21st Century
I See No Ships?
The quote ‘I see no ships’ is attributed to Admiral John Jervis during the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797. Before giving Johnny Spaniard a black eye off the Algarve, legend has it that, [more…]
Science
America
Health
New Knee or not New Knee? That is the question
I have an old Collins Sporting Diary from 1971. Quite why I have kept it, I don’t know. In amongst the entries about how bossy my sister was, that I’d asked Chi-Chi to go to [more…]
Computing
Diary
A View From The Greenhouse; Hooptedoodle And Other Matters
I return from a bit of a hiatus where, due to several factors, not the least of them a little bit of self pity, I allowed what passes for my creative flow to dry up. [more…]
Geology
Carlisle-Settle-Preston
It’s Wednesday morning around 9:00 and I’m at Carlisle station. AWS didn’t manage to make his proposed rail journey down to Preston because of cancellations. Hongkonger has done rather better. The train at platform 3 [more…]
Cooking
A Short Guide to Coffee (noun) Café Kaw-fee
At various stages of its journey from Arabia through Turkey and into Europe, coffee has been known as the Devil’s Brew and the forerunner of Viagra. The fact that it made it to England is [more…]
Communism
Will AI benefit humanity?
Elon Musk has said that AI and robotics can lead to a future of universal high income and eliminate poverty by creating an abundance of goods and services making human work optional. Elimination of poverty [more…]
Engineering
New Year Transport Update
The big day arrives! Puffins will recall a previous unread article, Christmas Transport Catastrophe. This detailed the railway and motorway closures and diversions required as a West Coast Mainline bridge is being replaced over the [more…]