Great quote from H.G. Wells in amner’s review of The Island of Dr Moreau by H.G. Wells.

An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie.

One of the great things about Palimpsest is the way it throws up quality discussions about authors I have never heard of. And it brings together fans of that author that might not otherwise ever get to discuss his (or her) work with a fellow devotee.

This happened most recently with Richard Yates. Follow this link to the thread and enjoy. I am certainly going to invest in some Yates in the near future.

Interesting profile of the Austrailian philosopher Peter Singer in last Saturday’s Guardian Review. I remember reading a book of his for an essay on Practical Ethics for A-Level R.E.

George W Bush and Peter Singer were born on the same day – July 6 1946. But there the similarity ends. Only one is an Australian vegetarian who campaigns against animal cruelty and does not believe in the Judaeo-Christian nostrum of the sanctity of life. Only one supports abortion and infanticide in some cases and backs stem-cell research that uses genetic material from embryos. Only one thinks the world would be better if the US were subject to UN sanctions for emitting more than its fair share of greenhouse gases.

And yet there are parallels. In his 2003 book The President of Good and Evil: Taking George W Bush Seriously, Singer quoted from one of Bush’s speeches: “Some people think it’s inappropriate to make moral judgments anymore. Not me.” To which Singer added: “Well, not me either, so that is one view about morality on which the president and I agree.” Both men, in an age of seeming moral relativism and selfishness, insist on the overwhelming importance of moral renewal.

That book nonetheless argued that Bush’s ethics consisted mostly of hypocrisy and intellectual confusion. By contrast, Singer stresses that his moral philosophy is the product of cold logic. Singer concedes his views are often upsetting for Bush supporters. “In a Christian society we have views about the sanctity of life that were formed in a totally different period when we didn’t have to make decisions about embryos or whether you should keep people alive who are irrevocably unconscious. People get stuck with this ethic from the past, which has not been able to adapt itself to other circumstances because it has been encapsulated in a set of religious beliefs.”

Went camping this weekend in Montford Bridge. Here’s a few photos we took. Comments below each one.

Here’s the inside view of the middle living area of our tent.

The outside view of our ridiculously large tent.

This might well be the bridge that gives Montford Bridge its name.

At last! Sean Wright receives the honour of having his own page on Wikipedia!

Very pleasant trip to Cambridge yesterday, ostensibly to attend Bodies in the Bookshop, a Crime Writers’ meet-and-greet thing at Heffers bookshop. Met up with the ever amiable Simon Kernick who joined Al and me in the Eagle afterwards for some pints and banter.

Took a couple of photos while I was wandering about. Enjoy.

Punts, the lot of ’em.

deteculative
Originally uploaded by John Self.

Excellent stuff from the Selfmeister

Click the image to see a bigger, clearer version.

Just realised how rude the title of this post sounds!

Took a couple of photos of our little bungalow, and uploaded them to Flickr.

The Nissen hut thing is meant to be a car port, but at the moment it houses the wheelie bins and bits of crap.

If you look down the left right hand side of this site, you will see I have installed a new Flickr ‘badge’ which looks rather whizzy. Hopefully it will be more interesting by the time I have some more photos uploaded!

Just testing an image to see which is the best size from Flickr to suit this blog template…

Looks like ‘medium’ (500×375) is perfect!

We have invested in a new digital camera, so hopefully a few more photos will be appearing on here and on my criminally underused Flickr page.

It looks like this: