Sam Archer
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Love, Lucy, and Lysergic Lakes: The Soundscapes of LSD
“What does acid feel like?” This question hangs over lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) – a substance more controversial, more maligned, and more iconic than perhaps any other psychedelic. Yet it remains an experience known to remarkably few, with recent research… Continue reading
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Forbidden Pleasures
Days, months and weeks, of anticipation. Guessing and second guessing yourself. Attempts to reverse-engineer the psychology of the game-maker. What do they know that I do not? Breathy unrest simmers. Heart races. Everything will all soon be revealed, and yet… Continue reading
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Testing the Waters: The Cultural Choreography of Small Talk
This morning was beautiful – an azure sun cracked the inky blue of dawn, splitting the fading night into tangerines and magenta. Eventually, this gave way to blue, the volume and intensity of its clarity brought up as if with… Continue reading
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Altman vs. Musk: Who is Lex Luthor?
Earlier this week, the world’s richest and most powerful unelected man, Elon Musk, tabled a $97.4 billion bid to take over the non-profit assets of OpenAI, the world’s most powerful AI organisation. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and a very… Continue reading
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Everyone You Love Will Die (Yourself Included)
Everyone I love will die, likely after cruel illness. Death awaits us all, and yet we speak of it seldom. Why is this? Too depressing? Perhaps. And yet, without exception, it is the fate that awaits us all. I have… Continue reading
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A Weave about The Meeting of Minds; and a Review of The Durham Podcast
‘Let’s start a podcast!’ is to the 2020s, it is often said, is what ‘Let’s start a band!’ was to previous decades. While there’s truth to this comparison, the key difference lies in the enjoyability for one’s friends. If many… Continue reading
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There Ain’t No Coffee Like A Crappy Coffee
A badge that workaholics wear upon their sleeves, like a proud scout toting a navigation award. A method for feigning a false individuality – insert a fifteen-syllable order, invariably featuring the words “iced”, “syrup”, “oat milk”) – and sophistication of… Continue reading
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When Optics Skew Responsibility: From Munich 1972, to LA 2025
On the 5th of September, 1972, at the Munich Olympics, eight members of the Palestinian militant group Black September executed a brutal terrorist attack. September 5th, a historical-drama-thriller currently in cinemas, chronicles the massacre from the perspective of the ABC… Continue reading
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So Spins the Molten Sphere
On a quiet recent evening, I came across a BBC headline: “Earth’s inner core may have changed shape, say scientists”. My mind stopped in its tracks. If asked yesterday morning about the Earth’s core, I would have mumbled something about… Continue reading
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The Cost of Shortcuts: An Aviation Perspective
Cabin crew (or flight attendant) training is a deeply rigorous and challenging process. Biased by unfair and misguided stereotypes (see: “trolley dolly”), people significantly underestimate the responsibility this role necessitates. As part of my job, I have had the opportunity… Continue reading
The Eye of an Archer 