Anthropologist Margaret Mead was once asked what she deemed the first sign of civilization in a culture. Fish hooks? Pottery? Flint spear heads? No. Mead replied that the earliest discovered sign of civilization was a femur which had been broken … Read More »
Thanks again to Dave Hansell for this. Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton named the effect after his friend, the Nobel Prize winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann. Crichton describes it thus: You open a newspaper to an article on a subject you … Read More »
Posted two days ago on Facebook by the Free Assange Committee (Germany). Das Schicksal meines Sohnes wird die ZUKUNFT aller FREIEN Menschen sein, die ihre Stimme gegen die Tyrannei und Korruption der REGIERUNGEN erheben A day later, yesterday, Christine’s words … Read More »
This is what’s at stake in the Assange case. Our right to know what the most deadly elements of the most powerful governments on our planet are doing. That they think it legitimate to imprison anyone who tries to show … Read More »
Is Facebook’s Frances Haugen a whistleblower? Clearly not in the sense that Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, Daniel Halesworth and Katharine Gun are. But is there any sense in which she can be said to be one? A month … Read More »
Remembrance Sunday in Moffat, Scotland, 2016 And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day. Shakespeare – Henry V, … Read More »
Well intentioned but not so well informed people often assert the universality of human rights in ways that unwittingly serve the agendas of power. How could they not? Our awareness of (a) where human rights violations are said to take … Read More »
Spotted just now on Facebook, posted by one Tom Helmesley. This is Jeff. Jeff made his billions by undercutting local shops and shipping stuff halfway round the world. Over the summer, Jeff flew on his private spacecraft so he can … Read More »
For reasons too convolutedly tedious to torture you with, my custom of posting, last weekend of the month, a trio of recommended reads fell into abeyance this spring. Shame, that. Several readers have said they liked this feature. I’m not … Read More »
Bloggers like me are prone to self doubt. Not, I hasten to add, in respect of what we say of the state we’re in, summarised in my open letter on China. There’s too much evidence for there to be any … Read More »