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The most famous fiasco in literary history occurred when Thomas Carlyle gave John Stuart Mill the first part of his great work The French Revolution to critique. Mill’s maid thought the manuscript was wastepaper and threw it into the fire. The loss was total. Carlyle had no copy. Carlyle and his formidable wife, Jane, were newly arrived in London from Scotland, with scant savings in their purse. The loss of the book, and its anticipated revenue, threatened them with ruin. Carlyle (who had just been introduced to high society, and was keeping company with grandees such as Mill and Wordsworth)...

Most people can survive without food for at least a few weeks, maybe a bit longer. Eventually, however, starvation kills. Yet the limits on how long people can go without eating are complicated; without water people are unlikely to last a week, but the amount of time starvation takes can vary drastically. Take the story of Angus Barbieri. For 382 days, ending July 11, 1966, the then-27-year-old Scotsman ate nothing. There's limited documentation of Barbieri's fast: there are a few old newspaper stories recounting his ordeal and more convincingly, there's a case report describing the experience that his doctors published...

Nye vs. Ham Debate: No True Scotsman by Brian Thomas, M.S. * A surprisingly large number of people—some three million—watched live online February 4 as debaters discussed the topic “Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?” Ken Ham took the affirmative position while “Science Guy” Bill Nye took the negative. During the debate, Nye’s use of a certain fallacy was soon evident, and viewers should beware of this tactic because of the subtle way it can skew perception. Each time Nye contrasted “Ken Ham’s creation model” of a young world with “us in the scientific...

Thursday, March 09, 2006 Annexation? Colonies? Inflammatory U.K. Media Bias On March 6th The Scotsman ran a story with the incredible headline Israel 'plans to annex West Bank colonies' in response to Hamas. The story, of course, was about former GSS Chief and Kadima Knesset candidate Avi Dichter's detailing of Prime Minister Olmert's plans for unilateral withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria. The headline was the most inflammatory part of the piece, of course, and it colors how a reader not intimately familiar with the history of the area and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will view...

THE car boot closed like a coffin lid and Phil Sands knew he was dead. Blindfolded, with his hands cuffed behind his back, all hope evaporated as the 28-year-old journalist contemplated his fate from the boot of his captors' car. It was Boxing Day in Iraq and he was in the worst possible position: a fresh kidnap victim in the most dangerous country on earth. "When they slammed the car boot, that was the worst point of the whole ordeal. I just knew I was dead, that I wouldn't get out alive. I began to think of my parents in...

IT'S NOT easy being an Atlanticist these days. Turn on the BBC or read almost any newspaper and it seems all but certain that you will find some pundit quietly, if rarely openly, rejoicing in George Bush's difficulties in Iraq. Many of the thousands of protestors gathering in Edinburgh this week will not be so coy. You know the script: Bush This is curious as only the US president and Tony Blair among western leaders appear still to believe in the existence of Kipling's "white man's burden". That politically incorrect term is nonetheless an apt description of US-UK policy and...

A blind man has been arrested in Scotland after witnesses reported he sank his teeth into his guide dog’s head and then kicked the Labrador-retriever mix after it apparently wouldn’t help him across a busy street. A witness who said he saw the attack outside a busy shopping center in the Scottish capital Edinburgh reported the incident to police. After several days investigation, officers arrested David Todd, 34, on charges of cruelty to animals and breach of the peace.

Bob Dole pitched Viagra. Al Gore grew a goofy goatee and taught college. So what's Sen. John Kerry to do to shake off his loosing White House bid? Well, the folks at L.L. Bean, Timberland, or Woolrich would probably love to have him pitching their coats. That's because Kerry's campaign fashion trademark, his wheat-colored Timberland barn coat, has caused a spike in sales of the jackets. "It does seem to be getting a big lift," says Woolrich marketing director Tim Joseph. Barn coat sales typically drop off when winter arrives, but not this year. "We are somewhat inclined to attribute...

Posted on Wed, Apr. 28, 2004 Specter edges Toomey in tight Senate battle By Carrie Budoff, Thomas Fitzgerald and Patrick Kerkstra Inquirer Staff Writers U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter narrowly won the Republican nomination yesterday, beating back a surprisingly strong showing by U.S. Rep. Patrick Toomey in a race that underscored the national party's struggle to accommodate both moderates and conservatives. Specter, who is seeking a fifth term, survived his toughest Republican primay challenge by leaning heavily on President Bush and U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum to bolster his standing among conservative voters. "Now is the time, now that we've settled our...

   Tue 24 Sep 2002 ONE of the fastest-growing white supremacist groups in the United States has hijacked the Saltire to symbolise its struggle for a political system run by Celtic "kith and kin". Scottish tourists visiting Florida and the southern states on holiday have been warned that displaying Scotland’s national flag on their clothes now runs the risk of association with the extremist followers of the League of the South. The league, founded in Alabama in 1994, has nearly 10,000 members who claim Celtic roots and campaign for the "revitalisation of a general European cultural hegemony". It has...