The Word Cloud

Yes, Wrathnar. Like phlogiston or the ether, you mean? I have a similar gut-feeling. I think there are always grounds for suspicion when scientific theories get a bit too complex or outlandish. There’s the example of the Ptolomaic theory of the ...

Gerry, my lost post crossed with your last-but-one, so… Ah, no: I never said I found J. Barnes’ vision of Heaven satisfying, only funny. As a satire (so I believe) on a small-minded person’s aspirations to eternity, I find it hard to take it ...

I thought that was a familiar face, Hermit! I don't need to ask if you're still enjoying the little bit of heaven you found.

Oh dear, here I come again. I don’t seem to be able to leave this thread alone, only this time I promise to be a bit more on-topic. Statements like: ‘I take a scientific view of things, and so I’m convinced that anyone who believes in ghosts ...

Each to his / her own, Gerry (of course), but for me it's all part of the fun of the Barnes chapter that the bloke is obviously more than a bit of a pratt: the way he chooses to spend his eternity makes that pretty plain. And I think that's the ...

Some further thoughts: I still haven't forgotten the hellfire sermon in 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' where the priest gives his analogy of eternity. He says you are to imagine a mountain, a million miles high and a million miles wide, ...

Very interesting blog, Gerry. In my youth, after I'd decided I was an atheist, I was as dogmatic about 'matter is all' as Dawkins. In short order this led me to what I believe is sometimes called an existential crisis, a black pit of terror and ...

Now there's spooky for you, isn't it? (As they say in Wales.) Yesterday evening, maybe even at the time this was posted, I was listening to the Searchers doing this very song on YouTube, and being impressed. The thing is, I didn't think much of the ...

Veering off the topic a bit, but Scheherazade's first choice reminds me... Sunday night we were down at the rugby club ( this is South Wales, after all) listening to a rock covers band and bemoaning the minimal audience response they were getting. ...

God, I feel old. I've only ever heard of one artist in Mark R's list. Think I must be caught in a late 60's / early 70's time-warp....

My parents live on the grounds of Harewood House, where they are breeding Kites. We see them regularly and they are a very majestic bird. Today, mum saw a Kite with a couple of baby kites, presumably showing them how to fly. She said it was a ...

Yes, Kate, the bird you saw was almost certainly a kestrel. Only two British birds hover: the other is the buzzard (we have those round here too), which is quite a bit larger and doesn't hover for so long or so skilfully. I love the old country name ...

My journey to work on the train is always a wonder in the spring time, I get to see the lamb and the calves on the way into Acle and just outside the wee villages on the way into Norwich there are loads of warrens. Wildlife is wonderful to see. I ...

Richard, the Kites that were re-introduced in the Chilterns have spread rapidly towards us, and have now crossed the Hampshire border, about ten miles away. I love watching their aerobatic grace, and the way they play in the sky. In Andover, we ...

Yes, we always delight to see the kites as we drive along the M40 quite regularly. They are growing in numbers and spreading further afield to the M4 corridor and the other day we saw one as far south as the A3 near Guildford.