I have started reading the Bible several times – starting at the very beginning – but I never made it past Exodus. Slate has a series called Blogging the Bible in which the author, David Plotz, has embarked on the … Continue reading →

Kathy Sierra says there is no culture of design in the USA. She covers a lot of ground but her Exhibit A is dollar bills. Anyone who has come to the USA from another country knows how hard it is … Continue reading →

That’s right, type “valletta malta” into Google Maps and you’ll be directed to the exact location of that historic fortress city, ie, right in the middle of an empty expanse of Med. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/12/google_erases_malta/ My wife won’t be happy 🙁

I have wanted a blog for a long time – if I had had a blog three years ago, I’d be patting myself on the back for predicting that the unholy alliance between Christianists and small-government conservatives could not possibly … Continue reading →

The NY Times reviewed Matt Ridley’s biography of Francis Crick today. He is an interesting character. Crick refused to meet the queen when she visited Cambridge’s new Laboratory of Molecular Biology because he disapproved of royalty, and he declined a … Continue reading →

A couple of years of ago, Beckham left ManU for Real Madrid and, a few days later someone new showed up wearing the No7 shirt. “Who is that?”, I wondered. Within about 3 minutes, I said “I think we got … Continue reading →

I had Spanish for lunch today with Jeff and we went with the paella negre. I was expecting something with a certain tinge of blackness but it turned out to be very black indeed. All afternoon I have had a … Continue reading →

According to an NYT editorial, The rate of firearm death for children 14 years and under is almost 12 times higher in this country than in 25 other industrialized nations combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. … Continue reading →

Jeff reminded me to be careful when we book our funereal silent clowns in case we get mimes by mistake. That would suck. Fortunately, these people are on the case.

Timoth Garton-Ash describes in The Guardian what he sees as the root cause in the difference between the US outlook on the War on terror and the European outlook. He compares the pro-war conservatives in the US with the militaristic … Continue reading →