Showing results by author "James-Ball" in All Categories

Imagine a deadly pathogen that, once created, could infect any person in any part of the globe within seconds. No need to wait for travellers, trains, or air traffic to spread it, all you need is an internet connection. In this gripping investigation, Pulitzer Prize winner James Ball decodes the cryptic language of the online right and with a surgeon’s precision tracks the spread of QAnon, the world’s first digital pandemic.

The internet is a network of physical cables and connections, a web of wires enmeshing the world, linking huge data centres to one another and eventually to us. All are owned by someone, financed by someone, regulated by someone. We refer to the internet as abstract from reality. By doing so, we obscure where the real power lies. In this powerful and necessary book, James Ball sets out on a global journey into the inner workings of the system.

To trust is to risk, become vulnerable, to place the center of our universe somewhere other than ourselves. A loss of trust, particularly in public figures and institutions, is increasingly a feature of modern life. Together these essays provide deep reflections on the nature of trust in the context of public life, agreeing that it is engendered through real encounters, not in the abstract or by force. They offer guidance on how to make those encounters real, whether they be between people or between institutions and the people they serve.

Not just anybody gets to meet a goblin! But little Bob Taylor, just 10 years old and sick of pleasing others instead of himself, finds himself giddy for adventure and mischief, traveling around the world in a goblin hot air balloon with his goblin companion Fitz Mee. Together, they face daunting challenges, storms, lions, and magnetic disaster, racing to get to Goblinland or the mayor will have Fitz Mee's head!

Liam Ball - The Gentleman Magician, and James Cowan of Olympicubs, both Members of The Magic cIrcle and The Should London Magic Society, discuss various magic related topics, maybe even with a special guest here or there too!