Sunday, 16 November 2008

Jackie and I enjoyed a quiet day with family.

The G20 communiqué on the recession from the world’s leaders is a predictably nebulous self-serving crock of ...

Recent reading (I know you’re interested)

Tars – the Men who made Britain Rule the Waves tells the story of the eighteenth century seamen who helped establish Britain’s naval supremacy. Tim Clayton offers a brilliantly researched and masterful account of the Seven Years War and particularly the little-known (by me, anyway) 1762 siege of Havana.

Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner was rather less impressive. It purports to uncover “the hidden side of everything” but does no such thing. The book relies on statistics rather than economics and offers little insight. The book began as six articles in the New York Times magazine and it shows.

CounterKnowledge by Damian Thompson was an analysis of when and how it again became possible to believe in blatant untruths such as creationism or that the CIA destroyed the twin towers. Thompson blames the internet for the re-emergence of conspiracy theories. But this is only part of the story: somewhere along the line it also became acceptable to tell blatant lies and many people now habitually and consistently lie for financial gain, to jump a queue, to gain preferential treatment, or to escape censure.