This year for our Advent Calendar we have a selection of my photographs from recent years. They may not be technically the best, or the most recent, but they’re ones which, for various reasons, I rather like.
This year for our Advent Calendar we have a selection of my photographs from recent years. They may not be technically the best, or the most recent, but they’re ones which, for various reasons, I rather like.
Each month during 2025 we’re offering two tiny changes which may help improve your life. This month …
This year for our Advent Calendar we have a selection of my photographs from recent years. They may not be technically the best, or the most recent, but they’re ones which, for various reasons, I rather like.
This year for our Advent Calendar we have a selection of my photographs from recent years. They may not be technically the best, or the most recent, but they’re ones which, for various reasons, I rather like.
And so we come, all too soon, to our final selection of recently encountered quotes for this year. The Fates permitting there will be more next year.
A computer can never be held accountable therefore a computer must never make a management decision.
[unknown]
Humanism … Being decent without expecting rewards or punishment after death. Morality isn’t transactional. It’s about living ethically for its own sake, not for divine approval.
[Kurt Vonnegut]
When someone asks me, “What is wrong?” I simply reply with “I’m just tired”, and they say to take a nap. But you see, this exhaustion, it’s not something that can be resolved by sleeping. I cannot simply shut my eyes and wake up okay. I need a break from my mind, my feelings, my life, this world. I need to get away for just a little while and let my soul rest.
[unknown]
Loneliness does not come from having no people around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you. Loneliness is rarely about empty rooms. It is about carrying words you cannot say and truths you do not feel safe to share. Healing is learning to speak what matters most so you are no longer alone with it. This is the work of letting yourself be seen and known for who you really are.
[Carl Jung]
The past has no existence except as it is recorded in the present.
[John Wheeler, Physicist]
The paradox of imagination is that it’s fundamentally self-centred: it happens in the privacy of your own mind. But your private, cloistered reveries turn out to be one of the best ways to create that shared, inclusive space that can shelter other people.
[Charlie Jane Anders]
The only reason people do not know much is because they do not care to know. They are incurious. Incuriosity is the oddest and most foolish failing there is.
[Stephen Fry]
The neologism “necrosecurity” describes the cultural idea that mass death among less grievable subjects plays an essential role in maintaining social welfare and public order.
[Martha Lincoln; https://doi.org/10.1515/opan-2020-0104]
Whether you believe in God or not does not matter so much; whether you believe in Buddha or not does not matter so much; as a Buddhist, whether you believe in reincarnation or not does not matter so much. You must lead a good life. And a good life does not mean just good food, good clothes, good shelter. These are not sufficient. A good motivation is what is needed: compassion, without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their rights and human dignity.
[Dalai Lama]
Two years ago you had problems you don’t even remember. But it felt like such a big deal at the time, didn’t it? And yet – here you are. This, too, shall pass.
[unknown]
The only reason Christianity survived for thousands of years is because the Roman Empire forced it on people under the threat of death. Not because the teachings are truthful.
[unknown]
This year for our Advent Calendar we have a selection of my photographs from recent years. They may not be technically the best, or the most recent, but they’re ones which, for various reasons, I rather like.
This year for our Advent Calendar we have a selection of my photographs from recent years. They may not be technically the best, or the most recent, but they’re ones which, for various reasons, I rather like.
As is now traditional here (but slightly earlier than in recent years), we once again we bring you this year’s King William’s College General Knowledge Paper 2025-26.
For over 120 years the College has set an annual general knowledge test, known as the General Knowledge Paper. The pupils sit the test twice: once unseen on the day before the Christmas holidays, and again when they return to school in the New Year – after spending the holiday researching the answers. The test used to be mandatory but these days participation is voluntary. Since 1951 the quiz has been published in the Guardian.
The quiz, which is always 18 sets of 10 questions, is well known to be highly difficult, a common score being just two correct answers. The best scores are around 12% for the unseen test and about 70% for the second attempt – and of course the average scores are going to be very much lower than this.
The quiz is always introduced with the Latin motto Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est, “To know where you can find anything is, after all, the greatest part of erudition” – something my father always impressed on me as “Education is not knowing, it is knowing where to find out”.
You can find this year’s General Knowledge Paper on the King William’s College website at https://kwc.im/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GKP_2025_26.pdf and in the Guardian.
I’ve not yet tried this year’s test myself, but unseen I don’t normally have many more clues that the KWC pupils!
Enjoy the quiz as a break from festive preparations, or keep it to amuse the family over Christmas!
This year for our Advent Calendar we have a selection of my photographs from recent years. They may not be technically the best, or the most recent, but they’re ones which, for various reasons, I rather like.
