Thinking Ahead

Who and what will history remember? 

A thoroughly entertaining game of football, played without malice or cynicism, which the best team won, and in which some of the best players on both sides were of African or Afro-Carribean heritage. This is of particular significance for a game played in the stadium constructed by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympics, as a showcase for Aryan talent. The spirit of Jesse Owens rejoices

Or an attempt to assassinate the man who may become the next president of US, cripple its democracy, and with it the post-WWII world order. Will the precise trajectory of that bullet be seen in hindsight as the moment his election was assured and the descent into chaos began? 

Or Arthur Watkins, WWI veteran and unassuming but tenacious academic who, in the 1930s, recognised that plant breeding led to a narrowing of the gene pool of crop species and a corresponding loss of genetic diversity. Critically and uniquely, he also recognised that this was a long-term threat to humanity, because crops would be less adaptable to a changing environment, so he assembled 827 varieties of wheat from around the world, which still survive. This astonishing, visionary collection gives us some chance of maintaining crop yields in a rapidly changing climate

Some people think the Internet exists to disseminate racist hate about footballers or conspiracy theories about extreme politics. Some good people think it exists as a repository of important knowledge. In reality, it exists to disseminate pictures of cats. This one lives in Birmingham, and is much loved