In August 1861 the London-based newspaper The Times published world’s first “daily weather forecast.” term itself was created by enterprising meteorologist Robert FitzRoy, who wanted to distance his work from astrological “prognostications.” That story has led a widespread assumption that forecasting is an entirely modern phenomenon and in earlier periods only quackery or folklore-based signs w...

This paper reflects on lessons from the campaign against Shell’s sponsorship of the Royal Geographical Society in the mid-1990s, that took place in the aftermath of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists from the Ogoni region of the Niger delta. It argues that the continuing relationship between a fossil fuel multinational company and the professional body representing British...

| Fungal taxonomists pursue a seemingly impossible quest: to discover and give names to all of the world’s mushrooms, moulds and yeasts. Taxonomists have a reputation for being traditionalists, but as we outline here, the community has recently embraced the modernization of its nomenclatural rules by discarding the requirement for Latin descriptions, endorsing electronic publication and ending ...

Few seem to have difficulty in distinguishing between religious and secular institutions, yet there is widespread disagreement regarding what “religion” actually means. Indeed, some go so far as to question whether there is anything at all distinctive about religions. Hence, formulating a definition of “religion” that can command wide assent has proven to be an extremely difficult task. In this...

In a very competitive and constantly changing business world, firms must develop innovative methods to accomplish their goals by listening to customers and then delivering quality products and services clients want at a price they will pay. Depending on the firm’s strategy, rapid technology developments and globalization can be key in this need to innovate to become and remain competitive. Succ...

In recent years, even some of its own practitioners have accused analytic philosophy of lacking historical awareness. My aim is to show that analytic philosophy and history are not such a mismatch after all. Against the objection that analytic philosophers have unduly ignored the past I argue that for the most part they only resist strong versions of historicism, and for good reasons. The histo...