All posts by Keith

I’m a controversialist and catalyst, quietly enabling others to develop by providing different ideas and views of the world. Born in London in the early 1950s and initially trained as a research chemist I retired as a senior project manager after 35 years in the IT industry. Retirement is about community give-back and finding some equilibrium. Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Anthony Powell Society. Chairman of my GP's patient group.
personal

Sorry Sadness

Apologies to all my readers for my absence for the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately my mother died on the afternoon of 26 May in the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital. So as well as trying to keep all the usual balls in the air, I’ve been dealing with the inevitable fallout.
This is the last photograph I have of my mother, taken last October on her 99th birthday.

Dora at 99
Dora at 99!
Norwich; October 2014

Yes, mum was 99! But as with so many old people, she had a fall in the early hours of Sunday 17 May, resulting in a broken hip. Magnificently the medics decided, with Dora’s and my agreement, that although frail, as she was pretty fit and had some mobility, they would operate to pin the fracture and try to get her mobility back. The operation itself seems to have been successful, but although Dora came through it OK she never picked up properly after the op and gradually slipped away over the following week.
I feel sure this is as Dora would have wanted it; she would have so hated being immobile, incontinent, incapable or bed-ridden. Until the fall she was alert and active (just very frail and very deaf). She was still reading almost anything we took her, sewing, knitting, making stuffed toys for her care home to sell, drawing and painting. Right up to the last she was still painting all her own greetings cards. Whenever we visited her we tried to take flowers for her to paint, and all the girls at the care home would also bring her things to paint. In fact we were with her the day before her fall and spent the afternoon going through some of her old artwork as the care home were planning a small exhibition of her work (and indeed they may still do it). This is exactly how Dora would have wanted it: she always said she wanted to wear out rather than rust out!
It is amazing to think that Dora had been in the care home for over five years — it certainly didn’t seem that long! This was the home she chose, in the country, just outside Norwich. It is a small home and excellent in every way; they gave Dora a wonderful five year holiday at the end of her life. Everyone there loved Dora and they are going to miss her just as much as we are. For a small quiet lady she has left a huge hole!
Dora’s funeral is on Wednesday 17 June.
Normal service here will be resumed as soon as possible, but it may still be a bit patchy for the next two weeks.
Onward and upward!

amusements, food+drink, personal

Ten Things #17

For some time I’ve been collecting fun things one can do which shouldn’t be either especially scary (so no bungee jumping) or outrageously expensive (so no world cruises). I now have a list of 50 which don’t quite form a bucket list for me, although it is interesting to see which ones I’ve done and which I haven’t. When I get round to it I shall put the list on my website, but meanwhile I thought this month we would have a selection, just as a taster.
BA4623Ten Fun Things To Do (which shouldn’t cost a fortune).

  1. Have a summer picnic and remember to take the champagne
  2. See a lunar or solar eclipse
  3. Take part in a performance of Messiah (or any other choral piece) from scratch
  4. Every time you go more than 25 miles from home, buy a postcard and send it to a friend or relative
  5. Have something named after you (eg. new species, park bench, cocktail)
  6. Do some guerilla gardening: find a small piece of neglected public land, plant some flowers there and tend them
  7. Visit a different museum every month for a year
  8. Take a trip on the London Eye (or an equivalent large Ferris wheel) at sunset
  9. Have your fortune told (just don’t take the result too seriously)
  10. Buy yourself some flowers, just because

quotes

Quotes

Another selection of amusing or thought-provoking quotes recently encountered. For some reason we seem to have quite a few heavyweights this time. In no particular order …
Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid. Doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.
[Joseph Campbell]
Language is the armoury of the human mind; and at once contains the trophies of its past, and the weapons of its future conquests.
[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]
If our minds are ruled by destructive emotions, by self-centredness, with little regard for others, we won’t be happy. As social animals we need to work together. With friends around us, we feel secure, happy and our minds are calm. We’re physically well too. When we’re filled with anger, fear and frustration, our minds are upset and our health declines. Therefore, the ultimate source of happiness is warmheartedness.
[Dalai Lama]
When you talk you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen you may learn something new.
[Dalai Lama]
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
[Eleanor Roosevelt]
So what advice should one give to a young person? By all means, go to college. In fact, approach college in the spirit of craftsmanship, going deep into liberal arts and sciences. In the summers, learn a manual trade. You’re likely to be less damaged, and quite possibly better paid, as an independent tradesman than as a cubicle-dwelling tender of information systems. To heed such advice would require a certain contrarian streak, as it entails rejecting a life course mapped out by others as obligatory and inevitable.
[Matthew B Crawford in his essay “Shop Class as Soulcraft”]
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
[Marcel Proust]
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
[WB Yeats]
The kind of pleasure and understanding that I get from studying natural history has long vanished from most contemporary teaching institutions that have become part of intensive care units, which are supposed to save the residual intellectual machinery of medical students. The teeming mass of hope and pain, technical virtuosity, and depersonalization called a “health center” delivers packets of what is termed “medical care”. The capacity to look remains, but the capacity to see has all but vanished. Teachers and students forget that the ability to palpate is not the same as the ability to feel.
[Prof. William B Bean]
The less you worry about what people think, the less complicated life becomes.
[unknown]
One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision
[Bertrand Russell]
The Foole doth thinke he is wise, but the wiseman knowes himselfe to be a Foole.
[Shakespeare; As You Like It]
Granny grasped her broomstick purposefully. “Million-to-one chances,” she said, “crop up nine times out of ten.”
[Terry Pratchett; Equal Rites]
There goes more to matrimony than four bare legs in bed.
[Ben Jonson]
And finally …
Tip for the Day: Treat every problem as your dog would. If you can’t eat it or fuck it, piss on it and walk away.
[unknown]

amusements, science, words

Oddity of the Week: Yi qi

Scientific names can be wonderful for many reasons. [There is] a bird whose name has rhythm, a fish with a fascinating etymology, and a butterfly named for a pioneering (and amazing) woman in entomology. Today’s entry is Yi qi, a newly described dinosaur whose name is interesting in origin and sound, and also wonderfully and surprisingly short.
Actually, the dinosaur is pretty wonderful too. Yi qi was a feathered theropod dinosaur … about the size of a large pigeon. In addition to feathers, it has two really odd features: a bony rod extending from each wrist, and sheets of membranous soft tissue that are preserved near the arms [which seem to be] wing membranes …
… two things about Yi qi‘s name.
First: why “Yi qi” (pronounced “ee chee”)? Yi means “wing” and qi means “strange” in Mandarin … So Yi qi is the “strange winged” dinosaur …

Second: what’s up with just four letters? We’re used to scientific names being long … and difficult to spell or pronounce …
So is Yi qi the shortest scientific name? Well, for an animal no shorter name is possible, because according to the International Code for Zoological Nomenclature … genus and species names must have at least two letters each … As it turns out, though, the race for the shortest name is a tie***: the Great Evening Bat is Ia io, also just 4 letters (and the only scientific name I know without consonants). Yi qi and Ia io have a few things in common besides the succinctness of their names: both are from China, both are flying predators, and both fly on membranous stretched from their arms.
*** With honourable mention to the Australian sphecid wasp Aha ha, at 5 letters.
From Wonderful Scientific Names, Part 4: Yi qi

history, links, medical, nudism, science

Your Interesting Links

OK, so here’s another round of links to interesting items you may have missed the first time. As always we start with the nasty, hard, scientific stuff and then it’s all downhill.
First here’s a long-ish piece on the fascinating world of chimeras. Although the article concentrates on humans, much the same applies to all animals and there is an interesting paragraph which explains how tortoiseshell cats are always female.


Why are some people are left-handed? Apparently some left-handed people have same genetic code abnormality as those with situs inversus, the condition where the major organs are on the “wrong” side of the body.
I’m one of those annoying people who crack their knuckles. Surprisingly scientists have only now shown why knuckles pop when pulled — and it’s all down to physics.
And here’s some more strange finger science. Professor William B Bean measured the rate at which his fingernails grew over a period of 35 years to discover that growth slows as one ages.
Still on new scientific discoveries, researchers have just worked out what sustains the human foetus during its first weeks, and it isn’t the placenta but womb milk.
Staying with food … Why do we crave specific foods? And no, it seems it isn’t because of some deficiency which the craved for food will satisfy.
Have you ever wondered how the medical profession came up with the stethoscope? Wonder no longer: it all started with Laennec’s Baton.
How do you teach trainee doctors (and other healthcare professionals) to do breast and internal examinations? Yep, there are people who use their bodies to make a living as Gynaecological Teaching Associates, guiding the trainees what to do with their hands.
Well after that I think we need a strong gin and tonic!
Italian man starts turning his property into a trattoria; goes to fix the toilet; and ends up years later with a major archaeological site.
Maps are so much more interesting than GPS! Here are 12 amazing maps which show the history, and fascination, of cartography.
Over 250 years ago British clockmaker John Harrison was ridiculed for saying he could make a pendulum clock accurate to a second over 100 days. He has finally been proven right.
The Paston Letters are one of the most valuable, and well known, sources of information on late medieval life in England. Now the British Library have digitised them and put the images online.
Coming a bit more up to date, the Victorians had plans to build a skyscraper taller than the Shard. Thankfully reality prevailed and they didn’t because the science of building materials was not nearly advanced enough.

Let’s end in the realm of human rights. First there is a new, and very powerful, resource which aims to bring human rights to life using beautiful infographics, stories and social media. It’s the brainchild of a top human rights barrister, so it should be reliable.
If, as many would claim, nudity is the ultimate test of self-acceptance. Why are we so afraid of it?
More next time!

arts, history, photography

Weekly Photograph

This week’s photograph is one I took on Saturday. It shows the commemorative plaque to General Sikorski who was leader of the exiled Polish forces in WWII. The plaque is on the (astonishingly expensive) Rubens Hotel, right opposite the entrance to Buckingham Palace Mews, which was the Polish forces GHQ for most of the War. This is not just a piece of history for it will resonate with Anthony Powell fans. Powell spent most of his war years as Military Intelligence (Liaison) and for much of that time was the officer responsible for liason with the Polish Allies — so he would have known the Rubens Hotel well.

Click the image for larger views on Flickr to read the lettering

Rubens Hotel, Polish Plaque
London, 2 May 2015

I’m sorry the image isn’t brilliant, but the hotel’s display board is at comfortable reading height, so the plaque is a couple of feet above my head height and I’ve had to correct the verticals in the image.