My favourite laws of chemistry are those by Boyle and Charles regarding the interrelationships between pressure (P), temperature (T) and volume (V) for a unit mass of any gas, with the equation PV = RT indelibly written in my mind. The equation asserts that if the temperature of any gas is kept constant, volume will increase as pressure decreases and vice versa.
You might recall that I complained in a column last month of the "increasingly schizoid nature of American 'culture wars'" - that these days, supporters of the two major US parties "live on entirely different planets, fantasising to themselves in disconnected parallel universes" in which they "rarely actually communicate with each other...
Quite recently in this paper, Martin Henry engaged in a useful piece of legislative reflection and rightfully highlighted areas where, as a nation, we need to look seriously at aspects of our law that might be in need of reformation.
It's been nine months on. What will Mama P deliver to party faithful, the beloved poor, and the rest of the country at today's public session of the first annual conference of the People's National Party (PNP) after winning the December 2011 general election?
Is it just me that finds that our evangelical church services - and, in particular, funeral services - are the truest form of excellent Jamaican theatre? Where else does one find the drama and richness of our culture and what we are as a people? The colour, the rhythm, music and passion are all to be found on such occasions.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has been coming under increasing fire for allegedly being missing in action, disconnected, disengaged and acting as a detached, ceremonial head of state. Mark Wignall has been characteristically caustic, but even columnist Chris Burns, no Portia detractor, has been complaining loudly about the Motivator-in-Chief's dereliction of duty.
As an English speaker, we like to believe that English is the widest spoken language in the world, and this is partly true. There are approximately 500 million speakers (native and non-native) of the English language, and we can bask in the fact that English is the official language for more countries than any other language is the world.
One reason you shouldn't use too much hair dye is that it might seep into your skull and obscure the brain. After all, if we can catch cold through our mole, then president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's, brain is slowly dyeing. Since his apparent early onset dementia when he inexplicably turned on his citizens and destroyed his cricket team, I have stopped taking him seriously.
In making indefensibly bad projections about economic growth, the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) and Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) have used up more paper than any dysentery pandemic.
"When you pick up that ballot to vote, you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation ... the choice you face won't be just between two candidates or two parties. It will be a choice between two different paths for America.
There is no science to it, nor is there 'sciance', but one can't help but be petrified that almost five years to the date, the police in St Thomas have killed another pregnant woman.
Sport provides excellent opportunities for financial reward. In the English Premier League, many football players are able to earn millions of pounds sterling annually.
Recent developments in the telecommunications and energy sectors of the Jamaican economy have brought to the fore the age-old debate on competition vs industrial policy as tools for economic development and improved competitiveness.
During the past week, we witnessed an excellent conference by the Brian Meeks-led Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies. The conference, which ran for four days, included members of government, academia, private sector and civil society discussing a wide range of topics reflecting on the past 50 years, while preparing for the next 50.
The origin of football is an interesting story. Many decades ago, the game was played with an 'inflated pig's bladder' as a ball. There were no rules, no marked field of play. Everyone ran around kicking the ball.
I had a nightmare that the country was on the verge of a great economic boom when the major highways, bridges, edifices were suddenly robbed of the supporting metal in their foundations and structure. It was frightening, because I was leaving Junction, singing 'Georgia on my mind', driving across the Westmoreland Bridge heading into Highgate, when I woke up.
As we prepare for back-to-school, I hope we had been following those interesting and inspiring stories of Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) distinctions being carried by this newspaper. I hope some of those stories were shared with those young people who don't read newspapers.
An ominous return to Jim Crow-like practices in 10 of the American states - intended to suppress suffrage rights of persons from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds - could potentially influence the outcome of this year's presidential election.
Spookie, alias of Stanlie Parkins, did it for me decades ago. The 87-year-old St Andrew High School for Girls will not do it for its students. The school's handbook, with its commandments from Mount St Andrew, forbids it. All students must sit the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) only in the final year, grade 11. And that is that.
I was particularly heartened when, during a recent coffee break while on assignment at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries' Hope Gardens office, we were served snack packs which comprised a slice of fresh papaya, melon, pineapple, half an orange and a ripe banana.
The historic 12-medal haul by our athletes at the recently concluded Olympic Games has set tongues wagging about when exactly Jamaica began pulling in multiple medals at these Games.
The two head honchos of the Government's banking and planning institutions held separate press conferences last week to tell us how badly the economy had been performing, as though bad news delivered once was not good enough....
