The Royal Society of Arts was founded in a London coffee-house in 1754, as the "Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce".
Ever since that date it has hosted a series of lectures on diverse subjects, and more recently, has published some of those lectures in a form accompanied by animated illustration. The talk here is fascinating (to me, at least), but enhanced, humorously so by the illustration.
Long ago, I was an associate member of the British Society for the Advancement of Science, and attended some great lectures, where enthusiastic scientists would expound upon subjects you might think from the title to be dry as dust, and hold all the audience, the high-fliers, and the plodders like me enthralled. I love to hear impassioned and articulate people talking about their subject, I may only glean a few pearls of wisdom therefrom, but to me, any day where I learn something new, is a day not wasted.
I have no logfile. Unlike my computer, I can't tell you the rate at which I forget stuff. Or misfile it. I liken my brain to a chaotic library where someone keeps shuffling the index cards, and perhaps destroying a few. The information may be in there, somewhere, but I have no means of reliably accessing it. On the other hand, the brain-librarian bot, wandering about aimlessly in there, can come up with the oddest of stuff that I didn't know that I knew.
Like the fact that Doctor? or Professor? Thaddeus C. Lowe was appointed the first official "Aeronaut" of America. He persuaded President Lincoln that the lighter than air balloon had great tactical value on the battlefield.............
Anyway. enough of my muddled brain, here's a cleverer one altogether.
I am the grit in the gears, the missing bolt, I am the poker of sticks into spokes. I like to know how things work, but sometimes when I take them apart and rebuild them, I have a few pieces left over. I am a man, so I tend to leave reading the instructions until after it goes wrong. And like all men I have a comprehensive mental map of the world and never need to ask directions. I never get lost, only sometimes I'm late, or end up in the wrong place entirely. It's what we do.
Hmm.
ReplyDeletethose get you thinking!