2015
Quote and image of the month for December
Quote: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Image: Modesto Urgell e Inglada, La vuelta del entierro/Returning from the burial.
UTC 2015-12-01 01:02
Words: 174; reading time: 1 minute
Die Winterreise
Schubert yet again, but no cheerful bits at all this time, just loss, betrayal, rejection, alienation and wandering. [5 pages]
Richard Law UTC 2015-12-31 16:10
Words: 9,781; reading time: 44 minutes
Language Lab
Follicle mites face off, likely causing problems.
Richard Law UTC 2015-12-15 15:07
Words: 382; reading time: 1 minute
M'learned wag
The search for wit in lawyers continues.
Richard Law UTC 2015-12-15 08:27
Words: 232; reading time: 1 minute
Close shaves of the Scholastic kind
We use Alexander's sword to cut the Gordian knot of William of Occam's non-existent razor.
Richard Law UTC 2015-12-14 07:18
Words: 1,140; reading time: 5 minutes
Solar Impulse
More news from the suspension of belief department. This time Wacky Races meets Alice in Wonderland.
Richard Law UTC 2015-12-07 15:02
Words: 1,183; reading time: 5 minutes
Updated on 2016-02-29
Fidei defensor
Defender of the faith: The Christmas message of the second in line to the British throne.
Richard Law UTC 2015-12-06 16:31
Words: 113; reading time: 1 minute
Suspending disbelief in modern life
The operatic guide to the week's news in which we do not go quietly into that good night.
Richard Law UTC 2015-12-04 13:44
Words: 676; reading time: 3 minutes
Die schöne Müllerin
Schubert again. Two blondes making out. A talking stream looks on as the hunter gets the girl. Many trigger alerts here. [4 pages]
Richard Law UTC 2015-12-03 16:10
Words: 9,504; reading time: 43 minutes
Quote and image of the month for November
Quote: Wilhelm Müller, Die Winterreise. Image: Carl Julius von Leypold, Der Wanderer im Sturm/The wanderer in the storm.
UTC 2015-11-01 01:02
Words: 55; reading time: 1 minute
Shaken, stirred and rusted
Objects of technological desire do not die, they just rust away and become ever more pointless.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-28 07:20
Words: 871; reading time: 3 minutes
Updated on 2016-02-10
The dramatic Climatic Unit
One aspect of climatic nonsense still going strong after nearly half a century and now probably too late to fix.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-27 09:54
Words: 261; reading time: 1 minute
Language Lab
Today we are reaching out to all the significant others on the planet.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-25 14:22
Words: 819; reading time: 3 minutes
Tumbril for two, please!
The Swedish Charlie tackles the evils of this world: hot baths.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-24 10:10
Words: 668; reading time: 3 minutes
Engaging God: God help us!
After the atrocities in Paris, Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, 'engages God' on a walk. What have we done to deserve this?
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-22 08:09
Words: 873; reading time: 3 minutes
Enlightenment redux
Brendan O'Neill calls on us to fight for the Enlightenment. Don't bother: it's dead and gone.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-19 13:53
Words: 5,442; reading time: 24 minutes
Updated on 2016-02-10
Jigsaw-puzzle grammar
Writing for meaning, as opposed to writing for tedious pedants.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-13 08:02
Words: 1,966; reading time: 8 minutes
Antisocial media
The definitive guide to staying sane in the social media age.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-12 15:27
Words: 995; reading time: 4 minutes
Updated on 2016-07-01
Highbrow cat-stroking
If you don't mind displaying your intellectual credentials, here's how to do it.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-11 09:26
Words: 117; reading time: 1 minute
Myth Thwitzerland
The 700th anniversary of the Battle of Morgarten in Switzerland and the cloud of unknowing that surrounds it. Something for everyone.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-11 08:44
Words: 4,829; reading time: 21 minutes
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's NBFF
Rousseau befriends an extremely rich autocrat who wants to use mathematical skills to control the world.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-04 09:00
Words: 124; reading time: 1 minute
Mars will now say a few words
The God of War speaks on the impending Armistice Day, 11.11.2015
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-03 10:37
Words: 575; reading time: 2 minutes
Wiki-wacky
Wiki-wacky-woo, I don't know you. Or much about anything else, for that matter.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-03 09:37
Words: 763; reading time: 3 minutes
Microsoft. How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways…
Vista, Ribbon, Win 8, Win 10. Shall I go on?
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-02 09:14
Words: 1,015; reading time: 4 minutes
All Souls' Day, 2 November
Some thoughts for All Souls' Day, 2 November on the Litany for All Souls' Day of Johann Georg Jacobi, set to music by Franz Schubert.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-02 10:12
Words: 1,730; reading time: 7 minutes
All Saints' Day, 1 November
Some thoughts for All Saints' Day, 1 November on the painting La Toussaint by the French artist Émile Friant.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-01 10:12
Words: 1,104; reading time: 5 minutes
Updated on 2018-10-03
How to lose money
Desperate to lose some money quickly? Here's how to do it: buy gold. Here is the thinking person's guide for which you have been waiting so long.
Richard Law UTC 2015-11-01 09:52
Words: 1,862; reading time: 8 minutes
Updated on 2016-01-27
Quote and image of the month for October
Quote: Ezra Pound, The Cantos of Ezra Pound. Image: Édouard Manet, Un bar aux Folies Bergère.
UTC 2015-10-01 01:02
Words: 153; reading time: 1 minute
Carbon dioxide: the science is settled
The much-awaited canonical statement of this blog on the subject of Anthropogenic Global Warming and Climate Change: our chief scientist reports.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-30 10:09
Words: 1,474; reading time: 6 minutes
Transitioning to November
Whatever happens, don't mention the H-word! We offer an alternative for those damaged.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-28 10:11
Words: 422; reading time: 1 minute
Fanatics: the good and the bad
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's good fanatic: let's see how that worked out.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-24 10:44
Words: 1,908; reading time: 8 minutes
The bad old days
Thank goodness they have gone! Forced gender assignment, a complete lack of ethnic, religious or sexual diversity.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-23 09:11
Words: 382; reading time: 1 minute
Rousseau! Back in your box!
The Swiss people have spoken. Will Jean-Jacques finally flee back to his sarcophagus, in Switzerland at least?
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-19 11:24
Words: 910; reading time: 4 minutes
Troubling the living stream
Easter 1916: The stony heart of fanaticism as seen by W.B. Yeats.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-19 07:11
Words: 1,742; reading time: 7 minutes
Wittgenstein’s disease
Many people suffer from this disease in silence, attempting to hide their distress from others. A sufferer writes.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-16 15:08
Words: 1,025; reading time: 4 minutes
Who are you calling a snob?
Classical music? Let's take this outside in the car park.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-16 11:07
Words: 1,410; reading time: 6 minutes
Updated on 2016-04-14
Red Burgundy – The agony and the ecstasy
How to waste a lot of money and suffer much disappointment in the search for the special one. Skid Row awaits.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-15 15:08
Words: 1,164; reading time: 5 minutes
Nietzsche's birthday
Friedrich Nietzsche would have been 171 today, so let's dig out one or two of his undeservedly neglected poems to celebrate the occasion.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-15 09:03
Words: 415; reading time: 1 minute
Rousseau in Nature
He's on the stagger still, this time in two Danish universities. [corrected 17.10.2015]
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-15 14:12
Words: 447; reading time: 2 minutes
Business Girls
John Betjeman. For once not the lovable eccentric with a fondness for women, old buildings and steam railways, but the poet. The very good poet.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-15 08:07
Words: 554; reading time: 2 minutes
Data despair
One more push in the battle against 'data are'. There are still pockets of resistance: bitter people with nothing to lose who will probably fight to the last bullet.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-14 15:22
Words: 611; reading time: 2 minutes
EU referendum: No thank you!
Holding a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union is more than slightly bonkers. If it didn't work in 1975, why will it work now?
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-13 11:26
Words: 2,320; reading time: 10 minutes
Updated on 2016-02-05
Rousseau staggers on
Latest sightings of this website's favourite zombie. Some people seem quite shocked.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-11 14:15
Words: 132; reading time: 1 minute
How to end an extremely long poem
You have scribbled 6,000 lines of impenetrable poetry. How do you stop? Like this.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-11 14:00
Words: 279; reading time: 1 minute
Atlas Shrugged: 'Whatever…'.
The great unread: a literary assessment of Ayn Rand's magnum opus. As doorstopper, serviceable; as novel, beyond awful.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-10 09:16
Words: 2,029; reading time: 9 minutes
Democracy and delegation
Quote of the day: Modern democracy and delegation from an Ancient Greek perspective.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-09 15:07
Words: 227; reading time: 1 minute
Celestial advice
There is always room for helpful celestial advice when things don't seem to be going your way.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-09 14:07
Words: 44; reading time: 1 minute
Jeannot in church
A contribution from a member of the French branch of our therapy group for the liturgically damaged.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-03 11:24
Words: 635; reading time: 2 minutes
The good old days
The good old days of life on the land before the curse of industrialisation.
Richard Law UTC 2015-10-04 09:33
Words: 721; reading time: 3 minutes
Quote and image of the month for September
Quote: Blaise Pascal, Pensées sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets. Image: Hubble, the Pillars of Creation.
UTC 2015-09-01 01:02
Words: 237; reading time: 1 minute
Bye bye, democracy. Hello, general will.
We seem to be reading more and more these days about the limitations of democracy and the need to take decisions for the common good. All this can only mean one thing: the zombie has awakened and is walking abroad once more. Its name? Jean-Jacques Rousseau. …
Richard Law UTC 2015-09-28 13:24
Words: 3,260; reading time: 14 minutes
Tests of faith, the lunatic's friends
Two ancient stories about belief, lunacy, faith and other quite important things.
Richard Law UTC 2015-09-30 16:05
Words: 1,362; reading time: 6 minutes
Schubert, you idiot!
How Franz Schubert managed to write one of the greatest secular choral works, despite messing up somewhat.
Part of an occasional series on the composer.
Richard Law UTC 2015-09-28 15:20
Words: 1,673; reading time: 7 minutes
S.E.E.D.
It's only now that you find out who your true friends are.
Richard Law UTC 2015-09-09 07:45
Words: 1,276; reading time: 5 minutes
You swine!
It’s a pretty horrible smell. Imagine Saturday night in the gents of the Dog and Badger, late, after every gent has been in there, and even the dog and the badger by the smell of it.
Richard Law UTC 2015-09-04 07:27
Words: 855; reading time: 3 minutes
Greenwich Dump Time
Greenwich Gasworks, where are you now? Don't ask.
Richard Law UTC 2015-09-15 17:07
Words: 2,084; reading time: 9 minutes