Sit down at your computer on an exercise ball. This may improve your posture and core muscles.

Save time (and money) in your office by having meetings standing up. Seated meetings take unnecessary time.

A blockbuster exhibition about the life and work of Charles Darwin is taking place at the Natural History Museum in London. 

In it, there is evidence that the Evolutionists have adapted. The idea which is usually taken for granted as fact, Evolution, now has to defend itself. Speaking from video displays, scientists fend off the increasing threat of the unscientific Creationism and Intelligent Design.

Creationism in another form was the prevailing idea when Darwin sailed around the globe. The display points out that it was easy to imagine an unchanging world, where everything had once simply appeared, when people lived their lives in the place they were born and rural life stayed the same for hundreds of years. The industrial revolution meant that change was a reality. (Even now, we are shocked by the change in our economy, inspite of  examples of shifts in the past.)

A year or so ago, I had an interview for a design role at the museum. When asked about how I would explain Evolution, I took it for granted that only Darwin’s ideas counted. Following that, I flunked the question, “Could you explain what Intelligent Design is?”.

A highly skilled, time consuming technique for recording ancient bronzes was developed in China in the mid 19th Century. The method was a way of cataloging these three dimensional objects, but became an artform in itself. The ornate bronze vessels were possessions of the ancient aristocracy, used for everyday life and rituals,  and often discovered in mountains and rivers. 

 The craftsman took rubbings of parts of the vessel and then pieced them together to create a collage.  Taking two dimensional rubbings was already in the culture, as a means of recording stone carvings. This new 3-d way of working was made possible by the development of paper and printing inks.

As the idea of perspective was introduced to China, the rubbings changed. The craftsmen used light and contrast to increase the three dimensional quality of the images.  At the same time, photography was being invented. Photography superceeded the craft of Full Surface Rubbing, though the images created by its masters are rare and valuable.

Part of the identity of the Ancient  Egyptian is the wearing of heavy dark make up around the eyes. New research adds another dimension to this.  It seems that the eye make up may have helped to prevent disease. Were the Egyptians aware of this?

Cleopatra’s eye make-up ‘had health benefits’

Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, author of The Human Story, suggests the average person has 100 friends, with a close five at the core. 

Aristotle said friends must have eaten salt together,  in other words, shared experiences.

Do one thing at a time.