Category: History

Storytelling

Something almost as old as mankind itself

We have returned from being in Tucson for a few days and while there we spent many hours one day at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  But this is no dusty place with fossilised remains behind glass cabinets.  No, the Desert

A Bobcat at the Desert Museum
A Bobcat at the Desert Museum

Museum is an honest attempt to give visitors an insight into the complex and beautiful world of a desert. As the Musuem’s web site puts it,

The mission of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is to inspire people to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering love, appreciation, and understanding of the Sonoran Desert.

That particular evening the programme mentioned an hour’s storytelling by the Native American Gerard Tsonakwa.

Tsonakwa is a member of the Abenaki tribe who live in the Algonquin area of Ontario, Canada.   Originally an active participant in Native American politics and a published author as well, Tsonakwa showed that evening the power and mystery of storytelling.

It’s only in recent times, relatively speaking, that books have been widely available (the book as we know it today dates from the fifteenth century) and in the last hundred years the art of passing information to others through storytelling has practically disappeared.

But listening to Gerard Tsonakwa speak to a packed auditorium in the Warden Oasis Theatre at the Desert Museum was compelling, to say the least.  Compelling because sitting in a group listening to an ‘elder’ tell the secrets of life and the universe seemed to resonate with very deep memories of long time ago.

By Paul Handover

Technology and electronics, a personal muse.

The amazing development of electronics over 50 years.

The calendar reliably informs me that this is my 65th year.  My brain, of course, lags somewhat in accepting this!

My step-father during my early teenage years worked for Elliott Brothers (the link goes to an interesting history of the firm that started in 1804) in Borehamwood, just north of London.  He encouraged me to fiddle with ‘steam’ radios and

Frederick and sa Elliot

try and understand how these basic circuits worked.  It was then a small step to deciding to become a radio amateur, popularly known as a radio ham!  In those days it was a case of some pretty intensive studying to pass a Theory exam as well as being able to pass an exam in sending and receiving Morse code.

Read more of this Post

Avro Vulcan – another wow of an aircraft!

Avro Vulcan Cold War Bomber XH558 takes to the skies again.

That was almost two years ago and, at the time, it wasn’t sure how the funds would keep coming in to enable this amazing aircraft to remain in the air.

Photobucket
Vulcan XH558, by Steve LeVien

Remarkably, the money was found and this great, historic aircraft flies on.

Read more of this Post

The lessons in Chrysler?

Chrysler, investing, entrepreneurism and common sense.

Many, many years ago I went on a course on starting your own business.  It was held in London and caught my eye because just a few months previously I had resigned my sales job with IBM UK Ltd and commenced a journey of being self-employed, in the sense of being responsible for my own income. A 31-year journey that has provided so many riches in a non-financial sense.

Since we are talking about an event so long ago, it is not surprising that few memories are intact about that single day in a smart hotel in the centre of London.

BUT, one thing has stayed with me, and served me well.

Never get involved in a business where you don’t really know the marketplace.

So a recent article in the New York Times (Saturday, 8th August) about Cerebus, the private capital investment company that purchased Chrysler two years ago wasn’t short on lessons for us more down-to-earth guys.  Here’s a extract from the interview that Louise Story with the NYT (cool surname, by the way, for a journalist!) did with Steve Feinberg, co-founder of Cerebus, in his smart office on Park Avenue.

Continue reading “The lessons in Chrysler?” →

Little treasures – a peek into English rural life

Bob Derham has been a close friend of mine for too many years.  We first met in Cyprus when it was my Winter base for cruising the Med. and have kept in touch ever since.  He will be embarrassed by me describing him as one of life’s gentlemen.  It’s great to have Bob’s occasional Post but when you read this, his first, you will get an excellent idea of how this person views the world.  By the way, here is a picture of Bob’s office! (And more details for aviation buffs!) PH.

Airbus A319
Airbus A319

A chance to pause awhile and reflect.

We are lucky enough to live in a special part of England in the county of Hampshire, in a part called the New Forest which used to be the hunting ground of William the Conqueror. Our village is called Woodgreen, and as part of the forest, Cows, Ponies, and Pigs are free to roam, kept within the forest confines by cattle grids. Our house is one of several which are thatched and surround the common, in the middle of which is a cricket pitch.

Read more of this Post

Innovation and Invention

Mankind has a huge potential.

Just recently we recognised the 100th anniversary of the flight across the English Channel by Louis Bleriot.  His aircraft looked like this:

Read more of this Post

The End of a Wall Street era.

Michael Lewis, author of Liar’s Poker, writes about what went wrong for Wall Street.

As with all great events, and what is going on in the world just now is certainly a Great Event, artists, poets and writers always capture the essence of change.

In December of 2008, Lewis wrote a wonderful essay for Conde Naste Portfolio.  Read and be impressed.

By Paul Handover

Taleb’s Black Swan-proof world

Nassim Nicolas Taleb has a deserved reputation.  His book, The Black Swan, has become a classic and, for me, was a wonderful and deeply educational read.

Here is Taleb’s recipe for our present, difficult times, as published in The FT.

By Paul Handover

Just one hundred years on, update.

As it happened, just a few minutes after my Post on Louis Blériot I came across this epic adventure including a leg of over 4,000 km across the Pacific Ocean.  It really does put the last one hundred years into contrast!

By Paul Handover