Welcome to Muse & Reason, I'm Dr Robert N. Winter and this is my public Memex. A place for articles, essays and jottings.
This site is loosely divided into the categories of history, leadership, philosophy, and technology.
Welcome to Muse & Reason, I'm Dr Robert N. Winter and this is my public Memex. A place for articles, essays and jottings.
This site is loosely divided into the categories of history, leadership, philosophy, and technology.
Lightblub Moment ON FRIDAY, APRIL 30, the WHO quietly updated a page on its website. In a section on how the coronavirus gets transmitted, the…
Well, I have reached the end of the 100daystooffload.com challenge and the numbers are as follows: I began the challenge hoping it would improve my…
For the better part of 400 years, the production of art in France was largely controlled by artistic academies. With the first official academy being…
The history of the world, for a long time, was the history of great people. Mostly great men. It focused on singular individuals and seldom…
My weekends are usually spent cloistered away in my study, working on one project or another. My fiancée laments I spend too much time tinkering…
Day 83 of the 100 day challenge and I have drawn a total blank. I have faced writers block before, but often this has been…
I am a simple man who fears being nibbled by system. I like things I can see and touch. In the technological realm, I like…
I learn today that Jules-Albert de Dion took the chequed flag in the world’s first motor race, the Paris–Rouen in 1894. Sadly for Jules-Albert, he…
Emotional Contagion is the phenomenon of feeling what it appears someone else is experiencing. Art abounds with examples of this, where a painting, sculpture or…
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, lived in an age in which titles were grand and letters and diaries were even grander. In a time…
As the great bard made a Prince of Denmark once say: To be, or not to be, that is the question:Whether ’tis nobler in the…
Today was a day of relaxing. Well, it started in mild dismay looking at the stock markets, descended into a frustrating morning fighting the dragon…
I could not let July 14 pass without a nod to that most French of occasions: Bastille Day. A celebration which marks both the anniversary…
Today… what can I say about today… it was nothing out of the ordinary, very lacklustre indeed. Neither terrifying nor exhilarating, sad nor happy, downcast…
Today was a day in which, if you’ll forgive this writer a reification, my thoughts have been battling in my mind. The main cause is…
Obama made sure to bring together the past with the present. Memory stalking the impatiently advancing future. Into the party marched the honour ghosts, the…
As a man who loves his technology, one thing I enjoy reading about is how others use theirs. There is a small degree of voyeurism…
One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist. Stephen Hawking There is an old adage, the…
“It is one of the paradoxes of history (and of historiography) that this king… should have been handed down finally in history as an enigma.”…
As I often get quizzed about different world views, one rainy day I threw this together. While I acknowledge any attempt to encompass the myriad…
I know I know… you don’t need to shout it I am not so superannuated that I am deaf to your cries. Months I can…
Age hit me the other day. To be precise it hit my right hamstring. It was cold and I got up too quickly. These were…
In 1968 the doyen of pop art, Andy Warhol, said: ‘In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.’ Broadly speaking there are two…
In Calcutta a statue was erected to Lord Bentinck, Governor-General of India. Its inscription bears citing at length as it is testament to the moral…
Never before in the history of the world has so much information been so easily accessible. Name virtually any topic and a quick Googie or…
Peter de Noronha wrote ‘Old Soldiers never die, they only fade away, which has now been commuted to, they never die but only get slightly…
The satirical ‘Yes Prime Minister’ quipped about international organizations: Hacker: But surely we’re all committed to the European ideal?Sir Humphrey: [chuckles] Really, Minister.Hacker: If not,…