The Forget the Footnotes is back up again despite the attempts to shut us down. More rants, musings and news from the frontiers of science will follow shortly. The day of full freedom of expression has arrived! Thanks to blogs, everything will finally be made public. Woe to all those whose lives cannot stand public scrutiny.

‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN, 1948.

Stay tuned!

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I’m due for another brain scan in a couple of weeks. The question is whether my tumour is growing back. Somehow or another I don’t think so, although one of the blood tests in January gave me a real fright. OK, it’s not cancer to be sure, but still scary and weird. The agromegaly made me grow three centimeters extra and since the operation I’ve shrunk again by almost as much. But some of the damage is not reversible: my jaw is permanently dislocated and my knees are too weak to go jogging.

On a good day I think of this ordeal as the starting point for a writing project. Acromegaly is somehow a very appropriate illness for someone who never knew who he was or what he looked like. Talk about metamorphosis! I want to write about faces, what it is to face the world, and something on our social obligation to have a face. On a bad day I don’t feel like writing at all. I feel like an ogre, like Shrek, who gives children nightmares and makes horses take flight.

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It seems the thought police has gone on vacation. The hits on the site come from new directions lately. Even the very busy person in the general Guildford area seems to have taken time off. I like it — it adds a human touch: thought cops on vacation, skiing with their kids. How sweet! Well, they deserve a break.

To simplify surveillance in the future I have added a ’subscribe to updates’ link in the sidebar. As a subscriber you will automatically get notified via email whenever something new happens on the site. This way you don’t have to check back all the time. Nifty and nice.

freedom of speech | No Comments »

My publisher just emailed to say that The New Statesman is reviewing my Surviving Capitalism. Great stuff! All news is good news. I have made a new web page for the book — click here. If that page attracts attention, perhaps some of it will flow in the direction of this blog too. That’ll be great for when the blogging season starts again after Easter. Compare the old adage: ‘Hooray, hooray, it’s the first of May/ online blogging starts today.’

news from the frontiers of science | No Comments »

There are three computers at the LSE that check this blog several times a day. In addition there is a computer based in Guildford that checks it every couple of hours (late last night, early this morning, a few hours ago). Together these four computers account for 40 percent of the traffic on the blog. Who are these people? Why are they constantly checking me out?

Perhaps they are fans — eager for the latest news from the frontiers of science? Perhaps they are the thought police — excitedly waiting for me to say something forbidden so that they can pounce. Am I becoming paranoid?

If you are friends, please identify yourselves by leaving a comment below. If you are foes, may the furies get you.

freedom of speech | No Comments »