Rain songs: Sinatra, The Go-Betweens, Linda Perhacs
It’s a rainy morning and with numbing literality I am going to post three songs with the word “rain” in the title. Three songs which, in different ways, capture something…
Category: time passes
Joseph Needham, history of technology and the Ahenny High Crosses
Living in South Tipperary, the proximity of the a plethora of high crosses naturally piques ones interest. Some are well known, such as the Ahenny Crosses, some such as that…
The Berenstain Bears and the Moral Minefield – The Dabbler, Jan 2015
This piece arose from reading about two very heated responses to the Berenstain Bears series of children’s books and cartoons. The posthumous “Good riddance” to Mrs Berenstain in particular struck me…
On virtues of the heroic ages: from “After Virtue” by Alasdair MacIntyre
The exercise of the heroic virtues thus requires both a particular kind of human being and a particular kind of social structure. Just because this is so, an inspection of…
Perpetual Motion. Part 5 of 5. Nthposition, Sept 2010
Part 1 here. Part 2 here Part 3 here . Part 4 here Full story here. This story is fairly typical of my rushed efforts of a rather threadbare narrative and characterisation all around…
Perpetual Motion. Part 2 of 5. Nthposition, Sept 2010
Part 1 here. Original story here Scene 4: Nineteen years and seven months ago. Along with John Cooper, a student from Manchester itself, older than everyone else in the group,…
Perpetual Motion. Part 1 of 5. Nthposition, September 2010.
Divided (somewhat arbitrarily) into “scenes”, and deriving from some thoughts on AI, and a desire to use the “perpetual motion” game in a story – and with a debt, I…
From “The Collapse of Complex Societies” by Joseph A Tainter
The citizens of modern complex societies usually do not realise that we are an anomaly of history. Throughout the several million years that recognisable humans are known to have lived,…
Séamus Sweeney 