By James Aitchison Once revered for its convenience, plastic is becoming a curse. Certainly, it was a curse for its inventor. He died a lonely eccentric, bitterly at war with his son. His wealth then became a curse for his…
By: James Aitchison Water: colourless, slippery, life-giving, eternal. Deserts: dry, gritty, hostile, awesome. Both the blue and desert humanities have diverse, textured relationships with humans. Why are we so drawn to both? From vast, turbulent oceans to the local fountain…
By James Aitchison Being branded a traitor is bad enough, but having your name used to describe one is another matter entirely. Today, dictionaries define a “quisling” as a traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying their country. Many…
By James Aitchison Psychotherapy and hypnosis had a strange genesis: the absurd quackery of Dr Franz Anton Mesmer. Like phrenology — the so-called science of reading lumps and bumps on someone’s head to determine their character — Mesmer’s theories would…
By James Aitchison When Hollywood was simply a dusty backwater of fledgling studios and orchards, and Los Angeles an uncultured outpost, America’s film capital was New York City. The great Broadway theatrical stars were simply a taxi ride away. Even…
By James Aitchison They called phrenology a science, but it was pure quackery, a pseudoscience that tragically labelled thousands of innocent people as criminals or mentally defective. By running their hands over a person’s skull and judging its shape and…
By: Christopher Johnson Glacial Park Conservation Area in McHenry County, Illinois–some 45 miles northwest of Chicago–is a stunning example of the Midwestern landscape. In the space of 3,400 acres, you hike through a restored prairie and past a bog and…
By James Aitchison We were touring Northern Ireland, my wife and I, tracing some of my Irish ancestors to the seaside town of Ballycastle. There, on the north-eastern tip of Ireland, we had booked a rather interesting cottage from the…
By James Aitchison It all began in 1775 when Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele invented a stunning new pigment — a green more vibrant, more luminous, than anything seen before. The secret? The miraculous new pigment was copper arsenite, also…
By James Aitchison In London, just five miles east of Buckingham Palace, a mysterious underground language has evolved. An English language wherein words such as “frog”, “soldiers”, “Aristotle”, “whistle” and “butchers” do not mean what they are supposed to mean!…