November 2011
1 post
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October 2011
3 posts
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Alcohol and Behaviour - not as simple as Friday... →
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We've got obsessions.
You cannot create without obsession. Obsession drives ideas or pleasures into clarity and then into action, but it is also is a burden and a watermark. Few can - or want to - make anything without leaving the dirty red smudge of an ego’s seal.
I wonder then if obsession is a curse, a blessing, or a skill?
September 2011
6 posts
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“It’s always the same: a famous website changes and there’s an...”
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POEM: Life Lessons for Girls
girls look gorgeous
boys look smart
women draw pictures
men make art
a girl’s pretty in pink
a boy comes home dirty
men mean experience
women fear thirty
girls eat half
boys have what’s left
a woman feeds a family
a man is a chef
boys play rough
girls watch in awe
women need children
men need to explore
August 2011
5 posts
1 tag
5 pieces that have influenced me as a music maker.
Every few months or so there comes the compulsion to decide on my favourite pieces of music ever.
(Ever ever? Ever ever??)
This list is impossible to create and all previous attempts have immediately felt wrong and borderline embarrassing. An easier and more important list however consists of pieces that have truly influenced me as a music maker. While these might not be my very favourites, they...
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Expertise & Technology.
In technology industries, there are many that call themselves experts in fields that are barely decades old; in fields that can move as fast as the speed of thought.
For the expert this is dangerous. The real skill of the technologist is not just in mastering a brief age of technology. You also must remain malleable enough to move with its irresistible motion.
Expertise should be a paddle,...
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July 2011
7 posts
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How To Leave Twitter by Grace Dent - a review of...
I was showing a relative around Brighton’s North Laines for the gizillionth time, only to see a shadowy lady leaving copies of a freshly printed book on cafe tables like a philanthropic ninja. Within 30 seconds I smelt “marketing campaign” and so picked one up. Guardian Books had correctly earmarked Brighton as a liberal, digital city and so had left copies of How To Leave...
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Choose to read this meme? Oh, no choice now...
I will spare you the formality of sketching the well-worn philosophical and logical paths, but I can happily state that freedom does not exist in humanity - we are all bonded to something. Instead there are degrees of ‘freeness’, and most of us in western Europe attempt to attain as high a level of it as we humanly can. Personal freedom is in almost all cases the priority for us;...
“Jesus was a radical, nonviolent, non-English speaking, anti-wealth, anti...”
– John Fugelsang (through twitter).
June 2011
2 posts
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I won't be your mirror.
It is perfectly possible, perhaps even advisable, to make friends with people and not agree with all that they say and think. I have no interest in talking to mirrors all day.
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May 2011
3 posts
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May's UK news (so far) in sentences...
There’s been far too much to blog about, so it’s time for a spot of reductionism:
Ken Clarke
20th Century politician speaks soundly but bluntly on rape and feels the full force of 21st Century political spin.
Rapture
A tiny minority foolishly believe judgement day is upon us; a majority of people with an internet connection have an excuse to massage their egos.
Giggs /...
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Nadine Dorries: an inflammatory start to an...
Twitter was alive today as a controversial sex education bill, spearheaded by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, had its first reading passed in the commons. Sex education can be a charged issue and it is particularly unhelpful that Ms Dorries is a conservative Christian who has anti-abortion ‘form’. As such, many will assume without any attempt at insight that the bill is purely driven...
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A sect cannot be destroyed by cannonballs |... →
An interesting (if not handsomely formed) post in response to the elimination of Osama Bin Laden. To summarise; Al Qaeda is a starfish, not a spider.
A side point - seeing as the writer in question is a digital guru of the highest order, could he have not rustled a prettier looking blog together?
April 2011
3 posts
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The psychology of 'choking'
I’ve managed to bypass any faith-based posts for the Easter Season due to my recent revisiting of a different magisterium: cricket.
My first game of cricket in over 10 years was played in idyllic village settings, under blue skies, but my performance was less utopian and more bipolar. I was stumped first ball after an unnecessary slash at a wide ball, but took a wicket maiden in my first...
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Terry Pratchett's life: morality, choice and law.
When dealing with the idea of law, it is essential to step outside your own morality and concede when a person’s choices are enough, and when people need protection from themselves and others.
—-
Terry Pratchett, locked in a firefight on that last front they call Alzheimer’s, is to take part in a documentary on assisted death, traveling alongside someone to the famed Dignitas...
“It’s ok people, you can put down your prayer mats, rosary beads and your...”
– Agnus Dei - November 2nd, 2005 - Fancy reading some blogs from almost 6 years ago? Be prepared for a mixture of chipper rambling, talks about tiredness and occasional moments of pure gold.
March 2011
8 posts
2 tags
Where does a story belong?
I have a confession to make: I think I want to write a novel. A standard middle-class confession but bear with me:
I am surprisingly confident that I have an excellent and highly original concept. I’ve thought about it a lot and I can see its potential.
I don’t yet have any characters or story-lines, but I do see possible beginnings for how a story could develop through the...
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Guy News Special: Inside the Guardian’s Tax Dodges... →
I have no grudge against the often excellent Guardian, but when one insists on being so consistently ‘right-on’, it’s noteworthy when one is found with their trousers down with the rest of us.
Of course they can retain some of that high ground by giving back the £60 million they saved by dissolving the trust before the Auto Trader sell-off. Likely? Um, not very.
tetw asked: Tetw - a Tumblr dedicated to classic journalism and narrative non-fiction - would like to know: What is you favourite article, feature or essay of all time?
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“Umberto Eco once wrote a memorable essay arguing that the Apple Mac was a...”
– John Naughton - The Observer
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Insurance, Gender and Rights.
With the current climate of stammering monarchs in full season across L.A and the Middle East, the European Court of Justice ruling against gender-based insurance policy made only a small dent in the news feeds of the UK. In a slower news week, I think this would’ve sparked an interesting debate on the meaning of equality, as this is something of a landmark ruling, albeit a quiet one.
...
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“I heard that fucking Radiohead record and I just go, ‘What?!’ I like to think...”
– Liam Gallagher. Obviously a very funny man, but he did once write a song about an All Saint.
February 2011
8 posts
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“The first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle...”
– HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!! Care of Wikipedia and a boy whose girl is overseas and so is having a spot of bah humbug.
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Christian astrophysicist's payoff story given...
I came across this article from New Scientist and I initially found it interesting, but was made uneasy by its undertone. Have a read for yourself:
Religion no excuse for promoting scientific ignorance - science-in-society - 08 February 2011 - New Scientist
Mr Gaskell was a highly qualified scientist who was denied a job on the basis that his commitment to science might, and indeed had, been...
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The Morning after the Deluge: "Languages of... →
Do things with colour? Write about it perhaps? Maybe submit some work for this then! I might, if this cold ever leaves my poor head.
January 2011
5 posts
1 tag
Our Myriad Devices - a poem about the senses.
I’ve been thinking a little about the senses we humans have developed and wanted to do a post about them. Then I decided to, ahem, cut to the chaste and write a poem instead. Such is life.
OUR MYRIAD DEVICES
Through senses; the essence
Of human start
Our myriad devices
Roots to our heart
Eyes that feel
Energy waves
Matter distilled
To show us a way
Sound is motion
Of beautiful...
Nile Rodgers - an all time hero - discusses his... →
Get well soon Mr Rodgers. I particularly like the term ‘Planet C’ - it has an insular surreality about it that really hits home, unlike the clinical dryness of the C word.
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Thoughts on Guns and Immigration in the US
The tragic shooting in Arizona yesterday has led me to reflect on the great and strange land of America, a land that fascinates me as a person and has real impact on my life as a UK citizen. It is too easy for British people to assume that because we share a language and a good deal of culture, we have similar values. Yet, in my short experience of America itself and through meeting its people...
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