Mary Wollstonecraft is in the news today because of Maggi Hambling's new memorial to her, which it is fair to say has received a mixed response. I don't want to pass judgment on it too quickly. I like Hambling's memorial to Benjamin Britten on the beach at Aldeburgh, but possibly as much for the way she commissioned a small local engineering firm to make it as anything else. So here is a good short video about Wollstonecraft. It ends at Old St Pancras Church, which is one of my favourite London places.
"The Government has no interest in the well-being of students. Throughout this crisis they've just treated us as the personal piggy banks of private landlords." Aleisha Stansfield says students are being exploited during the Covid-19 crisis. Who killed soft Brexit? Jill Rutter and Anand Menon suggest a solution along the lines of Murder on the Orient Express. Kathrin Glösel on a Finnish scheme under which homeless people receive a small apartment and counselling without any preconditions. Four out of five make their way back into a stable life and it all costs less than accepting homelessness. "There used to be ...
Tue 10th
19:40
These three-legged Armadillo robots are shouting at people in Leicester's Aylestone Meadows
The Leicester Mercury wins our Headline of the Day Award. The judges also liked the opening sentence of the report below: They have three legs, infra-red motion sensors, a camera and, according to some, a booming voice just like the late Rev Ian Paisley.
Tue 10th
17:29
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, by Robert M. Pirsig
Second paragraph of third chapter:John and I have discussed the situation in Breckenridge and decided to keep going until we have to stop.I'd read this many years ago, of course, and what seemed to me like deep philosophical insights in my early twenties now seem like charmingly enough told philosophy lectures framed as a road trip. (Coincidentally, I've just been on a short road trip with my own son today. Pictures to come.) It's mostly a good read; I think it's still kind of grounding and helpful. The difference between reading it now and reading it in the 1980s is ...
Find a selection of crochet trinket bowls, mug rugs and cloths in my Etsy shop this month. Cotton trinket bowls to save polished, wooden or painted surfaces Soft ecru trinket bowl Cotton and British Wool mug rugs to stop staining and heat markson tables, desks and kitchen surfaces 100% cotton cloths for general household use click on logo above to go to my Etsy shop or past link into your browser : https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PatriciaRustArt
The Technical Response can be viewed here:
A quick update from us on recent changes to local services and also sources of help for those people who may need it. Council Services, what is and isn't open? The rules for our current 'lockdown' are different from earlier in the year. Services which are now closed include: Leisure centres. marriage/civil ceremonies, museum and tourist info centre. Civic centres (e.g. Longfield Suite) will remain closed as will Libraries, although a "click and collect" service will continue as will access to digital resources and support. Services that remain open include: grounds maintenance, market operations, elections and land charges, adult learning, ...
Milada Horáková was a brave and principled Czech lawyer, politician and human rights activist who fell foul of Europe's two competing extreme ideologies, fascism and communism. Her activities in the Czech resistance against the German occupation of Czechoslovakia led to her being questioned by the Gestapo and then sent to Terezin concentration camp. After Liberation [...]
President Trump's 'termination' of Defense Secretary Mark Esper should come as no surprise (given the terminator's temperament – and that's before his convincing defeat at the hands of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris). Because Secretary Esper was ready to resign in the event of his Commander-in-Chief's electoral victory. He'd already written the letter. His reasons why seem clear enough. Having ordered his troops back to base, he made public his refusal to condone even the possibility of their deployment on the streets of D.C., least of all to gas peaceful protestors for a photo opportunity outside of a church whose ...
With schools remaining open, now is probably the worst time possible to hold exams. Student stress is soaring, teachers are at their wit's end, and the system of inequality which the whole thing rests on is becoming worse as a result. I was lucky enough to have finished my A-levels this year with good grades. Those in the years below? Not so much. The English exam system's uniformity is both its great failure and its great success. It teaches to an exam, produces some knowledgeable students, and feeds into white-collar industries or university. But it achieves this only because of ...
Mon, 12:37: Good stuff from @NathalieTocci. "It would be a terrible mistake for Europeans to believe that President Trump was an aberration, and that the good old days of the transatlantic relationship are back." https://t.co/u1copfJHTf Mon, 12:56: RT @JimMFelton: Democracy fan Dominic Raab there refusing to say whether votes you don't like should count https://t.co/QktmflyEc9 Mon, 13:05: RT @cstross: @CER_Grant @nwbrux @CER_EU Flawed analysis in the >12 month term; a key disruptive technology is unaccounted for. (The price o... Mon, 13:05: RT @cstross: @CER_Grant @nwbrux @CER_EU The consequence of a global shift to solar within 20 years is going to ...
The 11th of November is the 100th anniversary of the birth of a political giant who helped form the modern Liberal Democrat party. Roy Jenkins made a huge political impact, firstly within the Labour party as a reforming Home Secretary in the 1960s bringing in reforming legislation on decriminalising homosexuality, modernising divorce laws, and liberalising censorship laws. Then as one of the four founding members of the SDP that was to merge with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats. Having been elected deputy leader of the Labour party in 1970 in 1976 Jenkins ran for the leadership of the ...
Tue 10th
08:30Whoniversaries 10 November: Neil Gaiman, Creature from the Pit #3, Mark of the Berserker #2
i) births and deaths 10 November 1936: birth of Terence Lodge, who played the unfortunate Medok in The Macra Terror (Second Doctor, 1967), reluctant coup-ist Orum in Carnival of Monsters (Third Doctor, 1973) and the hapless Moss in Planet of the Spiders (Third Doctor, 1974), 10 November 1960: birth of Neil Gaiman, who wrote Hugo-winning The Doctor's Wife (Eleventh Doctor, 2011) and also Nightmare in Silver (Eleventh Doctor, 2013); and a few other things, I understand. 10 November 1989: death of Clyde Pollitt, who played a Time Lord (the Chancellor) in The War Games (Second Doctor, 1969) and The Three ...
From Sheena Wellington of Friends of Wighton : We are back! Online but with a very special event to celebrate Book Week Scotland Saturday November 21st from 2pm - 3.30pm No Trees to Whisper - the Music of Poetry No Trees to Whisper is a song cycle commissioned by soprano and clarinet duo, Turning the Elements who are soprano Frances Cooper and clarinettist Joanna Nicholson. Poetry workshop led by Dawn Wood. Be the first audience to hear extracts from this new commission and have the opportunity to work with one of the poets involved, and the musicians, to create a ...
The sound of quiet despairing sobs in Number Ten Downing Street is that of a government that has backed the wrong horse in the US election and lost its shirt and much more as well in the process. Brexit was predicated on the promise of Trump giving us a good trade deal, no matter how unlikely that actually was, but not only is Biden not obligated to the British Prime Minister in the same way as the man he beat, but all the signs are that he dislikes Johnson intensely and will not be in any hurry to do him ...
