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.
memes, personal

Ay to Zee

I’ve decided that we’ll have another irregular series, an A to Z. Unlike 10 things this won’t be a regular monthly feature — I considered it and thought that one such a month was enough and I’d do an A-Z when the whim takes me. I also decided that we’ll start with …
An A-Z of Me
A — Age: 63 on the calendar. Mentally it varies from 21 to 91. Physically it feels more like 163.
B — Blood Type: Not a clue; I’ve never been told.
C — Chore You Hate: All of them, especially housework. 
D — Dogs or Cats: Definitely cats. I don’t dislike dogs but I don’t have the affinity with them I do with cats. 
E — Expletive Deleted: Usually f**k or c**t. 
F — Fun Thing: The London Eye.
G — Greatest Accomplishment: Survival.
H — Haircut: Yes, I finally managed to get to the barber last week; only 6 weeks late!
I — I’d Like To Be: Thinner, fitter and richer.


J — Japan or China: Japan. I’d like to see both although Japan would win, except that I disapprove of their stance on whaling and I don’t much fancy a 12+ hour flight.
K — Kids: No, thank goodness. Two cats is enough, thank you!
L — Luxury: A warm, sunny, sandy beach and an endless supply of cool beer.
M — Married: Yes for half a lifetime.
N — Nude or Clothed: Nude when possible, clothed when necessary. In that order.
O — Operation: Yes, I’ve had several but nothing major: appendix, sinuses, knees.
P — Piercings: Yes one, somewhere you probably don’t want to know about.
Q — Quirky Possession: A Tibetan singing bowl and two Bhutanese Thanka.
R — Random Fact: I’ve never eaten a hamster or a goldfish, either alive or dead.
S — Siblings: No, and I cannot imagine what it must be like to have brothers and sisters.
T — Tattoos: Not yet.
U — Underwear: Only when I have to.
V — Vanilla or Chocolate: Vanilla. While I don’t mind real chocolate I dislike chocolate flavouring. Though I had some mango sorbet the other day which was out of this world!
W — Waiting for: A big lottery win.
X — X-Rays: Had a few of these over the years and always found the images fascinating.
Y — Yummy Food: Curry.
Z — Zoo Animal Favourite: Meercats and the aquarium.
What about you? Either leave your answers in the comments or on your blog with a link in the comments.
And another A-Z when the mood takes me.

personal

Ten Things #4

Here’s my April list of Ten Things.
10 Things I Consider Works of the Devil:

  1. Umbrellas
  2. Religion
  3. Pernod
  4. Halloween
  5. Butternut Squash
  6. Gnocci
  7. Golf
  8. Net Curtains
  9. Muzak
  10. Sweetcorn
links

Your Interesting Links

Another selection of links to items you may have missed …
As seems to be becoming tradition, let’s start with Fukushima. Scientific American recently carried an article on a UN report that the meltdown is unlikely to lead to large number of cancers.
According to the Guardian some researchers are saying the Black Death was not transmitted by rat fleas. Excellent demolition job by by the Brooke Borel.
Going back a few centuries, Alasdair Wilkins asks “Was Robert Hooke really the greatest asshole in the history of science?” Answer, yes he probably was, but he was still a great scientist.
Some amusing illustrations of the Gluteal Crease. Yes, that’s where the butt crack begins.
OMG, scientists cannot leave the (alleged) mystery of female orgasm alone! Now they’re trying to shed light using ultrasound and wet tampons. Duh!
Next up two absurd creatures; and both are fish. First the tripod fish. Second the oarfish which like a lizard can shed it’s tail to escape.
And here’s another rather pretty oddity: MRI scans of fruit.
Moving away from science, apparently Islamic law to be enshrined in British law as solicitors get guidelines on ‘Sharia compliant’ wills. This is wrong on so many levels.
The Atlas of Prejudice has 20 interesting ways to view Europe.


Now to an interesting perspective on the depiction of nudity and naturism.
Asp milk or ass milk? No not that kind of ass milk!
A couple of scientists have compared every major diet and found that they’re all more-or-less bunkum. But the winner was … real food! Well who would’ve guessed?
Meanwhile some other researchers reckon that the bergamot in Earl Grey Tea is actually protective against heart disease. That shouldn’t be a surprise as it is known to block statins (which is why anyone taking statins is told not to eat grapefruit) because it binds to the same receptors. Duh! Again!

And here’s something else which is actually good for you … hops. Yes, that staple of brewers, Humulus lupulus.
And now to things historic … Here’s part 4 in the series by a London cabbie on Waterloo Station: the London Necropolis Railway.

Going east, here’s an article on the normality of the sacred and sensuous in Indian art.
I find it slightly astonishing (though I guess I shouldn’t) that the Tibetans have long has a pattern book for drawing and sculpting representations of the Buddha.
Returning to Europe, here’s another medieval manuscript containing cat paw prints.
And finally, few of us have time to read all of Shakespeare’s plays. Now there’s a “get out of jail free” card: every Shakespeare play reduced to just three panels. Brilliant!

photography

Weekly Photograph

Nothing very exciting by way of photograph this week, just a patch of Common Liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha which I found several years ago growing among the street paving in Pinner. It was around 150mm across so had clearly been there for quite some while. It is showing a good crop of gemmae cups (which can release new offshoots when hit by raindrops) and just an odd sexual body (top right but you’ll need the full sized image to spot it), which from its shape suggests this is probably a male plant.

Click the image for larger views on Flickr
Common Liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha
Common Liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha
Pinner, September 2010

words

Word: Griffonage

Griffonage
Scribble. Illegible handwriting.


This is an affliction with which I have, according to my father, been blessed from the earliest age — my handwriting always did look like an arthritic spider had crawled out of the inkpot and it is still getting worse!
The derivation is from the French griffonage, griffonner, to write badly or scrawl. The OED records the first documented usage as 1832.

science

Oddity of the Week: Penis Shaving

At the end of 2009 … researchers at the University of California published a paper describing a method of shaving fruit-fly penises with a laser. Not only could they shave off the bristles, but they could even perform the task with such accuracy that only the top third of each bristle was trimmed.
From: William Hartston, The Things that Nobody Knows: 501 Mysteries of Life, the Universe and Everything