EGGHEAD CHOICE – Crack open for a hard boiled think

Of all the species known to have existed on planet Earth, 99% are now extinct. and (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/extinction/massext/statement_03.html) There is no adequate reason to believe our species will defy the odds. Humans will suffer extinction either by environmental catastrophe, global pandemic, asteroid (or similar) impact, substitution by artificial intelligence or self destruction. Two recent books make […]

We have somehow drifted into an intellectual culture in which anybody’s opinion is as good as anyone else’s. Partly this is about the availability of platforms to shout your mouth off. Billions of social media posts, e-mails, snapchat, video clip contents, and web page opinions are washing around the globe as an ocean of irrational

We look around Lanark at Christmas 2018. Perhaps we assume that our local amenities and quality of life is a simple given, inevitable, all that can be expected. Notwithstanding the heroic efforts of The Lanark Community Development Trust, however, it’s a largely deteriorating picture. The disgrace of a rotting hotel at Lanark’s centre presents an

‘Art’ is one of those notoriously elastic terms and ideas. It’s very difficult to establish any fixed or simple definition for what art is, or should be. Hence the endless, and mostly fruitless, debates about what constitutes art. Every year we get the stage-managed and media driven hype of bewilderment when the exhibits are shown

Today, 31 March 2018, is the day of Stephen Hawking’s funeral. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-43582950). It says something about our culture and its deep religious heritage that the funeral should take place in Great St. Mary’s Church, Cambridge. It is conducted by churchmen of the Anglican fold. This in full acknowledgement of Hawking’s atheism (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/03/14/im-not-afraid-what-stephen-hawking-said-about-god-his-atheism-and-his-own-death/?utm_term=.1945c64ab9d0) Hawking’s ashes are

By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. (https://www.fastcodesign.com/1669244/by-2050-70-of-the-worlds-population-will-be-urban-is-that-a-good-thing) (https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2009/aug/18/percentage-population-living-cities) There is a complex web of factors accounting for this staggering fact. If you want to understand the human future, then have a long hard think about cities. In this book, Jane Jacobs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs), building on the work of her debut, The Death

If you’ve ever wondered what’s going on when you’re appreciating art and beauty, this could be the book for you. In theory of art and beauty Frank Sibley (1923-1996) is especially well known for his attempts to distinguish the domains of aesthetic and non-aesthetic. His 1959 paper ‘Aesthetic Concepts’ is referred to as one of the

China has achieved a staggering transformation in the last 30 years, and now stands on the threshold of becoming the world’s largest economy. It is flexing its military muscle in the South China Sea, whilst at the same time building transport links to the West which will allow rapid export for its vast manufacturing output.

This classic by Alan Moorehead (https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/01/obituaries/alan-moorehead-73-writer-acclaimed-for-war-reporting.html) is one for your shelf of travel literature. Based on contemporary records, as well as character portraits, this is the exciting story of fifty years of African exploration and the attempt to reach the sources of the Nile. Across these pages we meet a mixed group of reckless and determined