From the category archives:

Linkblog

A selection of my published work since 2001 is available here. Contact me with any specific requests.

Linkblog

Few would deny that the likes of Aristotle, Cervantes and Shakespeare are central figures in the western canon. But what, exactly, do we mean when we speak of literary greatness? The very notion is enshrouded in a kind of hoary mysticism. The Victorian critic Matthew Arnold wrote of “the best that has been thought and known in the world,” but that only takes us so far. There is a cloudy, if universal agreement – a convenient fiction, really – that such an elevated category exists, but there are not, and never will be, fixed criteria for determining those books that are entitled to the sobriquet “great”.

Few would deny that the likes of Aristotle, Cervantes and Shakespeare are central figures in the western canon. But what, exactly, do we mean when …

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Linkblog

I had no idea Plato spent so much time on the road.

I had no idea Plato spent so much time on the road.
Plato Was a Backpacker – Features – World Hum…

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Linkblog

Even record label EMI didn’t escape Lily’s wrath – as she talked candidly about her earnings. She added: “I got £50,000 for my first album and I sold a lot of records. “Twenty years ago, I’d have been booked in at the Ritz with five grams of cocaine on my table and 10 bunches of flowers. Some new clothes. A chauffeur on 24-hour call. “Now I’m lucky to get an Oyster card. I ask for a hotel in Paris and I get a two-star place in the eighth arrondissement on my own. “I’m like: ‘Do you want me to get raped and killed?’

Even record label EMI didn’t escape Lily’s wrath – as she talked candidly about her earnings. She added: “I got £50,000 for my first album …

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Linkblog

In The Atlantic, Nicholas Carr argued that search engines are making us stupid and that a decade of hyperlink hopping was “chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” Caleb Crain pushed the debate in a different direction on his blog Steamboats are Ruining Everything, noting, “Reading online does not seem to me to be a pleasure in itself but a response to irritation. That is, it is not like eating an ice cream cone; it is like scratching an itch.

In The Atlantic, Nicholas Carr argued that search engines are making us stupid and that a decade of hyperlink hopping was “chipping away my capacity …

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Linkblog

If we are to eat pasta in Rome, see theater in London and go on a safari in Kenya, in New York we have to explore Queens. Many big cities have immigrant enclaves, but the diversity and breadth of Queens is unparalleled, and exemplified by its most sacred intersection — 74th Street, Broadway and Roosevelt Avenue.

If we are to eat pasta in Rome, see theater in London and go on a safari in Kenya, in New York we have to …

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Linkblog

Death of NYT’s print edition would be a severe blow to American journalism, but…

Death of NYT’s print edition would be a severe blow to American journalism, but…

The Atlantic

Times image

Would it be a disaster? “In the long run, …

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Linkblog

The Internet: Good for Reading

The Internet: Good for Reading…

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Linkblog

Gizmodo Embarrasses CNBC [Media]

Gizmodo Embarrasses CNBC [Media]
This is why access is overrated. CNBC believed Apple’s official pronouncements on the health of Steve Jobs, the computer company’s …

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