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Meetings with a polite Opium Eater: Charles Knight on Thomas De Quincey
History & The Arts

Meetings with a polite Opium Eater: Charles Knight on Thomas De Quincey

...become acquainted with Mr. De Quincey; and he had contributed a paper translated, as he purported, from the German of Laun, called The Incognito. It was a very lively and pleasant paper ; but as to the strict fidelity of the translation I might have had considerable doubts. He could not go about this sort of work without improving all he touched. In November he was...
Explainer: Einstein's Theory of General Relativity
Science, Maths & Technology

Explainer: Einstein's Theory of General Relativity

...becomes so strong that not even light (perhaps the fastest thing in the universe) is fast enough to get out. This is a black hole. Beautiful curves Starlight and black holes are fun, but what does this have to do with day-to-day life on Earth? Have you ever used the Global Positioning System (GPS)? It’s a common feature of mobile phones today, but it relies entirely on...
Are businesses just leaping on transgender trends to turn a profit?
Society, Politics & Law

Are businesses just leaping on transgender trends to turn a profit?

...becomes successful enough to reach further than the group immediately affected, outside responses are always the same: how can we sell this? And then: what can we sell next? Threats to the effectiveness of liberation movements come from outside, from parasitic corporations and sensationalist media, but they also come from inside. The suit wearers come in, then they take...
Reacting to Hillary Clinton's nomination
Society, Politics & Law

Reacting to Hillary Clinton's nomination

...become so very public, ambition questioned when running for the New York Senate seat, boxed in to not question her own vote on Iraq because of gendered expectations that a woman could not run and win if she admitted a failure on foreign policy. Institutional Democrats abandoned her, even with all the money, for the Obama candidacy. And now the young left sees her as...
Percy Shelley: Polemicist
History & The Arts

Percy Shelley: Polemicist

...become accustomed to the language and phrasing that Shelley uses. As Rosen says in this article by Alison Flood: “…the poem was full of ‘portable triggers, lines of political outrage for people to catch and hold’. He added: ‘Political writing is often like that, but in times of oppression and struggle, this is no bad thing: a portable phrase to carry with us may...
Florida just wants it over
Society, Politics & Law

Florida just wants it over

...become even more evident. Florida is now another part of Purple America – a place where red and blue loyalties mingle. Both camps have no choice but to try to win the state. With 29 of the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the presidency up for grabs, Florida is just too important to neglect. The weekend before the vote, Trump was in Tampa, trying to rally...
Has Donald Trump's strike on Syria rewritten international law?
Society, Politics & Law

Has Donald Trump's strike on Syria rewritten international law?

...become accepted practice long before that. Today, it seems that the consensus against the use of chemical weapons is so universal that states have begun to improvise enforcement rules beyond those included in the Chemical Weapons Convention, which has been signed by every country in the world except Egypt, South Sudan and North Korea. The development of this new norm...
Straight talking collides with cyclical preferences
Society, Politics & Law

Straight talking collides with cyclical preferences

...becoming uncomfortably clear that in this case – given only the choice between Soft Brexit and Remain – many Hard Brexit enthusiasts would prefer to Remain. They suspect that Soft Brexit will leave the UK with most of the present costs of membership (including a large financial contribution, conformity to single market rules and common external tariffs) without all...