Das ist Berlin

Not. This was London. From E. M. Forster’s Maurice- He spoke in despair, but Mr Lasker Jones had an answer to every question. “I’m afraid I can only advise you to live in some country that has adopted the Code Napoleon,” he said. “I don’t understand.” “France or Italy, for instance. There homosexuality is no [...]

Protectionist bullies

Via The Filter, an old op-ed in the NYT by an econ. prof. I hadn’t heard of- Bullying and protectionism have a lot in common. They both use force (either directly or through the power of the law) to enrich someone else at your involuntary expense. If you’re forced to pay $20 an hour to [...]

“Rooted in our hearts”

Today China, tomorrow the world- [T]he deletion of content, the closure of sites and the jailing of individuals have a chilling effect that goes far beyond those immediately affected.”Because people don’t know what they are not allowed to say, they kind of guess and take down or stop saying whatever might possibly not be permissible,” [...]

Time machine

Was browsing through the CSCS archives, and came across a few interesting clippings. This is from an interview with Roshan Seth (Nehru, Nehru…)- Q: Are there any directors in Mumbai you’re dying to work with? A: Well, I had heard Shyam Benegal was a reputed director and I jumped at it when he offered me [...]

From hell, er, Britain

Ars Technica reports that Simon Singh has left The Guardian to concentrate on the libel suit filed against him by the British Chiropractic Association because he wrote this- This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments. His parting words- [M]ajor US newspapers, such as the Boston [...]