In his new book, The Wealth Explosion: The Nature and Origins of Modernity (see also this excerpt and this excerpt), Stephen Davies argues that the Wealth Explosion of his title happened, in Europe rather than in any the other places where it might have happened, because in Europe, uniquely, nobody was in a position to … Continue reading Stephen Davies on the Habsburg failure to dominate Europe
In that chat that me and Patrick had yesterday, about Christianity and its influence, I mentioned, for some reason, how part of the reason the Shard is shaped like the Shard is that it is also shaped like the steeple of a typical sort of London church. The church in these photos, that I photoed … Continue reading Now you see it now you don’t – then you do again
Further evidence (see below) that vapour trail light is my favourite sort of light: That photo was photoed by me in June 2008. In Quimper I think, but if not in Quimper, then somewhere close. I had been browsing through the directory in which all my photos from that expedition are stored, and I was … Continue reading Vapour trail light
Last night: Manchester United 0 Paris St-Germain 2. This evening: Tottenham Hotspur 3 Borussia Dortmund 0. From a BBC report on tonight’s game: How could anyone underestimate the resolve of this Spurs side after the manner in which they have kept pace with Premier League pace-setters Manchester City and Liverpool without any squad strengthening and … Continue reading How could anyone underestimate the resolve of this Spurs side?
At the end of April and the beginning of May of 2018, I visited the city of Quimper, almost certainly for the last time. The friends I have stayed there with several times are now living in the south of France, and their Quimper home is now someone else’s. So, farewell Quimper. On May 4th, … Continue reading The Penmarc’h Lighthouse
During our recent chat about transport (already mentioned her), Patrick and I talked about robot cars. I expressed particular skepticism about their supposedly forthcoming arrival en masse on the roads of our cities. We mentioned, in contrast to the idea of robot cars immediately conquering our cities, the fact that robot vehicles are already in … Continue reading Another niche market for robot vehicles
To me, nothing says Abroad quite like a poster, somewhere in Abroad, advertising an English speaking movie, whose English title I already know, with a foreign title that is different, but with all the same star names: La Taupe means The Mole. I preferred the TV series, but I love this poster. Photoed by me … Continue reading La Taupe
I did a posting about a Big Thing Alignment that I saw when I went with Darren to that cricket match at the oval, and I did a posting about how the last ball of that game looked, two days later, on video. Now for some more photos I took on the day Darren and … Continue reading More Surrey cricket photos
6k has Flickred a wonderful little collection of photos he took on a recent expedition to France (he blogs about these here), of which this was one of my favourites: I particular like the extreme middle of this photo, which I have taken the liberty of cropping out and lightly sharpening: I love roof clutter. … Continue reading A photo-rumination on French rail clutter
I spent most of the time I had available today for blogging working on a piece about Dominic Frisby, in connection with this. I want to sleep on it rather than shove it up tonight, but it should be up at Samizdata tomorrow. So here is a quota movie poster, on the side of a … Continue reading Death Wish avec Bruce Willis