We Shall Resume in an Hour
Twelve things the British public are wrong about.
The Star Wars throne room minus John Williams.
Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich.
Coincidence? I Think Not
No sooner do I post that stuff about oil than this turns up in my inbox...
Scraping the Barrel
It isn’t surprising that this news of potential improved oil extraction technologies is being treated as evidence of some sort of BBC plot to withhold The Truth before the referendum, but as far as Google News indicates there was no reporting of it anywhere before a few days ago, when it appeared in the oil industry magazine Offshore. Any beef about its timing is really with the team at Heriot-Watt University. But then all they’re doing is announcing a promising line of research—it isn’t as if they’re ready to press the big green button on a whole new production method.
Exponential Crisis
Ebola makes you a risk to yourself: “Throughout my time in Sierra Leone I was plunged into a state of hyper-awareness about my own body and that of every person around me.”
Dr James Appel’s blog about his volunteer work in Liberia is sobering reading (via Mefi).
Estimating the fatality of the current outbreak: more like 80-85% than the reported 50-55%. Just as deadly as previous outbreaks, then. Surviving isn’t like tossing heads rather than tails, it’s rolling a six on the first try.
Fresh graves point to undercount of Ebola toll.
An Untied Kingdom
Wall of St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, 17 September 2014
The day after, I don’t feel smug or triumphant or gloating or anything of the kind, I feel sad that so much passion and enthusiasm was channeled in a direction that came to nought. I personally disagreed with it, but that passion was important. Today feels anticlimactic.
Broken-Up Britain
With the referendum only two days away, I’m writing comments on Metafilter rather than posts here, so I’m collecting today’s here before they’re instantly out-of-date. Initial quotes from other people’s comments in that thread are shown in italics.
Spinning the Wheel
Parts of my post of a few days ago were months-old in draft, but the catalyst to finish it was this MetaFilter thread going into the final weeks of the campaign. I’ve joined the discussion there now, and written some more lengthy comments which I’ll excerpt below. But first, some links that are worth a look.
Read More · 
11 September 2014 · 
x1 · Politics
Heart Surgery
I’ve tried a few times in recent months to write about the referendum, but have stalled each time. Joining the fray as a naturalised UK citizen feels fraught with difficulty, so like a lot of people in Scotland I’ve been keeping my head down. That tendency has been particularly noticeable here in Edinburgh, where so many residents aren’t from Scotland. For most of the year it’s killed small talk at social events.
Read More · 8 September 2014 · x8 · Politics
Doom Loops
The secret German scheme to invade America before the First World War.
A citizen’s income would make Britain fairer. I remember favouring this idea back in the 1980s, when nobody ever mentioned it; good to see it getting some traction now. [Edit: And according to the Radio 4 evening news, it’s now Green Party policy.]
The strange and curious tale of the Maine phantom.
Dramatic reading of YouTube comments from a One Direction video.
Mary Beard takes on her sexist detractors.
Fantastic break by Röyksopp and Robyn at 1:48 in the “Sayit” video (2:28 in the song proper).
A sorry fate for one of the better long-haul airlines.
The procrastination doom loop.
Three children injured as tornado hits their tent. Poor kids. Glad we weren’t camping further south that weekend.
August 2014