University Of Oxford Alumni

"... the discoveries, rich and romantic and utterly unexpected as they were, have given the North-West a world-wide advertisement of inestimable value. And this is an age of advertisement. Public opinion about such discoveries always passes through two stages—a period of universal credulity, followed by a period of universal incredulity."

"... On several occasions I have seen a cuckoo mobbed by small birds, and it would be pleasant to think it was done as a protest on the part of decent bird-society against a disgusting anti-social parasite. But the probability is that they mistake the cuckoo for a hawk."

"There is no greater literary sin than the omission of an Index, and, if I had my way, even novels would be provided with charts of this kind to their multifarious contents—how convenient it wold be for readers, as well as reviewers, to have such a handy means of checking the emotions of 's quick-change heroines and the involved relationships, business and otherwise, or Mr. Galsworthy's , who increase in number and variety with each successive installment of his epic of property!"

"Whenever a , or, for that matter, any indoor diversion, becomes too serious and scientific for the average mind it soon ceases to be fashionable. Whenever the professional cuts in, the man-of-the-word cuts off—to seek some new diversion which does not require its votaries to study a shelf-full of text-books."

"... Married people are in a position to make the closest study of one another's predilections, yet it is well known that many a marriage has been marred, or even unmade, by incompatibility of s."

"The summer of 1855, when next the were in London, was one of uncommon literary agitation. ... ... Above all other books, was the poem of the year. When the Brownings reached London, the critical bombardment of had begun; and all the various passions of mankind were being exercised in his condemnation and defence."

"To begin with, in the amusement nearest my heart, there was the theatre; and no one with a passion for the play could have arrived at Oxford in a more favourable hour. In the month of my first term the long struggle for the drama at Oxford was crowned with success; and the opened its doors to a performance of Twelfth Night by the ..."

"An affection for animal life was one of 's earliest characteristics. One of the rooms on the second floor was set apart as his den, and here he would sit of an evening, pondering his verses. One night, as he leant from the window, he heard an owl hooting; and, with a faculty for imitation which was strong in him, he cried back to the bird. The poet's 'tu-whit, tu-whoo' was so natural that the owl flew to the wind, and into the room, where it was captured and kept for a long while as a pet. Ingenuity has traced to this story the origin of the later poem 'The Owl,' which catches with singular fidelity an echo of the bird's cry."

"We've been caught out in the past by unexpected exhaust products from transport infrastructure. First it was horse manure, then it was CO². This time it's data. We must not make the same mistake again!"

"This is Tom Standage's third pocket-sized book delving into the history of science and engineering, and yet again he has found a subject that is not only fascinating, but which also resonates with contemporary issues. In ', Standage explored the development of the telegraph, which permitted long-distance instantaneous communication for the first time. … In The Neptune File , Standage explained how in the 19th century a new unseen planet was discovered because of its gravitational tugging, which caused Uranus to deviate from its predicted path. … Now we have The Mechanical Turk, the story of the 18th-century automaton that convinced everyone that a machine could play world-class chess, a feat that was only truly achieved in the last decade. Standage reveals how our ancestors reacted to this first apparent example of artificial intelligence. He explains how the machine actually worked, and he brings us up to date with the terrible moment when a computer beat , the world chess champion."

"When hackney carriages were first introduced into London — these were the first carriages that you could hail in the streets — so, basically taxis — this led to a massive backlash from .. the incumbent providers of rides in London— who were the . And that was how you used to get around London. You would hail a boat by the river and say “I want to go to ” or “I want to go up to ”. And so they all complained and they said their profits were running away on wheels, because these hackney carriages had showed up."

"... Throughout history, food has done more than simply provide sustenance. It has acted as a catalyst of social transformation, societal organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. From prehistory to the present, the stories of these transformations form a narrative that encompasses the whole of human history. Food's first transformative role was as a foundation for entire civilizations. The adoption of agriculture made possible new settled lifestyles and set mankind on the path to the modern world. But the staple crops that supported the first civilizations— and in the Near East, and in Asia, and maize and potatoes in the Americas—were not simply discovered by chance. Instead, they emerged through a complex process of , as desirable traits were selected and propagated by early farmers. These staple crops are, in effect, inventions: deliberately cultivated technologies that only exist as a result of human intervention."

"During Queen Victoria's reign, a new communications technology was developed that allowed people to communicate almost instantly across great distances, in effect shrinking the world faster and further than ever before. A worldwide communications network whose cables spanned continents and oceans, it revolutionized business practice, gave rise to new forms of crime, and inundated its uses with a deluge of information. ... The telegraph unleashed the greatest revolution in communications since the development of the ."

"As the tides of history have ebbed and flowed, different drinks have come to prominence in different times, places, and cultures, from villages to ancient Greek dining rooms or s. Each one became popular when it met a particular need or aligned with a historical trend; in some cases, it then went on to influence the course of history in unexpected ways. Just as archaeologists divide history into different periods based on the use of different materials—the stone age, the , the , and so on—it is also possible to divide world history into periods dominated by different drinks. Six beverages in particular—beer, wine, , coffee, tea, and —chart the flow of world history. Three contain , and three contain , but what they all have in common is that each one was the defining drink during a pivotal historical period, from antiquity to the present day."

"A woman's notes will not signify much truly, no more than her tongue."

"Women do not find it difficult nowadays to behave like men, but they often find it extremely difficult to behave like gentlemen."

"He is a master of a particularly fascinating style, at once smooth and various, which gives the quality of poetry to his explication of ordinary things. He has, moreover, some creative power."

"You are offered a piece of bread and butter that feels like a damp handkerchief – and sometimes, when cucumber is added to it, like a wet one."

"Cheetahs hunt in the early morning and early evening. They capture their prey by stalking to within 10 to 30 meters of their prey or as far as 80 meters before beginning the chase. A chase lasts about 20 seconds and rarely longer than one minute. Only 10 percent of their chases are successful. Antelope and gazelles, hare and the young of larger antelope like s, , or and small often fall prey to the lightning fast cheetahs. Coalition males will often take larger prey like zebra or ostrich. They can accelerate from 0 to 70 kilometres per hour in two seconds. A cheetah will abort a hunt if the prey dodges and darts from it more than three or four times."

"Wild cheetahs in Africa need help. Suitable prey is becoming scarce and is disappearing. They are suffering from the consequences of human encroachment, from competition with other large predators in game reserves, and not least, from the complication of a limited genetic make-up. The wild population continues to sustain the captive population … The similar experiences of the world's zoos have reaffirmed the traditional difficulties of breeding cheetahs in captivity. Despite the capturing, rearing and public display of cheetahs for thousands of years, one litter was reported in the 16th century by the son of , an Indian mogul. The next documented captive reproduction did not occur until 1956 … … From 1955 to 1994, the number of world zoos holding cheetahs increased from 29 to 211, and the number of animals during this 40-year period increased from 33 to 1218. Since 1955, 1440 cheetahs have been imported from the wild and there have been 2517 births and 3436 deaths …"

"CCF's base of operations is 44 km outside , , as Namibia is home to the largest number of free-ranging cheetah with ±20% (±3,000) of the world’s estimated wild population of ~10,000. The cheetah's survival depends on a total integrated approach: an ecological system of farmland management, prey species management and habitat stability using practices such as alternative , non-lethal predator control, and relocation of problem cheetahs. CCF’s Namibian focus is to work with livestock farming communities in order to develop ways to reduce conflict. This is achieved by devising a conservation plan that secures habitat for the species, while still accommodating farmers’ land use needs."

"Large s are currently facing severe threats and are experiencing substantial declines in their populations and geographical ranges around the world (Ripple et al., 2014). Human-wildlife conflict is a risk to 31% of the global carnivore species (, 2016). The vast majority of Namibia's cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) (over 90%) and other large carnivores reside outside of s. Namibia is made up of a mosaic of land uses which includes both privately owned mixed livestock and wildlife unfenced farms, fenced game farms, and open communal and commercial conservancies. Fences are meant to protect however; fences have an ecological impact by blocking migration movements especially in arid ecosystems. The fences confine individuals in turn carnivore abundance may exceed their available resources leading to a potential rapid decline of the population or local extinction. Commercial farmers have utilised game fences to keep and protected their game which equates to their livelihood. However, game fenced farmers catch more cheetahs than that of livestock farmers (Marker et al. 2010). As more game fences are erected, the rate of human-wildlife conflict has increased, which is an issue not only for the cheetah but all large carnivores across Namibia."

"Predators are exceptionally aware of tourists and their vehicles and sometimes use them to their advantage. If a cheetah has made a kill, it will almost certainly lose it if vehicles are present, since other predators, particularly the hyena, lion or jackal are alerted by the tourists. If the cheetah has cubs, that is a very dangerous situation for them, as they are made more vulnerable by the interference of the vehicles. Research conducted in the recorded that nearly 30% of cheetah sightings had more thant 20 vehicles surrounding it, and of these, more than 50% were less than 30 yards from the animal ..."

"I appeal in particular to Kant’s account of human frailty and its relation to his account of human evil. I argue that it is frail and flawed agents who lack an entirely fixed and stable character for whom forgiveness is a live option and a need. For such agents, there may be space to interpret us in the light of better willing than our wrongdoing indicates."

"Kant's distinction between things in themselves and things as they appear to us has both epistemological and metaphysical components. He is committed to a genuine idealism about things as they appear to us, but this is not a phenomenalist idealism. He is committed to the claim that there is an aspect of reality that grounds mind-dependent spatio-temporal objects, and which we cannot cognize, but he does not assert the existence of distinct non-spatio-temporal objects."

"My aim in this chapter is to characterize the change of heart that plays a role in forgiveness—in giving up warranted blaming reactive attitudes. I present this in the context of developing a Kantian account of what forgiveness is and why we need it, drawing on his moral psychology to characterize the relevant change of heart."

"Kant's idealism can be understood as limiting empirical reality to that with which we can have acquaintance. He thinks that this empirical reality is mind-dependent in the sense that it is not experience-transcendent, rather than holding that it exists literally in our minds. Reading intuition in this way enables us to make sense of Kant's central argument for his idealism in the Transcendental Aesthetic, and to see why he takes the complete idealist position to be established there. This shows that reading a central part of his argument in the Transcendental Deduction as epistemological is compatible with a metaphysical, idealist reading of transcendental idealism."

"Contemporary AIDS denialism, the belief that HIV is harmless and that antiretroviral drugs are the true cause of AIDS, is a more insidious AIDS conspiracy theory. Advocates of this position make a "conspiratorial move" against HIV science by implying its methods cannot be trusted and that untested, alternative therapies are safer than antiretrovirals. These claims are genuinely life-threatening, as tragically demonstrated in South Africa when the delay of antiretroviral treatment resulted in nearly 333,000 AIDS deaths and 180,000 HIV infectionsa tragedy of stunning proportions."

"Four symbolically powerful figures ensuring the lifespan of AIDS denialism: the hero scientist (dissident scientists who lend credibility to the movement); the cultropreneur (alternative therapists who exploit the conspiratorial move as a marketing mechanism); the living icon (individuals who claim to be living proof of AIDS denialism's legitimacy); and the praise-singer (journalists who broadcast movement messages to the public)."

"Pro-science activists have fought back by deploying empirical evidence and political credibility to resist AIDS conspiracy theories, which is part of the crucial project to defend evidence-based medicine."

"O dreamy, gloomy, friendly Trees, ... Ye, vastest breathers of the air, Shook down with slow and mighty poise Your coolness on the human care, Your wonder on its toys, Your greenness on the heart's despair, Your darkness on its noise."

"But she, like sighing forests, Stole on me—full of rest, Her hair was like the sea's wave, Whiteness was in her breast,— (So does one come, at night, upon a wall of roses.)"

"Come, let us make love deathless, thou and I, Seeing that our footing on the Earth is brief— Seeing that her multitudes sweep out to die Mocking at all that passes their belief."

"She comes not when Noon is on the roses— Too bright is Day. She comes not to the Soul till it reposes From work and play. But when Night is on the hills, and the great Voices Roll in from Sea, By starlight and by candlelight and dreamlight She comes to me."

"The diocese's promise is enormous, and with God's help, and that of Catholics in places such as Australia, I will continue to bring this promise to fruition."

"Still ... fair, though scarce less old than Rome. Now once again at rest from wandering Across the high Alps and the dreadful sea, In utmost England let it find a home."

"When Adam and Eve were dispossessed Of the garden hard by Heaven, They planted another one down in the west, ’Twas Devon, glorious Devon!"

"The soul beyond her knowing seems to sweep Out of the deep, fire-winged, into the deep."

"Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing, ‘Onward,’ the sailors cry. Carry the lad that’s born to be king Over the sea to Skye."

"Burned are our homes, exile and death, Scattered the loyal men. Yet ere the sword cool in the sheath, Charlie will come again."

"From D-wks and Ch-tty at my tail You’ll syllogize that I’m M-CK-L; In all I do I score always, In all I say—à l’écossaise."

"Among circuitboard crowsteps To be miniaturised is not small-minded. To love you needs more details than the Book of Kells — Your harbours, your photography, your democratic intellect Still boundless, chip of a nation."

"Semiconductor country, land crammed with intimate expanses, Your cities are superlattices, heterojunctive Graphed from the air, your cropmarked farmlands Are epitaxies of tweed."

"Thinking of Helensburgh, J. G. Frazer Revises flayings and human sacrifice; Abo of the Celtic Twilight, St Andrew Lang Posts him a ten-page note on totemism And a coloured fairy book."

"James Murray combs the dialect from his beard And files slips for his massive Dictionary."

"... Listen — Not to dour centuries of trudging, Marching, and taking orders; Today I have heard the feet of my country Breaking into a run."

"Throw all your stagey chandeliers in wheel-barrows and move them north To celebrate my mother's sewing-machine And her beneath an eighty-watt bulb, pedalling Iambs on an antique metal footplate."

"CLOE, dear JACK, that once victorious Name, CLOE, the Object of my raging Flame, Whom I did more than Life or Friendship prize, In Fleetstreet now a common strumpet plies, Turns up to ev’ry Puppy in the Town, And claps the Temple Rake for half a Crown."

"Ghetto-makars, tae the knackirs' Wi aw yir schemes, yir smug dour dreams O yir ain feet. Yi're beat By yon new Scoatlan loupin tae yir street..."

"CLOE, as soon as she has plaid the Whore, Repents the Deed, and vows to do’t no more; With the next Man she meets, to cure her Pain, She breaks her Vow, repents, and vows again; Breaks it again, so yielding is the Dame, And does the next Day and the next the same; Or keep thy Vows, frail Nymph, or vow no more, Cease to repent, or cease to play the Whore. Plain Fornication is a venial Evil, But Perjury leads headlong to the Devil."