Ikenobo Moribana [freer] arrangement People have long appreciated beautiful flowers and arranged them in vases. However, in Japan, the way of arranging flowers and plants has been carefully systematised and this is called ‘Kado’. In the Kamakura period (1192-1333), the…
Author: James Higham
The boy who asked why
Space quiz – try these five
1. On January 31, 1958, Satellite 1958 Alpha was launched. What was it more commonly known as? Hint: E….. 2. To be fair, the Soviets had been first with the First intercontinental ballistic missile in 1957. What was it called?…
Reverse osmosis – on everyone’s lips
The weekend’s coming and that means it’s time to explain Reverse Osmosis to those who still don’t quite get it. Of course, this just draws on the excellent How Stuff Works article on the topic: On the left is a…
War games – players jockey for position
The Madalene [whose link leads to a photo of Madame Lash and therefore undercuts his position] points to this, from Bloomberg: Iran and Venezuela signed a memorandum of understanding to build a $1.5 billion oil refinery in Syria, the Regional…
Are you cussin’ me, man?
The issue of race is consuming the U.S., if the media’s to be believed, which I don’t. It seems to me that Washington Rebel, through Irish Cicero, at Theo Spark’s [sounds like a racehorse pedigree], has it right when he…
School children forced into sex
This post was first run at the old Nourishing Obscurity and had many comments which have not been brought over here. It starts off all right: In their most impressionable adolescent years, a third of high school students say they…
Yesterday’s news is old news- quiz
Click the red arrow [right] or the heading to go to the quiz …