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Currently watching Twin Peaks for the first time and really liking it. "You just uttered the magic words. I take it black as a moonless night." Someone really ought to mention this piece by David Foster Wallace he did for Premiere magazine where he visited the set for Lost Highway...

The Evening Standard reports, "Church given £600,000 after being 'sickened and disgusted' by NoW." Now I have frequently been sickened and disgusted by many of Rupert Murdoch's publications, but am yet to receive a penny. Once again, it's one rule for the rich and famous, one rule for the rest...

I did buy the Sunday Sun today, and even by their standards it's a huge pile of turd. It doesn't even have the wit the Sun usually has. By going soft on the front with Amanda Holden, ccombined with largely positive non-stories (and no scoops other than a feature about Luis Suarez' granny that...

Comelately: The Moral Landscape is a book I wanted to read when it came out but never got round to it. What do you mean by "objectivist nutjobs"? And how exactly did Dawkins -- or was it Sam Harris, since it's not clear from what you say -- respond to them? If it's anything like the way Dawkins...

I don't think Dawkins is advocating evil science though.

For a start, he says that horrific things have been done in the name of religion, yet it was Hitler's atheism that opened the floodgates for such evil. And he falls into that old nonsense that radical atheism is just like another religion, which I don't think it is. As though all atheists...

Regarding postmodern/continental philosophy: it can be wanky, verbose, impenetrable, etc. But so can analytic philosophers. Ever tried to read Wittgenstein? It's no less clear or penetrable than Derrida.

John Gray recently wrote a negative review of Chomsky's latest book, which was a terrible review. I remember reading it and thinking that Gray was misrepresenting Chomsky's position -- that "America is virtually the sole obstacle to peace in the world," -- and critiquing it. Now I just Googled...

If ours is only one universe out of thousands/millions/infinite numbers of possible others, does a fact have to apply there as well, six-hundred quadrillion miles away, where they may well be operating in a whole different time-space continuum, where time travel may be possible, where there are...

Well, fire being hot and ice being cold are relative experiences. The words are artificial signifiers for human experience, which is, quite obviously, relative. Ice may seem uncomfortable and 'cold' to us, but not so to life that may or may not live in the far-out regions of space. As with...

No. There is no real word to describe a drug that makes you able to concentrate better that doesn't make you grind your teeth (other than 'smart drug', which is kind of misleading since I don't thinker they actually make you smarter per se), which is what I mean by 'head strengthener'.

In my arguments with the aforementioned girl, that was the point she would make to rebut my arguments for relativism. Maybe I am the slow one in the class who has missed the point. But I don't think I have. I understand the linguistic contradiction of stating "There are no facts" as fact. But I...

Perhaps this should be the topic of another thread, but I don't see the relevance of Zizek or Derrida to pretty much anything. I mean, the former is a neo-Marxist believes socialist revolution is nigh, and the latter is an impenetrable elitist who disguises his lack of coherent argument by...

Think I still have some Modafinil from when I was taking exams. That's not speed though. More like a mix between coffee and head-strengthener.

Apologies for not seeing the earlier thread about the bus campaign, although that is a more specific point than a broader theological debate, which is what I was looking for. All the stuff about defining God as a vague, undefined force, the creator of science &c. irritates me in the sense that...

After reading yet another hatchet job targeting ol' Dicky Dawkins from the right-wing press, I feel a Dissensus debate about the virtues of Dawkins (and his brand of aggressive atheism) is long overdue. So here's my two-pence worth: I like him. He's got style, and manages to demolish religious...

To reiterate a point I have already made in another outlet: Please stop with the Whitney Houston tributes. You never gave a fuck when she was alive. It seems like yet another case of the trendy muso/media community embracing mainstream artists to show just how un-elitist they are. This is in...

Greenland? I thought they were dirt poor, or they would be if Denmark didn't give them loads of money.

I will certainly be buying the first edition of the Sun on Sunday, if only to laugh/scream in anger at the inevitable first editorial, which will be full of contrition, mention the words 'learnt from our mistakes', and pledges to abide by the law, the PCC Code, the Ten Commandments, etc. It will...

Thanks again guys, really making life a lot more pleasurable at this end. In terms of context, I have always been curious about Bollywood and whether there are any films that stand up as being as good (i.e. engaging, emotionally and intellectually) as 'western' movies. I will check out Pyaasa...