Stamping Butterflies

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgments and thanks in no particular order, except for the last...

Aziz, for a truly terrifying drive between Marrakech and Casablanca and explaining Berber inheritance law. Maison Arabe in Derb Assebbé for teaching me how to make tagine properly. Blacks in Dean Street (Soho) and Caffé Nero in Winchester for letting me use them as offices. Upper Street's Friday Lunch Time Crew. Anders Sandberg and all who contributed to the Dyson Sphere FAQ (just put it in Google). New Scientist, for making me and everyone else who reads it actually think.

Mic Cheetham for fixing the contract that got this book published. Juliet Ulman for encouragement, and Josh Pasternack for tolerance. Television, Patty Smith, Johnny Thunders, Neil Young and John Cooper Clarke for sound tracking the early drafts.

The following books provided information or inspiration: Lords of the Altas, Gavin Maxwell's brilliant book on the House of Glaoua, Wisdom of Idiots by Idries Shah (but then anything written by Idries Shah provides inspiration), and The Art of Shen Ku by Zeek, for general weirdness.

Finally, thanks to Sam Baker, who sat, years back, in Gaby's in Charing Cross Road and argued long and hard about whether time was shaped like an ice cream cone or a blue marble. This book would never have existed without that conversation. We should have known it was shaped like both.