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It was: 200 years ago, on 27th and 30th Jan 1820 that Antarctica was discovered.  A Russian expedition sighted the Fimbul Ice Shelf, but not land.  Three days later a captain in the British Royal Navy sighted the Trinity Peninsula. 175 years ago, on 29th Jan 1845 that Edgar Allen Poe’s poem The Raven was...

Just over 20 years ago, there was widespread panic – or at least deep concern – over what might happen when the calendar switched over to the year 2000 on 1st January, and the effect on computers of the so-called Y2K ‘Millennium Bug’. The problem was that computers so long ago were laughably short of...

The album Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel was released 50 years ago, on 26th January 1970. It topped the charts in ten countries and sold 25 million records. It was their fifth and final studio album. The song itself, one of their most widely known, was influenced by gospel music, especially the...

It was 200 years ago, on the 27th and 30th of January 1820, that Antarctica was discovered.  A Russian expedition sighted the Fimbul Ice Shelf, but not land.  Three days later a captain in the British Royal Navy sighted the Trinity Peninsula. Neither of these achievements is totally beyond dispute, mainly because of the difficulty...

In the 1990s a stream was a small river, the web was what spiders built in your shed, a net was something you used to catch things, the cloud brought rain, and tweeting was what birds did. Not anymore.  In recent years these words from the ‘natural world’ have been so overtaken by technology that...

Here’s a New Year Resolution for your dog: don’t eat the postman (or woman). The Royal Mail’s recent request, that dog owners distract their pets by feeding them before the postman comes, follows a surge of dog attacks on postmen and women, averaging out at 47 a week for the past year.  In all, nearly...

Our appetites are killing us.  Hospitals are now treating 5,000 type 2 diabetics a day.  The head of the NHS, Simon Stevens, blames “our ever-expanding waistlines”, as obesity is the major cause of Type 2 diabetes. More than 1.7 million people were admitted to hospital last year with type 2 diabetes.   That cost the NHS...

If you are ashamed that you need to take antidepressants, don’t be, as even the Archbishop of Canterbury is now taking them. Speaking at a recent event on mental health at Lambeth Palace, Archbishop Welby said: “I carry an inhaler everywhere.  I take an antidepressant every morning. Big deal.”   He went on to say that...

Working mothers are now too busy to join Parent Teacher Associations, and in any case, people are now less ‘community-minded’ than they used to be. So says a leading headmistress who is president of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA). Over the past two decades there has been a steady decline in attendance at PTA meetings...

All in the month of DECEMBER World Aids Day – 1st December A life for a life The writer who gave us Treasure Island and Kidnapped  The poet and hymn-writer who gave us ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ Nancy Astor – first woman MP in the House The News Quiz for 2019 Answers to the News...

It was: 300 years ago, on 31st Dec 1719 that John Flamsteed, British astronomer died.  He was the first Astronomer Royal, and founder of the Greenwich Observatory. 150 years ago, on 31st Dec 1869 that Henri Matisse, the French artist, was born.  He became leader of the Fauvist movement. 125 years ago, on 3rd Dec...

It is just over 30 years since World Aids Day first began, in 1988.  It was the first ever global health day, and there is still very much a need for continuing an informed and united fight against AID-related illnesses. Worldwide, there are now an estimated 36.7million people who have the virus.  More than 35...