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Continue reading →: Speed writing 101
The real trick with speed writing is to gush and not worry about it. Imagine yourself suddenly Stephen Fried, and the words will tumble out of you in a style that is all your own. It might not be any good, but you’ll have tons to edit . Staring into…
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Continue reading →: Hair, shoes, accessories and other essentials
A person without hair is fashionable but is it stylish? Similarly, one could brave the high street without shoes, handbag, designer clothes or smartphone, but would it be frowned upon by people in the know? Personally I don’t feel properly attired without a shirt, and reach for my shotgun at…
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Continue reading →: Sport as warfare
Controlled agression, when channeled into sporting activities and refereed to an internationally accepted set of rules and principles, is a great thing to watch, or even participate in. It evokes strong allegiances and heightens emotions. A winning team, punch, try or throw will often be spectacular and captivate the spectators.…
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Continue reading →: Change or Status Quo?
How do you persuade a world community, if such a thing exists, to change the predominant triggers and levers crudely summarised as: fear, selfishness, instant gratification, greed and the belief in the superiority of certainty? Perhaps that’s taking on too many windmills to tilt at. But in an ideal world we…
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Continue reading →: Grub Street grabs authors by their recipes
I like the notion of treasure passed up for years, and then re-discovered by a publishing house that has the wisdom to appreciate the longevity of good writing. A case in point, Elisabeth Luard’s gem of a book, A Cook’s Year in a Welsh Farmhouse. Now I have to come clean…
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Continue reading →: I don’t mind if I do have a sense of collective consciousness
Other minds.. how do we know, or think we know, what is in the minds of others? Is there such a thing as ‘collective consciousness’? There is a vague recollection of my year’s studying Philosophy of Mind at the OU, that hints at communication being a lot more complicated than…
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Continue reading →: Who really is Sarkozy’s personal philosophical adviser, Bernard-Henri Lévy?
When politicians are on the ropes, rather than come out slugging, there appears to be a new strategy – get a philosopher in your corner and all will be well. If all does not go well, you have a scapegoat on hand. Alternatively your pocket philosopher can bamboozle and obfuscate…
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Continue reading →: Mountain, bike, bog and the true meaning of awesome
The mountain beckoned and I heeded its call. The steady ascent up the steep incline had shifted the hangover somewhat. It had been so long since my last cycle across the range of hills and mountains, I was a bit disorientated and picked the wrong access route. Ploughing on regardless…
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Continue reading →: 2012 – by the neck
Auld lang syne is over now for another year. Should old acquaintance be forgotten? I think it is often for the best, particularly those that have gone off and are beginning to smell rank. Acquaintanceships (dictionary.com’s definition helps out with the French derivation – loosely interpreted as those guys in…
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Continue reading →: Algerian rocks pillars of academe
How could I forget Jacques Derrida’s name? Algerian by birth, Jewish by heritage, and an extraordinary philosopher. Someone who got up the noses of traditional academics, so that an honorary title which was his due, was withheld. If philosophy has as one of its goals the search for truth, Derrida…
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