Societies and civilisations are in constant development and one would hope for the better¹. On a personal level, for the past decades I have been observing a positively perceived evolution in many ways which can be summarised in a list of words marking the current state: mindfulness, thoughtfulness, tolerance, inclusiveness…

Transport accounts for about one fifth of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to Travel Carbon Footprint. One way to reduce both carbon footprint and energy consumption is multi-modal mobility, i.e. use a combination of low carbon footprint and energy efficient means of transport such as trains and bicycles instead…

Introducing a fuel-agnostic metric for both vehicles using an internal combustion engine and pure electric vehicles. For quite some time the fuel efficiency of a vehicle using an internal combustion engine (ICE) has been expressed as either miles-per-gallon, MPG, or as litres-per-100km, relating a given volume of fuel to a…

At the beginning of this year my family and I watched the 2018 TV series Lost in Space about the long and convoluted journey of the Robinson family to a new home on a far-away planet because the Earth had become inhabitable. Following their odyssey with its many detours was…

The Western world lives in an abundant society where expenditure on food only constitutes a small portion of the disposable family income, e.g. having fallen from 25% to 10% over the past 80 years in USA; instead, more money is spent on consumer goods and leisure. The developing world aspires…

Whenever I feel sad or unhappy for some reason, I quite often resort to listening to pieces of Classical music, in particular the ones that I know well. While different activities may work as well, like eating cake, e.g. a Paris-Brest, it is listening to quiet and calm music that…

In October 2020 the UK Prime Minister pledged that “Wind farms could power every home by 2030”, as reported by the BBC. While I am certain that the Prime Minister had been well advised before making such a statement, I wondered nevertheless if the numbers stack up, whether this pledge…

In October 2020 the UK Prime Minister pledged that “Wind farms could power every home by 2030”, as reported by the BBC. While I am certain that the Prime Minister had been well advised before making such a statement, I wondered nevertheless if the numbers stack up, whether this pledge…

Recently, I received a short sequence of calls on my mobile phone the last of which I answered. The caller purported to be from my bank’s fraud department and announced fraudulent activity having been detected on my account. Despite my initial resistance, the persuasiveness and assurance from the caller led…