Donkeyshott & Xuitlacoche

To his amazement, Dad saw how his grandfather opened the documentary series on the geology of the planet Earth BBC Video: "Earth Story" The age of the earth 1. The age of the Earth 2. More information on Arthur Lewis Hall. In 1901 he was working at the age of 29 as a schoolmaster in Lambeth

"You 'af to cheer the people ap." Photo by Fred Dawson: New Malden Station at 6.30am [Note: This is made up. It didn't actually happen.] Sound of a loud wolf whistle... the rumble of a distant train. In the background: "Ciao bella. Ciao beautiful." Marco: - "Hello." Christian O'Connell: - You are listening to Absolute Radio with Christian O'Connell. It's 6:45 on this dark winter morning in London, but now let's go over to Marco in New Malden, who has some good advice for you. Hello Marco. You wanted to say something on our programme about having a positive attitude? " Marco: - "Yes, I am Marco. I am phoning to talk about life. It is beautiful. You sound so depressed sometimes on your show. You should cheer up, mate. Like me. In the background: - "That’s a two pounds please." Marco: - "Yes, you ‘af to cheer the people ap." Christian O'Co...

Devils Dancing around the City of God In reading science fiction there were always supercomputers. Sometimes intelligent. There was the idea of the Internet, but there was never the full visualisation of it. If there had been the World Wide Web would have been invented by nerds in DARPA and not a mensch in CERN. Never mind the flying cars, the idea of the Intenet is far, far more exciting. The tempting and exciting thought was this: If we had all the knowledge of the world: or at least a fair proportion of it, at our fingertips, couldn't we become wiser and better people. Wouldn't it be like the old bible story of Babylon. A perfect Science Fiction story, with Leviathan, the angry Old Testament space God hiding in the clouds on his column of flame, shouting in megaphones, burning people and offerings up with lasers, zooming about in jetpacks, dropping vitaminised mana onto the desert, conducting breeding programmes getting really pissed off that humanity was getting its act tog...

Photo from Bloomfield College "Look, an usher reading Doris Lessing.” said the man to his wife before he showed me his ticket and walked into the auditorium. It seemed that at 18 I didn't match the profile of a typical Doris Lessing reader: someone in her fifties or sixties, probably a female fellow-traveller who understood the political and emotional journey of the heroine in The Golden Notebook (1962). And yet Lessing was also a pioneering Science Fiction writer. As a young science fiction gourmand, naturally I would get round to taking Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) off my mother's shelf and reading it. But where my mother's expectaions may not have been completely met, mine were. In Briefing for a Descent into Hell and then later on in the Canopus in Argos series Doris writes from the perspective of a agent of an advanced civilisation, watching human beings and their civilisations evolve and develop, only to end up ruining the li...

I think Joseph Campbell had the most interesting things to say on what would replace religion. Individual patchwork quilts of significant moments and numinosity- art and great narratives. One thing which crude religion and crude scientism do not do is face us round and point us towards the mystery and wonder of what we do not know. Sophisticated religion and science is a-hum with curiosity and wonder. Ah, Om and Um. Blend together. Now prayer is a form of addressing what passes understanding, but science in schools is full of platitudes and certainties which latter unravel in the curriculum. Instead students of science from a young age should be asked to face up to what science does not really know. Holes should be poked in all the theories - open for the students to see them and marvel at. If you could give young people an idea of the mystery and depth of the phenomena they face from the start, instead of the teacher putting on an omniscient mask, then that would spark us all to won...

. . . . . Picasso: Don Quixote A car arrived at dad's funeral with one of our dearest friends, Aggie Msimang sent by the ANC with a message of condolence from Jacob Zuma, ANC President, Kgalema Motlanthe ANC Secretary General, Sankie Mahanyele, Deputy Secretary General, Mendi Msimang, Treasurer General. Aggie came to the three sons saying: "You can be assured that by tomorrow morning your father's 2020 vision will be on the desk of every single ANC leader." Daring to dream, preparing to act Now is the mandate, now is the opportunity, now is the time. A Quixotic mix of policy guidelines and practical measures to remind us that there are alternatives – there is a way. by Tony Hall It is the duty of the present generation of leadership, a very broad spectrum in itself – from exile, Robben Island, 1976, MK, COSATU, MDM, SACP and the Youth Leagues – to return to the transformation of society, to lay the base for completing th...

I've reposted some of the blogs I wrote last year and the year before, below, but without the comments I'm afraid. All the best, Phil