Poets Cornered

by Ian R Thorpe A cautionary tale presented as a piece of whimsy    The Pompous Toad   A pompous toad squatted atop a large turd believing it to be an ivory tower; the absurd amphibian seldom deferred to good sense, insisting pomp is power. A passing terrapod astutely observed that the toad owed his lofty position not to reason, logic or rhetorical skill, but a random act of excretion. The toad, undeterred by a critical word or the peril of his precarious situation chose to pontificate and thus irritate humbler creatures of similar station.   A warning word blurted might have averted the disaster that was to befall but though other creatures saw danger approach, the toad had offended them all Tired of being hectored and harangued and lectured none felt inclined to help when danger flew, by so they turned a blind eye as an ignorant crow swooped down very low and swallowed the toad i

Statistics, Graphs and Hockey Sticks by Ian Thorpe Once again climate change is the scare story of the week, with politicians and the academics of "climate science"  screaming about saving the planet. How are they going to do this you might well ask? Through the magical intervention of their god Mathematical Modelling. Statistics, graphs and hockey sticks combined to make a case that the human race are laying waste the planet that is our home... Rome   was not built in a day, nor did it disintegrate overnight. So might it be with civilization, a gradual degeneration of all good things we have built. Life copies art a wise man said but when science led it tried to go to places where life could not, would not follow. The hollowed egg, the hybrid embryo, the throwaway technology. A clone, an unthinking automaton the epitome of human development? Surely that is not what Darwin meant

Pavlov's Cat Ian R Thorpe Probably the best known animal experiment behaviourals science was Pavlov's Dogs which is said to show all higher mammals have the ability to learn in the same way humans do. Things have progressed since then and now scientists are using snacks to teach mice, rats and even crocodiles how to get snacks. It's fun but is it science. They may feed and shelter me, groom and pet and pamper me, make my bed on satin pillows, adorn my neck with pretty bows but still I shall not fetch thrown sticks nor perform amusing tricks and beg for treats from master's hand; nor march to King or Priest's command. I will not work 'til I am old to earn myself a scrap of gold but go the way of my own choosing and thus gain more than I risk losing. ******** And while we extol the virtues of thinking for oneself, the academic fascists of medical science are cooking up new ways to control our minds. The latest is a pill to erase traumatic or

 Time Travellers or Hamlet's Mill (Metaphysical Love and the time travelling mind - ) You visited my dream last night, beyond boundaries of time and space, sliding between layers of sleep and consciousness, to find a place where infinite dimensions meet. There dancing constellations trace magic symbols on the boundless sky. We stood; and watched time pass us by, saw past and future all as one unravelling before our eyes. We sailed the Nile on a reed barge, watched Sarum's great henge arise, and saw self - righteous cant betray a human being's sacrifice all for the sake of greed and lust. And Hamlet's Mill ground time to dust. Your hand found mine, the stars moved on and neither of us said a word. For an hour, or maybe for all time what passed between us could be heard through the entire universe. All things were one, death seemed absurd as our bleak world moved far away. We wanted nothing but to stay, Love was the unifying force and we, no lon