An estimated 17 to 21 million people in the USA are affected by a fear of Friday 13th. Some people are so paralyzed by dread  that they avoid their normal routines in doing business, taking flights or even getting out of bed.

In numerology twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness.

I’m hoping the blogosphere can help solve something that has puzzled me for 40 years now, ever since I first came across the issue in “The Jesus Scroll” by Donovan Joyce.

The book itself makes many ridiculous claims about Christianity, ala Dan Brown and his ilk, and is just a psuedo-science work of fiction. However I did come across a problem with Christianity that I was unaware of.

The problem is this; Jesus never claimed he was the Son of God.

When at his trial he was asked “Are you the Son of God”? Jesus’s reply was “I am the son of man.”…….. WHY?…..Why did he answer this way?

Size really does matter, especially when it comes to Newspapers. In the UK the popular press (The Sun, Daily Mirror, Star) are ‘Tabloid’ size (small), and the quality press (The Times, Telegraph, Independent and Guardian) are ‘Broadsheet’ (large).  Or at least, all the quality press USED to be broadsheet, until the Times reduced their pages to tabloid, and lost me as a reader.

I have always read broadsheet newspapers, and the reason is they don’t just print the news! You get features on the latest developments in Science, Philosophy, the Arts, Medicine, Astronomy, anything that they think will be of interest to their readers. Yesterday was a case in point.

Although I’m an atheist I am interested in religious beliefs, metaphysics and philosophy. I am however a lazy atheist, so I like to explore these concepts, NOT in academic text books, but in science fiction novels.

CONTACT is a novel by the late scientist Carl Sagan about first contact with alien lifeforms. Sagan’s enthusiasm and belief in Alien Intelligences led to the establishment of SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestial Intelligence).

Contact was an excellent science fiction novel exploring themes of religious belief, science, rationality, faith and god. Contact is also a hollywood film staring Jodie Foster. The film version however, left out my favourite part of the book.

Some of the most boring blogs you can find, are those where every post is urging you to BUY, BUY, BUY, this latest product that you absolutely can’t be without.

These articles could be classified as Product Reviews, EXCEPT you never read a bad review! After all, the blogger won’t make any money out of saying how bad something is.

What’s  worse than the blatant sales pitch, are those blogs where the reviews aren’t even personal. They are just a rehash of the products sales page, or a PLR article scattered with BUY buttons.

I’ve never liked the phone, ever since my first job was answering one at a travel agency. My last business had 10,000 customers so the phones were busy. Luckily the business was also very profitable, so I had plenty of staff to answer them for me.

Phones are unnatural forms of communication, body-language is completely eliminated. But my main gripe against the phone is that they prevent productive work. You have no control over when the phone will ring, and when they do, it will interrupt whatever you are doing in the real world.

Date line: Thursday 15th April 2010……The UK experiences life in the 22nd century. Noise pollution has been banned from the skies. Peace and quiet abounds.

Unfortunately this Taste of the Future excluded the major noise pollutant – the internal/infernal combustion engine.

After a volcanic eruption in Iceland, a huge cloud of ash started to drift over the UK making aircraft travel dangerous. All flights were banned, all day. Obviously this  was inconvenient and upsetting for those people intending to travel…..But what an eye opener, or should I say ear opener!
The amount of noise in the modern world is ridiculous. It is so pernicious we accept it as normal. I live near Coventry and Birmingham Airports. Now for the first time in my lifetime the skies are quiet above me, and it’s lovely. I can hear the birds singing, without the background drone of aircraft engines.

I like to read for pleasure, and Science Fiction gives me the greatest pleasure of all………..Sorry, SECOND greatest pleasure; (Thanks for reminding me Margaret).

When I choose a science fiction book I usually go for a title with ‘God’ or ‘Eternity’ or ‘Infinity’ in it. I want to travel to the furthest reaches of human imagination. I usually enjoy the book but I’m almost inevitably disappointed by the conclusion. 

I’m looking for the answer to “life, the universe and everything” (as Douglas Adams would say), but it’s obviously naive of me to think a science fiction author has got all the answers.

Last night I was at St Mary’s church in Warwick for a performance of Handel’s Messiah. I have seen this performed once before, but had forgotten how long and boring it is!

The only bit’s I liked were “Are we like Sheep?” and “The Hallelujah Chorus” – but that was over an hour away.  I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, and my girlfriend was having the same problem, so in the interval we ‘did a runner’.

“Can you play an Instrument”?… The first question asked by our music master,  at my first class, in my first year at the “big school” (where at 11 years of age I had to wear long trousers).

With enthusiasm my hand shot up. “What can you play”? He asked, “The Banjo, Sir” ….He looked surprised…”That’s unusual, OK stand at the front of the class with the other boys.”