In the film Sophie’s Choice, Sophie (played by Meryl Streep) is ordered by a Nazi officer to make the difficult choice as to which of her two children she keeps – one would be gassed to death and one would be sent to a children’s camp. As any parent will testify, it’s an impossible decision … Continue reading Sophie’s Choice: A Return to Nature
If you had to think of an analogy to best describe evolution and the process of natural selection you might well opt for it being akin to a game of Chinese Whispers (or as some people call it - the Telephone Game). This comparison between the two is often made and is even used in … Continue reading Evolution – A Game of Chinese Whispers
I have just had an unexpected but incredible insight into the alternate possibilities that my brain might be capable of or that others might naturally possess. I recently had to have a heart ablation. This procedure is undertaken in order to correct an irregular heartbeat. It involves the burning or freezing of some of the … Continue reading Heart Ablation Opens the Mind
As a dietary choice vegetarianism has been around for years. I actually became veggie in the mid 1980’s. At that time vegetarians weren’t that common. It would have been considered a strange and unusual practice to adopt. In fact, vegetarians were probably considered a little bit odd. In those days there was no vegetarian options … Continue reading The Slow, the O-So Slow Rise of Vegetarianism
Most of the time, you hardly notice other people. You will just walk past them in the street. Even for the dedicated people-watcher, the vast majority of those surveyed are quickly overlooked and soon forgotten. Plain, ordinary and common makes them uninteresting and unremarkable. But every so often you will see someone who captures your … Continue reading Stand Out Beauty
We may well be familiar with the expression that you can’t compare apples with oranges, but can you compare bananas with bananas? Certainly apples are very different from oranges, making any comparison difficult. But bananas are - seemingly - very similar to one another, so can you compare them in terms of their health benefits, … Continue reading Healthy Eating – Measuring the Goodness
One thing that is apparent from our longer lifespans is that, as we age, the human form is prone to many genetically driven debilitating conditions. In other words, the longer we live the more likely we are to succumb to some genetically prescribed condition, notably cancers and degenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s. Similarly, throughout our … Continue reading Genetic Engineering: Essential and Inevitable
Governments are often criticised for raising taxes by stealth – perhaps by not adjusting thresholds in line with inflation or by hiding tax changes in the small print of a budget - but the problem is much more fundamental than that. The whole system by which the government seeks to raise revenues is actually built … Continue reading Taxation by Stealth – Hiding the Burden
All good parents and teachers will know that it is easier to train someone to do something than it is to train them not to do something. This is because it is much simpler to encourage and incentivise positive behaviour than it is to discourage unwanted behaviour. Getting desirable behaviour is readily achievable through positive … Continue reading The Essence of Teaching Good Behaviour
Humanity – we’re doing alright. In fact, we’re probably doing better than alright. We’ve been around awhile and, generally, our existence has not been too much in doubt. This is because, over the years, thousands of years, we have put ourselves in a strong evolutionary position. As a species, at some point in our development … Continue reading Human Evolution – Past Success; Future Uncertainty.
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