In modern architecture as in everything, there is good and there is bad. So I wonder what that monstrous carbuncle on the face of the much-loved British monarchy would make of this entertaining and very funny Ted Talk by Bjarke Ingels?

The buildings, like the architect, struck me as thoughtful...

I did have my hopes too high, but they weren't dashed, just satisfied in a different way. I expected pecha kucha (which Dan Pink pronounces p'chatchka, making it sound just a little bit Yiddish) to be about ideas, about putting over a point of view, about stimulating an argument. It can be, clearl...

I’ve read scads about pecha kucha and how the discipline of presenting ideas within the constraint of 20 slides at 20 seconds each can unleash a torrent of creativity. Now I’ve got a chance to see for myself. The University of Washington’s Design in Rome programme is giving it a go this evening,...

I read a nice piece by Madronna Holden on her blog Our Earth/Ourselves. She tackles the larger theme of the story of consumer products, reminding readers of Wendell Berry's remark that we should not eat any food we are not willing to pray over.

Well, that's me starving to death right there, because I pray to nothing over nothing.

This I got to hear.

Bruce Stovel championed Jane Austen studies and blues music with equal measures of expertise and passion. The outpouring of affection at the celebration of Bruce's life and at a subsequent musical tribute inspired the plan for a book that would celebrate Bruce as teacher, Aus...