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In June 2018 we travelled to China before joining an organised tour in Central Asia that, except for a sojourn in the mountains, followed in the footsteps of Marco Polo along the Great Silk Road.
The term ‘silk road’ was first coined by a 19th century German historian and has stuck ever since to a series of somewhat flexible overland routes across Eurasia extending 11,000 km (7,000 m), a third of the way around the world, from Xi'an in China to the Mediterranean Sea. It linked on ‘en route’ to the other great trade route that came from India, through modern Pakistan to Afghanistan, via one of five 'invasion routes' that included the Khyber pass and the Kabul River valley, that almost connects to the upper reaches of the Indus near Rawalpindi (and modern Islamabad). See our travels in Northern India for more information: Click Here... Today this whole network is called the Great Silk Road.
The ancient silk road is by far the longest and oldest overland trade route in the world. Chinese silk has been found in the hair of Egyptian mummies that were embalmed around three thousand years ago, arriving there by some arcane series of trades. But by Roman times, trade along the Silk Road was more organised, as the Roman historian Pliny wrote: 'so Roman women may expose their charms through transparent cloth'. Trade, often via India, grew after Genghis Khan conquered Central Asia and beyond in the 13th century. Yet, hidden behind the veil of that great and feared Mongol Empire the existence of China was almost forgotten by medieval Europe, so many believed that silk originated in India.
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This morning Miranda had an inspiration - real candles! We'll have real candles - made from real beeswax and scented with real bergamot for my final party as a celebration of my life and my death. This brief candle indeed!
In other circumstances she would be turning 60 next birthday. With her classic figure, clear skin and dark lustrous hair, by the standards of last century she looks half her age, barely thirty, the result of a good education; modern scientific and medical knowledge; a healthy diet and lifestyle and the elimination of inherited diseases before the ban on such medical interventions.
It's ironical that except as a result of accidents, skiing, rock climbing, paragliding and so on, Miranda's seldom had need of a doctor. She's a beneficiary of (once legal) genetic selection and unlike some people she's never had to resort to an illegal back-yard operation to extend her life.
 The Cloud (epub) for eBook Readers | [Note: 1 This version may not be as current as the on-line version. 2 Some characters have not been transcribed correctly by the conversion software. ] | 192 kB |
David Attenborough hit the headlines yet again in 15 May 2009 with an opinion piece in New Scientist. This is a quotation:
‘He has become a patron of the Optimum Population Trust, a think tank on population growth and environment with a scary website showing the global population as it grows. "For the past 20 years I've never had any doubt that the source of the Earth's ills is overpopulation. I can't go on saying this sort of thing and then fail to put my head above the parapet."
There are nearly three times as many people on the planet as when Attenborough started making television programmes in the 1950s - a fact that has convinced him that if we don't find a solution to our population problems, nature will:
"Other horrible factors will come along and fix it, like mass starvation."
Bob Hawke said something similar on the program Elders with Andrew Denton:
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