the big computer

May 30, 2010 in economics

I really need this book. It’s already on order. Relatedly, Chris Dillow points out that managerialism doesn’t work any better in the negative sense – cuts – than it does in the positive sense – spending, or at least, that as I’ve said before, if you believe the state is by definition incompetent to allocate [...]

mystery space rocket

May 30, 2010 in space

Armscontrolwonk wants to know what the X37-B spaceplane is for.

some Afghanistan links

May 30, 2010 in Afghanistan

After that somewhat depressing post, let’s cheer up with…war. Here are the proceedings of a conference on whether or not the aid ISAF boasts of delivering in Afghanistan actually works, whether on its own terms or as a military strategy. I notice that “winning hearts and minds” has achieved the ultimate honour of being granted [...]

some memories of west Bradford

May 30, 2010 in class, drugs, mindless violence, moral horror, personal history, Yorkshire

Well, this is grim. Intelligent comment is to be found here, in Jamie Kenny’s interview with David Wilson. Would you say that serial killers are a kind of negative indicator of the health of society in the sense that the fewer victims there are, the better society functions? Serial killers function best within fractured communities, [...]

uncanny

May 30, 2010 in introspection, my own ignorance

I disbelieve strongly in all attempts to define “generation this or that”. So I was reading this with at least a pint of scorn, when it occurred to me that I was working in a tech start-up and I’d been to a 2-Tone gig at the weekend.

shower jobby: the politics of buses

May 30, 2010 in architecture, bad science, class, conservatives, engineering, ideology, London, politics, Tories

OK, so we took the piss out of the Policy Exchange crowd for seeing reds under the seats on the bendy buses. The group rights agenda. But the interesting thing about the Borisbus is that in a sense, it bears Dean Godson and Andy Gilligan out – design and architecture are, of course, deeply political [...]

it’s not about the science

May 29, 2010 in press

It’s a rare day when Andrew Wakefield gets struck off and Nick Griffin is forced out of the BNP leadership. But this will not do: Today’s verdict ‑ the striking-off of Wakefield and Prof John Walker-Smith, who was in charge of the department of paediatric gastroenterology at the Royal Free hospital in London, where the [...]

The Amnesty Rule

May 29, 2010 in mastur/metablogging

Has anyone ever accused Amnesty International of being silent on (insert abuse here) and not been lying through their teeth? Seriously; I’ve had this argument so many times on the Internet since, ooh, 1996 or thereabouts. It always follows this pattern: A: Amnesty International says that some government/movement/company/faceless mob B supports is doing something incredibly [...]

very real concerns

May 23, 2010 in Home Office, ideology, immigration, socialism

What Sunny said. One of the most depressing things about the Labour leadership candidates’ focus on The Very Real Concerns is that it enforces a deeply negative, ungenerous, and futile definition of what those Very Real Concerns are. If you’re concerned about – to be brutal – the labour share of national income, and how [...]

the tape recorder, for special music

May 23, 2010 in music

As relief from that 1,210 word wall o’text, this: Things to Make and Do was an oddly foreshadowing title for 1999.