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The Name of the Gene
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1–2 minutes·
No comments on The Name of the GeneWhile studying biology and genetics at Cambridge, we learned the names of a lot of genes. One of these was Sonic Hedgehog, a rather important gene involved in development of many organisms. Our lecturers always seemed inordinately pleased to tell us this gene’s name, perhaps hoping that the ‘cool’ name would rub off on the…
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Who supports longer copyright?
Various news outlets today have been claiming that the Public ‘support longer copyright’. I quote from the BBC article: 62% of people polled by YouGov for the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) think UK artists should be protected for 95 years, as they are in the US. I found this very surprising – I can hardly…
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Singularitarian
“[When] there are wireless chips in my clothes, when I get up in the morning it’s going to simplify my life enormously. There’s all this stuff I won’t have to consciously think about anymore. If I don’t know where my cowboy boots are, they will tell me.” – Bruce Sterling I quite like Bruce Sterling’s…
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On Bullshit
During my weekly trawl through the New York Times Magazine a couple of weeks ago, I came across an interview with Harry Frankfurt, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton, about his new book, On Truth. This was a followup to his book from last year, On Bullshit, which I’d heard a little about but had…
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Bafta Video Games Awards
As a result of speaking at the London Games Summit, I was invited to last week’s Bafta Video Games Awards (at least, I think that was the reason). While Perplex City hadn’t been nominated, I figured that I really couldn’t turn down the invitation, if not for politeness’ sake, for the free drink and potentially…
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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Simply reading the title causes a mental car crash of headline proportions, with ‘crazy Japanese game’ causing the first casualty, closely followed by ‘a game about lawyers?’ and then ‘I need to find out more’. While I love graphical adventure games, I’ve never played a Japanese one. From my limited understanding…
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Doctor Who on Earth
Despite my dislike in the direction that Doctor Who is currently going (immature jokes, nonsensical plots), I found Russell T Davies’ remarks on why Doctor Who never seems to leave Earth very refreshing: “People will say, ‘Why doesn’t he visit alien planets more often?’” he said. “But that’s because they are expensive. They’re hugely expensive.”…
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Indy!
Yesterday I went to see a matinee performance of Raiders of the Lost Ark at the local cinema. It’s a popular film, to be sure, but I didn’t really expect there to be many people watching it at Sunday lunchtime, especially since Clapham is known for its bars and clubs. You can tell where this…
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