Everything is imprinted for everwith what it once was.
[Jeanette Winterson]
All posts by Keith
What is Your Dangerous Idea?
Steve Mirsky has written an interesting column in the”Antigravity” series in September issue of Scientific American. It talks about a book with the title What is Your Dangerous Idea? edited by John Brockman in which scientists and intellectuals pose what they consider to be dangerous (mostly intellectual) ideas.
Some of the ideas quoted in the article include:
The planet is fine. The people are f*^#ed … the planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.
The idea that we should all share our most dangerous ideas.
Test the hypothesis first posited as a child that a red towel tied around the neck will indeed confer the ability to fly.
Mirsky ends with
Bertrand Russell’s truly treacherous notion: “I wish to propose … a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe in a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it true.” The danger of ignoring this doctrine can almost certainly be found in the politics or world events stories on the front page of today’s New York Times. On whatever day you read this.
You can find the full article here.
So what is your dangerous idea? Add a comment to tell us! If nothing else it’s a fun game!
Oh, what, mine? Well let’s start with: Ban the motor car and the aeroplane!
Quote: God and Reason
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
[Galileo Galilei]
Abominable Menu – Additions
Café Zen is has added some further dishes to its much acclaimed Abominable Menu:
Quick Snack: Transylvanian Omelette
Starter: Wasp Risotto
Main Course: Grub in the Hole
Sweet: Toffee Rat on a Stick
Zen Mischievous Moments #133
Today’s Daily Telegraph reports on Clive James interviewing himself at the Edinburgh International Books Festival. The article includes:
Did we know, he asked, that by decree, no rank below Major could wear make-up in the Romanian army during the war – a gem first divulged to him, incidentally, by Anthony Powell.
Full article here.
[With thanks to Julian Allason]
Zen Mischievous Moments #132
From “Feedback” in New Scientist, 04 August 2007
Calendar chaos
[X] was, sitting at his computer, when the calendar window of his Microsoft Outlook office program started scrolling uncontrollably back through time. He watched, helpless, as it zoomed back through two world wars, past the Great Reform Act of 1832, the French revolution and American independence – stopping only in the 1760s when, he guesses, a frantic IT worker somewhere in the bowels of the famous London building he works in must have fixed the network glitch.
Naturally, [X] was intrigued to see how far back in time he could personally make Outlook’s calendar go. Trying to view even earlier dates, he got stuck at All Fool’s day 1601. Putting this into a famous web search engine revealed no special event in history that day. It did, however, provide a link to a “rather weird” website devoted to the work of a genealogist named John Mayer at www.arapacana.com/glossary/mb_mn.html. This notes that “Outlook provides a series of perpetual calendars covering something less than 2898 years, from 1 April 1603 to 29 August 4500,” but that users can manually scroll back to 1601.
Feedback’s further searches suggest that 1 April 1601 was declared the beginning of time by the authors of the COBOL computer-programming language …
Oh and for the geeks amongst you, Outlook 2003 will also let you schedule meetings during the missing days, 3-13 September 1752, when British Empire changed to the Gregorian Calendar.
One is left with just one question: Why?
Doctoring the Toilet
Spotted this notice in the toilet at my doctor’s surgery the other day. How to murder the language! Well it amused me!
Zen Mischievous Moments #131
Giraffe’s necks and Golden Gate Bridge
[It seems] an appropriate moment to introduce readers to the unusual unit converter discovered … at http://www.weirdconverter.com/. This enables you to convert from one unusual unit to another. Sadly, in the “weight” section “male polar bear” is listed, but there is no baby elephant, only a fully grown one. Even so, you may be interested to know that one African elephant equals 12.24790343434 polar bears. There is also a “length/height” section which reveals, for instance, that one Golden Gate Bridge equals 720 giraffe’s necks.
[New Scientist; 28/07/2007]
Recipe: Pasta with Antipasto
Today’s evening meal made up as I went along from a vague idea!
For 2 hungry persons or 4 with a small appetite you will need:
- enough Pasta (any variety, preferably fresh)
- 2x 200gm tubs of Antipasto and/or Roast Peppers in marinade (or equivalent; you can even do your own!)
- 1 medium onion, preferably red, thickly sliced
- enough garlic, thickly sliced
- 4 tomatoes, quartered
- 6 medium button mushrooms, thickly sliced
- 10-12 black olives
- a handful of pine nuts
- some basil leaves
- olive oil
- Parmesan cheese
- Put the pasta on to cook. When cooked, drain and keep warm.
- When the pasta is almost done, fry the onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent and just starting to caramelise.
- Add the tomatoes, stir for a minute or so then add the mushrooms and olives.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes, and add the tubs of antipasto with their marinade/oil . Cook for a further 2-3 minutes until everything is hot through.
- Add the basil leaves and pine nuts. Stir.
- Add the pasta and mix all together for a minute or two ensuring the pasta is well covered in the flavourful oil and vegetables.
- Serve with the Parmesan cheese and a robust red wine.
Yes, it was rib-sticking and yummy!
Excessive DUST?!
Absolutely brilliant — so much so it is stretching my credulity neurons.
As @j-sin syas: I’ve lived in the UK long enough to know that this is the only country where “leaves on the track” stop our trains but this seemed a new level of sillyness. Was the dust “high in fat or low in fat” I wonder?