The normalisation of horror

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Fun-filled distraction for concentration camp staff (pdf). Far-reaching influence of breakfast cereal. "We need to consider that [Osama] bin Laden in launching 9/11, he and his compatriots may have anticipated, and indeed invited American intervention, wishing to draw them into their territory and defeat them like they did with the Soviets", says Afghanistan expert Dan Plasch. Which is exactly what Bin Laden said in 1996 in an interview with then-journalist Abdul Bari Atwan (video).

The nature of mirrors

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Story of the two schoolboys who spent seven years remaking Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. View from the ground; a journalist in Iraq. The technological revolution that is changing the nature of war. The irrationality of deciding whom to vote for. The hidden legacy of Nikola Tesla. Brain cell versus (image) the universe. That is not how you do it, you fail.

The lugubrious, absurd and brilliant

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Terribly awful journalism. The joy of pursuing the absurd, people who read dictionaries. What is the role of character in society? Life at the bottom of the ocean. Amazing photos of the still virgin Large Hadron Collider. A quest to getting one's head around memory. More on memory palaces. A discourse between Benjamin Franklin and... the gout. Review (with pop-up ad) of a new book about Kafka. Article on the moral opposites of Dostoyevski and the Marquis de Sade. Geniuses aren't necessarily born that way. The lugubrious way of life of behaviour-modifying parasites. Mind Muphry's Law and think twice before you correct someone's spelling. The deceit of Amazon reviews. A dedicated pastry chef if there ever was one. Who really were the 'responsible' parties of the Love Canal disaster? Britain, like any country, has hordes of deeply befuddled people.