Call me a killjoy, but I found the latest Batman film pretty hopeless. It was far too noisy, as if to cover up the clunky plot and vacuous philosophising. Is Bruce Wayne the secret identity of Batman? Is Batman the secret identity of Bruce Wayne? Do you need fear to […]
Part of the general problem we face these days is knowing what anything is. As we get better at looking at things on quite different scales, down to sub-atomic tininess, different patterns emerge. What looks like a solid, recognisable, definable thing turns out to be system of systems of systems. A lot […]
Over in the USA an extraordinary and horrible trial has ended with a cascade of Guilty verdicts for Penn State University’s former football coach Jerry Sandusky on 45 separate accounts of abusing young boys. As Sandusky trudges off to what may not be a happy rest of his life in […]
I have linked here before to various wonderful stories and insights by Ray Bradbury who died this week after a long life of writing genius. The appreciations pour forth. Here is a nice one. Here is a rare example on the Internet of a full short story by him: ‘No […]
Greg Pytel (GP) returns, asking me to post a comment to my post below, which of course I have done. His further observations are interesting. I do not think it was fair to put up a running commentary (Especially as you well know that all I really wanted was to put […]
Here is a gushing and perceptive article from Spiegel Online on the wonders of Poland since the end of communism and the serene beauty of today’s Germany/Poland relationship. Nice ending: If old clichés have any traction at all anymore, it is in the vast Polish countryside, which lags behind urban […]
Our Consul-General in Miami is my old friend Kevin McGurgan, who learned some of the darker arts of public diplomacy when we served together in chaotic conditions in Sarajevo in 1996/97. Time moves on. KM is now busy in and around his corner of the USA promoting the London Olympics […]
Here is a nifty piece I wrote about ethicability and Moral DNA back in 2010: Does ethicability methodology do justice to the existential moral value of trading, itself an expression of intrinsic human integrity. Take, for example, Love. Many people these days think that compassion/love require the successful to give […]
In one of those things you never imagined could possibly happen, some feminists are now firmly denying that back in the crazy radical ’60s and 70s women burned their bras to protest their supposed subjugation. Or something. Why are feminists denying this? Because any such incendiary underwear activities would have trivialised their […]
Assorted Crawfs made it back to White Hart Lane last night for the FA Cup 6th round replay. What a lively night it was. Look out for the superb second goal (not that there’s much wrong with the third Spurs goal). And the startling efforts of Bolton goalie Adam Bogdan […]
