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BookshopA Philosophy of BoredomLars Fredrik Svendsen; translation by John Irons Reaktion Books, 192pp, £14.95 ISBN 1861892179 Reviewed by Tom Hodgkinson Lars Svendsen's inquiry is a good, solid practical work of philosophy, in the tradition of Aristotle's Ethics and Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. He has a light touch and a playful attitude, and draws on a wide range of texts, from Martin Heidegger and Samuel Beckett to Iggy Pop and the Pet Shop Boys. The opening section is particularly strong. I was fascinated to learn that boredom was invented in 1760; the word is not found in English prior to this,...

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If you played a word-association game with "Alexander the Great," you'd probably come up with "conqueror," "king," "warrior," "legend," "despot," "wastrel" or "killer." Unfortunately, Oliver Stone has chosen to build his epic of the Macedonian military genius around a word highly unlikely to make the list: "crybaby." In Stone's view, this is a highly neurotic young man whose emotions, far from being repressed or disciplined as one would expect of a great soldier of the 4th century B.C., are worn on his sleeve, except, of course, that he doesn't have sleeves, the shirt still being two millennia down the road....

Al Baby has not beeb baned or suspended for over a month Wow Its been great being back on line i miss stiring the pot when i cant post Nascar sundays are a blast so is caption this I wish ther was a place to see all the comments removed thread it would be fun Will any one else share when and what got you banned or suspended Does anybody remeber the prodigy white water boards i was going thur my garage and found boxs of print outs from Clintons early years what fun that was What ever became of...

It may be hard to recall now but only a few months ago smart analysts of American politics were calling for John Kerry to withdraw from the Democratic primaries to avoid complete humiliation. His negative charisma, his boring speeches, his stiff public persona and the absence of any interesting ideas — all these seemed to have sent his candidacy into a tailspin. Up against the energy and excitement of the Napoleon of Vermont, Howard Dean, Kerry seemed impossibly dry. And so nobody noticed. For almost the entire campaign Kerry was essentially absent. And then, in a matter of a few...

Waves crashing on a beach. Woodpeckers peck-peck pecking. Whales calling plaintively across the sea. These are the sounds of Jupiter. There are no whales or woodpeckers on Jupiter. There are no beaches. But Jupiter beams these sounds to Earth anyway. They emerge from the loudspeakers of short-wave radios during Jupiter's occasional, intense radio storms, caused by natural radio lasers near the planet's magnetic poles. Many ham radio operators have heard these storms, late at night when Jupiter is high in the sky. Now you can listen, too, online, thanks to a live audio link to the University of Florida Radio...

Reasons To Be Cheerful Theodore Dalrymple on the joy of seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary — in gooseberries, for example, even in human beingsIn my line of work, it is rather hard to think of reasons to be cheerful. On the contrary, it requires quite a lot of concentrated intellectual effort: one has the sensation of scraping the bottom of one’s skull for thoughts that just aren’t there. Of course, since lamentation about the state of the world is one of life’s unfailing pleasures, the world is a greater source of satisfaction than ever. Another consolation is that most...

<p>NEW YORK — A staring contest (search) usually occurs when two people are so bored they can't think of anything else to do together or say to one another.</p> <p>But one conceptual artist has decided to place the duel before an audience -- and people are lining up to watch and compete.</p>

The Introduction to The Well and the Shallows is entitled "An Apology for Buffoons," while another chapter, "Shocking the Modernists," has to do with bores. ...Chesterton tells of reading in the daily paper "about a notable outburst among the most advanced intellects of the Church of England." The headline...stated "Youth Finds Church a Bore: A Girl Tells Clergy"...[the girl went on to say]..."I don't think public worship has any attraction whatsoever for the young. Religion is supposed to express God through truth and beauty, we are told, but in this age of specialisation people turn to science, art, and philosophy...

This is huge. It means that Scott's boat was NEVER LAUNCHED.

Fights at cricket match blamed on boredom 28.12.2002 By SCOTT MacLEOD Security will be boosted for the next cricket international at Eden Park after clashes between Indian and Black Cap supporters sparked dozens of arrests. Police and park managers said some of Thursday's 29,381 spectators turned on the worst behaviour seen at a cricket game in Auckland for years. Some witnesses said racial taunts and bottle-throwing preceded the fighting, but police and spectators agreed that sheer boredom induced by the low-scoring one-day match was a big factor. The event was also marred by injuries to two spectators who toppled through...

In a cramped bookshop in San Francisco a roar fills the room as a tall, chisel-jawed figure steps on to the platform and announces: "My name is Al Gore and I was to be the next President of the United States." "You're still our President- in-Exile," one true believer shouts back to an even bigger chorus of approval. Two years after that night in Florida, two weeks after the Republicans swept the mid-term elections and with the Democrats desperately in need of a message and a messenger, the Al Gore roadshow is back. Turn on the television and you are...

I don't know how much longer he's going to go on. Harry Reid (Socialist-NV) just informed Byrd he'd been rambling for 3.5 hours already. Byrd acknowledged he was a blabbermouth, then casually mentioned his wife was in the hospital, "Maybe I oughta go see her," he said.Then he said to Reid, "Gunga Din, you're a better whip than I am."Bobby Byrd is lookin' and soundin' more kooky today.