Guadalquivir River

This river goes through Seville. It means "big river" and is derived from Arabic "wadi al-Kabir". During the Roman period it was known as Betis.

Portuguese Postcodes

Portuguese post codes, known as codigo postal, consists of XXXX-XXX, with the last three digits specifying the building location.

Plaza de Espana, Seville

The Plaze de Espana was built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929.  It was designed by Anibal Gonzalez, and is an example of Regionalism architecture (an approach to architecture that seeks to root buildings in their geographical and cultural context).  Tiled alcoves represent the provinces of Spain.

Simply Red used it as a set for their video for "Something Got Me Started".

Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars Episode II have also been filmed there.

It is located in the Maria Luisa Park (Parque de Maria Luisa), the gardens of which were designed by a French landscape architect, called Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier, in 1914 (he also designed the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern edge of Paris, France). 

Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji is an active "stratovolcano" on the Japanese island of Honshu. Honshu is the largest island of Japan, where the capital Tokyo is also located.

It is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776m. It is 100km south-west of Tokyo. 

Stratovolcanos have multiple layers from successive eruptions.

Toronto's CN Tower

Toronto's CN Tower offers lobster cocktail and torched Hokkaido scallops from its 360 restaurant.

The Francis Crick Institute

The Francis Crick Institute is a research institute for biomedicine.

Place des Vosges

The Place des Vosges is the oldest planned square in Paris, and the former home of famous Parisians, including Victor Hugo and Cardinal Richelieu.

It was originally known as Place Royale (Royal Square). Vosges is a reference to an administrative region of north-eastern France.  PdV is in the Marais district between 3rd and 4th arrondissements. It was built by Henry IV of France in the early 17th Century.

PdV is surrounded by linden, or lime, trees, sometimes known as basswood in American literature.

Patisseries of Paris

Stohrer is the oldest patisserie in Paris.  

The historic original shop is at 51, Rue Montorgueil, a vibrant pedestrian street that echoes Carnaby Street of London.  This is where rum babas were invented. Monet painted the street in 1878 in his picture called Rue Montorgueil, Paris, 1878.  The street lies in the 1st and 2nd arrondissement, with Les Halles in the south and Grands Boulevards in the North.  The M4 line (line 4, purple) goes through Les Halles. Grands Boulevards in on the M8 line (line 8, pink) and M9 line (line 9, pale green).

Philippe Conticini has a few stores in Paris, including Montmartre and Place Dauphine in the 1er arrondissement. He is known for his XXL croissants.

Renoir

Renoir was a leading French impressionist artists.  He was born in 1841. Famous works include La Balancoire, of a lady on a swing, and Bal du moulin de la Galette.

What is ETIAS?

ETIAS is the European Travel Information and Authorisation System. It applies to visa-exempt travellers to enter 30 European countries. The EU will issue an announcement prior to go-live.

Aguascalientes

One of the 32 states of Mexico. Its name means "hot waters" due to the abundance of hot springs in the area. It is one of the smallest states of Mexico. It is well known for its San Marcos Fair (Feria Nacional de San Marcos) held for three weeks in April.

greenlit

Greenlit means "give permission to proceed" and is typically used in film and television. Its use is predominantly in North American English.

Electrolysis

Electrolysis is chemical decomposition produced by passing an electrical current through a liquid or solution containing ions (known as electrolyte).

The word was introduced by Michael Faraday in 1834 from the Greek word "elektron" (amber) which has been associated with electrical phenomena since the 17th Century.

ahistorical

The word ahistorical means lacking historical perspective or context.

The Google ngram viewer shows this is a relatively modern word.

The Black Mountains

The Black Mountains (Y Mynnyd Du) are a group of hills on the England-Wales border. 

The Llanthony Priory is in the area. It is a partly ruined Augustinian priory in the Vale of Ewyas (at the head of the Vale is the Gospel Pass, reputed to be named after the time in the 12th Century when the Third Crusade passed through the area preaching and fund-raising). Norman knight William de Lacy founded a hermitage here.

It is the Easternmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Hyphens versus Dashes

A hyphen is a short -; joining words e.g. well-known, long-term.

An en dash (-) is slightly wider, showing ranges e.g. 10-20, London-Paris..

The em dash is long, and used for emphasis and breaks in thought e.g.  "Dishes and dusting --- all done now."  It is used in creative writing and journalism.

London's Waterloo & City Line

The Waterloo & City line is the shortest line on the London Underground, running only 2.37km entirely between Waterloo and Bank Stations enabling commuters from South West London to get into the City quickly. 

It is nicknamed "The Drain".

Bank station is North East of Waterloo, and the Waterloo & City line has to cross the River Thames. It travels under Ludgate Hill.

Monument

London's Monument is a monument to the Great Fire of London in 1666. 

It was designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

It is next to London's Monument underground station, which is on the underground's Circle and District lines (yellow and green lines respectvely). It is connected (walking distance) to Bank station which is on the Northern Line, as well as Central, DLR and Waterloo & City lines.

It is near Pudding Lane, which is one of the world's first one-way streets. An order mandating one-way cart traffic was issued in 1617.

Praia

Praia in Portuguese means beach, or more precisely, a sandy or pebbly shore along a body of water. The term is feminine in Portuguese. In Brazil, it also refers to beach culture. Example use: "praia de Copacabana", "Vamos a praia".

Aadesh

Aadesh means "command", "order" or "message" in Sanskrit.

Portuguese Africa

There are six Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa - Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe and Equatorial Guinea.

Equatorial Guinea was primarily a Spanish colony (known as Spanish Guinea) but adopted Portuguese as an official language in 2010 to join the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) in 2014.

Cascading Place Names - The Story of St Albans

St Albans (the town where rapper LL Cool J grew up) in the New York City borough of Queens is named after St Albans in Hertfordshire, UK, which is in turn named after St Alban.

St Alban (Latin: Albanus) is the first-recorded British Christian martyr.

Jevon's Paradox

Jevon's Paradox occurs when improvements in resource efficiency lead to an increase, rather than a decrease, in total consumption of a resource.

It is based on an observation detailed in 1865 by William Stanley Jevons observing that as steam engines became more efficient, consumption of coal increased rather than decreased. LED light bulbs are a modern example.

Skagit Valley Washington

The Skagit Valley hosts an annual tulip festival every Spring. Skagit is also home to migrating birds, such as snow geese coming down from the Artic in Autumn.

Cueva de los verdes

This means Green Caves in English and is an attraction in the North of Lanzarote. It is a lava tube open to the public in Haria. It was a hideout for locals sheltering from invasions. La Graciosa island is also in the North.

Europe's Most Touristy City

Dubrovnik, Croatia, is Europe's most touristy city. In 2025, it welcomed 6.5m tourists for a city of only 40,000 inhabitants.  Croatia is on the Adriatic Coast.

Creativity Hacks

Change your input to change your output.

Example:

• Read something outside your domain (architecture, anthropology, game design)
• Listen to music you normally wouldn't
• Walk a different route
• Watch a documentary on something you know nothing about

Why it works: novel inputs create new mental connections.

The Creative Confidence Podcast

IDEO's Creative Confidence Podcast is here. Topics covered include Storytelling for Entrepreneurs.

In the above podcast, the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath, is referenced.

Creativity is the Highest Calling

There are philosophers and creators who believe creativity is the highest calling.

On the philosopher side:

• Nietzsche - argued that self-creation is the highest human act
• Joseph Campbell - saw creativity as the path to personal myth-making and meaning
• Ken Robinson - argued that creativity is as important as literacy

Overcoming Writer's Block

Creative Writing and Creative Thinking

Creative writing and creative thinking are important skills. Both require the exercise of the imagination. 

We live in a world where we constantly consume the output of others' imaginations, and our own creative powers are not always cultivated to the full.

Creative writing must absorb readers in an entertaining way. In some philosophies, there is no greater goal than entertainment. You must write in a way that is individual to you and compelling to read.

Entertainment is the most accessible form of meaning-making.
If you can entertain, you can teach, persuade, inspire, or transform.
If you can’t entertain, you lose the audience before you begin.

There is a technique called the "Five Seeds" method, which uses "seed prompts". Start your piece by first developing the following:

1. A title
2. A metaphor
3. A question
4. A contradiction
5. A sensory detail

The Parasympathetic Nervous System

The PSNS (parasympathetic nervous system) is part of the autonomic nervous system that promotes "rest-and-digest" activities, calming the body and supporting energy conservation and internal homeostasis. It promotes glandular secretion including insulin production for glucose metabolism. By contrast, the sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for stress and rapid action.

Field Lane

Field Lane was the southern end of Saffron Hill, now demolished, where Dickens based Fagin's den in Oliver Twist (1838).

The Tornado of 1091

The tornado of 1091 destroyed the church of St Mary le Bow when it was being built.

The Rhone River and "La Venoge"

The Rhône River is a major river in France and Switzerland, which flows from the Rhône Glacier in Switzerland (in the Canton of Valais in the Swiss Alps) down through Lake Geneva and out to the Mediterranean sea. 

The river's name comes from the Latin word Rhodanus and reflects the fact that this was an important waterway in the time of the Greek and Roman empires.  

In 1948 the French started construction of dams and diversion canals along the Rhône.

The river has many tributaries (a stream or river flowing into a larger one) such as:

• The Venoge (subject of the poem "La Venoge" (1954) by Jean Villard) 
• The Aubonne (which gives its name to the Aubonne municipality and Aubonne Castle) 

Both  of the above can be found around Lake Geneva. A translation of the poem "La Venoge" can be found here. It begins beautifully "On a un bien joli canton, des veaux, des vaches, des moutons" - "we have a lovely canton, it's got cows, calves, sheep".

Djed Pillar

The djed is a symbol in ancient Egyptian religion.  It is a pillar-like symbol representing stability. It is commonly understood to represent the spine of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife. It is speculated that it is modelled on the sacrum of a bull's spine.

Qawra

Qawra is in the Northern part of Malta, an island country in Southern Europe, between Sicily and North Africa. Official languages are Maltese and English.

Cult of Mithras

The cult of Mithras was a Roman "mystery religion", centring around the god Mithras, which originated from Mithras of Indo-European origin. Mithras was associated with contracts, friendship and cosmic order. 

Mystery religions, or mystery cults, sometimes shortened simply to mysteries, were religious schools participation in which was reserved to initiates. A famous cult of pre-Greek origins was the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Mithraism became popular in Italy, Britain and North Africa and survived prior to the advent of Christianity. 

Rituals took place in underground temples called mithraea. There are a number in the city of Rome. There are remains of one near Hexham in Northumberland, England, and also one in London.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge was opened on 30 June 1894. It was originally chocolate brown. It was painted red, white and blue in 1977 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee (25th anniversary). It is a bascule bridge (French for seesaw), which uses weights and pulleys to operate a drawbridge mechanism.

What is a Fabian war without Fabian means to support it?

This phrase is used by Thomas Paine. What it means is that a long drawn out struggle is unviable without sufficient resources to sustain it. A shorter, sharper approach may be required if resources are scanty.

William Pitt

William Pitt (1759-1806) was the last Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800 and the first official Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from January 1801. He was born in Hayes. He was the sound of William Pitt the Elder, Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768. The family fortune was made in India. Their house was later lived in by Everard Hambro, son of the founder of Hambros Bank (founded by a Danish banker), and demolished in 1933. 

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was an English-born American Founding Father, and author of the pamphlet Common Sense (1776) framing the argument for America's independence from Great Britain. Quotes from his work:

• From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom
• There is something absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island
• The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind

In 1796 he published an open letter to George Washington, whom he denounced as an incompetent general and a hypocrite. Washington may have avoided Paine at this point, possibly believing his politics to be too radical.

Paine's footnote to his letter objects to the appointment of a single Executive in government: "It is necessary to the manly mind of a republic, that it loses the debasing idea of obeying an individual".

More writings of the Founding Fathers can be found here.

Chaturanga

Chaturanga is an ancient Indian strategy board game - the ancestor of chess. In this game the bishop is instead the elephant. There is also a game called chaturaji, a four-person version of chess. It was played in India up to the 1800s.