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Meta
Monthly Archives: May 2004
Jeffrey Gray
I see that he died this week. He was one of the nicest and most interesting — at once intense and open-minded — scientists I have ever met. Continue reading
Posted in Science without worms
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Shortlisted. Hot gerund damn!
I just saw in the Times that the worms have been shortlisted for the Aventis Science book prize. Francis Spufford got his book on the shortlist too. Can it be true, as he tells me, that you get £1000 just … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Worms
2 Comments
Greater than some of its parts
Richard Lewontin’s 1992 book The Doctrine of DNA is one that I reread every couple of years, discovering new things. The tone of weary omniscient scepticism grated on me for some years, but no longer does. After all, he was … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Science without worms
1 Comment
Just for the record
I have never seriously proposed to a senior BBC apparatchik that we make a programme called “Infanticide: the case for common sense.” Continue reading
Posted in Journalism
1 Comment
Folk Music
Well, semi-acoustic music for the mind and body — there’s a real audio link direct for those of you who get the Country Joe reference and just want to hear it. Makes a nice contrast to Matthew Parris, who has … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in War
2 Comments
In what dungeon dimension
Can the words “As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility.” not be followed by these. “The president has therefore accepted my resignation.”? It seems an offence against grammar that they were not, as if … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in War
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Not quite genius
My friend Brian Harris is every writing journalist’s idea of a photographer: modest, equable, sober. There is a story about him and Charlie Wilson, when Wilson was editor of the Times, in which one of them concluded a spirited artistic … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Journalism
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a thought on interfaces
We’re smart people. We assume that there is a huge maze of difficulty to be negotiated when we’re trying to get from the superficial appearances to an understanding of how something works; we also assume that, given time and help … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Software
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Migraine work
I spent yesterday afternoon and most of the night lying on a bed rocking in a deep swell while a rusting anchor chain was hauled and poured through my temples. I still don’t feel up to real work, so instead … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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The stab in the back
It took the Americans about ten or fifteen years to convince themselves that they had not been defeated in Vietnam, and another ten or fifteen to convince themselves that they had actually won, as a majority apparently believe today. The … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in War
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