• Making the extraordinary seem ordinary

    A couple of days ago over dinner, I was having one of those typical university conversations about whether the Internet had really changed the world. As was pointed out, “We’re still not buying all of our groceries over the web.” I replied with something about delivery of large perishable goods and how in fact the…

  • Never good enough

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    The big news today is that Apple has launched its new music service. $.99 for a single track and $10 for an album. However, the folks at MetaFilter are positivery derisory of the entire scheme, even though it has almost no DRM issues (burn to CD effectively as many times as you want). What do…

  • Natural Artifacts

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    Natural Artifacts – a well-written post at MetaFilter by someone who has written a program that generates images without human output. Is it art? The creator says no.

  • Smoky

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    Support For New York-Style Smoking Ban – the results of a MORI poll conducted in the UK on whether we should have a smoking ban. One question: is it standard in America to have smoking and non-smoking areas in restaurants, and if so, do they work well? I can’t remember from my previous visits.

  • Pinker on the Stand

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    Pinker on the stand – a transcript of talk and discussion given by Steve Pinker on ‘Human Nature and Its Future’. I can’t say I learned anything particularly new from the talk itself, but Pinker receives a real roasting in the discussion about the concepts of criminal justice and what implications our new understanding of…

  • The Sands Of Time

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    Update on the Civilization 3: Culture Game – we now have seven confirmed players, and will be starting as soon as our last player receives his copy of Civ3 and PTW, eighth player or no eighth player. Here is a revised version of a recruiting email I sent out yesterday: To those who are wavering:…

  • Culture Wars

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    Do you have a taste for world domination? Have you got a copy of Civilization 3 and the Play The World expansion pack? If so, sign up for the Civilization 3: Culture Game, starting in the next few days! The Culture mailing list is holding a Play-By-Email eight player game, and we are currently looking…

  • Time wasting

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    Touch TV moves closer – is any further information required to conclude that MIT Media Lab Dublin is a time and money wasting operation of the highest calibre?

  • Talking

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    It’s seems like I’m not the only one who’s having problems talking lately. Not talking in general, but talking about emotive issues (i.e. the war, politics, etc.) Normally I’m perfectly happy to be contrary and debate with people, but I just find it much more difficult these days. It’s not simply that it requires more…

  • MP blog

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    Tom Watson (Labour MP) may be under the scrutiny of the web for his patently joking Teens Page but I’m more impressed by the fact that he actually has a weblog. Not just that, but it’s regularly updated, written by himself, and runs Movable Type. Even better, it isn’t a constant litany of propaganda. How…