Briefings

Early in my life I heard the story that the ancient Chinese worked out how to make a jug spout that didn’t dribble down the side. That may or may not be true but I’ve been amazed how many jugs still get that wrong. I’ve used it as a guiding principle throughout my life to… Read more: Bad by Design

Most mornings I sit in bed with a cup of tea and look at clouds and the trees in our garden. There seem to have been some beautifully different skies in recent times. This morning I was watching the shape of the clouds move with the wind stream. My child’s brain somehow expected the whole… Read more: Wonderful Water

I should have put Questions in that title but it was getting a bit wordy. Hopefully it will make sense in a minute. Let’s gets straight to the catchy bit. Like many living things, cuttlefish reproduce by mating and one common tactic in the mating game is for males to try to become dominant or… Read more: Reasoning, Evolution and Cuttlefish

And anyone else’s children and grand children I’ve just been drilling holes through several strips of corrugated roofing at a time. It is a slow and boring job. Hard on old wrists too. That is just one of the many things I now do (as a retiree) to please myself and to help other people.… Read more: A message to my grandchildren

Ruth just introduced me to the idea for the need for the Friction given by human interaction and debate for keeping our brains active and developing. Aside from dismissing it as the next fad in brain training circles and Ruth’s understandable need to remind me of of reclusive tendencies, I realised that it gelled with… Read more: Calculators, AI and Training our Brains

Hubris, vanity, ego, whatever you want to call it we are full of it. I certainly have it but try to keep it under control. Weirdly, I came up with the idea for this bit of writing after being irritated by an TV program on cave art. What art is and its role in life… Read more: Our Hubris

I’ve been asked to see if I can simplify and summarise an article in the Guardian about the bombing of Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Iran by the US military The article is both very good and also very bad. As far as I can tell, it tells a detailed and accurate story. Sadly it… Read more: AI and Weapons