Cartoon of the Week
Word of the Week : Chimera
Chimera.
1. A fabled fire-breathing monster of Greek mythology, with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail, killed by Bellerophon.
2. A grotesque monster, formed of the parts of various animals.
3. An unreal creature of the imagination, a mere wild fancy; an unfounded conception.
4. An organism (commonly a plant) in which tissues of genetically different constitution co-exist as a result of grafting, mutation, or some other process.
5. A horrible and fear-inspiring phantasm, a bogy.
6. Any fish of the family Chimæridæ.
Listography : Celebrity Beer
I’ve not taken part in Kate’s weekly Listography for the last couple of weeks largely because I’ve struggled to be motivated by the themes. Well that’s life. But I thought that I should try to make an effort again this week. And as often that’s proven to be harder than I expected as Kate is asking us to nominate five celebrities we would like to go for a beer with.
Surely that can’t be difficult? Well yes, because first one has to decide what “celebrity” means. The mind goes to TV persons, footballers, WAGS, pop singers and actors. Well if that’s what it means count me out because almost to a woman (are only of them actually men?) they bore me rigid — if I’ve even noticed them to start with. And then there is the question as to whether they have to be alive, or if dead celebrities count?
Therefore I decided that “celebrity” was whatever I wanted it to mean and I could include anyone I liked as long as they had a public persona and were alive. So here are five, who at the final reckoning may or may not be the top five. Who knows?
Alice Roberts. I’ve mentioned Alice any number of times before here because she’s just all-round brilliant: qualified medic, teaches anatomy, anthropologist, archaeologist, author, broadcaster and an excellent artist. I also think she’s hot! One of the people I would love to sit in the pub with and just talk the evening away.
Professor Mick Aston. The original lead archaeologist with the stripy jumpers on Channel 4’s Time Team. He’s another who I would love to just be able to chat with over beer, partly because I imagine a fascinating conversation but also because of his interest in the development of English churches and monasticism.
Dalai Lama. Another old friend of these lists — and not just because I am more attracted to Buddhism (albeit Zen) than any other philosophy. How can one not want to talk with one of the world’s most important spiritual leaders. But not just that, he seems to have a slightly wicked sense of humour!
Tony Benn. Yes, the British Labour Party politician, former Cabinet Minister and campaigner, now well into his eighties. I’d want to have a drink with him not for his politics (I disagree with much, but not all, of what he believes in) but because he is such a respected parliamentarian and constitutional historian with great insight into the workings of both history and state.
And now it is awful to say it but I get a bit stumped for my fifth nomination. There are so many people one could choose: Astronomer Patrick Moore, chefs Brian Turner and Rick Stein, BBC Weather Presenter Laura Tobin (a cheeky little pixie if ever I saw one!), authors Terry Pratchett and AN Wilson, historian Simon Schama, comedian Rory Bremner … But I think for my final choice I’ll pick …
Dick Strawbridge. Yes, him of the giant moustache. He’s another broadcaster, engineer, ecologist, ex-army Colonel and an absolute all-round nutter! I first noticed him presenting the BBC series “Crafty Tricks of War” in which he built — and usually blew up — all manner of nefarious military devices.
Well now, that’s a strange set of bedfellows if ever there was one. But in tell you what, I bet they’d all get on well together over some beer, after all in their own ways they’re all completely out to lunch on a variety of ancient bicycles!
Where does it all come from?
Our local auction houses seem to have had a quiet time recently, presumably because of summer holidays, but one has a bumper sale coming up this week. It contains the usual curiously described and strangely juxtaposed tat amongst a selection of rather nice (if boring) old silverware, fish knives etc. Here’s a selection that caught my eye. As so often the sting is in the tail with many of these.
Two portraits of young women, said to be Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, each bearing signature Stephen Ward and dated (19)62, framed as a pair.
[Framed as a pair they were indeed!]
A silver ‘toy’ cherub on a bench, another by an incomplete easel, another playing patience at a separate table, London import marks … and an indistinctly marked cherub on a pig.
A collection of Golliwog china.
[Thought you weren’t supposed to say Golliwog these days?]
An impressive pair of Indian part-silver anklets, hinged and with pin fastening, each chased with a lion amongst foliage. circa 1900
[Duh?]
Six early bike and street lamps.
A Pedigree doll with opening eyes
[I hope it’s registered with the Kennel Club]
A quantity of early vales.
[¿Que?]
A varied and interesting lot to include 1960′s wallpaper sample books, sewing items including wool, thread, buttons, buckles, embroidery items, fabric, ladies’ clothes, bags, umbrellas, purses, cane, etc.
[The contents of the back of someone’s wardrobe?]
A wooden double stoned doll’s house with metal windows and ’tiled’ roof …
[One spliff not enough, eh?]
Miscellaneous small items including three green glass eye baths and one blue example, brassware, ceramics, etc., and a Billy Bunter book.
A lion mask bras doorknocker.
[Brings a whole new concept to the meaning of “knockers”]
A stuffed pheasant and a similar owl.
[You know you always wanted one!]
A pair of ibex horns on a wooden mound.
[Just to complete the medieval great hall]
An interesting lot including a quantity of university graduation robes with makers’ names, including Ryder & Amies, Cambridge (red and black); also a carton of related objects including sashes, ermine trimmed capes, mortar boards, velvet berets, etc.
[Bought your degree? Complete the set with some cast-off robes]
And no, I really don’t make these up!
It's Been a Busy Week!
There seems to have been a lot going on this week which drew my attention but which I didn’t get to write about here. So here’s a summary (in no particular order) …
First an interesting item on how belief can kill. It’s a curious phenomenon but even so I can’t bring myself to read the book. See The Dark Side of the Placebo Effect: When Intense Belief Kills.
Much more interesting and useful is a long article on the National Geographic site about the workings of Teenage Brains and how this should be seen as a sensible evolutionary trait. It might also help all of us understand and relate with teenagers. It certainly seems to explain quite a lot.
Next an investigative journalism piece about the Fukishima Disaster and especially the long-term effects on the Japanese population. The suggestion is that the effects of stress etc. will be far more significant than the actual radiation doses (I guess excluding the immediately affected workers). For my money the article still doesn’t delve deep enough — but the journo writing it probably couldn’t get access to do so.
Law and Lawyers has written several pieces about the worrying machinations of the Metropolitan Police in attempting to get The Guardian to reveal some of its sources. First they were going to use the Official Secrets Act, then PACE 1984. For now though it seems the dogs of war remain caged.
Also this week Obiterj at Law and Lawyers has pointed out that the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011 comes into force. This means the next General Election will be on 7 May 2015 — unless both Houses of Parliament decide otherwise by a two-thirds majority.
Which for a scientist somewhat pales into insignificance beside the apparent result from a team at CERN that they have detected neutrinos doing the impossible and travelling faster than light. But hold on guys, they don’t quite relieve it either and they’re asking the scientific community for help to test their results. Good scientific commentary by Adrian Cho at Wired and Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy.
Finally back to earth. There’s been lots of twittering in the dovecotes about female orgasm, how it relates to evolutionary pressures and to male orgasm. Also some good demonstrations on how to demolish a (supposedly) scientific study. The best of the critiques I’ve seen is from Scicurious. Maybe you girls should just be allowed to enjoy it?
Have an orgasmic weekend!
We Live in Peaceful Times
What do you mean, you don’t agree? According to Michael Shermer in his article The Decline of Violence in the October 2011 issue of Scientific American, there is very much less violence now, per head of population, than there was in times of old.
English philosopher Thomas Hobbes … argued in his 1651 book, Leviathan, that … acts of violence would be commonplace without a strong state to enforce the rule of law. But aren’t they? What about 9/11 and 7/7, Auschwitz and Rwanda … What about all the murders, rapes and child molestation cases we hear about so often? Can anyone seriously argue that violence is in decline?
…
Take homicide. Using old court and county records in England, scholars calculate that rates have plummeted by a factor of 10, 50 and, in some cases, 100—for example, from 110 homicides per 100,000 people per year in 14th-century Oxford to fewer than one homicide per 100,000 in mid-20th-century London. Similar patterns have been documented in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia.
…
As for wars, prehistoric peoples were far more murderous than states in percentages of the population killed in combat, [Harvard University social scientist Steven] Pinker told me: “On average, nonstate societies kill around 15 percent of their people in wars, whereas today’s states kill a few hundredths of a percent.”
I have no reason to doubt either Shermer or Pinker, but, yes, I was surprised too.
[38/52] The Old Warrior Sleeps
![[38/52] The Old Warrior Sleeps](https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6175/6171570785_2752769f1e.jpg)
Week 38 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
H the Cat dozing on my desk after a hard night down the rat mines (in his dreams). He’s rising 13 (we don’t know exactly), not as agile as he once was and is beginning to feel his age. Much like the rest of us!
Quotes of the Week
Oooo … have we got a thought-provoking bunch this week!
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
[William James]
Life is short, smile while you still have teeth!
[Thoughts of Angel]
A shepherd in William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale wishes “there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.”
[David Dobbs at National Geographic]
[Natural] Selection is hell on dysfunctional traits. If adolescence is essentially a collection of them – angst, idiocy, and haste; impulsiveness, selfishness, and reckless bumbling – then how did those traits survive selection?
[David Dobbs at National Geographic]
If there was a God, why on earth would he want us to ‘believe’ and/or ‘have faith’? Given that he (she or it) is omnipotent, and can therefore by definition do anything that he wants, why doesn’t he just make us have faith/belief hard-wired into our brains? Also, can anybody think of reasons why he would care if we have faith or if we just merrily go on ignoring him? I’m genuinely puzzled by this.
[Keith J at cix:enquire_within/54discussion]
For what are we if we are not words made flesh, or flesh expressing our meaning in words? We are memories, thoughts, feelings, ideas, pain, anguish, love, amusement, boredom, hopes and dreams. We are all these things in a sheath of skin, making our way into the unknown, and if we cannot capture it, think about it, reflect on it and own it, what do we have?
[Katyboo]
I visualize the ego as a little guy in a gray flannel suit and tight necktie. His job is to get you safely through your waking day, to make sure that you pay your electric bill and don’t offend the boss. He keeps up a constant chatter, telling you to do this or that, and insisting that you pay attention to what’s happening in the world around you. He takes occasional coffee breaks, like when you’ve driven down a familiar road, and realize when you arrive home that you have no memory of the trip. The ego has taken time out, figuring you can get home on automatic pilot. He’s grateful when you finally retire for the night. He’s got you in a safe place – your bedroom – where nothing is likely to happen to you. He pops up again in the morning, when you “wake down” from your wider experiences in the sleep state. He’s the character who makes you look at the clock (“time” only exists in its usual sense when the ego is on the job) and nags you into getting out of bed and on your way to work. Jealous of the time you spend in your right brain, he likes to insist he’s been around all the time. He hates to admit that his job isn’t all there is to your experience, so he makes sure you forget your dreams. He’s especially good at pretending he’s never off the job. “I wasn’t asleep, or not paying attention. I was just resting my eyes. I heard everything you said,” he insists indignantly when you catch him at one of his coffee breaks, such as when you are wool-gathering, sleeping, or under hypnosis.
[Helen Wambach, Reliving Past Lives]
Fact of the Week
The magnitude 9 earthquake that struck Japan on 11 March was one of the five most powerful shocks recorded; so powerful that it lowered the coastline by a metre and nudged Japan two metres closer to the United States.
[Jonathan Watts, “Fukushima disaster: it’s not over yet”, Guardian, 9 September 2011, online here]
Characters Wot I Invented
We probably all do it. I certainly do. Invent fictional (and often humorous) characters that is. Characters we’d like to have inhabit our stories. So here’s a challenge … Tell us five of your fictional and humorous characters (and if possible a little about them). Here are some of mine.
Ii Ng. He’s a young Japanese fashion designer.
Armin Plaastar. Young Dutch Ski Instructor. He was never quite good enough to compete in the top downhill races as he specialises in skiing on shallow slopes.
Berrick Salome. Top drawer antiques dealer somewhere in the Home Counties, probably Berkshire or Buckinghamshire.
Sir Chiltern Waternut. Retired diplomat. Specialist in Arab affairs. Always wears a tweed jacket and pince-nez.
Gaysha Bottle. 6-year-old, East End, trainee tart. Sister of Chardonnay-Madonna Bottle (age 10).
Of course there are lots more possibilities and even categories: companies, places, popular music combos, products and even books.
So, without giving away the plot of your next novel, how about you tell us a few of yours? In fact let’s make this a meme so I can tag: Katy, Noreen, Jilly, Antonia, Tim.