mssv

  • On Religion

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    1–2 minutes

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    5 comments on On Religion

    When I was 16, I was a member of my school’s debating society. As with all school debating societies, it wasn’t long before we landed on the topic of ‘Science vs. Religion’. It shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that, at the time, I strongly self-identified as a scientist and atheist, and so I naturally…

  • School of Dreams

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    4–6 minutes

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    School of Dreams by Edward Humes My secondary school (or high school, for you American folks) was a rather pleasant private school in Birkenhead, across the water from Liverpool. You could make a fair argument for saying that it was the best secondary school in the area, although there were a few others that were…

  • Petals Around The Rose

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    2–3 minutes

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    2 comments on Petals Around The Rose

    In the About page on my weblog, it says that I am a puzzle designer. For various reasons this is not a great description but it works. In any case, when I tell people that I’m a puzzle designer, they invariably get very excited and start asking me about all sorts of stuff, like ‘What…

  • Rosetta

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    1–2 minutes

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    I was idly flicking through a book someone gave me about hieroglyphics when I decided to look up the Rosetta Stone in the index. I was initially consternated and then outraged when I couldn’t find it – what sorry excuse of a hieroglyphics book was this if it doesn’t have anything about the Rosetta Stone…

  • Happenings

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    1–2 minutes

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    Lots of stuff has been going on with my life lately which I should have mentioned here but just haven’t had time. I was interviewed by the Times a couple of weeks ago in an article on alternate reality games and a pop neuroscience book which I contributed to called Mind Hacks has been released…

  • Bangalore World University

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    In about six hours I’ll be hopping on board a taxi that will begin a magical journey to Bangalore (in south India), taking in Heathrow, Zurich and Mumbai. Oh, when I say ‘magical’, what I mean is ‘excessively long, unexciting and very likely stressful and unclean’. Once I get to Bangalore and meet my friend…

  • Fight the good fight

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    2–3 minutes

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    3 comments on Fight the good fight

    I’ve often wondered what it is I’d like to do in my life. Science, Mars, politics (of the non-traditional sort), education, alternate reality games have all appealed and continue to appeal. But perhaps one of the things I feel most passionately about is intelligent thinking and rational thought – science and the enlightenment, in short.…

  • Halfway there

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    3–5 minutes

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    1 comment on Halfway there

    There were no toilets, and it was windy. Those are probably the two things that I’ll remember about the half marathon I completed about three hours ago in Liverpool. I arrived at the Albert Dock at about 9:15am for the 10am start, and a few nasty things became apparent to me. Firstly, the aforementioned lack…

  • Lord

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    1–2 minutes

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    20 comments on Lord

    Among the usual CDs and bills that I pick up in the mail whenever I return to Oxford was a strange package claiming that I’d bought the rights to one acre of land in the Loch Borralan Estate. Within the package was a certificate declaring me ‘Lord Hon of Loch Borralan’, a map of my…

  • Fluxions

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    2–3 minutes

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    2 comments on Fluxions

    Once again, I’ve neglected my weblog for far too long and unfortunately for the next month or so I won’t be able to post much else either. Predictably, I’ve been very busy, but at least I can say something about it now. The big news is that I have decided to leave my PhD here…