Monthly Archives: November 2008

Profit without Honour

There an excellent review by Adam Mars-Jones of the latest pile of Paulo Coelho in an old Observer. There aren’t many authors more despicable than Jeffery Archer, who has at least written two half-decent books and is not fooling anyone. … Continue reading

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Experimental philosophy?

I don’t really like philosophers.. but if they are going to start conducting experiments I am all for it. [video:youtube:sHoyMfHudaE]

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TEST CARD

As you may have noticed I’ve upgraded the blog software to give me all the lovely goodness of b2evolution 2.4.2 .. It has meant that I’ve lost some of my layouts but happily I didn’t lose any of the content. … Continue reading

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colourful character

For the last four months I have had turquoise coloured hair. It’s purely a vanity thing, this turns out to suit me very well and I now have a rule that for each compliment I get I can keep it … Continue reading

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The genesis of ‘gene’

Chance in the house of fate (A natural history of heredity) by Jennifer G. Ackerman (Bloomsbury, 2001) is a slightly frustrating popular science book. As you might infer from the title, the author is rather prone to purple prose. She … Continue reading

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Brainiacs live long and prosper..

This week’s Nature contains an essay by Ian Deary on the well-established but somewhat mysterious finding that intelligent people live longer. He cites one particular study of approx 1 million men who completed national service in Sweden. They were followed … Continue reading

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The Zen Cocktail

three years ago i made the new year’s resolution never to drink the same drink twice in one day. That year I kept my resolution religiously and i enjoyed it so much that the next year I carried on in … Continue reading

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Thesis finally finished.

Here’s how it begins.. Rules and Similarity in the Development of Category Learning in Children and Infants The Purist I give you now Professor Twist, A conscientious scientist, Trustees exclaimed, “He never bungles!” And sent him off to distant jungles. … Continue reading

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Francis Bacon says “Be the bee..”

The nature/nuture or Rationalist/Empricist debate has been going on a long time. This is kind of strange considering almost everyone who addresses always says that personally they think it’s a little from column A and a little from column B. … Continue reading

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