Four days in Germany · 2008-08-28
A salutary moment has arrived in the world of train travel. There is a second way of getting from France to Germany.
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In 2008 · 2008-06-28
Too much of a good thing · 2008-06-15
I have a happy confession to make. My opinions are still shifting. “Happy”? Well, everyone knows that only idiots don’t change their minds.
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Rights and wrongs in Kosovo · 2007-12-19
What example might the precedent of Kosovan independence set in Bosnia, in the Caucasus, in Cyprus, in Spain – in Belgium, even? Is it a good idea to encourage these various simmering national grievances? Is statehood really the inevitable destiny of every single nation?
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Travelog from the western Balkans · 2007-08-22
Bosnia is in the middle of Europe but you wouldn’t know it. The wilderness landscapes are stunning, and the little towns we pass seem oddly foreign – blighted by ad hoardings, Wild-West-style, none of which are for familiar brands. There are minarets everywhere. 1 in 10 of the cars on the road are foreign, but it doesn’t look like tourists.
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Would the future please just arrive · 2007-06-07
Computers have got a bit smaller than people imagined, and teleportation hasn’t been invented yet. But TVs are now at last hung on walls, and the zero-emission car is surely not far off.
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A study of citizen journalism · 2007-02-06
“Le journalisme citoyen va-t-il remplacer les médias traditionnels? Enjeux et prédictions.” That’s the title of my recently-completed masters thesis. It’s an analysis of collaborative online journalism – from Slashdot to Digg by way of wikis and the blogosphere.
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Linux? What's that? · 2007-01-16
I met someone recently who had never heard of Linux. And a second who hadn’t come across Wikipedia. Wiki-what? Nope, no idea. The experience got me thinking. Were they troglodytes, or am I a geek?
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A tale of two football matches · 2006-07-02
Every free-kick and corner won is greeted by mad applause and chants of “Zi-zou!” and “Ri-bé-ry!”.
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It's not that bad · 2006-05-28
You may have gathered that France is going through a difficult patch right now. To the dogs, even. Well don’t believe it – it’s rubbish.
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In Amsterdam, 2006 · 2006-03-27
In praise of pigeons · 2006-02-15
Pigeons are the only animals that most of us see every day, so it seems strange to me that no one knows the first thing about them.
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In 2005 · 2005-08-25
Constitution wars · 2005-05-05
As ever, it is so much easier to say “no” and to condemn than it is to be in favour of something – especially something flawed like this Constitution.
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Treatise on anti-Americanism · 2004-11-27
America is the world’s original popular democracy. It is therefore – despite its unpleasant, violent edge – about as unthreatening as an empire will ever be.
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Travelog from Central Europe · 2004-08-19
In Ljubljana I set myself the challenge of going three days without hearing another native English-speaker. This is tricky anywhere nowadays, but I calculated that in rural Hungary I would have as much chance as anywhere – and so far I have indeed heard none. But listening to the passers-by in Pécs I begin to wonder: does Hungarian sound like English?
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For its citizens only · 2003-12-30
The three ‘republican values’ are all revered in France. Every French person knows which country it was that invented the culture of rights – to ‘liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression’, specifically, according to the 1789 Déclaration des droits de l’homme. 215 years of law-making later and the values of the French revolution are more deeply embedded in French culture than ever.
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Reflections in the Metro · 2003-11-07
The news is that I’m still here! I miss you all though. In an ideal world I would have come back for a bit during the summer. In the real world I’ve just been too broke to contemplate airfares and Eurostar. And besides, the summer here was much better!
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Conspiracy theories · 2003-03-10
So the USA is about to attack Iraq. It’s blatant imperialist aggression, blood for oil, the end of the United Nations, etc etc.
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Religion, French style · 2002-12-26
The Eglise Saint Sulpice, which from the outside looks like a cross between Notre Dame and the Parthenon, is impressively cavernous in the feeble candle-light of midnight mass. I and my fellow mass-goers are successfully awed like countless before us. In 2002 however, it seems the awe quickly wears off.
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