My thoughts

A list of the characters for those who, like me, get a little confused with all the names. Murder on the Leviathan by Boris Akunin DRAMATIS PERSONAE Lord LITTLEBY , a collector of Indian artefacts, murdered with his servants and their children in Paris Commissaire Gustav GAUCHE , a French police detective Josiah CLIFF , captain of the Leviathan Charles RENIER , first officer of the Leviathan Sir Reginald MILFORD-STOKES ,   A thin ginger-haired aristocrat of about 30. He lacks his golden whale emblem. Emily , a mysterious woman that Sir Reginald is constantly writing to. GINTARO Aono , a Japanese nobleman. He lacks his golden whale emblem. Renate KLEBER , a pregnant Swiss woman of about 20. She is married to a Swiss bank employee working in Calcutta, and is travelling to meet him. She lacks her golden whale emblem. Clarissa STAMP , an English spinster, who lacks her golden whale emblem. Doctor and Mrs. TRUFFO , the Leviathan...

A list of the characters for those who, like me, get a little confused with all the names. Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin DRAMATIS PERSONAE Note that for Turkish characters, effendi and pasha are honorific titles, and that they are placed after the person's name.  Effendi corresponds roughly to "Sir". Pasha is a more senior title and corresponds roughly to "Lord". Erast Petrovich FANDORIN , the (main) protagonist, a Russian volunteer fighting for the Serbs in the war against the Ottoman Empire Varvara Andreevna SUVOROVA , a "progressive" young woman traveling to Bulgaria to meet her fiancé Pyotr Yablokov Pyotr YABLOKOV , a young Russian man who has volunteered to serve in the Russian army's war against the Ottoman Empire; he is given a role as a cryptographer; he is the fiancé of Varvara Suvorova Seamus McLAUGHLIN , an Irish reporter attached to the Russian army Charles PALADIN , ...

A list of the characters for those who, like me, get a little confused with all the names. The Winter Queen or Azazel DRAMATIS PERSONAE Collegiate Registrar Erast Petrovich FANDORIN , a young new employee of the  Criminal Investigation Division of the Moscow Police Pyotr Alexandrovich KOKORIN , a student who kills himself in the park Nikolai Stepanich  AK HTYRTSEV , an acquaintance and rival of Pyotr Kokorin Elizaveta VON EVERT-KOLOKOLTSEVA , a witness to the suicide of the above Lady ASTAIR , a philanthropist who runs charitable institutions for children, including the Moscow Astair House Superintendent Xavier Feofilaktovich GRUSHIN , a senior  detective of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Moscow Police Ivan Prokofievich - a "scrawny, lanky veteran" of the police Amalia Kazirimovna BEZHETSKAYA , or "Cleopatra", a sensuous dark-haired woman Count  Hippolyte  Alexandrovich  Z UROV , a hot-head...

A list of the characters I compiled for myself, because I was getting confused. The State Counsellor DRAMATIS PERSONAE State Counsellor Erast Petrovich FANDORIN - Deputy for Special Assignments to His Excellency the Governor-General of Moscow Prince Vladimir Andreevich DOLGORUKOI - long-standing Governor-General of Moscow Frol Grigorievich VEDISHCHEV - the influential old personal servant of Prince Dolgorukoi Adjutant General Ivan Fyodorovich KHRAPOV - a senior government official, travelling at the beginning of the story to his new appointment as governor-general of Siberia. Staff Captain SEIDLITZ - an officer on the staff of Khrapov Colonel  Stanislav  Filippovich SVERCHIN SKY - acting commander of the Gendarmerie in Moscow Lieutenant Colonel Pyotr Ivanovich BURLYAEV  - the head of Moscow's Department for Public Security Titular Counsellor S ergei  Vitalievich ZUBTSOV -  the young senior operations officer for Burlyaev,...

The fallacy of (non-)identical outcomes Any two non-identical groups of human beings will, by virtue of the very fact that they are identifiably non-identical groups, have non-identical characteristics, and will therefore be reasonably expected to experience non-identical outcomes. Relevant characteristics to any given outcome can be incorporated into two categories, one covering all relevant involuntary characteristics, the other covering all relevant voluntary characteristics. We might call these two categories  potentiality  and  choices . If two groups are identifiably non-identical, it is very likely that they will firstly, proceed with non-identical  potentiality , for example differing averaged-out innate abilities, or inheritance, and secondly make non-identical choices ,  on average,  on all sorts of levels . The end outcome (or actuality, if you like) cannot, therefore, be reasonably  expected  to be the identical.  The fal...

A handy guide to help you understand your cosmo-liberal interlocutor - in case you thought words were what they used to be... Liberal = belonging to an ideology intolerant of incorrect speech Tolerant = refusing to tolerate incorrect opinions;  also : having the correct opinion, often referring in particular to automatically loving anything foreign Inclusive = refusing to include people with incorrect opinions Open-minded = refusing to consider incorrect opinions;  also : having the correct opinion, often referring in particular to loving anything foreign Narrow-minded =  conversely:  willing to consider all opinions;  also:  having come to an incorrect opinion Extreme =  having come to the incorrect opinion, e.g. opposed to extreme immigration [Note also "extremist" = a case needing to be conceptually separated from the group in order to uphold the concept of identicality of groups, e.g. "Islamic extremist" = not to be ...

Initial note:  I am not suggesting any particular policy solution to the problem I identify here, which is the unreasonable advantage conferred by inheritance; identifying a solution is, I expect, far beyond my capabilities, but I am trying to demonstrate that there is, in the first place, a problem to think about. When people talk about equality, they want to talk about rich and poor, but only on their terms. They want to talk about average incomes of races of genders. It is, for example, much more comfortable for rich people to talk about racial inequality, and how we should help a given racial group to raise its mean income, than to talk about poverty in the first place. Talking about racial equality, though it is a very interesting topic in its own right, is also a useful distraction, a diversion tactic which allows the richer half of the population to appear caring with little real threat to the economic ascendancy inheritance has granted them. We could even call this 'di...

Britain is a historically individualistic country. Good. individualistic <--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->collectivist                                                                               Britain                         world in general Britain is an individualistic country today. Not so good. individualistic <--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->collectivist                                    Britain                        world in genera...

Supreme Legislatures or Le gislation by court The Supreme Court of the United States has a particular dangerous habit from time to time, which is to act as the supreme legislature, and it is one that is a danger in any country where a court has the authority to dictate to governments and legislatures through judicial review. I could give two examples. Firstly, it has legislated that abortion is a right in the US constitution, and secondly, it has legislated that same-sex marriage is a right in the US constitution. Neither issue, of course, is mentioned in the US constitution, and it cannot be reasonably argued that the individuals who wrote the constitutional clauses cited — and who presumably understood fully the English language they were writing in — meant anything of the kind. Judging from opinion polls, it is likely every state would have legislated in favour of same-sex marriage anyway, while abortion laws would probably differ greatly from state to state. This is no...