Currently ...

Listening to the Star's Set yourself on fire. Reading Umberto Eco's The mysterious flame of Queen Loana. And Beyond Disruption. And Alex Ross' blog. Waiting for The complete New Yorker on DVD. And Alison Moyet's One blue voice DVD. Grappling with Metta meditation. And thoroughly enjoying the new season of Spooks.

The Ashes

England are likely to win the Ashes for the first time since 1987.

No I don't understand Cricket, and neither do most of my English friends - but we're going to celebrate tonight anyway.

There's a quite brilliant experiment on Radio 4 in which a Frenchman tries to explain the rules of cricket to an American. You can listen to it here (it starts 15 minutes in.)

It's heartbreaking to see what happened to the once proud Southern Gulf states and sickening to see the President's response. In a sharp article mocking the president's attempts to rally patriotism to squash debate, Simon Schama digs the dagger in deep.

As does Steven Johnson.

Back to before

Pictures from my trip to Strasbourg now. Words soon.