Articles written by Charles Q Blair

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About me - Charles Q Blair

I am currently travelling Australia and wishing to write about all I see and think.

I do keep a blog but here it is less personal, just a collection of random topics that tickle my fancy.

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Creative Writing > Reflections Reflections: Virginia Tech school shooting: 5 of 89

On Tuesday I awoke here in Australia to the radio and the story that a gunman had killed 32 people in a University in Virginia. I felt my head start to spin and legs go numb, not again. Beslan, Columbine and Dunblane all flashed through my reeling mind as I wished I could offer whatever help I could to those in need. It is n...
Politics, News & Issues > Government & Policies Should former members of Congress be able to work as lobbyists after leaving Congress?: 1 of 10

Let us look at the big picture - as the people who think it is OK seem to be missing some obvious points. First off even in my industry - insurance - when any of us leave or jobs we are, in the main, not allowed to work for competitors in the same field, if we do then we have to sign a waiver to ensure that we do not try and...
Religion & Spirituality > Atheism & Agnosticism Book reviews: God Is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens: 1 of 7

Before we begin, let us note that the correct title of the book is "God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything". I have just read the 3 other entries in this thread and have been moved to pen an article as one entrant states he has not read the book and I can only assume that the other 2 did not - otherwise they would...
Sciences > Anthropology (Other) How the evolution of man changed planet Earth: 1 of 7

The footprints showing how man has changed the planet through our evolution have been in the news lately. The impact has been so massive that scientists have applied to the International Commission of Stratigraphy to now consider this a new epoch in the history of Earth. Our Epoch is known as the Anthropocene Era. The Holoce...
Society & Lifestyle > Personal Morals & Values Moral fiber: 1 of 4

I think that Moral Fibre is a very open term with a meaning that is fluidic through time and across borders. What would be considered the norm in San Francisco would differ greatly in Tehran - the moral fibre of the ordinary citizens would differ immensely. As it would through even our recent histories - a villager slashing ...
Politics, News & Issues > Soldiers & Veterans Should protesters be permitted to picket military recruiting offices in the US?: 10 of 38

Simply put, yes. Americans, are they not, in the middle of a strange attempt to bring their version of democracy to the world - whether they wish it or not - and is part of this democracy not the right to protest? Or is the version of democracy that they wish to spread a partial democracy where the right to protest is fine, ...
Sciences > Archaeology Human evolution: A timeline: 3 of 11

In the beginning, some 4.4 Billion years ago shortly after water liquefied scientific consensus is that 'life' developed on our planet. From then we have to wait quite the while for the appearance of our earliest ancestor - for the sake of argument we will begin with is the so called Millennium Man some 7 Million years ago. ...
Sciences > Anthropology (Other) Assessing the future of human evolution: 9 of 32

It is all but impossible to assess the future of evolution as we cannot say for sure which mutations and genetic variations will prove advantageous and get a foot hold in the population. Perhaps though we can draw some ideas from looking at our recent past. Last December the Proceedings of The National Academy of Scientists ...
Entertainment > TV Show Reviews TV show reviews: Doctor Who: 4 of 14

I have been a fan of Doctor Who from as early as I can recall indeed when I was 5 I knocked back a chance to go to London as the BBC had played a few Doctor Who's on Saturdays including the film where the Daleks came down in their space ship and destroyed the place. We all have our favourite Doctor and as everyone knows it w...
Sciences > Zoology The role of predators in theories of evolution: 3 of 9

It is hard to simply discuss the role of predators in evolution as in most cases their is a co-evolutionary influence between predators and prey. It is also worth restating that Evolution itself has no plan or goal, it is just chance random mutation or genetic variation following reproduction that causes a slight change from...