There is, however, at the center of the colossus, in the pelvis of the machine, a human being: a straight-faced, hard-working, pleasure-seeking person, who is often meticulously groomed. He likes various flavors and spices. He has experienced feelings of shyness. He may, at one time or another, have been moved to an obscure self-doubt by [...]

I am picturing the human brain as a map of lights in the dark, lights that flare up, in complex patterns, when we see something we recognize, when we make a decision, when we think of a word. In the apartment building across from mine, American Idol comes on, and a hundred tiny televisions start [...]

Personal websites. People have them for different reasons. For instance, you could use yours to grapple with the conflict between corrosive skepticism and the longing for meaning in a world you never made. Someone else could become famous by insulting a popular brand of breakfast meats, or sell t-shirts with quotes from Plato’s Meno printed [...]

1. Steve McClaren is brilliant for choosing to drop Paul Robinson for Scott Carson in goal. There’s been what could perhaps kindly be described as a seismic overreaction to this development from certain members of the media and the goalkeepers’ fraternity, but it’s really the sensible move. Carson has looked solid all year [...]

Thanks to the Telegraph for encapsulating both the originality and the frequency of today’s David Beckham coverage in one easily digestible text box.

Say, didn’t we already go through this?