All this is wimpish stuff. Be a stern Ancient Roman and go for 12 hours of the day and 12 of night, the divisions of day/night defined by sunrise and sunset. Only a Mediterranean culture could concei… (View Post)

Like the railway companies discovered, very quickly. (View Post)

Don't worry about it - it won't be long before we're discussing Oxford Union committee persons and members of the Eton debating society (I forget its weird name) as the next Tory leader, let alone PM… (View Post)

And indeed the marine mammals' ecological predecessors the JUrassic marine reptiles - it's not just goths and Austen that Whitby and Lyme Regis are famous for. (View Post)

As Herman Melville said about whales, pretty much, in Moby Dick - he was so fascinated he was able to write a whole chapter on the prepuce of just one species of cetacean. I got really interested in … (View Post)