Arts
So, Where Are You From?
People research their family trees for all sorts of reasons. Where did I come from? (perfectly respectable to ask one’s self!).What sort of people were my forebears? what jobs did they do? Are there any [more…]
Blog
Arts
A Postcard From a Long Christmas Cruise, Part Four
12th December – Barbados This changing the time by an hour every other day is driving my body clock mad! I woke up at 5:20 ages early. The lights of Barbados were twinkling as we [more…]
History
Elementary, my dear Watson – H Hydrogen
In the previous article, we looked at the development of the Periodic Table (a.k.a. the Periodic Table of the Elements). The time has come to have a more in-depth look at the story behind some [more…]
20th Century
Somalia – Western Economic Colonialism
Somalia’s recent history is also a tale of grave miscalculations made by foreigners in a very foreign land. Knowing nomads happily demonstrated their supremacy and disdain for outsiders, the so-called fruits of civilization were not [more…]
America
Economic Evolution: Darwin’s Idiot Speaks, Part Four
One of Say’s Laws holds that “we produce to consume”. This is certainly the underlying theme of the Industrial Revolution with its accompanying exponential growth in production of technology, communication, and energy utilization. While private [more…]
19th Century
The Wild West Trail, Part Ten
Eleventh in a series by my uncle John Alldridge. This article first appeared in the Derby Evening Telegraph in February 1968 – Jerry F Nobody who caught the gold fever ever quite recovered from it. [more…]
Animals
Larry’s Diary – Week One Hundred And Seventy-Three
Monday Good morning everyone and welcome to another week in Number 10. I work up late this morning, I think I slept longer because I watched the football on the office TV in the afternoon [more…]
20th Century
Notables Indésirables En Route to Montreux
As we continue our clockwise drive around Lake Geneva our first and brief port of call is Lausanne, the capital and largest city in the French-speaking Swiss canton of Vaud. Lying at an elevation between [more…]
Literature
Riding the donkou through Japan
When you read about Japanese trains, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the shinkansen, the world’s first bullet train and still a wonder to behold and to ride in. Or you [more…]