Kester Brewin

An excellent discussion starter here from Michael Sandel (The BBC’s 2009 Reith Lecturer) on the limits of the market. In it he discusses what should and should not be sold, raising some very interesting questions about surrogate pregnancy, prostitution and hard labour. His point is made best, I feel, in relation to war: would it [...]

A rare interview in today’s Guardian with the author of Gilead, Housekeeping and now Home, includes this lovely quote regarding Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens: “[Dawkins] acts as if the physical world that is manifest to us describes reality exhaustively. I’m not impressed with the quality of [his] writing, or of Christopher Hitchens’ writing. If [...]

Sad news. Petty abuse of power. Surely this is the sort of thing that Israel ought to be celebrating: a peaceful literary event, supported by UNESCO. Instead, they send in a squad of 12 armed police, while their politicians ignore international law and even pressure from to US, and announce they’ll keep expanding settlements. I [...]

Another very interesting piece from Philosophy Bites, discussing moral psychology. Recent research shows that rather than having an ethical code that we simply stick to or don’t, our codes are very contingent on circumstance. For example, it has been shown that people who have recently been on the receiving end of a ‘gift’ – like [...]

Interesting piece on the Black Eyed Peas, who are releasing their forthcoming album with a deliberate view to listeners mashing it up, uploading the results – which could then be released as an ‘upgrade’ in the future. Another example of how piracy has actually energised bands and the music industry to innovate.

Once again, Our Lord has been sighted. This time in a cheesy flavour starch snack. Having appeared to his disciples and prepared fish for them on a beach in Galilee, it seems he now prefers to turn up to encourage the faithful in vegetables and snack foods. Come again? This isn’t a uniquely Christian phenomenon [...]

Oh dear, things don’t get any better for this calamitous administration. Seems like he didn’t understand how Twitter works – replies are viewable by everyone. The account is now deleted, and we can probably assume that date in the diary has been too. Oops. HT ToryBear via DizzyThinks.

One of the podcasts I subscribe to is the BBC’s More or Less – a weekly look at the numbers behind the news. Teaching Mathematics one is always in need of some relevant applications, and this has it in spades. Their recent episode on sustainable energy was very interesting, but fell into the trap that [...]

Extraordinary few days in the UK parliament, culminating with the resignation of the Speaker this afternoon. Seems to me that, while the Speaker must accept responsibility for failing to act in the right way once the expenses scandal came to light, the action of MPs ousting him is rather like criminals sacking the police for [...]