Month: October 2006

  • The veil and social capital

    The niqab makes social solidarity harder to achieve. Is that a bad thing? Robert “Bowling Alone” Putnam would say that the veil is a source of ‘bonding capital’ – the…

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  • Punks?

    The young women adopting the niqab in Britain may be religious fanatics but they’re more like punks than nuns or hermits. What Jack Straw did, one way or the other,…

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  • Intelligent, just not very interesting

    Is it just me or is there something paralysingly boring about these ‘cars of the future‘ presented at this week’s grandly titled but presumably equally boring World Congress on Intelligent…

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  • Geotagging primer

    I was talking with a friend of mine about geotagging. He runs digital for a publishing group and I thought it might be helpful to write him a two page…

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  • If you have no policies are you still a political party?

    Political parties are developing an aversion to policy. David Cameron’s refusal to provide anything more than mood music in Bournemouth is only the latest tock in the unstoppable tick tock…

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  • Voices from the Battle of Cable Street

    Small historic treat from yesterday’s Today programme. Aubrey Morris, an anti-fascist who was present on the day and Nicholas Mosley, son of the British blackshirt leader, talking to John Humphrys…

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  • Excellent New Scientist podcast

    If you’re interested in this evolutionary biology stuff you’re going to want to get over to New Scientist and subscribe to their excellent podcast. This week’s double issue is devoted…

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