ISAAC NEWTON was the greatest scientist in history and, perhaps more than anyone before or since, changed the world with his ideas.

'Nearer the Gods' said Edmond Halley 'no mortal may approach'.

Newton never had any children and is believed, like Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant, to have died a virgin. So arguably, the three most influential intellectuals of modern times never had sexual relations with a woman. Maybe there's a lesson there.

'TWO OLD ladies hacked to death!' is the kind of headline that makes even bleeding heart liberals instinctively cry out 'Bring back hanging!' But in Dostoevsky's classic novel Crime and Punishment, the hero Raskolnikov gets sentenced to less than 10 years in prison for bashing in the heads of two defenceless women, even after admitting he had planned the murder of one victim in advance and killed the other solely because she was a witness.

AN OLDER friend once advised the young Samuel Johnson to read as much as he could since he would lose the inclination with age. But Robert Louis Stevenson laughed at this, asserting that youth is for living and leave the books till later.

RLS was surely right that books are a mighty bloodless substitute for life. But Dr. Johnson's mentor knew whereof he spoke. Older eyes tire more easily and older minds resist new ideas. If you don't tackle the serious books when young you probably never will.

TWO CHEERS for Dubya! That was my reaction at seeing BBC pictures of jubilant Iraqis lining up to cast their ballots last Sunday. For George W. Bush has steadfastly maintained that ­ as the old pop song goes. ­

'All the world over, so easy to see. People everywhere just wanna be free. Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be. Nat'ral situation for a man to be free'.

Business and culture don’t often mix. And it’s rare when an idea promises to both make someone a lot of money, and help preserve and promote a vital part of our heritage. But such seems to be the case with de Windies Grill, the cricket themed restaurant which opened in Mandeville recently.

I once heard some young men and women arguing about whether men and women can be ‘just friends’. The women all said yes, but the men disagreed. As one put it ‘Anytime a man pays attention to a woman, no matter how brotherly he acts, in the back of his mind he wants more than just friendship. Sooner or later the male beast will break loose’.

WHEN HIV was first discovered in the mid 1980s Caribbean countries reacted in different ways. Haiti lacked the resources to take any preventative measures.

Back in the early 1990s a friend and I had a discussion about kidnapping, which was even then rife in South America though not yet a problem in Trinidad. How was it, we wondered, that murder was so prevalent in Jamaica and yet abduction for ransom was so rare?

THE OTHER day a girl named June told me an interesting story. She and her friend Carl were in Burger King when a schoolgirl caught his eye. He introduced himself, told her June was his sister, asked her name ­ Nikki ­ and got her number.

"JAMAICAN WOMAN love to suffer!" So I've heard many men declare, and at times it's hard to disagree. When we see yet another Jamaican woman make a rationally inexplicable romantic choice, we male onlookers can only shake our heads and murmur 'Bwoy dem like hardship!"