R.I.P. Paul the Octopus http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

During the 2010 football World Cup, Paul the Octopus became a global celebrity. From his aquarium tank in Oberhausen, Germany, he predicted with 100% accuracy the outcome of eight World Cup matches in a row. In acknowledgement of his striking achievement, German aquarium authorities built Paul the first‐ever octopus memorial after his death. Curiously, Paul's popularity crossed over into countries that are not known footballing nations. One possible explanation for this is that his uncanny knowledge of the outcome of future events resonated with an audience sensitive to the uncertainties and risks of high modernity. Another explanation draws on Michael Jackson's work among diviners in Sierra Leone. I argue that Paul's prophecies created ‘fields of relationship’ that transcended national as well as ethnic divides, both within Germany and globally.     

R. BRIAN SAGAR (1927 - 1990)

Brian Sagar died of cancer in North Vancouver, British Columbia, on January 12, 1990. The illness preceding his death was mercifully brief but it also left his colleagues and many friends across Canada and elsewhere quite unprepared for this sudden tragedy.     

Obituary: Harry R. G. Inglis,F.R.S.G., F.S.A.Scot.

During the late 1970s a new aggressive strain of Dutch elm disease became established in parts of southern and central Scotland and it is continuing to spread in many areas. This paper outlines the geography of the disease within Scotland and explores the way in which the Regional Councils have responded to the threat to the elm population.     

Marxism: R. W. Connell; Wal Suchting

Istvan Meszaros (ed.), Aspects of History and Class Consciousness, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1971, pp. viii + 212, $8.15.