Hogarth prints, which never gets boring. But the real reason for going is to experience the quiet solidity of a comfortable Georgian household, and get a feel for a world where objects were cherished and families were at the centre of life. It’s a long, long way from Gin Lane.

My Flickr slideshow is here, or you can view the pics embedded below. They’re not very good. Go yourself and take better ones….

What happened before the Big Bang?

Lloyd Shepherd — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:20:37 +0000

In December, a group of professors from America’s top philosophy departments, including Columbia, Yale, and NYU, set out to establish the philosophy of cosmology as a new field of study within the philosophy of physics. The group aims to bring a philosophical approach to the basic questions at the heart of physics, including those concerning the nature, age and fate of the universe. This past week, a second group of scholars from Oxford and Cambridge announced their intention to launch a similar project in the United Kingdom.

What Happened Before the Big Bang? The New Philosophy of Cosmology – Ross Andersen – Technology – The Atlantic

The Economics of Piracy | Cato @ Liberty

Lloyd Shepherd — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:19:54 +0000

The point here isn’t that piracy by American consumers is somehow completely independent from output or employment rates in the content industries—though, again, that’s not at all the same thing as the overall U.S. employment rate. Obviously, at some level it has to have some effect. But the link is, to use the technical economic term, weirder than in many other sectors of the economy.

Internet Regulation & the Economics of Piracy | Cato @ Liberty - stellar piece on piracy, content economics and audience behaviour.

Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday

Lloyd Shepherd — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:42:20 +0000

(via Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday: 70 iconic pictures from a golden career - mirror.co.uk) - a

(via Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday: 70 iconic pictures from a golden career – mirror.co.uk)

A walk around Rotherhithe

Lloyd Shepherd — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:22:42 +0000

Yesterday, my wife and I (and the dog) took a wander along Rotherhithe Street and the Thames Path, upstream from Greenland Dock to Rotherhithe proper. It’s an amazing walk, full of history and replete with municipal neglect and the banal crimes of property developers. Strongly recommended.

Sesame Street: Cookie Monster And Count Cooperate

Lloyd Shepherd — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:08:52 +0000

Sesame Street: Cookie Monster And Count Cooperate (by SesameStreet)