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Yearly Archives: 2007
A thought on reading Tariq Ramadan
Perhaps the most important thing about learning religion young is that we tend to internalise the phrases and the doctrine, gradually introducing sense into our understanding, as well as meaning. And then one comes across the same thing done from … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in God
2 Comments
Some notes on “The Islamist”
As part of my Templeton reading I have finally grabbed a copy of (Moham)Ed Husain’s book the Islamist, which is an account of a smart Bangladeshi kid and how he got drawn into Hizb ut Tahrir before rejecting them for … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in God
Comments Off on Some notes on “The Islamist”
A cultural injunction
The Lives of Others is not only a very good film, though I think it would have been better had it ended with the car accident, but it has inspired a remarkable piece of film criticism from Timothy Garton Ash. … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Blather, Journalism
Comments Off on A cultural injunction
Vain echoes, desisting.
I have devoured Zachary Leader’s biography of Kingsley Amis, whom I hugely admire, and I wish in some ways that the book had been twice as long. But any life of Amis must have elements of a temperance tract, and … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Literature
Comments Off on Vain echoes, desisting.
You can’t sacrifice a taxi driver
This is what I have decided that the programme I have been working on this week should be called. It is about brain plasticity; in particular the mysterious phenomenon of adult human neurogenesis. For obvious reasons, this is easier to … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Journalism
8 Comments
Some notes on American capitalism
I wanted a pay-as-you-go sim card. A Radio shack in Greenwich Village offered me the sim on its own for $35 or the sim in a motorola phone for $20. The sheer lunatic profligacy is what strikes one first: that … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in Travel notes
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Why I buy thinkpads
I never know why people buy any laptop that isn’t an ultralight thinkpad. The mixture of light weight, robustness, and service seems to me unbeatable. Until, yesterday, on an aeroplane somewhere south of Nova Scotia, I flipped the thing over … Continue reading Continue reading
Posted in nördig
2 Comments