Despite more than two hundred years of geological investigations, there are still huge unanswered questions regarding the Alps. Given my own geographical bias towards the extreme northern Adriatic, one question in particular dominates my thought. What was Adria?
After the deaths of the two eldest de Freycinet brothers, Alexandre Dezos de La Roquette wrote a joint obituary and summary of their lives for the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie. He included in it, in a long footnote that extended over parts of four pages, a summary of the life of Rose de Freycinet.
Liz Truss wants to be seen as the queen deregulator, and a tool is ready to hand. Unhampered by a written constitution, she wields the power of the King-in-Parliament and also has the Brexit-delivered opportunity of fulfilling her ambitions by the simple act of removing all EU-derived legislation. And she can cut taxes at the same time.
Scientific debate can sometimes be carried on in a most unscientific fashion, even by the most reputable of scientists. An article by Professors Alice Roberts and Mark Maslin entitled “Sorry David Attenborough, we didn’t evolve from ‘aquatic apes’ – here’s why”, first published in Scientific American, is a good example.
If the length of time the Uranie spent in a port is compared with the amount of space Rose gave to the visit in her diary or letters, then the stay in Dili is a stand-out item. For this the credit must go to its Portuguese governor, Don José Pinto Alcoforado de Azevedo e Sousa.
According to our new prime minister. British workers are inherently lazy. This is well illustrated by her most fervent supporter, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and the teachers at Eton, the school he attended.