Cogitations

Buddhist writer Harvey Aronson shone a bright light on a hidden truth: ‘Most of us habitually think this way: “Jayne lost the book I lent her. She is irresponsible and awful.” It is a lot →

Carlo Rovelli is a renowned Italian theoretical physicist and writer who has made important contributions to the physics of space and time. He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute, and →

The ego’s difficulty with the happiness of others is relentlessly communicated to children. Adults stoically tolerate youthful exuberance for a while – their happiness is our priority, right? But the glee soon starts to grate. →

The human mind stands at the centre of a circle of mirrors. The mirrors – parents, friends, lovers, teachers, strangers – constantly reflect images of who we are. We’re told we’re annoying, adorable, stupid; that →

Descartes famously declared: ‘Cogito ergo sum’, or, ‘I think therefore I am.’ But a thought has no awareness; it is a mere packet of information. ‘It’s hot in here’, is like a telegram, a note. →

Eliot Jacobson is a retired professor of mathematics and computer science who regularly appears on our Twitter feed discussing the climate crisis. He sends tweets under the grim title, ‘Your “moment of doom” for the →

Who is unquestionably the greatest writer of all time? And which was obviously the greatest popular music band of all time? Sorry, but you’re wrong on both counts. How so? Well, let me pick your →

Have you ever ambled back from your favourite watering hole, enjoying the peace of the night, only to have your tranquillity trashed by a shrill call of nature that intensifies the closer you come to →

I travelled with my dad – ‘H’, as we called him – in the back seat of the car. It was the same way we’d driven a million times: to Tesco, to drop me off →

As we saw in Part 1, in 1914 and again in 1939, millions of men and women welcomed war. Arnold Ridley and his pals did make this choice, but in reality the choice had been →