26Treasures Trove

The 26Treasures project at the National Museum of Scotland is coming to a close, but will live on in the subsequent Unbound book. It was a great honour and pleasure to be a part of it. The response to my piece on The Piper of Loos was unexpectedly effusive and emotional.

Black and White Thinking

A recent paper in the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics is attracting attention because it claims to refute a widely established treatment of an optical complaint, or visual stress in a large number of children and some adults, especially sufferers of dyslexia.

Continue Without A Hitch

Christopher Hitchens
1949-2011

Peace Work

Thank you all for taking time to read the previous post on neo-nazist content being hosted by YouTube in your thousands, and for taking a look at this follow-up and extension. Your comments are always most welcome, although clearly from those left previously, some people are so set on defending the rights for freedom of speech that they fail to recognise it ceases to be an issue of free speech when what people say incites violence towards others. It is an irrefutable fact that neo-nazis and fascists, such as Copeland (1999 “London Nail Bomber”) and Breivik (2011 Norway attacks), source ideas from online communities, receive support and feel vindicated and justified in their activities. While it is naive to think all such online presence could be controlled, it is preferable to make it more difficult to access for these individuals, to the level of child pornography, for example. There is little hope that doing so will appeal to a moral principle, but at least those individuals seeking that material would be in no doubt that they do so as social pariahs, despised by the majority who are unwilling to allow these attitudes to mix with the more acceptable mainstream. Diversity, yes. Despotism, no.

Your Part In Their Downfall

Recently, a horrifying video went viral on YouTube. It shows an individual abusing several others in a public place. But that’s enough about Benton / Clarkson. Even more recently, another video was published on YouTube that captured a 34-year old Emma West, possibly the mother of the young boy on her knee, on the Croydon-to-Wimbledon Tramlink route, verbally abusing the other passengers for their ethnic origins. She is clearly finding multicultural Britain a challenge.

Sketch: Secret Weapons Committee

Secret Weapons Committee (WWI)

(establishing shot, perhaps of outer door. door sharpley pulls open. soldier falls through it, object chucked after him. shouts from within, “Get out you nitwit!” switch to inside room. major at desk on raised platform. Corporal with clipboard to side.)

Every Golden Scale

This is just so cool, there is nothing more to add. Simply marvel at the hierarchical complexity of the natural world.

Visual Poetry #4: Relief Work

The incumbent genius over at Kerosene101 has worked their magic once again on another of my poems. They previously metamorphosed The Music of the Words, Down and Follow / Your / Heart out of recognition, from linear, 1-dimensional sketches, into magnificent (even though I say so myself) multidimensional visual re-imaginings. This time it’s the turn of Relief Work.

One Giant Leap for Mankind

Derry, JF (2009) One Giant Leap for Mankind: Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Hominina Evolution. In: Innovation and Creativity in a Complex World, Wagner, CG (ed.). World Future Society.

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