I spend an inordinate amount of time asking myself how I know X. Even in straightforwardly scientific areas, it can be a tough question to answer. Far too much of science is dominated by fashion rather than evidence. In other areas, such as theology or history, it is even harder. So I found Frank Ledwidge’s [...]
It is surprising how hackneyed gimmicks that would cause a fiction editor’s or movie director’s eyes to glaze over with boredom can still work quite well in real life. Most of us by now have grasped roughly where the “Tribal areas” (or FATA = Federally Administered Tribal Areas) are on the Pakistan side of its [...]
Well, I cannot deny Obama some satisfaction on this, after so many years of failure. But his speech to the American people last night does not quite strike the right note, at least for non-Americans (transcript): After nearly 10 years of service, struggle, and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war. These efforts weigh [...]
As regulars will know, I view the fuss about terrorism as wildly overblown, and frequently compare the death rate to the significantly larger death rate from the bad driving of police responding to emergency calls. These are UK comparisons, because I am British. But it is worth noting a US statistic. Deaths of US military [...]
David Miliband gave a speech to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Edinburgh yesterday. The PA is a warm feelings body. It has no power or responsibility, but “fosters mutual understanding among Alliance parliamentarians” by meeting twice a year. It has 248 delegates from 26 NATO members. It seems to have a subsidiary role as jollies [...]
