Dr Sed Banning's interesting and useful links

(For his own use and for the benefit of everyone.)

BBC News. Probably not all free-of-ideology, but fairly balanced coverage, definitely more reliable than CNN and a pleasing variety of topics.

Democracynow.org. Most likely the best independent media around, daily webcasts on major events regarding the War On Terror and other matters relating to US policy, foreign and internal.

Other places to go for anyone displeased with mainstream Western media:

Al Jazeera. The famous (or infamous) site, based in the United Arab Emirates, concentrating mainly on events that relate to the Middle-East. For those interested in another point of view. 

Good sources of information about Russia:

Itogi.ru. A Russian site of the weekly journal by the same name. Supported by the Western journal Newsweek, but mostly portrays a Russian point of view.

The Moscow Times. An english newspaper based in Moscow. Has a good focus on issues happening in Russia and a fairly balanced coverage of all sides.

Selected links to various scientists and intellectuals, their interviews, publications etc.:

Noam Chomsky - the world's most famous linguist and political activist. He is also the world's most quoted living author and 3rd overall, just behind Plato and Freud. An truly inspiring man with a multitude of interests way beyond the sphere of linguistics. Chomsky is also a keen critic of American foreign policy. This great site contains a good selection of Chomsky's recent and past writings, interviews and speeches.

Richard Dawkins - a distinguished Oxford ethologist and writer about evolution. His influential books include The Selfish Gene (1976) and The Blind Watchmaker (1986). I had the pleasure of seeing him lecture at Oxford and I have to say that he is one of the most erudite speakers I have met. This site contains a lot of Dawkins' writings and other information, for example, on evolution, creationism, the scientific world view etc.

Daniel Dennett - an American philosopher, on whose theory of the evolution of meaning I wrote my BA-extended essay in Oxford. A great writer, famous for his imaginative intuition-pumps. His book Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1996) has influenced my thinking to a large extent. This is a link to Dennett's homepages at Tufts University.

John Searle - often known through  his writings about speech acts, Searle is another well-known contemporary American philosopher. A keen opponent of Dennett and Pinker in many ways, and thus an important figure for me as well. My favourite of his books has to be The Construction of Social Reality (1995).

Steven Pinker - the man who sold linguistics to me (and a whole bunch of others) with his book The Language Instinct (1994). Currently a professor of psychology at Harvard, known also as a cognitive scientist and an evolutionary psychologist. Steve is also a great writer and his new book The Blank Slate - the modern denial of human nature (2002) is another great eye-opener for anyone interested in the creature called Homo sapiens.

Bruce Dickinson - a father of three kids, an author, a pilot, a radio DJ, a fencer, a singer and probably just about the best frontman any band anywhere ever had, Bruce Dickinson is one of the most talented and complex personalities I admire, both in and out the rock-scene. A true renaissance-man. The site contains some information and further links relating to Bruce.

Mel Gibson - an Academy Award winning actor/director and by far my favourite actor. A controversial character, Mel is a brilliant, intensive and funny actor, though you could occasionally blame him for overacting. I think it is mainly due to his great emotion which comes across in his work. His role in Hamlet (1991) has got to be one of the most underrated performances of the 1990s. The link contains a short biography.

Timo Rautiainen - a Finnish songwriter/guitarist/singer and a father of three. Timo is another musician and a person I greatly admire. As an independent thinker, Timo chose not to go to the army in Finland and completed the alternative, the civilian service, which still carries a stigma in Finland. Nevertheless, his music is very Finnish, very honest, very masculine and very sensitive all at the same time, which is not a bad accomplishment. The link is to the band's official website.