George Orwell was the originator of Big Brother, Double-Speak and the Thought Police. He authored Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four along with numerous non-fiction books and journalism. He was a one-time BBC producer, soldier and socialist. He is one of the greats. Like many creative sorts, Orwell had his idiosyncrasies. Time for tea George Orwell…
If we had to name our top ten things in the universe, Carl Sagan and books would both be very strong contenders. It’s no surprise then that this excerpt from the 11th episode of his legendary 1980s Cosmos series, titled “The Persistence of Memory,” makes us tingle with delight every time we read it. Follow…
Albert Einstein is known for hair that would stump a stylist and theories that revolutionised our understanding of time and space. There is more to the man than grooming and publications. These five facts reveal the person behind the genius. The men who built the atomic bomb tried to warn the world. This drawn history…
British comedian Ricky Gervais always has a lot to say. Sometimes he says it on Twitter and often it’s about the ludicrous nature of religion. Here are 10 of his finest philosophical moments in a 140 characters or less.
Orson Welles was cinema’s baby-faced virtuoso. He tricked the world into thinking aliens had invaded when he was twenty-three. He directed Citizen Kane at twenty-five. The British Film Institute twice voted him the greatest film director of all time. His genius is undeniable. Scientists suggest creativity and eccentricity go hand-in-hand. Eccentricity is often the by-product…
Sixty happy facts, checked and corrected. Cute, wholesome, feel-good and occasionally strange, with the myths taken out and the numbers sourced.
Ernest Hemingway once said “All American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.” As much as we love our Ernest, we beg to differ. It’s not just the amazing books Americans have written, which cause us to contradict Papa’s viewpoint….
Eccentricity and genius go hand in hand. Research suggests that peculiar habits are side-effects of the kind of clever thinking that gets results. As artistic oomph goes, one of the twentieth century greats is Andy Warhol. He was the mop-headed Pop Art supremo who screen-printed his way into every student bedroom in the Western world….
Science fiction is actually loads older than you think. In fact, its origins can be traced all the way back to the epic poems of the early Greeks. These wonderful tales, which featured a huge variety of gods and monsters meet during fantastic voyages to far-off worlds have many parallels even with today’s sci-fi. Jason’s…