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Walker Percy Wednesday 101

THE PLACE WHERE the strange events related in this book occur, Feliciana, is not imaginary. It was so named by the Spanish. It was and is part of Louisiana, a strip of pleasant pineland running from the Mississippi River to the Perdido, a curious region of a curious state. Never quite Creole or French or…

Remembering Ken Minogue

Born on this day — see the themed issue of Cosmos + Taxis dedicated to Ken. Here is Ken at his elegant and wry best in Morals & the servile mind. I think Ken would have been chuffed by BREXIT not necessarily because of which side actually won, but because of which side was the most arrogant. Clue .…

Turing learning

I’ve been thinking about Turing’s lesser-known but still very important other contribution (i.e. to mathematical biology) — so while in Turing groove, I was pleased to come across this open access paper from the latest issue of Swarm Intelligence. So glad to report that Swarm Intelligence has seen through its first decade. Alan TuringArtificial intelligenceCoevolutioncollective behaviorComplex systemsMachine learningmathematical biologySwarm…

Walker Percy Wednesday 100

Thirty years earlier the child knew that something was going to happen, and that the something was all he ever wanted or needed to know, and that it only remained for him to wait for it to happen and to settle for nothing less until it did. What was the something? Women? War? Or victory…

Screwtopia

The philosopher Alicja Gescinska visits Roger Scruton at his farm and chats about this, that, and the other or as Alicja puts it “on life, beauty and what we are about”. I didn’t know of Roger’s fall but glad to see him up and about and in good spirits. (Bob Grant in conversation with me always…

Memoirs of an Anti-Semite

I’m pleased to see that Gregor von Rezzori’s Memoirs of an Anti-Semite has been rereleased — well, it was some eight years ago, as I’ve just discovered. Anyway, here is a review piece by Hitch on the reissue from the days when The Atlantic still retained some distinction. anti-SemitismChristopher HitchensGregor von Rezzorimemoirs of an anti-semitephilosophical literature