When people believe they have absolute knowledge with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods. Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known, we always feel forward for what is to…

Have really enjoyed Frightened Rabbit this year (The Winter of Mixed Drinks), whole album excellent. Swimmer One had another album, quite uneven, some of the same electrodisco which I love when they do it, and not when anyone else does it. But also the fabulous “Fakester Resurrection”, over 12 minutes long of Nymanesque strings and…

Due 2015

When there is so much suffering in this world, and our lives hang on so many fragile threads, it is one of the tragedies of human existence that we waste so much time puting ourselves and each other down – judging, blaming, hating. Energy that is wasted, in destruction of things, pasts, futures. Energy that…

A design was submitted for a Forth rail bridge by Thomas Bouch in 1879. Preliminary construction had already begun when the Tay bridge disaster occurred on 28th December 1879. Consequently all further work was suspended, and a new design was begun in 1883. The Bouch design looked more like the modern Forth road bridge, except…

Used to be thought that 150 times as big as our sun was the limit. But a star has been found in the Tarantula nebula, which is 265 times bigger, and must have been at least 300 times bigger to begin with. Not surprisingly, it is also the most luminous star ever found, close to…

“The great paradox in the struggle for modern manhood is that we simultaneously feel adrift because of anomie and cripplingly trapped because of consumerism. “The problem with consumerism is that it heavily emphasizes choice, to the complete exclusion of the idea of living with that choice. “That might work with your toothpaste, but the most…

That one penguin out of a whole flock up on dry land who is the first to jump in the water, knowing full well that there may be predators just below the surface. That penguin runs a risk but if no one jumps in first, the whole flock will starve on land. A metaphor for…

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. [Niels Bohr]

Voor het eerst in 160 jaar is dat Nederlanders niet meer groeien. Nederlanders zijn de langste mensen ter wereld. The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, but they appear to have stopped growing, finally. It remains to be seen whether any other races/peoples in the world eventually catch them up.. [elsevier.nl]