All posts by Keith

I’m a controversialist and catalyst, quietly enabling others to develop by providing different ideas and views of the world. Born in London in the early 1950s and initially trained as a research chemist I retired as a senior project manager after 35 years in the IT industry. Retirement is about community give-back and finding some equilibrium. Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Anthony Powell Society. Chairman of my GP's patient group.

Advent Calendar 8


An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists

William Perkin


Image from Wikipedia

British chemist and entrepreneur best known for his serendipitous discovery of the first synthetic organic dye, mauveine, made from aniline. Though he failed in trying to synthesise quinine for the treatment of malaria, he became successful in the field of dyes.

Advent Calendar 7


An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists

Charles Darwin


Image from Wikipedia

English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science. With Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced the idea that the branching pattern of evolution resulted from the process of natural selection.

100 Day Challenge: Words #7

Episode seven (for days 31 to 35) of my 100 day challenge to find words I don’t know. I’m scraping words from https://randomword.com/ and each day picking one that I find interesting and which is also in the OED.

Day Date Word Meaning
31 Sunday 1 December pourpointerie ** Quilted material with studs at the seams, worn in the Middle Ages as armour
32 Monday 2 December pongee A soft, usually unbleached kind of Chinese silk fabric, woven from uneven threads of raw silk
33 Tuesday 3 December scoliograptic Marked by oblique lines
34 Wednesday 4 December zenana The system of segregating women away from men in harems
35 Thursday 5 December selliform Saddle-shaped

** My favourite of the words presented.

Next episode in a few days!

Advent Calendar 6


An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists

Gottfried Leibnitz


Image from Wikipedia

Prominent German polymath and one of the most important logicians, mathematicians and natural philosophers of the Enlightenment. As a representative of the seventeenth-century tradition of rationalism, Leibniz’s most prominent accomplishment was conceiving the ideas of differential and integral calculus, independently of Isaac Newton.

Advent Calendar 5


An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists

Marie Curie


Image from Wikipedia

Polish (naturalized-French) physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, is the only woman to win the Nobel prize twice, and is the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields.

Advent Calendar 4


An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek


Image from Wikipedia

A Dutch businessman and scientist. Largely self-taught in science, he is commonly known as “the Father of Microbiology”, and one of the first microscopists and microbiologists.

Advent Calendar 3


An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists

Albert Einstein


Image from Wikipedia

Theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics).

Advent Calendar 2


An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists

William Harvey


Image from Wikipedia

English physician who made seminal contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the circulatory system and properties of blood being pumped to the brain and body by the heart.

Counters

Each month this year we’re bringing you a post under the general title “Things that Count in [Number]” where [Number] will be the month. And naturally each month’s post will contain the [Number] of items (so just one for January, up to 12 for December).

For our purposes the definition of counting includes things which either come in groups of [Number] (eg. four suits in a pack of playing cards) or things which count in [Number] (eg. decimal coinage counting in tens).

Things which Count in Twelve …

  1. Apostles
  2. Drummers drumming
  3. Jurymen
  4. Months of the year
  5. Signs of the zodiac
  6. Books in Anthony Powell’s sequence A Dance to the Music of Time
  7. Pairs of human ribs
  8. Days of Christmas
  9. Men who’ve walked on the Moon
  10. Pennies in a shilling
  11. Tribes of Israel
  12. Players in a shinty team

100 Day Challenge: Words #6

Episode six (for days 26 to 30) of my 100 day challenge to find words I don’t know. I’m scraping words from https://randomword.com/ and each day picking one that I find interesting and which is also in the OED.

Day Date Word Meaning
26 Tuesday26 November florisugent Sucking honey from flowers
27 Wednesday 27 November prasinous ** A leek-green colour
28 Thursday 28 November stocious Drunk; intoxicated
29 Friday 29 November morosophy The foolish pretence of wisdom
30 Saturday 30 November inaniloquent Prone to foolish or empty babbling

** My favourite of the words presented.

Next episode in a few days!