In his 1742/1768 poem, Thomas Gray wrote two famous last lines: “[..] where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise”. The old English word "folly" means foolish; bliss is "a state of complete happiness or joy". My blog’s title is a paraphrase of those two lines. Small human problems often arise from misunderstandings and/or wrong assumptions. Both can be solved...
I'm intrigued by the British PM's determination to "level up" the UK. Ultimately, it might just be another one of his pranks but let's suppose that it's not. Is it even possible to level up a nation or a society? Yes, it is indeed as China has shown. However, Western democracies are facing elections without a fixed outcome. In my view, his belief in levelling up...
Recently, the Dutch Financial Times referred to an August 2021 key statistic of the Asian Development Bank: "COVID-19 Has Plunged around 75-80 million Asians into Extreme Poverty" (see diagram on page 30). Add the African continent and we are probably talking about 200 million of people, who are facing extreme poverty due to our handling of Covid-19. WHO (sic!)...
Yesterday's blog on the coincidental evolution hypothesis mentioned a 2014 Aeon article: When bacteria kill us, it’s more accident than assassination. I argued that the same ratio applies to viruses: "Sometimes, a virus kills its host. This is by accident and not by intent. A virus needs its host." This might be the only way to explain the...
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