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.

National Beanpole Week

Saturday 13 to Sunday 21 April is National Beanpole Week. And yes, well may you ask!


First celebrated in 2008 and it is run by the Small Woods Association.  The event recognises Britain’s traditionally managed coppiced woodlands along with the wildlife and plants that also live in them. Did you know that Britain lost around 90% of its coppiced woodlands in the 20th century — so there is a real need to support the coppice workers who continue to manage the woodlands we have left.

Simply put coppicing is a way of managing shoots at a size they can be used by cutting them every 10-20 years.  The coppiced wood allows plants to grow in a way that makes them a much more eye-catching addition to a beautiful garden. Not to mention the attraction from butterflies, the endangered doormouse and other creatures like the willow warbler.

Woodlands looked after in this way are known for their fantastic floral smell.  A real treat for the nose and the eyes!

And those coppiced hazel cuttings make superb beanpoles.

There’s a bit more information on the SmallWoods website at .

RIP Mrs Thatcher

So Lady Thatcher has died. No real surprise as she had been in poor health (physically and mentally, I think) for some years.

No, I’m not going to write an obituary, there’ll be more than enough of those around over the coming hours and days. I just want to make a very brief observation.

Whether you liked Lady Thatcher or not (and I can see both why people would and wouldn’t like her) she certainly changed much of the landscape and culture of the country, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. I think when historians look back they could well find that the two most influential Prime Ministers during the second half of the 20th century were Mrs Thatcher and Harold Wilson (with Tony Blair some way behind in third).

RIP Margaret Thatcher.

More you may have missed

Another in our series of links to articles you may have missed and will wish you hadn’t. In no special order …

Do you, like me, suffer from earworms? Scientists think they’ve found some ways to get rid of them. Which is good ‘cos I’ve had Caravan in my head since before Christmas!

Someone has just discovered that breast milk is amazing stuff, and actually rather important. Well who would have guessed!

Now just how weird is the natural world? Very; especially when you find that fruit bats menstruate like women and have oral sex. A few years back researchers discovered that Australian fruit bats indulged in fellatio. Now apparently they have cunnilingus too. How cool is that?!

What would scientists do without big hospital scanners? They’re now using CT and MRI scans to look at diseases in ancient human remains. Here’s a summary of the findings on eight mummies.

Just to confirm even further that scientists are a strange bunch, here’s the low-down on a few experiments they’ve been running for a lifetime or more.

Did you see al those reports of the huge DDoS war on the internet? Yep, so did I. But was my internet affected? Nope. And neither probably was yours. Turns out that the whole thing was much over-hyped and largely a marketing con trick.

Why do people get upset by technical neologisms? We invent new things, so we have to invent new ways to be able to talk about them. And unlike the French we don’t regulate the language.

First it was the horsemeat scandal/fraud. Now it appears that the fish supply chain is fraudulent too — it appears too widespread to be accidental.

Once in a while you really do get something for nothing. Many of the big names in English Folk Music are coming together to create a single archive and making it available free online.

After around 400 years we have cranes nesting in England again.

So this week the BBC touted some researchers’ new British class calculator which was, I suppose, passingly amusing if only for it’s apparent erroneousness. The Heresy Corner does the demolition job.

Brad Warner, American zen teacher and punk rocker (who generally talks sense) has some brief comments on burqas, hijabs, niqabs and nudity. He admits it’s a bit unstructured so hopefully he’ll develop his ideas.

And finally, you can generally agree Scicurious is going to come up with something interesting. On Friday there was a dissertation on the conformation of male (human) balls and how this was reflected in the sculpture of the ancients. But no-one knows why the anatomy is the way it is, or why some of us don’t conform to the norm.

Oven Chips

We’ve not had a recipe for quite a while, so here’s the reult of tday’s experiment. And an excellent meal it was too …

Cold Roast Beef
Mixed Salad a la mode
Homemade Oven Chips

Why have I never thought of doing my own oven chips before? It is so dead easy and much better than deep frying (which we never do).


Homemade Oven Chips

Pre-heat the oven to about 220C.
Cut enough potatoes into chunky-sized chips and boil or steam them for 3 minutes or so. Drain them and allow to cool a little so they’re handleable.
In a ziplok bag or bowl put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and some freshly ground black pepper (optional). You can also add salt, herbs or garlic if you wish.
Toss the chips in the oil and transfer then to a baking sheet. Spread them out so they’re in a single layer, so use two baking sheets if needed.
Roast in the oven until done — about 25 minutes — turning them once.

It is so easy. And although they’re oiled at least you can control the quantity of oil and you’re using “better for you” olive oil. It is no worse than doing another of our staples, garlic roast potatoes.

I foresee this will become a regular addition to the repertoire.

Quote: Sperm

If sometimes you feel a little useless, offended or depressed, always remember that you were once the fastest and most victorious little sperm out of millions

Word: Crenellate

Crenellate

To furnish with battlements, embrasures or loopholes.

Hence crenellated, embattled.

May be spelled with either one or two ‘l’s.

From the French créneler.

International Pillow Fight Day

Contrary to my previous post about Tartan Day Scotland, International Pillow Fight Day, which is also on 6 April, seems to be purely about having a bit of fun.

Yes, that’s right, on Saturday 6 April, there will be massive pillow fights in cities around the world! There may be one near you there are happenings in cities across the globe from Amsterdam to Zaragoza!

All over the world, groups like [the Urban Playground Movement] organize free, fun, all ages, non-commercial public events. From a massive Mobile Clubbing event in a London train station to a giant pillow fight near the Eiffel Tower in Paris to a subway party beneath the streets of Toronto, it is clear that the urban playground is growing around the world, leaving more public and more social cities in its wake. This is the urban playground movement, a playful part of the larger public space movement.

One of our goals is to make these unique happenings in public space become a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing passive, non-social, branded consumption experiences like watching television, and consciously rejecting the blight on our cities caused by the endless creep of advertising into public space. The result, we hope, will be a global community of participants, not consumers, in a world where people are constantly organizing and attending these happenings in every major city in the world.

On Saturday April 6th we will once again celebrate World Pillow Fight Day with a massive pillow fight on [London’s] Trafalgar Square. It’s the most fun you can have on a city square and on this day, it happens in hundreds of cities around the world.

Because this is supposed to be fun the rules are kept to a minimum; there are just two: Don’t hit anyone with a camera and don’t hit anyone without a pillow.

What a shame that at the time of writing the only UK event listed is the one in London, but as usual there is up to date information on their website at .

Scotland's Tartan Day

Saturday 6 April marks Tartan Day Scotland and the start of the eponymous 10 day Festival. It is not so much a celebration of tartan but more a celebration of all things Scottish:

Tartan Day is a celebration of Scotland. Our vision is to see Scotland at the heart of a global Tartan Day celebration, bringing to the world’s attention our creativity, our innovation, our heritage, our business success — and our people.

Tartan Day marks the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 at Arbroath Abbey. This historical occasion sowed the seeds of modern day democracy and was used as a basis for the American Declaration of Independence. Tartan Day was inspired by this historical occasion to celebrate all that is good about Scotland — its people, its heritage, its history, its culture and its amazing legacy to the world.

The Tartan Day Scotland Festival takes place at the beginning of April each year. The Festival is a 10 day programme of very special events which commemorate all that is best about Scotland and the Scots, home and away. Find out more about why we celebrate Tartan Day, read about famous Scots and keep up-to-date on news stories from around the world.


Tartan Day is also celebrated in the USA, Canada and I suspect many other places where there are people with Scottish roots.

There’s a lot more information at www.tartandayscotland.com.