I’ve just watched a very interesting TedTalk by a man called Bruce Bueno de Mesquita.¹ Several things made it noteworthy. The graphics were very clear and very well thought out. The thesis was interesting -- that it is possible to predict the outcome of complex negotiations with a game theoret...

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It must have been about 25 years ago. I had just bought my first ever motor car. It was a Mazda 323 and I was pleased as punch with it. But a car is only a car. So when my good friend David said “give me your car, to go for a ride” I was happy to hand him the keys, even though I didn’t know how lo...

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Episode 10, Season 5 of The Wire has been and gone in this household, and a bittersweet night it was. I don’t remember when we started watching, but I do remember the kindly classics professor who turned us on. And I thank him to this day. There’s not a lot to be said about the perfection of The Wir...

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Not nice to discover via Pharyngula that John Maddox has died. Unsurprisingly, PZ and his commenters¹ major on John’s forceful way with charlatans and the self-deluded. (By the way, is it too much to hope that Brenda Maddox will give her side of how it was that John came to call in James “The...

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The magic frangipani made it through its second winter. Almost three weeks ago, in fact, I noticed that the leaves had started to unfurl, and a little bit of me unfurled too. I took the photo there and then, on 21 March, but it sat in the camera until today and the trunk sat in the passage-way un...

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