Monthly Archives: July 2003

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

Just idealism from now on

Posted on July 16, 2003 by acb

This morning the nerdy feeds were full of the good news that AOL has set up a Mozilla Foundation to “safeguard the independence of Mozilla”. At lunchtime I glanced at the Register, and discovered that AOL just shut Netscape, and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in OOo | Comments Off on Just idealism from now on

Napster won’t do this

Posted on July 16, 2003 by acb

There are a couple of insurance horror stories doing the rounds at the moment from America. One concerns a programmer friend of Brad Choate’s, whose child has an expensive cancer which will go untreated if his father cannot find a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | Comments Off on Napster won’t do this

would you find this advice helpful?

Posted on July 14, 2003 by acb

Cary Tennis, Salon’s agony uncle, was responding to a reader (with a four-month-old baby) who wondered whether he should stray with an attractive and flirtatious workmate: “Keep away from her like she’s a vat of dangerous chemicals”. wrote Tennis, which … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 2 Comments

What we were told #2

Posted on July 12, 2003 by acb

On this day, a year ago, the Daily Telegraph had a leader discussing the popular uprising that President Bush had determined must overthrow Saddam. The paper explains the role of the Iraqi people in the war: Continue reading →

Posted in War | Comments Off on What we were told #2

nunc in quadriviis et angiportes

Posted on July 12, 2003 by acb

An extraordinary piece, mixing gossip and despair, by an Oxford contemporary of Christopher Hitchens, which I found through Electrolite. Continue reading →

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