We’ve noticed that recently delicatessens and like establishments are proudly proclaiming availability of “hand-raised pork pies”. Although we’ve not yet definitively identified the establishment promoting this development, the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association are chief suspects. But whoever is responsible we are delighted that there is a movement to conserve the wild pork pie population.
All posts by Keith
Quotes : On Intelligence
Another in our occasional series of apposite aphorisms.
The time it would take a gang of geriatric virgins [the Roman Catholic hierarchy] to understand and define marriage is longer than the projected lifespan of the universe. It would be a shock if they did have anything coherent to say on the subject after only 2000 years of uninformed speculation from their armchairs.
[WoollyMindedLiberal in a comment on Heresy Corner]
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
[F Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up]
There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence.
[Henry Adams]
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
[Henrik Tikkanen]
I’m designed intelligently? As far as I can see, I was designed by an idiot. My parts are neither interchangeable nor replaceable. I could use a new ankle right now, and almost everything I do injures my back. Some of my internal organs are useless, and can even kill me. My risk calculation engine is useless. I am afraid to eat beef, but have no problem catapulting myself down tree-lined roads on my motorcycle. My judgement is so bad I can be convinced to send my life savings to a complete stranger with just one phone call. The final stake in the heart of intelligent design is that there are people we might otherwise consider intelligent, who, in the face of all this, maintain we are functioning as intended.
[Eric Dietiker]
Parakeets
Now we have nice warm Spring weather I spent some time today sitting quietly on the patio photographing the parakeets on the seed feeder some 10-15 meters away.
Out of around 300 shots (couldn’t have done that back in the days of film!) I got a dozen which, after cropping and some light post-processing, were anything like decent. Here are a couple …
| ‘Ere, was that your camera I heard?” | Oi, haven’t you finished yet?! |
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Click the images for the larger Flickr versions
They are very tricky subjects! Not only are the birds themselves constantly moving but the seed feeder is swinging back and forth; and they were in dappled shade ā even with the camera on a tripod too many shots were still blurred. I had my big 80-300 zoom lens at full stretch and have still had to heavily crop the frames.
And there are more shots on my Flickr photostream.
A certain truth …
There is indeed a certain amount of truth in today’s XKCD cartoon!
Click the image for a larger version
And here’s an interesting thing. How is it that one can find a stick figure, which is female only from the length of the hair, sexy? I don’t know. None of the other characters in XKCD cartoons do this to me, but that’s how I react to Megan! It is something visual and not related to the language/words. Very weird. Must say something awfully odd/worrying about me. But then you knew I was deranged. š
The Gallery : Extreme Close Up
This weeks subject over at The Gallery is Extreme Close Up.
Hmmm … this is something I always try and I’m not always very successful at although my little point and shoot Panasonic Lumix TZ18 is especially good at very close range — much better than my big Olympus E620 dSLR! So I took a few close ups specially for this week’s challenge. Here are just two.
Click the images for larger versions
The first is fresh Waitrose French baton. And the second is a nylon strap on a cool bag.
Why not visit The Gallery to see what other people have come up with?
Did you miss … ?
Links to a few recently discovered (by me) items you may have missed.
First off scientists think it likely that redheads feel more pain than people with dark hair. Contrary to the implication of the headline this is not yet proven.
From which there is a logical progression to marriage — well sort of logical anyway. Betty Herbert rails against the arguments over same-sex marriage.
And in turn that brings us nicely to several catty articles. Yes, there seem to have been a little burst of cat-related items in the last week …
We thought we knew how cats survive falls from heights, but it seems they’re even more resilient than we thought.
In another piece of research it has been found that most animals don’t like our music. So what music do pets prefer? For cats it seems to be high pitched with a fast tempo, just like they are.
And if that isn’t bad enough, there is the suggestion that your cat is sending you mad, well crazy anyway. It sounds far-fetched, but it may not be, and it could explain a whole lot.
Lastly for this week here’s an absolutely stunning photo of Aoga-shima, a tiny volcanic island in the Japanese Izu Islands, south of Tokyo. There’s some information here and the inevitable short Wikipedia page. But it’s that aerial photo which is really stunning — you need to see it as large as possible!
Reasons to be Grateful: 19
Experiment, week 19. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.
- Orchids. Yesterday I got my first ever orchid flower! About a year ago my mother gave me an orchid plant which had finished flowering to see if I could get it to flower again. It’s been sitting on our bedroom windowsill, receiving no special attention, all that time and has just come back into flower. This is the first flower and there are another 7 or 8 buds on this one flower spike. I never thought I would have my very own flowering orchid.
- Friends who give you a lift home at 11PM. Last evening we went to a performance of Bach’s St John Passion at Ealing Abbey with our friends Sue & Ziggy. Sam (S&Z’s eldest; just a teenager) was singing in the choir. Afterwards we went back to S&Z’s for a drink. And Ziggy volunteered to run us home at something gone 11PM. He didn’t have to; we were quite happy to get a taxi. But he insisted. Thanks, Ziggy! Much appreciated.
- Local Auctions. Last Thursday our local auction house, Bainbridge’s at West Ruislip, had their roughly monthly sale. We keep saying we must go to a viewing and this week we managed it. As I’ve blogged so often before, their sales contain some gloriously incongruous toot as well as some very nice pieces. Sadly not a lot of silver this time. But there were two decorative halberds. We nearly went to the sale to bid on them. But common sense got the better of us. I mean where do you put two 10 feet (3 metre) long halberds in a 1930 terraced house? The viewing was a fun hour or so though.
- Sunshine. I know! I know! I keep saying “sunshine”. But we’ve had such a lovely sunny week; all the buds are beginning to break; the Spring flowers are out; the birds are singing and it is definitely warmer. It really does feel like Spring. And the forecast for the next week is more of the same. We do need some rain though!
- Thetford Forest. On Friday we went to Norwich to see my agéd mother, as we do every few weeks. I always love driving through Thetford Forest and Elveden. I love the pine forest; there’s always something interesting to see. As usual there were plenty of muntjac grazing just off the main road; and a couple of hares loping across a field. As well as the ubiquitous pheasants and rabbits. In the afternoon we sat with my mother in the garden of the care home where there were loads of primroses in the lawn and the only sound was of birdsong!
Something for a Spring Weekend
Just in case anyone was in doubt that Spring is here … a couple of Primula spp. photographed yesterday growing in the lawn of my mother’s care home.
The first is probably a genuine wild primrose, Primula vulgaris, pin-eyed variety.
This second is definitely a cultivated variety or hybrid of some form.
Click the images for larger views.
Give Us this Day Our Daily Conundrum
If, as according to some Christians, alcohol is so bad,
why did Jesus turn water into wine?
Buggered Britain 4
Another in my occasional series documenting some of the underbelly of Britain. Britain which we wouldn’t like visitors to see and which we wish wasn’t there. The trash, abused, decaying, destitute and otherwise buggered parts of our environment. Those parts which symbolise the current economic malaise; parts which, were the country flourishing, wouldn’t be there, would be better cared for, or made less inconvenient.
Click the image for a larger view
The country is in a pretty poor shape when even the pawnbrokers can’t stay in business! But then I’ve seen quite a few dodgy businesses come and go at these premises over the years.
This is by the Petts Hill bridge, near Northolt Park Station.