Books

Nice old map of Poland before the Partitions here.

In the current New York Review, Ronald Dworkin suggests more teaching of philosophy in schools, saying: People who can master the intricacies of peer-to-peer file-sharing through the Internet should have no trouble with the Categorical Imperative. You can decide for yourself at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

A good poem on abbreviated poetry posted on rec.arts.poems.

There’s an extraordinary book being advertised through a sponsored link at This Modern World just now. It’s a book called Why Mommy is a Democrat and the few sample pages available on the web site are unbearable – the sort of badly-crafted saccharine propaganda that would raise (rightly) shrieks

The Polish novelist Stanisław Lem died today. In tribute, a link to an essay of his on Philip K. Dick.

Tom Veal’s Stromata Blog takes apart yet another new theory about Shakespeare being the front man for someone else. via MeFi.

A magificent, detailed and comprehensive stripping of the ghastly Left Behind books – every Friday at slacktivist. via MeFi

Good line from a Christopher Brookmyre book Jane is reading: “And there it was, the line he’d known would be along soon enough: ‘Political correctness gone mad.’ [He] had referred to it in a column recently as ‘ the distress cry of the thwarted bigot.’ Any time he heard it,

An amazing Rap version of some of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. via BBC News.

In a piece of excellent news, Jackanory – the children’s programme where people read stories – is returning to TV. It’s such a simple format, but so effective. Almost Reithian in theory, I remember it from my childhood as a fun, involving programme. Long may it continue!