Back from TXR248 residential school

Not as fun as Saint Chartier, but TXR248 was very interesting. A rather odd gender balance (about 90% male, when the chemistry and maths residential schools were about 60% male), but a very good mix of people from the engineers who'd been forced to do a 10-point systems course (who, without exception in our group, started as skeptics and ended as evangelists) to thebusiness people, QA staff and business students, which made for some interesting talks in the bar. I've come back wanting to draw systems diagrams of everything in sight, and will probably start by looking at the accreditation activity of the BAC - I think that will be a better way of showing how Clare and Gina work than trying for several pages of text as I did with the finance department. Now to complete the second assignment, and wait for September, when I'll find out what mark I've got for the first real piece of academic work I've submitted in the last five years.

Time to do right by at least some Iraqis

I think Crooked Timber has it absolutely right, and I'll be writing to David Cameron to say so. The discussion there gives nuance, but I think that offering refugee status to people whose employment by the British Government has made living in their own country impossible is morally correct.

My Daemon

I have the Daemon Onthia, apparently, because I am spontaneous, assertive, modest, humble and fickle. I'm not sure how I can not explode from internal contradictions, but here I am, so I suppose I must have avoided it somehow - probably by not engaging in much self-reflection. To find your own daemon, go to goldencompassmovie.com.

Morceaux de Saint Chartier

Well, there were many lovely morceaux - from the food and the music, the dancing and the conversation. First of all, get this MP3 so you can listen to Sylvain, Danielle and their friends and family playing as they usually did every morning.

First post!

Somehow, that doesn't feel like very much of an achievement.