Tilting at Windmills

I wonder whether I am guilty of “tilting at windmills”.

Carpe Diem

There is nothing quite like a funeral to concentrate the mind; “carpe diem” seems such an apt phrase at such a time.

Hedge Funds – not so clever after all

David Harding ( Winton Capital ) has for many years been quoted as a superhero of the hedge fund world. Harding’s meteoric … More

Why are we forgetting the deaths of 100 million in the Spanish Flu outbreak?

Is it odd that 100 million deaths in the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918 has received comparatively little attention?

Is it all gloom?

Is everything bad? Is the world a bad place? Are we humans damned and doomed? Is there any good news?

Corrosive, Obsessive Hatred

How can people not see what their untrammelled hatred does to themselves and those around them?

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent ranks high in my list of favourite painters.

How should you deal with a pig?

I have come to question my behaviour when dealing with a pig over the past couple of years.  Well, pigs actually.

Division and indoctrination, greed, violence and politics.

Why does society have to be so divisive? Why does political posturing have to increase polarization and seek to indoctrinate?

Artificial Intelligence for Financial Market Prediction

it’s time to dip back in and carry on my quest to discover whether artificial intelligence can predict financial markets.

Bishop Michael Curry – the Royal Wedding

Bishop Michael Curry preached a fine sermon at the wedding today of Prince Harry and beautiful actress Meghan Markle.

Art Prices are Obscene .

Art prices at ‘obscene’ levels as Chinese join high-spending elite says Richard Partington, the Guardian’s economics correspondent.

Meghan Markle’s Royal Knees Up

I am trying to work out in my own mind my exact feelings about Meghan Markle’s Royal Knees Up and the role of the Royal Family in general.

Australia’s lame response to Anwar Ibrahim’s detention

Elaine Pearson (Australia director at Human Rights Watch) states that Australia’s lame response to Anwar Ibrahim’s detention was a mistake.

The Hazards of Dramatising the Near Past

Martha Gill writes  of the hazards of dramatising the near past and asks whether we should delay so as to achieve perspective. 

Victoria’s Requiem

Victoria’s Requiem,  written for the funeral of  dowager Empress Maria of Spain who died on February 26, 1603 is sublime.

To defeat hatred

Hatred is a difficult emotion to combat connected as it is with so many other qualia. 

Utopian descent into Dystopian Horror

All radical and swift changes imposed on society began as Utopian dreams and descended into Dystopian horror.  Need it always be so?

With or without Trump, we must back UN’s education drive

We must ensure that education is not slanted towards any political agenda and is concerned with providing what our children need to make a better world.

Class War in Journalism and Politics

Class War in Journalism and Politics is alive and well.  It is business as usual in Parliament and the news papers.

Conflict in The Middle East

An end to “Conflict in The Middle East” is unlikely to be achieved by conventional and time worn solutions which have achieved nothing over the decades.

A Moral Dilemma

My own petty, unimportant and irrelevant moral dilemma should teach me something about the world and how to improve it.

Must Try Harder

Must try harder! Unfortunately as an imperfect individual I find it necessary to question my own behaviour on a daily basis. 

We are Slaves to the FANGs

The mighty kings at the FANGs are the modern robber barons. 

Bashing Grammar Schools

“The UK government’s education policies are damaging and benefiting the few. It’s time for a rethink.”

Scandinavian Happiness

I am disappointed to hear that Scandinavian happiness is “more a matter of class whether you can afford to take time to take care of yourself”.

Am I a Guardian Reader?

Do I have what it  takes to be a Guardian Reader?   I have always been desperately keen to say: “yes I am, I’m deeply socialist in moral and ethical terms”.

Ich Bin ein Londoner

JFK famously said “Ich Bin ein Berliner” but I can perhaps more accurately say the same thing about London.

Rembrandt – Belshazzar’s feast

Rembrandt – Belshazzar’s feast: the literature, art and music of religion still hold a vast sway over the imagination of many of us.

Van Eyck – The Arnolfini Portrait

Jan van Eyck painted what has become known as the Arnolfini Portrait in 1434.

The Schoolyard Thug

He is an odd character the bully, a difficult one to work out sometimes.

The Beauty of Performance

Beauty comes in so many forms and is so utterly transformative wherever it is encountered. 

Catharsis in Writing

The act of self expression in writing seems to provide relief from strong or long repressed emotions – a catharsis.

Hypocrisy

Are we all hypocrites or is there the odd saintly exception?

Euthanasia

Every human should have the right to take his or her own life and the means to do so painlessly and swiftly should be made easily and openly available.

With Hindsight….

What possible use is hindsight when the past is behind us and unchangeable?

A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design

Nobel prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek’s book “A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design” is certainly worth reading.

Why I do not read the News

I do not read the news because it is repetitive, dispiriting, boring and irrelevant.

To Regret or to Reset

Regret, while you still have breath, is a wasteful extravagance, a futile and destructive luxury. 

A Meditation on Death

To have lived a good life is all that matters in the end.

We are all so Sinful

If there is one thing I can not stand it is a mealy mouthed clergyman (in that mournful oh so serious and pious voice) telling us we are all so sinful

Racism

Racism is most often and probably correctly thought of as a modern phenomenon. 

The Existence of Evil

Evil cannot exist without consciousness and free will.

Anger – an Evolutionary Curse

Anger is an invention of the selfish gene, an evolutionary tool for the survival of the fittest. 

Sibling Bitterness

Why is it that siblings often fall out in such a bitter fashion on the death of parents? Is it a petty dispute over the will? Or is it something deeper?

The Salesman

Is the “salesman” grubby and embarrassing by definition? 

Why Write a Blog

I write to educate myself.

A Secular Epiphany

Epiphany is usually thought of in a religious context but it can equally be a secular phenomena where one is struck by some extreme beauty or revelation. 

New Age Quackery?

The New Age movement is a range of spiritual beliefs and practices that on the surface is full of foolish nonsense.  

Renaissance Man: Dead or Alive?

“Renaissance Men” were able to master and practice a number of widely different subjects.  Can it still be done in today’s highly specialised world?