Kester Brewin

Nick Clegg – Deputy Prime Minister – has travelled to Pakistan to ‘see for himself’ the horrific destruction that the recent flooding has caused. It annoys me that politicians always feel the need to do this, especially when environmental issues are involved. Everyone has to fly off and see the melting polar ice caps for [...]

London is continually fascinating. As humans we are always quick to project personalities onto our creations; London the person is complex, darkly funny, steeped in history, welcoming all but criticising many, intelligent, crafty… a heavy drinker who enjoys the night. ‘London Nights‘ looks like a brilliant series of 10 radio programmes, looking at the city [...]

Been thinking a lot about the ash cloud that continues to disrupt air-travel the world over. Perhaps it is a good time to reflect and reconsider our relationship to this under-lyingly chaotic earth. Ash in our Mouths Sintered earth, burned and pure is thrown up as if the earth’s guts have sickened, had enough, and [...]

Interesting piece in The Times yesterday about the meeting of two of the happiest men in the world. Well, one of them – the monk Matthieu Ricard -  is apparently the happiest (on average, surely – I doubt he’s ever been happier than me when United won the Champions League in the last minute of [...]

Last year was about writing the book, due out in June. There’ll be more of that here in good time. But I think it’s clearer now what this year’s focus could be. From some of the embers of Vaux a few of us began Apple, a series of conversations around ideas of technology and theology. [...]

I’ve been thinking about what this new year and new decade might hold for us, and thought I’d stick my neck out and make some predictions. In line with some of the major themes of this blog I’ve gone for something from categories of: technology, faith, environment, politics… and the personal. Some tongue-in-cheek, some serious. [...]

Lovely cartoon in The Independent today summed up the idiocy of the Environment Agency’s pleas that they’d done enough by building flood defenses based on 100-year worst flood data. It’s a new world. The old records may as well be ripped up.

In the conversation menu for The School of Life dinner I attended earlier in the week there were a number of aphorisms and quotations to get people thinking, and a few rules too. One rule was based on Oscar Wilde’s famous quote: Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative. I actually [...]

One of the podcasts I subscribe to is the BBC’s More or Less – a weekly look at the numbers behind the news. Teaching Mathematics one is always in need of some relevant applications, and this has it in spades. Their recent episode on sustainable energy was very interesting, but fell into the trap that [...]