Home
  • All
  • Art
  • Life in General
  • Philosophy
  • Politics
  • Q & A
  • Science
  • Language/Writing
Search
Covfefe-16 crisis solved?
Richard Farr
  • Mar 29, 2020

Covfefe-16 crisis solved?

For three long years now America has been ravaged by the highly infectious and potentially lethal disease Covfefe-16. You may recall that...
A storey on or about dinasuors in Teh Grauniad
Richard Farr
  • Mar 17, 2020

A storey on or about dinasuors in Teh Grauniad

I love The Guardian: it's one of the best news sources in the world. I feel guilty about The Guardian: I use it every day and ought to se...
Testing, testing ... coronavirus and a dangerous drug called Fiction
Richard Farr
  • Mar 17, 2020

Testing, testing ... coronavirus and a dangerous drug called Fiction

A lot of people are being tested for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. (Not enough in my neck of the planet, thanks to our comm...
Nasty viruses and a question about precision
Richard Farr
  • Feb 27, 2020

Nasty viruses and a question about precision

Listening to NPR yesterday, I was informed (is that the right word?): "There are only 60 confirmed cases of infection by the Covid-19 vir...
Kafka's progress
Richard Farr
  • Feb 18, 2020

Kafka's progress

Today's quote of the day from The Browser - which I recommend to everyone - struck a cord for me. It's a commonplace in our culture to ta...
Al-chemie
Richard Farr
  • Nov 20, 2019

Al-chemie

Reading all the depressing news about plastic, which has now found its way to the bottom of the Marianas Trench – I’m reminded again of a...
No Reasonable American
Richard Farr
  • Aug 13, 2019

No Reasonable American

The latest mass shootings by home-grown American terrorists come during a massive corruption scandal at the organization popularly known ...
Richard Farr
  • May 17, 2019

The time traveler’s dilemma and techno-cultural prejudice

What if you had to move – not to another city or country but to either the future or the past? I ran across this Rawlesian thought experi...
Richard Farr
  • Oct 26, 2018

This wonderful life

I’ve just read a review by David Quammen of Dutch biologist Menno Schilthuizen’s Darwin Comes To Town. Apparently, rapid speciation is ha...
R.I.P Mary Midgley, 1919-2018
Richard Farr
  • Oct 18, 2018

R.I.P Mary Midgley, 1919-2018

The excellent and hugely underrated philosopher Mary Midgley has died at the age of 99, shortly after completing yet another book. (She l...
Authoritarianism and its antidote
Richard Farr
  • Oct 8, 2018

Authoritarianism and its antidote

After so many headlines about the men who  want to turn the world into kindling and warm their hands over the flames (in just this mornin...
A Dad named Denis(ova)
Richard Farr
  • Aug 22, 2018

A Dad named Denis(ova)

Not an actual picture of the individual in question Fascinating – working in the Russian cave where bones of Denisovans were first found,...
Richard Farr
  • May 29, 2018

Progress about ‘progress in philosophy’

Philosophers are still reading Aristotle, and still arguing about whether there is free will: ergo, philosophy is useless. It has always ...
Richard Farr
  • Jan 29, 2018

Early Homo sapiens – we were wrong, again!

In the timeline at the end of Infinity’s Illusion, which isn’t even officially published until next week, I apologize slightly for stretc...
ICAN: a small nuclear win
Richard Farr
  • Oct 11, 2017

ICAN: a small nuclear win

Sumiteru Taniguchi, Nagasaki victim and lifelong anti-nuclear activist, died just over a month ago. It’s a shame he didn’t live to hear t...
Road trip to the dark side of the Sun
Richard Farr
  • Aug 22, 2017

Road trip to the dark side of the Sun

After a drive from Seattle to L.A., straight down I-5, I took a more easterly, more scenic route home through a swath of America I’d neve...
Big numbers, immortality, and Jimbo Joyce’s hell
Richard Farr
  • Sep 8, 2016

Big numbers, immortality, and Jimbo Joyce’s hell

Graham’s Number, folksily abbreviated to “g64,” was long famous as the largest number ever used in a serious mathematical proof. I quote ...
Richard Farr
  • Jul 20, 2016

Trident: yet another depressing vote in the UK

Thirty six years ago, as a student, I wrote to the then Minister of Defense, Francis Pym, to argue that both the enormously expensive ‘Ch...
Vesto Slipher and the expanding universe
Richard Farr
  • Jul 12, 2016

Vesto Slipher and the expanding universe

One minor character in my Ghosts n the Machine is the Slipher Space Telescope. This is me giving a big fat fictional hint to NASA, in hon...
“Does the Bretz Erratic exist?”
Richard Farr
  • Jul 9, 2016

“Does the Bretz Erratic exist?”

The Bretz Erratic, a giant rock, plays a minor role in the plot of Ghosts in the Machine, but it doesn’t exist, no—it just seemed like a ...
{"items":["5e7fe6b704af5300174b0eb6","5e711fb0c19cc30017e2fc1a","5e6565e4cca0870017cd5f55","5e5813552a2c7500187380eb","5e4c69934041da0017ba0038","5dec9ace82e1980017e51039","5dec9ad5e4bd8700176c46fa","5dec9ae0a980870017eeae3d","5dec9aec3d899d00171ae6eb","5dec9aed9403890017e60c6f","5dec9af29403890017e60c70","5dec9af7f8a0db001776e545","5dec9b02337f05001753f9b0","5dec9b0be9fb030017d6162f","5dec9b1b1c0fc80017a8bec2","5dec9b226f4926001746c0c7","5dec9b30afbbd600174b9642","5dec9b38a89239001795e5b6","5dec9b399403890017e60c72","5dec9b3ce4bd8700176c46ff"],"styles":{"galleryType":"Columns","groupSize":1,"showArrows":true,"cubeImages":true,"cubeType":"fill","cubeRatio":1.3333333333333333,"isVertical":true,"gallerySize":30,"collageAmount":0,"collageDensity":0,"groupTypes":"1","oneRow":false,"imageMargin":32,"galleryMargin":0,"scatter":0,"chooseBestGroup":true,"smartCrop":false,"hasThumbnails":false,"enableScroll":true,"isGrid":true,"isSlider":false,"isColumns":false,"isSlideshow":false,"cropOnlyFill":false,"fixedColumns":1,"enableInfiniteScroll":true,"isRTL":false,"minItemSize":50,"rotatingGroupTypes":"","rotatingCropRatios":"","columnWidths":"","gallerySliderImageRatio":1.7777777777777777,"numberOfImagesPerRow":1,"numberOfImagesPerCol":1,"groupsPerStrip":0,"borderRadius":0,"boxShadow":0,"gridStyle":1,"mobilePanorama":false,"placeGroupsLtr":false,"viewMode":"preview","thumbnailSpacings":4,"galleryThumbnailsAlignment":"bottom","isMasonry":false,"isAutoSlideshow":false,"slideshowLoop":false,"autoSlideshowInterval":4,"bottomInfoHeight":0,"titlePlacement":"SHOW_ON_THE_RIGHT","galleryTextAlign":"center","scrollSnap":false,"itemClick":"nothing","fullscreen":true,"videoPlay":"hover","scrollAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","slideAnimation":"SCROLL","scrollDirection":0,"scrollDuration":400,"overlayAnimation":"FADE_IN","arrowsPosition":0,"arrowsSize":23,"watermarkOpacity":40,"watermarkSize":40,"useWatermark":true,"watermarkDock":{"top":"auto","left":"auto","right":0,"bottom":0,"transform":"translate3d(0,0,0)"},"loadMoreAmount":"all","defaultShowInfoExpand":1,"allowLinkExpand":true,"expandInfoPosition":0,"allowFullscreenExpand":true,"fullscreenLoop":false,"galleryAlignExpand":"left","addToCartBorderWidth":1,"addToCartButtonText":"","slideshowInfoSize":200,"playButtonForAutoSlideShow":false,"allowSlideshowCounter":false,"hoveringBehaviour":"NEVER_SHOW","thumbnailSize":120,"magicLayoutSeed":1,"imageHoverAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imagePlacementAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","calculateTextBoxWidthMode":"PERCENT","textBoxHeight":0,"textBoxWidth":200,"textBoxWidthPercent":50,"textImageSpace":10,"textBoxBorderRadius":0,"textBoxBorderWidth":0,"loadMoreButtonText":"","loadMoreButtonBorderWidth":1,"loadMoreButtonBorderRadius":0,"imageInfoType":"ATTACHED_BACKGROUND","itemBorderWidth":2,"itemBorderRadius":0,"itemEnableShadow":false,"itemShadowBlur":20,"itemShadowDirection":135,"itemShadowSize":10,"imageLoadingMode":"BLUR","expandAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imageQuality":90,"usmToggle":false,"usm_a":0,"usm_r":0,"usm_t":0,"videoSound":false,"videoSpeed":"1","videoLoop":true,"gallerySizeType":"px","gallerySizePx":1060,"allowTitle":true,"allowContextMenu":true,"textsHorizontalPadding":-30,"itemBorderColor":{"themeName":"color_23","value":"rgba(51,102,153,1)"},"showVideoPlayButton":true,"galleryLayout":2,"targetItemSize":1060,"selectedLayout":"2|bottom|1|fill|true|0|true","layoutsVersion":2,"selectedLayoutV2":2,"isSlideshowFont":false,"externalInfoHeight":0,"externalInfoWidth":0.5},"container":{"width":1060,"galleryWidth":1092,"galleryHeight":0,"scrollBase":0,"height":null}}
1/2