I heard this woman from Southampton University give a talk called History of the Web Part I to the Royal Society, and it was quite good, even though, possibly even because, there were a couple of things I disagreed with.

And being a glass half full sort of guy, most of the time, we could leave i...

There’s more ➢

Spent this morning in the kitchen, doing three things.

A new batch of peanut butter cookies.

• Hypothesis: They'll be as good or better, made with peanuts finely chopped in my fine chopper instead of peanut butter.
• Method: Follow recipe, but substitute 265 gm finely chopped salted peanuts...

There’s more ➢

When Hana enters the small bakery I have borrowed for a day, I am dividing a loaf into 1.5-centimeter slices. The loaf’s tranches articulate a white fanned deck, each one the exact counterpart of its fellows. The bread is smooth and uniform, like a Bauhaus office block. There are no unneeded flour...

There’s more ➢

I like the BBC’s More or Less, which takes a look at what it calls the numbers in the news. This morning I caught up with the most recent podcast of the World Service edition, which included an item on the exact measurements that determine whether a food shortage is a famine, or merely a humanitar...

There’s more ➢

You can follow someone on Twitter and friend them on Facebook, but real friends are people you break bread with.

Got that?

David Carr, in a piece for the New York Times, related eating bread baked by Clay Shirky, a web hero of considerable renown. It came as a surprise to Mr Carr (as it di...

There’s more ➢