history, science

My Heritage is Under Threat

Yet again those dastardly Jonnie Foreigners want to slaughter my heritage. This time they’re after destroying Greenwich Mean Time.

They’re not content that our stupid government want to move us onto European time (equivalent to Summer Time) — permanently an hour adrift from real “astronomical time”. Oh no!

Now the scientific community want to abandon good old GMT completely and replace it with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)**.


But wait! Isn’t UTC the same as GMT?

Well no, actually. Not as currently defined. Although it looks the same at the moment, the proposal appears to be to do away with leap seconds (of which there have been 24 in the last 40 years) which are inserted into UTC to help our electronic time keep track with the actual motion of the planet. Inserting leap seconds is a pain and a technical challenge, but not an insuperable challenge. But the proposal is in favour of apparent simplicity: to abandon leap seconds in favour of some currently undefined (and doubtless cocked up) solution in years to come when our modern atomic clocks have drifted too far from astronomical reality.

But surely GMT, when originally defined, did not have leap seconds defined? That’s true. Leap seconds weren’t invented until 1972, by which time GMT had been the universal time standard for almost 100 years.

So where’s the problem? Why can we not return to the original GMT, without leap seconds, if that is a scientific imperative?

Ah, now, that’s because GMT defines noon as the time the sun is exactly overhead at Greenwich. And in days of yore that was reset at regular intervals (daily?) so in effect GMT kept in track with every slight wobble in “astronomical time” automatically. But with atomic clocks that doesn’t happen. Time progresses regularly like, well, clockwork. And without leap seconds modern “electronic clock noon” (UTC) would drift away from “astronomical noon” (GMT) and that spells disaster for things like GPS.

So let’s just redefine GMT to be atomic clock time? But that would make it neither “mean time” nor “Greenwich time”, so it would be a misnomer. At least with a new name it is clear that the time being measured is different.

So … We have a working system which we are proposing to break. This is absurd. We should keep GMT (with leap seconds). It is a valuable part of our heritage. It tells people the history and science of measuring and recording time. Why are we throwing our history away so carelessly? Is nothing sacred?

** I’m sure the acronym for this should be “CUnT”.

thoughts

More Rules for Life

Following on from my earlier posts about my guiding principles and lessons for life, I’m reminded of the 11 Rules for Life often attributed to Bill Gates. Except that they ain’t by Bill Gates. They appear to have first surfaced in a 1996 piece in the San Diego Union Tribune by Charles J Sykes** and subsequently been pared down. But wherever they first appeared many people, not just youngsters! (present readers excepted, of course!) would do well to take them to heart. So, in case you missed then the first few thousand times around, here they are:

Rule 1: Life is not fair — get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping — they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

In fact the original had another 3 rules (which I’ve only slightly edited):

Rule 12: Smoking is not cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you’re out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That’s what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for purple hair and/or visible pierced body parts.

Rule 13: You are not immortal. If you think living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven’t seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule 14: Enjoy your youth while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school’s a bother and life is depressing. But someday you’ll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now.

Hands up anyone who can honestly say they’ve never fallen into any of these traps.

Mmmm. Yeah. Not me either.

** Sykes appears to have subsequently published the list in his book 50 Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School.

links

Just in Case You Missed It …

… here’s a few links to the curious and interesting that I’ve read in the last few days.

Scientists have now worked out why not all chillies are hot. It’s easy logocal stuff; no science required.

How good is your science? Well it’s got to be better than most of the British! Britain’s biggest science misconceptions revealed.

Would You Get a QR Code Tattoo? Would you get any tattoo? Thoughts on why we do this.

I’ve always said Shaun the Sheep would be a good alternative to the lawnmower. Now someone is doing it!

Gawdelpus! Now the government wants every under 11 to have read Harry Potter! FFS why can’t politicians stop meddling in things they don’t understand? Oh, hang on then they’d have nothing to do. No change there then.

Finally I was going to say this could only happen in Japan, but I suspect the Americans could do it as well. It was the “maternity suite” which finally tipped me over the edge! Hopefully we British don’t scrape quite so much off the bottom of the barrel.

quotes

Thoughts for the Week

A collection of recently culled thoughts on life, the universe …

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.
[Thomas Henry Huxley, 1825-1895]

To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence
[Thoughts of Angel]

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
[Thomas Edison]

If you treat people the way they are, you make them worse. If you treat them the way they ought to be, you make them capable of becoming what they ought to be.
[Goethe]

Religion convinced the world that there’s an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do. And there’s 10 things he doesn’t want you to do or else you’ll to to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of eternity. But he loves you! … And he needs money!
[George Carlin, You Are All Diseased]

In the face of all the challenges we face today, is my optimism about the future of humanity idealistic? Perhaps it is. Is it unrealistic? Certainly not. To remain indifferent to the challenges we face is indefensible. If the goal is noble, whether or not it is realized within our lifetime is largely irrelevant. What we must do therefore is to strive and persevere and never give up.
[Dalai Lama]

Don’t think, it’s bad for the government.
[Touretteshero; this is one of her tics but it is so true!]

food+drink

Steaming Beef Curry with Gin

Yesterday I cooked curry. For my birthday. A hot curry. I like hot curry!

If you’ve been following along you’ll know I like my recipes easy, adaptable and forgiving. So here’s my special Steaming Beef Curry with Gin. The gin and the lime give it that extra zing.

[I’ve already posted the method for Noreen’s Very Lemony Rice separately. It makes a great accompaniment to almost any curry.]


I used:

  • Steak; diced
  • 1 large Onion; roughly chopped
  • 4 large cloves garlic; roughly chopped
  • 2 inch piece of fresh ginger; finely chopped
  • 400gm tin Chopped Tomatoes
  • half Cauliflower; in bite-size pieces
  • half jar of Patak’s Vindaloo Paste
  • tablespoon ground Turmeric
  • juice & zest of 2 limes
  • half large wineglass of Gin
  • glass White Wine (or water)
  • small pinch Salt
  • Olive Oil

This what I did:

  1. Sauté the onion, garlic and ginger in some olive oil until the onion is just going translucent.
  2. Then add the diced steak and continue cooking to sear the meat all over.
  3. Slacken the curry paste with the wine (or water) and add this to the pan, stirring to ensure everything is coated in the curry mix.
  4. Add the turmeric and stir that in well.
  5. Now stir in the tomatoes and the smallest pinch of salt.
  6. Followed by the lime juice & zest and the gin; then the cauliflower.
  7. Bring to the bubble and cook for 10-15 minutes.
  8. [If you’re doing Noreen’s Very Lemony Rice to go with this, put the rice on when the curry has been bubbling away nicely for a couple of minutes. This should get the cauliflower just nicely cooked, but not mushy, in time with the rice.]
  9. By the time the cauliflower is done the sauce should be reducing nicely; it should be tick not watery.
  10. Serve with your choice of accompaniments.

Notes:

  1. Despite the big dose of Vindaloo paste this isn’t outrageously hot. (Actually I think Patak’s Vindaloo is milder than their Madras paste.) The heat of curry does seem to me to be ameliorated by the addition of lemon or lime juice. But you could use any strength of curry paste to your liking — or make your own.
  2. Use any (selection of) vegetable of your choice. I happened to have cauliflower to hand.
  3. And of course you could use any meat — or none at all! Yes, I used some steak because I think it is worth using decent meat to make a good curry especially as this doesn’t get cooked to death.
  4. You can use this method for any curry you like. For an “ordinary” version just leave out the gin and lime. The only real essentials are onion, protein, curry paste (or powder) and some liquid.

Picture credit: Fastplaeo

food+drink

Noreen's Very Lemony Rice

I’ve talked about Noreen’s Lemon Rice before. We find that plain rice gets, well, plain and boring, with curry. This special lemon rice makes any curry (or indeed almost any rice dish) both look and taste special: it is very lemony and a lovely golden yellow colour.

This is doubtless not the approved way to cook rice, but it is easy and it works.


You need:

  • 50-60 gm Long-Grain Rice (Basmati for preference) per person
  • 1 large, or 2 small, Lemons
  • half teaspoon ground Turmeric
  • small pinch Salt (optional)
  • Boiling Water

This is what you do:

  1. Grate the zest from the lemon and put it aside.
  2. Now juice the lemon (not too hard, you want a bit of the flesh left) and put the juice aside as well. Keep the lemon half-shells.
  3. Put the rice in a saucepan with the lemon half-shells. Add the turmeric and a tiny pinch of salt.
  4. Add most of a kettle of boiling water, bring back to the boil, stirring a couple of times to make sure the rice isn’t adhering to the bottom of the pan. Cook until the rice is done.
  5. Just as the rice is done remove the lemon pieces to a plate and scrape the flesh and juice from inside them. Discard the lemon peel.
  6. Drain the rice in a sieve and rinse with some boiling water. Shake to dry and tip it into a warmed dish.
  7. Add all the lemon (zest, juice and recovered flesh) and stir it in gently.
  8. Serve with curry.

Notes:

  1. This method produces a slightly wet, but not sticky, rice, which works fine with curry.
  2. The turmeric gives the rice a lovely bright yellow colour — but it needs the acidity of the lemon to do this. If you leave out the lemon (or in fact anything acid) but not the turmeric the rice comes out a muddy beige colour. That’s all down to the chemistry of the pigments in the turmeric which are yellow in acid but red in alkaline (ie. most tap water). I think the acid also helps fix the colour to the rice grains.
  3. You can do this with lime as well, though the flavour is more subtle.
  4. Or you can cook plain rice this way — just leave out the lemon and turmeric.

Picture credit: Robyn Lee

beliefs, nudism


If you’re interested in nudism, need your mind expanding or have kids with body image hang-ups (ie. most teenagers) this should be worth watching.

My Daughter the Teenage Nudist
Channel 4; Thursday 12 January; 10pm
Filmed in collaboration with British Naturism

thoughts

Lessons for Life

Today is my birthday. It is a Feria. Almost nothing of note has happened on this day (except for me, of course!). About the only at all well known person I share my birthday with is former miner’s leader Arthur Scargill. But let us not be forlorn!

I thought that this year I would celebrate my birthday by sharing with you 61 Lessons for Life (one for each of my birthdays). I stole the idea (and a few of the lessons) from here. They are a sort of a logical successor to my New Year post.

61 Lessons for Life

  1. Life isn’t fair. Deal with it.
  2. When in doubt, don’t.
  3. Life is too short to waste time and energy hating others.
  4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
  5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
  6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
  7. Learn to love yourself.
  8. Don’t worry about things you cannot change.
  9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay packet.
  10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
  11. Make peace with your past so it doesn’t screw up the present.
  12. It’s OK to let others see you cry.
  13. Be open and honest in all that you do.
  14. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
  15. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
  16. Don’t be afraid to admit you were wrong. Be prepared to change your mind.
  17. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
  18. Over-prepare, then go with the flow.
  19. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
  20. Listen.
  21. The most important sex organ is the brain.
  22. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
  23. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”
  24. Forgive everyone everything.
  25. What other people think of you is none of your business.
  26. Time heals almost everything. Give time a chance.
  27. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
  28. Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know.
  29. Be curious – about everything.
  30. Be yourself, not who you think you want to be.
  31. It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.
  32. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.
  33. Your children get only one childhood. Make it as good as you possibly can.
  34. Think as much as possible and to the best of your ability.
  35. Don’t be afraid to tell it like it is. If other people don’t like it that’s their problem.
  36. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
  37. Every decision is the best you can make at the time with the information available.
  38. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
  39. Never forget that your enemy is also a human being.
  40. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
  41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
  42. It gets better.
  43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
  44. Masturbation is good.
  45. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
  46. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
  47. When you do ask, the worst they can say is “No”.
  48. You can never have all the information you want to make a decision.
  49. Every coin has two sides. So does every situation.
  50. Respect other peoples’ beliefs however much you disagree with them.
  51. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
  52. If it harm no-one, do as you will.
  53. Treat others as you would wish them to treat you.
  54. No regrets – just things you now know weren’t the best.
  55. Only one person is responsible for your orgasms – you!
  56. “No” is an acceptable answer.
  57. Be comfortable in your body.
  58. If you need a God, fine. If you don’t, that’s fine too.
  59. You are entitled to believe whatever you like. You are also entitled to express your beliefs. But we aren’t obliged to listen to them or agree with them.
  60. Embrace sex and nudity – they’re a natural and rich part of life’s pattern.
  61. Look under the bonnet of all knowledge. Remember research causes cancer in rats.

Hmmm … now how many of those do I adhere to? Hmmm …

current affairs, environment

HS2 is Go for Liftoff

Another meaty post. Someone please find out what being put in the tea this month!?

So the government have approved the plans for HS2, the high speed rail link to be built to connect London, Birmingham and (maybe) later Manchester and Leeds. The alleged cost is said to be £33bn with a payback over a 60 year period.

Business want HS2, as do the government, the rail industry and the construction industry. So would you if it safeguarded your salary, stock options and pension, reduced unemployment and potentially increased tax take.

Most of the local communities and the environmental groups don’t want it. They believe the environmental costs are too high and the business case doesn’t stack up. Even the Conservative Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is only lukewarm. Added to which governments don’t have a good track record of managing such big projects for the public good.

The Stop HS2 campaign have said “It’s a white elephant of monumental proportions and you could deliver more benefits to more people more quickly for less money by investing in the current rail infrastructure.”

Friends of the Earth have made a similar comment, although as one would expect in more strident terms: “We need to revolutionise travel away from roads and planes, but pumping £32bn into high-speed travel for the wealthy few while ordinary commuters suffer is not the answer. High-speed rail has a role to play in developing a greener, faster transport system, but current plans won’t do enough to cut emissions overall — ministers should prioritise spending on improving local train and bus services instead.”

The Department for Transport has said that 22.5 miles of the first phase (to Birmingham) would be enclosed in tunnels or green tunnels [essentially a deep cutting with a tube put in it, over which grass, trees and soil are placed] and another 56.5 miles of cuttings would significantly reduce “visual and noise impact”.
But the environmental impact will be immense. So there will be a tunnel under much of the Chilterns (and so there should be) as well as large swathes of the London section of the route (we can’t clear enough land to do otherwise). But cuttings and green tunnels do nothing for the environment. They may reduce noise and visual impact but that’s all they do. They still destroy the countryside (taking out swathes of land many times wider than the actual track) through which they are built, cutting through woods, fields, etc. and creating huge piles of spoil.

And that leaves aside the huge disruption that will be created. Disruption not just along the route itself, but to existing rail infrastructure like London’s Euston Station which will have to be largely rebuilt.

Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if the government invested the money in sorting out our current rail infrastructure as FoE suggest? Forget all this franchising and get the rail industry back in public hands where it belongs; re-integrate it and invest properly in the infrastructure to get the network running efficiently and to time. If managed independently and properly by someone like Richard Branson who isn’t going to take any old nonsense from anyone, and who has a track-record of managing corporate business, then we should see increased capacity and reduced fares because the whole enterprise is more efficient and provides the service that’s wanted.

I find it hard to believe that this would cost more, create fewer (local) jobs or bring fewer benefits. Network Rail believe that such investment in the existing infrastructure will cost as much as HS2 for little benefit. But they would, wouldn’t they. They need a huge corporate project to help justify their existence against a backdrop of falling rail performance.

There’s more to any society than testosterone-fuelled corporate bullies building their salaries, share options and pensions. It’s time, once again, to listen to the people on the ground who are going to be most affected. But I doubt it’ll happen, if only because those against this hare-brained scheme are split into some 70 groups — they too need to be integrated if they are to be effective at overturning this nonsense.

[And before anyone accuses me of NIMBYism, it isn’t. I don’t care that the route runs just a mile from my house; the mess and disruption can’t make this bit of west London much worse than it already is. I do, however, care about the impact on Perivale Wood, a piece of ancient preserved woodland which abuts the proposed route; but that’s a relatively minor consideration in the overall scheme of things.]