Returning to Songshan Mountain Clear river belt long thin Cart horse go idle idle Flow water like have desire Dusk birds another with return Desolate town face old ferry Set sun whole autumn hills Far successively Song high down Return come for now close shut The limpid river runs between the bushes, The horse and…
Month: January 2012
The Facts Are In The Fiction
Every writer will tell you that they cannot think of plots as convoluted, outrageous and bizarre as the things that happen to people in real-life. The old comic line ‘you couldn’t make this up’ has made people roar with laughter on more than one occasion. In fact sometimes we go so far as to say…
The Wizard of ID
I have a small collection of what we lovingly call in this house ‘American funnies’, cartoons which have appears as series in the newspapers in the US. Amongst them The Wizard of Id is hilarious, populated by a medieval townsfolk lead by a corrupt king, a cowardly soldier, a fairly inept wizard, a drunk juggler…
Internet Privacy
There has been a lot said this past week about Google changing its privacy policy and I thought I would share with you thoughts that were taught to me ten years ago. If you go on the world wide web, there is no privacy. None. Anyone who wants to find you will be able to….
Gerard Manley Hopkins
As Kingfishers Catch Fire As king fishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one…
Something Survives
Was very interesting learning about the animals that are still with us on the planet that have ancestors in the fossil records that stretch back to the origins of life 3.5 thousand, million years ago. I would say billion but for the fact a billion is actually a million times a million, the Americans love…
Let’s Get Through The Day
I have heard many scientists talk about blue-skies research and how the modern world is made on the discoveries of men and women who used their imaginations. I have written a little about it on my daily thoughts. But actually the role of human imagination is far deadlier and far more extensive than we suppose….
The Self in Selflessness
There are some people who never give a thought to what they do for others because they just get on and do things, and not only for family but with a deep sense of community. It is just the way they are. I heard today new lottery winners being asked what they are going to…
Entertainment
I have often looked and seen in nature programmes what biologists think is animals playing but there is no animal who plays and seeks out entertainments as often as human beings. Partly as a result of our brains needing to learn how to ‘game’, and partly because team work is a learned skill and games…
The Art of Spying
Ever since a human being had to confront another human being the practices of spying must have been around: how to size up your opponent, think ahead of time what they might do, out-think what they are actually doing. I know that most people think of spying as something Governments do against each other, and…