Monthly Archives: November 2007

Thanksgiving

Posted on November 22, 2007 by acb

This one is specially to make American readers feel better today — provided they are in the USA, that is: I was out walking today and noticed that the price of petrol has risen to £1.04 a litre, which is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 5 Comments

Ultimate procrastination

Posted on November 20, 2007 by acb

Thanks to John Naughton I have just stumbled upon a site which appears to list every public or semi-public talk being given in or around Cambridge University. It is a glorious searchable toyshop of interesting ideas and almost the best … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, God, Journalism, Net stories, nördig, Science without worms, Software, Worms | 2 Comments

A memory of imperialism

Posted on November 20, 2007 by acb

We were sitting around the kitchen table talking about the violently aborted holiday in France, and my mother said, reminiscently, that her mother hated the Irish; an odd sentiment seeing as how the whole of the rest of my family … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 2 Comments

On hating the French

Posted on November 18, 2007 by acb

I should have been writing this in an agreeable hotel in Avignon. The room was booked, the first class tickets bought. We rose at five to catch the train to London. At the St Pancras retail destination (with attached railway … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 1 Comment

What could be more agreeable

Posted on November 17, 2007 by acb

than to see the Eurabia crowd denouncing anyone else as paranoid fascist nutters? Yet this is the spectacle offered by the latest schism on the far right. The paleofascist nutters around the Brussels Journal hate muslims, of course (no linky … Continue reading →

Posted in War | 2 Comments

I dreamed I saw Saint Augustines

Posted on November 17, 2007 by acb

(this is, by coincidence, Entry 1500: apologies if you thought the blog would suddenly go all profound and witty) Am off to Avignon for four days tomorrow, travelling first class on Eurostar, because it is only an extra 30 Euros. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | Comments Off on I dreamed I saw Saint Augustines

Midgley and metaphysics

Posted on November 16, 2007 by acb

I pulled down Science and Salvation last night and it fell open at a discussion of the truth of large metaphysical assertions which is a useful way of following on from the comments to my earlier piece. It’s quite a … Continue reading →

Posted in God | 3 Comments

Hicks and wiseguys

Posted on November 15, 2007 by acb

Ophelia Benson and others are having fun with a survey in Christianity Today asking what are “the most compelling arguments for Christianity”. The choices are The exquisiteness of the physical world (6%) The reliability of the Scriptures (21%) The life … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | 15 Comments

There had to be a youtube post sometime

Posted on November 12, 2007 by acb

And here you are. It has no soundtrack and no colour. Courtesy of TNH, it is newsreel footage from the last twenty minutes of life in the trenches at the Somme, before the men go over the top, which they … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | 1 Comment

Mailer and Waugh

Posted on November 12, 2007 by acb

A note in the Telegraph’s obituary of Norman Mailer leads me to ponder the distinction between egomaniacs and shits. They might seem indistinguishable, but the comparison with Evelyn Waugh shows they are not. Mailer, it’s obvious from his biographies, was … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | 1 Comment