Alexander Stuart

Abu Yahya al-Libi in 2008. Photograph: Reuters/Guardian. This Comment Is Free piece from today's Guardian newspaper,  Abu Yahya al-Libi and this perpetually self-defeating "war on terror," written by Moazzem Begg , is one of the most illuminating pieces I have read on the West's approach to dealing with terrorism - and the effect of the US campaign of drone assassinations of alleged high-profile terrorist targets. I am not for a minute suggesting that we do not face real threats from real people, but the dehumanization of the "war on terror" by these remote-controlled attacks from the sky, and the failure to even try to engage in any meaningful dialogue with what the intelligence services would term "bad actors" (the terrorists) seems to imply a never-ending cycle of killing and incitement to hatred of the West and, in particular, the US. The irony of our dealings with people who at times are our "allies" ( Osama bin Laden ,

Transit of Venus, June 5 2012. Photograph courtesy of NASA. We watched it from outside our house with a simple pinhole camera that Charong made - but NASA somehow got the better image! The transit of Venus (Venus passing in front of the sun) occurred on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, at about 3pm local time for us in Sonora, California - and while it was hard to see (without blinding yourself!), it was a remarkable event. Please read this fascinating Guardian article about the transit , which includes this great quote from Fraser Cain, founder of the space website Universe Today : "Only six [transits] have occurred since the invention of the telescope," Cain said. "It's because of the transit of Venus that we even know how big the solar system is. It's one of the most fundamental observations that have ever been made in the history of  astronomy ." It's true that, when I stepped outside our house on Tuesday, I was hoping for something as remarkabl

I have to admit that this spectacular firework display over Buckingham Palace did stir my British roots and make me very glad that, like me, Hudson and Paradise enjoy dual citizenship, and that this is part of their heritage, too. When I lived in Soho and Knightsbridge, I used to run around Buckingham Palace and the Mall and St James' Park - and seeing this footage made me wish we all could have been there to watch the gala. ( Video courtesy of BBC TV and YouTube )

Even though I ran this piece relatively recently, I feel like posting it again, because I was thinking about Nicolas Roeg today and what a huge influence he has been on my life. Also the crisp new Criterion DVD and Blu-Ray of the film we made together, Insignificance , is available...and perhaps you might like to watch it? Anyway, greetings to Nic, a wonderful man and still my friend (as is Ryan Gilbey , who wrote the wonderful Guardian article about Nic included here)... Theresa Russell and Art Garfunkel in Nicolas Roeg's Bad Timing I look on British film director Nicolas Roeg as many things: a friend, a mentor, almost a second father to me, but also the filmmaker who had the greatest personal influence on opening my eyes to what film could do. His films, not least Performance, Walkabout, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Don't Look Now and Bad Timing, had the greatest individual resonance for me, because they changed the way I looked at identity, sexuality, death,

Sir Jonathan Ive is knighted by the Princess Royal. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA, courtesy of The Guardian. This photograph of British-born Sir Jonathan Ive , design genius of Apple (designer of the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad), being knighted yesterday by the Princess Royal (Princess Anne) of England, is from an article in The Guardian newspaper. Please click on this link for the article.