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Continue reading →: Mongolia – land of beauty
My last blog about the use of eagles by Mongolians to catch rabbits and foxes was a tribute to an extraordinary people who are so in tune with mother nature. Here are some photos from the Earth Child website that capture some of the beauty of Mongolian life. The words unspoilt…
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Continue reading →: Space Weather
Tim Peake’s space walk is a fascinating look at problem solving. A plumber once refused to come out to connect a washing machine at our flat in South London because of a heat wave. Tim Peake is floating 250 miles above the Earth, facing the extreme temperatures illustrated below and tackling…
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Continue reading →: Molly’s delight
I like a man with mussels said Molly to the crowd. He’s a regular fishmonger and his mussels make him proud. He wouldn’t try to flex them, or pump them up for show. With any type of shellfish, that’s not the way to go. He’ll tell you how to cook…
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Continue reading →: Courage of Conviction
Idealists who dare to challenge the authority of powerful nations are paying a heavy price. In China human rights lawyers speaking out in the cause of freedom have been imprisoned for life and denied access to visitors. In Saudi Arabia journalists and bloggers asking for democratic reforms have been flogged and executed. Many…
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Continue reading →: Intellectual Sparring
This lunchtime on my trawl through the charity shops I eschewed the literary delights of a book that publishes the correspondence between Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Lévy called Public Enemies. MH started the correspondence with some provocative comments, including the observation that BH-L invariably sports a white shirt. It gets more cerebral, but…
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Continue reading →: Ineffable
…or Blocked I thought it was ineffable Because I couldn’t find the word Except that one – ineffable But that would be absurd The awesomeness of beauty on a scale that makes you weep Or nightmares in the darkness that keep you from your sleep Or a sensory experience that…
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Continue reading →: What are the odds?
Paddy Power had me in its grip again yesterday evening. I dithered over placing a bet on Djokovic to take the 1st set 6-3, and then guessed the 7-5 result of the 2nd set. Shame I picked Mayer to win that set. I seem to be luckier with my lower…
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Continue reading →: Grossly Offensive
I watched with horror a TV documentary on the Charlie Hebdo murders last night. It reminded me that, at the time, I had published a blog post that questioned the decision to publish material that offended religious beliefs. I followed that up with another blog post (after reconsidering the issues)…
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Continue reading →: Luck be a lady tonight
Isn’t it funny how a little bit of luck can distort your grasp of probabilities? With £5 burning a hole in my online betting account, I got the gambling bug yesterday evening. I did my research online and picked the first goal scorer and the full-time result of a football…
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Continue reading →: False Memory
I’m prescribed penicillin to try and shift a chest infection at the moment. This means taking tablets three times a day, so I carry my tablets to work for the lunchtime dose. Yesterday, at the end of the working day, I packed my cycle panier in a hurry, and called in at the…