Tom Brown

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I have 266 stories published in 24 collections on the site.
My stories have been read 339630 times and 18 of my stories have been cherry picked.
392 of my 2,817 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 393 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

Collecting Pocket Calculators

I collect old calculating machines for a hobby, anything, like shop counter adding, specialised scientific calculators, financial ones etc. Any old...

Confusing the Complicated Man

The secret of Archimedes According to the Archimedes buoyancy principle a floating object displaces its own weight in water. The proof it turns out...

Escape of the Boer Swimmers

During the South African War (October 1899 – May 2002) many Boers were taken prisoner and exiled by the British Army. Most of the prisoner of war...

Class of '84

Also your greatest of all advantage in a chess game is to have your opponent underestimate you. Myself don't attend reunions I'm usually busy then,...

Gospel Concert

We went to some gospel concerts at the rugby stadium it was Don Francisco he never asked entrance fees only donations, even for the songs, free on...

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392 of my comments have received 393 Great Feedback votes

2 Votes

Sorry Di I honestly did not mean

Posted on Sun, 06 Feb 2022

Sorry Di I honestly did not mean to criticise your work at all and I don't recall that I ever have. It is a great poem. But please keep in mind any good teacher knows one often learns more from your mistakes and by the way I'm also out of a job....

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Posted in February Rainbow

2 Votes

Those old magic photos

Posted on Mon, 07 Oct 2024

Those old magic photos Jenny! I think they call them kodak moments. Something like that. These days people have so many photos they're hard to find Hey? What strikes me how happy we are me & my brother on all of them there are hundreds codac...

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Posted in Magic Of Youth

2 Votes

enough

Posted on Tue, 27 Aug 2024

You never know what is enough, untill you know what is too much / The road excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

I read these in poems of William Blake, in the proverbs of hell.

Good luck! Tom

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Posted in Never Enough?

2 Votes

The elephant and ant

Posted on Tue, 25 Jun 2024

The elephant and ant were walking together over the bridge, the ant said "We make this bridge shake hey?!"

We usually say an elephant "trumpets" or such, but you can say "roar" if you like why not?

Keep well, greetings from Africa!...

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Posted in Extreme differences!

2 Votes

Yes

Posted on Tue, 14 Sep 2021

Yes. Beautiful ending, man's best friend. Heartbreaking sometimes we feel a duty for mourning. And indeed, it is much more noble to live for someone than to die for someone, sometimes living takes great courage.

Keep well Paul! Tom

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Posted in With or Without You

2 Votes

No doubt inspired

Posted on Mon, 16 Mar 2020

No doubt inspired by Jules Verne's classic scifi novel 20,000 leagues under the sea. Also makes one think of Jacques C. and the research ship the Calypso.

Good work, original too! We are in, looking out, man and fish roles reversed! Who's...

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Posted in Here Be Dragons

2 Votes

it's good to be young

Posted on Fri, 14 Mar 2014

It's good to be young and insane.

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Posted in Mental Illness

1 Vote

Romance

Posted on Fri, 01 Aug 2025

The harp is beuatiful I like panflute also, like a really grand date, an anniversary leaving the kids with parents and that, to re-discover true romance!

The story where King Saul threw David with his spear just as he was bending down also...

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Posted in Crafted and Mastered

1 Vote

Good story Jenny!

Posted on Thu, 24 Jul 2025

Good story Jenny! "whispered through threads of conversation",

All the best! Tom

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Posted in Hollyhock Tears Or Whispers Of Gods.

1 Vote

A violin is a bit

Posted on Tue, 29 Jul 2025

A violin is a bit of a valuable item to be left lying around!

See you Rhiannon! Tom

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Posted in My Absent-Minded Violinist

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