Men! Need something useful for your beloved (assuming she’s female)? Try these for size. I was going to say that they’re a handy Christmas stocking filler, but then it’s not the stocking they, er, fill. Or maybe it’s safer to go for ON/Off mode and get these too. Capitalism. So […]
Katharine Birbalsingh asks why any sane parent would want to send a son to Eton. The answer is all about aspiration and ambition, of course. Not everyone’s cup of tea, plus an option available only to a few lucky parents. But it’s worth mentioning that Eton is a towering if […]
Via Browser, a superb piece by Jaron Lanier on the deeper meaning of Wikileaks: Julian Assange, in defending his actions sees a vindicating contradiction in this difference: How can information be both dangerous and inconsequential, he asks? He sees information as an abstract free-standing thing, so to him, differences in perspective and […]
Craig Murray as ever tries to steer a course which no-one else has ever steered. And crashes. Here he is talking about the impact of the weather: A combination of crazed right wing thinking and crazed left wind thinking, so typical of the UK, is why our airports are rubbish… […]
PM David Cameron made an important statement to Parliament about the latest EU Summit. Full text here (written it must be said in commendably clear language). Though you’d never guess from our snow-infested news bulletins, this was a really important gathering from which, by the usual standards of such gatherings, […]
I have mentioned before the superb John Mauldin free economic newsletters. Sign up, if only to read his latest masterpiece which praises the European Central bank for trying to stop the European Union falling into a very deep abyss. What’s so good about John’s work is that it combines professional […]
My Physics question re cylinders sliding/rolling down an icy slope generated some very smart answers. So do try this other one as posed to would-be Physics undergraduates: Two stationary cars, A and B. Car A has inside it a balloon full of air on a string attached to the inside […]
Do read this fine piece by Tyler Cowen on different aspects of inequality. It’s stuffed with interesting ideas and thought-provoking arguments: First, the inequality of personal well-being is sharply down over the past hundred years and perhaps over the past twenty years as well. Bill Gates is much, much richer […]
Iain Dale has stopped blogging in favour of his LBC and publishing life. Gulp. Every month his site steered some new readers to this one. That will dry up. I must say that whereas he had far too little to say about European issues for my own taste, what I […]
How far should people be protected from the consequences of their own stupidity? Is learning the hard way the best chance of achieving long-run better behaviour? The trouble with you is that you reduce everything to first principles. Remember that one, said to me by a senior former FCO colleague […]
