words

Word: Novate, Novation

Novate

To replace by something new; specifically in law, to replace by a new obligation, debt, etc.

Hence …

Novation

1. The introduction of something new; a change, an innovation. (Scots, obsolete)
  
2. The substitution of a new debtor, creditor, contract, etc. in place of an old one.


I’ve most commonly encountered novation in the second sense and in the situation of company acquisitions etc. X has a contract to provide a service to Y; when X is bought by Z the contract with Y is novated from X to Z, but only by mutual agreement of the parties through a legal process. It applies equally to company contracts and to moving your bank account during a take-over/acquisition.

The earliest use recorded by the OED is from Speed’s History of Great Britain of 1611.

ramblings

National Gardening Week

Continuing the gardening theme from National Beanpole Week, 15-21 April is designated National Gardening Week.

The benefits of gardens and gardening are felt by many millions of people every day. Gardening protects our environment, strengthens communities, helps children learn and contributes to happy, healthy lives.

Through National Gardening Week, thousands of people across the country come together to help keep Britain beautiful by sharing and celebrating everything about gardens and gardening.

National Gardening Week is run by the Royal Horticultural Society along with half a dozen major sponsors. The RHS are organising many events around this year’s themes of horticultural careers and planting for wildlife.

There’s more information on The NGW website at www.nationalgardeningweek.org.uk.

beliefs, current affairs, nudism, ramblings

Kids and Nudity

I’m getting increasingly worried about society’s attitude towards children and nudity. Both allowing kids to see adults nude and adults to see children nude.

Neither is actually a problem, but society is making it into one.

There’s an interesting opinion piece by Laura over at Catharsis under the title Why NOT Being Naked In Front Of Your Kids Is Weird:

[A] single father, recently found himself under Child Protective Services investigation after some mothers of his 6-year-old son’s friends reported him for showering with his child.

These mothers apparently think because the dad showers with his son, he’s a pedophile. NOT because the kid reported his dad touched him inappropriately or because the kid reported his dad demanded to be touched inappropriately by his son.

Simply because the dad showered with his 6-year-old son. Period.

You know what I think about that? I think that’s bullshit. And I think anyone who takes an innocent act like being naked around a child to the level of pedophilia ought to be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

There are real cases of sexual abuse out there — cases of children being seriously harmed by the adults around them. THERE ARE REAL PREDATORY ABUSERS OUT THERE SCARRING CHILDREN PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY. Simply because a parent is naked in front of his children does NOT make him an abuser, and threatening a parent’s custody of his child with no evidence of such activity is both negligent and irresponsible.

(Emphasis in the original.)

Which, of course, is absolutely right.

OK, so that’s in America. But we’re very little different in this country.

I am concerned at the vilification of artist Graham Ovenden for his portrayal of naked children. OK, Ovenden has recently been convicted of inappropriate conduct with some girls many, many years ago. I don’t know how much abuse, if any, really did occur; I wasn’t there at the time, I wasn’t at the trial and I haven’t seen the evidence only some of the press reports. But the very fact that an artist can be pilloried in the way he has, so long after the event, and when he appears to have taken care that children he was drawing/painting were chaperoned, is deeply worrying. The fact that the charges relate to events 30-40 years ago, and in large part it seems to be the girls’ word against Ovenden’s, smacks of trumped up complaints and something which probably should never have got to court. Although as I say I’ve not followed the details closely, so I may be wrong. But it has been enough to set my alarm bells ringing.

That’s not to condone paedophilia; far from it. As Laura says (above) there are predatory abusers out there; and it is right that where there is sufficient evidence they are brought to justice. But I worry that we are straying into witch-hunt territory, where merely making an allegation is enough for a conviction and that having to provide evidence and to prove a case “beyond reasonable doubt” has gone by the board. This is gutter-press, mob justice.

Merely painting, drawing or photographing a child naked, or showering with a child (yours or anyone else’s) does not constitute paedophilia. Just as a mixed, nude, adult sauna (the norm in Scandinavia!) does not ipso facto mean there is sexual abuse.

We are rapidly approaching the stage where it will be a criminal offence for anyone to see any child nude at any time: parents will not be allowed to bath their newborns; and doctors will not be able to examine child patients. Clearly this is a nonsense and would lead to a major deterioration in health.

As I have observed before nudity and sexuality need to be normalised, not marginalised and ciminalised. I have always maintained that if we had a healthier understanding and acceptance of desires, sexuality, nudity and our bodies it would have far reaching positive effects on our health and our attitudes. Bring children up to understand their bodies, their sexuality and to accept nudity as something normal and they will be more balanced as individuals; more able to discuss their inner feelings and worries; more at ease discussing their medical problems with their doctor. All of which has to be good, if only in terms of catching serious disease earlier and when it is more easily, and more cheaply, treated. But I believe it would also be of great benefit psychologically.

natural history, ramblings

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 .

current affairs, history

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.

links

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.

food+drink

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.

quotes

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