Susan Rosenberg, Little Green Footballs, Bill O’Reilly…… Read the rest
Women in Physics
Feb 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf it’s difference in innate ability, what innate abilities would have changed so quickly?… Read the rest
Thompson Not Respectful of Politicians
Feb 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAffected with a high degree of intellectual independence.… Read the rest
Everyone Tried to Write Like Hunter S Thompson
Feb 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPara 9 wrong: Thompson said it about Nixon, not vice versa. (As if Nixon had the vocabulary!)… Read the rest
Andrew Delbanco on US Higher Education
Feb 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt seems that Stover is back at Yale. Boo.… Read the rest
The Long Arm of Coincidence
Feb 21st, 2005 10:07 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell that was a coincidence. Maybe there is an Intelligent Designer after all, plotting all our every moves.
I had just read, coded, and posted Julian’s latest Bad Moves, which is about getting your facts wrong, and not noticing or considering that you may be getting your facts wrong, and not pausing to consider that other people may be getting their facts wrong. So the next thing I did was go to Normblog to see what was new there. And what’s the first item on the page? A post about the BBC’s apologising for a story told on ‘Thought for the Day’ that turned out to lack evidence. That turned out to be a case of the speaker’s perhaps … Read the rest
Stupid Design, Inefficient Design, Cruel Design
Feb 21st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMaybe mysterious designer not ‘God’ but some mischievous or clumsy clever-clogs.… Read the rest
BBC Apologises for Apocryphal Story
Feb 21st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo evidence of Israeli Muslim conscript jailed for not shooting children.… Read the rest
Gonzo Journalist Kept Us All Honest, Friend Says
Feb 21st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Hunter was not only a national treasure, but the conscience of this little village.’… Read the rest
Uncle Duke Does a Hemingway
Feb 21st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHunter S Thompson has killed himself with a shotgun to the head.… Read the rest
Outrage Responds to Livingstone’s Dodgy Dossier
Feb 21st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOutrage refutes Livingstone’s defense of his relations with reactionary cleric.… Read the rest
Ken Is One Sorry Mayor
Feb 21st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn the name of anti-racism, Livingstone perpetuates stereotype of Muslim as woman-hating queer-basher. … Read the rest
Bold assertion
Feb 21st, 2005 | By Julian Baggini“Think about it: every time there’s a list of the 100 greatest records of all time, all those albums were recorded in two days.
Jack White, the White Stripes, Observer Music Monthly November 2004
Think about it? This is 2005! Why think when you can Google? A search for “greatest records of all time” will take you to Rolling Stone’s readers’ poll, in which you’ll find such classics as Sgt Pepper’s, OK Computer, Dark Side of the Moon and, er, Achtung Baby. Top of their poll was the Beatles’ Revolver. It’s a familiar selection, reflected in countless other polls and surveys. Among musicians and music writers, certain albums tend to do even better, notably the Beach … Read the rest
Old Red
Feb 20th, 2005 8:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe promised more on Janet Browne’s Darwin biography. A couple of sentences down on the same page (page 141, to be exact):
… Read the restAnd when Sedgwick arrived he tried to entertain him in an appropriately geological fashion by telling him of the gravel pits near Shrewsbury. But Darwin’s story of the labourer who found a tropical shell in the gravel brought only a peal of laughter and the remark that this could not be true. If the shell were genuinely embedded there, said Sedgwick, it would overthrow everything that was known about the superficial deposits of the Midland counties…Recounting the story later, Darwin remembered being astonished that Sedgwick was not more delighted by his strange fact. ‘Nothing before had ever made
What Summers Said
Feb 20th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDon’t you wish you’d been there?… Read the rest
Another Church, Another Sex Scandal
Feb 20th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat do you expect from people accountable only to a supernatural being?… Read the rest
Malraux et la Gloire
Feb 20th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWriter, action hero, politician, world-class fantasist. … Read the rest
Practice
Feb 19th, 2005 10:07 pm | By Ophelia BensonTime to say a few words in praise of lateral reading. I’m a great fan of lateral reading – not just via links but also in books. You know how that goes – you read an essay which sends you to a book which sends you to two more books and you find connections you didn’t know about. This is why (at last it can be revealed) I know absolutely nothing about anything in any depth: because I read laterally rather than vertically. I’ve never read an entire book from beginning to end in my life, but I’ve read two pages of a million or so. But never mind – I comfort myself with Johnson’s retort when Elphinston said ‘What, … Read the rest
History Can Get Buried and Forgotten
Feb 19th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Tulsa riot almost did.… Read the rest
Women in Science Feel Underencouraged
Feb 19th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMany scientists consider encouragement a major factor in seeking promotion.… Read the rest