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Culture of fear
Frank Furedi has written a couple of books about this (also about “paranoid parenting”). Historically, fear of God was seen as crucial for a moral life, so a positive thing. Fear then becomes understood as pathological eg social phobia. Unpleasant experiences in childhood become institutional problems to be fixed not life challenges to develop skills…
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What did the Romans ever do for us?
Introduced apples, pears, peas and probably fast food – for all the soldiers constantly on the move. Trademarks – having the Emperor on your coins was the start of a trend of potters stamping their products with their name. Toilets, baths and drains. Plus the acqueducts to get water to you. Roads of course, stone…
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East Kilbride history
In 1793, Kilbride (East as a prefix was not yet commonly used) had one street and two lanes. That street is what we now divide into Parkhall, Montgomery and Glebe Streets and the two lanes are today’s Kittoch and Hunter Streets. Main Street became the principal thoroughfare when the new turnpike road from Glasgow to Strathaven was…
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Don't forget, nuclear war is still a real threat
9 nuclear states, all in conflict (India and Pakistan, Russia and NATO, etc). Enola Gay had 1 bomb (16 kiloton), killing 100 000 in Hiroshima. 1 Trident sub can carry 100 Hydrogen bombs, equivalent to 1000 Hiroshima bombs. The smallest Trident missile (multiple war heads, range from 0.3 to 100 kiloton) would kill 500 000…
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2 slips of paper
Rabbi Simcha Bunem of Pershyscha was said to carry two slips of paper, one in each pocket. On one he wrote: Bishvili nivra ha-olam—“for my sake the world was created.” On the other he wrote: V’anokhi afar v’efer”—“I am but dust and ashes.” He would take out each slip of paper as necessary, as a reminder to himself.
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Time management
Not about being on time… And not about shaving off bits of time through efficiency savings. It’s just about priorities, and scheduling them. So ask what you Xmas round robin letter next year to say? What do you want next year’s performance review at work to say? People really bad at estimating how much time…
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Sell out or Response to Tokenism
Malcolm Gladwell revisionist history about Sammy Davis Jr. Reviled for hugging Nixon, booed when tried to perform at Jesse Jackson’s civil rights rally, even though he supported Kennedy in the past, donated large sums to Martin Luther King, and grew up performing as a child to support his father and uncle, never going to school.…
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Apollo 8
According to Neil Armstrong, Apollo 8 was the most significant space mission! It was first space mission where humans left orbit. 200 000 miles to moon, cf 600 miles! Russians thought to be 4 months away from moon mission, second Saturn rocket test failed (still most powerful rocket ever), 3 deaths in Apollo 1 accident,…
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Universalism and Nationalism
Montesquieu- I am a father, before I am a Parisian. I am a Parisian before I am a Frenchman. I am a Frenchman before I am a European. But in a virtuous world I would run to the aid of a stranger as readily as I would to the aid of a friend. We aspire…
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Words
Barbecue from Spanish via Haiti (framework of sticks). Slogan from Gaelic. Serendipity is a made up word using ancient name for Sri Lanka! Orange from Arabic via French. Majority of 100 most commonly used English words from Anglo Saxon Old English. But tens of thousands from French, besides Latin already being used in 1066 by…