Ok I think we can all agree that the world has gone far too long without lolvampires!  Cats and fluffy animals are fine.  Celebs, not so much.  But vampires have accents and use lolspeek anyway and I have it on good authority that they likes blud!

So here's the first one.  Let's see some more soon!

Tommy was taking one last run.  His feet pounded the hard stone trail along the cliff edge.  He was an amateur athlete holding many medals in his class but today he ran a race without award.

Last year after watching one of his heroes take gold in the Olympics, his coach put his arm around Tommy’s shoulders and told him that in the next Olympics it would be Tommy standing proudly on the podium.

Those Olympics had come and gone this past month.  Tommy’s hard training and dedication had paid off with that heavy gold medal hanging round his neck and bouncing erratically on his chest to prove it.

His parents and hometown, country even, had been so proud.  At home, many photographs adorned the walls and shelf-tops, documenting pre-race poses in full gear, race moments from his nifty take-off to his most glorious finish in record time and of course, the dreamlike ...
>> full...

The Blind Men And The Elephant

Some seven men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approach'd the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, -"Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"

The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most ...
>> full...

I frequently come across people using the old "glass half full/glass half empty" phrase to describe the difference between optimists and pessimists but as an eternal optimist myself, I take serious issue with this comparison!

Now I can't claim to define pessimism as accurately but optimism is far from simply seeing life through rose tinted glasses as suggested by this phrase.  In reality, the glass is completely full - you just need to find a use for the air as well.  This is the great strength of the optimist - an innate tendency to be versatile and adapt to situations, not being afraid to change plans or expectations to suit new circumstances rather than give up and feel unfairly treated.

The Meaning of Life is a topic most often addressed philosophically.  Many people attempt to come to an answer by searching for common threads of logic, law or methodology that can EXPLAIN all aspects of life.

 

But Biology is the study of life after all so what can current knowledge tell us about the MEANING of life?  Well, most biological research inquires as to WHAT processes occur and HOW they occur rather than the two questions fundamental to the MEANING of life – WHY life happens in the first place and what PURPOSE life has.  To get to the bottom of these questions, two biological processes must be examined – abiogenesis and evolution.

 

Now abiogenesis, or the origin of life from non-life, is still one of the great unanswered questions but we have come a fair bit from the days of Spontaneous Generation as ...

>> full...