Bruce Forsyth, the British entertainer, has celebrated his eighty seventh birthday and is still making the occasional appearance on television. It seems amazing that anyone that age could summon the strength and capacity to perform in that profession at that age. But, Dr. Robert Schuller Snr was still preaching at eighty in the Glass Cathedral…
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A dog called Oscar had as his friend a white cat called Arthur; they were constant companions. One day Arthur died and his owner buried him in the back garden. Next morning he awoke to find Oscar curled up beside Arthur in the same basket where they always slept. It seems that Oscar went out…
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A few years ago there was an internet campaign to save a radio station that broadcasts nothing but birdsong. It is what they call “the whistling call of the wild” as the sound of British birds from a country garden is played on a continuous loop.  They are resisting the possibility of a commercial programme…
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“Early Christians had a weekly celebration of the liturgy on the first day (Sunday), observing the Resurrection. Hence, among Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, Sunday is a liturgical feast; Protestants, applying the idea of the Jewish Sabbath to Sunday, forbade all but pious activity.” There are those denominations that hold ‘religiously’ to Saturday being the…
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Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe in 1719, was put in the pillory from 29th to 31st July 1703 because of a tract he published. His intention in producing the leaflet was to make it look as if a foaming High Anglican zealot of the most bigoted stamp wrote it. Drawing on High-Church sermons, the…
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A few years ago at a men’s breakfast in church I sat with a man who had recently started coming to HICC with his wife. Before they came to us, they worshipped at a non conformist church in Harrow, although originally they were Roman Catholics. When he rang to tell them of his move the…
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My late wife was an excellent singer until Myasthenia Gravis robbed her of her voice. My daughter having grown into her teens took over where Patricia left off and became a fine soloist singing with the British Continentals. My younger son, while studying medicine at Bart’s Medical School, won the Ronnie Scott’s Band of the…
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In January 1999 Sarah Flannery won the Esat Scientist of the year for Ireland with her project on cryptography. “Single-handedly a 16-year-old appeared to have found a way of securely encrypting – that is, the science of secrecy – hiding sensitive information on the Internet, which worked 22 times faster than the one developed at…
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In 1850 William Hepburn Russell and James Brown formed a company to deliver 600,000 pounds of government supplies to Santa Fe. Soon afterwards, Russell began delivering supplies to Fort Hall. The freighting business was a great success and in 1854 he joined forces with two other businessmen, Alexander Majors and W. B. Waddell, to start…
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When I was 39 years old I entered Birmingham Polytechnic as a lecturer. During that time in that department we developed several diplomas and when we were upgraded to a university these were turned into first degrees. This necessitated meeting the representatives of the CNAA,1 and because I was senior lecturer and subject tutor for Building…
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