Monthly Archives: February 2006

Dennett on God

Posted on February 20, 2006 by acb

I have written a fairly rude review of Dan Dennett’s new book on God, which will in due course appear in the _Guardian._ But the piece that the _New York Times_ published on it fills me with sympathy for the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 10 Comments

Shelley

Posted on February 19, 2006 by acb

One of the stupidest things I ever did was to decide, at an impressionable age, that since Shelley was respectable, I wanted nothing to do with him. He is a thinker of extraordinary toughness and force who just happened to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | 1 Comment

Black Tartan Wombat

Posted on February 19, 2006 by acb

If you are near London, and hurry, you may find in the basement of _Forbidden Planet_ a sale of the paperback collected editions of Brian Aldiss’ novels at a pound each. They were just coming out when “I profiled him”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/saturday_review/story/0,,507564,00.html … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | 1 Comment

West coast fried braincells

Posted on February 17, 2006 by acb

Not to warm up any deadhead jokes — though we still don’t know how many copies of the the Eleven Mrs I-am-not-a-Deadhead Tilton has — but there is enormous fun to be had [“here”:http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/Static.aspx?Type=Audio/Radio.htm&CategoryID=RA&LeftNav=Audio/RadioNav.htm] where the vaults of the Bill … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 1 Comment

A snotty youth

Posted on February 16, 2006 by acb

I was trying to remember the circumstances in which “Auberon Waugh caused a mob to burn down”:http://fray.slate.com/id/2119392/ the British consulate in Rawalpindi — it was one of his favourite stories — and so pulled from the shelves “The _Spectator_ anthology”:http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0246133953/andrewbrownssite … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The philosopher, the butterfly, and the police

Posted on February 15, 2006 by acb

I used to play with the idea of a detective story in which all of the victim’s character (and so destiny) emerged from a study of the traces they had left in databases — what they had read in the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Net stories | 1 Comment

The philosopher, the butterfly, and the cache

Posted on February 15, 2006 by acb

Everyone knows that Google keeps a cache of the internet; if you think it through, it’s obvious that this means there are at least two internets — the one where all the sites actually are, and the copy of everything … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Net stories | 2 Comments

Why babies cry

Posted on February 14, 2006 by acb

This is a really silly idea, but I like it. Just got back from a couple of nights in Edinburgh, where amongst other things, we had supper with Louise-who-comments-here and the talked moved naturally to witchcraft trials. They hardly tortured … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 2 Comments

An interesting task

Posted on February 12, 2006 by acb

Two projects for next month: I will make another _Analysis_ programme on what the government’s policy towards domestic Islamic terrorism actually is; and I will produce a longish essay for the _Guardian_ looking at whether it is true – as … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 2 Comments

ungrateful

Posted on February 8, 2006 by acb

Every six months or so I think that I must get a download from the Grateful Dead music store; it takes about that long to forget how awful the system is. They have a site which doesn’t work with firefox … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 10 Comments