How landlords became monsters

Everyone under the age of 40 has their landlord horror story. We trade them, like old war wounds. My own, in retrospect, is rather pleasingly metaphorical, something of a capsule (or cubicle) scatological comedy. At one point, as part of …

Was New Atheism a mistake?

Richard Dawkins is best known for his controversial advocacy of atheism, especially in The Selfish Gene (1976) and The God Delusion (2006). But could the pugnacious evolutionary biologist have a romantic side? His new podcast, The Poetry of Reality, suggests …

Passing Observations 170

    When 20,000 people were questioned, 76% of them said they regarded politicians as partly or completely corrupt. The other 24% must have all been politicians. Politicians buy votes by making promises they know they cannot keep, and have no intention