A restaurant, with a well-known proprietor, has recently been accused of copying another restaurant’s menu and branding in what is an increasingly challenging area of IP law.
Whilst there are doubtless similarities between the two menus in terms of content and layout, being able to prove that someone has copied such an item (which in addition features rather commonplace dishes) is a difficult – if not almost impossible – task.
Read more in the November Newsletter from the Intellectual Property Office.
Monday, 12 December 2011
Religious Communities, Immigration, and Social Cohesion in Rural Areas: …
Evidence from England
an article by Rhys Andrews (Centre for Local and Regional Government Research, Cardiff University) published in Rural Sociology Volume 76 Issue 4 (December 2011)
Abstract
Religious communities are important sources of bridging and bonding social capital that have varying implications for perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas. In particular, as well as cultivating cohesiveness more broadly, the bridging social capital associated within mainline religious communities may represent an especially important source of support for the social integration of new immigrant groups. Although the bonding social capital associated with evangelical communities is arguably less conducive to wider social cohesion, it may prompt outreach work by those communities, which can enhance immigrant integration. This article examines these assumptions by exploring the relationship between mainline and evangelical religious communities, immigration, and residents’ perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas in England. I model the separate and combined effects of religious communities and economic in-migration on social cohesion using multivariate statistical techniques. The analysis suggests that mainline Protestant communities enhance social cohesion in rural England, while evangelical communities do not. The social integration of immigrants appears to be more likely where mainline Protestant and Catholic communities are strong, but is unaffected by the strength of evangelical ones.
an article by Rhys Andrews (Centre for Local and Regional Government Research, Cardiff University) published in Rural Sociology Volume 76 Issue 4 (December 2011)
Abstract
Religious communities are important sources of bridging and bonding social capital that have varying implications for perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas. In particular, as well as cultivating cohesiveness more broadly, the bridging social capital associated within mainline religious communities may represent an especially important source of support for the social integration of new immigrant groups. Although the bonding social capital associated with evangelical communities is arguably less conducive to wider social cohesion, it may prompt outreach work by those communities, which can enhance immigrant integration. This article examines these assumptions by exploring the relationship between mainline and evangelical religious communities, immigration, and residents’ perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas in England. I model the separate and combined effects of religious communities and economic in-migration on social cohesion using multivariate statistical techniques. The analysis suggests that mainline Protestant communities enhance social cohesion in rural England, while evangelical communities do not. The social integration of immigrants appears to be more likely where mainline Protestant and Catholic communities are strong, but is unaffected by the strength of evangelical ones.
Sunday, 11 December 2011
10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting
A dinosaur’s teeth can be a map of its travels via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
Bones can tell you a lot about a creature, but there’s much more they can't tell you. Bones are not behaviour. We know what the skeletons of dinosaurs looked like. But there's a great deal about their appearance and behaviour that we can only guess at.
Sometimes, though, bones can surprise you. Sometimes, they carry secrets locked inside. At Not Exactly Rocket Science, Ed Yong writes about a new study that's uncovered evidence about dinosaur behavior, using information stored in the dinosaurs’ teeth. The paper suggests that the North American Camarasaurus had a seasonal migration.
Fascinating stuff.
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
"Hey, babe, fancy a shag?" Drink doesn't make us amorous and uninhibited. Culture does. So next time you wake up with regrets, blame not the booze, but yourself... more
Did the Italian Renaissance Begin in Baghdad? via Big Think by Bob Duggan
The Italian Renaissance remains one of those amazing hinges of human history where civilization made a great leap that continues to be felt today. For German art historian Hans Belting, this “quantum leap consistent in the way perspective introduced the gaze into the picture and thus, at the time, the human subject doing the gazing”.
Read More about Belting’s theory and the history behind his ideas.
‘I dreamed I was ‘X’ in my Maidenform bra’, 1944-1966 via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT by Chris
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Noël Coward likened reading a footnote to going downstairs to answer the door while making love. Digression didn't suit him. He's not alone... more
Friday Fun: Zombie Defense Agency via the How-To Geek by Asian Angel
In this game your mission is to set up a solid defence to stop the incoming waves of zombie hordes using the various weapon towers at your disposal.
As always you cxan choose to read Asian Angel’s walkthrough here or go straight to the game here
The beauty of ancient globalisation via Prospero by A.Y.
Today Peshawar in north-west Pakistan is a hotbed of insurgency and a strategic military entry point into Afghanistan. But more than 1,500 years ago the Gandhara region, which surrounded present-day Peshawar, was an important point along the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean. Propelled by Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Empire, settlers from the West brought classical Greco-Roman influences, while traders from the East brought Buddhism. This unique cross-pollination permeates art from the Gandhara region, which encompassed swaths of north-west Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan between the first century BC and the fifth century AD. These works are an extraordinary example of ancient globalisation.
“The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara”, the first exhibition of Gandharan art from Pakistan in America since 1960, is on view at the Asia Society in New York through October.
“The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara” is on view at the Asia Society in New York through October 30th. Read more
Which means that by the time you read this it will be over – and I can find no mention anywhere of the exhibition being staged anywhere else in the world. Wikipedia has some stunning images http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhara#Art and jump to Art.
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
For Arthur Conan Doyle, who found "unaffectedness" his own chief virtue, the ideal of happiness was "men who do their duty." He did his... more
A Case Study of the “Primark Effect” via Big Think by Big Think Editors
The “fast fashion” retail model pioneered by companies such as Zara and H&M has been taken a step farther by Primark, the UK-based retailer offering clothes at rock-bottom prices. In fact, the significant change in consumer habits since the financial crisis, which … Read More
Yellowstone Bison via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin
Bones can tell you a lot about a creature, but there’s much more they can't tell you. Bones are not behaviour. We know what the skeletons of dinosaurs looked like. But there's a great deal about their appearance and behaviour that we can only guess at.
Sometimes, though, bones can surprise you. Sometimes, they carry secrets locked inside. At Not Exactly Rocket Science, Ed Yong writes about a new study that's uncovered evidence about dinosaur behavior, using information stored in the dinosaurs’ teeth. The paper suggests that the North American Camarasaurus had a seasonal migration.
Fascinating stuff.
"Hey, babe, fancy a shag?" Drink doesn't make us amorous and uninhibited. Culture does. So next time you wake up with regrets, blame not the booze, but yourself... more
Did the Italian Renaissance Begin in Baghdad? via Big Think by Bob Duggan
The Italian Renaissance remains one of those amazing hinges of human history where civilization made a great leap that continues to be felt today. For German art historian Hans Belting, this “quantum leap consistent in the way perspective introduced the gaze into the picture and thus, at the time, the human subject doing the gazing”.
Read More about Belting’s theory and the history behind his ideas.
‘I dreamed I was ‘X’ in my Maidenform bra’, 1944-1966 via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT by ChrisThank you to Vintage Ads and Stuff
See ALL the fantastic pictures here
See ALL the fantastic pictures here
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Noël Coward likened reading a footnote to going downstairs to answer the door while making love. Digression didn't suit him. He's not alone... more
Friday Fun: Zombie Defense Agency via the How-To Geek by Asian Angel
In this game your mission is to set up a solid defence to stop the incoming waves of zombie hordes using the various weapon towers at your disposal.
As always you cxan choose to read Asian Angel’s walkthrough here or go straight to the game here
The beauty of ancient globalisation via Prospero by A.Y.
Today Peshawar in north-west Pakistan is a hotbed of insurgency and a strategic military entry point into Afghanistan. But more than 1,500 years ago the Gandhara region, which surrounded present-day Peshawar, was an important point along the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean. Propelled by Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Empire, settlers from the West brought classical Greco-Roman influences, while traders from the East brought Buddhism. This unique cross-pollination permeates art from the Gandhara region, which encompassed swaths of north-west Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan between the first century BC and the fifth century AD. These works are an extraordinary example of ancient globalisation.
“The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara”, the first exhibition of Gandharan art from Pakistan in America since 1960, is on view at the Asia Society in New York through October.
“The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara” is on view at the Asia Society in New York through October 30th. Read more
Which means that by the time you read this it will be over – and I can find no mention anywhere of the exhibition being staged anywhere else in the world. Wikipedia has some stunning images http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhara#Art and jump to Art.
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
For Arthur Conan Doyle, who found "unaffectedness" his own chief virtue, the ideal of happiness was "men who do their duty." He did his... more
A Case Study of the “Primark Effect” via Big Think by Big Think Editors
The “fast fashion” retail model pioneered by companies such as Zara and H&M has been taken a step farther by Primark, the UK-based retailer offering clothes at rock-bottom prices. In fact, the significant change in consumer habits since the financial crisis, which … Read More
Yellowstone Bison via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin
A herd of bison in a valley in the northwestern region of Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming). I shot this iPhone snap while shooting video with Miles O’Brien and team – we’re working on a story for the PBS NewsHour. We’re in Montana today, driving out shortly to a cattle rancher’s digs. Photo notes: I shot this in the “regular” (not HDR) iPhone photo setting, and did only very minor tweaks in Photoshop (levels, exposure, to bring some of those mid-range clouds into greater clarity). But this is not an HDR or faux-HDR photo, and I didn’t use any filters or do much in Photoshop. This is pretty much how it looks right on the iPhone.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting
a fantasy of empire via 3quarksdaily by Morgan Meis
In 1929, two years after he resigned from his job as a policeman in Burma, George Orwell settled, in his mind at least, the question that still troubles many people in Britain and the US: whether the British empire was good or bad. Burma’s “relationship with the British empire&rdqwuo;, Orwell wrote, “is that of slave and master. Is the master good or bad? That is not the question; let us simply say that this control is despotic and, to put it plainly, self-interested.” Writing in 1942 about Rudyard Kipling’s legend of British soldiers, administrators and engineers in the colonies carrying heroically the white man’s burden, Orwell was blunter. “He does not seem to realise,” Orwell wrote, “any more than the average soldier or colonial administrator, that an empire is primarily a money-making concern.”
more from Pankaj Mishra at the FT here
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
What's ugly beyond belief, singed, moldy, water-stained, and, until now, inaccessible? Archimedes' brain in a box... more
Silent Era Movie Posters via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT by Amanda
Difficult choice, as always, but I think I liked this the best!
The rest are here.
Thank you to Verdoux
‘Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow’ Seagram’s Ads, 1940s via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT by Chris
3D Movies
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Literary fiction is not a standard to aspire to, says Geoff Dyer. It's merely a convention that writers and readers collapse into, like an old sofa... more
Big Balloon to Cool Earth via Big Think by Big Think Editors
Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption in the Philippines in 1991 led to the Earth cooling slightly for two years. Now British scientists are preparing to trial a potential solution to global warming that mimics the effect. This geo-engineering involves using an ordinary hosepipe …
Read More
From Spain to the Americas, from the convent to the front: Catalina de Erauso's shifting identities via Eurozine articles by Isabel Hernández
Isabel Hernández analyses the account of the 17th century nun Catalina de Erauso: She seized the first chance to run away from a convent and, dressed as a man, went to South America where she joined the Spanish army – “entirely a masculine realm”, as Hernández puts it.
Read more
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Politics and principles. When it comes to staying in power, democrats and dictators have more in common than not... more
Ocean Acidity Blamed for Ancient Extinction via Big Think by Big Think Editors
Earth experienced its most dramatic extinction crisis of all time 250 million years ago when about 90 percent of ocean-dwelling species and 70 percent of land-dwellers disappeared. What caused the massive die-off has long been debated but a new study suggests ocean …
Read More
Debating “Guilty Pleasures” via 3quarksdaily by Robin Varghese
Over in the blogosphere, a debate seems to be emerging. So far Atrios, Matthew Yglesias, Amanda Marcotte and Lindsay Beyerstein have weighed in.
It seems that “guilty pleasures” are things people like but can’t justify liking.
In 1929, two years after he resigned from his job as a policeman in Burma, George Orwell settled, in his mind at least, the question that still troubles many people in Britain and the US: whether the British empire was good or bad. Burma’s “relationship with the British empire&rdqwuo;, Orwell wrote, “is that of slave and master. Is the master good or bad? That is not the question; let us simply say that this control is despotic and, to put it plainly, self-interested.” Writing in 1942 about Rudyard Kipling’s legend of British soldiers, administrators and engineers in the colonies carrying heroically the white man’s burden, Orwell was blunter. “He does not seem to realise,” Orwell wrote, “any more than the average soldier or colonial administrator, that an empire is primarily a money-making concern.”
more from Pankaj Mishra at the FT here
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
What's ugly beyond belief, singed, moldy, water-stained, and, until now, inaccessible? Archimedes' brain in a box... more
Silent Era Movie Posters via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT by Amanda
Difficult choice, as always, but I think I liked this the best!
The rest are here.
Thank you to Verdoux
‘Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow’ Seagram’s Ads, 1940s via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT by Chris
3D Movies
In the mid-1940s, Seagram’s advertised its VO Canadian whiskey with a series of extremely manly magazine ads about ‘Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow’ – unspecified futuristic thinkers who liked the fact that Seagram’s was patient enough to age VO for six years.
Technologizer Other pictures:
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Literary fiction is not a standard to aspire to, says Geoff Dyer. It's merely a convention that writers and readers collapse into, like an old sofa... more
Big Balloon to Cool Earth via Big Think by Big Think Editors
Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption in the Philippines in 1991 led to the Earth cooling slightly for two years. Now British scientists are preparing to trial a potential solution to global warming that mimics the effect. This geo-engineering involves using an ordinary hosepipe …
Read More
From Spain to the Americas, from the convent to the front: Catalina de Erauso's shifting identities via Eurozine articles by Isabel Hernández
Isabel Hernández analyses the account of the 17th century nun Catalina de Erauso: She seized the first chance to run away from a convent and, dressed as a man, went to South America where she joined the Spanish army – “entirely a masculine realm”, as Hernández puts it.
Read more
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Politics and principles. When it comes to staying in power, democrats and dictators have more in common than not... more
Ocean Acidity Blamed for Ancient Extinction via Big Think by Big Think Editors
Earth experienced its most dramatic extinction crisis of all time 250 million years ago when about 90 percent of ocean-dwelling species and 70 percent of land-dwellers disappeared. What caused the massive die-off has long been debated but a new study suggests ocean …
Read More
Debating “Guilty Pleasures” via 3quarksdaily by Robin Varghese
Over in the blogosphere, a debate seems to be emerging. So far Atrios, Matthew Yglesias, Amanda Marcotte and Lindsay Beyerstein have weighed in.It seems that “guilty pleasures” are things people like but can’t justify liking.
Sunday, 4 December 2011
10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting
From Smithsonian:
When potato plants bloom, they send up five-lobed flowers that spangle fields like fat purple stars. By some accounts, Marie Antoinette liked the blossoms so much that she put them in her hair. Her husband, Louis XVI, put one in his buttonhole, inspiring a brief vogue in which the French aristocracy swanned around with potato plants on their clothes. The flowers were part of an attempt to persuade French farmers to plant and French diners to eat this strange new species. Today the potato is the fifth most important crop worldwide, after wheat, corn, rice and sugar cane. More here.
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Quantum mechanics is one of the most reliable theories in science, but that doesn't mean physicists understand it... more
Mysterious Brain Connections via Big Think by Big Think Editors
Researchers were recently surprised to find that brains missing a corpus callosum, which links the two hemispheres of the brain, were able to communicate information between the two halves quite effectively. Is the brain capable of using electromagnetic waves to ...
Read More
Why Are the Letters in ABC Order? via Stephen’s Lighthouse
Read the history and philosophy at mental_floss Blog by Matt Soniak and the evolution of the alphabet as a moving image here
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Google wants to know your reading habits, taste in music, and where you are right now. You are not Google's customer. You are its product... more
Was Vincent Van Gogh Murdered? via Big Think by Bob Duggan
Every art lover knows the story. Sad, mad Vincent Van Gogh went into the wheat fields of Auvers-sur-Oise on the morning of July 27, 1890 to paint Wheatfield with Crows, his visual suicide note to posterity, before shooting himself in the chest. Read More
The Dark Side of High Achievement via Big Think by Peter Saalfield
It is a familiar tale, one told many times by writers and filmmakers from Shakespeare to Orson Welles. A dynamic thinker sets out on his or her career and makes an impact almost immediately. He brings new ideas to the table, sees angles that others do not, and consequently …
Read More
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
No more Manhattan Projects. Technological innovation has stalled, says Peter Thiel. Scientists are ignored. Today a letter from Einstein would get lost in the White House mailroom... more
Welcome to the Moral Sciences Club via Big Think by Will Wilkinson
Welcome to the club. Let’s begin with the name, which is swiped from the Cambridge Moral Sciences Club, a philosophy discussion group founded in 1878 for Cambridge men who were doing or had done the “moral sciences tripos”, a defunct course of study for the honours B.A. The original Cambridge …
Read More
Delicious or Disgusting? Depends on Where You’re Sitting via Big Think by David Berreby
When I hand my one-year-old son something to eat, he spends a short time looking at it and a long time looking at me: Is this good? Is it tasty? Is this what we eat? The answer (olive from me, yes; bug from floor, no) has a bit to do with the chemical and physiological process of perceiving the … Read More
Saturday, 3 December 2011
10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting
Laughter Really Is the Best Medicine via Big Think by Big Think Editors
A new study out of Oxford University suggests that laughter can trigger the release of endorphins, the brain chemical that can make you feel good, distract you from pain and deliver other health benefits. In the study, participants watched sitcoms or stand up comedy … Read More
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The demand for certainty is the innovation-killer of our age. Solve big problems, build big stuff? No. Don't risk failure... more
Friendly bacteria move in mysterious ways via 3quarksdaily by Azra Raza
How can parents ensure their children don’t marry outside their ethnicity? via Big Think by Marina Adshade
A woman recently shared with me the secret to finding a husband. She told me to write a list of qualities that my ideal man would have and tape it to my fridge. That’s it. And while it sounds too simple to be effective, she assured me that it worked well for her.
Read More
The answer to ensuring (or at least trying to ensure) that your son or daughter marries someone from the same ethnic group is to not let them be educated! Statistics have shown that the more educated someone is the more likely it is that they will marry someone from a different ethnic group.
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Something's rotten in the Kingdom of Print. Books that call for 60 pages are fluffed out to 600. Why? The dismal economics of publishing... more
Noncommunicable Disease Epidemic via Big Think by Big Think Editors
The World Health Organization (WHO) has brought attention to the worldwide epidemic of noncommunicable diseases in a report that highlights the role of income inequality in how diseases are diagnosed and treated. The report recommends policies governments … Read More
Examining the Mystery of Skeleton, Sugar and Sex via 3quarksdaily by Azra Raza
From The New York Times:
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Early computer culture was a battle between gray, regimented corporations and psychedelic hippie-nerds. It’s still not clear who won … more
Books & Beer: Talking Literature With The Inklings via Reading Copy Book Blog by elizabethc
One of the most famous literary groups was a very informal one and included two pioneers of modern fiction – J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The Inklings liked to down a few pints of bitter while debating the merits of magical wardrobes and fantastic kingdoms, as well as Christianity and spirituality.
From poets to theologians and biographers, the Inklings were a diverse group united by a love of literature.
The book by Humphrey Carpenter is available from www.abebooks.co.uk – prices start at £2.64. And at this point I give you one of my very few wholehearted and entirely unsolicited testimonials – AbeBooks has never let me down and I have, over the course of time, asked for some quite obscure items.
Finally, an extinct species you can feel good about via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
The specific strain of the bacteria Yersinia pestis that was responsible for the Black Death in Europe is probably now extinct, according to a new study. The bacterial DNA extracted from historic samples doesn’t match modern Y. pestis. This could go a long way toward explaining why the Plague seems significantly less deadly today than it was in medieval Europe.
A new study out of Oxford University suggests that laughter can trigger the release of endorphins, the brain chemical that can make you feel good, distract you from pain and deliver other health benefits. In the study, participants watched sitcoms or stand up comedy … Read More
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The demand for certainty is the innovation-killer of our age. Solve big problems, build big stuff? No. Don't risk failure... more
Friendly bacteria move in mysterious ways via 3quarksdaily by Azra Raza
From Nature:
Many yoghurts are loaded with live bacteria, and labelled with claims that consuming these microorganisms can be good for your health. But a study published today [28 October] shows that such yoghurts have only subtle effects on the bacteria already in the gut and do not replace them. Nathan McNulty, a microbiologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, recruited seven pairs of identical twins, and asked one in each pair to eat twice-daily servings of a popular yoghurt brand containing five strains of bacteria. By sequencing bacterial DNA in the twins’ stool samples, the team showed that the yoghurt microbes neither took up residence in the volunteers’ guts, nor affected the make-up of the local bacterial communities. Jeffrey Gordon, the microbiologist at Washington University who led the study, was not surprised. “We were only giving several billion bacterial cells in total to the twins, who harbour tens of trillions of gut microbes in their intestines,” he says. More here.
How can parents ensure their children don’t marry outside their ethnicity? via Big Think by Marina Adshade
A woman recently shared with me the secret to finding a husband. She told me to write a list of qualities that my ideal man would have and tape it to my fridge. That’s it. And while it sounds too simple to be effective, she assured me that it worked well for her.
Read More
The answer to ensuring (or at least trying to ensure) that your son or daughter marries someone from the same ethnic group is to not let them be educated! Statistics have shown that the more educated someone is the more likely it is that they will marry someone from a different ethnic group.
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Something's rotten in the Kingdom of Print. Books that call for 60 pages are fluffed out to 600. Why? The dismal economics of publishing... more
Noncommunicable Disease Epidemic via Big Think by Big Think Editors
The World Health Organization (WHO) has brought attention to the worldwide epidemic of noncommunicable diseases in a report that highlights the role of income inequality in how diseases are diagnosed and treated. The report recommends policies governments … Read More
Examining the Mystery of Skeleton, Sugar and Sex via 3quarksdaily by Azra Raza
From The New York Times:
THE HYPOTHESIS: Bones help regulate fertility in men.
For years, scientists thought they understood the skeleton. It serves as structural support for the body. It stores calcium and phosphate. It contributes to blood cell development. And it serves, indispensably, as the creepy mascot of Halloween. But as it turns out, there may be still more to bone. A few years ago, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center discovered, to everyone's surprise, that the skeleton seems to help regulate blood sugar. Now the team, led by Dr Gerard Karsenty, geneticist and endocrinologist at Columbia University, has found that bone may play an unexpected role in reproduction.
More herevia Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Early computer culture was a battle between gray, regimented corporations and psychedelic hippie-nerds. It’s still not clear who won … more
Books & Beer: Talking Literature With The Inklings via Reading Copy Book Blog by elizabethc
One of the most famous literary groups was a very informal one and included two pioneers of modern fiction – J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The Inklings liked to down a few pints of bitter while debating the merits of magical wardrobes and fantastic kingdoms, as well as Christianity and spirituality.
From poets to theologians and biographers, the Inklings were a diverse group united by a love of literature.
The book by Humphrey Carpenter is available from www.abebooks.co.uk – prices start at £2.64. And at this point I give you one of my very few wholehearted and entirely unsolicited testimonials – AbeBooks has never let me down and I have, over the course of time, asked for some quite obscure items.
Finally, an extinct species you can feel good about via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
The specific strain of the bacteria Yersinia pestis that was responsible for the Black Death in Europe is probably now extinct, according to a new study. The bacterial DNA extracted from historic samples doesn’t match modern Y. pestis. This could go a long way toward explaining why the Plague seems significantly less deadly today than it was in medieval Europe.
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Away from my desk – or absent without leave?
Blogging has been, to say the least of it, very light this week and the drafts folder has more items held over than for a long time.
Reasons, maybe I actually mean excuses, include:
Reasons, maybe I actually mean excuses, include:
- not working at full stretch last week because of "viral infection of the upper respiratory tract" – which left me marking up items without actually writing them up;
- clearing up the mess from partner who decided that some DIY was required on the wall (I simply could not work with the room in that state);
- spending time at Online Information 2011 at Olympia; and
- going to a party on Wednesday with KashFlow accountants and users (lots of interesting networking so could be called a good reason but I don’t do late nights and travelling across London at gone midnight was not a good idea).
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