Humanity loves to create tools with which to carry out tasks assigned to us by nature or ourselves. In fact tool making is one of the definitions of what it is to be a a human being. And whilst it is obvious to see how tools help us to do what we want to be…
Category: Quotidial
Real Myths
I know people try to categorize each other in many ways but the most common I hear is to say people are either dreamers or realists. A realist takes the world as it is, sees what cards they have to play, and play not minding how they use the chances and possibilities opened up to…
Real Anarchy
With all the student demonstrations in the UK and the worldwide unrest caused by a few bankers, I thought it would be useful to actually look at the term ‘anarchist’ for what it originally, and still does, mean. From what I recall of the political system in ancient Athens they had Archons, who were liked…
What Are We
When Albinoni was writing his music do you think he thought of himself as Baroque? Or was Michelangelo busy sculpting because he knew that was his part in the Renaissance? It would be amusing to tell Socrates he was living in Classical Greece. None of us know what our classifications will be in the future…
Night Lights
Driving at night brings its own challenges; from the obvious tiredness of some drivers who cannot keep in lane, to those who are blasé and go from one lane to another without signaling – though that happens in the daylight as well, to your own idiosyncrasies. Mine is not being able to see the road…
Radix
Radix is the Latin name for a root, any root, and in English it is used in words that describe the fundamentals, the foundation, the essentials of a particular subject. Everything begins with a root that feeds the rest of the plant, that is a fact of life. The Earth grew out of a Cosmic…
Christmas Spirit
Apart from the rum I put into the Christmas cake – far too much as it happens but I don’t hear the family complaining – this is the time of year one has to remember to take change out to put in the charity boxes in the shops. I wonder what they will do in…
Wikileaks
I am one of those who found nothing surprising in the candid comments made by ambassadors to the State Department, in fact a lack of candour would have been very worrying. However there is a difference between having the sense to know these things are ‘probably’ being said and having the hard evidence set before…
Seasons
As everyone knows by now winter has come early to the UK and far from me at the moment, people are struggling to get through the snow and ice to school and work. In the old days when communities were communities, people just closed the front door and gathered around a fire and kept warm…
Land Rights
There is a movement in the UK as yet small but showing promise because it works, to encourage landowners to let out some land at a small or no fee, to people who want to have well run and productive allotments. The idea of empowering people to grow their own varieties of food, to get…