English, like all languages, is a mismatch of words, grammar systems and spellings from many related tongues; including Old High German, Old Norse, French, Latin and Greek. But the fascinating thing about languages is that it is always in a state of flux, and this change is predominantly led by speakers themselves. As speakers adapt […]
Fashion: keeping up with the latest trends, filling our wardrobes with bargain clothes we wear a few times with pride before a new style catches our eye. This is not just fashion – this is fast fashion, an industry which has grown internationally and exponentially over the past few decades. But all these cheap and […]
Anna Whealing looks at whether cities and people are adapting to the increased presence of animals in our towns. In rural Columbia, around 200 miles north-west of Bogota, a veritable Hippopotamus community is thriving. Introduced by the drug barren Pablo Escobar who decided to illegally import a variety of African animals in a Russian plane […]
The 15th of February 1564 saw the birth of Galileo Galilei or ‘the Father of Modern Science’. Galileo lived a life of great mathematical and astrological success, coupled with problems of money, marital difficulties, his own egotism, and confrontations with the Catholic Church. He provided evidence for and against various grounded scientific theories, and was […]
Everyone has thought about it: it is one of those million-dollar questions. What would you do if you won the lottery? According to The Independent, 32 million of us regularly play the National Lottery; so at least 32 million wrestle with this question once a week. But instead of creating thrilling visions of what we […]
Every New Year, as the bells strike midnight, millions of people across the world make a promise, a resolution to become a better person. Our relationship with the New Year’s Resolution, however, is a fraught one. Many make a promise that will fizzle out as the year advances only to be half-heartedly re-affirmed when New […]
Posner, in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, when asked to discuss the Holocaust as a historical event, says that, “To put something in context is a step towards saying it can be understood and that it can be explained. And if it can be explained that it can be explained away.” He questions whether the […]