• The Pile of Doom

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    If you wander into the home of a book-lover, you will find books everywhere, arranged neatly on shelves, lying on tables, sitting behind the toilet and stacked beside the bed. These are the books that have been read, and they enjoy a happy and fulfilled existence. There is a darker side to life in this…

  • Tutorials &c.

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    So many things have happened in the past week! A final success at badminton, boardgame tournaments, computational neuroscience, strange and wonderful things happening on the next planet out, lots of good new books, and tutorials. I will deal with them all in time, but first, tutorials. One of the distinguishing features of Oxbridge is the…

  • The Law of Averages

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    Today started out well. I had a very interesting introductory lecture on computational neuroscience, and when I cycled back to college afterwards, I discovered that a whole bunch of stuff I’d ordered over the Internet had arrived, including my new TV. Now, the TV weighs about 25kg, and the walk back home is about half…

  • Between Heaven and Earth

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    About every month I visit Cambridge for the weekend to see friends and usually play lots of Counterstrike. It’s always a whirlwind visit because I try to meet up with as many people as possible during the two and a half days I’m there; on Saturday I think I overloaded on tea and hot chocolate…

  • Work and hair

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    My first chemicals arrived today! It may come as a surprise to many, but it isn’t the case (not entirely, anyway) that I just hang around in Oxford waiting for interesting things to happen – occasionally I do some real research. In preparation for an experiment on the mouse visual system, I’ve ordered a bunch…

  • Ares Express Issue 1

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    Ares Express – I’ve just finished writing the first issue of a new weekly newsletter at New Mars that will highlight the best threads and discussion in the forums, as well as links to Mars news across the Internet. I’m hoping that the bulk of subsequent issues will consist of submissions from forum members.

  • Renewed Mars

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    I’d be quite surprised if readers of this weblog didn’t know about my assorted Mars adventures both on and off the web, but it’s been a while since I’ve talked about them so here’s an update about New Mars, one of my longest running projects. The New Mars forums have, as I predicted a few…

  • Strike Back

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    A recent conversation: Him: I need to get a new mouse for my computer – the right button doesn’t work any more. Me: Hmm, that sucks. I guess it means that you can’t- Him: Yeah, I can’t crouch in Counterstrike any more, I can hardly play it now. [beat] Me: I was going to say,…

  • KSR is Missing

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    Artists and the Red Planet – It seems scarcely possible, but BBC News Online has written an article about Mars novels and films, and managed to leave out Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy. This is not a trifling omission; KSR’s trilogy is unchallenged as being the best and most important modern fiction about Mars. And…

  • Lost in Translation

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    I saw Lost in Translation with a few friends this afternoon. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this film ever since I heard about it months ago, and my expectations reached soaring heights as it received universally positive reviews. I was a little worried, consequently, that even a great film would turn out to be…