Stuff

An interesting book review in the latest Economist.

Also, are cliches dead?

When people talk of 'the war of the end of the world' or 'the wars of armageddon', etc, we imagine people fighting people. I can certainly imagine an increasing number of armed conflicts over access to water (it's life itself). But what of animals? I don't suggest for a moment that we in Berkshire are about to be strangled by cows - for one thing, they do not possess opposable thumbs - but as mankind increasingly encroaches on nature and pollutes it, exploits it, without putting anything back, will our fellow inhabitants in the animal kingdom merely ignore us?

Watch out for pissed off elephants and baboons in the years ahead.