Kester Brewin

Tag: Science

  • Eels | Quantum Physics | Many Worlds | Meaning

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    KB

    A quite brilliant piece of TV on BBC 4 tonight. Worth the license fee on its own, Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives traced the journey of Eels front-man Mark Everett uncovering the life of his father, the eminent physicist Hugh Everett III. Everett Snr, in a radical challenge to the Quantum Mechanical orthodoxy of the day,…

  • In Praise of Eccentricity

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    KB
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    Just back from a wonderful weekend in the depths of Wales. I didn’t find RS Thomas, or any great rural epiphany, but, in keeping with the joys of weekends in other people’s houses, had a great time dipping into some books. The most enjoyable was Edith Sitwell’s English Eccentrics*. It’s an eccentric volume itself, but…

  • In The Shadow of The Moon

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    KB

    In The Shadow Of The Moon is a magnificent movie. No voice-over. No animation. No mock-ups. Just archive footage, and interviews with the Apollo astronauts. It’s stunning as a film, stunning to be reminded of perhaps the single greatest technological feat of mankind, and stunning to be reminded – in a way Gore never quite…

  • ‘Does Your Soul Have a Cold?’ | Wholphin | IFC Monday 9pm EDT

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    KB

    Out of the same stable as The Believer, Wholphin is a short-story mag for short films. They mailed me today about a great-looking film, showing on IFC this Monday at 9pm EDT. (I’d love someone to record it for me 😉 The spiel goes: Back in 2000, western pharmaceutical companies began a massive marketing campaign…

  • Your Digital Carbon Footprint

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    KB

    It’s obviously rich of me talking about this, flying as I am to LA on Monday, but it’s an often over-looked fact that the net runs on servers, and servers draw power. Nic mentioned the other day that a simple calculation of the server power-draw for Second Life, divided by the average number of users…

  • No More Our Father? | IVF, Sexuality and the Father Figure Clause

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    I’m not one for ‘natural order’ arguments, but part of me is drawn that way over the news that the ‘father figure’ clause currently in British IVF legislation is potentially going to be dropped. A government joint committee report “took issue with the proposal to remove the current requirement for IVF clinics to take into…