Yearly Archives: 2003

The trolls have moved

Posted on July 26, 2003 by acb

To a new home, where they won’t disturb the rest of us, and can continue to appear in peace. Another instalment has been added. Update: there are now seven entries and I have kept up at least once a day. Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | Comments Off on The trolls have moved

Sleazy bits

Posted on July 24, 2003 by acb

Yesterday I managed to get annual indexes working in my cuttings blog. I only have two years’ worth of columns for the Church Times and part of a winter’s work for the Guardian up there at the moment, because those … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 1 Comment

Lord Byron’s epitaph on the Presidents Bush

Posted on July 24, 2003 by acb

There is the moral of all human tales; Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, First Freedom, and then Glory — when that fails, Wealth, vice, corruption, — barbarism at last. From Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. And here he is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | 3 Comments

Roy Foster

Posted on July 23, 2003 by acb

I am in the middle of profiling him: another reason for silence; and this has involved reading the second volume of his Yeats biography. It’s a tremendous book, by two good tests. I wanted to read more of the poetry, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | Comments Off on Roy Foster

four second warning

Posted on July 23, 2003 by acb

That password of yours: you know, the clever, eleven-letter one consisting of a word that is in no dictionary of any known language, plus some numbers, and which is also profoundly memorable to you — that Windows password, yes, that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | 2 Comments

why French intellectuals smoke

Posted on July 23, 2003 by acb

Nicotine enhances several cognitive and psychomotor behaviours, and nicotinic antagonists cause impairments in tasks requiring cognitive effort. If you knock out the nicotine receptors in the brain, you get the following results: “in the 2-/- mutant, the high-order spatiotemporal organisation … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Science without worms | Comments Off on why French intellectuals smoke

a test case

Posted on July 23, 2003 by acb

Robert Fisk seems remarkably ungenerous and pessimistic in his report of the death of Saddam’s sons, which should surely be a cause for general rejoicing. But he thinks it will make things worse. The fear of Saddam’s return will diminish … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | 1 Comment

more silence

Posted on July 22, 2003 by acb

I’m sorry. I have not been posting here. I have been reading Yeats, and working on another blog, which wll contain masses and masses of cuttings, all wonderfully laid out and so on and so forth. But the Mary Warnock … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 1 Comment

climbing out of the pram

Posted on July 17, 2003 by acb

This one’s for Felix, currently working in tech support. It’s a conversation with a user that shows something about the way that Americans are inclined to treat the help (what could be more humiliating than the moment when Cordelia says … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | 1 Comment

Not what it used to be

Posted on July 16, 2003 by acb

A Miracle, is what Pat Robertson told his audience to pray for, after the Supreme Court legalised liberal sex: “One justice is 83-years-old, another has cancer and another has a heart condition. Would it not be possible for God to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | 1 Comment