My name is Stephen Usher and I live in my little house on the outskirts of Oxford, UK, generally minding my own business and watching the world go by. I have a degree in Geology and another in Computer Science.

So, why did I choose the name lingula for this site? Well, firstly, the name was available as a domain on the net. That's as good a reason as any.

Secondly, the Lingula family of brachiopod sea creatures is the oldest known family of multi-cellular creatures which has hardly changed throughout its time on this planet. You can find fossils of this creature in rocks 550 million years old, where most of the other creatures are strange and weird, yet today you can find living specimens in the waters around Japan which are almost identical. And the reason they've survived? Well, they're not specialists in any way. They haven't made the mistake of changing to fit their environment and then found that the environment has changed and they're stuck up the creek without an evolutionary paddle. Having done a geology degree, I admire such stamina. It also reminds us that just because something has been around a long time it doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't work anymore and should be automatically discarded. Having said that, we should also embrace the new and change. It's a fine balance.

My stuff.

External links.

Eclectica.