About this site
Academics against armaments
Amnesty discredited
Animal welfare
Aphorisms: religion, ideology, honesty, power, justice,ethics, life, happiness, nature, the arts
Billings, A. (Dr) U/S Ex-S. Yorks PCC
BILLINGSGATE: something fishy 
Bullfighting: against
Cambridge University: excellence, mediocrity, stupidity  
Carmen and bullfighting
Cello-violin-viola-Proms-cross-country-skiing-rowing
Christian religion: criticism
Church Army: Patron, the King 
Church Army 2: more problems
Church Army 3: even more problems
Church Documents
Church Donations: why not to give
Church Integrity
Church Survey, Church Crisis 
Church abuse
Churches: New Creations
Culture industry: reviewing, books, media disputes, cultural health
Death penalty: against
Derbyshire
Dioceses: Sheffield, Oxford 
Dioceses: Durham, Ely, Carlisle
Drama: play with introduction
Drama: 2nd play
Education: capability, abuses
Ethics: ethical theory and practice
Framework Science
Gardening: bed and board
Gardening: plant protection
Gardening: greenhouses etc
Gardening: composting etc,
Gardening: design
Green objections
Harvard University
Home Page Images
Ideology: fixity and fixation

Ireland: nationalist illusions
Israel: advocacy for
Kafka and Rilke
King Charles III as Patron
Literary criticism: glossary
Metaphor and theme
Nietzsche: the case against

Oxford University
PHD general page: innovations

Poems: subjects include nature, war, humour,  difficult relationships

Poetry: innovations, ideas
Poetry: composite forms
Poetry: word-design, concrete poems
Poetry: modulation
Poetry: line length
Poetry: meaning linkage
Poetry: metre / meter
Poetry: music linkages
Poetry: sound linkage
Police / Ethics Panels
Radical feminism
Royal Holloway
Security, safety, safeguarding, survival
S. Heaney: introduction
S. Heaney: Cambridge Companion
S. Heaney: poem reviews,

S. Heaney: Human Chain
S. Heaney: ethical depth?
S. Heaney and bullfighting

Sheffield Dales  
Sheffield: grotesque policing 
Sheffield universities
Slipped Disc and Spain
Staffordshire
Street Pastors Guide
Themes: Linkage and theme theory
Themes: Interpretations, hints
{themes}: Glossary
{themes}: {adjustment}
{themes}: {completion}
{themes}: {direction}
{themes}: {distance}
{themes}: {modification}
{themes}: {ordering}
{themes}: {resolution}
{themes}: {restriction}
{themes}: {reversal }
{themes}: {separation
{themes}: {substitution
Translations from German, Dutch, Italian, Latin, Classical Greek, Modern Greek, French, with comment
Veganism: against 
Web design: page-travel 

Web design: comprehensive







 

 







google88f39e91291f7f24.html

Clicking on highlighted text takes you to a page

 

NEW, this page: Designing-constructing unusual small boats with significant advantages, e.g. in flooded areas.


A  United States Patent has been awarded to me for my   New growing system:   'dual layer structural units' for growing farm crops with wide-ranging environmental and other benefits - described and explained in detail, with technical information, in the  Official Patent Document pdf file.  
(1) New window-door system
 with multiple environmental / other benefits (eg security, fire safety) with multiple applications:  homes, offices, factories, small / large buildings. It allows different materials (eg insulating, reflective, single or multiple) to be easily, quickly  installed in windows and doors to substantially reduce the impact of eg very high and very low temperatures. 
(2) New roofing-walling system
also with many applications and  benefits, including ease of construction,  water collecting and conservation, mitigation of flooding and drought.
PHD [Paul Hurt Design and Construction]: more and less recent gardening, building and general projects.

 

RECENT: Church Army,  including King Charles, Patron of the Church Army, See also  Church Army 2     Church Army 3 Church Survey, Church Crisis.  Safeguarding issues in the C of E are linked with other issues, requiring, I argue, recognition of a central issue: the  failure of Christian dogma, of what Jesus taught.  Church Donations: reasons to withhold money from the Church.

Problematic Sheffield 1 and 2, in preparation, to include new material on design-construction, appreciation-criticism: South Yorkshire Police, Sheffield Allotment Office, a school, a university.

 

 

 

 



The pages on Christianity include Church Survey, Church Crisis; Church Donations: reasons not to give,    and the multiple failures of the Church of England; Church Integrity: failures;  Church Documents: faith and practice, claims and realities; New Creations: photographing, filming, documenting clergy and congregations; Church Army;   Appointment of Bishop at Durham, Ely, Carlisle: problems.  See also: Security, Safety, Safeguarding, Survival;  Church Shame.  South Yorks Counter-Evangelism' is well established, active far beyond South Yorkshire.


Controversies includes    Cambridge University: excellence and stupidity; Israel: defending;  animal welfare: activism; Ireland and Northern Ireland; Amnesty International discredited;  bullfighting: arguments against, action against;   veganism: against;  the death penalty;   Green Objections; Sheffield universities;  Sheffield pro-Palestinian protest camp;   The Culture Industry;  Ideology; Oxford University, Royal Holloway; Education: capability and abuses.

 

Translations and versions includes texts in German, Dutch, Italian, Latin, classical / modern Greek and French, with my own translations and comment, and a  text in Polish. Kafka and Rilke  is a study in comparative literature and comparative reputations. Literary pages include Poems (my own);  Word-designs: PHD concrete poetry;   Innovations and new ideas: poetry and visual art.    Metaphor and Metre / Meter  are analytical, technical accounts.

 

Sheffield Dales  includes landscape and buildings, with supplementary material on Wentworth Woodhouse. Experiences as cellist, violinist, violist is also about cross-country skiing.

 

 

 

 



 

 


In the lists below, the linked pages are highlighted . Clicking on the link takes you to the page. Each page has a list of entries, with links to the entries. The entries are short, fairly short or very short. They are not intended to provide comprehensive information and explanation but to give enough information to explain the relevance of Linkage and theme theory to the subject.

Many of the entries are not concerned with established subjects but offer new concepts, new techniques, new ways of looking at the world. 

The entries vary widely in scope and technical difficulty.  Interpretations is the page which contains the most difficult material. My page Linkage and  theme theory provides an introduction to the subject.The theory has a very extensive range of applications, including practical applications. For example, I make use of it in my design and construction work very often - to a greater or lesser extent in most of my work.

Categories below (shortened titles):

1. Themes: applications
2. Themes: interpretations
3: Linkages: glossary
4. Literature: new ideas, techniques

1.
{themes}: Some applications

{adjustment}


Pseudo-science
Commercial pressures
Nietzsche
Goya and violence

{completion}


Mathematical proof
Truth tables
Digital electronics
Biological taxonomy
Aristotle's 'telos'

{direction}


Generalized linkage connective
Implication
Material conditional
Teleological arguments
Trends
Vectors and directed lines
Ferromagnetism
Entropy
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 3.144

{distance}


K
ey system in music
Modulation in poetry
Unities of drama

Narrative {distance}
'Du' and 'Sie' in German
Edward Bullough's aesthetic {distance}
Wordsworth's boy at Windermere
Subjunctive and optative i
Thucydides iii, 22

Web design and {distance}
Law of negligence

 

 {modification}


The Journey
James Connolly and the Easter Rising
Innovation
Nietzsche
Transformation in Rembrandt and Rilke
Mind, body and the rest of the world
George Orwell: capital and corporal punishment
Activism and opposition
{modification} by {diversification}
The necessary, the impossible and the contingent
The ship of Theseus

Invariance
Variables and pretensions
Corroboration and falsification
Typography and action
Modal properties


 {ordering}


Ethical decision-making
Digital technology
Military medicine: triage
Priorities in politics
Dependence
Nietzsche

{ordering} and {grouping}
The mind and concentration

{restriction}


Limitation and limits
Disappointment and imperfection
Exemption: slavery

Quantum mechanics
Jokes
Linkage schemata
((surveys))
Framing
Linkage isolation
Isolation and abstraction
Isolation and 'The Whole Truth'
Isolation and distortion
Poetry and prose
Kant and the limits to knowledge
Allowing and disallowing 

 {reversal}


Thermodynamic reversal
Elastic deformation
Negation
Undoing
Inversion and musical intervals 

 

 {separation}


Of people: Shakespeare
Of people: Auschwitz-Birkenau
Commuters
Between past and present
Vegetables and fruit
Human characteristics and versatility
Thermodynamic separation
{separation} and application-sphere
{separation} and separability
Causation
Areas of competence 

{substitution}


Evaluating the thing itself
Mathematical and scientific {substitution}


2. {themes}: Some interpretations, making use of Linkage and theme theory


Commutative operators
Demarcation: science-metaphysics
Endothermic and exothermic reactions
Foundationalism and coherentism
Implication
Induction
Inertia
Infinitesimals

Interchangeability
Intervals
Inverses of functions
Kantian categories
Mendelian factors
Meta- and para-studies
Newton's first law of motion
Newton's third law of motion
Particle in a box
Polish (prefix) notation

Referents
Regions
Selection: natural and artificial

SI units
Thermodynamic systems and partitions

 

3. Linkages: glossary

 

Abbreviation
{adjustment} and alignment
Allowing and disallowing
Assuming a linkage
Atypical linkage
Close linkage and close contrast
Common interface
Constraints
Context-sensitive term
Contrasts of contrast

Deleted linkage
Distortion
Diversification
Elements
Enclosure
Evaluation
Evaluative linguistics

Exemption

Factors and factorization
Genus and species

Homoiolinkage and heterolinkage

Incommensurable linkage

Indeterminacy
Isolation

Layers
Limitation

Linkage diagrams
Linkage lines

Linkage schemata

Obverse linkages

Opposites linkage

Orwell's Search

Parnassian contrast

Philosophy and linkage

Primary and secondary elements

Prior linkages

Redeeming contrast

Redrawing

Reduction of contrast

Re-scaling

Restatement

Scaling: primary, secondary, tertiary

Separate worlds

Semi-precise linkage

Substitution

((survey))
{theme}
Unification

Volume
Weighting

 

4. Literature: new ideas and techniques in poetry  


Introduction: analysis and adventure

Allomorphs
Axis poetry
Centred rhyme
Consonants and vowels
Contrast and repetition
Directionality
Fragmentation and faulting
Inter-line poetry
'Linguistically innovative poetry'
Linkage by meaning

Modulation

Pulse poetry

Rearrangement and restoration
Regions and zoning
Sectional analysis

Semantic force and significance

Strata poetry

Tensile art
Timing
Transept poetry
Unit poetry
Image-lines
The Set

Intra-linkages and intra-contrasts
Inter-linkages and inter-contrasts
Frames

 

 

 

 

 

 
    List of topics, with links to pages


 
  
 



           



  
                         
  





       Below, some of the site's many images, showing  some of its range and
      variety - easily seen by scrolling down the page. Click on an image to
      go to a linked page (for now, some images are without links.)
      Many pages,  including this, use 'Large Page Design.' They are wide as

       well as long  and can't be viewed adequately on very small screens.

       Clicking anywhere on 'the rail' (the long band at the left margin) from

        lower down on any page takes you to the top of the page.

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      



t

 

 








The British Library, the national library of the United Kingdom, has

selected all of this site for preservation, in the Arts and Humanities /

Literature archive and the Computer Science, Information Technology

and Web Technology archive.

 

All  pages  use an innovation of mine in Web navigation, 'the rail,' a

long, thin band on the left margin. Clicking on the rail  gives a means

of reaching top of page very quickly. There,  links  are provided for

rapid page travel, travel within the page  (to different regions of the

page) and / or travel to other pages. Rails have other uses. Further

information at  Page Travel.

 

 


 


  

 

 

aaaa

 


  

                 




 

Below, 1st photograph shows New Greenhouse Design. The core structure takes the form of a triangular prism (a shape with great structural strength.) Around the core structure are
extensions, here with curved panels. Three straight panels of the core structure are visible on this North-facing side. There are 3 panels on the South-facing side. The system has great

versatility. With all the panels in place, gutters and pipes at the base can divert water collected from the roof to water storage containers and ponds (dual-function, for water storage and to
benefit wildlife). Panels can be removed and put back very easily. When most or all of the panels are removed, crops inside the greenhouse can be watered with natural rainfall. The system
has many advantages for water conservation. It reduces reliance on mains water. It has many other benefits, e.g. for temperature control. Ventilation is very important, to reduce or
eliminate overheating when external temperatures are high and for other reasons. One or more panels can be removed and all the panels can be removed, to give maximum
ventilation. Plastic coverings don't enhance the appearance of a site, for most people. When polycarbonate sheets aren't needed, none need be visible. One of the panels on the South-
facing side has been removed permanently. A grape vine in the greenhouse grows inside the greenhouse, at roof level, and outside, higher up, above the roof.  The extensions shown
below, on the West side,  include a 'solar composter,' which speeds up the production of compost by the greenhouse effect, a wildlife / water storage pond and other growing areas.
There's a much larger wildlife / water storage pond outside the greenhouse and other water-collecting surfaces and water storage facilities.   An extension on the East side includes a
storage area for e.g. tools and supplies and a working area for e.g. propagation. A straw bale wall has been a feature of this extension (shown above, also with a straw bale storage area.)
The greenhouse has been featured in an article I wrote for the magazine of the  National Allotment Society.

 

My New Growing System for farms has the advantages of the New Greenhouse Design as well as many other features.  From the official U.S. patent document: ' ... the present invention

is a trellising system with modifiable components and configurations for growing, protected cropping, protected working, materials handling, water collecting and water conservation for

use in vineyards and orchards and as a polytunnel substitute.'  The New System has aesthetic advantages. The plastic sheeting which forms part of the system is needed to secure
environmental advantages but is unnecessary when external temperatures are high and no water can be collected. Unlike the plastic of polytunnels, the plastic used in this system can
be retracted. The plastic need not be visible when not needed. The plant growth on the unobtrusive supports will be seen all the more clearly.

 

Amongst the images below are three rows of images of flowers of native British plants to be found in the land I rent, most of them growing there due to my active encouragement.
There are just two exceptions. Solanum crispum isn't a British native. Pilosella aurantiaca isn't a British native but is widely naturalized in this country.

 



             

 

Below, some images of the land taken in the summer and autumn of 2025 (not including the images of insect visitors to the wildlife pond or the plan of the land)

 

 

 

The material below provides a general introduction to this very versatile system but includes more detailed sections on just two specialized uses of the boats, very, very different uses:

((1) disaster relief, during severe flooding (2) leisure use: rowing, punting at Oxford and Cambridge, water camping. The material here is quite extensive and can obviously be omitted by
scrolling further. Most of the material will eventually be moved to a different page.


But the boats have many, many uses. For example, they can be used in water gardening. Garden ponds and larger ponds need maintenance. Weeding is  essential

in land growing. If weeds are 'plants growing in the wrong place,' ponds need a form of weeding. Otherwise, the water area will be reduced and the pond will gradually return to land.
Maintenance of ponds can be difficult. There is generally no easy way of removing unwanted water plants to allow the essential plants to flourish.  Water lilies, amongst the most
beautiful of plants, have to be kept in check - otherwise, they act as 'weeds.' This system allows quick and easy construction of boats of various sizes, including smaller boats for smaller ponds.

 

This is a system which includes boats rather than a method of constructing boats and only boats. Many of the components, to give just one example, larch beams, are used in other
configurations, for very different applications.  The images above show a  use in gardening - for growing / propagation / water collecting. The polycarbonate sheets, seen edge on,

have multiple functions, including warming by the greenhouse effect  for container plants and water collecting. The water collected can be transferred to the storage barrels shown here, using

a battery-powered pump. But the basic boat configuration is very similar, almost identical in many respects. In the boat configuration, the larch beams, only a few of them seen  here, are
now crucial for buoyancy / flotation of the boat. The water storage barrels are now empty of water and play a part in buoyancy / flotation. Buoyancy / flotation layers can be added to keep

the boat afloat even when it is supporting very heavy loads.

he

Every configuration is heavy but none of the components used to build the configurations are heavy or very large. The larch beams, for instance, are only 1.2m long, with a weight of

13.5kg. (All the components can easily be stored and transported in my van.) Not visible here,  structural steel components within the structure which can be omitted in many applications.

In the boat configurations, these components are above the waterline. Most  can be constructed easily and quickly by one person, using practically no tools.  A few applications require

work on a very few of the components using a machine tool or other specialized equipment. Some configurations include internal woodworking joints, modifications of a traditional
woodworking joint. To incorporate these joints requires a machine tool. If the end user doesn't have this machine tool, then suitably modified beams can be made available.

us

(1) Use of the boat system during flooding

 

            

 Image above: Attribution     

   

The image on the left  shows the rescue of people affected by the severe flooding of 2015 in York. The next image conveys an  impression of flooding as catastrophe  in lurid light. This is
followed by more images of the York flooding.  The work of the members of the Mountain Rescue Team in York, and all the other people involved in flood rescue, is appreciated  very much,

of course, but there are much better and more efficient methods of moving victims of floods than dinghies, even if dinghies are obviously important in this work. Rescue work may

well take place in rainy conditions, perhaps in conditions of torrential rain. Dinghies provide no shelter from the rain and next to no provision for people's possessions, whereas this boat, one

of a series of boats of very similar design, but larger and smaller, with a range of advantages, can all be quickly fitted with curved poycarbonate sheets to protect the people  and the possessions

taken on board, the possessions  not protected by storage containers. It will often be possible to include possessions which are regarded as irreplaceable, ones which an insurance policy can't

realistically replace. An experience which is likely to be very difficult - perhaps traumatic - can be made less difficult.

 

IHere, I focus attention on just one use, an important one. The system is obviously intended to be useful during drought, as well as during times when precipitation is nearer to the average, as

part of a comprehensive water conservation system.  The boat configuration can provide substantial help to people facing flooding, or the possibility of flooding. The boat has been

designed as a very flexible sub-system which can carry heavy loads, and passengers. This makes it a valuable  asset to assist the victims of flooding. The rising levels of water during flooding
pose a potentially serious risk to property, the contents of a property and often to life but the rising water can also be used to lift possessions and people (and animals) above the surface of the
water, even if it can make no contribution to avoidance of damage to buildings and other structures. The buoyancy of the boats will ensure that many objects and people can be saved from

the effects of the water. Hydraulic lifting equipment could achieve the same objective but these boats are a more convenient and much cheaper method, and can be employed on a much

larger scale, if a large number of boats are available. Unlike the dinghies often used, these boats are designed to carry heavy loads and to make putting the loads in place and removing

the loads much more convenient.

 

The boat can lessen the serious consequences of major flooding. Before flood waters cause damage to the ground floor of a property, some furniture, a very wide range of other goods,

can be transferred to the boat. Ramps and winches can achieve movement even of very heavy objects. (A ramp is shown in an image of a smaller boat below. Larger ramps are available.)

On the boat, shelter from rain is  provided, for people as well as goods, by means of one or more curved polycarbonate sheets. I have extensive experience of  constructing shelters using
oxtended sheets much larger than the curved sheets shown above, which serve a different purpose, keeping the exterior dry on dry land.  The boat can contribute to the welfare of pets,

which can be moved to the boat in transportation cages. A wide range of clothing, bedding and other materials can be transferred  and kept dry. This may well be helpful in the very difficult

times which lie ahead, when the household is living in temporary accommodation. The barrels used for storage of water can be used for storage of clothes and bedding and other (light)

things, once their interior has been dried. The contents of the barrels will aid buoyancy, to counteract the downward force of heavy loads in other parts of the boat.

 

Flood water is intrinsically destructive, of course. It can sweep away and damage beyond repair even cars and other vehicles. The design incorporates secure anchorage components, such as
heavy chain, to ensure that the boat does not move. Once the flood waters have subsided to some extent, with only shallow water left, it would be possible to move the boat but in many situations

not advisable. There would be a  risk of collisions with people, other boats and buildings. In some circumstances, it may well be possible to move the boat. If, as I hope, this system is adopted

to a greater or lesser extent, then it would be feasible to provide 'tug boats' in some flooded areas. Boats of this design (usually of the longer length) would make perfectly good tug boats
when equipped with an outboard engine. A tug boat  could tow a line of these emergency boats to a location where temporary storage facilities (and perhaps the  temporary accommodation)

is provided. It would be possible to provide fork lift trucks to transfer loads on the boats to buildings or other facilities where these would be stored.

 

The boat's width and length can be increased, and the buoyancy / flotation components can be easily augmented to make support and transport of heavy loads possible.  The boat above has

two distinct sections, each with the exact dimensions, or almost the same dimensions, as the standard pallet size, 120cm x 100cm allowing ready use of a fork lift truck, if available, for putting

loads in place or removing loads from the boat.  When the structure is used for water storage, an Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC) commonly used for water storage (I have an IBC for this

purpose) can fit on the structure easily. The structure is designed to take an IBC, or more than one, and other loads which are commonly transported on

pallets. During flooding, water uncontaminated by sewage or other material may not readily available, and a supply of clean water may well be needed.

 

The first structure shown here can easily be doubled in total length. It can be constructed using larch beams 2.4m in length, used end to end, to give a total length for the boat of a little over 4.8m,

instead of the  boat length here, a little over 2.4m. Larger boats will obviously be less easy to move than those of length 1.2m, the length in this case but the largest boats in this design can

easily be disassembled. They use the same components as the smaller boats.

The second boat shown here, the 'boatlet' is shown during construction, in my main workshop, and is smaller than the boat already outdoors. It has only one layer of larch beams, whilst the

ll only larger boat has two, and the number of larch beams in the single row is 4, whilst the larger boat has five in each layer. Both boats are shown without the base layer, of rigid, heavy duty

plastic. The base layer is essential for overall support and the provision of attachment points.

 

The boat could be available for use in areas subject to flooding already assembled. If not, it can be very quickly assembled if flooding seems likely. Further buoyancy aids are available

or can be added. The barrels used for water storage in some configurations, when emptied, become air-filled and can make a valuable contribution to buoyancy. There is provision for

inserting polymer insulating materials into the layers which make up the structure, which have dual use in this system. Tall storage containers can be installed on the wooden bases of the

boat. These are secured by means not shown here - a modification of a traditional woodworking joint is one of the means - made easily available in this design.

 

When the boat is used in other situations, for example, pleasurable uses, a very versatile system is provided in the design, again, not shown here: provision of rowlocks for rowing, seating
for rowing, seating for other purposes, a clear level area when the boat is moved by punting, provision of supports for installation of an outboard motor, provision of safety rails, installation

of a mast to support a sail, to convert the boat into a sailing boat. There are many other possibilities. Ease of use is a feature of the design, including easy installation of all these features.
Whatever use is made of the boat, the importance of safety must be stressed, safety in lifting and moving and use of tools - and in particular, the importance of safety on the water. Wearing

a life jacket (or buoyancy aid in the case of good swimmers)  is essential.

 

The boat can only make a subsidiary contribution to lessening the serious consequences of major flooding but it can help. Before flood waters cause damage to the ground floor of a property,

some furniture, a very wide range of other goods, can be transferred to the boat. Ramps and winches can achieve movement even of very heavy objects. On the boat, shelter from rain is
provided, for people as well as goods, by means of one or more curved polycarbonate sheets. I have extensive experience of  constructing shelters using extended sheets much larger
than the curved sheets shown above, which serve a different purpose, keeping the exterior dry on dry land.  The boat can contribute to the welfare of pets, which can be moved to the boat in

transportation cages. A wide range of clothing, bedding and other materials can be transferred  and kept dry. This may well be helpful in the very difficult times which lie ahead, when the

household is living in temporary accommodation. The barrels used for storage of water can be used for storage of clothes and bedding and other (light) things, once their interior has been dried.

The contents of the barrels will aid buoyancy, to counteract the downward force of heavy loads in other parts of the boat.

 

Flood water is intrinsically destructive, of course. It can sweep away and destroy even cars and other vehicles. The design incorporates secure anchorage components, such as heavy

chain, to ensure that the boat does not move. Once the flood waters have subsided, to some extent, with only shallow water left, it would be possible to move the boat but in many situations

not advisable. There would be a  risk of collisions with people, other boats and buildings. In some circumstances, it may well be possible to move the boat. If, as I hope, this system is adopted

to a greater or lesser extent, then it would be feasible to provide 'tug boats' in some flooded areas. Boats of this design (usually of the longer length) would make perfectly good tug boats
when equipped with an outboard engine. A tug boat  could tow a line of these emergency boats to a location where temporary storage facilities (and perhaps the  temporary accommodation)

is provided. It might  well be possible to provide fork lift trucks to transfer loads on the boats to buildings or other facilities where these would be stored.

 

I live on a hill which can never be affected by flooding but the valley of the River Don is very near, as well as two smaller river valleys, of the Rivers Loxley and Rivelin.   Low-lying areas near to

the Don have been badly flooded in fairly recent times. Areas around the Don and the Loxley were subject to catastrophic flooding during an event  which is very significant in the history of

this city, the 'Great Sheffield Flood' of 11 March, 1864, caused by failure of the Dale Dyke Dam. It killed more than 240 people and damaged or destroyed  more than 600 houses. Boats of

this design would be of no help or hardly any help in the case of floods which occur suddenly, with little or no warning, at least in the immediate aftermath.

 

I obviously hope that this system will be widely adopted. I hope that the boats will be able to use the canal network in time, after consultations and planning. I would hope that
eventually, I'll be able to sail the boat on Ullswater, a lake which allows boat launching by the public. The method of propulsion would be rowing. (For a time, I was a competitive rower.)

This is an ambition which may or may not be realized. The boat is flat-bottomed, suitable for calm or fairly calm water, able to reach shallow or very shallow areas, perfectly suited to
greater depths but not for use at sea. I intend to work on  modifications which would give some of the advantages of very different boat designs to this boat, such as a V-hull, allowing it

to sail successfully in less calm inland waters but not in turbulent, fast flowing sections of rivers and not in the sea, rough or calm.

w

For the time being, I don't give information in any detail at all about the design and construction of the boat or the system of which the boat is a part.  Disclosure of detailed

information won't be possible for quite some time, for reasons which I think will be obvious. Once some of the many enhancements are put in place, the boat will look more

'boat-like.' The basic ideas came very quickly and I constructed a basic prototype very quickly but there followed a period in which I tried out many new approaches and gained

many new insights, experimenting and testing a wide range of features, retaining the ones which worked best and gaining a comprehensive body of knowledge: amongst other

things, a period of hard work.

 

Below, images of a smaller boat, the 'boatlet,' during construction. As with all the boats of this design, a very wide range of configurations and additional equipment is possible.

The boat here has two flat areas, separated by one of two transverse larch beams. The flat areas are suitable as a base for heavy loads. Whatever the size of boat, small, like this
boat or much larger, the loads can be piled very high, provided that the boat is used simply to store belongings and not for transporting them. It can be securely anchored against

a wall or a very sturdy pole, so that it can move only slightly, if at all. The usual considerations of boat design,  avoidance of capsizing, care to ensure that the centre of gravity will

not lead to instability, don't apply in this situation. The boat can be made secure until the flood waters have become lower or gone altogether. Then the excess load can be removed

and it can be used as a boat rather than a floating platform. It can also go back to an alternative use, in gardening or a range of other activities.

 

            

 

 

Image 1 here shows that the layer above the base layer is made up of two flat areas separated by one of the two tranverse larch beams. The other transverse beam
forms part of the transom of the boat. The area to the left, between the two larch beams, is made up of of four longitudinal larch beams. The area to the right is made up

of oak components supported by a structure which includes structural steel. Only this image gives an impression of the size of the flat area to the right, even though not all

of it is shown. In the other Images here, this area is hidden by a transverse beam. In Images 3 and 4, objects placed on the supporting / supported structure can be seen.

 

 Image 2 shows the flat area on the left in Image 1, now equipped with storage containers of strong, rigid plastic. Possible contents include buoyancy material.

 

Image 3 shows the storage containers now covered by the same oak components visible on the right of Image 1.

The flat area on the right in Image 1 now has two aluminium components. The long flat component is an aluminium folding ramp.  When opened and moved, this gives a means of

bringing heavy objects on to the boat and removing them. It can carry a maximum load of 350kg. The ramp has smooth and rough sections. The rough sections give a suitably

secure means for people to get to the boat. The smooth sections make it easier to move heavy objects on to the boat. The taller aluminium structure can be used for various

purposes, including seating and as a step to help people to get on to the boat.  There are many, many other ways in which the two flat areas can be used. One possible use is
to support the loads 'piled very high' discussed above, in cases where movement of the boat is subject to restriction by the operator, when the only movement allowed is

movement upwards and downwards caused by the flood water rising or falling. This is to ensure that the boat can't capsize and that the load is stored safely.

 

Image 4 gives another view of the larger multi-purpose flat layer and the aluminium components.

 

Image 5 shows the ramp unfolded and supported by two additional larch beams. The design makes provision for making these beams secure and unable to move as soon as
they are put in position. Other additions to the structure are secured by the same or different means. The ramp can now be used as a bench. It will seat four people sitting side
by side and one person, at the far end of the bench, facing forwards and sitting either astraddle or in a more usual position. The bench as shown  is very low and  uncomfortable.
The height and the comfort level can be increased very much by adding a layer of cushioning material, rectangular and shaped to fit the ramp / seating support. There are many
other ways of arranging seating. Comfortable chairs could be available, brought from the house to the boat before the flooding became very severe. This provision

for seating is available when the boat is moving, but I envisage as a main use seating of flood victims when the boat is static. In many circumstances, occupants of flooded
houses are much better off outside the house than inside. The ground floor may well be converted into a hideous mess, the mess including quite possibly sewage. The advice
to go upstairs and wait for the flood to subside may or may not be good advice in the circumstances. If people choose to go outside, then this system is designed to support

them. If there's flooding of the ground floor, then it's likely that they won't be able to live in the property until the damage is made good. In that case, they will have to live
in alternative accommodation for quite a long time. It would be advisable to move to temporary accommodation and then longer term accommodation as quickly as
practicable, certainly if the flood waters will be around for days.

 

Image 6 shows a night scene,  arching, overlapping polycarbonate shelter sheets visible overhead. The interior of the boatlet is quite cosy. Obviously, it would not be so cosy

during flooding but very welcome, I would think, as a place of refuge by night as well as by day.

 

On the boat, shelter will often be a necessity. The time spent on the boat may be a time of incessant rainfall, or of snow, sleet, hail. My favoured method of providing shelter in
many or most projects is by means of polycarbonate sheets bent into curves.  This page gives many examples. Curved polycarbonate has great structural strength and can
withstand strong winds. Polycarbonate and other means of providing shelter have the difficulty that they can act as sails, leading to unintended movements of the boat. The
situation is very much better in the case of the static configuration, the boat kept in place not by an anchor of the kind used by boats and ships but by a very wide range of
methods, which I don't list here. Many of these depend upon the support given by more or less large, even massive structures, such as anchorage points set into walls, or
the anchorage provided by strong ground anchors. In these cases, the boat shelter can be 'wind-proofed,' but the exact method will be site-specific to an extent, taking

advantage of the particular features of  the site, installed advantages as well as pre-existing advantages.

 

The use of polycarbonate sheets as sails would be a fruitful area for trials and testing. The position of the curved polycarbonate sheets can be altered by rotation around

an axis, the degree of curvature can be adjusted, strongly or slightly curved. Polycarbonate sheets can be removed and stored or put to alternative uses if windless conditions
persist. Obviously, large sails constructed of polycarbonate are out of the question but for small boats, they may well be not just practicable but genuinely useful. These

comments are purely speculative. To return to the main themes of this section:

 

If this system is found useful (and it's intended to provide a wide range of advantages, not only advantages in helping the victims of floods) then these advantages can transcend

the local level, relevant, I would think, at the national and international level. The advantages of the system include water collecting and water storage. A period of prolonged,

torrential rain may well be followed by a prolonged drought. The arrival of rain to end the drought before an emergency becomes an outright disaster can never be guaranteed.

Certainly, far, far more can be done to mitigate drought in this country and so many others. The use of mains water for uses which don't require mains water in the least, such as

watering garden plants, should become more and more uncommon. Methods of purification are available to make water collected in these ways safe for drinking and  safe for use

in cooking, if purification is required at all for water used in cooking.

 

So much of boat building is an achievement of a high order, ship building in general even more so. The skills needed to build the boats and ships, whether the materials are 

wood, fibreglass or metal, are in general skills of a high order: to give just one example from this extraordinary world, one of many extraordinary worlds of achievement,

the ship Götheborg, a replica of the Swedish ship launched in 1738 but lost in 1745, after voyages to and from China. The replica has needed the skills of the workers in

wood and metal, not so very different from the skills needed to build the original ship, but also contemporary skills, the skills needed to equip the ship with modern safety

equipment, satellite navigation equipment, communications equipment and a range of modern facilities, conveniences.  The new technology was essential to pass national

and international safety regulations. The ship was launched on 6 June 2003 and has been very successful.

 

.I'm very much aware that the boat and boatlet which I've devised represent a completely different order of achievement, incomparably simpler. At the same time, I believe that

it represents a genuine innovation, using for the first time some completely new advances, not established methods of working, and I believe that the new design is
potentially useful and can be very useful when the design is followed. The design allows many modifications. For example, the transom bows are modifiable. Other bows can
be installed and other modifications can be made, to give a more streamlined craft.

 

(2) For happier times: use of the boat for rowing (but not competitive rowing), punting, water camping. To begin with punting and  camping. I only refer to punting

with one version of this boat and at Cambridge, not at Oxford or any other places where punting is practised. Below, some images of punting at Cambridge, at 'The Backs.'

I don't include images of  punting on the River Cam, for example near Grantchester. Most of the images show traditional punts, very, very attractive craft, to me, more beautiful

than the Venetian gondola. The boating system described here introduces modifications. The result is a craft which is less beautiful, less harmonious that the traditional punt

but far more versatile. For example, it restores the use of punts to carry heavy cargo but is useful in other ways. For example, it protects passengers (but not the punter

propelling the boat) from light summer rain, as well as the driving, incessant rain which can occur in any season of the year in this country. The curved polycarbonate

panels which protect the passengers also make the boat useful in 'water camping' - camping by the river bank. It's likely that  regulations would never allow camping  on the

canal network.

 

For camping, as well as for shorter punting excursions, seating and other facilities need to be more relaxed than the simple facilities of the punt - for seating, hard wooden

components, made more comfortable with cushions. The resources of camping and other leisure retailers are available, such as folding chairs and tables, all kept in position

by the means readily available in this design. My own long experience of camping never included such luxuries. The cooking and sleeping and other facilities available for

water camping would be available for a form of camping which is much more common, static camping on dry land.

 

The land at campsites can be far from dry, of course. There are many campsites in areas subject to flooding. Campsites which could offering campers a wooden platform

which will rise if the floodwaters ever inundate the site rise would have  an advantage. As the floodwaters rose, the platform would rise. A simple system consisting of not
much more than the indispensable plastic base (widely available, and cheap to buy) and the larch beams, would suffice, not one of the more elaborate constructions.
Campers would be able to have an interesting experience rather than a ruined stay.

 

Flooding in the Keswick area in 2009

 

 

The Keswick area, including the Keswick campsite, was one of many areas in this country badly affected by flooding in November 2009. Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite
lake, usually widely separated, became one body of water.

 

Punting at Cambridge and some of the views from Cambridge punts

 

The separate images can't convey the sense of kinetic rather than static experience, the ever-changing vista, the flow and flux which reveal new sights, sights of great

distinction and distinctiveness. There is no such thing as a 'Venice of the North,'Venice is incomparable, but so is Cambridge. Its relationship with water is far less extensive

but the sights are not all to the advantage of Venice. The Cambridge 'Bridge of Sighs' is, to me, more impressive than the Venice 'Bridge of Sighs,' but there are many reasons
for the differences, including differences in their uses. The significant aesthetic and other differences between the Cambridge Bridge of Sighs and the Venetian Rialto Bridge

are instructive.

 

 

 

Image 1, View of the River Cam near Trinity College.  Image 2, Clare College Building and King's College Chapel seen from the Backs.  Image 3, Clare Bridge. 
Image 4, Trinity Bridge. Image 5, the Mathematical Bridge, Queens College.  Image 6, the Bridge of Sighs, St John's College.

 

For more on Cambridge University, see my page Cambridge University: excellence, mediocrity, stupidity, which now includes comment on other universities.

 

 

\

 

In the case of many images below, clicking on the image takes you not to a listed page but to Home Page Images. This provides description / explanation and usually a larger version of the image.





 

My approach to growing is broadly based. Aesthetic values are very important to me and these values underlie my use of the land rented from Sheffield City Council. From the introduction

to Jane Grigson's 'Vegetable Book,' 'In my most optimistic moments, I see every town ringed again with small gardens, nurseries, allotments, greenhouses, orchards, as it was in the past,

an assertion of delight and human scale.' The claim that I've had 'a detrimental effect, of a persistent or continuing nature on the quality of life of those in the locality' (the land I rent happens
to be in 'the locality') is not just false but vile. I made determined efforts to have cleared a large heap of fly tipped rubbish near to the land I rent but no action was taken by the Council, or by
the so-called 'Community Garden' who were using the area when the heap appeared or the Garden Church which assumed control of the land later on. Images of the mess (including
discarded Council plastic bins and discarded plastic containers of organic fertilizer and other gardening materials):

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                

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Simple science: some considerations relating to the boat (alternative use of the system: water conservation unit) shown above.
A great deal of additional material will be needed to explain the construction and uses of the system. For the time being, these

are the only aspects I discuss, background information concerned with (1) flotation and forces (2) background information,

very restricted in scope, concerning aspects of polymer chemistry.

in s
In static equilibrium, the boat will displace a volume of water. The weight of this will equal the total weight of the boat,
together with any loads added to the boat. The buoyant force F, acting upwards, will equal the total weight of the boat
acting downwards: these vector forces are equal and opposite.  The state is one of static equilibrium. The boat will
float because the average density of the boat is less than the density of the water in which it floats. The density of the
larch wood which makes up the bulk of the boat is approximately 550 kg/m³ and the density of water at 4°C is
approximately 1000 kg/m³  The mass of the boat (with any additional loads) is equal to the mass of water displaced.
The boat has a mass of approximately 200 kg. The boat can support and move large loads. The greater their mass and

density, the greater will be the buoyant force needed to counteract the downward force. This is achieved by adding
more larch layers and / or the use of other flotation materials.


Calculations making use of hydrostatic equations can supply useful information, eg, the submerged depth of the larch
beams and the depth above the waterline. If it's found that all the beams are below the waterline when the boat is
carrying very heavy loads, more buoyancy material will need to be added, eg in the form of buoyancy bags, PIR
polyisocyanurate material, closed cell polyurethane foam, air-filled plastic barrels, layers of wooden material,

but not very dense woods. (Below, complex science: structure of polyisocyanurate and polyurethane.) Strengthening

by use of steel bars or other means will often be required but the high density  of these will not increase significantly

the overall density of the added material. Steel will obviously require protection from corrosion but for many uses, eg

flood mitigation, steel components are not needed.

 

Calculations in connection with boat buoyancy require use of equations in hydrostatics, including some of those listed here.

The associated discussion and explanations are very concise.

 

(1) m = ρ V where m is the mass, water, ρ is the density in kg/m³  and V is the volume in /m³ These quantities, m, ρ and V can

refer to the boat or the water. Subscripts make clear that the reference is specifically to the body, in this case the boat (B) or

the fluid, in this case the water, (f)

 

(2) FB = mf g = ρf Vf g  where g is the acceleration due to gravity, 9.81 m/s2 (alternative units, newton N per kg.) This gives
the magnitude of the buoyant force. In this equation, the term m can be replaced with the expression ρ V, using equation (1) 

 

ρf Vf g = mB g  (3) since the buoyant force, acting upwards, is equal in magnitude to the weight of the boat, acting downwards.

The boat is not fully submerged, due to the buoyant force acting on it. .

 

Furthermore,

 

ρf Vf g =  ρB VB g  (4) It will be obvious that the left hand side of the equation refers to the fluid, water and the right hand side

refers to the body floating in the water, the boat. The gravitational constant g which appears on both sides of this equation

 can be cancelled.  Solving for  Vf  gives this equation:

 

Vf  =  ρB / ρf x VB  (6) where Vf  is the volume of the fluid displaced.  VB is the volume of the body itself, the boat.  ρB / ρf  is the

ratio of the densities of the body and the fluid.

 

IEquations in this section can be used to calculate how much of the semi-submerged boat will be above the water line - the height h

above the water line in m or cm  - and how much will be below the water line, with and without added loads.

Calculations involving hypothetical loads, including very heavy loads, are of course crucial in establishing the possibilities and uses

of this boat, including uses in disaster situations. There are many other possible uses, which will require extended comment and explanation.

 

Notes on some polymers which have potential uses, important uses,  in the construction of the system.

 

Structure of the isocyanurate group (polyols shown as R-group) in the polymer polyisocyanurate, a valuable polymer for buoyancy uses.

 

 

The image below shows a synthesis reaction in the manufacture of polyurethane, another valuable polymer for buoyancy uses. Unlike polyethene

and polystyrene, polyurethane is a group of polymers. This polymer is an alternating chain of two monomers. The starting materials for the manufacture of

polyisocyanurate are similar to those used in the manufacture of polyurethane.

 

 

The macromolecular and polymolecular level determines and explains the very wide range of properties and applications of polyurethanes,

rigid and flexible, with different degrees of water absorption, their value as insulation materials and buoyancy materials: the polymers

very useful in providing buoyancy for the boat are also very useful insulators, and can readily be used for insulation in applications
where the components can readily be removed, and replaced as needed. The versatility of polymers contributes very significantly to

the versatility of this particular practical application.

 

This is a complex structure diagram for an organic polymer, lignin from a softwood. Lignin makes up 30% of terrestrial carbon (non-fossil)

and up to 35% of the dry mass of wood.  This is a group of heterogeneous polymers synthesized from a few precursor molecules,

lignols, all derived from phenylpropane. Varied and extensive crosslinking between the lignols accounts for the heterogeneity of lignin.

..lig

.

 

Below, further scientific and other images

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

There's a wide-ranging page on the site which gives the many advantages of living in Sheffield, or some of the many advantages: Sheffield Dales.   There are also pages which outline the case against - Sheffield: disadvantages and disillusionment.

 

PHD, Paul Hurt Design offers genuine innovation, practicality and a concern for aesthetics and the environment in the design and construction of 

Agricultural growing systems, as in the invention which has now been awarded a Patent in the United States.
Further information: 

vineyard-orchard-polytunnel-growing-system  and US Official Patent  Document 

 

 New Window-Door System   is a radical system with a very wide range of applications, from small-scale domestic applications to industrial and large-scale architectural applications. It offers unparalleled opportunities to install, very quickly, different surfaces in window spaces which optimize insulation in cold weather, optimize air flow in hot weather, to reduce or eliminate reliance upon air-conditioning installations and allow the insertion of surfaces to achieve wide-ranging benefits, including benefits in security, in fire control, and benefits in storage and provision of working facilities inside homes, offices, workshops and factories.


 New roofing-walling-system
  has the potential to achieve massive benefits in mitigation of flooding, water collection and storage on a large scale to address the problem of drought and to reduce reliance upon mains water, and a range of other benefits, including fire safety.
 

Other innovations - there's information about most of these on the page PHD New - but it includes less recent work as well):

A variety of water-collecting surfaces, directing water to
storage containers, a pond or directly to plants.

Greenhouses -  greenhouses with presence, flexible, adaptable, with large, removable panels to lower the internal temperature during heat waves and to allow natural precipitation  to water the crops in the greenhouse, reducing reliance on mains water, with water-collecting surfaces to conserve water.
Implementing green roofs, eg, the roof of an extension to the PHD Greenhouse, using grape vines / hop plants, with no need for bulky, heavy soil or compost.

New bed-and-board systems in gardens / allotments, with many advantages, including huge flexibility: boards can be quickly removed and replaced, beds can  be modified very easily, become larger or smaller, growing areas can be divided into beds or not. When large, open areas are chosen, water-collecting surfaces can easily be installed, if the areas are on a slope.
A  lightweight metal system allowing quick construction of various garden / small farm structures for plant protection and support.

A solar composter, speeding up production of compost by the greenhouse effect.
A solar wood store, speeding up the drying of wood for efficient burning in wood stoves.

Wildlife aids - a bird table, swift nesting boxes of various designs, all  very different from existing designs. The swift boxes are easily constructed,  easily installed at a height without a ladder, from inside the property -  taking hardly any time.
Hydraulic machinery for log splitting / apple pressing, elegant, useful furniture when not in use.
Other domestic furniture- a table, a bookcase, storage systems -  distinctive designs, not copies.

A radical new roofing system, allowing inclined roofs (including water collecting roofs) to be constructed as easily as flat roofs, within (not above) a new walling system.
Workbenches for woodworking / metalworking, easy to construct, easy to dismantle, easy to move from place to place, but solid and immovable in use, with ample storage space and versatile working surfaces.
A vice for woodworking, with pressure exerted by a ratchet strap, not a screw thread.
Van to Campervan conversions which can be implemented easily and are  cost-effective, practical and harmonious.

Van to Display Unit conversions, using telescopic and other components, in particular display boards.  The boards can display material of many different kinds, e.g. campaigning images and text, advertizing material. The displays are static, for use when the van is parked, not moving.
Simple aids  to moving heavy loads up  slopes and  on level ground, in gardens / allotments.
Simple aids to safety in sheet metal work.

 

 Page-travel: new techniques in Website navigation  introduces innovations in navigation within the page and between pages, in particular the vertical rail on the left side of all the pages of the site. This, like horizontal rails,  can have many uses, in particular, for navigation within the page. The presence of a vertical rail helps to unify the page, to remove the feeling that the user is going into remote parts, in the case of very long pages. Website navigation has linkages with travelling in an area or travelling to more distant places.
 

None of my activities in connection with this site, with my design and construction work or my work in growing have ever earned me any money. My work has been carried out for personal reasons but with the hope of giving wider benefits. I've no idea if my work will ever earn me anything. I prefer to focus my attention on other things. There are many, many demands on my time.

Linkages and {themes} as well as contrasts underlie to a greater or lesser extent most of this site. I stress methods, techniques, ideas, concepts, values that are common to very different fields of activity, often ones which unify, and not only in design / construction but far more widely - the project TTL, 'Theme, Theory, Practice.'

 

A project which is a substantial part of my work, in the field of comparative literature:  'literature, broadly defined, and other spheres of human activity, including history, politics, philosophy, art and science' and in multiple languages. Work in the field of poetic technique and innovation in poetics is a separate, linked project. 

 

One interest of mine, music, has no coverage in any detail.  I do include brief information about some writing of mine on an aspect of violin technique. It was included in a violin concerto which received its world premiere at a Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The concerto includes text as well as the music, obviously the main component of the work. I had studied with the Hungarian violinist Rudolf Botta, commemorated by the concerto. Before switching to the violin and viola, I was a cellist, and played the cello in an orchestra which included professional players, the members of 'The Lindsays' (The Lindsay String Quartet.)

 

I give far more coverage to drama on the site. The drama section includes a play script - a comedy with overtones. The play was successfully staged for paying audiences. I wrote the play and I was the director for the performances. The play is about a boxer who is pressurized into becoming a concert violinist by his mother and an agent, with a wide range of other characters and a wide range of settings. I played the part of the boxer-turned-violinist. The play is on the page  Play Script with Introduction. The introduction is comprehensive.

 

 


The page About this site  gives introductory information on a wide variety of topics, including use of images, and this: 'Emails sent to me are treated as confidential. Emails sent to me won't be released into the public domain, including publication on this site, unless with the sender's permission.' With only the most limited exceptions, including any which threatened action which is clearly extreme and illegal. (I've never received any of those.) The page includes information about my phone number, if you'd like to contact me in this way

 

Email address: paulhurt100@gmail.com

 

Mikhail Bakhtin writes of 'Dostoevsky's passion for journalism and his love of the newspaper, his deep and subtle understanding of the newspaper page as a living reflection of the contradictions of contemporary society in the cross-section of a single day, where the most diverse and contradictory material is laid out, extensively, side by side...' ('Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics,' translated, Caryl Emerson.)

 

My approach is in part systematic and rigorous, sometimes at a high level of abstraction, but I see no contradiction between system and rigour on the one hand and on the other, passion, compassion, activism, humour, an intense concern for the health of language and the vitality of culture, a whole range of other concerns. A systematic study can reveal gaps very clearly. The meticulous work of cartographers helped to show explorers which regions were still unexplored, to suggest new areas for risk and discovery. Activism and activists -  deluded and  deranged activists as well as ones I respect and admire - politics and politicians, have a part to play in the pages of the site, but also journalists, poets, musicians, scientists, engineers, labourers, scholars, miners, and many more, including animals.                  

 

The 'diverse material' in this site covers a very wide range, some of it of journalistic, some of it academic, some of it personal, some of it practical - working with wood, metal, other materials, designing and constructing buildings, other structures and sometimes machines, the growing of a wide range of plants - and the design of pages, graphic design. Some of it is concerned with aesthetics, some of it  with ethics - with humane values and harshness, unavoidable harshness as well as harshness which can be reduced by reform or technical advances, harshness in peace and in war,  industry and nature. Ethics: ethical theory and practice  is a page with technical and non-technical sections.  It introduces  symbolic notation for 'outweighing,' a fundamental concept  in ethics, for me, but with much wider applicability.

 

Pages concerned with value judgments include appreciation as well as criticism.  There's criticism of anti-feminists as well as radical feminists, criticism of people who oppose 'woke'  views as well as criticism of woke views, extensive criticism of  Christian beliefs  without assuming that non-Christians and anti-Christians have a monopoly of good sense, without assuming that they are incapable of stupidity (and worse, much worse), arguments and evidence in favour of 'conservative' views, but with significant reservations.

 

The pages  on universities contain criticism of some aspects of some universities (Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, the Sheffield universities and others) and many people at those universities. In other pages, I attempt to convey some of the astonishing achievement of universities, in science, technology and other fields. Very often, perhaps more often than not, the achievements outweigh the failures but obviously, the balance of success / failure is very variable. This is after all a massive subject, impossible to cover, to begin to cover, in the space available.

 

My poetry - very varied - appears on the page Poems. Some of the poems have been published in literary magazines. Word-image design contains my 'concrete poems.'

 

The study of linkages is one of the broadest of all studies. Linkages / contrasts, are fundamental organizing principles of the site. I discuss linkages in many different fields and create new ones - there are many innovations here. Many linkages are  problematic and disputed. Astrologers find a linkage between human personality and celestial objects whilst skeptics find no convincing evidence. Scientific advances involve new linkages: Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation proposed a linkage between all the bodies in the Universe, Darwin's Theory of Evolution  proposed new linkages between organisms.

 

Most of the material is non-technical. The page introducing  Linkage and {theme} theory (which includes linkage and contrast) is one exception. (Another is my page on Metaphor.) I explain some conceptual innovations and go beyond natural language, developing a symbolic notation with many uses and substantial advantages. Pages which make use of  this notation include  Themes: Interpretations, hints   Most of these are concerned with topics in physics, chemistry, mathematics, philosophy and logic.

 

Lists-Section follows the images sections below. It provides information about the content of  some pages on Linkages and themes, including applications - a sample of the many, many possible practical and other applications.