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…
Shänne Sands
Emily Brontë On bleak Yorkshire nights, As winter’s air soured your broken chest Did you turn to your sisters and that brother Who, drunk and slightly mad, still make you smile – Did you discover through them what it was like to love? You were not touched by any man, You are not passion-sucked…
Marriage
My sister used to moan about how marriage was just a certificate imposed upon us by a state ruled by the machinations of a defunct religion, and in fact if you love someone you will stay with them and have children with them and that is the marriage; the staying together. I actually agree with…
The Mad Hatter
One of the brilliant things about writers is the way many of them have tapped into the sentiments or imaginations not just of their own generation but of all generations since they were writing, and we may suppose for many generations to come. Every country can boast its favourite cartoon, its greatest villain its fondest…
Clothes Make Us
I have always loved the feel of new clothes, and I come from a mother who always washed clothes before allowing anyone to wear them. The interesting thing about the Adam and Eve story in the Bible is the fact they felt a sudden sense of nakedness and how they did not wish to be…
Mirror Mirror On The Wall
I am told we are wired up in our brains to be attracted to a particular kind of look which we will find ‘beautiful’. They have done a lot of work with symmetry and facial features to try to pin down what all the elements of beauty actually are but basically sex is facilitated by…