In our Time on the philosophy of Karl PopperLong ago, I wrote the entry on Karl Popper for Duncan Brack and Malcolm Baines's Dictionary of Liberal Biography. The BBC Radio 4 In Our Time programme on Karl Popper from 2007 makes a good introduction to his thought, both in the philosophy of science and in politics. In the former he challenged the idea that science involved the accumulation of observations: rather, it involves making bold conjectures and then devising experiments that test their validity. If I were studying philosophy today I would be interested in the implications of Popper's ideas for our everyday reasoning, rather than for hard ... (more) |
Who do we blame for bad behaviour? Teens or their parents?Over the past four days I have been out and about along Allerton Road where there have been some appalling scenes from gangs of teenagers since KFC opened earlier this year. Let me put the numbers into context. There seem to be about 50-60 kids causing the problem. Fortunately, the maximum that have been spotted there is about 35 at any one time. Within easy walking or cycling of Allerton Road there are about 25,000 young teenagers. So, the number of kids causing problems is tiny compared to the total relevant population. I know that a few of those nuisance ... (more) |
Evgeny Lebedev and Ian Botham have lowest Lords attendance, records showEmbed from Getty ImagesAfter making our Headline of the Day Award to the Guardian, the judges added a rider saying the obvious thing to do is to hand Botham's peerage to Mike Brearley. (more) |
Le Tigre: DeceptaconWho are Le Tigre? Le Tigre (Kathleen Hanna, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman) formed as an obstinately hopeful, even joyous, post-riot grrrl project in New York City in 1999 - when Rudy Giuliani was mayor and regressive hipster irony (à la VICE Magazine) ruled. Abandoning traditional punk instrumentation, the band paired drum-machine beats and looped 8-bit samples with the simplest, serrated guitar riffs and call-and-response vocals to write the songs on their first, self-titled album. Released late that year, they conceived of it as music "for the party after the protest." Deceptacon was the first track on that album. What's ... (more) |
Crypto billionaire's political base hosting 'anti-woke' and rightwing activists in WestminsterThe Guardian reports that a British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate money-laundering controls on his cryptocurrency business is funding a political base in the heart of Westminster used by "anti-woke" and rightwing activists. The paper says that Ben Delo, 42, who was pardoned by Donald Trump last year, has given support in kind to Rupert Lowe, the anti-migration MP challenging Nigel Farage from the right - while also connecting with mainstream figures including the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and former cabinet minister Michael Gove: Delo, an Oxford graduate who moved to Hong Kong in 2012 ... (more) |