Phlegmatic

The latest target of the PC police - Gilbert & Sullivan.

"Controversy as Chester Zoo opens 'Wrexham Scally Enclosure'". (I should point out that Homo Wrexhamius Scalliensis Chavus is pretty much confined to the southern part of Wrexham, not the nice bit where I’m from…)

Why Gandhi is such an asshole in Civilisation.

The Curious Case of the (Medieval) Weapon that Didn't Exist

Why you can't just have more quantitative easing to get rid of the national debt.

This is not a 512gb microSD card.

The worst football kits of all time. They’re all bad, but Colorado, seriously…?

This month's best headline is from an astronomy website.

"A lousy, stupid, no good, bad, law is being proposed."

Star Wars Episode IV in a single image. (OK, it’s a very big image, but still…)

Minimalist, anonymous rooms are probably not a good place to do teamwork.

"We all owe a significant debt to Richard Murphy." No, really.

I'm an only child, so I can't really relate to this. Nevertheless I thought it was a sweet film about growing up being “Player Two”.

Woman accidentally joins search party looking for herself.

Today's most widely misinterpreted piece of economics, from the IMF. There are two arguments put forward in the paper. The first is that there are risks associated with capital account liberalisation (allowing money into and out of the country with less regulation). The second is that although high public debt is bad for growth and welfare, for countries with excellent records of debt repayment, like the US, the UK and Germany, a “credible medium-term fiscal consolidation” makes more sense than a “fiscal noose today”. In other words, slowly bringing down debt as a percentage of GDP, not slashing everything to balance the budget as soon as possible. Now that’s pretty much what the UK’s current fiscal policy is. Still I suppose “IMF economists broadly agree with George Osborne” isn’t quite as good a headline as “You’re witnessing the death of neoliberalism – from within”. Seriously, this is a paper that says “There is much to cheer in the neoliberal agenda. The expansion of global trade has rescued millions from abject poverty. Foreign direct investment has often been a way to transfer technology and know-how to developing economies. Privatization of state-owned enterprises has in many instances led to more efficient provision of services and lowered the fiscal burden on governments”… and Facebook (and one of our less reputable newspapers) is full of idiots claiming that “we are witnessing the death of neoliberalism”.­

"Seumas Milne will finish Labour off"

I wonder if the Ugandan league is included in Football Manager...

The D&D monsters based on cheap Chinese toys.

Why We Should Defend The Right To Be Offensive. (I reserve the right to believe that some of the comments on this article were made by idiots.)

Tax credits are complex and expensive. Why not simply a negative income tax?

Good advice for writers, especially of non-fiction. This article grabbed me early on when he took the piss out of Neil ‘my hair will blow ever so attractively in the wind if I stand on this clifftop’ Oliver.

37 brilliant Halloween costumes

Are we seeing the beginnings of a new species in north America?

Paedophiles should be allowed to adopt. (How could that possibly go wrong?)

Former Labour minister: "Labour has jumped the shark."

• There's no real 'celtic' ethnic group. There is more genetic diversity between different culturally celtic groups than you'd expect.


• Bernicia was clearly a thing, Rheged definitely so. Perhaps more surprisingly, so was the Kingdom of Elmet.


• Cornish and Devonian populations are genetically distinct, and the boundary is pretty much the River Tamar (the modern boundary between the Duchy and the county). We live just on the Cornish side of the border. Most people I know from Devon wouldn't dream of living in Cornwall and vice versa. Clearly these attitudes have been around for almost 1500 years!


• I wonder to what extent this signifies that the Cornish are an earlier population and to what extent they are Breton immigrants.


• North and South Welsh populations are similarly distinct.


• However, there seems to be an English marcher population stretching from the Severn Valley right up to the Wirral. Wasn't expecting that. Interestingly this population (marked with a purple cross on the map) also has three other very specific locations away from the Welsh frontier - one on the Isle of Wight, one in Kent vaguely near Maidstone and one in what might be Scunthorpe. Interesting.


• Vikings can't have fancied local women much - there are almost no Norse genes. The one exception is (predictably) Orkney. (I'm assuming from the map that they didn't include Shetland and possibly also the Isle of Man.)


• There's a clear link between Catalonia and North Wales.


• There is a distinct 'English' ethnic group, but it only covers part of modern England. The line between the 'English' and the rest of the country is broadly where it was in 600AD which perhaps suggests that areas of 'England' beyond that line are conquered territories that were never truly settled.

Apologies for the radio silence for the last ten days or so. Have some phligm phlagm…

The modern democratic economy is no longer a balance between rich and poor, there is now a third group to be exploited - the future (and this is not a good thing)

We have set an Olympic record already - and this one is probably something to be proud of.

Electric DeLoreans.

Is income inequality in the US increasing? Simple answer: yes. More advanced (and more correct) answer: No.

Louisiana law bans use of cash for secondhand sales.

The return of Wrexham Lager.

Cast & crew of Doctor Who v The Proclaimers

The Ballad of Russell and Julie. John Barrowman is great in this. But he's still crap in Torchwood.