Laws and Flaws

The roots of miscarriages of justice.

  Although this article is about the common law, the author hopes that it may be of more than passing interest to scientists and to all seekers after truth.

  Over the course of some twenty years the author has used his skills in logic, science and literature research to carry out an in-depth study of the history of English law and of the causes of miscarriages of justice.  The main focus has been on English case law, but many cases from other common law jurisdictions have also been studied.

Electric Batteries - by A. Volta

In this article I present my translation of Alessandro (Alexander) Volta's original French paper, which I published as -
Batteries électriques - By A. Volta

Batteries électriques - by Alexander Volta

In 1800 the Royal Society published Alexander Volta's description of how he built his batteries.

It is not widely known that Volta invented both the 'wet' and the 'dry' battery.  Most writers mention Volta's pile - a 'dry' battery, but omit to mention his 'crown of cups', or 'wet' battery.

Around The Arctic June 2013


The Arctic is currently primed for rapid and extensive ice loss, unless we see some very unusual weather conditions this Summer.

The state of the ice can be seen in the following series of satellite images from NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System - EOSDIS.  EOSDIS produces near real-time data and makes images such as the Arctic mosaic and the Near Real Time (Orbit Swath) Images available on the web.

Glacier Changes in NE Greenland


Substantial cracks in the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier ice tongue appear to be growing in extent and number.  While not as spectacular as the 2010 calving of the Peterman Ice Island, it is more closely linked to global warming than

Otherwise known as 79 North, Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier is a floating outlet glacier, about 60 km long and 20 km wide located at 79°30'N, 22° W, draining a large area of the northeast Greenland ice sheet.

Law, Lies and Logic


The foundations of logical science, and of that part of law which concerns itself with logic rather than rhetoric, were laid by Aristotle, in 350 B.C.E.

His analysis of reasoning with demonstrable facts, as against appeals to "reason", came in a golden age of rhetoric.  He noted that the tools of rhetoric had not been built from an analysis of how language is used, but had been built piecemeal.  He, on the other hand, built his tools of logic from an observational foundation.