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quotes

Monthly Quotes Collection

Welcome to this month’s collection of quotes recently encountered. So in no particular order …

All human beings are descendants of tribal people who were spiritually alive, intimately in love with the natural world, children of Mother Earth. When we were tribal people, we knew who we were, we knew where we were, and we knew our purpose. This sacred perception of reality remains alive and well in our genetic memory. We carry it inside of us, usually in a dusty box in the mind’s attic, but it is accessible.
[John Trudell]

Tell me your favourite weird fact … The Earth is covered in corpses. We breathe the air the dead exude, eat the food they nourished with their decay, pour their remains into our cars, wear them and sleep on them. And then we call them scary without even noticing that they are present in every single thing of our lives. We live because of the dead.
[unknown]

Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what does not. That needs more courage than we might think.
[Jacob Bronowski]

Once you’ve understood, that you can’t understand everything you start to be wise.
[unknown]

A certain small income, sufficient for necessities, should be secured for all, whether they work or not.
[Bertrand Russell; British philosopher and logician (1872–1970)]

There seems to be a complete difference of style between the things that human beings do and the things that nature does, even though human beings are themselves part of nature. On the one hand, nature is wiggly. Everything wiggles: the outlines of the hills, the shapes of the trees, the way the wind brushes the grass, the clouds, tracts of streams. It all wiggles. And for some reason or other, we find wiggly things very difficult to keep track of. And, you know, we say to people, “Well, let’s get things straightened out”, “Let’s get it ironed out”, “Let’s get it all squared away”. And then, somehow, we think we understand things when we have translated into terms of straight lines and squares. Maybe that’s why they call rather rigid people squares. But it doesn’t fit nature.
The physical world is wiggly. Clouds, mountains, trees, people, are all wiggly. And only when human beings get to working on things – they build buildings in straight lines, and try to make out that the world isn’t really wiggly. But here we are, sitting in this room all built out of straight lines, but each one of us is as wiggly as all get-out.
[Alan Watts]

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.
[Epicurus]

When I was a smartass computer nerd in the 80s and 90s, an eternal theme was friends and family sheepishly asking me for tech support help, and me slowly, patiently explaining to them that computers aren’t scary, they’re actually predictable, they won’t explode or erase your data (unless you really make an effort), and they operate by simple (if somewhat arcane) rules. Edit > Cut, then click, then Edit > Paste. Save As. Use tabs, not spaces. Stuff like that. Maybe not easy, but simple, or at least consistent and learnable.
But that’s not true anymore.
User interfaces lag. Text lies. Buttons don’t click. Buttons don’t even look like buttons! Panels pop up and obscure your workspace and you can’t move or remove them – a tiny floating x and a few horizontal lines is all you get. Mobile and web apps lose your draft text, refresh at whim, silently swallow errors, mysteriously move shit around when you’re not looking, hide menus, bury options, don’t respect or don’t remember your chosen settings. Doing the same thing gives different results. The carefully researched PARC principles of human-computer interaction – feedback, discoverabilty, affordances, consistency, personalization – all that fundamental Don Norman shit – have been completely discarded.
My tech support calls now are about me sadly explaining there’s nothing I can do. Computers suck now. They run on superstition, not science. It’s a real tragedy for humanity and I have no idea how to fix it.
[AlexC; @neuralex@neurodifferent.me]

Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.
[CG Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (1875–1961)]

It is strange what weather we have had all this winter; no cold at all; but the ways are dusty, and the flyes fly up and down, and the rose-bushes are full of leaves, such a time of the year as was never known in this world before here.
[Samuel Pepys; Diary; 21 January 1660/61]

While the best of our physical theories are really excellent – wonderfully predictive – not one of them is complete. When applied in the wrong situation, they fail. That’s just the way it is. So it’s pretty clear, I think, that physics has no guarantee of arriving at a final theory.
Instead, my bet is it’s going to be successive approximations to reality all the way down. You’ll do better and better, but you’ll never get there. Because to get there, in my world view, you have to have experimental checks of predictions, and experiments are finite: they cannot explore all eventualities to all accuracy. So my conclusion is that we’ll never get there.
[Prof. Jim Peebles; New Scientist; 27 January 2024]

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
[John Adams (1735–1826), American statesman and Founding Father]

It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.
[Nicolo Machiavelli, c.1505]

The illusion that egoists will be pleased, or flattered, by interest taken in their habits persists throughout life; whereas, in fact, persons like Widmerpool, in complete subjection to the ego, are, by the nature of that infirmity, prevented from supposing that the minds of others could possibly be occupied by any subject far distant from the egoist’s own affairs.
[Anthony Powell, A Buyer´s Market (1952)]

Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.
[Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility]

Earth, water, fire and air
Met together in a garden fair,
Put in a basket bound with skin.
If you answer this riddle,
If you answer this riddle,
You’ll never begin.
[Robin Williamson (Incredible String Band); “Koeeoaddi There” from album The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter (1968)]

amusements, medical, memes

February Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Medicine

  1. Where in the human body would you find the medulla oblongata?  The brain
  2. If you have cryophobia, what are you afraid of?  Ice or cold
  3. What is the largest organ of the human body?  The skin
  4. Which is the only body part that is fully grown from birth?  Eyes
  5. Where is the strongest human muscle located?  Jaw

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2023.

medical, personal

On Depression – X

Another in my very occasional series of articles on depression – my depression. They are written from a very personal perspective; they are my views of how I see things working and what it feels like on the inside. Your views and experiences may be vastly different. My views and experiences are not necessarily backed by scientific evidence or current medical opinion. These articles are not medical advice or treatment pathways. If you think you have a problem then you should talk to your primary care physician.

I recently came across the following elsewhere on social media.

One of the worst things about depression is that it’s a self-reinforcing cycle. In many ways, a lot of the popular “mindfulness” or “yoga” or “touch grass” or “diet and exercise” things about recovering from depression is a correlation, not causation thing which is a reversal of cause and effect. When you’re depressed, you CAN’T do the things that help you not be depressed, or at least you can’t sustain doing them for long because they drain more energy than they’re returning.

It’s a lot of feel good “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” nonsense. When you’re depressed, even when you try to force yourself to do the endorphin generating activities, your brain is so full of depression juice that it sucks up all the endorphins you might have gotten otherwise. So now you’re just even more exhausted from trying to do the thing, and have even more depression juice in your brain because you tried to do the thing and didn’t feel any better, which must just be because you’re a broken failure.

[Jess, @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange at https://infosec.exchange/@JessTheUnstill/111880212752583330]

I don’t really agree with the final phrase about being a “broken failure”. I’m a broken failure only in terms of getting rid of the depression and in consequence having fucked up too many things in my life. And who’s surprised after 50+ years experience – we’ve trained so long and hard that we’re now experts! Otherwise this is a pretty spot on summary of how my depression seems to work.

Medics please note that this is how depression works for many of us, so don’t be surprised when we tell you that all your suggested fixes don’t work for us.

amusements, medical, memes

February Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As before, they’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as having a bit of fun.

Medicine

  1. Where in the human body would you find the medulla oblongata?
  2. If you have cryophobia, what are you afraid of?
  3. What is the largest organ of the human body?
  4. Which is the only body part that is fully grown from birth?
  5. Where is the strongest human muscle located?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history, memes

February 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

3. Died. Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize recipient (b. 1856)

14. The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), based in the US state of New York, is renamed International Business Machines (IBM)

21. Born. Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician, 1st President of Zimbabwe (d. 2019)

memes, personal

Unblogged January

Mon 1 So … Happy New Year to everyone! I don’t want to alarm anyone, but having just been outside everything is the same. We really need something different. Maybe snow? Or sunshine?
Tue 2 At least three power blips late last evening. Literally off and on instantaneously. I think there was a bigger problem elsewhere locally, but I can’t find out. After the first couple of blips I made sure all the computers were OK and then powered them down until this morning. No damage done although one of the servers needed its disks scanning for errors. But curiously one of our neighbour’s lights came on. As she was away N went to investigate this morning and it turned out to be a side lamp which has a touch sensitive switch – presumably this was triggered by the power blip.
Wed 3 Cometh the gardener … to lift more artichokes, before the squirrels find any more of them!
Thu 4 Somehow this day has been like walking through a never-ending swamp of treacle. Made worse by the fact that I can’t wear my hearing aids due to a sore ear where the left one rubs where it meets my glasses.
Fri 5 I’m still doing Postcrossing, in fact today is one year since I joined (although I didn’t send my first card until mid-February), and today I sent off my 100th postcard to a guy in Finland. If I’m very lucky I might receive my 100th card by mid-February – I’m curious to see what it is and where it’s from.
Sat 6 The neighbours directly opposite us seem to have moved out, quite unobtrusively, over Christmas/New Year – having been here for 5 or 6 years. I saw a large van (nowhere near pantechnicon size) there one day but no other sign. But the house now looks empty and none of us saw the going of them.
Sun 7 When you’re awake for the best part of 2 hours in the middle of the night it’s no wonder you feel sub-par the following day. Not up for having to concentrate on a lot, so very glad I didn’t need to.
Mon 8 Snee. Not really any amount worth talking about. It started about lunchtime as some desultory drizzle of small flakes, and quite wet. There was a brief snow shower in early afternoon, when it started to lie, but it didn’t last at all. I’m not sure whether to be pleased or not.
Tue 9 So NASA’s latest shot at the moon isn’t going to get there. Peregrine 1, which was hoping to be the first commercial space probe to make a soft landing on the moon, lost propellant shortly after launch. Good! Now stop wasting money on unnecessary space missions; we’ve been to the moon, why do we need to do it again? There are much better uses for trillions of dollars.
Wed 10 This gets better. Now NASA have postponed the Artemis II and Artemis III lunar missions each by a year. Good. Keep going. Postpone them indefinitely (ie. cancel them). We (collectively as humanity) don’t need to do this and can’t afford it – financially or environmentally. As a scientist I’m all for discovery, but not at any cost, especially if the cost can be better used to rescue our planet.
Thu 11 At lunchtime today I completed my 73100rd circuit of our local star. How? It really doesn’t really feel like more than about 30. But how many more can I do? If my ancestry is anything to go by at least another 10 and maybe even more, but I’m not holding my breath.
Fri 12 Short of sleep again, so feeling fairly wrecked. I wish I understood what drives such variable sleep.
Sat 13 At lunchtime the garden seemed awash with squirrels, although I counted only four. But they were running around hither and yon like things demented.
Sun 14 The usual brain cock-up with knowing what day it is. By Friday afternoon I was, as always, convinced it was Saturday. Yesterday, being Saturday, I was absolutely convinced it was Friday. Today is Sunday and I’ve completely lost the plot. They tell me that tomorrow is Monday, and the gardener cometh.
Mon 15 As predicted, comes the gardener, and does lots of odd jobs – including changing the bathroom light switch, which has been on my agenda for months. But will the cord on the light pull thread through our existing toggle? Not a chance, it’s much too thick, so we have to rescue a thinner cord – but what a faff around.
Tue 16 A day of struggling to keep all the ducks in a row.
Wed 17 Good patient group meeting at lunchtime, with a very helpful presentation about asthma from one of the Practice Nurses. It’s surprisingly common, and like many conditions unless you or someone close has it you tend to not know a lot about it.
Thu 18 Someone please tell me what I did today and where the time went.
Fri 19 They do pick their times, don’t they! N had requested a phone call from her GP, and was told she’d be called between 13:00 and 18:00. Fair enough. Except that they then ring at 11:30 when we’re in the middle of dealing with the supermarket delivery. You just can’t get the staff these days!
Sat 20 There’s water running through our garden down by the pond. It doesn’t appear to be the pond leaking – at least I certainly hope it isn’t; will have to check again tomorrow. It seems to be running down from by the lilac bush which is a few inches higher than the path at pond level; and you can see it running in places. Also parts of next door’s garden are under half an inch of water, including their slightly (4-6 inches) raised area. Have they left their outside tap running again? Do we have the spring, which we think is there, in full flow? Or the backfilled field ditch, which we think runs across the garden at about this point, dammed and in flood? Or is it a problem further up the hill?
Sun 21 The mystery of the water is solved. It appears that next door’s wilful 6-year-old turned the outside tap on and left it. He had a habit of doing this a couple of years ago, but we all thought he’d been cured of it. Seemingly not, the little urchin. Anyway by this morning the flood had disappeared.
Mon 22 As regular readers will know, I’ve been taking part in Postcrossing for almost a year having mailed my first card on 12 February 2023. Having mailed my 100th card earlier this month (see above), today I received my 100th card. It was from a Postcrosser in Germany with a picture of the great Dr Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) – Lutheran minister, theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician, who won the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.Dr Albert SchweitzerAnd here’s the pinboard of postcards 51-100.Postcards on the noticeboard
Tue 23 For many reasons, not least the inability to dry laundry outside in this weather, we’re struggling to keep up with the laundry, especially the bigger stuff like bed linen and towels. So we’re experimenting with laundry services. We’re trying the apparent three front runners. A load off to each of two yesterday, and awaiting thee third to collect this evening. It’ll be interesting to see how they do when stuff starts coming back tomorrow.
[PS. No we don’t have a tumble dryer, and aren’t about to get one, if for no other reason that we have nowhere to put it.]
Wed 24 N to the hospital this afternoon, leaving me at home for the laundry deliveries. Finally the hospital did the ultrasound scans of her arms. It turns out she has particularly small veins, like her mother.
Thu 25 Wasting time this afternoon helping N to get her MedicAlert reconstituted online. You can’t join as there is an existing account with this email address: verify the account or login. Verify how? – no clues. We can’t login because we don’t know the password, so try to reset it. You can’t reset the password because the account doesn’t exist. Oh you can enter the membership number – N hunts existing tag – date of birth and postcode. No that account is archived; you have to phone us. And at 16:00 we’ve all gone home. Arrggghhhh!!!!!
Fri 26 N finally managed to talk to MedicAlert and get her membership reinstated. We then spent a happy(?) hour getting the online access sorted and all the details set up. But what a fight! Anyone would think they wanted to take our money.
Sat 27 This is just getting ridiculous! As usual, last evening I was sure it was Saturday. But I awoke in the middle of the night convinced that it was Monday. By teatime I was still convinced it was Monday, despite doing all the Saturday things. Guess I’ll be in the funny farm fairly soon.
Sun 28 Wandering round the garden at lunchtime, I noticed we had the first mauve crocus in flower, and the snowdrops starting to show.
Mon 29 Something must have happened today. Oh I know, I spent most of the day doing work for the patient group, putting together posters for the surgery’s waiting area noticeboards which we’re going to revamp.
Tue 30 I seem to be sleeping really well at the moment, although still struggling to wake up and get going in the morning. But what I have found is that I’m better if I make myself get up at a respectable hour, like 08:30-09:00 rather than allowing myself to sleep away the morning like a teenager.
Wed 31 I spoke too soon about sleeping well. As mentioned before, being awake for two hours in the middle of the night doesn’t do much for the following day. But we survived. And there’s nothing a good sleep tonight won’t fix – and that’s needed as the next two days are going to be busy.
history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

This is the first of this year’s collections of links to items you may have missed the first time round – and didn’t know you wished you hadn’t!

As usual we’ll start with the harder science stuff and then it’s all downhill.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Lenin’s bust at the South Pole of Inaccessibility in 2008 – the hut is now buried

Let’s start in the middle of nowhere … Poles of Inaccessibility are just that: places furthest from anywhere.

Most know about John Conway’s Game of Life, but there’s been a long-standing puzzle about periodically repeating patterns which has now been solved. [££££]

Still with mathematics, Kit Yates talks about the way in which we are all too often deceived by our training that things are linear.

Changing tack, here are ten odd creatures that washed up on beaches during 2023.

There are times when one wonders where scientists get their research ideas! These guys investigated the vibrations caused by indigenous instruments the bundengan and didgeridoo.

Didgeridoo and clapstick players performing at Nightcliff, Northern Territory [Wikipedia]

On to a weirdness in the heavens … astronomers have discovered a megastructure which is challenging our understanding of the universe.

Back on our planet, Earth’s wobble creates problems for astronomy, cartography and climate. [££££]

Health, Medicine

Now here’s an interesting approach to understanding anatomy … the body is just bags within bags within bags, all the way down. [££££]

We all know about the placebo effect, but here are half a dozen things you maybe didn’t know about it.

OB/GYN Dr Jen Gunter has written a new book on menstruation: Blood: The Science, Medicine and Mythology of Menstruation; here’s a review.

On the other side of the divide, it seems that sperm counts are falling across the globe and scientists are trying to find out exactly why. [LONG READ] [££££]

In 1889 there was a pandemic caused by Russian flu. Here’s a piece outlining why it is unlikely it was actually due to a coronavirus.

Scientists are worried about permafrost, or rather the increasing lack of it: they’re finding, in melting permafrost, ancient microbes which are still viable, and worry there may be some which could cause a devastating pandemic if they get released.

I’m not sure whether this final item in this section should be here or under history, but here goes … Archaeologists looking at ancient DNA have found the first known ancient case of Turner syndrome, a condition where the subject has just one X chromosome, rather than the normal two.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

So let’s come on to history proper, and start with ten amazing finds from 2023.

A collection of treasures found inside a sunken temple in Egypt.

Not included in the above is the 2000-year-old “celestial calendar” which has been found in an ancient Chinese tomb.

Also about 2000 years old is a knife engraved with what are thought to be the oldest known runes in Denmark.

Slightly more recently, the medievals seemed to have this thing about fighting snails – but historians can’t agree why.

Back with ancient artefacts, archaeologists in Switzerland have found an intact medieval gauntlet.

In Scotland, the oldest known tartan, uncovered in a peat bog, has been recreated.

The Glen Affric tartan

Now we’re almost right up to date … the UK’s intelligence agency, GCHQ, have released previously classified images of the code-breaking compute COLOSSUS to mark its 80th anniversary.

A 'rebuild' of Colossus

London

Last month we mentioned the lovely Tudor map of London and the coloured version being created by Matt Brown … well here’s Part 2. [££££]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

So how, and why, is it that every coffee shop looks much the same right across the world? [LONG READ]

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally here’s a selection of trailblazing tattooed ladies from earlier times. [LONG READ]

Maud Stevens