TudoRama
TudoRama explores the nature and practice of creativity in the arts, sciences, politics and above all in everyday life. Tudor Rickards is Emeritus Professor of Creativity and Organizational Change at the University of Manchester. Tudor studied chemistry and radiation chemistry at The University of Wales at Cardiff. Following post-doctoral research at New York Medical College, he returned to the UK to work in technical management before joining Manchester Business School. He has published numerous books and articles on creativity, sporting management and leadership, as well as fictional works involving the mythical University of Urmston. He has been influential in the de...
How to write a poem about Netanyahu
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A recent article in a serious current affairs journal challenged its readers to send in any suggestion for a rhyme for Netanyahu. I took up the challenge but unfortunately failed to record the name of the journal.
Anyway, here are my efforts and a little background, a sort of bluffers guide to writing rhyming verse
(I won’t go so far as to describe it as poetry).
My first scribbled efforts demonstrated to me that rhyming with Netanyahu in English is far from easy. Here they are from my old...
This is Our Globe
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This is our Globe
Tudor Rickards
A previously unpublished poem which seems suitable for turning into something special with more than a little help from my IT savvy friends ...
WRITTEN FOR TWO VOICES
THE ROUND EARTHER
THE FLATEARTHER
I IMAGINE THE EFFECT TO BE LIKE THE CROWD SINGING ‘ABIDE WITH ME’ AT THE CUP FINAL:
THIS IS OUR GlOBE
THE ROUNDEARTHER
The Earth is round, I’ll have a bet with you
What do you say? You know...
Rainbow words. How they are contributing to dangers to our civilisation
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Rainbow words. How they are contributing to dangers to our civilisation
A post on the X platform recently set me thinking about its contents. It read:
Here in the UK it’s dawning on many of us that rainbow words like tolerance, diversity and inclusion have been exploited to trick us into acting as stewards of our own destruction, and that if we were a bit more prejudiced and racist we’d have a safer and more civilised country.
Post on X by @patcondell, 19/6/2025
True Start Coffee. A customer review
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I review the product and packaging from the True Start coffee company.
I complete this review while finishing a cup of coffee from ingredients provided by the True Start coffee company.
Miracle at the Tennis Club
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I bring the news of a miracle that took place at the tennis club which has figured from time to time in these podcasts.
Doctor Glycol, who has also featured from time to time has conceded that something very strange has taken place although from his strictly scientific viewpoint miracles are no more than unscientific representations of scientific phenomena.
I will let my audience decide whether they agree with Dr. Glycol.
The sad case of Laura Lupin
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The sad case of Laura Lupin
This little story feels so bizarre I’m prepared to admit that it may be fake news…
Laura recently posted her contribution to The Times newspaper on the X website .
It reads as follows.
I earned more than £120,000 as an accountant my husband earns less £95,000. We are a high income household but only on paper we’re basically your typical Henry couple it stands for high earners, not rich yet and it’s a term now used by financial institutions to describe pe...
Wit and Wisdom Early June 2025
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Wit and wisdom, Early June 2025
The halfway post
BREAKING: Donald Trump is reportedly demanding the FBI compile a list of everyone who uses the #TACO hashtag referencing "Trump Always Chickens Out."
Doc
Just heard that the government is banning Roman numerals!!
Not on my watch!
Me
Nice one, Doc. IV or IIII ?
They came at dawn. My nightmare begins
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I awake to the rumbling of a large vehicle pulling up outside my front drive. My bedside alarm says 5.30am.
Had my cover been blown?
I had been expecting something every day for months since my messages to one address remain unanswered.
My pretence of ignoring visible security measures in a neighbourhood of otherwise securely-barricaded houses had always been no more than a hopeful option.
I retreat into the bathroom and out of my bed clothes. I dress in the sports kit I had set out for my...
The bromance of the year is over. Donald and Elon part bigly
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Bigger than Hollywood. Bigger than Bollywood. The romance between the most powerful political leader in the world and the richest man in the world crashed and burned in the space of a few days.
Closest friends have always whispered that it was always a matter of time before, in the words of the song, they would have to call the whole thing off.
Why? The gossip sheets of Washington DC are putting it down to a clash of two of the strongest egos the world has ever known.
Are you a supermarket shelf-searcher
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"We all know someone who avoids the items on the front shelf in supermarkets”. This proposition was put forward recently by a friend of mine who writes under the pseudonym of Shoab Molvi.
Shoab“ specialises in quirky puns of the kind which appeals to those with whom he shares his sense of humour.
Writing on one of his favourite outlets, namely X formally known as Twitter, he offered the insight with a photograph of one such shelf-searcher almost dislodging the items at the front of the shelf in search of the fresh...
Eco’s fourteen features of fascism
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Eco’s fourteen features of fascism
In a much-quoted article in the New York Review of Books, in 1995, the philosopher and novelist Umberto Eco reflects on his direct experience of fascism.
Eco typically refuses refuses patronise his readers, which can make him difficult to follow. In one of his own books he advised readers not to bother unless they were prepared to work hard at it.
In this review, he approaches the notion of Fascism with a relatively few references. But he does explain one t...
TACO. An example of the dynamics of meme formation
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TACO stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out," a mischievous phrase coined by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong in an opinion piece on May 2, 2025.
He was referring to Trump's pattern of announcing steep tariffs only to backpedal in the face of market turmoil.
Wit and Wisdom Late May 2025
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Apologies for even more flubs than usual
TR
Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! Email everydaycreativityuk@gmail.com to sign up!Gary Lineker’s departure from the BBC: The uneasy relationship between sport and politics
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Gary Lineker’s departure from the BBC: The uneasy relationship between sport and politics.
The uneasy relationship between sport and politics is demonstrated by the case of Gary Lineker, a former international football star who became the BBC’s highest paid sports journalist.
Linacre’s engaging style contributed to a high profile career after his retirement from football, which included widespread media visibility including a lucrative advertising contract with a crisps company...
What’s more boring than watching paint dry? Answer: Attending the AGM of a Chess league.
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What’s more boring than watching paint dry? Answer: Attending the AGM of a Chess league.
This audio record of one such experience has two purposes. It is a summary of my attendance at the annual general meeting of Stockport chess league which took place on Wednesday, the 14th of May It is also an attempt at catharsis on my part of the experience.
I may have exaggerated some points in the hope of retaining your attention.
Wit and Wisdom April 2025
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Doc continues his punning streak…
I taught my four year old son how to use the word abundance in a sentence. He said: Thanks Dad that really means a lot!
I’ve been meaning to mention this often-repeated tweet which seems designed to convince very dim people how they may be able to conceal their dimness.
"My friends think I'm a crypto genius, (I'm not) it's because I read WAGMI’s weekly newsletter (and they have no idea it exists)" - Every Crypto Degen
Republicans against Trump
Tu...
Battle of the bins
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Is it me, or is the collection of bins beyond the capabilities of a householder like myself?
For several weeks, I had noticed that my green bin was not collected on the designated day, which happens to be Thursdays.
To be precise, I mean emptied of the garden and household waste it contained.
Donald Opens Alcatraz Trump Tower
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The press waited in expectation for the latest announcement from Donald Trump. They had been promised sensational news which would be the biggest news even of this administration.
The fortunate reporters who had passed the loyalty test permitting them access to breaking news waited agog. Had the invasion of Canada begun? Had Israeli prime minister Netanyahu sealed the agreement that Gaza would be renamed the American eastern territories? Had Donald’s nomination for Pope gained growing acceptance by the Cardinals?
Cricketer and Philosopher Geoffrey Boycott wins Nobel Prize
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The April 1 announcement came as no surprise to the many supporters of the philosopher and cricketer Sir Geoffrey Boycott whose work has been much admired in intellectual circles for many years.
The announcement cited his contribution to economics in general, and to his conceptualisation of the corridor of uncertainty.
The corridor of uncertainty is a term now popularised by Boycott and his supporters. It is based on his discovery that in cricket as in life, dangers can be warned off by playing a literal or metaphorical straight bat to...
What’s my line? Tennis tantrums down the ages.
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At one level, tennis has a squeaky clean reputation with images of strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, smartly dressed officials and players following the written and unwritten rules of the game.
However, there is a dark side to tennis. Every so often a bad boy or a bad girl erupts on the court and into the media.
Perhaps the most celebrated was John you can’t be serious McEnroe.
But it’s also worth remembering Gregor Dimitrov, who was disqualified from the final of a match after smashing three racke...
Consciousness revisited. Book Review of Being you, by Anil Seth
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Seth, Anil. Being you: A new science of consciousness. Penguin, 2021.
The nature of human creativity has been increasingly recognised as a route to understanding artificial intelligence, and the mimicry of human behaviours by the emerging chatbot systems.
Consequently, Being You, by the distinguished neuroscientist Professor Anil Seth, arrives at a significant time. As I read it, I became increasingly aware of the way in which it might contribute to the debate on Artificial Intelligence and its significance for our understanding of creativity and what I have termed everyday creativity.
Wit and Wisdom, April 2025
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We continue the era of American liberation from exploitation by the rest of the world. I will try to squeeze other news and perhaps some with a little wit and wisdom …
The story so far. President Trump’s announcement of his plan to MAGA produces a substantial negative effect on stock markets and criticism from economists in an unusual show of agreement.
...
The Nipper-nipping Chess Robot
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The headlines are striking. ‘Chess robot grabs and breaks finger of seven year old opponent’
The vicious act of nipper nipping took place in a demonstration event in Moscow. It seems that the robot had been programmed in turn-taking. Its human opponent moves a piece from one chess board square to another. The robot differentiates legal and illegal chess moves.
If the move is legal, the robot activates its move-making sequences, plucking up an opponent’s piece if its move involves a capture, then moving his own piece...
Defining a woman
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Defining a woman. The legal case challenging the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the equality legislation (2010)
April 17 2025
The case was brought by Women For Scotland, a gender critical organisation, against ministers of the Scottish Parliament. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, whose ruling was announced this week.
Why Donald Trump is being compared with Chairman Mao
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No, it’s not because they both wrote a book. Over a billion copies of Mao’s little red book is believed to have been printed. The Art of the Deal has reached a puny million copies.
It’s because President Trump’s leadership is increasingly being compared with Mao’s disastrous attempt to transform China, known as the Cultural Revolution.
Fungus the Bogeyman's tennis bag. How decluttering changed my life
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Confession. I am referring to my own sad case, having eventually accepted that my aging tennis bag was in serious need of restoration to some minimum level of acceptability on the hygiene front.
Yes, a weekly sequence of spills from water bottles, biscuits, sunscreen lotions, muddy boots, energy drinks, unwashed sportswear and assorted sandwiches had taken its toll on it.
The last straw wasn’t literally a straw but a spilt pack of fruit pastilles which had turned into squashy goo at surprising rate between two tennis games...
Irish Humour. The skull of Brian Baru
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A joke attributed to the great Irish comedian and raconteur,Dave Allen.
The joke has been related many times and I was reminded of it recently on the website Quora in an entry by Roland Wyvern of Brighton in England.
Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! Email everydaycreativityuk@gmail.com to sign up!Wit and Wisdom March-April 2025
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Wish I could have found more on other news items, but what became known as Signalgate had peak billing as March drew to a close, and Donald Trump’s tariff tantrums then pushed itheir way to dominate the highlights.
@Acyn
Reporter: Can you share how your information about war plans was shared with a journalist?
Hegseth: So you are talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes
@FrankC164
So @PeteHegseth leaks U.S. war plans in a group chat...
Controligarchs by Seamus Bruner. Book Review by Tudor Rickards
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Controligarchs by Seamus Bruner. Book Review by Tudor Rickards
Reviewer’s warning: The book presents a perspective which other commentators have described as promoting conspiracy theories.
Donald Trump Coup
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Donald Trump Coup. Sensational News revealed in a leaked Signal message
Deadline April 1st 2025
Donald Trump was captured in a successful coup overnight. The news was revealed in a leaked Signal message.
The instigators had mistakenly added the name of a British Journalist, Sandy Darricks, who posted a redacted version on X reproduced here
More than meets the eye...why there's hope for the NHS
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This is a story which started with the editing of a textbook about leadership and is turning into a case study of the dilemma of leadership in the national health service...
Conspiracy theories. The assassination of President Kennedy
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Conspiracy theories. The assassination of President Kennedy
In March 2025, a a bizarre example of a conspiracy theory occurred as the voluminous records of the assassination of President Kennedy were released for public scrutiny.
At almost the same time, a conspiracy theory developed that the assassination had been carried out by a popular English television actress of the time, Penelope Keith.
<...
So much symbolism as Teuchel faces his first match as England football manager
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England’s football team has a new manager, Thomas Teuchel. According to the British football pundits, the role is one the hardest in the world in which an incumbent can succeed. This in part is an indisputable measure of a national team’s success, namely winning the highest of prizes, the World Cup.
The significance has grown since the failure to win the Cup since 1966.
Wit and wisdom March 2025
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Wit and Wisdom March 2025
The news continues to be dominated by Trumpet calls from the West (Wing). Are we yet at peak Trump?
@HagwithAttitude
Forgot to tell you of my great achievement yesterday!!! I managed to open a pack of bacon using the ‘peel here’ tab, and not the kitchen knife!
Me
I’m adding that to my examples of Everyday Creativity
The Free Press
“For Americans who still cling to the n...
Chess Masters: The Endgame. A review
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BBC 2 attempts to do for chess what Like Littler is doing for darts, generate mass interest in a niche sport.
I watch with mixed emotions, having turned down an invitation to take part mainly out of cowardice. So watch out for a version of non-buyer’s regret in my commentary on the first episode of Chess Masters: The Endgame
So, here’s my take on the event. I settle in sofa commentary goggle-mode: replenish wine glass. Watch the ending of Mastermind.
The Glorious Victory of the B team adds a Footnote to Chess History
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The Glorious Victory of the B team adds a Footnote to Chess History
It is well known in our league that East Cheadle Chess club B team also known as the east Chile buffaloes are prone to surprise their opponents, often scoring well in unexpected ways.
And so it was recently as reported by our inspiring captain Jim.
I have taken his graceful elegantly scripted account and added a few more earthy remarks of my own.
Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, b...Wit and wisdom, Late February 2025
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Wit and Wisdom, late February 2025
Still heavily biased towards political posts. I tried and failed to find a wider set…
Me
PMQs
6 questions about a refugee permitted entry to the U.K.
2 questions about sorting out Donald Trump
0 questions about the Gaza ceasefire
0 questions about global warming
0 questions about the economy
Did I miss anything?
@NicholasTyrone
I’m always amazed at the people in Britain who look at Ukraine being invaded and think they should just roll over to the R...
Sporting Dilemmas. The case of the Virtual Assistant Referee
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Sporting Dilemmas. The Case of the Virtual Assistant Referee.
Sporting progress has always been measured. The metrics may vary, but the prize goes to athlete or team considered to have carried out the best performance, be it speed, distance, height, accuracy of core tasks or endurance. Sport requires judgement.
As a sport develops and becomes professionalised so do the role of judge, and the sophistication of the measures. At the highest levels of competitive sport, the regulation of metrics is an important aspect of sports administration.
The Trumposki Gambit. The most feared weapon in the world of hand to hand combat
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The rarely-played Trumposki gambit has hit the headlines for its continued use by its devoted followers who believe it to be the greatest gambit of all time.
The gambit was played in an acrimonious match in the opulent settings of the Trumposki Towers recently.
The match, sponsored by Aeroflot airlines, was played according the Newchess rules, in which the home team has a second player able to play a special skewer move during the game, often turning a weak position into a strong one.
Stay up-to-date with all of...How to save a lost game at chess
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In our league match this week, the most interesting point about my game was how I managed to convert a completely lost position into a draw.
I’m not sure how much is Chess skill and how much is a psychology applied to escape from defeat.
Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter! Email everydaycreativityuk@gmail.com to sign up!
