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Articles by Simon Altmann
Distilled Wisdom: Einstein & God
I am sorry I have been silent such a long time, but I am sure you will understand that I had to develop a safe strategy to survive the virus. Because of my age and clinical records, I had to be totally isolated for well over a year and, in order to cope with this, I decided to publish a few books–two for children (one of poems and the other is a book of short stories) and a serious book on poems about paintings, plus my Magnus Opus, the collected poems of my last 60+ years.
King Donald | Madras Courier
Poets hold a magnifying glass to nature. Horses may be dull: add Unicorns, Centaurs, Flying Horses. Women might not be alluring enough: add Sirens, Nymphs, Goddesses. King Donald knew that he had not yet touched the real depths of ignorance. His poetic spirit required more. He had mastered an encyclopaedic ignorance, ignorance that is so extensive that leaves nothing untouched. But he wanted to achieve more. The ignorance of the ignorant that ignores his own ignorance: Invincible Ignorance.
Why COVID-19 Deserves A Nobel Prize
Please, gentle reader, do not think that I have gone demented or that I am trying to support the re-election of President Trump, which amounts more or less to the same thing. This is, I am afraid, a serious matter, believe me. I am not sure that I have already said it in this column, but I strongly believe that the Principle of Evolution is the most important idea in the history of humanity since Genesis.
From Akhenaten to St Satyrus: Part II
The story of Tom’s return to Bullbridge is, I am sorry to say, painful. He was the most distinguished graduate in Physics in my College, St Satyrus. In my forty years of College teaching, I had never had a better undergraduate. And, he had a formidable international reputation. But the University and the College accepted, without the most minimal enquiry, the result of his Argentinian trial – that he was a convicted felon.
From Akhenaten to St Satyrus: Part I
‘Tom,’ I said on the phone, ‘could you meet me this evening, at 6 pm at the BM? Joy needs a cosmologist’s advice.’ Joy was a curator of Egyptology at the British Museum and an extremely attractive young woman, a tall Chinese girl (her family came from the Northern province of Jilin) with the waist of a wasp and a regal stance. Tom knew at once that something serious was afoot. Given his well-known proclivities, I had always tried to keep him away from Joy.
Parkinson's & I | Madras Courier
You might remember that one good day, without even asking ‘by your leave,’ Mr Parkinson took residence in my body. Not in fact a very good day, because I soon found that Mr Parkinson had made most of my daily activities very awkward, from walking to putting on a pair of socks. The ability to walk normally was my most lamented feature, because I became a virtual prisoner in my flat. The usual medication, however, was prescribed and gradually increased, but not very much happened.
Relativistic Laundering: A Divertissement
The greatest problems of our time are the environment and the misuse of natural resources. I am offering to my readers, for this reason, a very simple method to do the laundry without the use of water, detergents, or energy in any form. Before I go any further, I want to reassure my readers that this is not the usual treatment in the style of the snake-oil merchants that pollute the internet.
Democracy & Its Enemies
In the Western world, it took centuries for power or sovereignty to be vested in the people and thus achieve some form of democracy–for a very long time the top power was where sovereignty often resided. In many early cases, such power was appropriated by a victorious general. However, this development, very often, entailed the invocation of supernatural powers, as was the case when Constantine became the Roman Emperor in 312 CE.
Distilled Wisdom: On the Imperfectability Of Life
I am sorry I have been silent for some time. I have been in Italy for weeks, doing some research on a fresco by the Italian painter Piero della Francesca, and then I met my granddaughter at Rome. She is an architect and we had a wonderful time discussing monuments, but I wanted to give her a special treat and here it is when fate taught us a lesson.
Should Humans Colonize Space?
Should Humans Colonize Space? Simon Altmann, Sa'id Mosteshar, and Alan Smith, reply by Freeman Dyson In response to: The Green Universe: A Vision from the October 13, 2016 issue To the Editors: In “The Green Universe: A Vision” [NYR, October 13, 2016], Freeman Dyson considers topics from the costs of space exploration to the propagation of life in outer space.
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