Tom Brown

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I have 263 stories published in 23 collections on the site.
My stories have been read 312980 times and 18 of my stories have been cherry picked.
386 of my 2,786 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 387 votes

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Tom Brown

Apart from studies in the natural sciences I am interested in languages and literature in general as well as religion. Lately I have been writing more popular general interest essays and also trying for a bit of balance with mathematics and while keeping things understandable for most people.

I am South-African born and bred. At high school I excelled in science and mathematics competitions and completed two years of mechanical engineering with very good results. That didn't work out due to ill health. I have had permanent teaching positions at Unisa and Wits.

Graduating with an MSc under WK Bartoszek (Unisa 1997) and a PhD under N Sauer (Pretoria 2006) formal interests would be in abstract analysis: Markov operators and stochastic processes; vector valued Laplace transforms applied to semigroups and families of evolution equations (empathies). It has now been quite a while since I was academically active I don't have much published. The way things have developed was beyond my control and I am very isolated.

Favourite authors are Jules Verne, HG Wells and Jack London, Shakespeare and poets William Blake and Dylan Thomas. I like adventure, science fiction and fantasy movies my all time greatest are the Narnia stories and the Lord of the Rings.

The meal best enjoyed is a breakfast of bacon eggs on toast fried chips with fresh orange juice, and for supper an ox-tail stew. I like eating out romantic. For recreation nature hikes, camping and fishing, listening to good music and reading, classics mostly, and good movies. I love dogs my best one was a Maltese poodle Freddy. I love rain and lightning thunderstorms and rainbows. As well as writing and publishing here on Abctales.

I have begun to study mathematics and its applications again, and look forward to be involved in formal research and teaching.

God is in the details of the details. God is in the timing of the timing.

My stories

King Shaka

King Shaka Zulu Chief (1816–28) born c. 1787 Founder of Southern Africa's Zulu Empire he is credited with creating a fighting force that devastated...

Zulu Warfare

King Shaka made the Zulu Nation into a mighty war machine. The military inventions included such as the shield and iklwa the Zulu thrusting spear a “...
Cherry

The Cape Sparrow

“Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” Cape Sparrow ( Passer Meralunus ) Afrikaans – Gewone...

Earth-Globe Riddles

We think of the Earth as a perfect sphere. I have three problems, fortunately we won't need sketches! The following are our problems 1. The complete...

Trigonometry is fun!

We learn to do all kinds of difficult and complicated problems in school and to do them fast, but do we understand what we are doing? We hardly know...

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386 of my comments have received 387 Great Feedback votes

1 Vote

Blade Runner

Posted on Wed, 25 Jan 2017

Oscar Pistorius with nickname “Blade Runner”, as South African athlete participated in international sprinting events. Both his legs were amputated just below the knee, he has carbon-fibre prostheses.

A career of remarkable sporting...

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Posted in Disabilities and Employment

1 Vote

Very sensitive

Posted on Thu, 05 Oct 2023

Very sensitive Richard, you know what a guy wants! Tom

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Posted in A Little Child

1 Vote

I think there are forests

Posted on Mon, 04 Sep 2023

I think there are forests in Magoebaskloof and Blyderivier Canyon but they are partly destroyed to make way for alien plantations, which are stone dead not a mouse stirring, total silence. The Knysna forest Jacques spoke of must be incredible the...

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Posted in Stirring Forest

1 Vote

I found it fascinating

Posted on Thu, 05 Oct 2023

I found it fascinating that my shadow was so long late afternoon and so short at midday. How do you explain that to a kid?

In the one cowboy movie Terrence Hill can draw his revolver faster than his shadow. Movie for kids, great fun! ...

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Posted in The puzzle of shadows

1 Vote

... drawing back curtains

Posted on Tue, 26 Sep 2023

... drawing back curtains; greeting the sunshine and wondering!  Fantabulous!

See you! Tom

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Posted in Misguided In The Early 90s

1 Vote

Once a tourist

Posted on Mon, 02 Oct 2023

Once a tourist here in the Kruger Park got out the car to have his picture taken with the lion, he got mauled yes and I believe they got it all on video, there was also a woman in America that sent her boy to paint a Grizzly with honey for a...

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Posted in Grizzly Tragedy

1 Vote

All this makes me think

Posted on Mon, 02 Oct 2023

All this makes me think of Newton, according to the story he discovered the Law of Gravity seeing an apple falling from the tree. Romantic hey? There probably is some truth to it. Einstein discovered his "law of gravity" sitting in a barber's...

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Posted in Beneath My Favourite Tree

1 Vote

They said in the news

Posted on Tue, 26 Sep 2023

They said in the news the other day how there are solid plastic islands dritfing in the sea hundreds of kilometres of that. In the oceans. Imagine that? Thousands kilometres of plastic. Killing marine life, like you say, not biodegradable....

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Posted in Fantastic Plastic!

1 Vote

Sometimes it's nice to be alone

Posted on Sat, 23 Sep 2023

Sometimes it's nice to be alone, some peace and quiet andgood company that's why I like fishing so much. No problem if you forgot the bait at home.

Good luck! Tom

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Posted in "Alone..."

1 Vote

I am a rock

Posted on Sat, 23 Sep 2023

I am a rock, I am an island, and a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries.

Have a good week, we have an public holiday tomorrow, not that it matters anything to me.

Cheers! Tom

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Posted in "Alone..."

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