UK readers will recall Somerset was an inland sea just this Spring and the Thames valley filled up like a blocked drain. That was unusual, so weird weather must signal that something is happening which has never happened before, right? So-called “extreme weather events” are the clinchers to convince those doubters of man-made global change.… Continue reading Weather; a lesson from history
Tag: history
A million pound lifestyle on a clerk’s wage
Meet Walter Watts. In 1844, aged just 27, he burst onto London society with no visible means of support, but with the trappings of a lottery winner. Inquisitive souls who wanted to know where the money came from were baffled as, one after another, they ruled out gambling, an inheritance or the City. However, if… Continue reading A million pound lifestyle on a clerk’s wage
History is the Pitts
For those who love the discoveries of history as I do, you have almost certainly at some time in your life been closer to the slough of despond than an exit off the M4 between Windsor and Reading. History looking like a schoolboy Sisyphus pushing his bike up a one-in-four began for me with the… Continue reading History is the Pitts
Spelling bee is a game of two hives
Can anyone shed any light on a strange cultural diaspora. We get it that the ‘humor/humour’, ‘aluminium/aluminum’, ‘sulfur/sulphur’ etc schism now exists between the predominant forms of English. My question is does anyone know if and when there was some kind of pronouncement from either country, or has it just grown up in a custom… Continue reading Spelling bee is a game of two hives