Cogitations
The Christmas Card – A Tale Of Mystical Mischief
Dan and Daisy were dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones their parents used to know. And so it came to pass, courtesy of a new-fangled loop in the jet stream that shoved →
Cogitations
Cogitations
Imperial Ambition – Expanding Selves, Shrinking Planet
Awareness is real. Even if the whole world is a dream, the awareness perceiving the dream is real. There is awareness, therefore I am. I am aware of thought, therefore I am not thought – →
Cogitations
Human Alchemy – Field Notes On Watching Emotions
Incident On The 17:11 From Victoria ‘Twas the night before Christmas. I’m heading back to the family home and enjoying a rare taste of my old life among the corporate sardines on the 17:11 from →
Cogitations
Curious Sources Of Humanistic Religion
Some comments so perfectly capture the blinkered naivety of corporate journalism that they remain fixed in the mind for years and decades. Twenty years ago, I was leafing through a copy of the Guardian when →
Cogitations
Follow Your Bliss – A Follow-Up
‘Advice I Wish I’d Had’ Last February, I responded on Twitter to a tweet from The Times urging young journalists to apply for the Anthony Howard Award. Lucky winners could spend a year writing about →
Cogitations
To Do Or To Be? – The Sixth Filter
Part 1 – Turning Outside Some 250,000 miles later, having spent 20 minutes waiting for the other guy to get down the ladder, Buzz Aldrin became the second person to walk on the moon, July →
Cogitations
The Universe Remains Unhurt
And then there was light. But there must already have been space. God would be hard-pressed to reach the light switch without space. The light switch would be hard-pressed to exist. In reality, only two →
Cogitations
A Lefty Progressive Goes To The Seaside
Walking past a packed beach on a sweltering summer’s day, the lefty progressive is like a fish out of water. And by the way, he’s not staying: he’s taking a constitutional after a morning spent →
Cogitations
So What Is Objective Journalism?
‘Just The Facts, Ma’am’ So what is objective, impartial journalism? The standard view was offered in 2001 by the BBC’s then political editor, Andrew Marr: ‘When I joined the BBC, my Organs of Opinion were →
Cogitations
The Cold, Hard Facts Of Life – A Reappraisal
The alarm clock rings. I set it myself but it feels like it’s linked to some centralised system ordering the nation’s workforce awake. I swing my feet out into an unwelcoming, cold room; put on →