The human mind has to come to terms with an entire world as it develops in childhood and adulthood. If you think about how different we are from day one to year thirteen it should not be a surprise that it takes a while for us to understand our own feelings once they kick in…
Kon Tiki
I remember well looking at the black and white television watching Thor Heyerdahl and his team crossing some part of the pacific in a reed raft to prove that people could have sailed the Ocean to populate the Polynesian Islands. It was a practical demonstration as his first raft sank, proving that only some of…
Happy New Year
As my next ramble through my head will be in 2011, I thought I would say goodbye to 2010. Not being a businessman to start a new venture is more a creative shot in the dark and FootSteps Press is very much a ‘creative collective’ taking advantage of the digital publishing revolution which has brought…
Language Is Not Always Meaning
Of course the creation of languages by animals is one of the immense evolutionary steps in the development of the earth-bound brain. I recall reading a bit about what it is for a sentence to be ‘true’ (correct) and how truth and meaning go hand-in-hand and have noted where people think we limit our understanding…
Science Affliction
I have to admit I love the ideas in science, even though the mathematics leaves me failing badly, the whole idea that things are related at the particle level, that there are laws and rules to chemical actions and physical objects no matter how large, is fascinating. Like many people I do not think it…
Snow And Life
Well the week of icy weather has abated for a while at last, and the hill on which I live is now passable again. Not that during the snowy weather people didn’t try to drive along it including me. I found a week ago I couldn’t reverse into my parking bay so I parked outside…
Myth-Making
I write for children and like most of the world love the ancient myths of people from different countries but I think we often forget how much we live in a mythical creation of our own even as adults. Perhaps this is what gets us by in life, I am not sure but I am…
The Dated Game
Spent a while listening to Dean Martin today and realised how music has a definite sound in every generation. This is something I should have found obvious because of my classical music appreciation studies that went through the development of classical motifs and styles. This is very pronounced in the electronic age with different equipment…
Personality Alchemy
The alchemy of choice is fascinating; what makes one person become a career criminal and another fear to even steal a penny? Yes it has a lot to do with influences of other minds as one grows up but it is also about strength and weakness of character and that comes from many places; including…
Investigative Journalism
There have been many notable, and even more simply recorded, moments when politicians and businessmen have been caught out by speaking candidly to journalists working under-cover. There are those who say the resulting exposure is in the public interest and those who say these are sting operations inveigling people into ruining their careers. Even more…