I joined the Oxford Council library soon after arrival in Oxford, but never found much to get excited by in their holdings, since they have neither academic books nor much in the way of world literature.
It wasn't till recently that I got around to getting a Bodleian readers card. This was very easy - I just turned up with the forms and paid my money - with the only unusual feature being that they made me speak the oath out loud! more
Last week Camilla and I went into London with two of her colleagues, to listen to Hans Rosling deliver the 2011 Pumphandle talk of the John Snow Society, "Epidemiology for the Bottom Billion - where there is not even a pump handle to remove!". more
I went along last Wednesday to an Oxford Skeptics in the Pub meeting, held in the COPA bar on George St. John Bradshaw gave a talk "A sheep in wolf's clothing?", which basically summarised his book In Defense of Dogs (published in the US as Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You A Better Friend to Your Pet). more
Camilla and I, joined by Camilla's colleagues Rosalind and Madeleine, drove to Kent to visit Charles Darwin's home, Down House. more
My web site dannyreviews.com has ranked well in Google searches for more than a decade, but in the last few months Google has taken a dislike to it. This appears to be a result of the search algorithm change called "Panda". more
Following a decision to take more advantage of living in a university town, in May I went to thirty odd lectures and seminars. more
I went to two talks today, one a small Earth Sciences seminar and the other a big "annual special lecture" of the Faculty of History. more
At lunch yesterday I went to a reception at Rhodes House for the Australian Governor-General, Quentin Bryce (presumably in the UK for some minor ceremony or other). This was quite fun once some people I knew turned up, though as always I felt like an impostor when wearing a suit and tie. more
On Saturday Camilla and I went a series of five lectures on "Neanderthals and Modern Humans". This was hosted by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit and after the lectures we were given a tour of their lab and got to see the accelerator. more
