Monthly Archives: September 2006

Papal developments

Posted on September 21, 2006 by acb

One small thing that puzzles me about the speech in Regensburg last week: why was the English translation notably more offensive than what the Pope actually said? If you compare the English and German versions on the Vatican website, the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | 8 Comments

A prison statistic

Posted on September 20, 2006 by acb

I just noticed a horrible little story in the local paper. A 40 year old woman has just spent 134 days in Holloway Prison, an exceedingly nasty place, because she had been found incapably drunk in Braintree. She was at … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in British politics | 2 Comments

The Gödel sentence for dogmatic atheists

Posted on September 20, 2006 by acb

Is found, I think, towards the end of a long article by Sam Harris in the L.A. Times about the evils of Islam, fanatical faith, suicide bombers, architects putting down their set squares to hack off the necks of journalists, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | 3 Comments

The Clash of Civilisations

Posted on September 20, 2006 by acb

George Carey teaches me Christian humility. No matter how sure I am of my own righteousness, I begin to doubt it when I see him galumphing up to join me at the barricade. So, should I reconsider the defence of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | 4 Comments

Pitepalt

Posted on September 19, 2006 by acb

I don’t know what happened to the divine Mrs Tilton. But this is in her spirit, for she used to post subtle recipes for incredibly calorific German food and, while looking for things to say about the Swedish elections, I … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Travel notes | 1 Comment

A German Joke

Posted on September 15, 2006 by acb

It’s pretty obvious who said this, but one thinks better of him for it anyway: The university was also very proud of its two theological faculties. It was clear that, by inquiring about the reasonableness of faith, they too carried … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | 4 Comments

Slo-ooo-w progress

Posted on September 13, 2006 by acb

The rate of progress on OOo is glacial; every fortnight or so I get an update on issue 6193, about the utter uselessness of notes in Writer compared to MS Word, and that was opened in June 2002, since when … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in OOo | Comments Off on Slo-ooo-w progress

Two shorts

Posted on September 13, 2006 by acb

Interesting and thoughtful piece from Scott Rosenberg about the difference between facts and stories. He talks about the way in which newspapers need to supply both and will always rely on humans for stories even though the access to facts … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | Comments Off on Two shorts

A thought after a party

Posted on September 8, 2006 by acb

The world needs a support group for people like me, who have trouble with faces. Let’s call it “Prosopagnostics Anonymous”. But how will we recognise one another? Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 3 Comments

Queen Victoria would be ashamed of me

Posted on September 7, 2006 by acb

I can often type faster than I think, but that is because I am often a very slow thinker. If a good idea comes to me all in a lump, as they tend to, I write it down on the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 1 Comment