• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
Walking Commentary

Walking Commentary

Manchester to Rome 2022

  • ManRom22
  • Latest Comments
  • Archives

david eagleman

Book of My Year

December 31, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

Despite the challenges, I consider myself to have been very lucky this year. I have lots of reasons to be cheerful. One of these is that I have reliable sources of book recommendations. So many people have made such excellent book recommendations that have I haven’t yet read them all. And the lockdown is the primary reason I was able to read as many as I did.

New Year’s Eve 2006 The Last Stand (Leinster Rugby beat Ulster).
It was the last game in Landsdowne Road before the stadium was demolished.
Remarkably, Johnny Sexton is still playing top flight rugby.
[Read more…] about Book of My Year

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: ahmet altan, Bill Bryson, booklink, brian greene, colum mccann, david eagleman, encyclopaedia britannica, leinster rugby, peter wohlleben

’20 Favourites Short List

December 9, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

The Shard First Night 2019
50 time lapse frames on tripod
Fuji X-T3 with MTO 11CA lens
1600 mm f/10 ISO 6400 1/4 sec

It should be a simple thing, to know which is my favourite book that I have read this calendar year.

Because I keep an idea of my favourite books over time, a relative assessment always brings with it the question of absolute best. Absolutes refer to testable truths but what is truth?

I tend to read a lot of books about science. The extraordinary thing about reading recent books on science is the number of times that you read phrases like ‘no one knows if this will prove to be the case’. I find this uncertainty very reassuring. The demand, indeed the onus, on us all is to keep reading to keep learning.

[Read more…] about ’20 Favourites Short List

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: ahmet altan, animation, Bill Bryson, booklink, brian greene, colum mccann, david eagleman, peter wohlleben, photo

Rosmeen

October 7, 2020 by Simon Robinson 2 Comments

‘Rosebud’ was an enigma: the dying word of Citizen Kane, finally explained at the end of the film. Similarly, there was a Rosmeen question that came to be resolved shortly before our father died. As Orson Welles wrote in 1975, denying that his Kane character was modelled on media tycoon Randolph Hearst ‘There are parallels, but these can be just as misleading as comparisons.’

mush ... goddamit!
Cartoon by Regis (aka Frank Robinson)
[Read more…] about Rosmeen

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: aging, architects, cartoon, david eagleman, jlr, neuroscience, orson welles, photos, regis, war

On Chess and Cakes

September 24, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

The doorbell rang. Standing there, masked, was a highly ranked chess player. He was delivering a plated lemon drizzle cake. Almost surreal except that his very good wife had made it for us as a diversion from worrying about our daughter going through surgery at the time the cake arrived.

I searched my iPhone database for today’s date 0924
Dublin: Storm Coming 2010
[Read more…] about On Chess and Cakes

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: baking, chess, david eagleman, encyclopaedia britannica, ioc, judit polgár, photos, street photography

Micromort and big numbers.

April 19, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

I’ve decided to put my trust in the reader and dispense with long introductions and explanations. If you care what a micromort actually is, you’ll follow the links. If you don’t understand big numbers, you’ll be in good company. 

Today is the day we should have reached unorthodox Canterbury after walking out from Manchester on April Fools’ Day. Instead, like so many, I’m curfewed.

[Read more…] about Micromort and big numbers.

Filed Under: Anchoritism, Fake Memoir, ManRom2021 Tagged With: actuary, birds, booklink, computing, Covid-19, daniel kahneman, david eagleman, dinosaurs, geology, geophysics, governance, innumeracy, john berger, pandemic, seo, stephen pinker, the elders, tim harford, walking

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe


Recent Comments

  • Lia Mills on Gallery: 25 2020 moments
  • Simon Robinson on Yachts, Leaks and Bacteria
  • Felicity McCartan on Yachts, Leaks and Bacteria
  • Felicity Mc on Celebrate Minor Mundanity
  • Liz on Yachts, Leaks and Bacteria

Categories

  • Anchoritism
  • Fake Memoir
  • ManRom2021
  • Uncategorized

Tags

ahmet altan albert einstein astronomy bbc birds bird watching booklink brian greene burma cancer colum mccann computing Covid-19 dog dun laoghaire fabhappy fitbit flowers food gardening geology geophysics hans rosling inequality irish times leinster rugby lia mills london movies nobel prize pandemic PEN international photo photography photos poetry popular rugby sahara simonscarves the guardian travel ungrievable volcano walking

Recent Posts

  • Collective Responsibility
  • Travel Excuses
  • Inya and Offa
  • Where Is The Edge?
  • Charting Phrenology

Archives

  • January 2021 (21)
  • December 2020 (31)
  • November 2020 (30)
  • October 2020 (31)
  • September 2020 (30)
  • August 2020 (31)
  • July 2020 (31)
  • June 2020 (30)
  • May 2020 (31)
  • April 2020 (30)
  • March 2020 (31)

Footer

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
  • ManRom22
  • Latest Comments
  • Archives

Subscribe


Copyright © 2021 · Revolution Pro on Genesis Framework