In my yoof, I do believe I was the only person I knew who knew and liked both Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman. Not merely liked, but was extremely fond of. So I read this young man's take on what he (or a sub) called L.A. Weirdos with great pleasure, and not a little envy at his perspicaciousness....

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I like the BBC’s More or Less, which takes a look at what it calls the numbers in the news. This morning I caught up with the most recent podcast of the World Service edition, which included an item on the exact measurements that determine whether a food shortage is a famine, or merely a humanitar...

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Garret Hardin's idea that the emotion of shame can help to manage a common resource has always been a favourite for me. Up to 150 people, as Hardin suggested, can help one another do the right thing (for them all) by instilling a feeling of shame in transgressors. Seems he and I have been wrong. Not about the role of shame, but about what to call it. Brené Brown told me so in her TED talk, listening to Shame.

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That’s the title of an article in the New York Review of Books blog by Tim Parks.

My laconic friend Luigi’s answer was “No”.¹ Parks comes to much the same conclusion, but in support he adds a great deal of insight and historical learning, which I am sure Luigi shares, internally.

I’ve yet to...

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Nature recently carried a Comment setting out A market approach to saving the whales. It got a fair bit of traction, which is nice.

The authors, Christopher Costello, Leah R. Gerber and Steven Gaines, admit that their proposal is complex and could be hard to administer. Rendered down, it is simp...

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