Tom lent me the Game of Thrones to read recently. I enjoyed it thoroughly but I couldn’t help but think that – if you take away the thin veneer of magic and fantasy – it reads a lot like the … Continue reading
The History of English continues with the Norman invasion. Tasty fact: cow, sheep & swine came from English but beef, mutton & pork from the French.
I love learning about the history of English. I love the Open University and I especially love the fact that they put all of their courses online. It’s almost enough to make me want to finish my OU degree. In … Continue reading
I’m reading the biography of Winston Churchill by Max Hastings and I’m also following along with The Orwell Diaries on RSS. I’m at a similar point in both stories and what strikes me most forcefully is how bleak those times … Continue reading
The Times has a great series of essays by Errol Morris on Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. According to the author, Structure is a post-modern work which makes the relativist claim that people in one paradigm (or culture … Continue reading
Remember, rememberThe fifth of November.Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reasonWhy gunpowder treasonShould ever be forgot. A long time ago, there was a King of England called King James I. In the years before James came to the throne, … Continue reading
One thousand years later, beer is still excellent and the song is still fantastic. Continue reading
In the comments at In the confident hope of a miracle, Matt suggested that the founding fathers were – or at least appeared to be – devout Christians and added It would have been heresy 🙂 to elect someone who … Continue reading
The defeat of the Spanish Armada, in 1588, marked the end of Spain as a global power. Before sailing, one Spanish commander “reasoned” as follows: “It is well known that we fight in God’s cause. So when we meet the … Continue reading
Scott Adams proposes a plan to rid the world of religious extremism I have often thought that America’s strict rule about not teaching religion in schools is responsible for the fact that the more fervant forms of christianity are more … Continue reading