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Alan Duggan

Alan's Blog

Editor Alan Duggan enjoys motorcycles, wine, technology, travel, and science - the weirder, the better. Conceding that he's become quite grumpy over the years, he claims to know the difference between objective complaint and pathetic whine.

Recent Blog Posts

Contortionist 1
18 August 2009  

On yer bike

Many years ago, while working in London, I decided that the Tube was for ordinary folk, whereas I was a young, fit, go-getting journo with a yen for adventure (how things change…). Anyway, I duly set off for a department store and bought myself a folding bicycle, reasoning that it would be a lot easier to lug up the stairs (I lived in a fourth-storey turret in Kensington) than a regular bike.
Photo by Neal Chapman, Lockheed Martin
03 August 2009  

Big Brother acquires extra muscle

A few days ago, the US Navy unveiled its first-ever stealth fighter, the F-35C Lightning II, a formidable fighting machine that’s said to employ the most powerful and comprehensive sensor package ever incorporated into a fighter. The new aircraft will not only equip the military with 5th generation fighter capabilities at sea, but it will significantly extend America’s reach and – as manufacturer Lockheed Martin tells it – reduce the timeline from threat to response.
Bruce Tretheway (wearing the black apron) in action at the NAMPO show, surrounded by loyal Leatherman customers.
28 July 2009  

How Leatherman conquered NAMPO

Bruce Tretheway, the man behind the Leatherman brand in South Africa - and a whole bunch of other cool products - is among PM’s most loyal supporters (bless him, and all who sail with him). Together with his wife, Barbara, he lives and breathes his products with a passion that’s almost palpable.
21 July 2009  

Bad science, good read

I’ve just started reading a deliciously disrespectful book titled Bad Science, by British medical doctor and journalist Ben Goldacre – author of The Guardian’s eponymous weekly column. It was recommended by New Scientist magazine, no less, and I was hooked before I’d finished the introduction.
PM's Facebook page
13 July 2009  

Facing down the twits

Many millions of words and countless thousands of articles have been written about social media (you know, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, et al), some of them rooted in fact, so there’s no way I will be able to convey anything meaningful in a blog of this length. However, I am constitutionally entitled to make a few remarks, which I will now proceed to do.
Image credit: Sandra O'Claire/iStockphoto
06 July 2009  

I’m really sorry. No, really

Many years ago, when I was a callow youth, I bought a sort of compact flip-chart thingy that was intended to be kept in the car and used to signal a variety of messages to other drivers. Among those I can remember: Idiot! Are you insane? Hello, beautiful. Sorry! Back off, dammit. There were also a couple of rude communications, one of them casting doubt on other road users’ human ancestry.
08 June 2009  

Darwin Awards contender? Almost…

I suppose just about everyone has heard of the Darwin Awards, which salute the improvement of the human genome by honouring those who accidentally remove themselves from it. In order to qualify for a Darwin Award, we’re told, a person must extract himself from the gene pool via “an astounding misapplication of judgment".
11 May 2009  

Kissy kissy

Anyone but the most delusional Mills & Boon fan will confirm that sex is an embarrassing and messy business. Even the most common precursor to the act itself – the widely practised habit of osculation – involves an unseemly juxtaposition of lips and a reckless exchange of bacteria.
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