First Sarah Palin. A lot of things about her worry me, but this is a great response to the press coverage of her slip of the tongue about Korea: My fellow Americans in all 57 states, the time has changed for come. … Continue reading
Marbury reports on a new book by Andrew Robinson about the nature of creative genius. The quoted passage includes this: One [study] , by Dean Keith Simonton, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis, suggests that … Continue reading
What are the best lyrics of all time? There’s no such thing, but there are always lyrics that mean something special to us. Here’s a piece at the Australian website The Punch, in which people are asked which lyrics mean … Continue reading
“Ah, well we haven’t really built too many safety features into it, apart from the big red button and the ability to run away.” A V8 powered skateboard.
A fairly routine attempt to conflate the European Union with the continent of Europe on the Guardian’s website includes this: A traveller such as Erasmus could ride from Rome to Basel to London and everywhere meet friends who understood his … Continue reading
Earlier this year, I posted some comments from a discussion in which Ben Goldacre had asked: can anyone think of a case where the vast overwhelming majority of scientists, in their own field, all around the world, for a long period … Continue reading
Mick Hartley has done his bit for Inter Faith Week by celebrating a faith community near him in north London. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is helping its impoverished, mainly African, congregation become rich by giving everything … Continue reading
From an article in the Telegraph: The report – by a part-time magician turned psychologist – suggests that people may have latent psychic powers which allow them to sense future events.
I’ve had to handle a number of computer security breaches. Causes vary. It’s rarely because of any hardware. Often software is at fault, containing security holes that have gone unpatched – it’s amazing how often people forget that you’re only … Continue reading
Two splendid reviews of Simon Heffer’s book about The Correct Way to Write, both pdfs by actual, real linguists: David Crystal and Geoff Pullum. Let me quote the opening paragraph of the latter: Simon Heffer enjoys writing in the manner … Continue reading