Due to the change in terms of service, I shall be migrating away from LJ to Dreamwidth.

Like they want me to agree to obey Russian law. Ha! In the immortal words of Sigourney Weaver: "Well screw thatWhat blogging I still do will henceforth be found here: https://davywavy.dreamwidth.org ( Read more... )

I've lately been reading The Fellahin of Upper Egypt by Winifred Blackman. It's an anthropological study of the peasantry of Egypt in the 1920s, written first hand by Blackman who spent years living in peasant villages and directly integrated herself into the lives of the people so she could understand them better. It is, to my knowledge, the only ( Read more... )

For a long time now - as long as I can remember, in fact - in debates I've done something I refer to as Tai Chi arguing ( Read more... )

I went to see Rogue One last night. I liked it; choppy opening, sagged in the middle, and then pulled it all out at the end for one of the best action/ battle finales I've ever seen. Not a truly great film, but a pretty good one. I like Gareth Edwards' slightly distant, observational directorial style as well ( Read more... )

I came across a quote a while ago. It was "Meanwhile the poison was still working its way to the heart of the banks”. Sounds contemporary, doesn’t it? The sort of thing that might have been written about the failure of the Dutch bank Dexia a few years ago, or the Italian banking system right now. But it isn’t. It was actually written about the ( Read more... )

Hey LJ. Been a while ( Read more... )

1968-9: Faced with a slowing economy, the government loosens monetary policy. 2001-2: Faced with a slowing economy, the government loosens monetary policy ( Read more... )

I set out with great intentions of reading a book a week in 2015 and was cracking along with it well until I had some bad news in September and haven't read much since, sadly ( Read more... )

A few months ago, the opening of a Jack the Ripper museum on Cable Street in the East End of London hit the news for all the wrong reasons. If they'd just called it a Jack the Ripper Museum and made it something ghoulish like the London Dungeon there probably wouldn't have been any more notice taken than the opening of any other shameless tourist ( Read more... )

Ladies and Gentlemen, roll up to enter the grand Jeremy Corbyn Defenestration Sweepstake! How long can Jeremy stay leader of the Labour party? How long before his own party fall upon him like a pack of wolves, or just say "Sod this for a game of soldiers", and leave ( Read more... )