Article in the Guardian 'The Guide' section, which is not online (at least as yet) - it's in the series 'Solved! your crucial cultural questions answered', on the question 'Do uncertain times always result in great art?'

(Historian, remembering an undergraduate lecture during which lecturer on ye medeevles remarked that 'all ages were ages of ( Read more... )

I am coming around to a consideration that I am officially An Old and in a risk group, though only by reason of age and not for any concomitant reason of health, and therefore that international travel is probably not going to be the most sensible of ideas in the foreseeable future.
I note that An Institution with which I have some association has ( Read more... )

Britons having less sex and digital life may be to blame - study
It's not actually stated in that article - maybe it is in the study - but I think what they are talking about when they are talking about 'having sex', is having some form of sexual activity with another person? Since it's phrased as 'sexual contact' we presume that they're not ( Read more... )

I've been thinking recently about the fact that, only a few years ago, I would now (or even somewhat earlier) be having talks with HR, winding down my work commitments, etc, because I would have reached Retirement Age.

Which is no longer a thing, and okay, I totally get that people of my years don't necessarily feel like being put out to grass just ( Read more... )

A very telling quotation by Edith Hamilton posted here by cdpoint:
Greater knowledge does not mean greater certainty. Oftenest the very reverse is true. We are certain in proportion as we do not know. We seem, indeed, so made that intellectual certainty is not good for us. We grow arrogant, intolerant, unable to learn and to attain better grounds of ( Read more... )