Author: admin

  • My generation's failing

    “[Generations] refused to imagine themselves as making changes. Instead, in the role of the angry outsiders, they have called for the people they do not respect to make the changes on their behalf… a strategic error with enormous political consequences.  Imagine if the millions of NGO members had joined political parties and virtually taken them…

  • The comfortable majority

    The state has a duty to protect the most vulnerable, and sometimes these efforts seem to run counter to the interests of society and the community at large. We should be careful when we talk about society and community, not to mean us, the comfortable majority.   [John Burnside]  

  • Folk Devils and Moral Panics

  • It’s Just Not Acceptable Any More

  • Compensation for slavery?

    The abolition of slavery in 1833 included £20m compensation to slave owners. The Glasgow West India association claimed the equivalent of £16 billion in modern terms. [Stephen Mullen, Univ Glasgow researcher]

  • GlaxoSmithKline admits some staff in China involved in bribery | Business | The Guardian

    GlaxoSmithKline admits some staff in China involved in bribery | Business | The Guardian.

  • Mating intelligence

    Creativity is a trait that women find attractive in a mate, and mating motives  enhance actual creative ability in men.  For men, artistic accomplishment for visual art is related to sexual success.  These tendencies clearly have an evolutionary basis, and the fact that prestige in the arts is not the only factor suggests that the genetic advantage rather…

  • Oil vs Coal

    Never appreciated this before – when industry depended on coal, it was susceptible to the power of the workers and the unions.  And so was the government.  But when oil was discovered, industry and the state colluded to move power generation away from coal (and hence undermine the communities that grew up around it) and…

  • Soundtrack

    Stravinsky apparently said he hated listening to music without something to look at – part of the reason he loved writing for the ballet!

  • Kenneth Grange

    Knighted, not v well known designer but look at the list: Intercity 125, Anglepoise lamp, Kodak instamatic, Kenwood mixer, London black cab (1996) etc