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On this post I made mention of the proposed change to porn laws which would require anyone who appears in an adult online video clip or photograph to submit identification and other information to the websites who host the content and the government. (This would effectively end many adult enterprises ...

I almost missed this. The Guardian’s online section has expanded to provide a new service, Guardian America, for the many American readers of The Guardian. I’ve noticed the increasing fascination with America among particularly leftwing Brits: it stands for much of what they despise, much of what they think is ...

I’d never heard the term ‘Prince Albert’ used in the way I heard it recently. Sitting around with company and red wine and peach cobbler, pontificating about a variety of inspirational topics, somehow I uttered the term “clitoral stud” in the conversation, which prompted another cobbler-eater to say, “Prince Albert”. ...

Near me in Southern California there is one of the most sought-after locations to live in the world. The climate is great, the sun is shining, the landscape is beautiful, the neighbourhoods aesthetic, the opportunities plenty, the infrastructure rich, the people attractive, the food exceptional. That’s why these wildfires are ...

I like Richard Dawkins. He’s a prolific atheist, and I’m a theist, but desipte this fundamental difference I like his rational approach and commitment to good science and entertaining polemics. On my fondness for Dawkins, fellow blogger Stephen Graham and I disagree. But today I saw a piece in the ...

In moral terms I describe myself as egoist, one who acts in accordance with one’s own rational self-interest. Opponents tend to label it “selfishness”; and in fact some proponents of rational self-interest – such as Ayn Rand – take that label themselves. I agree with much of what Rand argued, ...

Strange question, you might say. Most female mammals behave differently during their most fertile time: it’s called oestrus, or ‘heat’. According to traditional belief, women do not experience this in this way: “Humans, unlike some other species, do not have any obvious external signs to signal receptivity at ovulation.” (Wikipedia). ...

From the title the reader would be forgiven for thinking this article is concerned with some quite grand political and theological concepts. Alas I must begin somewhere a little less lofty: doggy sex.

My name is Stephen Graham and I’m reporting for duty! Ahem…. After a long stint on paternity leave I’m glad to be back and blogging again much more regularly. I wanted to give a public thanks to John for setting up a great new website, and for continuing to extend ...

Here’s what some commentators are talking about today: Joe Conason says “To avoid war, Bush should engage in direct negotiations with Iran – and restore America’s commitment to its own disarmament.” I agree. It’s too important an issue to screw up, and the last thing we need is another war. ...

It’s my sixth wedding anniversary today. Last night, to commemorate our anniversary, my wife Melissa and I wrote our lists of the top 5 celebrities who we have agreed henceforth to be the exceptions from the norms of our agreed monogamy: if we ever get the chance to hook up ...

For a long time now I’ve held to the position that the energy crisis and the problems of climate change will not be solved by government sanctions on our activities but by technological advances in the free market. People like recent Nobel-Prize winner Al Gore don’t like not knowing exactly ...

Many have heard by now the story of Iggy. Iggy is a puppy who was adopted by daytime talk show host Ellen Degeneres. After finding that the dog didn’t get along with her cats, Ellen gave Iggy to her hairdresser whose two daughters fell in love with him. Apparently Ellen ...

I kid you not: top musical artist John Mayer, although a little wasted at the time, almost got into a fist fight with Mac Guy Justin Long (arch-foe of PC Guy in the Mac-PC commercials) over libertarian-Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, whom Mayer appears to be passionate about supporting. “Read ...

The story from Ananova says it all: “A British scientist has been awarded a doctorate for a paper predicting that humans will one day marry robots. Maastricht University awarded David Levy a PhD for a thesis entitled Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners. The thesis examines human attitudes toward affection, love ...

Believe it or not, there are still some people around who regard a certain category of words to be evil or immoral in some way. It’s known as ‘swearing’. I’ve found this a curious concept since I was a teenager, since not much about it made any sense to me. ...

An excellent article appeared in The Wall Street Journal in Saturday by Senior Editor of Reason Magazine Brian Doherty, helping to celebrate 50 years since Ayn Rand first published her magnum opus, ‘Atlas Shrugged’. Like many (most?) libertarians, I am immensely grateful for Rand’s contribution to 20th century political discourse. ...

Crawley reports on a case that has people debating the ethics of raising a disabled child: Disability charities are extremely worried by the legal precedent that could be set by the case of the 15-year-old Katie Thorpe. Katie’s mother, Alison Thorpe, has asked doctors to give her daughter, who has ...

Don’t ask me how exactly this happened, but in a cabin on a mountain over the weekend we got ourselves into the classic Liar-Truth Teller Enigma, later embellished by the brilliant logician Raymond Smullyan. It’s an old logic puzzle, which runs, basically, something like this. A man finds himself standing ...

I hate those words.  I’m on my way to an event in the mountains where, rather than staying in a hotel with wifi or ethernet broadband internet, they’ll have me holed up in a cabin with no connection to the outside world.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, I won’t ...