The tarantula tapped his front leg to the rhythmic scraping of Jimmy Cobb’s brushes. All Blues was his favourite tune on the album. It made his hairs stand on end – all 1,234,569 of them. Combining the elegant swing of a 3/4 rhythm with the tight beat of the new modal style, it was minimal, hypnotic, easy. Bill Evans’ constant piano rolls reminded him of his mother’s web, shivering and flexing across the branches of the tree in the garden where they used to live.
In the novella Headcase – A Post-truth ghost story, a medieval Czech myth collides with a 21st Century political fake news campaign. You never quite know where you are in the book. Is it a ghost story? Is it a political satire?This feeling of uncertainty is made more perplexing by the introduction of a Nick Cage lookalike, in the form of one of the central characters, Inspector Tomáš Novák. Does the character think he looks like the actor or is Mr. Cage actually the character in the story? Throughout the novel’s twists and turns the reader is never sure what will happen next or who or what to believe. The series The Fear Index, on general release this month in the UK, deals with similar themes.
The original book by Robert Harris that the series is based on centres around a high-end brokerage firm based in Switzerland that has developed an algorythm that can detect – and therefore make money from – fear itself. But the kingmakers (Josh Hartnett and Arsher Ali) who created this digital money tree are far from in control; what we have here is an assemblage of Frankestein meets Gordon Gekko (with echoes of the 2008 financial crisis thrown in for good measure). The book – and the series – also investigates how our digital lives have come to define one’s whole sense of reality, and this element of The Fear Index, is its most most interesting one. Headcasepicks up this theme and runs with it around the Prague streets like a headless corpse stuck in a digital echo chamber (in a good way).
In the same way that Don’t Look Uphighlights how the trivial – or worse – fake media cycle has hijacked important news reporting, Headcaseand The Fear Index present us with the horror of a Post-truth world, in which information is being manipulated to such a degree that human agency is becoming irrelevant. The dog is being wagged by the digital tale – or is that tail?
The Fear Index is out on Now TV and Sky. Headcase – A Post-truth ghost story by Seb Duncan is available on Amazon KDP.
This is an excerpt from Seb Duncan’s novella Headcase: A Post-truth ghost story.
The scene was set for the event, as it had now been named by Smutny. Despite its large size, Bowling Celnice’s low ceilings gave it an underground bunker feel that no amount of bright neon lighting or wall colouring could disguise. With 6 lanes and a large canteen, there was enough space for over 300 people at any one time, and the place was already beginning to fill up nicely. Two undercover police, both with discrete earpieces were in place to make sure everything went smoothly. They casually hung about at separate ends of the club, one sipping a giant soft drink from a straw and the other selecting some bowling shoes. As luck would have it, a large coachful of British tourists from the Women’s Institute was booked in for that afternoon. This, Smutny emphasised, would only add to the “authenticity halo” of the event, as the visitors communicated on mass what had happened to friends and relatives directly back home via social media. The discovery of the head was primarily focussed on regional and national media, but any direct international coverage would help to spread the story as far and wide as possible. Continue reading “The Bowling Alley by Seb Duncan”
This story was shortlisted in the Beyond The Dial Essay Writing Competition by Oris
As the light exploded from above, I felt the oxygen in my body circulate. Floating, I was on my back looking upwards into a blue expanse. But I felt tethered, stuck and then. Free. I felt a presence by my side. It felt safe. Secure. I was swimming above what looked like a giant mountain range. Smaller fish darted about in colourful shoals of azure and gold. They seemed to be collectively alarmed by our presence and cleared a path as one, as we moved into them. The shoal split in two to reveal an alien landscape of undulating, brittle, breathing rock. Soft slopes of formed lava combined with white, waving fronds of hard pitted trees. Colours danced and bubbles burst in light reflected hues of yellow, silver sunshine.
Due to the Coronavirus lock-down all IELTS English tests have been suspended in the UK.
The new online IELTS Indicator test is a good way for you to test yourself during this period and some academic institutions may allow you to enroll in your course if you pass the test this way. Please check with your university if the IELTS Indicator test is acceptable.
Just like the normal IELTS test there are four parts to it. You will be tested on your Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. The speaking part will be conducted using Skype, Zoom or Teams.
The timings of each part are as follows:
Listening is 30 minutes and has 40 questions. Reading is 60 minutes and has 40 questions. Writing is 60 minutes and has 2 parts. Listening is 11 to 14 minutes and has 3 parts.
Due to the Coronavirus lock-down all IELTS English tests have been suspended in the UK.
The new online IELTS Indicator test is a good way for you to test yourself during this period and some academic institutions may allow you to enroll in your course if you pass the test this way. Please check with your university if the IELTS Indicator test is acceptable.
Just like the normal IELTS test there are four parts to it. You will be tested on your Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. The speaking part will be conducted using Skype, Zoom or Teams.
The timings of each part are as follows:
Listening is 30 minutes and has 40 questions. Reading is 60 minutes and has 40 questions. Writing is 60 minutes and has 2 parts. Listening is 11 to 14 minutes and has 3 parts.
Here is a list of the most common mistakes students make when writing an essay. Remember to leave enough time to check for these errors when you have completed your Task 1 essay or Task 2 essay.
Use of the word ‘the’
We use the:
when there is only one of something in a particular area: the government, the police, the bridge, the river, the hospital
when there is only one in the entire world: the internet, the environment, the ozone layer, the atmosphere
with cardinal numbers: the first, the second, the third
with superlatives: the worst, the shortest, the lowest, the most beautiful, the least impressive
with places where the name refers to a group of islands or states: the USA, the UK, the Maldives, the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates
before nouns which describe general things: exercise is good for the body, the motorbike is the most common form of transport in Asia, the role of the teacher has changed in recent years
before abstract nouns used to describe a situation, process, quality or a change: over the years the development of the town accelerated, the frequency of violent crime decreased over the period, the improvement in living standards
We don’t use the:
to talk generally we drop the word ‘the’ and use the plural: dogs don’t like cats, people with dyslexia have reading problems, Japanese cars are very reliable, German products are very high quality.
with a single place or country: Ireland, China, Vietnam, Europe, South America
The International English Language Testing System or IELTS for short, is the pre-eminent English exam for non-native speakers looking to emigrate to the UK, Canada or Australia. This is called The General IELTS exam. The Academic form of the IELTS exam is accepted for non-native speakers for university entry and further career advancement globally, including the US.
This site was created as a guide for English Language learners following the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum that took place on June 23rd 2016.
By a small majority, the country voted to leave the European Union and this decision will have major ramifications for the future of both European citizens planning to move to Britain and citizens that are already living here.
What impact will the decision have on European citizens’ English language requirements? Will there be more stringent testing? Will the IELTS band score 7 be changed in the light of Brexit? There has been talk of a new test being implemented similar to the Life In The UK test used for spouse visas.
The NMC has acknowledged that the Band score 7 or higher is far too high for some healthcare professionals to get. With this in mind, the writing part has been lowered to 6.5 as long as the remaining parts reach a Band score 7.
Use the contact details on this site for any inquiries about IELTS exam preparation. We are here to help, so feel free to ask any questions you have about the IELTS exam.
When you live in a city for long enough as an expat, you end up feeling so part of it that you can lose sight of the adventure that drove you there in the first place; what was once alien becomes familiar, what was at first challenging, becomes routine. This retrospective diary is an attempt to explain the experience of being an expat in three stages: confusion, conquest and… contemplation.
Getting a Band 7 IELTS score or above can be very hard. Many Task 2 IELTS essay questions require you to be able to think about a topic in a very universal way. This is particularly true if the essay is about economics but can also be true of any topic such as education, healthcare, technology, tourism or the environment.
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