Monthly Archives: June 2013

That is, on their new social capital algorithm (non-Cyrillic); I am just behind , and ahead of and . For whatever that is worth. As I said during the Klout debacle, any attempts to reduce one person’s impact to a … Continue reading →

Current: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (almost finished) The Complete Stories of Zora Neale Hurston (just started) Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (just started) Last books finished Miradal: Erfgoed in Heverleebos en Meerdaalwoud, by Hans Baeté, Marc … Continue reading →

Open Season for Data Fishing on the Web: The Challenges of the US PRISM Programme for the EU @CEPS_thinktank in rapid response mode!(tags: humanrights )

Way back in February 2006, I helped F with the ceremonial planting of his municipal tree. The commune dedicates trees to all the children turning seven in each calendar year. Most people pick up their trees for their own garden; … Continue reading →

De geschiedenis van een bos en een landscap is het resultaat van samenwerking tussen verschillende vakgebieden. Voorjaarsbloemen en archeologisch erfgoed hangen bijvoorbeeld beide af van de bodem. Het verhaal van prachtig gekleurde loopkevers die 'gevangenzitten' in een oud bos omdat … Continue reading →

The canal runs straight from the landing-stage into the heart of what is left of Torvello’s great square. Now it’s not even a village green. The great stone arches of the fifteenth century bridges, the dazzling fondamento, the might of … Continue reading →

Anji opened her bag and fished for the slim black phone. No network. Surprise surprise. So they were in the past – or on an alien planet – or, just possibly, in Wales. This is one of the books repackaged … Continue reading →

Had she still bee in love with Ed Grainger, and used me to get to him, guided by drug-induced visions of her future? Or had she merely been a slave to the drug, and craved knowledge of her destiny? Sent … Continue reading →

“Pro-Israeli terrorists plot to assassinate Obama” Roger Mac Ginty examines the use (or not) of the ‘t’ word.(tags: waronterror ) The Original Liberal Fascist World War Z – Now on Blu-Ray! John Holbo on H.G. Wells’ ‘Things to Come’.(tags: films … Continue reading →

I found this a particularly tough category to rank (of those I had read), and I'm also aware that my own tastes are particularly out of sync with those of other voters here, so it may not matter that much. … Continue reading →

Last of the Hugo nominees for Best Graphic Story (well, the last that I will read; I will skip Schlock Mercenary as I did last year). The only other Vaughan I have read was the last volume of Y: The … Continue reading →

This is an exciting document. [First sentence of the introduction by Robert A. Newland.] This is one of those nuggets that all connoisseurs of Northern Ireland's electoral history are vaguely aware of. Back in 1920, proportional representation was brought in … Continue reading →

How the white-lipped grove snail reached Ireland from Spain On a Stone Age boat, 8000 years ago!(tags: science ) Morocco’s Fast Track to Guilty Detailed human rights breaches in Westerm Sahara. Will @eu_eeas or @StefanFuleEU say anything?(tags: eu humanrights weternsahara … Continue reading →

The China-Africa convergence: Can America catch up? …or indeed, can Europe?(tags: ) Christian Group That Had Aimed To “Change” Gays To Shut Down, Leader Also Offered Apology #fb Much harm done, apology only first step.(tags: religion sexandgenderandsexuality ) http://m.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jun/19/supreme-court-mod-ruling-impact (tags: … Continue reading →

Ten years ago I was just over a year into the International Crisis Group, scrambling to get these three reports published, also whacking out an op-ed, and thouroughly thoroughly tired out by Bridget keeping me awake all night (I guess … Continue reading →

The Irish Parliament is in the midst of debating the abolition of its upper house, a proposition apparently supported by almost three quarters of those voters with an opinion on the matter. Some in the political classes are grumbling at … Continue reading →

Current: Miradal, by Hans Baeté, Marc De Bie, Martin Hermy, Paul Van den Bremt and Sara Adriaenssens (nearly finished) The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco (a quarter of the way through) Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson (a quarter of … Continue reading →

Nigella – a perspective from a woman with 30 years martial arts experience @JulietEMcKenna speaks.(tags: domesticviolence ) Court of Auditors slam EU’s ‘softly softly approach’ in Egypt @StefanFuleEU’s "more for more" in practice.(tags: eu egypt ) In the Ivory Tower, … Continue reading →

Thatcher, scientist " it was precisely because Thatcher knew what scientific research was like that made her impervious to claims that science was a special case, with special features and incapable of being understood by outsiders, and therefore that science … Continue reading →

Why Boston & Skegness could be UKIP’s Brighton Pavillion ERS analysis: "We now have a picture of where UKIP may make its first breakthroughs. It won the popular vote in the equivalents of nine parliamentary seats: Boston and Skegness, Bognor … Continue reading →

“The first rule,” Miriam says, “is that I only see what I see when skin touches skin. If I touch your elbow and you’re wearing a shirt, then nothing. If I wear gloves – and I used to, because I … Continue reading →

‘We’re heroes,’ Dr Who proclaimed loftily. ‘We have come to arrest you, you evil miscreant.’ Next in the sequence of New Adventures, this is the only spinoff novel (as far as I know) which unites Mel with the Seventh Doctor … Continue reading →

Anyone else remember this?

Going through my files, I came across my copies, taken in the mid-1990s, of the 1912 correspondence between veteran Irish politician Sir Horace Plunkett and former US President Theodore Roosevelt, who at the time was gearing up for his run … Continue reading →

What made the liberal formula unique was its strategy of conciliation. Where the moderate radicals proposed to achieve the assimilation of the Irishry by compulsion, the liberals envisaged achieving it by consent. This is an in depth look at the … Continue reading →

I enjoyed this volume of Joe Hill’s series about a group of teenagers exploring the mysterious Keyhouse in Lovecraft, Massachusetts, more than I had the previous one. In particular, the first of the six issues collected here, a flashback to … Continue reading →

In the dream I watch Aritomo walk on a path in the rainforest, pushing aside the overhanging branches and vines. Here and there the path narrows or crumbles into the river. He is not far ahead of me and I … Continue reading →

@RosiSexton becomes first female Brit to compete in the UFC Good luck for tonight, Rosi!(tags: mma ) First proof that infinitely many prime numbers come in pairs Just seen this – range is 70 million!(tags: mathematics ) The genetic legacy … Continue reading →

I found this a pretty easy ranking. No vote (probably): Writing Excuses Season Seven. This is a podcast and I just don’t think I will get around to listening to a representative sample of these, and unlike last year I … Continue reading →

Fantasy is not so much a mansion as a row of terraced houses, such as the one that entranced us in C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew with its connecting attics, each with a door that leads into another world. One … Continue reading →