Psybertron Asks

Indeed a strange skewed must-read list for such high status from The Grauniad. [via Sam]

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Bible
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
1984 by George Orwell
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

Compiled by “British Librarians”. Where to start with disagreeing ?

From XKCD.

Every picture tells a story.

From an ever expanding and linked collection at FFFF (via Rivets)

Noticed previews and reviews all over the place for the film of Philip Pullman’s “The Golden Compass”, but ignored them due to some prejudice against Pullman and “His Dark Materials” – I think I only drew any earlier conclusion when I saw some TV vote “contest” concering Pullman, J K Rowling and J R R Tolkien up against DNA’s H2G2. Anyway, must have got the wrong impression of Pullman’s position.

Very interesting e-mail interview with Pullman by Peter Chattaway on FilmChat, sent to me by Sam.

Perhaps a little too cock-sure, but very direct about Dawkins, Tolkien, C S Lewis and Rowling, but a perspective I’d sympathise with. Probably too extreme a “materialist” for my “new-physicalist” position. More later.

Interesting, Sam see’s Pullman as an idiot, in his reading of Tolkien anyway.

Some interesting writing on Terry Halwes “Dharma Haven” site, also via Marsha. Not just the Methodical Magical Myth but also the Terrible Truth. In fact a whole lot of good articles and references.

Will probably post some reviews if I get time, but worth a browse anyway.

Review of Paul Davies “Cosmic Jackpot” at The Daily Kos. (via Marsha on MoQ-Discuss)

Sad news forwarded today via Henry Gurr.

And this obituary in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, forwarded by Terry Dysart,

Promised Land
(Words & music by Chuck Berry)

I left my home in Norfolk Virginia
California on my mind
I straddled that Greyhound
And rode into Raleigh
And on across Caroline

We had motor trouble that turn into a struggle
Halfway across Alabam’
And that hound broke down and left us all stranded
In downtown Birmingham

Right away I brought me a through train ticket
Ridin’ across Mississippi clean
And I was on that midnight flyer out of Birmingham
Smoking into New Orleans

Somebody help me get out of Louisiana
Just to help me get to Houston town
There are people there who care a little about me
And they won’t let the poor boy down

Sure as you’re born brought me a silk suit
Put luggage in my hand
And I woke up high over Alburquerque
On a jet to the promised land

Working on a t-bone steak a la carte
Flying over to the golden state
Ah when the pilot told us in thirteen minutes
He would set us at the terminal gate

Swing low chariot come down easy
Taxi to the terminal zone
Cut your engines and cool your wings
And let me make it to the telephone

Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia
Tidewater four ten o nine
Tell the folks back home this is the promised land calling
And the poor boy is on the line.

Thanks to The Crackerjacks at Klatchies bringing to mind what Elvis made famous. What is it about American road tunes ?

I left my home in Slough, and drove the A329M to Bracknell and came back via Maidenhead. Nope, not the same ring ?

Incidentally, Birmingham to New Orleans is still a passenger train service you can take. Here in Huntsville, Alabam’ lots of (freight) train traffic, from Virginia oddly enough, across the Appalacians via Chattanooga, but Birmingham is still the closest operating passenger terminal, a good 80 miles away.

Just noticed that last year Henry Gurr recommended these two books by Merlin Donald. Browsing the links to Amazon from there, they do indeed look like worthwhile material … all the right references indexed.

Henry, you shoud turn that news items page into a blog, so that each chronological entry is linkable and searchable. Lot’s of stuff there I’d missed.

The first “Friends of Wisdom” newsletter is published.

(It contains in its entirety the review I did of Mick Maxwell’s “Is Science Neurotic ?”, as well as several introductory articles to the subject of wisdom in science.)