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Why the population is aging
A recent article in the Times [1], shows that many countries are trying to decrease the average age in their country since demographic trends show that the average age is going up. This, of course, puts a strain on the workforce as what is called the old-age dependency ratio [2] is increasing as the ratio…
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Being Too Quick to Judge: A Necessary Evil?
Relatively recently, I wrote a review on Goodreads of the book \”The Secret Commonwealth\” by Philip Pullman. I initially knocked the book a star. I thought it was a 4-star read. I had recently got into the habit of improving my snap judgments on things, under the impression that perhaps my life had been going…
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Learning out of curiosity: Bubbles of ignorance
The only way to learn is to learn out of curiosity, otherwise, there’s no motivation. If you learn due to an external drive, you’re not really learning. If you don’t have curiosity for something, then learn something else until you find the right questions. That last point is important – we learn new things because…
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All the World’s a Stage: Dominic Cummings and the Hypocrisy of Politics
Barnard Castle: A sight for sore eyes? Credit: George Hodan If you’ve been following the UK news recently, you’ll be hard put to have missed the dominating headline: the fall from grace of Dominic Cummings — Chief Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson — seemingly breaking the rules his own party set on social distancing…
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The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
** This review contains spoilers ** Pullman is back with the second installment of the Book of Dust. The style of writing, and the content, seem very different from the first, and it is perhaps not immediately apparent what the connection between this book and La Belle Sauvage is. Promptly, however, Pullman reveals (or perhaps…
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Can Money Buy Happiness?
A Sisyphean perspective sheds light on the age-old question of whether money can buy happiness. Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash During this unusual time, many people, including myself, may be starting to take a more introspective look at themselves and their lives, thinking about their choices and about bigger questions that might otherwise be…
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A Delicate Truth by John le Carré
** This review contains spoilers ** I hadn’t read any of John Le Carre’s books before. I actually listened to this as an audiobook read by the author himself. He is a very good narrator, and does a range of voices, from the fed-up, drawling female secretary to the gruff, stiff upper lipped Kit Probyn.…
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Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman
Good little addition to the original trilogy. It fits neatly between the last book (Amber Spyglass) and the second book of the “equel”, as Pullman has described the Book of Dust with respect to His Dark Materials. Indeed, there’s a reference to one of the characters of this book in The Secret Commonwealth. It’s a…
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Translations – Mythical Ireland speaks the Common Tongue
Nothing is lost, but is easy to lose yourself, in this fierce production of a play that looks at the value of a language 5 stars Director Ian Rickson’s new production of Brian Fiel’s play Translations is staging at The National Theatre. Set in an 1833 hedge school in Baile Beag (English: Ballybeg), an Irish…
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In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality by John Gribbin
A really good book that provides a reasonably understandable introduction to quantum mechanics and its history. There is a focus on providing a detailed account of the development of the theory, including a “de-idealisation” of the major figures who won Nobel prizes – for example, it is quickly stated that although Planck jumped to the…
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Thoughts of Geresy 