Robert G. C. Smith
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The other day I had an overwhelming itch to read something a bit more experimental and perhaps even slightly avant-garde. There is a shelf on one of my bookcases that houses a number books that fall under this category. One will find the likes of Ulysses by James Joyce, Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett,…
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I have fallen so far behind in my blogging and also more generally in my writing, I have started to become annoyed. It is one of those personal things – for whatever reason, if I don’t have enough time to write – it doesn’t have to be a longform essay, but even just a short…
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Over the past few months, I’ve been having some health issues. I would be dishonest if I said it wasn’t terrifying at various moments. It started in the spring when I randomly developed an innocuous, dry (unproductive) cough that eventually turned chronic. I saw my GP and we first treated the obvious: allergies (I have…
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One of the periods of human history that I most enjoy studying is the late Middle Ages, especially from a Western European perspective. There is a certain fecundity (in terms of ideas and the generation of concepts) about this period, which I think may be traced to a few principal roots. From these roots we…
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In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays by Bertrand Russell My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews To some, or perhaps to many, it may seem a radical idea: idleness. But for the great British logician, mathematician, and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell, idleness is seen as a historically rooted concept which ties…
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The end of term is here, and with that comes a much needed winter break. One thing that I enjoy prior to Christmas break is compiling a list of books for my holiday reading. It gets me excited for the holiday season. I also enjoy sharing books, and have grown to like the idea of…
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It seems in the last decade especially narratives about climate have become increasingly saturated with a certain distinguishable hysteria, which, I would argue, is detrimental to rational discourse on what is undoubtedly an important issue of our time. It doesn’t help that popular media coverage on climate science is generally poor, if not altogether below…
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As we usually do at the end of term, Beth and I have returned home to North Norfolk. Throughout the academic year, I greatly miss the North Sea from coast to countryside. In the past I’ve written about the coastal footpaths we’ve come to know intimately; the secret gardens and ponds off the path, with…
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This is my first post in some weeks. Admittedly, I am one that can easily lose track of time as I get absorbed in one calculation or another. But that is not the reason for my lack of writing. It was my turn to experience Covid for the first time. For the first 7-10 days,…
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I prefer a world where Twitter is not so important. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Twitter. It has some fantastic communities. When I use the app, it’s primarily to check for fun maths posts, science news, history papers, or cool new archaeological finds. I also enjoy some of the technical F1 discussions, or the…