Author Archives: Ranil Dissanayake

Hi all, Today, I have been thinking about shifting goalposts. The computers I’m working with today (yes, plural: I’m doing some mind-numbing data work that requires two screens) are light years away from the machines I used as a teenager, … Continue reading →

Hi all, Yesterday, a friend sent me an e-mail full of Stata code; this isn’t how we normally communicate, she was trying to help me format some tables better. But in a perfect encapsulation of my attitude towards Stata, my … Continue reading →

Hi all, I went out at this afternoon for a meeting, and walked face-first into an enormous, boisterous crowd of young people (and a few conspicuous parents trying not to embarrass their children). Rather than a Boyzone concert (am I … Continue reading →

Hi all, Steve Smith is batting. In 2229, when the earth is a furnace, stripped bare of vegetation and the humans are being harvested for energy by the machines, Steve Smith will still be batting. And in 21917, when the … Continue reading →

Hi all, Normally, these intros write themselves. I say something about the weather (this is England, after all, where complaining about the weather is almost a spectator sport), make a thinly veiled allusion to whatever the political farrago of the … Continue reading →

Hi all, Well, what the heck am I supposed to say about that innings? No England batter can ever have batted better (say that three times fast), doing virtually everything a batsman will ever have to do in a career … Continue reading →

Hi all, I had a whole spiel prepared to open the links, warning you that since the first link is all about the prospect of an impending global recession – which may turn out to be permanent – those looking … Continue reading →