I'm in the middle of reading Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of our Nature.  It's a big book and I stop and start. But today's reading seemed rather appropriate (though it's mostly qu… Read More

So Ukraine is back to the 2004 Constitution and the Prime Minister will have more power?   But Parliament won't be re-elected till 2017.  So Ukrainians have to depend on these ver… Read More

Back to being a student, or as my new course on ethnography puts it, learning the difference between "deep hanging out" and the more shallow hanging out which is the stuff of everyday life (… Read More

Interesting. In the past I would have been flattered that someone from Redmond, Washington was systematically working their way through my blog. At least that's what it seems since they ha… Read More

As everyone will have noticed, I haven't been updating for quite a bit. Largely because I didn't have much to say, or perhaps there was not enough going on, though there was certainly plenty… Read More

Back to being a student, or as my new course on ethnography puts it, learning the difference between "deep hanging out" and the more shallow hanging out which is the stuff of everyday life (… Read More

Somehow this paper found its way onto my computer: At the Center of the Table: The Rise and Fall of the Olivier Salad by Anna Kustova.  It's quite long, but a treasure trove of nostalgi… Read More

Some time ago, I noticed the scroll bars on the mailbox window of Apple Mail had disappeared.  One moment they were there and the next, so it seemed they weren't.  Sometimes they c… Read More

One of the problems of going back to be a student is adjusting to the fact that your time is not your own.  Working for yourself and being boss of a team of younger team means that what… Read More

I needed exercise so decided to walk into the centre, and go to the Museum of Modern Art for my first bit of Scottish culture (yes really, it's a hard life being a student).  Thanks to… Read More