On the Nature of Things | Forum

Add to that the allies of convenience Russia and Iran and you have the new axis powers. versus the Allies: USA plus the "ring of fire" from Japan to India. While Japan is like France in 1914 (the enemy is clear, but we need allies), India is like the UK, it doesn't really want to get invo...

Yes, they need to be made large and yes, there will be some leakage which needs to be topped up. If the latter is small, it is not insuperable. Structurally, a cylinder or torus of 10km diameter and 20km long is quite feasible. This gives an internal surface area of some 1,300 sq.kms, able to suppor...

We are going to hear a lot about the "Guns of August" this year. Apparently JFK read the well known book of that title just before the Cuban crisis - maybe just as well. A globalising world, prosperity linked by free trade, a century of more or less global peace, surely it could not happen...

Indeed, the other bits of rock in the solar system are quite unsuitable. Small, airless (Mars, Moon), a vision of hell (Venus). All those exoplanets they have discovered ? " Go to warp drive, Scotty!" "Er, it doesn't exist, Cap'n. and there are good physical reasons why it probably ne...

Our recent Christmases have been far from normal. In 2011 the wife already had foot drop (her ankle had stopped working) which puzzled the doctors, but which with hindsight was the first symptom of what was to come. We still had a normal family Christmas however. Four days later she had the brain ha...

So China lands a moonrover. Well done.

But it's called Jade Rabbit

Wasn't she a porn star?

:?: In Europe petrol is heavily taxed, and there is a annual licence fee is most countries. Revenue exceeds spending on roads. In France, Spain, Italy motorways are toll roads (expensive in France, not elsewhere). In Germany, UK, Low countries they are free. Nowhere has road pricing to my knowledge,...

Johnson may be fast and intimidating, but England were abominable. And how come Nathan Lyon can get the ball to spin and Swanny and Panesar can't? I am not sure I will watch any more, it's too painful.

The East coast of England is expected to be hit later tonight by the worst storm surge since 1953 . A big storm swept over Scotland earlier today, and apparently it is the combination of low pressure, strong north east winds, and unusually high tides which is the cause. Extensive coastal flooding ex...

Enjoying the Ashes, noddy? Repeated without irony this time . England can only hope that Mitchell Johnson returns to his past wayward self in Adelaide. Pitches there tend to be as alive as the Dodo, and as England's batsmen seem to be useless, I do not hold out great hope. The great thing about the...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24766314 A standup comic's gimmick, a "not born again" charismatic, or is he onto something? A large part of the appeal of religion is the congregation, and social support, not the doctrine. There are of course existing Humanist societies, but they tend to be ...

Those sentiments are sensible, unexceptional, but ultimately banal. Russell may have been a great mathematician, but in the wider world he was rather naive. He supported unilateral nuclear disarmament by the West in the 50s which made him what Lenin called a "useful id*ot". (have to put th...

I must have led a sheltered life, not that I know of. I have known plenty of people who killed in war, however, including my own father, who was a WW2 commando and a rather gentle man, as well as a gentleman. Athens' four stages of "violentization": Stage 1 Brutalization: Within this stage...

Trick question: which decade saw the greatest reduction in global inequality?
Answer: the last ten years.
Think about it.

Conspicuous consumption to signal status, what Hirsch calls positional goods, is as old as civilisation. Once upon a time it was sumptuary laws as to what clothes various classes could wear, now it's fat cats driving an Aston Martin who would not be seen dead in a Ford Focus, and who live in Mayfair...

Was at Wembley tonight to see England qualify for a trip to Brazil, as top of their group in the World Cup Qualifiers. Excellent goals from Rooney and Gerrard. Great atmosphere - 20,000 Polish supporters made it feel like an away game! First time I have been to the new Wembley, which I must admit is...

Mr. Perfect wrote:Does anyone ever really have children "for the sake of the species". Personally, it never entered my mind.

No, of course they don't. They do it because they want them, but also because it is expected. Now women are predominantly expected to have a career, children are an afterthought

IQ tests are very cultural. Ask a peasant what the similarity is between a dog and a rabbit and he will probably say "a dog can catch a rabbit". Ask someone who has been through a modern educational mill and they will give the "correct" answer, which is that they are both mammals...

OK, so progress is a dirty word, and there is indeed eschatological religion, all very Judeo Christian including the secular apocalypse “ And I shall promise thee all the fruits of the Earth, but shall chastise thee if thou art not carbon neutral. And God spake forth: The Great Permian Extinction? Y...

Nonc Hilaire wrote:

Yeah, yeah, there are cycles, and we may indeed be on the start of a downphase like the 50s and 60s.

But if you look at that graph overall, the trend is unmistakeably upwards.

http://s14.postimg.org/4cixpy6n5/kyoto_kinkakuji.jpg Ah, the Kinkakuji temple! I have wonderful memories of visiting Kyoto many years ago, at this time of year with lovely autumn colours. Truly a unique place, thank goodness the Americans did not bomb the sh*t out of it, although a lot of walking a...

I had dinner with some BBC people the other day. They are typical of the organisation, all left leaning upper middle class types, perfectly comfortable with someone like Ed Milliband* who is just like them, probably OK with a toff like Cameron, but the Daily Mail reading classes, provincial lower mi...

France is sliding towards th Greek situation, in which an openly racist.fascist party has substantial popular support. Its the classic holocust lesson all over again. You start with tolerating small crimes, victimizing the Roma, victimizing Algerian immigrants, and it snowballs until you've got a r...

The future actually depends on Polish politics. The country now has a sane reasonable social democratic government under Donald Tusk, but it has a wafer thin majority , and may soon be replaced by Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice party. Kaczynski is a bit of a nutter, who sees enemies everywhere...