Philobiblon

Beginning this week by picking out a few highlights:

* On the F-word, Louise (rightfully) tears strips off an old fart who’s “making a stand” by displaying soft porn in his office. The one good thing is that he’s an elected official – I do hope the women of Nottinghamshire are fully informed of his actions before the next vote.

* Sharon on Early Modern Notes makes a critical comparison of Wikipedia and the press – and the latter doesn’t come out too well.

* Simon on LibDem Voice is meanwhile launching another swinging attack, this time on jargon – his “Genesis in PR jargon” is a hoot.

*And I may be being a touch mischievous in putting these two together, since there’s rather a lot of jargon in Stumbling and Mumling’s exploration of organisational failure, but there is an interesting thought in there about private sector failure.

Looking on the lighter side, Genna on gem-ish explains why she’s happy her school years weren’t the best of her life. And Huw indulges in a little hiccup nostalgia.

And Ed Fordham on 474 Votes to Win (what will he do after the election, I wonder?) wants to preserve an important piece of Joe Orton history, of the lavatorial kind.

Getting back into politics, Blood and Treasure analyses the relationship between Gordon Brown’s words and the sudden outbreak of British industrial anger.

And Chicken Yoghurt exposes the murky business of nuclear industry “insurance”, while The Yorkshire Ranter explores the darker depths of NHS computing.

Two Doctors have the word from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, the Green Party view of the Scottish budget wrangling.

And Jim on The Daily (Maybe), who’s doing rather well just now living up to that semi-promise, explores the idea of what Progressive London means. And new blogger Joseph Healy reports back from the Convention of the Left in Manchester last weekend.

The Magistrate looks at the basic fallacy in the theory of deterrence with reference to the >reclassification of marijuana, and Witterings from Whitney suggests David Cameron should live by his own words and hold a referendum on EU membership.

In local politics, Jason Kitcat brings the details of Brighton government, with the aid of YouTube, to the voters. And yes, garbage does matter.

And Antonia has a fine tribute to Maureen Christian, Oxford Labour councillor.

In the “interesting new ideas” category is an exploration on Amused Cynicism of a proposed new broadband tax, the money to go to creative providers. I’m not quite sure how the administration would work out, but it is an interesting idea, possibly particularly for the BBC…

And on Heresy Corner, measures of religiosity and wealth in the US have been plotted against each other, showing interesting correlations – not necessarily causal, but certainly a blow to the “God will make you wealthy” crowd.

But there’s nothing new, really: Roy on Early Modern Whale is exploring an early mass murderer-cum-werewolf. And staying in history I’m going to point to one of my own, my review of the Darwin exhibition at the Natural History Museum – really worth seeing, even if it is preaching to the converted.

In the miscellaneous category:
* Jonathan on Liberal England offer his thoughts on the BBC Gaza appeal controversy, findnig some interesting evidence of differing approaches in recent history.

* On Text and the World, an exploration of the work of the feminist theorist Gayle Rubin, perhaps for the more academically inclined.

* Charles Crawford on forms of anti-Semitism.

*In the Shadow of the Olive Tree is exploring the issue of reparations.

Finally, be afraid, be very afraid. No not the economy, or the environment, but the pigeons are massing at a new HQ, and they don’t even care who knows it…

Last week’s roundup was with Mick; next week the host will be Matt. As usual, email your nominations to britblog AT gmail DOT com – don’t be shy; you can nominate yourself. And (usually) all nominations are included, whatever the politics of that week’s host…