There is a thought-provoking post at Stumbling and Mumbling on what role should empirical evidence play in policy making. Chris Dillow's suggested answer is very little, and he makes a strong case for it. By and large, I'm swayed by... — read the rest

One for the political geeks out there: on a train to Leeds on Tuesday, I was sitting near Michael Howard, one time Tory leader and well-known politician. Obviously, his being a Tory, I wasn't that bothered by him. Nevertheless, my... — read the rest

At the risk of turning into the Stumbling and Mumbling fan club, you really should read this post from Chris Dillow, it being much better careers advice than most people would have ever received. Anyone with a bit of self-control... — read the rest

Sorry for the continued silence on arbitrary constant for the past couple of weeks. Here's a round-up of things I've missed: — David Davis's resignation over the 42-day detention limit. As many have pointed out, he's a curious defender of... — read the rest

I am pleased to say that arbitrary constant is now fully signed-up with the Britannica Online Encyclopedia. This means that, when we link to any articles on the Britannica website, readers from this site can read that article in full... — read the rest

Further damning proof that David Cameron is not to be lauded: his ringtone is the one from 24 (source).... — read the rest

This brings back memories: the title sequence from Blockbusters. I wonder what Bob Holness is up to nowadays?... — read the rest

Excuse the vulgarity of the title of this post: some people just have that effect on arbitrary constant. One such example is Foxtons the estate agents, which has been affectionately renamed "Fuck 'Ems" in this household. Not usually being one... — read the rest

I am away for parts of the Bank Holiday weekend, but will get my thoughts down on the local elections, including the bloody Mayor, by Monday. Have a great weekend.... — read the rest

Sometimes, I can't quite get over how cool Norman Geras is. Look at this: I don't know if I've ever said this before, but just in case I haven't... I really like going for a fast-food meal. Not that I... — read the rest

Voting systems are usually the preserve of psephologists and constitutional anoraks. I'm no psephologist, but I wouldn't argue against anyone that called me the latter. Britain has, to many a person's chagrin, a first-past-the-post voting system. This means the person... — read the rest

Via the Adam Smith blog: A salesman from KFC walked up to the Pope and offered him a million dollars if he would change "The Lord's Prayer" from "give us this day our daily bread" to "give us this day... — read the rest

School admissions is of interest to me (1, 2, 3). It is well known that schools select pupils both overtly and covertly, and this is fundamentally unfair. This said, even I wouldn't advocate local authorities spying on parents in order... — read the rest

No matter what Ken Livingstone tries to do with the skyline of London, at least he's not proposing to stick a ruddy great big flower thing on top of St Paul's... What are the Parisians thinking? Note: this isn't... — read the rest

The "shambolic" opening of Heathrow Terminal 5 is actually everything the British love: an opportunity to moan about how something that's meant to be really good is actually really crap, without much thought to the long-term benefits that will accrue... — read the rest

I will not be watching The Apprentice. Though I have little experience of the world of business, I'm pretty sure being a caricature is not the way to the top, and so there's no point in watching the programme.... — read the rest

Feeling guilty for taking no action concerning, say, human rights? So you should. But, in this case, not quite: it's more about saving penalties: There are some pieces of scientific research that, on the whole, it is perhaps better not... — read the rest

God, this is a boring subject, isn't it? That's Jeremy Paxman, on... well, see for yourself: Surely the reason is perfectly obvious. Oxford and Cambridge are the finest universities in Europe and two of the best universities in the world.... — read the rest

Compromise is the key art in politics; it is, in essence, the definition of politics. Guy Browning's column in yesterday's Guardian was about cooperation, but this soon meant compromise:An essential part of cooperation therefore is a little give and take.... — read the rest

Yesterday was Pi day — it being 14 March, or 3/14 as the Americans would have it. This being so, what better excuse than for the bbc to demonstrate the terrible state of coverage in its Magazine. Take this: [I]f... — read the rest

After Marks & Spencer decided it would charge 5p for each plastic bag people used in its stores, everyone has been falling over themselves with wonder. On the back of today's Guardian, Sainsbury's has taken out a full-page advertisement which... — read the rest

An article by Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, on Barack Obama in this month's Prospect magazine has caused quite a kerfuffle. Here is that kerfuffle in a few, short links: — Healing postponed. The original... — read the rest

Up and down the country, people are having to cope with the predictable consequences of last night's earthquake in Britain. When asked in a survey for arbitrary constant, some 93% of all respondents confirmed at least one of their colleagues... — read the rest

If there's one thing the American presidential nomination race shows, it is that people are interested in what is happening politics-wise in the United States. If there were two things the American presidential nomination race could show, which there's nothing... — read the rest

A series of cycling superhighways were announced yesterday by the Mayor of London, as well as a bike hire scheme similar to that which runs in Paris. As a fairly new cyclist, navigating my way from Peckham to Liverpool Street... — read the rest

I was sorry to hear of Miles Kington's death, at the age of 66. Kington was, amongst other things, a columnist for the Independent, and it was for this column for which I knew him. His columns were very funny... — read the rest

Being neither tired of life nor tired of London, a photo for you of the South Bank (two others here and here).... — read the rest

My PhD studies were not in the area of game theory, though they did touch set theory, which was often elegant and always interesting. An excellently readable article on infinity, countable or not, reminds me of my studies, and my... — read the rest

How's your reading? I knew I'm a fairly quick reader, but the quick-reading test shows (available here) that I'm just above average — around 575 words per minute on a screen. This was with a comprehension of about 75%, which... — read the rest

Whilst we're on American politics (and, let's face it, we're going to be on American politics until at least November), Charles Dickens's observations of America on his trip there in 1842 is well worth a look. American Notes for General... — read the rest

It's been a period of quiet here at arbitrary constant for quite some time. Nevertheless, we hope that you are enjoying your own version of peace and quiet — or indeed just doing whatever you want — today. Happy Christmas!... — read the rest

Compare and contrast: — Speechless campaign, Sean Penn — Speechless campaign, Ugly Betty — The One campaign — Make Poverty History — Chris Martin on extras... — read the rest

An article by Michael Cross from the Prospect archive (subscription required) highlights how difficult it is to implement large IT contracts successfully. Indeed: Complex IT projects have a poor record everywhere in the world, in both the public and private... — read the rest

The reflectory tone I was intending to take over reminiscing over the trials, tribulations, joys and farts that I have had over the past six month, has been rudely shattered by Rich's ignoramus bleatings. Not only does he take... — read the rest

It has been some 6 months since I last posted, with the usual combination of PC failure, internet failure and general uselessness putting paid to any internet-based ranting. A wise man of twenty, when asked to explain his background, once... — read the rest

In a review of Steven Pinker's latest book on the brain, concerning language and human nature, the reviewer says a funny thing: Yet the Harvard professor demonstrates a frustrating reluctance to go from A to B if there's any chance... — read the rest

It is ironic that Emily has been kicked off the X Factor, having been caught on YouTube essentially bullying someone. What is X Factor — especially in its early weeks — but a tragic bully-fest, epitomised by the language and... — read the rest

A government Minister was yesterday fined £100 after being caught using a mobile phone whilst driving. It is, of course, quite right that he's been fined — you can't have one rule for one and another for another. The Minister... — read the rest

An interesting question, and one that is the subject of debate at normblog: — Duties to the future? — Do future generations have rights? 1 — Do future generations have rights? 2 — Do future generations have rights? 3 Update:... — read the rest

The difference between relative and absolute differences has been highlighted on arbitrary constant before. This weekend, however, is a perfect demonstration of what the two terms can hide. Your weekend will be extended by just over 2% because of the... — read the rest

Another busy weekend trying to finish off my dissertation, I'm afraid, which explains why posting has been only on every other day. Still, around 10 days to go, and then I'll be back up to full speed. In the meantime,... — read the rest

Having added an Amazon link to arbitrary constant, I do, of course, have to take the rough with the smooth. So whilst I would whole-heartedly recommend your viewing Goodbye Lenin, for example (review here), I'm afraid I wouldn't recommend your... — read the rest

There was an amusing story in the newspaper this week: a man was arrested for using someone's unsecured internet connection whilst sitting on their garden wall. This reminds me of a story of a friend (and I mean an actual... — read the rest

I've recently returned from an excellent holiday in Paris. For anyone interested in photos of Parisian buildings, you can see a selection here.... — read the rest

For some while, I had let my pro account (or membership) of flickr lapse. This was partly due to a lack of taking photos, not having the time to process and upload photos when I did take some, and generally... — read the rest

Here's an interesting question: do bus drivers exist to drive buses, or do they exist to drive buses that are carrying members of the public? This question is prompted by the regular sight of "not in service" buses passing by... — read the rest

Having quoted Raymond Chandler's thoughts on advertising in reference to the Olympics logo imbroglio, I of course neglected to mention Chandler's more famous quote concerning advertising: Chess is the most elaborate waste of human intelligence outside of an advertising agency.... — read the rest

So I snooze, read my book, and in between times reflect on one of my mottos in life that I too often violate: 'Stay home'. Further proof that Mr Geras is a fine, fine man.... — read the rest

For various reasons, I've needed to generate a "cloud" of popular terms for some work today. (In fact, I'm trying to use it as a way of best representing the strategic priorities for the organisation I work for, bringing a... — read the rest

Heaven forbid that you, reader, might disagree with arbitrary constant on any of the things it writes about. To know that you may not agree with what was probably a well-considered and honest position is crushing in the extreme. But... — read the rest

My apologies for the lack of posts here over the last few days; I'm afraid work commitments mean that there won't be much going on until at least this time next week. To make up for this, though, here's some... — read the rest

"Morning! Did you have trouble getting in?" No, I was fine thanks.... — read the rest

For one reason or another, I found myself vacuuming the vacuum cleaner last night. This strikes me, as it did at the time, as particularly sad and, at the same, very interesting. It leads me to wonder whether those who... — read the rest

Discussion around the arbitrary constant dinner table recently turned to the subject of pedantry and pedants, the latter of which I am one. Surprisingly, the discussion was a positive one, which highlighted that pedants do indeed have a role to... — read the rest

Happy holidays to all arbitrary constant readers. One of us has at least three new books to go away and read, but posting will hopefully continue at a regular pace over the rest of the holiday.... — read the rest

Whilst undertaking its monthly check of visitor statistics, arbitrary constant was pleasantly surprised to see something of a spike in visitor numbers for the month of December. A closer look at the data revealed that a Christmas quiz, written for... — read the rest

There has been quite a bit of coverage concerning the far right in Europe, and the UK in particular, of late. Some time ago I wrote an essay on what has caused this recent "wave" of extremism in Europe, which... — read the rest

... but anything you do say will be used to inform the news, form general opinion and influence things in ways that have never been previously considered. At least, that's the way things seem to be going. I've been quite... — read the rest

Upon hearing the news that the bbc was “disappointed” Michael Grade has defected to its television rival, ITV, arbitrary constant — seeing right through the Beeb’s reaction — knew there was some seething going on. It is, of course, entirely... — read the rest

Two more questions for you to consider over the weekend: 1. What will those calling for the preferably-soon withdrawal of British troops from Iraq do when the terrorist attacks continue? 2. Do those referred to in question 1 think that... — read the rest

I note in passing that the economist Milton Friedman has died. Friedman revived interest in monetary policy — that is, that the supply of money is the key factor in determining economic growth and the rate of inflation. Monetarism essentially... — read the rest

The subject of Scrabble has been raised by arbitrary constant before, and quite rightly so: Scrabble is an excellent game combining luck, skill and a startling array of words you never knew existed. News reaches arbitrary constant that the biggest... — read the rest

In my last post I used the expression this is that. [Actually, you used the expression "this, then, is that", but never mind — Ed]. Such a phrase normally makes me a bit annoyed: if "this is that", then "that"... — read the rest

On at least two occasions that arbitrary constant can recall, including this one, Tony Blair has said he doesn't "resile" from anything he has said before on the subject of his successor. Ever trying to be helpful, arbitrary constant thought... — read the rest

Sick of giving people the benefit of the doubt when, upon reflection, they didn't deserve it, an old housemate and I came up with what we thought was the exact opposite of the "benefit of the doubt": we called it... — read the rest

Note: I originally wrote this post on 7 October. Having received a couple of emails about its content and having realised I have made a mistake, I have added an update below. Via Not Even Wrong comes the news that... — read the rest

The publication of Richard Dawkins's new book, The God Delusion, has opened up some interesting debate at the Guardian. I'm not going to enter into that debate now — I've been writing a post on the subject of a seculr... — read the rest

I had reason to visit Manchester the week before last and I wanted to record that I thought it an excellent city, in most every sense of the word. It might just have been the anticipation of the Labour party... — read the rest

I've gone on (and on and, erm, on) about maths on this site, and in particular the general public's relationship with the subject. A friend recently sent me some pretty funny pictures that neatly encapsulate both the public's approach to... — read the rest

An interesting fact, highlighted in this week's Private Eye, offered to you without comment. Number of deaths resulting from train accidents [1] in the UK in 2005: 0 Number of deaths resulting from road accidents [2] in the UK in... — read the rest

I wrote yesterday about the approach two different newspapers had taken in writing a maths-based article for their readership. These articles took the possible solution of one of the Clay Institute's Millennium prizes as their starting point, and reminded me... — read the rest

A recent quotation of the week had it that Chance favours only the prepared mind. It's a good quotation for the very reasonable reason that it is true. A couple of recent examples will suffice. Whilst I was in the... — read the rest

That's us humans, that is: treated like sheep. Or rather, we're not treated like sheep at all — or any cattle for that matter. For on what could be the hottest day ever recorded in the UK (sorry, I do... — read the rest

A series of advertisements have sprung up around London, which show famous London landmarks filled with water and an accompanying caption stating: Our new pipes will save [however much] water in [however many] weeks. The "our" in this case is... — read the rest

I never knew there were such things as heatwave alerts, but there are and the Department of Health has them:DH [the Department of Health] has issued a Heatwave Level 3 Alert after confirmation from the Met Office that Heatwave Plan... — read the rest

arbitrary constant would understand if you weren't exactly bowled over by the bit of business news that hit the, erm, news today: that O2 is to buy The Link chain for £30m. And yet, consider the following bit of trivia... — read the rest

Yesterday saw a mini-quiz for readers of arbitrary constant: based on small snippets of local business wisdom, readers had to try and identify a city. The answers to the quiz are, from top to bottom: Chicago, Washington DC, Buenos Aires... — read the rest

The Economist recently published a very interesting guide to international cities and the things you need to bare in mind when doing business there: travel tips and business etiquette etc. It provides "tips on conducting meetings [and] pointers about what... — read the rest

A thought occurred to me recently on the practice of tagging (as can be seen at flickr and del.icio.us amongst others). My thought was that people tag happily enough — but I don't. I'm always worried that a picture I've... — read the rest

It's not often I ask much of the reader(s) of arbitrary constant, but on this occasion you'll have to humour me. I'd like you to think, if you will, of George W. Bush. For many I appreciate this won't be... — read the rest

Two questions for you to consider over the weekend, the originality of thought for which I do not and would not claim: 1. Does free will sit comfortably in a world of scientific determinism? 2. Would God exist in a... — read the rest

The old arbitrary constant used to utilise some JavaScript in order to generate some random content. This was originally done for two reasons: 1. to give the site a bit more depth and 2. to help me learn the basics... — read the rest

Taken whilst waiting for the tube at London Bridge station.... — read the rest

Look: if Simon asked me to jump off a cliff I wouldn't do it, ok? It's just he keeps pointing out these interesting things and I can't help but respond. Here's the latest, being a good old maths puzzle: Tamara,... — read the rest

Earlier in the week, I had the chance to meet up with an old friend for a drink and a couple of games of Scrabble. I'm a big fan of Scrabble — it's a game I enjoy playing and often... — read the rest

The illustrious term "paranomasia" was mentioned briefly in the links column a while ago. It's such a great word, however, that it cannot go unmentioned here in the main blog. According to Wikipedia, paronomasia is "a figure of speech which... — read the rest

That a dream fades away in the morning is proverbial.Indeed it is, but it's fortunate that Freud concurs and goes on to write in such wonderful prose some thoughts on the matter:We may observe how the memory of a dream... — read the rest

It isn't often that an article which sets out to draw comparison between two distinct fields achieves its task successfully. On the face of it, football and politics doesn't go. David Runciman's recent article in the London Review of Books,... — read the rest

Preparing for this evening's university seminar, I've been reading a couple of papers this lunchtime on whether public opinion influences public policy. Quite aside from the subject matter, however, is this wonderful quote from one paper's conclusion, which I intend... — read the rest

Sven-Goran Eriksson has suggested, rather bizarrely, that he might want to manage Aston Villa if England win the World Cup. He clearly wasn't feeling very well when talking about this, because he also suggested that David Beckham might be happy... — read the rest

Subscribing to the UK Scrabble email list has its benefits, as the following list of words signifying stupid people attests:ASINICO a stupid fellow. Plural ASINICOS. BAMPOT an idiot, fool. BEETLEHEAD a stupid fellow; a blockhead. BERK, BURK a fool. BIMBO... — read the rest

The first stop of any day on the internet for me is Wikipedia, and in particular their selected anniversaries for each and every day. It is a great way of finding out about stuff that happens. Today is a particularly... — read the rest