Because some of them undoubtedly did, even people who knew him quite well. In his heyday, millions professed their love, sang his praises. Even those he had condemned in show trials, or in no trials, wrote to him of their devotion, wrote of their faithfulness, wrote of their belief. Perhaps they meant it, perhaps it [...]

Globalisation, of course, isn’t a new phenomenon. Those who have been following my demographic material will not be surprised that the role of migration in human history is a topic which fascinates me. Well, Juan Cole has a very ‘informed’ post today about a piece of genetic research which claims to show that half of [...]

To continue with the self-promotion… I put another demo of one of my songs online on my “music blog” tapsmusic.de. It’s called “when you look at me” (128kbit mp3 | 64kbit wma9). Feel free to listen and decide for yourself if it’s worth more than four points…

Monaco is voting!
We were going to write something inevitably snarky about the Eurovision song contest (Hello from Minsk!) but Manolo’s Shoe Blog has pictures that are worth many, (Three points for Malta!) many, many thousands of words. (Good evening Amsterdam! Hello Kiev! This is the Netherlands calling!)
They’re here (Our twelve points go to … Turkey!)
here [...]

Briefly following up on Tobias’ post below: DeLong has re-thought and amended his remarks on G?nter Grass.
(Thanks, Henry, for the pointer.)

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For what it’s worth, I didn’t think much [...]

Anybody else been watching the new Doctor Who?
I was always a bit lukewarm towards the show when I was a kid - it seemed slow moving and awfully cheesy by 80’s standards - but I’m really starting to like the new version. So far, it’s lampooned the rush to war in Iraq only a [...]

For late night thoughts, the New Scientist offers 13 problems for science.
From ultra-energetic cosmic rays to Martian methane, from tetraneutrons to the placebo effect, a baker’s dozen places where the gaps in our scientific knowledge may be openings for some very interesting learning.

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Not mine, of course, the 50 novels from the Sueddeutsche Zeitung’s list. Since several of my recent book reviews have been negative or lukewarm, I’ll say here above the fold that the latest batch has indeed brought me in touch with literary greatness.

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New work by Sophocles? Hesiod? Lucian? Euripides? A precursor to the Illiad?
All coming up, thanks to satellitte imaging technology and a century-old trove of manuscripts brought to Britain from Egypt.
In the past four days alone, Oxford’s classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other [...]

Because I mentioned Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver a couple of times earlier this year, I will now add that I’ve finished reading it. The pace picks up a bit around page 800.

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