Wednesday 16 August 2006

Monday's Festival

On Monday I went to the RIAS exhibition:
The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland 2006 Festival Exhibition is intended to be a revealing and affectionate response from some of the people who play an important part in the Incorporation’s role in the promotion and understanding of architecture.
One architect had picked the BBC transmitter at Kirk O' Shotts as his favourite place in Scotland. Odd, I thought, but apparently there are fantastic views of both Glasgow and Edinburgh up there and I'll pay a visit some day - complete with camera.

Then it was on to the Culloden Exhibition at the National Trust for Scotland's HQ.

That is handily located next to the Book Festival where I heard Eric Beinhocker speak on Society and Business. This was a bit disappointing. He took almost 50 minutes to say that the economy is somehow evolving and that this evolution is effectively a good thing. In the ten minutes left for questions I wasn't able to suggest that most of us had worked that out already.

In the evening Mrs F&W and I went to hear a debate on the Middle East between Con Coughlin, defence correspondent of the Telegraph, and Gwynne Dyer. After the debate I asked both speakers if they thought that there was any significance in the date 22nd August, about which there's been huge speculation on the web. Neither had heard of the rumours and Coughlin made a remark about Nostradamus. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that the Wall Street Journal had also written about what might happen on the 22nd. Let's hope that the Iranians don't "light up the sky over Jerusalem", but if they do, Mr Coughlin should be suitably sheepish. The debate was chaired by Iain MacWhirter.

No comments: