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.
ramblings

Laptop to Go

I may have spent a chunk of my working life project managing logistics projects, but global logistics still boggle my mind.
Recently I bought a new laptop. For various reasons, one being I wanted a slightly non-standard hardware configuration, I ordered direct from the manufacturer. In doing so I knew that the machine would be shipped direct to me from China, because like most things these days that’s where they’re manufactured.

UPS_767

When it was eventually despatched it was trusted to the care of UPS, and slightly to my astonishment (especially given the relative lack of protective packaging) it actually arrived in one piece. Thanks to the wonders of trackable packages I was able to watch the somewhat byzantine route the laptop took to get to me. It went like this (all times are local time):

Thursday (day 1); late evening Ready for collection from Hefei, China
Wednesday; evening Collected by UPS
(And they call this is expedited delivery!)
Thursday (day 8); very early morning Leaves Shanghai on route to …
Thursday; early morning Arrival at Incheon, South Korea
(Oh, its going east so will come via LA or JFK. Not a bit of it.)
Thursday midday Leave Incheon bound for …
Thursday, early morning I don’t believe it! … Almaty, Kazakhstan, where it eventually clears customs in mid afternoon
Thursday; early evening Departs Almay on its way to …
Thursday early evening Warsaw, Poland
Thursday; mid-evening And we’re away from Warsaw on the next leg to …
Thursday; late evening Cologne, Germany
Friday; not much after midnight Leaving Cologne bound for …
Friday; before dawn Stansted
(At last we’ve arrived in the UK, but, phew, we need a little rest now!)
Monday; before dawn Leaving Stansted going to …
Monday; 17 minutes after leaving Stansted Feltham, near Heathrow
(How in 17 minutes unless it’s on a helicopter?)
Monday; within minutes of arrival Leaving Feltham on the final leg to me
Monday; midday Finally delivered to my door!

That’s 12 elapsed days and countless thousands of miles in eight hops through some very unlikely places.
At each step along the way I was having a little guess as to where it would go next, and it’s safe to say I got every one wrong except the last stop in Feltham — and that only because I know it’s where my local UPS depot is!
I’m disappointed they didn’t manage to work in Kuala Lumpur, Osaka and Barcelona along the way!

photography

Weekly Photograph

This week’s photograph was taken some years ago at Lyme Regis. All along the seafront promenade there are these delightful lamp standards based on ammonites in recognition of the Jurassic Coast. They are unusual, well designed and a rather nice touch. Oh and they are almost always adorned with seagulls.

Click on the image for a larger view on Flickr
Lamp 2
Lamp 2 (with Seagull)
Lyme Regis; July 2006

quotes

Quotes

Another in our series of interesting, thought-provoking or humorous quotes recently encountered.
Look in the mirror and don’t be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival.
Stephen Jay Gould
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
Cecil Beaton
In a democracy it is necessary that people should learn to endure having their sentiments outraged.
Bertrand Russell in a letter to the Times, 1940
Selecting your foie gras is much easier if it has already been removed from its original owner.
Elisabeth Luard, The Old World Kitchen
So, Madonna has armpits. She also has products to sell. Let’s just get this out of the way. Even if that armpit picture was timed to coincide with the release of her new advert, even if that was the case — that is besides the point. The point is, why is it, that still, in 2014, despite woman’s hour and twitter and feminist pop songs, a woman with body hair will get so much attention? Whether that attention comes in the form of a snigger on the street or axe-grinders like me writing articles about it. Why does it remain one of the unshakable truths of the universe, that if a woman makes the choice not to shave what her mama gave her, the human race, capable of designing video games, and building really tall buildings, and writing love letters, starts hyperventilating and cursing and spitting at the sight of any hair below the eyebrows of a woman. What the hell is wrong with people?
Aisha Mirza; “We should celebrate Madonna’s hairy armpit selfie”; Independent; 21 March 2014
There are quite a lot of people who don’t wear make up. Mostly they’re called men.
Aisha Mirza; “We should celebrate Madonna’s hairy armpit selfie”; Independent; 21 March 2014
Do not be afraid to speak openly and confidently about naturism. Most people, even if surprised, settle down and are surprisingly OPEN. If you are confident, and represent naturism as the healthy normal and fun activity it is, they will resonate with the same openness. If you are tentative, shy, fearful, or appear embarrassed they will not accept naturism. It’s funny, because as a farmer and horse owner, I can tell you it is the same with your livestock. If you ride your horse with fear the horse is fearful and spooky. If you ride with confidence the horse learns to trust you and is confident in response to your cues.
youngnaturistsamerica.com/naked-advertising-northeast-naturist-festival/
Sometimes I’m terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants. The way it stops and starts.
Edgar Allan Poe
You have to define a pigeon before you can pigeon-hole it.
Prof Alice Roberts
The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
Jean-Paul Sartre
It is a common observation that creative people are often disrespectful of authority, unconventional and politically radical. That is because they are strategic and impertinent enough to think things out for themselves. They are independent thinkers.
Geoffrey Petty
The human body can remain nude and uncovered and preserve its splendour and its beauty.
Pope John Paul II
When the batteries in my vibrator die, I take the ones from our remote and put my dead ones in the remote.
From Postsecret
Remember that testicles, earlobes, labia, and eyelids are delicate. If you’re going to yank, bite, pull, or abuse any of these body parts with a fork, proceed with caution and talk about it first.
Stoya; “10 Mind Blowing Sex Tips” at thenewinquiry.com/features/10-mind-blowing-sex-tips/

words

Word: Pinniped

Pinniped
1. Belonging to the Pinnipedia, a suborder of carnivorous aquatic mammals that includes the seals, walruses and similar animals having fin-like flippers for locomotion.
2. A mammal of the suborder Pinnipedia.


Like many such scientific terms the word is derived from the Latin and was first used in 1842.

environment, food+drink, history, ramblings

Coming up in April

Interesting events an anniversaries in the month ahead.
1 April to 5 May
National Pet Month has been promoting responsible pet ownership and helping pet charities across the UK for the last 25 years. This year’s theme is Celebrating Our Pets and there events across the country. Find out more at www.nationalpetmonth.org.uk.
1 April
All Fools Day is widely recognized and celebrated in various countries as a day when people play practical jokes and hoaxes on each other. The earliest recorded association between 1 April and foolishness is an ambiguous reference in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
4 April
International Carrot Day. Who said Bugs Bunny was only a cartoon character? Find out more at www.carrotday.com.


5 April
American Indian Princess Pocahontas married John Rolfe on this day in 1614.
5 April
International Pillow Fight Day when there will be massive pillow fights in cities around the world. The events are organised under the umbrella of the Urban Playground Movement who organize free, fun, non-commercial public events. Again you can find more on their website at 2014.pillowfightday.com.
20 April
Easter Day. As well as being a major festival of the Christian church there will be traditional events (egg hunts, egg rolling, simnel cakes …) in many countries around the world.
22 April
Earth Day is an international project to encourage us all to do more to protect the planet and secure a sustainable future. This year the emphasis is on education an schools are being encouraged to join in. You’ll find lots of information over at www.earthday.org.
23 April to 21 June
British Asparagus Festival. The Vale of Evesham is the asparagus growing centre of the UK and each year they hold a 2 month-long festival during the asparagus season, starting with the first crop on St George’s Day. English asparagus is the best and has to be enjoyed during its short season, hence the festival. Find out more at www.britishasparagusfestival.org.
25 April
Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian pioneer of long-distance radio transmission was both on this day in 1874.
26 April
On this day in 1564 William Shakespeare is baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon.
28 April
On this day in 1789 the Mutiny on the Bounty is led by Fletcher Christian against Lieutenant William Bligh.

amusements, science

Oddity of the Week: Poronkusema

A contender for probably Feedback’s favourite-ever unusual unit arrives in an email from Mark Dowson, and it has the more unusual cachet of likely great antiquity. Apparently, reindeer are unable to walk and pee at the same time: they have to pause at set intervals of distance.
In Finnish, this interval is known as poronkusema or “reindeer’s piss” and was an old-fashioned description of rural distances. By Mark’s calculation, it is about 320 blue-whale-lengths.


This is a WikiFact, but it seems almost too nice to be true. So Feedback asked a friend — the Finnish journalist Heikki Jokinen. He confirms that it is used in Lapland and was delighted to be diverted from other work to discover its actual value, which is about 7.5 kilometres for a reindeer drawing a light sledge — and that it is important: reindeer eating lichen produce urine as strong as battery acid, he says, and they get sick if deprived of their comfort breaks.
From “Feedback”; New Scientist; 22 March 2014

links

Your Interesting Links

Another round-up of links to articles you may have missed.
First let us return again to the perennial question of Fukushima and the effects of the radiation. Screening of children in Fukushima has found a higher than expected incidence of thyroid problems, but the thinking is that this isn’t linked to the accident but a function of the increased screening: look harder, find more!
Known unknowns: a look at what we know we don’t know about the universe.
Another in the series of jobs you never wanted to do: Pig Semen Catcher
How the jungle fowl got to be the chicken.
So just why do big cats love Calvin Klein Obsession for Men
Long read on the disease that may or may not be Morgellons.
And next up a somewhat disturbing read about the menstrual myths of the Indian sub-continent.
From the icky to the slightly less icky: five things you didn’t know about earwax.
One of these days the medical profession will make up their minds about food. Now we’re being told that almost everything we’ve they’ve said about unhealthy foods is wrong.
However this is why dark chocolate is thought to be good for you. It’s all to do with microbes.
Changing flightpath completely, here’s an amazing video realisation of just one day of the flights over Europe. [Download required]
Combining transport and history, there’s a battle going on between English Heritage and archaeologists about approaches to looking at anything historic uncovered by HS2 rail link.
Cats again. New work on some ancient Egyptian kitten skeletons suggests cats were domesticated in Egypt much earlier than thought.
We all know they’re unruly, but here’s how medieval Europe tackled teenagers.


Just north of Heathrow Airport there’s a massive medieval barn, the “Middlesex Cathedral”. Here are the days it’s open to the public this summer.
And finally I’ll leave you with a selection of absolutely pointlessly gendered products. Their excuse is what?

personal, photography

Weekly Photograph

1 Comment

This weeks photo is of our friends John and Midori, who we met for lunch when they were passing through London last week. They are on one of their rare visits to this country to see John’s family. John, originally from Norwich, has been teaching English at universities in Japan for around 30 years; he was one of the founder members of the Anthony Powell Society. John is also a world expert on the traditional music of Okinawa — he blogs at The Power of Okinawa — so when he semi-retired a few years ago it was natural that they moved to Okinawa, the semi-tropical Ryukyu Islands at the very southern extremity of Japan. They were living in Kobe at the time of the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995.

Click the image for a larger view

John & Midori
London; March 2014