Flights of the butterfly

  • Democracy

    Democracy. Don’tcha just love it? “Government of the people by the people for the people” What a succinct statement of what Democracy is not. The trick is to use the word “people” with two distinct meanings. This is an understandable error. It arises from the fact that in a Democracy, all democracies, there are two…

  • Wasp

    This is a picture of a wasp eating my neighbour’s fence. The pale streaks below her are where she has dined out on previous occasions. She will take this back to the nest where it will be used to make the paper for the nest. Tricky. Because if you put preservative on the fence, she…

  • Car Crash

    Once upon a time, a long time ago. Look when you’re a GOF, everything is a long time ago. Deal with it. I pulled a man out of a burning car. The details are still very clear in my mind and I think they are interesting in what they tell about this kind of emergency…

  • The Onion

    The universe is like an onion. Well, not exactly, but there are aspects of it that are definitely onionesque. I am referring to the solving of problems. From this point of view there is a property of the universe that seems like an onion. Trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, from our first…

  • Facts

    Ah, facts. Don’t we just love ‘em? Here’s a fun fact: there aren’t any. Well, not in Realworld anyway. The other day, a young man, nice but arrogant, told me something. He said it was a fact. He said it more than once and said it emphatically. Facts do exist, but only in somewhere like…

  • Newspeak

  • Cigarettes and Fatties

    OK, you Wokies. Time to wake up and be Woooke in a useful way. The UK Government has announced it will be putting cigarette cards into packs of cigarettes with information to discourage smokers and advise on ways to kick the habit. This is getting perilously close to an infringement of my human right to…

  • AI and Babies

    I am told that AI is developing at an astonishing rate and will soon threaten all humanity. First, if AI is truly developing as well as accelerating, then by the time it is in a position to exterminate us it will have realised that exterminating any species has never been a good idea and will…

  • A Big, Strong, Healthy Girl

    Back, you Wokies! You screaming harpies! Get your painted talons away from that caustic mouse until you’ve read it all! I went for a coffee this morning, it was a sunny day. It’s school holidays so teenage girls were everywhere. I’ve seen less meat in a butcher’s shop, less flesh in a strip bar. The…

  • Fox

    I met a fox while on my walk this morning. It was a quiet, still, misty dawn. I think the fox was young, it seemed surprised to see a human. It was an exquisitely beautiful little animal. Before darting into the bushes, it stopped to examine me more closely. Not sure whether it was thinking,…