The Last Word

Have a guess at how many rhinoceroses there are left on the planet. How many leopards? How many lions? Go on, have a guess.

I guessed 100,000, 100,000 again and two million for lions. Then I looked up the numbers on the internet and I was shocked. For all five species of rhino, there are in total around 30,000 individuals (but only 61 - 63 examples of the Javan rhino and 100 of the Sumatran rhino). The most common species, the white rhino, has about 20,000 individuals. There used to be millions of these things, wandering around, eating the greenery.¹

I have two young daughters, and apparently each of them has a one-third chance of living to be 100 years old. They have some advantages in the longevity game, not least of which is being female. Females around the world live statistically longer - much longer - lives, possibly due to males in general indulging in riskier behaviours (and smoking and drinking more). The building materials industry is now much more concerned with the overall health of its employees than previously, and not just at work. I recently read an interesting article by Jessica Salter¹, who gave a few useful tips for anyone who wants to increase their chances of living to be 100...

I recently enjoyed the film Bladerunner 2049, where in an early scene, one replicant (synthetic human), smashes another through a wall apparently made of wallboard. A bit later on, the surviving replicant takes off in a flying car. While some things change, some things stay the same.

First of all, I think it’s useful to decide whether there is such a thing as ‘Human Nature.’ By Human Nature, I’m thinking about the innate essence of what it is to be human - something that cannot be changed, or at least cannot easily be changed. I have the feeling that the way that you are as an adult human has essentially been hard-wired into you by your genetics and by your life experiences up to that point. What you are now is the combination of all of your ancestors back through time, and all that you have ever experienced yourself - your childhood, schooling and all of the learning and culture you have ingested and retained, including all of your rules of thumb, mental models and prejudices that help you get through the day. Inasmuch as there is such a thing as Human Nature, it is the sum of everything that has gone into making each of us who we are.

Gypsum is wonderful stuff. It occurs in nature widely, but can also be synthesised. It is endlessly recyclable. It is fire-resistant and fairly durable. It can be moulded into intricate forms that will then endure for centuries (plaster has been used in buildings for practical and artistic purposes in civilisations from the ancient Egyptians onwards). Although gypsum has an ‘Achilles heel’ - it does not perform very well in the presence of water or moisture - this weakness can be modified with the addition of waxes, silicones or other water-proofing chemicals. Gypsum can be processed at relatively low temperatures (particularly when compared to high-temperature processes like cement clinkerisation at 1450°C). Due to its recyclability, low embodied energy, low embodied CO₂ and its relatively low cost, gypsum is very widely used in a variety of industries for its chemical, mineralogical and physical-mechanical properties. In many applications, it has no economic or practical substitute.