http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4998928.stm

Anomaly

After listening to someone with a doctorate in film making show their complete ignorance of what constitutes scientific investigation, I realise that we don't have a collective term for followers of Intelligent Design.

I suggest IDiots.

It has a ring to it, don't you think?

Anyone got this picture? Some people are SOOOOOO sensitive :-)

Vested interest

Hello

It's very much end of term with In Our Time. We're away until 2
September now and the Producer, Charlie splashed out and took the team and myself for a coffee and a croissant. Riches indeed.

After the programme a lot of the talk was about a word new to me:
"presentism". This is the burden under which historians who teach say that they labour increasingly, ie: everything in the past (more than 10 or 15 years ago) has to be described first in terms of the present. The idea of a century or even a previous generation being radically different from our own in its political structure, its transport structure, etc, is, I was told, increasingly hard to grab hold of.

Another point made was that the men who had been involved in the
American Revolution were vastly experienced in constitutional work, because all of them had been very prominent in their colonies and had taken part in many of the institutions inside the colony itself. So not only were there lawyers, not only had they an impulse of idealism, not only did they have a strategy for the betterment of their condition, they also had the experience and the means to carry it from rebellion to revolution to constitution, which is, I think, rare in the history of revolutions.The idea of presentism stays very firmly with me though and perhaps it's something we should look at. It's hard to see why it should be in such strong evidence now, when you'd have thought that with the increase in the number of documentaries, popular history books, etc, there'd be much more awareness than ever before on what happened in our past.

But, as they say, that's all history. So is the last series of In Our Time now. We'll be back in early September and at the moment, we think, beginning with a discussion on the Origins of Life. It sounds like a good starter to us!

Best wishes

Melvyn Bragg

Visit the In Our Time website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/
and the Radio 4 Homepage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

Never mind. Your SUV has aircon, right? No problem...

Cities will swelter on summer nights

This should help the right to peaceful protest gain ground ...

Sweeping stun guns to target crowds

I love my phone camera. And I'm a pro-am photographer with a decent Nikon film SLR, Canon digital, and several heavy lenses. The camera phone is just so easy and simple and gives instant feedback. Took some great pics in Paris. Stop trying to turn back the future.

Luddite Madness

Regan is one of the selfish sisters in King Lear. Willing to make grand speeches on her inherent right to be wealthy at the expence of others... That was Shakespeare almost 500 years ago .. "go figure" America...

A little 'Regan' Balance

If your don't know Jeanette Winterson .. then you should.

From an author

Originally from the Washington Post, this is a personal story by a man who (like me) loves the USA but becomes more disillusioned by the day. For some time, there have been commentators who note that the ultimate Orwellian society would be based on "Freedom and Democracy". After all, as Orwell points out, an endless war (against "terrorism"?) is an unlimited mandate for totalitarianism in the name of democracy ...

Land of the ... Kafkaesque?