richardswsmith.bsky.social

richardswsmith.bsky.social

@richardswsmith.bsky.social

83 followers62 following976 posts

richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

‘Love’s mysteries in souls do grow/ But yet the body is his book.’ “Donne,” says Rundell in Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, “wrote sex as the great insistence on life, the salute, the bodily semaphore for the human living infinite.” richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2022/07/25/a...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comAdvice on living from the greatest English poet of love and sexA fellow of All Souls, Katherine Rundell has a passion for the poetry of John Donne that is almost sexual, which is appropriate as he is not only the great English poet of love but also of sex. ‘Lo…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

The antidote [to despair and a sense of emptiness] is to be found in history, biology, astronomy, and all those studies which, without destroying self-respect, enable the individual to see himself in his proper perspective. richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2022/07/24/m...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comMarvellous writing from Bertrand Russell to console you amid the idiocy and emptiness of the Tory leadership election and life’s many other woesBut while the trivial pleasures of culture have their place as a relief from the trivial worries of practical life, the more important merits of contemplation are in relation to the greater evils o…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

A woman researching medicine would ask how could they be so senseless to invest so much time, energy, and money in research on “conquering” diseases, but not focus on channelling that knowledge so as to provide relief to those in suffering? richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2022/07/23/a...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comA prescription from Kerala for transforming medicineM R Rajagopal (know to all as Raj) is an internationally renowned Indian anaesthetist and palliative care physician who is one of the founders of a system of palliative care in Kerala that is admir…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

Flynn visited Estonia, where a great deal of farmland, Stalin’s collective farms, has been abandoned and reverted to forest, which covered only 21% of the country in 1920 but 54% 90 years later. Around 90% of the forest has been “naturally regenerated.” richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2022/07/22/t...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comThe magical return of forests and lawns from abandoned landDespite having an A-level in biology, I had never heard of Succession, the process by which bare ground may transmute into forest, until I read about it in Cal Flyn’s book Islands of Abandonment: L…

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Prof Bill McGuire
@profbillmcguire.bsky.social

Plenty of utter BS from the government and FF supporters being used to justify this monstrous decision Every tonne of CO2 we don't emit counts - and every tonne we do takes 400,000 years to completely remove from the atmosphere Politically inept too www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cw...

bbc.co.ukUK government approves Jackdaw gas field, and says production will start this month - follow liveThe government says the approval will "heat millions of homes and protect hundreds of jobs". Green Party leader Zack Polanski calls it "climate vandalism".

richardswsmith.bsky.social reposted

Caroline Lucas
@carolinelucas.bsky.social

The Govt claiming we must drill more fossil fuels so we can use the tax revenues to fund the green transition is about as logical as a doctor telling you to smoke 2 packs a day to raise the money for your lung transplant You don’t put out a fire by pouring on more fuel 🔥#Jackdaw

richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

The health economists Uwe Reinhardt said that all health systems will eventually be the same: the rich will buy what they want where they want; the middle classes will have to buy insurance; and the poor will be left with a low quality rump service. richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2022/07/22/h...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comHow might the NHS die?I posted this log in the BMJ in 2016, but I could have written it today. The NHS might be closer to its death than it was in 2016, but it will probably “muddle through,” as it has for d…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

In addition, there were crop failures, food riots, and the rise of false prophets across the globe. (Disasters breed false prophets: look at Trump and Boris.) richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2022/07/21/m...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comMy reading on a bright cheerful morning adds yet another existential threat to my growing listI’m used to living with existential threats, but it’s always good to add another to the list. I did so this morning at about 6.30, sitting in my armchair, enjoying the sunlight playing on the leave…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

The trend of steadily spending more money on the NHS and denuding everything else is neither sustainable nor sensible. Radical change is needed. Easy to say but almost impossible to do, particularly when the NHS is so treasured and... richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2022/07/18/t...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comTime to disrupt health care or is that impossible?Strain in the NHS Listening to the radio while eating my porridge, I hear stories of ambulances waiting 11 hours outside NHS hospitals to be able to transfer patients to accident and emergency depa…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

Courage and chutzpah are needed to follow-up a classic, particularly if the new author is going to continue the classic rather than use it as starting point for something very different. richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2026/10/19/a...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comA courageous and successful continuation of a classicCourage and chutzpah are needed to follow-up a classic, particularly if the new author is going to continue the classic rather than use it as starting point for something very different. The five n…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

As we approach the election that will determine the soul of Israel, this would be a good time to read this novel about the Netanhayus. Bibi himself was a child when his father, a historian, took up a post in a liberal arts college in New England. richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2022/07/17/t...

richardswsmith.wordpress.com“The Netanhayus”: hilarious, devilishly clever, and a wonderful readFor most of us there is only one Netanhayu, Benjamin, Bibi, King of Israel. But now I know of five, Bibi’s parents and his two brothers. I know something about them through reading Joshua Cohen’s b…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

For me, a Londoner, Scotland is a magical place where I can breathe more deeply, every inch of the country is beautiful, and people are fairer, more concerned about each other, less materialistic, more romantic, musical, and poetic... richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2016/12/05/w...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comWhat Scotland means to meThis is a blog I write for dghealth, opinions and ideas in NHS Dumfries and Galloway    but just in case you are not a reader of that website here it is on my own blog. For me, a Londoner, Scotland…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

Painting Judith with the head of Holofernes brought out the best in many painters, not least Lucas Cranach.

Dr. Peter Paul Rubens@peterpaulrubens.bsky.social

Women messing with men’s heads du jour: exceptionally well-dressed Judith gently runs her gloved fingers through curls on Holofernes’ detached head. By Lucas Cranach, d. OTD 1553.

richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

“Even in those circumstances in which the physician is technically equipped to play the technical role to which he aspires, he inevitably also fulfills religious, magical, ethical, and political functions." richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2026/10/16/d...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comDoctors in “religious, magical, ethical, and political roles.” A passage from Ivan Illich.I’m reading Ivan Illich’s “Limits to Medicine: Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health” for the third time, and Illich’s writing reminds me of the writings of Nietzsche in that they are gnomic…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

Novels have been important to her evolution as a potter. Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red led her to visit Istanbul twice and discover both new forms and lapis lazuli. Later pots are rich with turquoise. richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2016/11/29/p...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comPeter Dormer Lecture: Alison Britton: Thinking on Your FeetI knew Peter Dormer because he was the husband of Jane Smith, a great friend and deputy editor of the BMJ when I was the editor. He died in 1996 aged 47. I knew that he was a writer on craft, but I…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

I can’t help but be interested in past medical treatments that in retrospect are obviously ineffective and harmful–because we no doubt still have many such treatments. (Indeed, I’ll end this short blog by describing one.) richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2016/11/24/a...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comA Victorian rest cureI can’t help but be interested in past medical treatments that in retrospect are obviously ineffective and harmful–because we no doubt still have many such treatments. (Indeed, I’ll end this …
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

So Hermes and Athena both have metis (clever intelligence) in common, but Hermes is of the night (stealthy, cunning, and deceiving) and Athena of the day (calm, reasonable, open in judgement.) richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2016/11/23/t...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comThe Hermathena: the value of being two-facedCicero’s favourite sculpture was a Hermathena, a statue which had the heads of the Greek gods Hermes and Athena facing in opposite directions. Hermes is the messenger of the gods, a quick and cunni…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

A beautifully-written, entertaining, and important book that shows how no progress is being made in the attempt to lengthen human life but how, nevertheless, longevity is a thriving industry full of dubious characters with lots of money to be made. , www.bmj.com/content/395/...

bmj.comThe Longevity Delusion: Money, Myths, and Bad ScienceIf you want to get rich quick, then you should consider joining the longevity goldrush. But, as Seamus O’Mahony describes in his brilliant and sobering book The Longevity Delusion: Money, Myths, and B...
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

“We cannot know what time will do to us with its fine, indistinguishable layers upon layers, we cannot know what it might make of us. It advances stealthily, day by day and hour by hour and step by poisoned step...." richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2026/10/08/w...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comWhat time can do to usMuch of “The Infatuations” by Javier Marías consists of intense and tense conversations between two people about death, murder, friendship, guilt, love (indeed, something stronger, infatuation), an…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

‘These Hielands of ours, as we ca’ them, gentlemen, are but a wild kind of warld by themsells, full of heights and howes, woods, caverns, lochs, rivers and mountains, that it wad tire the very deevil’s wings to flee to the tap o’ them.” richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2026/10/07/w...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comWalking the Rob Roy Way and reading “Rob Roy”As the three of us, Sassenachs all, walked the first two stages of the Rob Roy Way, we read Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy (well, two of us did). It’s a fine combination that I recommend to…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

Although I’m feeling excruciating pain, I’m obviously not the tragic one in this scene. The boys are the tragic ones: their childhood is snatched away; they are suffering, probably hungry and tired; and they are almost certainly being exploited. richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/a...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comAn excruciating experienceIt’s around 10pm and I’m being driven back through Dhaka from a generous dinner with six scientists. We had plenty of good red wine to drink. We stop at a junction, and I see just ahead of us a rag…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

It's a complex answer. If you want to know the answer you'll have to read carefully and make some mental effort. richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2016/11/10/w...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comWhy is the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world and Facebook and Harry Potter so popular?When you enter the room in the Louvre that contains the Mona Lisa you find people crowded around the bullet-proof case that contains the Mona Lisa and largely ignoring the other paintings in the ro…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

He imagined colour as a separate fabric, fragile and vulnerable, yet sacred and sufficient in itself to supply all the reality that is required from a picture. richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/o...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comObservations on painting from “Turner: Imagination and Reality” by Lawrence GowingI read this book–a catalogue to accompany an exhibition at MOMA (the first time they had an exhibition of an artist dead for more than a century)–because Andrew Graham-Dixon called it t…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

The first was the burning down of the Houses of Parliament in 1834. Turner sat on the other side of the river and painted sketches of the scene, which was unusual for him. richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/t...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comTwo crucial events in the artistic development of TurnerWe all have moments in our lives that are turning points that would take our lives in different directions. (I remember listening to Bible readings at school about the stony path of righteousness a…
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

“The dusky mountains of the Western Highlands often sent forth wilder tribes to frequent the marts of St. Mungo’s favourite city." richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2026/09/28/h...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comHighlanders in Glasgow at the start of the 18th century and indigenous people in Queretaro nowI read the passage below that describes wild Highlanders in Glasgow at the start of the 18th century in Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy and immediately thought of Queretaro in Mexico, where our son an…

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Magdalena Skipper
@magdalenaskipper.bsky.social

We’ve written about predatory publishers, fake papers, fake peer review and imposter researchers…. Now suspect ‘learned societies’ 🧪 #academicSky Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.comExclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchersA Nature investigation reveals a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices.
richardswsmith.bsky.social
@richardswsmith.bsky.social

“ ‘decline’ can mean many things: the loss of political unity as great empires dissolved; a reduction in trade as demand withered; a lowering of the standard of living not just among the political elite but across most of society.” richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2016/10/26/b...

richardswsmith.wordpress.comBritain following Troy into extinctionDavid Abulfia describes in the Great Sea the multitude of groups and cities that rose, fell, and disappeared in the Eastern Mediterranean between 1200 and 1500 BC—before written history began. Than…