personal

Listography : I'm a What?

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This week’s Listography is a pretty open-ended “challenge” as we’re invited to complete the sentence “five reasons I know I’m a …”. So how to finish that statement? I know, with the word “intellectual”.

That sounds conceited but it isn’t. We all have different skills. Mine happen to involve brain power. But I’m absolutely crap at anything manual: I have 10 left thumbs. I cannot even saw a piece of wood straight!

So here are five reasons I know I’m an intellectual:

1. I have a science doctorate (on the boundaries of physics and chemistry) but I also run a literary society. Although I have a broad understanding of science, medicine, history, language etc. I’m not a polymath: for a start I’m useless at foreign languages!

2. I see three sides of every argument before you even tell me one. And I see through management and marketing bullshit like a knife through butter.

3. I can sit in a health education session and realise my brain is bigger than the sum of all the others in the room, including the trainer. Not necessarily an advantage as it means I struggle to suffer people who don’t use what they’ve got, especially when they then also don’t believe what you tell them. I’m useless at manual things, but I do have to try sometimes. I expect other people to do the same with their brains.

4. I don’t need mental crutches like religion. I can think, and read, and argue. I can do morality without having it imposed from outside. I know there is no such beast as “natural justice” and that life isn’t fair. I can deal with it.

5. My hypnotherapist struggles to get stuff into, or out of, my subconscious. My conscious brain is so fast and so analytical that whatever he does it goes “Oh, he’s doing X. That’s interesting. I wonder if he’ll do Y now? Or does it mean Z? And I wonder how that fits with A?” rather than just going “La-la-la, isn’t that pretty”!

Which doesn’t make for an easy ride; in fact it can be downright depressing and demoralising. But then who said it was supposed to be easy?

current affairs, links, ramblings

So You Missed … ?

More links to things you may have missed. Let’s start with some important items I should write whole blog posts about but just can’t stomach today.

Like I commented on Facebook, this first isn’t just wrong, or bizarre, or cruel, it’s obscene (and that’s not a word I use lightly or often). Georgia Rep Wants To Force Women To Carry Stillborn Fetuses … Like Cows Do. Maybe these loonies should be made to wear a stinking albatross round their necks. As has been said elsewhere if men had to endure half the things they impose on women better ways would soon be found, or minds changed. What price Christian charity? Again! Seethe!

Next, here’s an interesting alternative take on the validity (or not) of modern Christian claims of persecution. As it’s from the National Secular Society it’s probably as biased in the opposite direction! Caveat emptor!

Both of which remind me of this cartoon …

And while we’re on the church, let’s have an interesting sideways look from Friday’s FT, which shows just how bizarre is the Cathodic church’s attitude to gay marriage.

And here’s a worrying judgement handed down by the European Court of Human Rights, supporting the UK courts’ decisions, which appears to give the police carte blanche to do almost anything they like on the streets to restrict liberty, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association. Very, very worrying.

And a final rant for today … this confirms what I maintained the other day that water companies are losing vast amounts of their water through leaks — possibly as much as 25%!

So now for an interesting piece of science. Apparently your soul is in your eyeballs. Yes really. Well actually it does make sense and does seem to agree with one’s intuitive experience.

So how do we think about nothing? This gives two totally different approaches.

And finally something rather splendid: an old church converted into a modern bookstore.

It takes the Dutch to find some good in Christianity. 🙂

personal

Reasons to be Grateful: 18

Experiment, week 18. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

  1. Long-Tailed Tits. I’m seeing these delightful little birds — one of the smallest in the UK — more and more in our garden. They seem to especially like the Silver Birch tree (below). Until a couple of years ago I would see a small group maybe a handful of times a year. This winter they’ve been regular visitors and have got on the bird watch list almost every week. And now I am seeing a pair most days. Hopefully they’re going to nest somewhere nearby.

    2. Spring Dawn with Tree

  2. Smoked Chicken. This has become a staple in our house. Waitrose do individual smoked chicken breasts which are less expensive than buying carved cooked chicken and much tastier. So we now keep a couple in the fridge as a stand-by. They make a great salad.
  3. Daffodils. Yes, I have to say daffodils again. I think they’re my favourite flowers and I love being able to have inexpensive bunches of daffs in the house.
  4. Robins Singing. It is definitely Spring. The robin is singing almost continually. I woke up at 4.30 this morning and got up because I was uncomfortable. It was still dark, but the robin was singing away in the trees in our garden.

    5. Spring Dawn with Moon

  5. Dawn. One of the nice things about getting up early is seeing the dawn, which is so often just as lovely as sunset. And one of the few pleasures of winter is that you can get up at a sensible time and still see dawn. This morning dawn was beginning to break about 5.30 with some very subtle lemony hues, grey clouds and a crescent moon in the east. Having taken a few photos (both of the above) through the study window, I retired back to bed for a few more hours sleep.
amusements

What? More?

So our other local auction house has a sale coming up this week. It contains the usual eclectic and eccentric mix of le bon dieu c’est quoi. Here are some of the “highlights”.

A cartoon by Rudolk Pick, signed and dated 98, showing an African gentleman in smart attire and smoking a pipe, riding a zebra alongside a muzzled lion cub, watercolour, framed

A carved bone erotic couple, an erotic bone bottle and a four section bone erotic inro

A paperweight in the form of a flag pole with the Swastika at full mast

A small carton of plated items including a cheese dish with goat finial

An American sterling centrepiece bowl on tall loaded foot, a Greek 925 bowl, and a pair of loaded 925 dwarf candlesticks
[Loaded with 12-bore cartridges, presumably?]

A stuffed snowy owl in a glazed case, and a stuffed grouse
[I never cease to be surprised at the amount of taxidermy that’s around]

Six flying ducks wall plaques and two seagulls, a quantity of character salt and peppers including chickens, mice, farmer, postman, etc., sauce pots …

A pair of impressive decorative ewers, the bowls supported by two cherub figurines, and garlands of flowers

A splendid large Victorian glass dome enclosing a display of stuffed jay and parakeet, with outstretched wings, in grass surroundings

A large Chinese tilework guardian lion with paw on brocade ball

A mixed lot incl. an old Shell petrol can, miniature straw boater, silver banded walking stick …

An unusual mannequin decorated with vintage fabrics, flowers, beads and glitter fairy wings

An attractive French clock garniture in gilt-metal and bronze, of Louis XVI design, the bell-striking movement by Vincenti, with painted enamel dial, in drum case on gazebo support, with two-light candelabra side pieces … c.1900

A bronze figure of Christ crucified by Rossini
[Have we been being mis-sold all these years, or has Herod had a name-change?]

A taxidermy specimen of a red squirrel, with grasses, in glazed case, c.1900
[Yes, and there’s more!]

Two decorative halberds.

The ultimate in ironing boards by Lauraster, the frame combining a constant steam action with integrated iron, including two covers.
[Which sound more like an instrument of torture!]

A carton of good reference books incl. cokkery [sic], gardening …

A rare 1950s orange-painted basketwork globular linen basket, probably by Lloyd Loom, on a metal stand
[Another instrument of torture? Or is it a cat basket?]

And finally …
… an Imari chamber pot …

I think we’re just going to have to go and have a look at this collection!

current affairs, ramblings

Crossings Out

So the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Dr Rowan Williams, is standing down in nine months time. Appropriate timing? Is he being transmogrified into the Virgin Mary?

Meanwhile he has plenty of time to come out with a few more inanities.

Today, the day that he announced his pregnancy capitulation, he has said that wearing the cross does not offend non-Christians.

How can he possibly know? He isn’t a non-Christian.

Oh! Maybe he is! After all he’s Archbishop of Canterbury. It’s well known that Archbishops of Canterbury can believe six impossible things before breakfast. Recall too that memorable line from the Eric Idle version of the “List Song” in the ENO production of The Mikado:

Bishops who don’t believe in God
Chief Constables who do.

Full lyric here (complete with a couple of errors) and a video on YouTube (the list Song starts about 4m15s in).

links

Did You Miss … ?

Links to a few recent and interesting or curious items you may have missed.

Here’s a series of three posts about the bacteria in your belly.
Part 1 — Babies
Part 2 — Adults
Part 3 — Disrupting the Balance

Scientists clone cashmere goats in bid to increase wool production. What you mean they haven’t managed to make it 5% nylon yet?

An ancient Greek warrior’s helmet has been dredged up off the coast of Israel.

Still on the ancient, palaeontologists reckon to have discovered a previously unknown species of hominin, nicknamed the Red Deer Cave People, who liked venison and lived around 14,500 to 11,500 years ago in China.

And finally to another strange species of hominin … Apparently an Italian perfumier has created a special perfume just for Pope Benedict XVI. So much for clerical vows of poverty and chastity. It’s all a load of old goats!

current affairs, environment

Hobby-Horse News

Oh God, it’s a hobby horse news day! Not content with creating a brouhaha over Susanna Reid’s cleavage there are two other news stories at the moment which are guaranteed to wind up the clockwork in my hobby-horse.

First of all there’s the report that Daylight Saving Time (aka. Summer Time) may well be bad for you.

Apparently putting the clocks forward an hour plays havoc with our body clocks and circadian cycles.

Well yes, of course it does. Haven’t you ever noticed?

Apparently this may be a contributing factor to an increase in heart attacks following the Spring clock change.

I wonder why I keep saying that we should abandon Summer Time and keep GMT the year round.

The majority of the global population doesn’t keep Summer Time (see the map here), so why do we need to? People increasingly work flexibly these days, so it shouldn’t matter that, within broad zones, we all have a clock which says noon when the sun is directly overhead (as GMT defines for the UK).

Secondly, we’re told that SE England is running out of water and that the water companies are about to impose hosepipe bans.

I don’t see why this should come as a surprise. Yes, we’ve had a couple of dry winters. But we also use excessive amounts of water.

Many years ago we were advised by our masters that we should shower rather than bath because it uses less water. This, however, created two problems which clearly weren’t foreseen. (A) that people would have more powerful showers, and spend more time in the shower, so they often use just as much water per shower as they for a bath. And (B) that people will shower every day; some even several times a day.

Neither is necessary, unless one is doing a really dirty job. And frankly most of us aren’t.

Back in the good old days we used to bath once or twice a week, or if we fell in the duck pond. Which was fine as long as we had a decent wash every day. The majority of jobs, and our environment, are now a lot less dirty than they were. So why do we need to shower every day?

Answer: We don’t. A good daily wash with a shower a couple of times a week is fine. This is what I do and I don’t think all my friends are too polite to tell me I smell.

That though is only part of the water problem. We flush too much water down our toilets unnecessarily. Loos do not need flushing after every pee. Or if they do, a quick 1-2 litres is enough, not the 4 litres even most modern dual flush cisterns provide. I also get incensed when I see people hosing down their houses or washing the car and leaving the hose running water away down the gutter while they polish and buff.

But the water companies are not blameless. We know many water companies are struggling with old Victorian water mains and sewers. But they really do need to do more to stem burst mains as soon as they appear and not leave them running water to waste for days, weeks or even months. Not only would this save loads of water but it must also save money in the long run.

Meanwhile, yes, let’s have a hosepipe ban and let’s have it properly enforced. Then let’s install water meters on every property. It seems the only thing that Joe Public understands is being hurt in the pocket.

Now remind me why most of us live in the driest quarter of the country? Oh, maybe it’s something to do with sun and warmth? But then again, maybe not; after all this is England!