Peter Goodlad

Former mental health chaplain, and butler to Harold Pinter (Mansfield Park 1997)

[Peter Goodlad @PeterMG4]

Isaac Asimov was very wise. A popular read in my youth. It was science-fiction then. Science fact now. I hope the experts are still reading him.

[Paul Lewis @paullewismoney]

Here is the answer to fears about AI killing us all - devised in 1942. See especially law 0.

[Alison S Taylor, MP - Paisley & Renfrewshire North @Alison_S_Taylor]

I will be voting against the Assisted Dying Bill (again) next Friday 11 September.

Speaking with doctors about the current proposed legislation they say it’s fundamentally not right and they don’t want to have to participate - they also feel we cannot even think about something like this without fixing palliative care.

[Mike Bettes @mikebettes]

A deep analysis of what may have lead to the Nepal glacial collapse and a breakdown of how the flood overtook communities in a matter if minutes. #Nepal #flood #weather

[Stephano🍁Barberis @HelloStephano]

Every ship entering the Great Lakes goes through the Welland Canal, located fully in Canada. There’s no other option. $26.3 billion of US trade depends on it. Would be a shame if tolls skyrocketed or it was transit-taxed heavily…

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[Hal Koiiman 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 @HKoiman]

@NewsHour

[Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar]

NEW: Andy Burnham says that assisted dying debate should wait until palliative care and social care are fixed.

Asked for his view, he says it would be “very challenging” to introduce the wider debate before that happens.

His caution may give some Labour MPs pause for thought when the latest private member’s bill comes before them for a vote in September.

[Peter Goodlad @PeterMG4]

@devlin_jp A remarkable woman. Controversial, respected and loved.

[Peter Goodlad @PeterMG4]

@Knowledgepoint Reminiscence of the classic joke that confused the WC with the WC.

[Peter Goodlad @PeterMG4]

@JaneAustenLIVES Nice quote, but not Jane Austen.

[Peter Goodlad @PeterMG4]

@paulajaynebyrne Happy Easter. Christ is Risen!

[Peter Goodlad @PeterMG4]

@paulajaynebyrne 👍

[Peter Goodlad @PeterMG4]

@paulajaynebyrne Guardian Angels!

[Peter Goodlad @PeterMG4]

@SplashDamage1 @paullewismoney Same thing for Pendle Hill in Lancashire. It means hill-hill-hill.

[Sonia Sodha @soniasodha]

I get Starmer is in a tricky position. Problem is that he appears to regard international law as a substitute for moral judgment/leadership. Like he hopes it will dictate what to do. It's the wrong way round: legal frameworks are derived from our sense of what's right and wrong.

[Math Files @Math_files]

During World War II, the U.S. military studied bullet holes on returning planes to decide where to add armor. Most damage appeared on the fuselage, so many thought it should be reinforced.

Mathematician Abraham Wald pointed out a crucial flaw: the data only showed surviving planes. Planes hit in the engine didn’t return at all. This meant the engine was the real weak point.

By reinforcing engines instead, many more planes were saved.
The lesson: good mathematics isn’t just about numbers—it’s about questioning assumptions behind the data.

[Simon Calder @SimonCalder]

Dubai International Airport, the world's leading aviation hub, has suspended operations.
Around 250,000 passengers fly in and out of “DXB” daily.
Emirates, the main airliine: “The safety and security of our passengers and crew remain our highest priority.”
https://t.co/sq6wezGWk0

[🌸🎵 Beautiful Melody 🎶💖 @Ducnghia16]

For a guy who’s probably played it 25,000 times, to still make it feel brand new — and pull that much emotion from it — is simply incredible.

Paul Simon performing “The Sound of Silence” — timeless, powerful, and still deeply moving. 🎶✨

[Rutger Bregman @rutgerbregman]

The BBC just released a new adaptation of Lord of the Flies, the classic novel by William Golding. It's beautifully made, but it's still telling the wrong story.

A few years ago, I went looking for the *real* Lord of the Flies. I wanted to know: has it ever actually happened? Have kids ever been shipwrecked on a deserted island?

It took me a year of research, but I found it. In 1965, six boys from a boarding school in Tonga stole a boat, got caught in a storm, and drifted for eight days without food or water. They washed up on 'Ata, a remote, uninhabited island in the Pacific. They stayed there for 15 months, and what happened on that island was the exact opposite of William Golding's novel.

These boys set up a small commune. They built a food garden, stored rainwater in hollowed-out tree trunks, created a gym with improvised weights, and built a badminton court. One of them, Stephen (who would later become an engineer) managed to start a fire using two sticks. They kept it burning the entire time.

Of course they fought too. But then they argued, they had a rule: go to opposite ends of the island, cool down, then come back and apologize. As one of them told me: ‘That's how we stayed friends.’

Back home, everyone assumed that the boys – Luke, Stephen, Sione, David, Kolo and Mano — were dead. When they were finally discovered by an Australian captain named Peter Warner, he radioed their names to Tonga. After twenty minutes, a tearful response came back: ‘You found them! These boys have been given up for dead. Funerals have been held. If it's them, this is a miracle!’

Peter commissioned a new ship, hired all six boys as his crew, and named the boat the Ata, after the island where he found them. They remained friends for the rest of their lives – Peter and Mano even became soulmates. I tracked them down, and it became one of the central chapters of my book Humankind.

Here's what struck me most: William Golding (the author of Lord of the Flies) was a troubled man, an alcoholic who once said ‘I have always understood the Nazis, because I am of that sort by nature.’ I think he was projecting his own darkness onto children. And we turned it into a lesson about human nature that we teach to millions of kids around the world.

I think the real lesson is the opposite. When real children found themselves alone on a real island, they didn't descend into savagery. They cooperated, they took care of each other, they survived.

I'm not saying that the Tongan castaways were representative of all kids everywhere. But I am saying that every kid who has to read or watch the fictional Lord of the Flies also deserves to know what actually happened when it played out in real life.

Stories are never just stories. We become the stories that we tell ourselves.

[Dr Ian Paul @Psephizo]

Despite a strong tradition of interpretation, the woman in Revelation 12 is *not* actually Mary. But who is she, and what does she teach us about following Jesus? @AJWTheology @WalkerMarcus
https://t.co/QqRrz8DWP0