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.
amusements

Auction Amusements (Part 2 of 2)

In this part of the latest amusements from our local auction house we return to the more usual eccentricities of strange objects for sale, things you wouldn’t want to share a house with (and a few you would), and peculiar juxtapositions to make a lot.

An interesting lot including a pair of cut-throat razors in original leather-covered case stamped Fielder & Son, Southsea, a boxwood and brass-folding rule by L.H. Turtle Ltd., Toolmakers, Croydon, an old fishing reel by A. Carter & Co., South Molton, a table lighter fashioned as a world globe and a small embossed brass sign advising poachers that they shall be shot on sight and if practicable questioned afterwards, and a Bakelite ashtray and playing card box.

A set of sugar nips styled as a spur, a silver stamp box, Birmingham 1874, the lid incorporating a One Penny Magenta stamp and a silver caddy spoon, Glasgow 1930, embossed with Old Mother Hubbard.

A collection of martial art show display weaponry including axes, a pair chrome Sai’s, fantasy display weaponry, a papier mache wall face mask etc.

A metal statue of Lenin, a Wedgwood Peter Rabbit child’s breakfast bowl and wooden auctioneers gavel

A square tile by Gofer Israel and a smaller rectangular tile by the same artist

A promotional plastic life-size model of a London telephone box

A Victorian skeleton mantel timepiece in brass, with passing strike on a bell, ebonised base, 15 in high overall

An old roe deer head with impressive antlers

A bronze after Edwin Scharff, of a man on a swordfish, numbered 561/600, weathered dark brown patination, on wood base, 9.5 in high

Contemporary art: a Murano glass sculpture by Berengo, as a block of clear glass enclosing a gold leaf face, 32 cm high

A Steiff white label mohair teddy bear ‘Black Jack’, 26 cm, with box

amusements

Auction Amusements (Part 1 of 2)

Well what can one say? There’s a simply incredible sale this week at our local auction house. The star attarctions (spread over 7 lots) seem to be …

The stock from a retired hardware dealer including …

… large quantities of National Abrasives steel wool, Mykal Pet Clean 3-in-1, Mangers Humidifier Replacement Wicks, National Abrasives yellow oxide, Mirka Sanding Discs, Orbital Sanding sheets, minirolls for hand and power sanding, ultra-tape, Thread seal tape, Rustin’s steel wool, Everbuild’s Forever White Mould Shield, Stixall Extreme Power paste, wood fillers, MP Woodfiller Light Lights, dual purpose metal sealing discs for Kilner jars, Mammoth tapes including electrical tapes and plumbing tapes, etc., Everflex external frame sealants, Everbuild Coving and joint fillers, and One-Hour chalk whites.

… large quantities of unused Prostar Impact Masonry Drill, HSS Jobber drill parts, a laminate cutter, ground spreaders, locks and door fittings, garden hook set, watch straps, screw-drivers, tile files, plug sockets, bradawls, hammers, Stanley knives, brush ends, cutters, goggles, tape measures, clamps, floorboard chisels, chisels, spanners, hacksaw blades, monkey wrenches, wire brushes, trowels, hasp and staples, plasterer’s hawks, silicone dispensers.

… three Hyatt Money Note Checkers, a Jumbo Calculator, roller cleaners, wood working planes, a nine-piece German style knife set, Beat a burst The Plumber in the Toolbox tool, a box of Pop Rivet tool CK2, wood bits, chair webbing, smoke alarm, some die cast models of days gone by, etc.

… a quantity of balls of strings, stockinette polishing and wiping cloth, brackets, hard hats, sponges, roller frames, paint brushes, window locks, Rapid epoxy syringes, Timber OBO timber connectors, barrel bolts, staples, fasteners, blades, Westco mini oil canisters, waste plugs, rod sockets, scissors, line pin sets, etc.

… Bright Power pocket torches, Basta ‘The neat bright lights’, door numbers, hinges, cupboard catches, Legg cylinder night latch and other door locks, Regalead self adhesive window lead, Homelux adhesive bonder, electric Wolf switches, wooden doorknobs, gardening gloves, working gloves, steel wool, masking tape, builder’s polythene sheeting, letterbox, draft excluders, etc.

… spare shelf locator packs, self-adhesive lead strip by Decra-Led, Regalead self-adhesive window lead, Mammoth Powerful double sided tape, Ultratape waterproof tape, Mr Cozy self-stick draft excluder, Quick Grip draft excluder, weather strips, Sylglas Aluminium waterproofing tape, 502 Wood adhesive, Everbuild: Mitre Fast, PVC Cream cleaner, Multispray, Instant nails, Wonder wipes, Moss & Mould remover, Extreme frame sealant, Sugar soap powder, Paint and Varnish stripper, Blackjack waterproof protection everlasting tape, All-Purpose Powder filler; gas tape, HG window cleaner, Forever White mould protector, Holt’s De-Icer, Rustin’s Linseed oil, Everflex 125 one-hour Caulk, 151 Wallpaper stripper, Mammoth gaffer tape, silicone fusing repair tape, One Strike filler, tile-edge trim, drawer draft excluders, brass door stops, etc.

… 7 mm drill screws, cantilever shelf brackets, keys, door hooks, light fittings, rechargeable batteries, bulbs, cable locks, masking tape, Everbuild: Wood adhesive, Roof and Gutter sealant, Silicon spray, Instant Nails, Damp & Mould Remover, Sugar Soap Liquid Spray, Premium Excellerator & Frost Proofer; Rustin’s Strypit, graffiti remover, all-weather tape, Rustin’s Danish oil, Pink grip by Everbuild, Polycell polyfiller, 502 Wood adhesive, English Abrasive Supersander, brown plugs, lots of different paints including Dulux Trade Undercoat, Norver Exterior Masonry Paint and Rustin’s Step & Tile Paint, Dulux Trade Satinwood, Dulux Trade Eggshell finish, tile adhesives by Everbuild and Homecare, Rustin’s Brilliant White Gloss.

And there’s more in Part 2 >>>>>>>>

personal

Unblogged October

Fri 1 Every week, by Friday teatime, I’m convinced it’s Saturday. Every week!
Sat 2 Writing a monthly update for my GP’s patient group usually takes under 2 hours. But today … it took me over 4 hours because there was just so much healthcare news to be included.
Sun 3 We had a 3 or 4 large radish plants still growing scruffily. I pulled them out today and one was a decent sized mooli. The others had some pretty little pink flowers but no radishes.
Mon 4 Especially for N on her (big) birthday, we went to the dentist for a check-up. She has to go back in 6 weeks time for some work; I got away with being nagged.
Tue 5 Somehow this was just a non-day. Been on zombie auto-pilot all day. Nothing happened. And I don’t feel I achieved anything. This is not good for the depression.
Wed 6 Somehow we seem to have spent very little money in the last month – at least as far as discretionary spend goes. So we’re solvent again this month!
Thu 7 Spent too much of the day playing around with photo carousels and sliders for websites. And writing blog posts. Oh, and it’s Thursday not Friday!
Fri 8 Draconid Meteor Shower tonight. Not a chance. Yet again complete cloud cover. It’s all a piece with the day.
Sat 9 While photographing the tree outside our house a lady came along and stopped to talk, saying how lovely the tree was.

What a breath of fresh light – we saw, we appreciated, and we shared some joy. So whoever you were, lady, thank you!
Sun 10 Our resident wood pigeon is making short work of all the rose hips at the top of the silver birch. Soon there won’t be any left to feed the goldfinches over the winter.
Mon 11 Nothing achieved, except too much chocolate eaten. Cadbury’s new DarkMilk is good, as is their Bournville Chocotoff.
Tue 12 My mother would have been 106 today. Sad that she got to only 99. Still very much missed.
Wed 13 Invited today for my Covid Booster jab – 6 months to the day after my second jab.
Thu 14 Why is it that people can’t understand why GPs’ surgeries work the way they do? Doctors are employers who have a legal health & safety responsibility for their staff, as well as their patients and themselves. And the receptionists are not there to be obstructive, nosey dragons, but to help.
Fri 15 Gave up on the day in early evening. I’d had enough of being bombarded on all sides by demands for things outside my control. Remember: Don’t shoot the messenger!
Sat 16 We both to the local pharmacy for Covid booster jabs this morning. Although a minority, sad at the number in the pharmacy not (properly) wearing masks.
Sun 17 N spotted another clump of huge fungi growing down near the pond and sent me to look. They’re each 20cm across and look like bracket fungi but aren’t: they’re growing in the ground and have gills. White to milk-chocolate brown wth darker brown gills. No idea what they are.
Mon 18 I’ve had a batch of 16th to 18th century wills transcribed and spent a couple of hours looking at the family history info therein. Nothing exciting but they have confirmed much of what I already knew – which is always useful.
Tue 19 I wake at 08:00. The next thing I know it’s 11:00. What happened there?
Wed 20 A joyful morning herding cats. Find all three; one by one round them up and catch them; stuff them in their carriers … and take them to the V.E.T for their overdue annual check-ups and jabs. Return with a large hole in the credit card balance.
Thu 21 Interesting London Historians talk (on Zoom) on the way the nations art treasures were protected during WWII.
Fri 22 Awoke early to a lovely (just past full) silvery moonlit morning, followed by pastel peach-coloured sunrise.
Sat 23 Auditing the wine stock, discovered we gad a bottle of gin which had somehow (I honestly know not how) got out of the store without having its security tag removed. No it wasn’t shoplifted! But how to get the tag off?
Sun 24 At lunchtime a red kite gliding effortlessly around, not taking too much notice of the crow mobbing it.
Mon 25 Oh dear, what has the world come to? Slumming it with fishfingers, chips and beans for tea!
Tue 26 Doing the supermarket order today it feels as if overall prices have risen at least 20% since March 2020. However a quick check back suggests this probably isn’t so and the rises are no more than 5%.
Wed 27 Lots done today, partly as I was up betimes and my morning meeting got moved to next week. Also took delivery of a pre-Christmas top-up for the wine cellar; just need more Champagne now!
Thu 28 Got up this morning to find a pair of geezers digging a hole right outside our front gate. Then remembered the water company are going round installing meters. By midday the hole was covered with a temporary coloured (plastic?) plate; I wonder how long before the hole is filled properly?
Fri 29 01:15hrs. Why does next door’s security light come on? Oh, good evening Mr Reynard, trotting gaily down the street.
Sat 30 Chaired the Anthony Powell Society AGM over Zoom to allow the officers to concentrate on the business rather than the technology. Glad to say it went well. Moral: Perfect Planning Prevents Pathetic Performance.
Sun 31 Finally managed to break into the security tag on that gin bottle (see above) – at least enough to be able to decant the contents. But it required the attentions of my Dremel “mini-angle-grinder”!
environment, science

Grasslands

There’s an interesting comment piece in the current issue of New Scientist, which highlights the importance of grasslands as an important contributor to combating global warming. This is something I’d not fully considered before.

As usual the TL;DR summary quotes (especially as New Scientist is paywalled).

Permanent grasslands hold about a third of Earth’s terrestrial carbon … More grasslands, and especially more biodiverse ones, means more natural carbon storage.
. . .
The past 100 years has seen this terrain destroyed on a terrifying scale. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the UK alone has lost at least 97 per cent of its meadows. Tall grass prairie in the US once covered 170 million acres, less than 4 per cent of which survives.
. . .
Grasslands are seen as empty spaces. They are there to be ploughed and sown and built on. T heir destruction isn’t met with the same angst as deforestation.
. . .
While we are all familiar with the idea of forests as Earth’s “lungs”, reforestation isn’t the sole or simple solution to the problems we face
. . .
Even small mown and grazed meadows contain a greater diversity of flora and fauna than equivalent areas of forest … At either extreme of grassland management – mown short or left long – there are species that thrive.
. . .
Grasslands can provide an ideal environment for us to enjoy as places to eat, work and play in nature, while also providing the essential functions of carbon sequestration and oxygen-releasing photosynthesis.

Think on …

environment, history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

Welcome to another action packed edition of our monthly collection of links to items you may have missed the first time around.

Science, Technology, Natural World

On the uselessness of useful knowledge – or how AI is developing.

Do you have an inner voice that chatters away to you? Most people do in some form, but some don’t and some have bizarre inner voices.

So just why is 42 the answer to everything? [£££] [LONG]

And why is it that some organisms throw away large amounts of DNA during early development? [LONG]

It appears that our modern domestic horses originated in southwest Russia.

Recent years have produced a deluge of dinosaur fossils in China, and they’re totally changing the dinosaur history. Like T. rex with feathers?! [£££]

If that worried you, then go hide now. Because jumping spiders’ remarkable senses capture a world beyond our perception.

Health, Medicine

MessangerRNA is behind some of the very successful Covid-19 vaccines, but it is also now beginning to transform the way we treat many illnesses. [£££]

Sexuality

Yet more on the forbidden erotica of ancient Pompeii. [VIDEO]

And now for three items on the (hopefully normalisation and) liberation of female genitalia …
Labia liberation!, the movement to end vulva anxiety. [LONG]
Viva la vulva, ignorance about the basic biology is shockingly high. [LONG]
An interview with Jamie McCartney, creator of The Great Wall of Vagina.

Environment

We’re running out of fish shit, and it matters. [£££]

We’re also running out of species, as apparently almost half Britain’s biodiversity has gone in the last couple of hundred years.

Forty Hall in north London has been chosen as a site for a beaver release project.

Meanwhile it is important we learn to live with, if not love, our house guests.

It seems that volcanic ash and lava enriches the oceans far faster than it does land.

The Campaign for Better Transport has called for a ban on domestic flights and subsidy for rail travel.

One photographer has made it her mission to photograph the plastic in our seas.

Art, Literature, Language

On the origins and setting of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Some Chileans are living on top of a hoard of some of the earliest known mummies.

Archaeologists have uncovered a remarkably rare, painted Roman amphitheatre at Richborough in Kent.

It s now well established that the Vikings got to America almost 500 years before Columbus, with their Newfoundland site now firmly dated to 1021AD.

On the development of the medieval Westminster Abbey. [LONG]

Staying with ecclesiastical sites, archaeologists have discovered the unexpected site of the tannery at Fountains Abbey.

On menstruation and how men developed a horror for it in the middle ages.

And so, coming up to Halloween, three items on witchcraft …
First a look at how the historic witches are beginning to receive justice.
Secondly a Twitter thread about witch bottles.
And thirdly on the long and underappreciated history of male witches

London

London’s Underground system had a very early spiral escalator; unfortunately it seems never to have fully commissioned and working.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Here’s a recently released, but old, interview with our favourite Zen Master, Brad Warner.

The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan cares for its happiness more than for its GDP.

quotes

Monthly Quotes

Here’s this month’s bumber collection of quotes …

When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.
[Isaac Asimov]

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
[Samuel Johnson, 1775]

Words … I know exactly what words I’m wanting to say, but somehow or other they is always getting squiff-squiddled around.
[Roald Dahl]

Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it … or because is it traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But, whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings–that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.
[Buddha]

I think we all do have a guardian angel. I believe they work through us all the time, when we are thoughtful and good and kind to each other.
[Roma Downey]

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed.
[Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957]

Hendrix is like Beethoven, Vivaldi is more Des O’Connor
[Nigel Kennedy]

The National Gallery’s autumn exhibition, Poussin and the Dance, opens next week. The central work in the show, the maypole if you like, is Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time (c.1634), which has been lent by the Wallace Collection. You know the one. The beautiful, wistful painting that opens Anthony Powell’s great novel cycle A Dance to the Music of Time … This isn’t a daring show, this isn’t a ground-breaking show, but it is a show to make you wistful. Poussin’s pictures are celebrations of youth and music, wine and sun and the sheer pleasure of sandals kicked off before dancing till dawn.
[Laura Freeman writing about the National Gallery’s Poussin exhibition (Poussin and the Dance, 9 October to 2 January 2022; Times; 01/10/2021)]

You spend your whole career telling people not to blame the positions of the planets for problems in their personal lives and then you almost get hit by a car because Jupiter and Saturn are so pretty tonight.
[Katie Mack on Twitter]

Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France is a total masterpiece. I will never get over it. I don’t think there is a better written work that is also wrong about everything.
[Joseph Rezek on Twitter]

What the pandemic’s shown, particularly if you’ve got children, is you don’t want to be living in a flat doing home schooling. What people need – what families need – are homes with gardens. They need big rooms.
[Jackie Sadek, Expert in Urban Regeneration]

I never married because there was no need. I have three pets at home which answer the same purpose as a husband. I have a dog that growls every morning, a parrot that swears all afternoon, and a cat that comes home late at night.
[Marie Corelli, Novelist (1855-1924)]

The expression “call a spade a spade” comes from the work of Plutarch, who originally wrote “call a fig a fig”. Fig was crude slang for the vulva, so “call a c**t a c**t” is closer.
[Whores of Yore on Twitter]

[Biodiversity] is the engine that produces everything that we consume. You can think of it like a wild supermarket that provides us with food and other gifts without us doing anything. The fact that we have several different varieties of apples, tomatoes and other foods is down to biodiversity – and when it is diminished we lose out.
[Professor Andy Purvis, Natural History Museum]

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new sights, but in looking with new eyes.
[Marcel Proust]

Once the realisation is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.
[Rilke]

Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brindled cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls …
[Gerard Manley Hopkins]

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day and allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

The last thing the African continent needs is a failed British politician. This isn’t the 19th Century.
[Nick Dearden, Director of Global Justice Now, 16/10/2021]

There are very few things good about being an adult, but fancying chips for breakfast and so having chips for breakfast is certainly one.
[@NickMotown on Twitter]

Always remember that the most important thing is to live life in the present moment, and that happiness is not a by-product of external factors, but the result of positively conditioning your mind. Happiness is at the grasp of everyone.
[Khedrupchen Rinpoche]

current affairs, environment

Just-in-Time

How many times have you seen a gap on a supermarket shelf, and on enquiring been told some variant of “Oh, it should have been on last night’s delivery, but wasn’t”? I know I’ve had this any number of times. Yet another failure of Just-in-Time delivery.

While this may be excusable when the product is perishable, like fresh fruit and veg, it really isn’t good enough for sanitary towels, drugs for the hospital, or parts for the factory down the road.

Just-in-Time delivery was a product of Toyota in 1950s Japan, and has taken over worldwide supply chain logistics since it hit the west in the 1980s.

Effectively every sector has seen it as a way of reducing cost: no idle stock overheads; no warehouses to be paid for; no warehouse staff to employ. And who can blame them when shareholders want ever more profit and managers need ever fewer overheads.

But as Kim Moody outlines in this Guardian article, there’s a problem. All too often it is Just-not-in-Time. Because the supply chain is now so incredibly complex and lengthy that any slight hiccup has a dramatic domino effect. And there is no safety margin in the way of warehoused stock.

A relatively small (in the overall scheme of things) hiccup can be enough to tip the balance. An unexpected exponential rise in natural gas prices. A large ship wedged sideways in the Suez Canal. A volcano erupting and disrupting aviation flight paths. And that’s without mega-disruptions like a pandemic, or own goals like Brexit.

Without every cog of the global supply chain working like well oiled clockwork, Just-in-Time isn’t. In today’s world logistics managers, and their downstream clients, work on the basis that the supply chain is working properly. They have no choice when the whole system is geared this way and they have no access to resources to provide contingency.

But, again as Moody points out, the contingency comes at a price – a price which is passed on to the end consumer. And as consumers we have gotten too used to ever cheaper everything, and fail to understand when prices rise. Joe Public doesn’t understand (or care about) economics; he cares about only his wallet and having strawberries all year round. Nor does he understand how this drive for ever faster capitalism is driving climate change.

We need to slow down. And we need to adjust the supply chains as well as our consumerism. We need to stop shipping stuff halfway round the world when we have the same product at home or very close by. Think: New Zealand lamb; Chilean wine; Peruvian asparagus – the examples are endless just in the supermarket. [On which note, well done to Waitrose for committing that all their own brand meat is British and for continuing to win awards for animal welfare.]

I end with Moody’s parting comment:

Now is the time to think about not just how we make and consume things, but also how we move them.

environment, ramblings

Gleditsia

In 2014 we funded the council to plant a street tree outside our house. They planted a small Gleditsia sp. – a honey locust. They’re lovely trees with vibrant green leaves from May to October. And, although they’re not native to the UK, they’re good street trees as they’re ornamental and attractive but without casting deep shade. After a slow-ish start, in the last couple of years it has taken off – I reckon it’s grown around 3 feet this summer alone.

Being autumn it is now turning a glorious yellow – although I doubt it is going to go the deep gold it has in the last two autumns. On Saturday I took advantage of the sun and went out to photograph it. Here it is, a street tree in all it’s glory in its suburban setting.

Street Gleditsia
[The image is made up of eight separate photographs which have been montaged together,
a technique picked up years ago from the work of David Hockney.]

Like all trees, street trees are incredibly important; they help reduce the temperature on hot streets, control water run-off, absorb CO2 and enhance our mental health. So we need more as a part of expanding tree cover to combat climate change. Sadly, though, in many areas they’re increasingly under threat. Which is why we did our small part in funding an extra tree. And, more generally, why we’ve crammed as many trees as we sensibly can into our suburban garden.

I’m sure most of our neighbours don’t care about trees if they even notice them. Some people and organisations are positively anti-tree, seeing them having no purpose, creating a nuisance, and threatening the foundations of their houses. (This latter is, of course, true if they’re planted in the wrong place.)

Fortunately not everyone feels this way and there is a growing realisation of the importance of street trees – indeed all trees. As Spaceship Earth say:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The second best time is now.