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Rollo
Hi, I'm Rollo. There's more about me here. Who are you? Send me mail.

“Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.”

Arthur C. Clarke

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.    more

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.    more

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?    more

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.    more

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.    more

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.    more

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?    more

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!”.    more

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.    more

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.    more

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.    more

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.    more

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?    more

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.    more

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!    more

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.    more

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.    more
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