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The Long View

The Long View 2005-06-03: Revivals, Counterfactuals, & Subsidies

This is a counterfactual, rather than a prediction, so I can't assess its accuracy as such. However, I find it interesting to ponder: We should also remember that there would have been no conservative revival in the United States if NIxon had remained in office. Nixon brought the

The Long View 2005-06-01: Reinventing The Wheel

I seriously doubt the proto-clickbait article cited here about mutated super-intelligent children in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and surrounding areas, but I do find the unintentional wildlife reserve created in Ukraine fascinating. Reinventing The Wheel The fact that Stanley Fish, formerly the prince of postmodern criticism, is now teaching elementary

The Long View: The Holy Grail

A nice overview of the grail stories, and how they fit into European history. This was part of my background reading for Tim Powers' The Drawing of the Dark and Last Call. The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief By Richard Barber Harvard University Press, 2004 463 Pages, US$17.

The Long View: Many Dimensions

Not for the first time, I feel like Charles Williams was a prototype for Tim Powers. Many Dimensions By Charles Williams First Publication 1931 Reprint by William B. Eerdmans, 1993 Approx. US$10, 269 Pages ISBN 0-8028-1221-X There is a trinity of noted 20th century British authors who wrote fantasy

The Long View: Inventing the Middle Ages

Looking up images for this post, I was taken with portraits of Frederick the Great. The man's gaze pierces you even at the distance of 230 years. He isn't the subject of the book in this post, but I couldn't resist! Inventing the Middle

The Long View 2005-05-30: The People Have Spoken. The Bastards.

The EU really is a remarkable experiment. Not everything has gone well, but a lot has, and that is worth remembering. The People Have Spoken. The Bastards. We should not blame the Belgians. It is true that the proposed European Constitution begins with the phrase, "His Majesty the King

The Long View 2005-05-26: High-Powered Jobs, Then Mostly British Stuff

Work-life balance is important, particularly insofar as a lack of it contributes to lower fertility in precisely the people who should be having more kids. However, the problem is that you can't make a job with time off for raising kids equal to a job with brutal hours