environment, links, ramblings

Coming up in November

Here’s my selection of events, celebrations and customs that are happening during November.
[Reminder: These listings contain an eclectic mix of anniversaries, historical events, red letter days and upcoming “awareness events”, mostly UK-centric. My rules for the inclusion of awareness events are that they must not be medical, nor aimed specifically at children, nor too obviously purely commercial; and they must have a useful website.]
1 to 30 November
National Novel Writing Month. Can you write a novel in a month? That’s the challenge for all the budding authors out there. The idea is to write your 50,000 words in just thirty days. More information, hints, tips and events over at http://nanowrimo.org/.
1 November
London (Regent Street) Veteran Car Concours. If you’re in central London on this day you’ll find many of the cars taking part in the London-Brighton Veteran Car Run on display in Regent Street. And some may even be limbering up around the West End. So take your camera and keep your eyes open. Basic evnet information at www.classicshowsuk.co.uk/classic-car-show-event-information/classic-car-show-by-date.asp?id=515.


2 November
London-Brighton Veteran Car Run. This is reportedly to be the longest running car event in the world and ranks as one of Britain’s biggest motoring spectacles. It attracts entrants from around the world, all eager to take part on the first Sunday in November. Only cars built before 1 January 1905 are eligible to take part so this is a fine spectacle of early automobile engineering. More details at www.vccofgb.co.uk/lontobri/.
5 November
Guy Fawkes Day when the UK celebrates the defeat of terrorism by the foiling of Guido Fawkes’ 1605 plot to blow up King James I along with the whole of Parliament. The celebration is traditionally marked with bonfires and fireworks, much to the annoyance of most of our pets. Many places have their own special Guy Fawkes celebrations, including Tar Barrel rolling at Ottery St Mary, Devon and Lewes Bonfire Night in East Sussex.
8 November
Lord Mayor’s Show. Held on the second Saturday in November, this is the pageant to accompany the inauguration of the new Lord Mayor of the City of London. Along with the usual plethora of floats there are military bands and pikemen in gaudy medieval dress.
9 November
Remembrance Day. The UK’s annual commemoration of those lost not just in WWI and WWII but in all wars.
11 November
Martinmas, the Feast of St Martin of Tours, is a time for feasting celebrations — much like American Thanksgiving — and in many places another bonfire festival. Traditionally at this time the autumn wheat seeding was completed and there was the annual slaughter of fattened cattle and swine which could not be kept through the winter. Historically, hiring fairs were held where farm labourers would seek new posts.
29 November to 7 December
National Tree Week is the UK’s largest tree celebration and launches the start of the winter tree planting season. It is also a great chance for communities to do something positive for their local treescape. Full details at www.treecouncil.org.uk/Take-Part/National-Tree-Week.
30 November
On this day in 1934 the Flying Scotsman was the first steam locomotive to exceed 100 mph.

amusements, ramblings

Rolling Geriatrics

This is such a wonderful picture! The Rolling Stones at the Adelaide Oval preparatory to recommending their Australian tour. Just which geriatrics home have they been let out of for the day?


Mind, they’ll probably still be going strong long after me!

current affairs, words

"Cleansing the stock" and Other Euphemisms

While we’re on about politicians, George Monbiot had another side-swipe on Tuesday 21 October in his Guardian column: ‘Cleansing the stock’ and other ways governments talk about human beings.
Basically he’s on about the euphemisms that politicians, governments, and indeed companies, use to disguise — from themselves and (they think) us — the horrors of what they get up to. For example:

The [Dept of Work & Pensions can talk of] using “credit reference agency data to cleanse the stock of fraud and error”

Hills, forests and rivers are described … as “green infrastructure”

Wildlife and habitats are “asset classes” in an “ecosystems market”.

Israeli military commanders described the massacre of 2,100 Palestinians … in Gaza this summer as “mowing the lawn”.

People, aka. human beings, can be referred to as “personnel targets”. And then there are the old favourites: “neutralising”, collateral damage” and “extraordinary rendition”.
Dictatorships, and those wishing to conceal what they’re up to have always spoken thus: for example look at Communist Russia and Communist China.
Gawdelpus!

current affairs

Ebola Panic

This article from Simon Jenkins in the Guardian on 17 October takes a swipe at politicians’ panic over Ebola — a classic case of the politics of fear.
But in amongst it all he has another couple of telling comments.

… air travel which, in the digital age, is almost all non-essential …

Ah, someone else has woken up to this! It’s time business and politicians did too and realised they can operate just as efficiently and more productively using electronic communication, teleconferences etc. and not flying people around the world. Hey look! Even Joe Public uses Skype!
Oh and no, holidays in the Maldives, Morocco or Thailand are NOT essential either!

The political scientist Louise Richardson wrote in “What Terrorists Want” that it is precisely what western politicians seem happiest to give them: they want to make us fear them. “By declaring war on terror,” she says, “far from denying al-Qaida its objectives we are conceding its objectives. That is why a war on terror can never be won.” It is a terminological admission of defeat.

Yes! Something else I keep saying. Stop giving the “terrorists” the oxygen of publicity. Stop splashing every threat, murder, bombing all over the front pages f every newspaper and news bulletin. All you’re doing is giving them publicity, which is precisely what they need.
No, I’m not saying shut our eyes to what they’re doing and/or don’t report it. Just make it low key, as in “In other news …”.
And finally …

A democracy must know what it should fear … [but] … Freedom from fear is a human right. We pay politicians to guard us from terror by not terrifying us.

Jenkins’s article is worth a read.

photography

Weekly Photograph

This week’s photograph is another from our recent trip to Norwich. Somehow that day we were running slightly ahead of schedule and we had 20 minutes to kill before Sunday lunch. So in true style we set off to find Bawburgh village church.

Click the image for a larger viewOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
St Mary & St Walstan, Bawburgh from the South-East
October 2014

The church of St Mary & St Walstan, Bawburgh is one of 124 existing round-tower churches in Norfolk. It’s now fairly plain and much restored but it’s an old church: it hosted the burial of Walstan in 1016 and the (possibly) Saxon round tower was rebuilt in 1309. However it does still have a rather nice fragment of wall painting, an old rood beam and some delightful fragments of medieval Norwich stained glass.
Late on a sunny Sunday morning this was a rather nice way to while away those spare 20 minutes.
Oh and as usual we had a splendid Sunday lunch just across the river at the King’s Head, Bawburgh.
[As an aside, opposite the pub there is a water mill which was the original site of the manufacture of Colman’s mustard. When I was a graduate student I played cricket with the academic who owned the mill.]

amusements, links, science

Your Interesting Links

More links to interesting articles you may have missed.
Have you ever wondered how glow sticks work? Well wonder no more because here’s the explanation. I love those aromatic dye molecules; they’re similar to the ones I used when I was a post-grad student.
So chemicals are bad then? Well not so much. Five myths about the chemicals.
Want to avoid getting cancer? The Cancer Code provides a 12 point guide to avoiding unnecessary risk.
OK so let’s have something a bit more light-hearted …


Feral pigeons can be a pain, especially in cities, but wood pigeons (above) make wonderful contribution to our countryside. “That eat excellent”, too!
Rats! Nasty, dirty, disease-ridden creatures aren’t they? Well actually they aren’t dirty at all though rats do carry all sorts of unknown bugs. But then so probably do many creatures. We just don’t know, because we haven’t looked.
What looks like a rabbit, stands on two legs and walks? No, not Bugs Bunny but an extinct giant kangaroo. Yes, this one was basically too big to hop efficiently and was adapted to walk.
And while we’re on strange things in the animal world, here are five surprising facts about squirrels, including that they make jerky!
Most Brits will probably remember the wildlife film from some 15 or more years ago of squirrels beating an obstacle course to get food — if only because a well known brand of beer used it for a commercial! Seems Americans don’t know it, because one journalist conducted a human vs. squirrel battle of wits. And yes, the squirrels won!
Liz Heinecke specialises in hands-on science for kids which can be done at home.

Why is it we all love pizza? What makes it so irresistibly delicious? Turns out it is all down to the chemistry of the ingredients and the cooking.
Anthropologists have been arguing for decades about how the Pacific Islands were colonised. Now it seems that the voyage of the Kon-Tiki was misleading and that the Pacific islands were colonised from the west by skilled navigators, as the genetics suggest.
Back to something more serious for a minute. George Monbiot takes his weekly side-swipe at big business and big politicians.
Meanwhile we’re all getting lonelier as families and communities are becoming more fragmented. And the loneliness isn’t good for us. George Monbiot (again) concludes that our lives are becoming nasty, brutish and long.
Finally I’ll leave you with a couple of less serious items.
First a look at fictional characters who would have been vastly improved by an abortion. At last someone agrees with my jaundiced view of the classics.
And finally Paris’s giant inflatable butt plug Christmas tree was deflated by saboteurs and is now an oversized green condom.
p1s p2s