Observations from a Hill

With the Nuclear Doomsday Clock currently standing at 85 seconds to midnight, the current New START treaty on limiting nuclear weapons proliferation runs out tomorrow, the 4th of February. Given the state of the world just at the moment and with two of the most out-of-touch-with-reality men in charge of half of it, gives cause for a modicum of concern, especially when both of these despots would rather not have had the treaty in place at all: Trump's take on the expiry? '..."a bad treaty...If it expires, it expires. We just negotiate a better treaty."...' As for the Russians, they wer never happy being restricted to 'just' the 1,550 warheads allowed under the treaty for each side [both hold far more than that, anyway], and effectively ducked out of the treaty under the cloak of the pandemic in 2020. What of the other nations still holding such weapons? Well, the US and Russia hold ninety-percent of the world's nuclear arsenal. Having said that, the oth...

What did the Romans of the turn of the common era know better than twentieth century structural engineers? Concrete of course. A couple of broadcasts on BBC Radio Four, and a Scientific American article of a couple of years ago prompted me to compare and contrast Roman concrete with the now infamous RAAC [Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete]. The latter of course is now falling apart without notice in 1960s and '70s built structures all over the UK and beyond, just fifty years into their lifespan. By contrast, Roman concrete dating back 2000 years is still standing and faring very well, thank you: think the Pantheon in Rome: still featuring the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. Most people would think, 'well concrete is just concrete, right?', and yes the basic principles are the same, but the mix of materials and how they are prepared are various, and variously effective under various conditions, so to speak. Concrete is essentially a mix of aggregate and...

Another month rolls over on the calendar [Rabbits, White Rabbits] as the first of February slots into place, putting Christmas, New Year and the [psychologically] longest month of the year behind us once again. Can't say I'm particularly sorry to see January go: it's always financially punishing, having less income and much higher fuel bills than in the warmer months; but it's survivable with a bit of ducking and diving, robbing Peter to pay Paul, and other such clichéd aphorisms. Suffice it to say, that with luck and a following wind [there I go again], we can look forward to an upturn in fortunes as spring gets closer and the weather hopefully warms. A quick glance at the bookshelf above me yet again makes me think on: The Origin of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood stands out, and reminds me of a piece in today's Observer newspaper, which essentially argues that governments simply do not understand the hospitality industry, preferring to outsource what should oth...