Andrew Brown

1 week ago | churchtimes.co.uk | Andrew Brown

ALASDAIR MACINTYRE’s death was the most significant religious news of the week but it is extremely difficult to explain in the context of a news story why he mattered. To get the sense of personal loss that’s appropriate, you have to read him, and to have his books read you back, and scribble in the margins of your mind. As I write, only The Guardian has carried a proper obituary, illuminating and fair-minded.

2 weeks ago | churchtimes.co.uk | Andrew Brown

THE great surprise of a week spent in Jeddah was the discovery that the traffic system has been designed by an ecclesiastical lawyer to make any change of direction impossible. Roundabouts and traffic lights are almost unknown; so is their use when they appear apparent to the drivers. Instead, there are periodic gaps in the central reservations of the dual carriageways that run everywhere.

3 weeks ago | churchtimes.co.uk | Andrew Brown

I FOUND myself in a college library last week, surrounded by philosophers and experts on computer science: one participant, grinning behind his wild beard, placed his phone on the table and had it play a song written — both words and music — by an AI that he had trained. It was fairly dreadful. Like most of these demonstrations, it seemed more of a reminder of how little creativity there is in most human productions than a proof of the creativity of which machines are supposed to be capable.

3 weeks ago | finalweapon.net | Andrew Brown

The highly anticipated Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is finally here, and it’s bringing many classic Capcom fighters with it. With iconic titles such as Capcom vs. SNK 2, Plasma Sword, Power Stone, and Project Justice, there’s way too much fun to be had.

1 month ago | churchtimes.co.uk | Andrew Brown

EVERYONE has plans to rescue the Church of England, and here’s mine: on ordination, all preachers should be presented with a five-minute hour glass to remind them, as their hearers may be reminded, of their own mortality. But it would not be purely symbolic; for, each time the hour glass was turned, the preacher would have to eat at the end of the service another egg boiled for the length of their sermon.