Hamthrax. n. An influenza-type disease, possibly originating in pigs and mostly benign, about which governments get paranoid.
All-Weather Spectacles
The Feedback column in New Scientist recently asked its readers
to describe your own Wallace-and-Gromit-style invention in no more than 100 words. Many of you focused on just one important aspect of the Wallace and Gromit canon: reading through your entries, it has been a revelation to us how many productive uses cheese – especially Wensleydale – can be put to. Knitting, mice running on treadmills and modified bicycles also figured in many of your inventions.
However of the five published winners, this was my favourite:
As well as having reactive lenses, these spectacles have a built-in rain sensor that activates lens wipers in wet conditions. There is also a light detector, which will switch on lights in the spectacle arms when it is dark, to help you see. In strong sunlight, a nose shield will automatically be unfurled to prevent unsightly sunburn on the nose. In extreme cold, the frame of the spectacles will heat up to help keep your face warm. The spectacles are powered by a small wind turbine attached to each arm. Stylish yet practical.
It was the small wind turbines that finally finished me off!
Maybe that’s because I went to the opticians this week for a new pair of specs, during which I discovered the new “must have” frames … they come with magnetic “clip-on” polarizing sunglasses. Magnetic? Where does magnetism come in? Well rather than clipping on to the specs with what one might term “adapted paperclips” they are held on by small magnets. On the sides of the shades (where the hinge would normally be) there is a small magnet. On the equivalent place on the frames, integrated into the hinge, is another small magnet. An instant docking mechanism. So simple when one thinks about it, and yet it apparently hasn’t been tried before; no doubt someone will tell me they’ve been around for years but I’ve never seen, or been offered, them before. OK, they’re not cheap, but in the overall scheme of things they aren’t expensive either especially when one considers that my lenses cost a week’s wages. Eeeekk!
Who, What, When Meme
Who, What, When Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.
This week’s Flickr meme is “Who, What, When”.
So here are the questions and my answers:
1. Why … ? Because
2. How … ? Howzat?
3. Who … ? Hoodlum
4. What … ? Watendlath
5. Where … ? Ware, Hertfordshire
6. When … ? Wensleydale
7. Which … ? Witches Knickers
8. Whether … ? Sunshine and showers
9. If … ? If you can dream
10. Why not … ? So it doesn’t come adrift
11. So … ? Somnambulist
12. If only … ? I only had a hammer
As always these photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.
1. Because ♥, 2. howzat, 3. cactaceous, 4. Geese at Watendlath Tarn, 5. Ware, St. Mary’s church, 6. red sky at night 4.5 oz wensleydale roving, 7. Around these parts…, 8. Cricket On The Box Again, 9. If you can Dream and not make Dreams your master..- Rudyard Kipling, 10. Bunny blanket buddy, 11. The Somnambulist, 12. If only I had a hammer
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
Quote: Sense
Don’t worry about things not making sense, a journey only makes sense if you finish it.
[Jose Saramago]
Katyboo posted this meme the other day, and as she didn’t tag people, preferring us to elect or not, I’ll take the bait. Well it’s better than doing whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing.
The rules of the meme are: Respond and rework. Answer questions on your own blog. Replace one question. Add one question. Then tag eight people.
What are your current obsessions? Depression. I don’t know why I’m so depressed at the moment (I’ll blame work, it’s as good a scapegoat as any, but it almost certainly isn’t the only factor) but it is taking over and stopping me doing things.
Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often? The Emperor’s new suit. Nudity and getting fresh, cooling, air to the body is actually good for you; it stops you getting all sticky and sweaty in places you don’t want to. I do wear a pair of shorts or jeans (more if I need to) during the week, if only so I can get to the front door quickly. Otherwise I follow the maxim “Nude when possible, clothed when necessary”.
What’s for dinner? Vegetable Crumble, I think. Well we are trying to be good and reduce our meat intake for the sake of our health and the planet. And Noreen does a mean veggie crumble with mushroom, onion or cheese sauce. Yum, yum!
Last thing you bought? In a shop? Not a clue; I hardly ever got to shops these days. Online? Some scented geraniums.
What are you listening to? The hum of my PC. I can’t take continual background music (let alone talk) these days. I suspect that’s related to the depression.
Do you have a pet and if not, why not? Yes, two cats and lots of fish (both tropical and in the pond). And no, the cats take no interest whatsoever in the fish.
Favourite holiday spots? Dorset and South Devon, by the sea. Well anywhere quiet by the sea really.
Reading right now? My PC screen, stoopid! 🙂
Four words to describe yourself? Fat, grey, snotty, depressed.
Guilty pleasure? Why do pleasures always have to be guilty? Erotica. Yes and I’m unashamed about it. In the words of Jean-Luc Goddard, “Eroticism … is consenting to live.” If no-one ever found anything erotic we’d none of us be here!
Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak? edartr at Flickr‘s photographs of his hilarious two dogs; see here for example.
First spring thing? Zebedee
Planning to travel to next? Norwich to see my mother. Don’t know when yet, but it should be soon.
Best thing you ate or drank lately? East Green
Do you have any weird phobias? No. There are things I dislike intensely, like maggots, but nothing which turns me into a complete gibbering wreck.
Favourite ever film? As I don’t do films I’ll change this one. My question is: What time is it now, and what time would you like it to be? It’s currently 1150 hrs, and thus fast approaching lunchtime. What time would I like? The time I can drink beer freely again.
Care to share some wisdom? “It’ll pass, Sir, like other days in the Army.”
Favourite song? Pink Floyd, Learning to Fly. Well that’s one of them anyway.
What’s your favourite meal you make without sticking to a recipe? Curry. But then I almost never use a recipe for anything except cake – and I never make cake.
Who would play you in a movie of your life? Who would be stupid enough to even consider it? Maybe Harpo Marx? Actually Woody Allen probably suits my personality better. 🙁
Facebook or Twitter? Other or Neither? For preference neither. I do dabble on Facebook from time to time, mainly as a way of not quite losing touch with people. But as far as I can see Twitter is a complete waste of time and everything else; no-one has yet managed to explain the point to me. The same goes for Second Life and YouTube.
What is your favourite word? What do you mean I’m not allowed that one? It’s a perfectly good Anglo-Saxon word. Oh OK, let’s have something boring then, like corvid.
OK, so here’s the question I’ve added: If you were to have one piece of luck this week, what would it be? To win the lottery so I can afford to retire.
Like Katyboo I don’t like tagging people – although I’m always happy to be tagged – so you can all choose to take part or not. If you do, just leave a message and a link in the comments, please. Enjoy!
Do-Nut Meme
Do-Nut Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.
This week’s Flickr “meme is fairly simple – let’s all find a dozen tasty treats in a breakfast favourite – DONUTS!”
Well as I don’t normally do doughnuts (I’m diabetic so I have to try to avoid things like that), never for breakfast, nor with American spelling, here are some “do nut(ty)” shots instead!
As always these photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.
1. Do-Nuts, 2. Immunda Aequus, 3. Light wielding, 4. Hyacinth Macaw Cracking Brazil Nut, 5. A squirrel on a mission, 6. He’s on the naughty list, 7. “I do nut like nut! I really do nut!”, 8. Neon Nuts, 9. Feliz Natal …. Merry Christmas ….., 10. Yowah Nut Opal, Austrailia, 11. Nut Nut, 12. Monkey Nuts …
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
Mexican Swine 'Flu Hysteria
Simon Jenkins is right on the money. Writing in last Wednesday’s Guardian he lays into all the doomsayers jumping on the “swine ‘flu” bandwagon. Just the headline says it all:
Swine flu? A panic stoked in order to posture and spend
Despite the hysteria, the risk to Britons’ health is tiny – but that news won’t sell papers or drugs, or justify the WHO’s budget
As that suggests Jenkins is highly critical of governments; medics and scientists (who, let’s face it, advise governments and have careers to nurture); the WHO; and the pharmaceutical manufacturers (who have big profits to make). He starts with a full-on rapier thrust at government:
Appropriately panicked, on Monday ministers plunged into their Cobra bunker beneath Whitehall to prepare for the worst. Had Tony Blair been about they would have worn germ warfare suits. British government is barking mad.
But he also says:
We appear to have lost all ability to judge risk. The cause may lie in the national curriculum, the decline of “news” or the rise of blogs and concomitant, unmediated hysteria, but people seem helpless in navigating the gulf that separates public information from their daily round. They cannot set a statistic in context. They cannot relate bad news from Mexico to the risk that inevitably surrounds their lives.
And then even more tellingly …
Meanwhile a real pestilence, MRSA and C difficile, was taking hold in hospitals. It was suppressed by the medical profession because it appeared that they themselves might be to blame. These diseases have played a role in thousands of deaths
[…]
MRSA and C difficile are not like swine flu, an opportunity for public figures to scare and posture and spend money. They are diseases for which the government is to blame.
It seems to me the real diseases underlying all this appear to be vested interests and public hysteria.
You can read Simon Jenkins’s full article here.
Twelve Old Roses Meme
Here’s a second version of this week’s Flickr meme : A dozen roses!
As I particularly like old roses I decided to do a second version, with all the pictures taken from the Flickr Roses anciennes – Old garden roses group.
As always these photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.
1. Variegata di Bologna, 2. Louise Odier, 3. Alister Stella Gray 1894 Noisette, 4. Fantastic Smell, 5. Rosa Gallica Splendens, 6. Variegata di Bologna, 7. abeille sur rosier American Pilar, 8. ghislaine de féligonde, 9. Untitled, 10. Reines des Violettes rose, 11. Mme Legras de St. Germain, Rosa alba-hybrid, 12. Cibles
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
No this isn't a Pandemic
Jilly over at jillysheep isn’t panicking about the current H1N1 ‘flu scare. She asks “Is this really a pandemic?” Quite rightly she concludes it isn’t a pandemic. I’m interested in (and follow) emerging diseases and their epidemiology (in an amateur way) and I agree with Jilly; here is my (slightly edited) succinct comment to her posting:
No this isn’t a pandemic. In my view (and I hope I’m right) it isn’t even dangerous. As usual it is being hyped up by the media and the politicians are playing to the gallery. Look guys, it’s ‘flu! It doesn’t even appear to be an especially dangerous ‘flu. Sure ‘flu can be nasty and it does kill a few people; it always did; it always will. Yes this will spread. Yes, technically, it may become a pandemic, but IMO not one to worry about. H5N1 Avian ‘flu is potentially more worrysome as it appears to have a higher CFR (fatality rate); SARS similarly. And as for the idea that this ‘flu could be contained in Mexico, well forget it; it never could (just as Avian ‘flu and SARS could never be contained). By the time anyone realised it was around the genie was out of the lamp, however quick they had been, given modern mobility and air travel. This has been around in Mexico since, it seems, mid-March, so the genie was out of the bottle a month before anyone knew (or at least admitted). Look at that month and then ask how dangerous this is. I rest my case!
I don’t relish the thought of having ‘flu, especially as I’m one of those supposed to be at most risk (I’m diabetic) and so get a ‘flu jab every year. And the ‘flu jab to date probably offers me no protection against this Influenza A/H1N1 strain. Next year’s vaccine could include protection against this strain, but only if the scientists get a move on as production of next winter’s vaccine will already have started. Even in spite of this I’m not panicking.
Come on guys, get a life! Is this really all we have to worry about?
Dozen Roses Meme
Spring has sprung! Lets celebrate by sending each other a virtual bouquet! So this week’s Flickr meme is : A dozen roses meme! Find the 12 prettiest Flickr roses to build your bouquet.
As I love roses, especially old roses (as you’ll see from the pictures) this was a delight to do.
Photos 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11 are mine. The others are not mine but are all from my Flickr favourites. Please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.
1. Mon Amie la Rose, 2. Rose, 3. Apothecary’s Rose, 4. Frosted Roses, 5. Red Rose 3, 6. Rose “Treasure Trove”, 7. Rose “Buff Beauty”, 8. Red Rose, 9. Another beautiful Double Delight Rose, 10. Disco, 11. Yellow Rose, 12. PICT0118
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.