September 2010 Issue 102

Once a colleague in my University department died suddenly, and within a month his room had been utterly cleaned out and his work thrown away. He had been a pioneer of research in Papua New Guinea, and many of his papers were irreplaceable.  Another had original research about immigration – it was all forgotten as [...]

The present generation of Great-Grandmas are a bridge to another world that should not be lost.  Treasure us while you can. I am old enough to remember my own Great-Grandma, who was born in 1850. She took me on her lap, as dressed in black satin or some-such past material, she rocked in her rocking-chair.  [...]

When to use disposable nappies: Disposable nappies are a wonderful boon. Parents will still be able to have that boon in the future if we do not waste them now. Keep them for travel and emergencies only. That is when they are just wonderful. But for everyday, save lots of money and help save the [...]

Millions of envelopes are thrown away daily. This wastes paper. This wastes trees.  Envelopes are also becoming more expensive to buy, so you save by re-using them.  What can be done? No envelopes. You can start by doing as much correspondence as you can online.  However, there are two caveats. If it means the other [...]

“As many red herrings as live in the sea” once meant unimaginable numbers.  Anyone reading Rudyard Kipling’s Captains Courageous about the fishing boats bouncing on sea that was more codfish than water would never guess that in fifty years the cod would be scarce, and now, very rare. Most of our waste of fish could [...]

War is often justified by the inventions that turn out to be of great civilian use – lasers, radar, microwave ovens . . . But consider, if all the money spent on military research was directly spent on “civilian research”, how much more would be invented? How many materials would be saved for civilian use? [...]