Thanks for clicking by...

Gathered here are thoughts on literature, faith, technology, education, culture and anything else that interests me. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Posts may be written quickly... this is a blog not a book, and there is a difference! Feel free to add comments; I won't edit them, if you promise not to sell meds ;-)

Back from Greenbelt | Other

In conversation with… Kester Brewin from Greenbelt Festival on Vimeo. Fantastic time at Greenbelt. Was brilliant to meet up with old friends and have some time to catch up. It was also really good to be able to speak about ‘Other’ and engage with people about the ideas that it throws up. I hope that [...]

Share

Stephen Fry on What Went Wrong with Christianity…

An imperfect argument, I’m sure. But some powerful words here that we’d all do well to heed. It’s 20 mins long, but well worth a listen – especially in his plea to see theological nonsenses like purgatory for what they are – unbiblical, manipulative crap. His conclusion that Jesus would be cast out of the [...]

Share

I Was Blind, But Now I See…

Absolutely fascinating programme on BBC Radio 4, looking at the cases of Sidney Bradford and Mike May, both of whom lost their sight very early in life, and were then lucky enough to be able to have it restored years later. What is it like to grow up blind, and then be able to see [...]

Share

Police, Government, Church: Violence and Cover-Ups in Northern Ireland

The report into the horrific bombings in the village of Claudy in 1972 – in which 9 people were killed – has been published today. It appears to make sickening reading: The Police Ombudsman found talks between the Catholic Church, the police and the government led to a priest suspected of involvement in the attack [...]

Share

Catching Up | Greenbelt Talks preview…

Just got back from a couple of weeks holiday where I took a proper break from posting. Space to think about other stuff really, and ‘Devon’ and ‘Wireless Network’ are not immediately at home in the same sentence yet. This weekend I’ll be off to Greenbelt, where I’m doing two talks expanding on some of [...]

Share

Original Pirate Material…

Being in that part of the UK for holiday, and hearing on the grapevine that a few people are interested in exploring the thinking I’ve been doing around Hakim Bey’s work on pirates and TAZ, I thought I’d round up a few things here… Firstly, the series of posts I did on ‘A Plea for [...]

Share

Holidays…

Going to be away for a couple of weeks, so won’t be posting much… I will be in Devon though, which is good pirate territory, so who knows what timbers might get shivered. I’m going to be speaking at Greenbelt at the end of August, and very much looking forward to engaging in the ideas [...]

Share

The Unconscious Microscope | Monsters

Fascinating series of images in The Daily Telegraph. Using an electron microscope, scientists have taken photographs (then recoloured) of bugs and insects… and it’s amazing just how ‘monstrous’ they look. It’s as if the human unconscious has its own microscope which has always been aware of these bizarre life-forms, which are so similar to the [...]

Share

Into Great Science | Solar Flares

Very interesting report today in the Telegraph that NASA have detected a large solar flare erupting from the sun – which is likely to cause some spectacular displays of the northern and southern lights. These ‘coronal mass injections’ are actually a source of immense worry for disaster planners, as the largest eruption could result in [...]

Share