Kester Brewin

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Interesting piece in The Independent about the battle over the right to remain anonymous online – especially as waged in World of Warcraft recently. That’s not a world I have ever ventured into, but many many have, and, as Rhodri Marsden sets out: Female players were particularly concerned, very aware that revealing their gender could invite [...]

I’ve said it many times here before, but if you haven’t already tuned in to Radio 4′s ‘In Our Time‘ archive on your iTunes, then you’re seriously missing out. Listening to it I’m always reminded of the great quote in Good Will Hunting where Will quips to a Harvard student: you wasted $150,000 on an [...]

An excellent article in the New York Times the other day – ‘Hooked on Gadgets and Paying a Mental Price‘ – which explores the mental and relational cost of screen-addiction, plotting the story of one family who are all, in their own way, too hooked on gadgets: Mr. Campbell continues to struggle with the effects [...]

The iPad goes on sale in the UK tomorrow, and there will doubtless be countless smug faces like the one above, leaving Apple stores with new devices that will enhance their lives and make everything go so smoothly and swimmingly. So spare a thought for the exhausted workers who make these devices for us in [...]

An interesting story today about a scientist who implanted a microchip in his hand, which he then deliberately infected with a computer virus. He uses the chip to open doors and activate his mobile phone (weirdly, as his biological hand might seem the best tool to do that) but has now shown that his infected [...]

In a documentary to be shown shortly, Stephen Hawking has suggested that: a) alien life almost certainly exists in other parts of the universe, and b) it will probably not be friendly. If such life is found, or finds us, I think it will have a profound effect on our idea of ‘the other.’ In [...]

[ Lock In [1] ]  [ Lock In [2] ] Finally got my hands on Lanier’s book. Been devouring it like a good doughnut. In the last post I explained how Sartre sets up this paradox: we are what we are, but precisely part of our being is that we are not simply what we are. Having [...]