Yearly Archives: 2006

Expert Advice

Posted on February 6, 2006 by acb

I was much struck by the Telegraph’s explanation, in its leader today, of why we are having problems with Muslims: After all, the question of whether it is possible to be a good British Muslim is not a new one. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | Comments Off

Sheep and goats

Posted on February 6, 2006 by acb

Some time in the early 1980s I was sitting in a taxi with Peter Utley, then deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph, talking about the next election and the prospect that Margaret Thatcher might lose it. “That’s all right” said … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in British politics | 1 Comment

Modern Art: a cautionary tale

Posted on February 4, 2006 by acb

There is an abstract artist living up the road who has sold one of his paintings to Cambridge University Press, which is using it as the cover for Noam Chomsky’s next book. I can’t be sure, but from the web … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | Comments Off

Dirty realism

Posted on February 3, 2006 by acb

A wonderful, grindingly sad story in this week’s New Yorker about teenage mothers in Louisiana. It’s not online — though well worth the cost of the print magazine — but there is an interview with the author on the web … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 1 Comment

God hates cockroaches

Posted on February 2, 2006 by acb

and the proof, via Carl Zimmer is in some research in the Journal of Neurobiology. They want $25 to read it, so I am relying on Zimmer’s summary here. There is a species of wasp, Ampulex compressa, which lays its … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Science without worms | 7 Comments

The sacred and the local

Posted on February 1, 2006 by acb

Just a quick thought on the JyllandsPosten cartoons: if religion is related to morality, then sacred symbols have to be local at least to a particular community. The sacred, in this sense, which I found in David Sloan Wilson, is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | Comments Off

Still not making sense

Posted on February 1, 2006 by acb

Some random thoughts from the newspapers: Bush demanding energy independence by 2025 is Jimmy Carter repeating himself as farce. Remember that Carter’s reaction to the Iranian revolution in 1979 was to set out a concrete programme to get America weaned … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 2 Comments

Last set of shorts

Posted on January 27, 2006 by acb

I’m away for the weekend: there’ll be no posting. In the meantime, more gossip and thought wittering. A story about the Dean of an Oxbridge college, who found his organist was having an affair with his chaplain. This upset him. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | Comments Off

Bloody builders due again

Posted on January 26, 2006 by acb

So more random social notes. Newspapers scouring the country for a woman who’ll admit to sleeping with Simon Hughes. Probably gone into hiding alongside Anne Atkins’ gay friends. To the Telegraph’s Scientists meet the media bash last night, dressed for … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 1 Comment

Sillies, while waiting for a builder

Posted on January 25, 2006 by acb

Interesting Google survey of a billion pages showing that no one, to a first approximation, uses CSS correctly. hundreds of millions of font attributes around, and more <br> tags than <p> tags out there. I admit that I gave up … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 3 Comments

Yearly Archives: 2006

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