Martyrs and Mothers Who is England’s patron saint? If you think it’s St George, you’re behind the times. In fact, it’s the martyr St Stephen. But not the Stephen stoned to death in Palestine 2,000 years ago. No, the Stephen stabbed to death by Whites at a bus-stop in London in 1993. He was a […]

Stung Out to Die Here’s a short and very old word: Wasp. Here’s a long and very new word: Neuroparasitology. Despite their differences, the two words go together very well. Neuroparasitology is the study of how parasites manipulate the brains of their hosts. Parasitic wasps are experts at this manipulation. For example, some inject paralysing […]

Alan Rusbridger is the editor of The Guardian, Britain’s biggest liberal newspaper. Like many liberals, he’s a good example of the vast difference between intelligence and wisdom. Here is he talking about Edward Snowden and the National Security Agency: Rusbridger said the NSA stories were “clearly” not a story about totalitarianism, but that an infrastructure […]