I read recently that if you studied botany, zoology or any such sciences twenty years ago, biodiversity would not have been a word used on the syllabus. The fact that this is now a by-word in society does not reflect badly upon scientists twenty years ago, after all, all science is a learning curve, it…
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I Have Watched
the revolutions in the Middle East, the bombs falling in Libya, protesters shot and rounded up in Syria, the Bahrain dictators taking succour from the Saudi Arabian dictators and I am reminded of the dictators in Europe. The decimation of marching, unarmed people; the fight for votes, for even the right to be taught to…
The Empty Page
I have met several people over the years who when faced with an empty white page, feel utterly defeated before they have even tried to write a word. Given a theme for an essay at school or a mathematical problem to work out they fill up the paper with little trouble, but they do not…
What’s In A Name
I recently saw a map of the world with the derivations given of every country’s name. It was interesting to see what one knew, that every name meant something, came from some simple depiction or understanding of the people. All around the world people carry names with them that we think are important, or noteworthy,…
Everyone Has A Past
Though there is so much we cannot share. We read history and within a few hundred pages are fifty, sixty, seventy or more years. How long is the read? A week? How can our minds live so many years in so few days and understand each and every hour others spent living. The thoughts, the…
Experimental Human Beings
Watching Richard Feynman and viewing lectures I have never seen before I enjoy the way he talks about science. To me, as with everything else human beings do, there are two sides to everything. There is the thing itself – the physics of the universe, how we think things works and the whole idea of…
Commanded
I have always had a leaning towards anarchy, ever since I was fifteen and I learned that archons were basically judges in ancient Athens elected every year and one of them would give his name to that year and so was called the eponymous archon. It produced a form of calendar as people could say…
How Many Days
I am looking at a book on the Six Day war and remembering from history lessons how we title wars, the 30 years war, the Hundred Years war, the war of this or the war of that. Do we really think these wars are all started for different reasons? Do we really suppose that fighting…
Israel
There are a few things we never hear in the debate on Israel which bug me. The first is that the UNHCR was set up to help the Arab refugees after the War and as part of its remit a UN fact finder went out to decide upon reparations deciding that Arab and Jewish loses…
Victims
I called a farmer here a few years ago when I found on my walks a dead cow in his field. I thought in my innocence he would drive out and want to know what killed it. I later saw he had dug out a large hole and buried it where it lay. When I…