The Adventures of Shylock Holmes

"Air travel used to be a luxury. Now it's isomorphic to entering a prison and then boarding a bus." -The Greek (who will one...

Let us compare how people expressed their baser instincts, contrasting the 11th-13th centuries and the 20th-21st centuries, via Carl Orff...

So I'm late to the party in having anything to say about the Schwarzenegger love-child affair . And I don't have much to say on it d...

There is a very high likelihood that if you ever have cause to ask ' Don't you know who I am? ', you are, in fact, nobody. In ...

Greg Mankiw links to this very interesting paper  by William Davis, Bob Figgins, David Hedengren, and Daniel Klein in Econ Journal Watch. I...

This might be one of my favourite NASA photos of all time - a photo of sunset on Mars, taken from one of the rovers. The sky is red, the...

Via Zero Hedge , comes Ice Cap Management's assessment of the fiscal situation in Greece. It includes these two pearlers: To put the si...

My latest Pandora find is the thoroughly excellent 'Mr Brown', by Styles of Beyond. This falls into the category both of the current...

Two great Theodore Dalrymple asides. #1 , in reference to Dr John Shebbeare (born in 1709): Fanny Burney mentioned him in her diary, and ...

One of the most insidious forms of anti-social behaviour is talking loudly in public. It's inconsiderate, because it inflicts your conve...

Every now and again, you stop and think that we live in a very remarkable society. One of the things that brought this feeling was giving ...

I was walking the other day along a footpath. It had been a damp day but sunny day, and there were some worms on the concrete. Most were de...

From ' More Poems ' XXXVI " Here dead lie we because we did not choose To live and shame the land from which we sprung. Life,...

My guess is that you will fall into one of two categories. You will find this to bring you an unexpected joy, like meeting an old friend in...

Kaplan is a service that runs a test preparation service - you sometimes see their flyers on public transport (on the very small number of d...

In the category of 'stupid mistakes I make that I will admit to', let me add this one. Procrastination is a ...

What can I do? Take my business elsewhere? Negotiate a better deal? Start a competitor that offers the service and undercut them? Nah, t...

Pick one. There was a large crowd who vigorously opposed indefinite detention in places like Guantanamo Bay. It included a bunch of people...

By most accounts, war is not like you imagine. One of the more interesting books on the subject that I've read is Randall Collins' &...

I recently saw the move 'Source Code'. It's not bad - overacted in places (including the head scientist guy, who was badly misca...

I recently saw a bunch of ads for Fidelity Investments. At the bottom, in small print, they included this terribly useful advice: "Inv...

A civilised society should not lightly mock the dead. Even when the dead in question are loathsome and evil. Bearing that in mind, you can...

There seems to be an increasing trend in modern society towards ever more elaborate weddings. It’s not enough to have wedding plus reception...

Apart from the fact that you get mobile access to the internet, which is immensely useful. No, the really handy thing is that they massive...

When figuring out what measures will reduce costs people love to fixate on variable costs. They doubly love to fixate on variable costs that...

If you haven't been following the daily blog postings from Gary Brecher , you're missing out. Right now, it's the best thing on ...

One of the laziest rhetorical devices in song-writing is the use of the oppositional 'they'. Usually this is done in relationship so...

I was reading this article in Cracked, entitled 5 Bad Ideas Humanity is Sticking With Out of Habit . The top idea in this category, or cou...

Over at Popehat, Patrick links to the story of this guy Jack Stuef, who wrote a despicable article at the blog 'Wonkette' mocking ...

- If I were a musician, I would find it infuriating how crowds can't clap in time, but keep getting faster and faster. I find myself alw...

- In honour of this blog getting its first real troll  (with updated responses you should check out!), I give you this great article "H...

So I spent the weekend at Coachella (of which you will hear more soon). But one thing that stuck with me was how bad people are at sending t...

If you have to buy it, you're probably not 'I.' , and almost certainly not 'V.I.'.

Consent is a murky concept. No, I'm not talking about the "She may have been nearly passed out but she was totally asking for it,...

Hacker News recently linked to an interesting article on this guy who is devoting his life to learning how to become a golf pro. He had no ...

"About 50 high polluters to bear carbon tax brunt, Greg Combet tells Press Club" Politicians love statements like this. Don't ...

Here is a serious question. It's coming up to the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and the  TSA hasn't actually caught any t...

Evolution does not work in the way most people think. Consider the case of the lowly snail. Can you imagine a more pathetic creature? ...

Comedy gold! (In case you didn't get the joke, a SFW answer here )