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On Capitalism and its Frankensteins

I've been rather distressed over the past two decades watching our society driving, at increasing speed, towards a brick wall. It started with the climate crisis, but now we can throw the rise of nuclear conflict, the erosion of democracy and AI into the mix. With the possible exception of nuclear proliferation, I think we can fairly credibly trace all these issues…
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Posted inUncategorized

Hard Of

I think the phrase “hard of hearing” is rather fascinating. It doesn’t make any intuitive sense. While we can think of it in the sense of something having hardened and become less flexible, or in the sense of something having become hard to do, we don’t use this phrase in any other way. We don’t call someone who is slow hard of…
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Posted inExcerpts The Wizards' Attic

The tall, dark wizard in the blue robe with white stars—who Evan would come to know as Falstaff—

plucked the slurpee off Evan’s tray with long boney fingers. He peered deep into its sugary murk. “Explain this foul potion. What are its effects?” “It’s called a slurpee,” Evan said. "It’s a refreshing drink. Especially when it’s hot out.” A round of knowing ahhhhhs circled the room. “A health elixir,” someone spoke from the back, nodding with authority. “Well, sort of.”…
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Above-Average post

I've been somewhat obsessed with mental fallacies ever since I read The Undoing Project, Michael Lewis's book on Amos Tversky and Danny Kahneman. (These led me to two other great books on the topic, including Kahneman's Thinking Fast & Slow, and Leonard Mlodinow's Drunkard's Walk, which are two books I'd put on the list for anyone wanting to have a better understanding…
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Posted inPoetry

The Accounts

Baby, you may know about the Devil who sits upon my shoulder and the Angel on my other But let me tell you about the Accountant who sits behind his mahogany desk perched atop my skull
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Posted inPoetry Zeus and the Giant Iced Tea

A Good Day

One daysomething happenedand the Reaper of Darkness calledin sick to workHe swung open the medicine cabinetand spilled all his pills to the floorBlue ones to calm him downGreen ones to speed him upand Yellow ones that deadened the painbouncing on the linoleumin a candy-coloured fiesta. “Death! Death to pills!!!”he shouted and laughedbefore throwing his gownsto the floor and screaminga thousand shades of…
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Posted inExcerpts The Wizards' Attic

A SILHOUETTE LOOMED OVER EVAN. FROM SOMEWHERE, A DISTANT, UNPLEASANT VOICE—ONE HE RECOGNIZED—SPOKE: 

“Hey kid. Kid. Wake up.” Evan stirred, the world coming into focus: the dark walls and ceiling of the Attic’s storefront, the towering bookshelves of games, a smacking sound as the figure hovering over him slapped at Evan’s cheeks. Evan’s bones and back groaned. Then Evan groaned at the sight of the City Surveyor’s weasel face.
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Hyperion / Fall of Hyperion:
Posted inBook Reviews

Hyperion / Fall of Hyperion:

I have a rule about finishing books I’m not enjoying. Don’t. I have another rule about bad reviews, which is that I try to avoid writing them. So I'm breaking both rules here, largely because I broke the reading rule for Fall of Hyperion and now I feel compelled to write a review to atone for it. The reading rule essentially goes,…
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Posted inExcerpts The Meatball

THE VENT WAS TIGHT AND HOT. LIKE THE AIR-CON WASN’T WORKING… LIKE THIS WASN’T PART OF THE SHOW AND…

…they shouldn’t be in here.

“Hurry up,” Chiroko complained, her scrawny butt slinking ahead through the vent’s din light. Hiroshi was tired of her scrawny, bossy butt and all her what-ifs and her plans. All they needed to do was wait it out in their cell and try to be entertaining. Yet here he was, following her. 

Or maybe this was part of the show? Perhaps the months and months of meagreness and monotony had been meant to drive them from their misery, up into the vents towards some sort of thrilling conclusion or escalation or clash!

Hiroshi steeled himself for such an outcome.

But if that was the case, where were all the cameras?

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