Exactly 255 years ago as I write, on All Saints Day in 1755 at 9.30 in the morning, an earthquake struck the city of Lisbon. It was the biggest ever recorded in Europe, measuring nine on the Richter Scale. A devout Catholic population was gathered in churches. Fourteen out of fifteen of these were destroyed.
Posts by John Grant
The Gene Delusion
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My son asked me recently whether I believed in God. My reply was that I believe – I think – that there may be some sort of intelligence shaping the…
Under The Wire
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One of the key strands running through my new book Co-opportunity is the growth of internet-enabled tribes that are combining efforts in new ways with a richness of interaction and…
The Commons People
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Like many people, I started the year not exactly looking forward to the UK elections. The mess that was Copenhagen paid testament to the lack of any real leadership in…
The Craft Society
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The word ‘craft’ has dubious connotations – macramé plant hangers, table lamps festooned with sea shells, dolls made out of socks and buttons, home-knit jumpers for Christmas … A 1970s…
A Design For Our Times
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People generally in a frightened or hysterical mood are using everything that they own longer than was their custom before … In the earlier period of prosperity, the American people did not wait until the last possible bit of use had been extracted from every commodity. They replaced old articles with new for reasons of fashion and up-to-dateness. They gave up old homes and old automobiles long before they were worn out, merely because they were obsolete.
