2018-12-31 17:34
There are lists. There are lists of lists. And, presumably, there are lists of lists of lists. If I were going to make a list of lists, which I’m not, it would be about books, and it w… Read More
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2016-03-19 18:53
I spent a good part of a day in February with Richard Mabey, and wrote a piece for The Telegraph, which was just published (see note). Here's a passage from Mabey's biography of Flora Thomps… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
The apparent confusion between the reality of dreams and the reality of waking life... allows writers to use dreams to question reality without having to attempt an impossible imitation of a… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
I submitted a piece to Comment is Free at The Guardian. They didn't take it. Here it is.Into the LabyrinthThe Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges has many monsters. Among them is t… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
At a talk at the Oxford Martin School titled Artificial intelligence: examining the interface between brain and machine, I asked Anders Sandberg what role, if any, cultural products, includi… Read More
2016-03-18 19:01
Musah Muhammad lives between the dump and the stagnant lagoon. His is unequivocally the worst bit of land in Sodom and Gomorrah, a freshly reclaimed patch of silt and trash. It would likely… Read More
2015-12-24 12:05
Much but not all of what I read this year was work-related. My recommendations are:Owning the Earth by Andro LinklaterCosmigraphics by Michael BensonThe Vital Question by Nick LaneClad… Read More
2015-12-01 22:43
...There’s an ethnography of Alaska’s Athabascan peoples, by Richard Nelson, called Make Prayers to the Raven. Its gist is that these “animist” folks don’t reve… Read More
2015-09-13 20:16
I have review essay on Alberto Manguel's Curiosity in The Guardian today. Here are some further notes.as children... Recalling a childhood very different from Kulka's, Ann… Read More
2015-06-12 17:03
Q. What aspects of the music did not prompt a universal response? A. We looked at whether the music evoked happy/joyful or sad/scary feelings, and got a positive/negative rating. We use… Read More
2015-03-19 15:13
I have contributed a comment to the blog for the Inspired by Blake* festival in Oxford, which begins on 18 January. This follows a post for A New Map of Wonders last month.Something t… Read More
2015-02-26 12:17
Here are a few additional notes and comments relating to a review of The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time published in The Guardian. the distinction between… Read More
2015-02-13 21:21
My recommendations for this year include:Listen: an interview about Syria with the surgeon David Nott and many episodes of Radiolab but e.g. Translation.Reportage/Analysis/Opinion: Jame… Read More
2015-02-07 12:39
For rebellious behaviour, slaves are pinned to the ground, and burned by degrees from the feet and hands, burning them gradually up to the head, whereby their pains are extravagant...For cri… Read More
2014-11-10 10:52
I have a review of Ten Million Aliens by Simon Barnes in the Telegraph. The following passage was cut in the edit:...The point is no less true for being a bit of a cliche. Indeed… Read More
2014-10-28 23:38
Paul Kingsnorth's LRB review of This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein and Don't Even Think About It by George Marshall is worth a read. For example, Klein's determination to make… Read More
2014-10-28 23:36
We live in these places out of necessity, lucky to have them out of the terrible explosion of humanity. But we visit and remember lakes, forests, architecture, cities of wonder, unruly templ… Read More
2014-10-22 09:50
On 4 May I presented a small Cabinet of Curiosities for the Anthropocene at the First Athens Science Festival. The event was filmed. Here is a list of the objects that made the cut:1… Read More
2014-09-07 07:33
This post contains some additional notes and comments to my review of The Copernicus Complex by Caleb Scharf, which is published here. I suggested the Telegraph use this photograph with the… Read More
2014-07-22 15:49
At a talk at the Oxford Martin School titled Artificial intelligence: examining the interface between brain and machine, I asked Anders Sandberg what role, if any, cultural products, includi… Read More
2014-07-22 15:46
Hopis are very conscious of the (non-monetary) value of their land, and have persistently refused to accept compensation for losses of parts of it. A 1970s Indian Claims Commission award o… Read More
2014-07-22 15:43
I have a review in The Guardian of Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom and A Rough Ride to the Future by James Lovelock. I wasn't sure it would work to pair these books, but it seems to have t… Read More
2014-06-10 19:56
...At first there weren't any rivers either, the waters ran deep under the ground. All you could hear of them was a distant roar, like that of powerful rapids. They formed a great waterway t… Read More
2014-02-18 10:56
Prompted by a recommendation here, I am reading The Reindeer People by Piers Vitebsky. He relates that the Eveny of Siberian used to say that reindeer were created by the sky god… Read More
2014-02-18 10:49
I have a review of The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert in The Guardian. Here are a few notes and comments on points which I didn't manage to fit in the review or, if I did, got c… Read More
2014-01-20 10:35
I have a review in The Guardian of Sonic Wonderland by Trevor Cox. Here are some further notes.Several of the wonders mentioned in Sonic Wonderland can be heard here. Also check out Ch… Read More
2014-01-03 15:19
A cheerful report (Nuclear war would 'end civilization' with famine, study says) puts me in mind of the first book in a “top five” I was asked to contribute to The Big Issue rec… Read More
2014-01-01 22:56
Nietzsche...warned that the emergence of something, whether an organ, legal institution or a religious ritual is never to be confused with its acquired purposes. “Anything in existence… Read More
2013-11-23 18:32
He was seeing beyond the surfaces of the land to its hidden truths. Some nights he sat up late on his front porch with a glass of Jack and listened to the trucks… Read More
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