fri 29 feb Making Nothing Happen. Bishopgate Institute, part of the London Word Festival. The title comes from a belief based on a line of an Auden poem thought to mean that the aim of poetry is to make nothing happen. Melanie Challenger is a poet who has just returned from a stint as an artist in residence in the Antarctic. She believes that culture and cultural transmission mostly through language is the most important action and that poetry is language like any other and so the core of culture and by extension the development and change of culture . Unfortunatley the languages that contain the richest complexity are also those that are used by the fewest people so we need to maintain variety and diversity in languages and cultures in a similar way that we try to retain biological diversity, to give us the broadest possible cultural pool from which to develop. She also says that world and word need to come together - words need to be tied to landscape.

Poet Mario Petrucci adds that one thing that poetry does better than anything is metaphor and the ability to link and compare is a vital ability in communication and understanding.

Goldacre goes further into the effect of blogs, particularly the ability for people to post comments, blogs have created a new model of

fri 7 mar Armed Forces should wear uniform in public: Brown. (Daily Telegraph) This is suspiciously released advice of 12 months ago from the commander of an RAF base that people shouldn ’t wear their uniforms in public. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was leaked by the government to allow a little cheap flag waving as a precursor to a bit more hollow jingoism when they release their report on how we treat members of the armed forces.

tue 11 mar Pupils 'to take allegiance oath'. (BBC News) is straight out of the same stable as Brown’s ‘reaction’ to the wearing of uniforms last week. The only difference being that this has fallen flat on it ’s face. The thing is that I would love to see some sort of pledge that could form the core of a real education in global citizenship, (un)fortunately it won ’t happen either way

 On Deep History and the Brain by Daniel Lord Smail. Reviewed by Steven Mithen LRB Vol 30 No 2. The  driving force of history is the manipulation of human chemistry by substances and by activities. The Neolithic shift to sedentary life resulted in a return to primate-like hierarchical social structures often maintained by violence and stress. Culture did not displace biology. Civilisation simply enabled aspects of Palaeolithic human biology.

 

Travelling at the speed of thought: Einstein and the Quest for Gravitational Waves by Daniel Kennefick. Reviewed by Frank Close LRB Vol 30 No 3. Einstein’s equations implied existence of gravitational waves. Solving his equations and interpreting results has been big problem for physics. Observation of binary pulsars consistent with Einstein ’s theory. Weak gravity waves travel at speed

 

 

The Fox and the Flies: The World of Joseph Silver, Racketeer and Psychopath by Charles van Onselen. Reviewed by Charles Nicholl LRB Vol 30 no3. Thirty year study concludes Joseph Silver was Jack the Ripper. Silver was cosmopolitan multi-faceted criminal who assaulted and trafficked women and pimped his wives. Book is engrossing probe into nineteenth century underworld of sex and violence. Evidence for Ripper identity all fits, but carefully selected and rather tenuous.

 

As I was Going to St Ives: A Life of Derek Jackson by Simon Cortauld. Reviewed by Ferdinand Mount LRB Vol  30 No 3. Slim biography of

 

 

Flat Earth News by Nick Davies. Reviewed by John Lanchester LRB Vol30 No5. British news media no longer checks and reports facts. Corrupted by PR and easy copy from the Press Association, there is an industry-wide failure to engage  with reality. Based on research into two thousand news stories, the book analyses widely reported but untrue stories, like the Millenium Bug catastrophe.

 

How to contribute to dogma

We are always looking for people to get involved to write, edit and develop the project generally,

The first, and most important, thing to do is to join the dogma email list to avoid missing out on discussions, ideas and suggestions etc - just send an email to Dogmanet-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk and follow the instructions in the reply you receive.

A great way to start contributing to dogma is to send us

If you are a blogger why not send us one of your favourite pieces to republish (it’s a good way to spread the word about your blog to a new audience) or perhaps even talk to us about getting a regular column?

contact the editor - jamesATdogmanet.org