The idea of the Technological Singularity is associated with the mathematicians John von Neumann and Irving Good. von Neumann spoke about self-replicating machines in the 1940’s, Good in 1965 took the idea a step further with the concept of how an advanced machine could potentially become smart enough to design an improved version of itself. […]
As we look out to the stars, humanity often ponders one of the biggest questions of all: are we the only intelligent life in the Universe? As of October 2025 there are 6,022 confirmed exoplanets in 4,490 star systems. Exoplanets are not rare, there are over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy we […]
1968 – across the world the year was marked by a marked rise of left-wing politics, anti-war sentiment, civil rights demonstrations and youth counterculture challenging the accepted norms of their elders. Ask most people what were the key events in 1968 they may say the chaos around the student protests in France, the Prague Spring and […]
Antikythera is an unremarkable Greek island in many ways, 20 square kilometres of fairly arid and barren land. It does not make the top 50 Greek islands either by population or size. Like many Greek islands it is also home to many shipwrecks. One of these has utterly changed our understanding of the ancient world. […]
We briefly mentioned asteroids in our previous blog about the astronaut John Young and how in his later years he dedicated his time to publicising the danger of asteroid impact. In 1992 NASA-sponsored the Near-Earth-Object Interception Workshop which evaluated issues involved in intercepting celestial objects that could hit Earth. One of the outcomes was a […]
Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) The Shawshank Redemption “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying.” Never a truer word. Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) Taken “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you […]
Pablo Escobar was a complex character, a billionaire criminal who craved respectability and acceptance from Colombia’s elite while cultivating a Robin Hood image with Colombia’s poor. He was ruthless and incredibly capable. He built a fortune of approximately $70 billion dollars (in today’s money) over a fifteen-year period from the creation of the Medelin cartel […]
John Young began his career in the US Navy and like many early Astronauts was a Test Pilot. Unless you are a space nerd you may never have heard of him. Young was born in San Francisco at the beginning of the great depression in 1930. He attended Georgia Tech on a naval scholarship joining […]
We take a (slightly) tongue in cheek look at the impact of Budget 2025. Jack Chambers first budget was set against a backdrop of one of the biggest financial one off wins in the history of the state. The big picture numbers, are as follows, an overall package of €10.5 billion comprised of once-off measures […]
As any Labrador dog owner will know (and I am one) they communicate, we just don’t have a common frame of communication. My mutt knows about 20 objects by name and can respond to well over 10 commands. Bizarrely she responds better when there is the incentive of a treat, who knew? Dogs show a […]