aldous

If Bob Dylan gets the Nobel Prize for literature, how about Tim Minchin? It would mark another departure from the inflated,  laboriously literary style that finds favour with the judges.  

Hello Olli,
If you’ve got a Cyprus passport, you’ll still be a European citizen. These things are complicated but there are lots of British citizens who have a second passport. 

Despite joining the EU as […]

people will actually set aside their moral compass in order to put bread on their tables and roofs over their heads.  A roof over one’s head is, of course, also at a huge premium in California – where OAN is ba […]

Feedback sought.

You’re an optimist, Stephen. Who is inclined to watch a 41minute video by somebody or other, lurking behind a cutesy pseudonym? It doesn’t become any more alluring because you say it confirms […]

The theory that being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society may be an ‘institutional error’ suffers from the fact that fellows are not elected by an institution but by their peers. There’s a certain lack of […]

What is fundamentally wrong with education in England is the split in the school system on the basis of parental wealth and income. 7% of pupils go to private schools which offer them entry into the nation’s […]

 I feel organically that Toni Morrison’s position in her speech … is pointing us in the right direction.

Yes, I agree about the importance of language, although I’m not too happy with Toni Morrison’s ov […]

fellows of r s  were highly critical of choice of prince andrew

This is something we can agree on. It’s an institutional failing of the Royal Society that the Council clings to the antiquated tradition of […]

e m is one of the mistakes of the royal society like their choice of royal fellow prince andrew
You appear to have been misled by social media gossip. Royal Fellows, obviously, are not elected for their […]

Genesis Alice Sidis Sep 11, 2021 at 2:50 am

Hello Alice,
It looks like we’re caught up in the Messiah Wars. It’s a social media thing. You know how it works. People like to personalize things. So, instead of […]

Hello Stephen,

 Who benefits from making, from mundane people of business, new messiahs? #17

Multi-billionaire business people are patently not ten-a-penny, perfectly ordinary  members of the business c […]

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg are three of the most significant individuals of our era. They are products of our time and have shaped the world we live in. There is no reason to deny their importance. It […]

Afghanistan and the collapse of the American-installed régime is grabbing the headlines. It’s mainly seen as a domestic and foreign policy issue for the ‘West’. A chance for to slam the Democrats for their […]

“knowing how to think clearly and critically has literally helped save the world”

I’ll take that as a fraternal fist bump, Phil.

Me, I watched it as I ate brunch, (eggs benedict with some raspberry lem […]

This CFI video…

What’s it all about, Phil? It’s more than an hour long and I’m not going to give up lunch to watch it. 

Hello Cairsley,
I’m looking at this issue from a language perspective. If a student, whose English had the normal limitations of somebody struggling with a foreign language, handed in an essay which had made an […]

coming up with a similar hypothesis independently, as seems to be the case here Cairsley #53

That’s a bold endorsement. How did you arrive at that conclusion?  

 If you have not heard of the “clay hypothesis” proposed by Alexander Graham Cairns-Smith, which Aldous brought to your attention in #37, cairsley #50

Hang on! Just between you and me, the reference to the ‘cla […]

 attic wit, humour and bonhomie  don’t seem to be your strong suit.

More to the point, did Körner smile cheerily when Braithwaite had a dig at him for his English in front of the Philosophical Society? If the […]

 My old Professor Korner, once introduced Professor Braithwaite to the University Philosophical society with the words “Zis is Professor Braizwaite, he teach me philosophy and he do it very well.”  Brait […]