amusements, memes

Ten Things: October

This year our Ten Things series, on the tenth of each month, is concentrating on things which are wackier than usual, if not by much. From odd road names to Christmas carols by way of saints and scientists. So here goes with October …

Ten Pieces of Femto Fiction

[Femto Fiction (or Micro-Micro Fiction) is that which, while looking like a short book title, with almost no imagination tells you the whole story. Genre of work in brackets.]

  1. Gothic Pricks [horror]
  2. Christmas Goose [erotica]
  3. Feel the Mistletoe [romance]
  4. A Strangely Beaked Bird [thriller]
  5. Educated Derelict [autobiography]
  6. Pubic Overtures [erotica] (right)
  7. Duck Shooting in Venice [autobiography]
  8. A Case of Yellow Haddock [detective]
  9. French Knickers [romance]
  10. Admiral Horatio Leftsmith [fiction]
amusements, science

Science Limerick

I’ve just come across this tetra-Limerick which I’d not seen before. It amused me today, in a science-y way …

It filled Galileo with mirth
To watch his two rocks fall to Earth.
He gladly proclaimed,
“Their rates are the same,
And quite independent of girth!”
 
Then Newton announced in due course
His own law of gravity’s force:
“It goes, I declare,
As the inverted square
Of the distance from object to source.”
 
But remarkably, Einstein’s equation
Succeeds to describe gravitation
As spacetime that’s curved,
And it’s this that will serve
As the planets’ unique motivation.
 
Yet the end of the story’s not written;
By a new way of thinking we’re smitten.
We twist and we turn,
Attempting to learn
The Superstring Theory of Witten!

Found at Brownielocks.

amusements, environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

Once more unto the breach, dear comrades, to bring you this month’s selection of links to items you may have missed the first time round. And an e-glass of e-ale to anyone who can knit the links into a coat of mail!

Science, Technology, Natural World

Let’s begin with another look at why wasps are so annoying, but yet so useful.

Oh and for anyone wanting to scare their visitors, you can buy a roughly five times life-size model of an Asian Giant Hornet (aka. “murder hornet”).

If you never understood why mathematics is so fascinating, take a look at odd perfect numbers. [LONG READ]

And changing topic again, scientists think they’ve found phosphine gas in Venus’ upper atmosphere, and say this could be a sign of life (albeit microbial life). Meanwhile Derek Lowe explains about phosphine but remains somewhat sceptical of the latest results.

Health, Medicine

The logistics around distribution of any vaccine (well any drug really) are complex, especially when one gets into the realm of Cold Chain Distribution.

But then we need to keep our feet in the real world as no vaccine will work by magic and return us to normality.

Girls: have you ever needed to pee standing up and envied us men our flexible hose? If so, the Shewee may be your friend.

Environment

Rewilding as an environment improvement method is taking time to get going, but not if one maverick Devon farmer has anything to do with it.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

So who thinks Scottish bank notes are legal tender in England? Spoiler: they aren’t! And what is legal tender anyway?

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

There’s some new archaeology at Pompeii which is uncovering more of its past.

Medieval sermons were one of the most effective and wide-reaching forms of propaganda, but that only works if they are in the vernacular. [LONG READ]

The people of medieval Europe were devoted to their dogs. [LONG READ]

Transport until the early part of the 20th century was largely dependent on the horse: either being ridden or pulling a wagon of some description. Here’s a look at horse transport in Victorian times.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Oliver Burkeman, writing his last regular column for the Guardian, talks about his eight secrets for a fulfilled life.

If you’re dreading a long, dark winter lockdown, then maybe the Norwegians have something for you.

So what does your cat mean by “miaow”? A Japanese vet is apparently earning a fortune telling people what their cats are saying. Personally I thought we had a fairly good idea!

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, has been awarded a gold medal for his work detecting landmines in Cambodia. I must say he’s a rather handsome animal, and well deserving of his apparently upcoming retirement.

And finally, what is the connexion between frozen shit and narcissists’ eyebrows? Yes, of course, it’s this year’s Ig Nobel prizes.

environment, science

Nuclear Power

Although I’ve not written about nuclear power for a long while, long-standing readers will know my conviction that we have to invest in nuclear technology. I see no other way in which we can generate sufficient electricity, even for reduced demand, from renewable resources – important though these are.

Now I would never pretend that nuclear power doesn’t have it’s challenges. Regardless of what type of reactor is chosen, the technology is hard, decommissioning is hugely expensive, and there is the problem of what to do with the nuclear waste. However these are largely soluble problems: see for instance my posts Nuclear Power Redux and Better Nuclear Power.

One thing nuclear doesn’t have, though, is an excess of deaths compared with any other power source. In fact nuclear power is the gold standard to be beaten.

Estimates from Europe Union, which account for immediate deaths
from accidents and projected deaths from exposure to pollutants.
(And this does not include fatality rates in countries like China where
cheap coal and poor regulation cause considerably more fatalities.)

A large part of the reluctance to embrace nuclear power is down to the fact that people are generally scared of it. Why? Because they can’t see it and they don’t understand it – so it is very scary! Back in the day people were frightened of electricity because they couldn’t see it and it appeared to be magic – see, for example, this from America in 1900.

It’s a bit like being in a strange, unlit, house overnight and hearing a very odd, creaky, noise. We’d all find that a bit scary. But if we can see the bedroom door swinging on its hinges in the draught it isn’t anywhere nearly as frightening.

So a couple of days ago I was interested to see a BBC News piece by their Chief Environment Correspondent, Justin Rowlatt, under the headline Nuclear power: Are we too anxious about the risks of radiation?. [See also this article from Harvard University (from which the above graphic is taken).]

In the article Rowlatt makes the case that nuclear energy is nothing like as dangerous as we think it is, even when we account for Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl and Fukushima. He ends by saying:

But here’s the thing: if we were a bit less concerned about the risks of low levels of radiation then maybe we could make a more balanced assessment of nuclear power.

Especially given that coal-fired power stations routinely release more radioactivity into the environment than nuclear power stations, thanks to the traces of uranium and thorium found in coal.

And, since we are talking about worrying about the right things, let’s not forget the environment.

Taking a more balanced view on the risks of radiation might help all those anxious climate scientists I mentioned at the start of this piece sleep a bit easier in their beds at night.

I’ll leave it up to you to read the rest of the article.

personal

Horrible Times 14: Day 200

Well I promised I would write again at day 200 of Covid isolation, and here we are. That’s over 6 months of house arrest and confinement to barracks.

Well not quite, as I have been out beyond the front gate twice in the last month: on both occasions to go to the dentist to get a broken tooth fixed. And what a surreal experience that was, with the dentist and nurses all bedecked in space-suit style PPE. It was all approached very professionally and efficiently: obviously they’re finding it hard but they’re managing and seem able to be their usual cheerful selves (at least outwardly to patients). It’s good too that I’ve had the same excellent dentist for around … I can’t remember but it must be at least 15 years and maybe more. So we know each other well; I might have been rather more worried if I’d had to encounter someone totally new.

Back in the real world we’re now undoubtedly seeing the second wave of Covid-19 infections. I find this no surprise at all: restrictions have been lifted; the unthinking section of the population thinks it’s all over and have gone back to drinking and socialising; they also all went on holiday to Spain for more drinking and shagging, and to bring back more infections; and now the schools have gone back. Who would have guessed this was going to produce a second spike? Clearly not our apology for a government, who couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag – I doubt they could even lie their way out of said wet paper bag, at least not without managing to break the law or piss off everyone as well.

But enough of my ranting. Here are a few things (good and not so good) that have happened since my last report on day 150.

Good Not So Good
  • So far we’ve had half a dozen marrows from our 3 plants. Some have been stuffed and eaten, and a couple used to make chutney.
  • We’ve made 5 or 6 batches of chutney: a couple of apple, red tomato; marrow; plus a small batch of crab apple cheese. (Scroll back a few posts to find my recipes.)
  • The small number of apples on our new (container planted last winter) apple trees are ripening. I picked one a few days ago; it was delicious. Harvest time coming soon.
  • I’ve been doing lots of family history, trying to untangle knots back in the 17th and 18th centuries. That’s taken me down numerous fun rabbit holes, but solved few puzzles.
  • We’ve also had great fun putting together a Christmas quiz for the Anthony Powell Society Newsletter. It’s never all literary and includes lots of general knowledge style questions. And it’s always amusing to see what sneaky questions we can think up, especially as this one will be a competition.
  • I actually quite enjoy trips to the dentist (due to a combination of a really excellent dentist and interesting conversations) but it is a treat I, and my bank balance, could happily forego.
  • We lost all our tomato plants to some sort of fungal/viral pestilence: everything went black, almost overnight. It seems to have happened to a number of people round here this year. Although we’d had some fruit this was very annoying as there was a good crop of super fruit coming along.
  • And then there’s the pestilence which is the Box Tree Moth (they destroyed our two boxes last year); but the other week I had a dark morph in the study – really quite pretty
  • We’ve remained in quarantine; and it seems we will be for the foreseeable future. This is not helping my depression at all; I’ve been especially struggling for the last couple of weeks.
  • Which is why I’m continuing to fail at writing letter (well, emails) to friends an family – some of which I should have done months and months ago. But then I never was a great correspondent.
Box Tree Moth, Dark Morph
Box Tree Moth, Dark Morph; Greenford; 6 September 2020

So what next?

Well I reckon we’ll still be in lockdown at Christmas, by which time the flu season will be in full swing and everyone will be going stir-crazy and morose at the thought of a miserable Christmas. But before that I’ll try to report again on day 250, which will be mid-November and we’ll have a much better clue as to what is actually happening.

Meanwhile, be good and stay safe!

beliefs, books

Book Review: The Little Book of Humanism

Andrew Copson & Alice Roberts
The Little Book of Humanism: Universal Lessons on Finding Purpose, Meaning and Joy
Piatkus; 2020

It’s a long time since I’ve written a book review here. That doesn’t mean I’m not reading, but it does mean I’ve not managed to finish enough books to make a review worthwhile: like always there are many books on the go, and most are cast aside at the arrival of something new.

I would never claim to be a humanist. I probably am one, but I don’t profess to know enough about humanism to feel that’s what I am. Besides I try to avoid anything which wants me to believe in some creed, however loose it may be.

So I was motivated to read the recently published The Little Book of Humanism.

Let me say straight away that this book does what it says on the tin: it is a very basic guide to many of the ideas and beliefs behind humanism. Sadly though I found it tediously wanting. It came across to me as a series of would-be-inspirational quotes strung together with some pieces of text made up of platitudes and the obvious. I don’t know Andrew Copson, but I expect more of Alice Roberts – this may not be an academic work, but Roberts can do better than this.

I expected the book to make me stop and think; to present me with deep ideas about humanism. It didn’t. All I seemed to get was a feeling I was being told things which are patently obvious. I expected something with more “bite”, and something rather more formally construed.

As so often though, that is probably very unfair of me as the book likely isn’t intended for someone like me who has spent many years thinking about what they really do believe and their personal morality. It is, I suspect, much more aimed at those who’ve maybe heard of humanism, but don’t know anything about it and who feel disillusioned with mainstream religion. For those people it is probably quite a good route into humanism, without being a dogmatic text full of formal beliefs (which humanism really shouldn’t be anyway).

What also disappointed me was the quality of the production. The copy I have, while hard-bound, looks as if it is glued rather than stitched with the cover also too lightly attached. The content is printed on very rough, off-white paper which resembles thin blotting paper – that’s commendable if the paper is recycled, but the lack of finish to the paper, and the lack of brightness, does make the book a less enjoyable read. The actual text uses a mix of serif and sans serif typefaces, in a variety of point sizes: again something which irritates. I’m also not sure “little” is the right adjective; yes the book is the size of a small paperback but it’s quite thick and chunky; I wouldn’t call it pocketable. This is partly down to the modern fetish for extraneous white space; to quote Ambrose Bierce “the covers of this book are too far apart”. Overall the production looks cheap and as such is possibly not a good advertisement for the humanist movement.

Overall I was disappointed, but maybe unfairly so.

Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆

quotes

Monthly Quotes

So here we are, round to our monthly selection of recently encountered quotes.

We are a species poised between an awareness of our ultimate insignificance and an ability to reach far beyond our mundane lives, into the void, to solve the most fundamental mysteries of the cosmos.
[Katie Mack; The End of Everything]

Throughout history there have been non-religious people who have believed this life is the only life we have, that the universe is a natural phenomenon with no supernatural side, and that we can live ethical and fulfilling lives – using reason and humanity to guide us. These people have looked to scientific evidence and reason to understand the world. And they’ve placed human welfare and happiness – as well as the welfare of other sentient animals – at the heart of how they choose to live their life. Today people who hold these beliefs and values are called humanists. There are millions of individuals around the globe who share this way of living and looking at the world – even if they haven’t heard of the word “humanism” and realised that it describes what they believe.
[Prof. Alice Roberts at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/31/alice-roberts-atheism-humanism]

Atheism is defining yourself by an absence of something. Humanism is a positive choice to base your morals on your own human capacity.
[Prof. Alice Roberts at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/31/alice-roberts-atheism-humanism]

The UK is the only country in the world apart from Iran that reserves places in its legislature for clerics, with 26 Church of England bishops sitting by right in the House of Lords. And yet we think of ourselves as a progressive nation!
[Prof. Alice Roberts at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/31/alice-roberts-atheism-humanism]

A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one.
[Molière]

So convenient a thing is it to be a reasonable creature, since it enables us to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to.
[Benjamin Franklin]

Patriotism is proud of a country’s virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country’s virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, “the greatest”, but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.
[Sydney J Harris, journalist and author (1917-1986); h/t John Monaghan]

“Avocado” comes from the Aztec “ahuacatl”, which also meant “testicle”. The name was given to the fruit because of its shape.
[@susie_dent on Twitter]

On the subject of Scottish notes, you can often find a Scot attempting to pay with one in an English shop, informing the dubious cashier “I think you’ll find pal, that’s legal tender!” Well, I’m sorry to say that they are not. Scottish and Northern Irish notes are in fact not legal tender anywhere in the UK and do not have to be accepted.
[Tom Currie at Historic London Tours Blog; see also the Bank of England’s What is legal tender? page]

More next month, the Fates permitting.

food+drink

Recipe: Hot Apple Chutney

And now for today’s second preserving recipe. I was given a large bag of (mostly) windfall Bramley apples. They weren’t going to keep, and one can eat only so much apple crumble, so I decided to make some apple chutney. And as we have Scotch Bonnet chillies ripening on the plants in the study, I thought to make it a hot one.

Again this is infinitely adaptable and very easy. Depending on availability you could replace some or all of the apples with green or red tomatoes, pears, marrow, courgette, runner beans, plums, rhubarb, even carrots or aubergine.

Hot Apple Chutney

Makes about 8 1lb jars.

Ingredients

  • 2.5kg apples (prepared weight)
  • 600ml pickling vinegar
  • 1tbsp salt
  • 3cm piece fresh ginger (or 2tbsp ground ginger)
  • 500g onions (I tend to double this)
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 450g sugar
  • 150g tomato paste (optional)
  • 1 Scotch Bonnet chilli (or less hot ones if you prefer)
  • 3tbsp pickling spice (to add more kick to the vinegar)
  • 200g sultanas (optional)

Method

  1. Peel, core and chop the apples, removing any damaged parts.
  2. Chop the onion, chillies and garlic, and grate the ginger (if using fresh).
  3. Throw everything into a large pan and simmer carefully stirring very regularly (so it doesn’t stick to the pan) until reduced and thick. (This may take a couple of hours!)
  4. Sterilise clean jars in the oven at 140°C for at least 20 minutes. Ensure the lids are clean, dry and warm. (See https://zenmischief.com/2020/09/recipe-sweet-spicy-crab-apple-cheese/ for my notes on sterilising jars etc.)
  5. Decant the chutney into the hot jars and seal while hot.
  6. This should mature and keep a few months, but I’d put it in the fridge once opened.