Geekiest bizarre urban legend. Ever.

According to Suzy Rice, it was Josef Goebbels who first designed Helvetica, the über-cool typeface beloved of font-fetishists everywhere. The allegation has added geek appeal, as Suzy Rice was the designer of the original "Star Wars" logo. I came across the startling assertion in an article entitled "The Fascist font of Star Wars".

Yeah, right - and Bob Holness played sax on Gerry Rafferty’s "Baker Street".

Hat tip to The Null Device.

Après moi, le deluge

I saw a bit of the last party leaders' debate last night, slipping in and out of a state of vacant inattention as they bickered about how best to arrange the Titanic's compliment of deckchairs. Nick Cohen isn't to everyone's taste and I don't agree with every word he writes but the following article is right on the (missing) money. Read it, then buy up all the tinned food you can afford and start digging for victory:

The greatest failure of financial capitalism since 1929 ought to be an opportunity for Labour as it was for Obama and the American Democrats. But rather than face up to it, and by extension to its own failures in government, Labour has been unable to offer a credible banking reform programme or admit that the recession must bring change. Instead, it carries on as if the tax revenues were still rolling in and Fred Goodwin still pushing up the Royal Bank of Scotland's share price, and it pretends that the old war cries about "increasing investment" and fighting "Tory cuts" still have meaning. The LibDems are in better shape because at least they realised that a long boom built on debt could not be sustained. However, as we saw, they too could not accept the consequences of their insight.

As for the Conservatives, many people noticed an uneasiness about Cameron during the first leadership debate, a nagging fear visible in his flickering eyes and stilted movement that the times may not be propitious after all. If he isn't nervous, he ought to be. Only the bizarre sight of a centre-left government letting speculators run wild has hidden the problems for the Right. I've had an aide to Boris Johnson marvel to me at how in hard times people turn to the State, as if he was having to relearn everything he thought he knew, and gruff leaders of the Tory Right mutter that Cameron's biggest mistake was not supporting the nationalisation of the banks, as if it were the most natural complaint in the world for a tough-minded Tory to make. The extent of the rethink needed on the Right of politics can be encapsulated in a line. For a generation, Tories have repeated Baroness Thatcher's acid line: "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

After the bailout of the banks, that seems to be the trouble with financial capitalism as well.

Today's featured blog

Consists of bite-sized chunks from the lively and entertaining mind of Francis Sedgemore. Explore for yourself, but for a taster, try his takes on the shameful killing of Blair Peach and the culture of police immunity, Gordon Brown before he had to go crawling for the bigot vote, the ecological Fascism of James Lovelock, the passing of Kate McGarrigle, the effects of a citizens' basic income, Herman van Rompuy (crazy name, crazy Haikus), wondering where all the money went, not going shopping, torture as a public health issue, the joy of idleness, the marching cheerleaders of Kim Jong-il, using nanotech to produce stronger, greener concrete and the weirdness of Norwegians.

A smörgåsbord of tasty brain treats from a myriad-minded man. This one went straight onto my favourites* list.

*well, bookmarks (I'm using Firefox)

Recipe for disaster

1. Take years of choking back the words you really want to say, endlessly repeating the platitudes you think will please, the markets, the City, the floating voters, the Murdoch press, the Daily Mail, the constituents of marginal constituencies, party donors, religious minorities, religious majorities, hard working families, young people, old people, urban voters, rural voters, suburban voters, any people with a vote...

2. Bottle it all up.

3. Shake vigorously in the rough and tumble of a high-pressure election campaign.

4. Watch in horror as the seething inner rage you've been trying to suppress is sprayed all over the front pages to be lapped up by people who despise you.

"Bottler" Brown, indeed.

Brown's PR Disaster

What Gordon should have said:

You’re worried about immigrants? Jesus wept woman, I had this guy shot for you. What more do you want?

If you really must engage with this tediously unimportant story, the first couple of lines of this post at Blood and Treasure sums it up far more neatly than the colossal deluge of pompous outrage blurting from the right-wing press.

Today's featured blog

Constellation

Scrape into the sink
Constellation of black stars
A toast neglected

Angry Toastless Man

Angry toastless man
Malfunctioning appliance
Senseless killing spree


Intensely focused

Intensely focused
I anticipate my toast
Somewhere a dog barks

From Toast Haiku - a blog that does exactly what it says on the tin, except when it's doing something else.

Today's surprising fact

The Nigerian slang term for an idiot is Dundee United.