Blog posts

As we have seen conflict after conflict erupt across Africa over the past few decades, mention has usually been made of the impact of colonialism and the manner of its withdrawal on the political stability of that continent. While colonialism, and its attendant carving up of countries along arbitrary national borders, is not the sole cause of Africa’s woes, no serious analysis can take place without recognition of that legacy. ...

A post on an email list pointed me to Book Blog’s Gender Genie which seeks to analyse texts and calculate whether they’re written by men or women. My experiments with it so far have yielded results that are far from accurate. But of more interest was the fact that it offers three ‘genres’: fiction, non-fiction, and blog entry. The Guardian is carrying an article suggesting that airlines may need to require travellers to the US to check-in five hours before take-off in order to get through new security checks. I wish I could be more surprised than I am. While this is likely (hopefully) an exaggeration on the part of the airlines, it coincides neatly with our discovery that the fiance visa process changed again yesterday (more on that here or at Kari’s blog when we know the implications). ...

For those who haven’t been following Kari’s blog in detail, I thought a brief update might be in order, particularly in light of her latest entry. We are currently in the process of applying for a K-1 fiance visa, which is the recommended route before getting married in the US. There are two stages to the processing, one in the US and one in the UK. While the visa is being processed in the US I can come and go freely on a visa waiver, but once that stage is completed I can’t enter until I enter on that visa. ...

The Gospel Music Association is a curious beast, and doesn’t often seem to have much idea of proportion. But it’s still a little surprising to hear the President of Word Record say that stealing Christian music is like stealing Bibles – and just as wrong. Delusions of grandeur, perchance?

The BBC is reporting that the Electoral Commission has recommended no change in the minimum voting age for the UK. Many proposals had suggested reducing it to 16, but that suggestion appears to have been narrowly defeated in debates. Thankfully, they are recommending redressing the imbalance between voting and standing ages. You will now, should you so wish, be able to stand for election as an MP aged 18, rather than the current 21. ...

One of the things an impending wedding has led to is considerably more time in home outfitting shops of various sorts. I’ve found that impending need and/or possible means makes a visit to Ikea or Crate and Barrel considerably more attractive than they had been hitherto. But sometimes I need a break. And that’s what I thought I’d get as I visited the toilets in the Michigan Avenue Crate and Barrel yesterday, but it was not to be. The only item of note in the small room was an exceedingly mediocre still-life piece, of a set of bright red flowers. When we were studying art in school, we were always told that such things would get mediocre grades. They show technical proficiency (just about) but little idea of the expressiveness of art. ...

“Have a very, very happy birthday,” the woman in the United Airlines uniform said to me as she handed me the boarding card for my first experience of business class. It had been the airline staff member who checked me in who first commented on my impending celebration, and who triggered the idea to mention that later on and see if an upgrade was in order. Apparently so. In fact, it’s not been quite so pristine as it always looks when walking through trying to find the seat I’ve been allocated further back in the aircraft. The casing around my screen was slightly cracked, and the footrest is at just the wrong height for me to lie right back. But neither of those really detracts from being handed a glass of champagne before take-off, a constantly flowing supply of pinot blanc, or a seat that reclines without crushing at least one other passenger. ...

In between last minute travel insurance purchasing and filing forms to request a police certificate (policy bought, forms sent off) I’ve been trying to understand Conservative education spokesman Tim Yeo’s statement to the NUT conference yesterday. Historically, British state schools have had ‘catchment areas’ and first priority for entry to those schools goes to those who live within that area. There are some exceptions to that, such as for church-aided schools which are allowed to set their own admissions policies. But in general that’s how it stands, and Tim Yeo is quite right to note that this system is open to abuse as parents buy their way in to areas with well regarded schools. ...

I was very pleased to discover last night that select tracks from the new Pedro The Lion album (released in the US on April 27th) can be streamed from the album’s website. And Grassroots Music have a new interview with Over The Rhine. It’s not the best interview with them, but they always have something to say worth listening to. UPDATE: As per the always appreciated jp/p’s comment, the Pedro album is out on May 25th. Don’t believe everything you read on email lists (or blogs). ...

As cable giant Comcast seeks to buy out the Walt Disney Company and I try to work out if they’d be the best broadband provider for me, it’s a little disturbing to come across stories such as this one in the Philadelphia Inquirer alleging that Comcast are yet another major corporation engaging in union-busting activities. As a potential customer I thought I might email Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and tell him that I was a little concerned about this. But his email address seems a little hard to find. So too, for that matter, do any internal email addresses for senior staff at Comcast (these addresses are usually easy to infer once you have an example). The closest I have managed to come is to get the email addresses of some media contacts. They don’t advertise them on the website but have made the mistake of leaving them in the HTML code of this form. Sadly Brian Roberts doesn’t have an email address in the same format as his media relations staff. That email bounced. ...