Ideas 1: The meaning of life (in five pages)
Might as well start off at the big end ...
This is a fascinating short discourse by a world-renowned scientist about the origins of life and mind, which also speculates about their future.
Ideas 2: Matter of commonsense
Continuing at the big end! A free PDF download of a book that challenges many scientific beliefs.
Ideas 3: Primary sources from the Australian VFT project
This provides some reference material about Australia’s visionary, but failed, ‘Very Fast Train’ project, including some cited in the Wikipedia article about the eminent scientist Dr Paul Wild, who conceived and led the project.
Ideas 4: An editorial published on 1 January 1901
The writer looks back on 100 years and observes how little of progress was predicted and predictable in 1801, and says “Speculations as to the future should be indulged in with cautious reserve”. He was right!
Ideas 5: W.A. Webb, giant
William Alfred Webb was indomitable. He had to be to overcome the nepotism and inward thinking of the South Australian governments of the 1920s to radically reform the state’s railways, which were bankrupting the state’s treasury.
Ideas 6: Webb’s magnificent locomotives
They were of a size and power never before imagined in Australia.
Ideas 7: Other ideas and interesting things