I learned a new word just now: ‘backronym.’ This refers to a situation where you take an existing acronym and create a new description based upon it. The excellent web comic PhD could be considered an example.
Somehow, this all arose from re-watching Oh Brother, Where Art Thou: definitely one of the better films of the [...]

I have resumed my old tactic of reading through rotation: moving from venue to venue in central Oxford. It is all meant to keep a bit of traction on the page. There is the sort of reading where a solid grip is there between your eyes, mind, and the page. Then, there is the sort [...]

It remains somewhat amazing to me that governments and major international institutions so frequently forget what it means to distribute documents in Word format. In particular, people are surprisingly ignorant of how Word tracks changes: making documents into a palimpsest of revisions, not all of which you want the outside world to see. You don’t [...]

When I was in the process of applying to Oxford, I filled out a web questionnaire about stress. A few months ago, I was invited to participate in a study and given a two-hour screening. Today, the active part of the experiment began. I know it involves mood and stress, but I don’t have a [...]

As a discipline, International Relations is packed with parables. Sometimes, they are hypothetical stories and sometimes they are interpretations of historical events. In each case, they are meant to demonstrate something important about how world politics works. Almost without exception, some aspect of their validity can be questioned on either historical or logical grounds.
When it [...]

Another day of cold and constant rain is proving a demonstration of how volatile Oxford weather has been in recent weeks. Some mornings start out utterly grim and transition into warm and stunning evenings. Others persist stubbornly in keeping people in the libraries and out of the parks and gardens. Weather forecasts for the coming [...]