We’re not only meaning-making machines, we add the dimension of context which makes raw information workable. “If the task of cognition is to make sense of things and make them relevant in everyday life, a computer can’t do that for you.” … Continue readingRebooting your memory
Suddenly the artist formerly known as B-Aff has been attaining Weinsteinian heights of awards season buzz thanks to his three directorial efforts, Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo. … Continue readingBen Affleck talks Argo
Affleck says he is a hands-on dad. His family was fractured by his mechanic, bartender and janitor father’s alcoholism when Affleck was just 12, and he seems determined to be everything to his children that his own dad wasn’t – he’s often spotted taking a clearly excited Violet and Seraphina to flea markets or activities. … Continue readingA Fortunate Life
You might not think Stephen King is the greatest writer in the world, but here’s what he does well, if nothing else. When you pick up 11.22.63 (another doorstop the size of It and The Stand) you might emit a small groan about how long it will probably take to get through it. … Continue reading11.22.63
A young Petersham mother wakes in bed in the small hours to hear the toys in her son’s room, and when Machado reveals the toddler was actually in bed with his mother at the time you’ll feel a tingle down your spine the likes of which you expect from a good horror novel. … Continue readingWhere Spirits Dwell
The style is lively and engaging, but the biggest surprise is how funny it is, with more laugh-out-loud lines than you ever thought you’d read in a book about psychology (other than that did you enjoy the play, Mrs Lincoln?’). … Continue readingParanormality
The most accessible way to digest a book about phobias is with an alphabetical list. Stephen Juan’s isn’t the first you’ve seen, but with chapters on psychological theory, treatments and the science of phobias it’s the most comprehensive. … Continue readingWho’s Afraid of Butterflies?
For a long time after Dawkins introduced and galvanised a new generation to Darwin’s ideas it was fashionable to consider us essentially selfish, the smooth running of society arising organically out of mass competition. More recent theories claim altruism’s actually been as successful a survival strategy as rivalry … Continue readingSex, Murder and the Meaning of Life
Castro for one was a skilled propagandist and charismatic orator like totalitarian leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini before him. How can we believe what he or Guevara tell us in their many diaries, manifestos and letters? … Continue readingBrothers in Arms
So Just After Sunset is really a tale of two Kings. The first is from before the accident when he was content to talk about possessed machinery and monsters like he does in Gingerbread Girl, about a woman’s desperate bid to escape the clutches of a sexual predator and killer. … Continue readingLucky 13 from the King
