jupiter's jaw line

the rest

2010-02-28T13:04:00.000-08:00

is silence.

do not go gentle

2010-02-27T12:34:00.000-08:00

into that good night

I think we've seen enough raging in these parts, particularly back in the early days, and that our work here is now done.

For those who require assistance with their pitiful mortal dilemmas we will remain accessible by email until such time as our holiday home freezes over.

~ if you have been, thank you for reading.

Age Appropriate?

2010-01-24T00:58:00.000-08:00

Went shopping yesterday with a clutch of my christmas book tokens.

Bought Cormac McCarthy's The Road (which I note is a short book, spread out thin across the pages to look like a bigger book) and the latest John Grisham - on Buy one Get one Half Price - for myself, and three large, full colour wildlife and general reference books to keep on hand for my nephew.

He is due to visit next weekend, and last year when he came by there was a bit of a problem that we had nothing for him to do in the quiet times before and after lunch. We had tried at the last minute to buy a wildlife magazine at the local supermarket but hadn't been able to find one, and the failure was glaringly awkward.

It may sound like this is a worry about nothing, but with special educational needs our nephew has an interest level way behind his chronological age of 18+, so that nothing we have in the house these days is remotely suitable for him.

Better late than never then, I have realised we need to keep a Rummage Box ready for visits, where nephew can root around for something to catch his eye. And to this end I have bought the books, a couple of 'educational' games for early readers and counters, and the beginnings of a collection of plastic animals. Very small beginnings it has to be said, due to the outlay on other items.

Next time I will hope to add some larger and more dramatic models including items from the ever-popular dinosaur family!

Chewing the Fat

2010-01-23T08:36:00.001-08:00

There's been a bit of a public debate this week about whether heavily obese people should be able to get weight reduction surgery free of cost on the National Health Service.

Different people have different views, but one opinion that's expressed quite commonly is that there are overweight people who have tried their best with diets over the years, but diets just don't work for them so that they need the extra help offered by surgery.

And I think I may have uncovered the reason why their dieting fails:

We were shown a short piece to camera by one woman who was making a sandwich while telling us about her failure to lose weight - and we watched her ladle that butter (or low fat spread, or mayo, or whatever) onto the bread in a layer thick enough to swim in, making sure to cover every minute corner.

The notion of a thin scrape of butter and not bothering to go to the edges, had apparently not occurred to her. Or to her health advisors.

Return Confirmed

2010-01-20T11:50:00.001-08:00

of the wonderful chocolate superfood that is the Ritter Square.

After its strange absence last year, Christmas found supplies back on the regular shelves and to my great delight several examples found their way into my Christmas stocking.

There's just nothing quite like them!

New President - New Language?

2010-01-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

Heard an interesting new word the other day - a radio commentator was talking about President Obama's administration and towards the end of the piece he came out with the brilliant contraction: Obamastration.

But perhaps people have been saying that for the last fourteen months and I've just missed it?

Those who can't ...

2010-01-18T11:40:00.000-08:00

...won't be allowed to teach if the next UK government has its way.

News that there is a plan afoot to restrict teaching to top graduates only, reminded me of a rather mean joke I heard some years ago.

When a university lecturer walks in and says Good morning, the students take no notice.

When a polytechnic lecturer walks in and says Good morning, the students respond by saying Good morning.

When a lecturer in a teacher training college walks in and says Good morning, the students break up into groups and discuss it.

Oh dear.

happy new year!

2010-01-01T06:42:00.000-08:00

we seem to have survived christmas without actual murder taking place - though there were one or two pretty vivid threats.

now packing for a few days away in our favourite villa-in-the-forest. hope threatened snowfall doesn't block the route.

moderately successful so far in blocking thoughts of work - still another week to go before we need to think about getting the packed lunches together...

the festive season

2009-12-16T10:19:00.000-08:00

is about to get festiver in these parts.

Friday night is the works Xmas party (though Scrooge here is hoping to make the usual excuses and leave at the earliest possible moment), and Saturday sees us make the 400 mile round trip to visit family for the day and exchange gifts.

Which means Thursday evening, after the seasonal supermarket trip, fighting off the other shoppers no doubt, will have to be catch-up night for getting everything wrapped and ribboned for the trip south on Saturday.

So this might be my last visit to the blogosphere for a few days. We do have an outing planned for Sunday as well - a very civilized visit to an upmarket patisserie/tea shop for a Christmas special Afternoon Tea. We went last year for the first time and thought it was an absolute delight, and can't wait to try it again.

We'll let you know how it goes!

Fire and Ice

2009-12-15T12:22:00.000-08:00

"Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice."

All the newstalk about Copenhagen brought a half-forgotten snippet back to my mind.

I seem to remember being told in a school geography lesson that the earth is currently in an interglacial period that is overdue for ending - giving us all nightmares about waking up the following week to find ourselves surrounded by woolly mammoths and sabre tooth tigers, about to be pulverised by a huge glacier.

And now the talk is about destroying the climate with the heating effects of CO2.

So surely that's ok then - the CO2 blanket will preserve us from the upcoming glaciation.

Problem solved.

is progress good for us?

2009-12-14T13:51:00.000-08:00

Just as I was leaving for work this morning an interesting moment launched itself down the radio waves into my kitchen.

We heard that the early humans used to potter about in their small groups hunting passing game; gathering a handful of berries here, digging a tasty carrot-ancestor there. And apart from having a lifespan of some 20+ years were by and large pretty healthy.

Then they discovered Farming. And proper villages grew up where the villagers spent all their time tilling and sowing and eating completely the wrong sort of food (sliced white and all that). And when one chap got a germ, he passed it on to all the others.

And really it's been pretty much downhill ever since.

So much for the man with the beagle then (wasn't that Captain Archer?), getting it all A over T. He should have been pronouncing on the survival of the UNfittest.

moral decline

2009-12-13T04:10:00.000-08:00

I have just won a lengthy battle with the cellophane wrapping on a box of liqueur chocolates I had bought to give as a Christmas gift. I haven't yet decided whether guilt or a sense of triumph is the stronger emotion.

By the time I've eaten a few more of the chocolates I will probably be past caring...

bored, board, bored

2009-12-12T02:57:00.000-08:00

We've been put on notice that over Christmas we have to play board games, board games, board games - and worst news of all, Santa will be delivering Monopoly City so there will be absolutely No Escape from that.

I would so much rather lose myself in a book, or one of my (25!) cds. Or even play a few hands of cards. Board games have never been my bag.

Except for one - a brilliant game called Careers, which has been with me since I was rising 13. You could choose to be a Film Star; a Sailor in the South Seas gathering happiness points; a Business Man; a University Student and increase all your subsequent earnings; or best of all and always my choice - an Astronaut, and take a trip to the moon. Heady stuff way back then!

WISE up!

2009-12-11T15:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy year for astronomy and space travel - appropriately in this International Year of Astronomy.

The latest gadget to get off the blocks is the amazing Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer - the name tortured into shape so it could be known in brief as WISE.

This all-seeing eye can look at and look out for objects in the furthest reaches of inter-galactic space. The last infrared scope offered only four pixels (can you imagine such a thing?) while WISE has four million, so the quality of the images is expected to be outstanding.

As always at such times we hope the objects detected will not include candid snaps of yours truly at leisure with a group of willing nymphs; we must remind ourselves at those private moments to draw closed the curtains of invisibility.

only in england

2009-12-10T13:05:00.001-08:00

With the UK hosting the olympics in 2012 they get a choice in which events will take place.

Last time out Team GB were a big success in the velodrome, in particular winning gold in both the men's and women's Individual Pursuit.

There has been a decision to level up the number of men's and women's events at five each (fair enough) and one of the solutions would include dropping the individual pursuits.

Surely this option wouldn't be considered. Would it??

Oh dear, it just has been. And adopted. Leaving two of our gold medallists without their specialist disciplines and with only a handful of months to rejig their training, their outlook, their optimism.

Only in England, indeed.

if pythagoras didn't exist

2009-12-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

would the greeks have had to invent him?

There seems to be a disburbing notion that Pythagoras may not actually have have been a real person.

And that the theorem about the square on the hypotenuse (being equal to the sum of the squares on the two adjacent sides) was known, understood and probably proved in as-yet untranslated cuneiform texts by the Babylonians long before Pythagoras came onto the scene 2500 years ago.

All I need now is for someone to tell me Santa doesn't exist and that's my world finished...

try this one -

2009-12-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

'all the world loves a lover, unless he is in a telephone kiosk.'

Or so said my desk calendar yesterday.

So far it's still quite a funny remark, because those of us of a certain age probably remember pretty well the ages spent queueing outside a phone box waiting for a lovelorn romeo to sign off a call to his beloved.

But in these days of txting that little joke will soon pass into history, along with all the phone boxes.

dog eat dog?

2009-12-06T02:55:00.000-08:00

or man eat man?

Not a pleasant idea even if we're thinking about something that might have happened 7000 years ago. Our taboo against routine cannibalism is strong, and just as well if it's kept us free from diseases like BSE and who knows what other horrors over the centuries.

But that does raise the question of how evolution drove us to adopt the taboo when the negative disease outcomes are such a long time a-coming.

I might consider asking my tame anthropologist about this sometime when I feel the science in the answer won't be too much for me to handle.

And if the answer's printable I'll come back and add it in.

christmas arriving early?

2009-12-04T14:58:00.000-08:00

The minor godlet is expected back tomorrow, so tonight we must sort out his christmas gifts from the collection Mercury has been delivering to us lately following our exploits on the internet, and put them under secure cover.

One might have hoped that by now christmas parcels could safely be left un-poked, rattled and subject to forensic examination, but alas that stage seems not to have been reached just yet.

Oh for the days when a positive nursery full of minor godlets could happily play for hours on one fluffy cloudlet, while a mount olympian pile of gifts could be stacked on another, and never the twain would meet.

It seems like only yesterday...

calendar fodder

2009-12-03T13:15:00.001-08:00

I wonder who finds the little moral titbits that get printed on some day-to-a-page calendars? You can imagine someone looking up the historical facts for the day, but how would you go about finding such morally fibrous morsels as:

Failure is often the line of least persistence

The man who knows most is the first to want to know more

and what would it be like to live with someone who spent all day working with this kind of stuff?

Thursday 31 December 2009: 1st anniversary of wife issuing ultimatum - it's me or those g*ddarn phrases. You got one day to choose.

Friday 1 January 2010: 1st anniversary of door slamming behind wife as she went back to her mother's.

'the man who sees one door close knows the next may open with a new opportunity'

senior moments

2009-12-02T12:06:00.000-08:00

Why would it be, that I sat down last night to watch a particular cookery programme on television, and could feel myself nodding off almost straight away?

And worse was to follow.

I struggled manfully to open my eyes every few moments to look at preparations for the next dish. But the moment the turkey was out of the oven I must have dropped off entirely for a minute or two and missed the one thing I was specially waiting for - the vegetarian option that had looked quite unusual in the preliminary overview.

We were pointed in the direction of the website for some of the recipes, so I guess I'll try and find my way to that and hope for enlightenment. I don't know if there's a big glossy book (or even a small dull book) to accompany the programme, it wouldn't have been mentioned of course on the public service channel.

can you have ...

2009-12-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

... a christmas resolution?

If so mine is the same as every year.

Not to leave everything to the last minute.

So far I am well on target - which is to say the only target in sight is to have everything ready by 25 December. And some things being nearly ready already, thanks to the wonders of internet shopping, that target is Straight Ahead and no worries.

But just don't blink, because if you do surely that target will turn right round and creep up behind you, just like it has done every year in living memory.

money matters?

2009-11-30T13:27:00.001-08:00

money boxes
money spiders
funny money
runny honey
honey bees
bees wax
back scratch
catch hold
catch cold
wrap up warm
snug & cosy
pink & rosy
noses numbing
fingers fumbling
dropping coins
in money boxes.

gravity sadly un-defied

2009-11-29T04:55:00.000-08:00

My must-see sci.fi drama kept me up later than ever last night - not finishing until five before midnight.

As the final credits rolled I was ears wide open for the continuity announcement for the next episode - but not a word was said.

This morning found me scouring the web for news, finding confirmation that the rest of this first series does exist, and might become available on dvd or blu-ray or somesuch, but no suggestion that the remaining five episodes will be shown on british television. And definite contra-indications that a second series will ever be made - the sets possibly already destroyed.

At least there may be consumer resistance to this abandonment in the form of a Facebook group.

So I'm off to track it down and add my name to the list.

goal, set & match?

2009-11-28T04:45:00.000-08:00

The workshop this morning was good - professionally set up and run, and there were five participants which worked well. We gave informal feedback at the end, which seemed well taken.

But the one thing I couldn't get out of my mind the whole time I was there, and which I could hardly say out loud to anyone - was that one of the facilitators looked so much like b.elanna torres that I could hardly concentrate on anything she said.

Shame on me!

Goal Setting

2009-11-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

A former colleague of mine is stepping out in new directions, and tomorrow morning is running, with partner, the first of their life coaching workshops.

They've set up a google-able website, printed leaflets and put up posters, and at the last time of asking had had three positive enquiries about tomorrow's workshop.

Keen not to discourage their paying customers they've asked a few Extras to attend to give a bit more atmosphere, and I've agreed to go along.

The theme of the session is goal setting - as a first step to making changes in your life - and given that the session starts at 09.30 on a Saturday morning I can see that my first Goal is going to be forgetting my longed-for Saturday morning lie in.

Just as well I believe in karma.

Or do I mean korma??

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T14:02:00.000-08:00

Hope you have a great weekend!

That's all folks

music of the spheres?

2009-11-25T12:22:00.000-08:00

About five years ago I invested in a high price, high quality radio/cd player and have really appreciated the sound it gives out. Regular communications arrive in the mailbox urging me to update my Model T version or buy swishy accessories, but so far I have resisted.

It seems strange then to find myself in the unexpected situation of feeling disloyal for considering a different gadget altogether.

With increasing interest I have been reading advertisements for a sort of mega non-portable MP3 player. You can upload the whole of your music collection into this black & silver box and then sit back and choose what to listen to with hardly more effort (so the copywriter assures us) than changing channels on the tv.

I was blissfully considering the benefits of this lifestyle when I came across a survey on the website - the manufacturer is seeking information about how many cds his customers/prospective customers have. Apparently so far he has gathered that the average number per collection is 1100 - though the most common number (is that the mode?) is around 300. What drives up the average is the number of his customers with collections of more than 3000.

Unfortunately this has had quite a deflating effect on my desire to buy.

As you will understand when I tell you that even after Christmas has come and gone, my cd collection will number -

25!!

An Unfortunate Miscalculation

2009-11-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

There was an anguished message from the minor godlet yesterday.

Due to the above mentioned miscalculation he has spent all the money he had thought he was saving to live on for the next six weeks.

So what's to do? Let him starve? I don't think so.

Something strange has happened to my head since I took my new, lower paid job. Suddenly I feel as if money doesn't matter. That if I see something to spend my money on, I should go ahead and spend.

Before this I was a complete miser, more keen to count my shillings than spend them, so I'm a bit puzzled at what's happened. The answer may be that last month I committed myself to the most expensive holiday I've ever paid for, and know that even the deposit will have to come out of my savings account. And somehow that seens to have broken my lifelong taboo on overspending.

Let's hope we all enjoy the holiday, and that I'm not in debtor's prison the following week.

a bus stop near home

2009-11-23T14:41:00.000-08:00

Crossing the road the other day I noticed an advertisement on the bus shelter opposite. Not a very exciting or colourful advertisement. Mostly grey, and not much text, but as my myopia got into range I saw it was announcing Queen's recent cd release, Absolute Greatest Queen.

Over the weekend I checked a clutch of online reviews - rather scathing most of them: The music is good, but who's it for? If you like Queen you'll already have these tracks, probably more than once.

But the marketing department have got me sussed - I like Queen and don't own any of their music at all - but now I've done a deal and had a special request agreed for a late amendment to my Christmas List.

Roll on December 25 and turn the volume to the MAX!

Is this a Link I see before me?

2009-11-22T03:01:00.000-08:00

On Slate's Dear Prudence letters page this week is a thread asking how people generally celebrate Thanksgiving, and there's been quite a heartwarming bunch of replies.

So much so that I begin to wish we had a similar 'everyone welcome' festival in the UK.

I wonder where we'd put it on the calendar, and what we'd call it?

Noddy & The Distant Faraway Mother

2009-11-21T15:41:00.001-08:00

There was a rerun tonight of a television programme about the children's author Enid Blyton. I used to love her books - The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, Malory Towers, Noddy of course - and there certainly were plenty of her books to keep a child endlessly occupied.

I had heard some years ago on a radio programme that Enid Blyton wasn't such a good mother - all she cared about was writing, writing, writing. For which she needed peace and quiet with No Disturbances. Which meant of course, No Children.

But the television programme absolutely pulled no punches and showed us a woman completely blinkered to the needs of her two daughters, and to the needs of any other person in her life; completely selfish in her desperation to satisfy her own inner demons.

Presumably in an effort to show a little balance and compassion, the programme also told us something about the disrupted childhood that brought Enid Blyton's demons into being.

And maybe drove her into her makebelieve world where children enjoyed endless sunny picnics and every adventure ended happily back at home.

Go Collider Go!

2009-11-20T12:41:00.000-08:00

Champagne all round (again) for the scientists who have been nursing the Large Hadron Collider back to life for the last fourteen months.

During its down time the collider has been tested and dusted and refitted and fed a sandwich and tested some more. And finally cooled down to operating temperatures and had its green Go button pressed.

This evening the particle beams are chasing their tails sedately around the 27km collider track. Later in the weekend scientists hope to see the particle collisions this huge machine was built to cause.

And maybe, just maybe, the force of those collisions will be sufficient to generate that wunderkind of fundamental particles The God Particle.

Up here we're not so bothered about Particles - not when we already have a whole pantheon of the completed article after all.

Tracy Island

2009-11-19T15:06:00.000-08:00

Looks like International Rescue are coming to the aid of the European Union.

Catherine Ashton as Lady Penelope, to Herman van Rumpuy's Parker.

The EU could do with all the help it can get - binding 27 independent countries within one constitution is never going to be an easy gig. Look what happened to the USSR with far fewer member states.

And the deal has the twin bonus of sparing the world from the over-smiley Tony Blair, while allowing the UK to keep a firm grip on David Milliband, who is surely destined for great things in domestic politics.

Ring in the Thousand Years of Peace

2009-11-18T14:47:00.000-08:00

Have been listening this evening to The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins and am completely swept away by it.

It was commissioned as a millennial piece by the Royal Armouries in the UK and had its world premiere in London in April 2000.

The underlying form of the Mass is amended to include secular texts and non-Christian religious texts and the overall effect is huge and immensely moving.

If I had any space on my Christmas list I would certainly be adding this - but I may end up having to buy it for myself.

Now I've heard this amazing and overwhelming piece I am amazed it hasn't featured on the radio programme Soul Music.

Perhaps it did and I missed it.

Brief Encounter

2009-11-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

A list has been published of a handful of UK rail stations that are to be updated as a matter of urgency. Several of these are located in the north west corner of England, which I suppose confirms the common belief that the south east corner has in the past enjoyed more than its proper share of funding.

The stations to be updated have been selected from the ten that came bottom of a customer satisfaction survey conducted earlier this year.

Though it isn't included in the first tranche of updatees the very bottomest of these stations was Manchester Victoria.

Which made me smile because I was there last year and was thrilled to find a grand old station in its original state, with tiny ticket windows peeping shyly out of their imposing brick background, and a spacious ladies' room walled with beautiful victorian tiles.

I did wonder if the rather scattered nature of the platforms was convenient for commuters in a hurry, but according to the news item this morning there may be no relief of their problems just yet, as the main result of the station upgrades will be

More Shops.

and on the first day

2009-11-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

things went quite well at my new job.

The payroll person asked for my bank details (always a good sign)

My line manager, who is the company chief exec, confirmed that I have an office to myself, if you don't count three printers, two filing cabinets and the world's most intimidating photocopier (and I'm definitely not counting them)

The payroll person, wearing a different hat, asked me to pick what I'd like to order for my office christmas lunch (which was a pleasant surprise on my first day). I've chosen parsnip soup because it sounds delicious, even though I never choose the soup at group meals because there's always too much and it's far too filling; and duck confit with toulouse sausage and braised red cabbage, being tempted by the red cabbage even though I fear the dish as a whole may be too rich and too fatty; and chocolate pot brulee, because it mentions the word chocolate and thus could not be avoided. We only have four weeks to wait for this feast, which is rather a dire thought as it means christmas is nearly here, and as yet I have done nothing about it.

Apparently we get paid for a four hour midday break on the day of the christmas lunch - which I think means that we get to go home once the meal is over instead of stumbling blearily back to the office and failing to do anything useful for the rest of the afternoon.

How remarkably sensible!

criminal injuries?

2009-11-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

Did you hear the incredible story this week about the two three year olds who for a little while were left unattended in a car in 2007?

Unsurprisingly mayhem ensued and one of the boys hit the other one.

The problem was that he used a car jack, and the injured boy was badly hurt.

Who would you think was to blame for all this? I would nominate the person or persons who decided to leave two three year olds unsupervised in a car and had previously left a car jack accessible to them.

But in some extraordinary way the UK legal system is agreeing (at the moment) that the injured boy is entitled to compensation from the general fund run to compensate people injured in the course of a criminal act.

I would have thought the only criminal act here was to leave the toddlers on their own.

And that if any compensation were to be sought (in this litigation mad society) it should be from the parent/s or carer/s of the child who behaved in such an entirely predictable (albeit not entirely acceptable) manner.

a hero worthy of his plinth

2009-11-14T05:32:00.000-08:00

Following our plinth interlude this autumn there doesn't seem to have been much news about what was happening next in trafalgar square, until we heard Clive James speaking with his Point of View on the radio last night.

He was berating a female journo for revelling in her own ignorance of a certain Sir Keith Park who (we heard) is, in exaggerated fibreglass form, the new temporary fourth plinther prior to being cast in bronze and placed on a permanent plinth of his own.

Needless to say I had never heard of Sir Keith Park either, but felt humbled enough by Clive James' overwhelming support for him to run an internet search.

And could hardly believe what I found. Park does indeed seem to have been a man of heroic proportions both in his body (standing 6ft 5) and in his life.

He was a hugely successful fighter pilot in World War One who went on to lead with exceptional brilliance the fight against the Luftwaffe in World War Two. He seems to have combined the ability to be a first rate pilot with the completely different abilities to plan and lead startlingly effective campaigns. And while I admit that the website I was consulting may have been somewhat (well all right, extremely) biased in his favour, it left the casual reader pretty much certain that without Sir Keith Park it would have been a case of Sprechen sie Deutsch? for this blog.

Strange that for someone who feels they hold basically pacifist views, I should be so very grateful to this man who killed or was directly responsible for killing hundreds (thousands?) of his fellow human beings.

Maybe the War is sufficiently distant now that it's possible to guess what life would be like today if everyone on this side of the English Channel had taken a moral stand and refused to fight.

For me that's not a good picture, so I am now grateful to say I have heard of Sir Keith Park and that I support his right to be be on that plinth for as long as the fibreglass will stand it.

Goodbye to All That

2009-11-13T13:26:00.000-08:00

Maybe it wasn't quite a war zone, but knowing I don't ever have to inhabit the poisonous atmosphere of that office again brings a lightening of the spirit and a wonderful sense of calm.

My lovely co-workers clubbed together for a fine collection of leaving gifts, and inscribed a card with many kind thoughts and good wishes.

I hope I have the good fortune to meet such a supportive group of colleagues in my new job.

Starting 9am Monday...

Defying the Ratings?

2009-11-12T13:01:00.001-08:00

At the moment I only have a couple of Must See television programmes, and typically one of them must be suffering from poor viewing figures because it's being moved from Thursday primetime to something of a pre-graveyard slot on a Saturday evening.

I seem to have suffered from liking-the-wrong-stuff throughout my life, and have grown accustomed to seeing products I think are super-ace disappearing without trace.

It all started with the Minty Top Ten (a chocolate & nut coated mint-flavoured ice cream on a stick) when I was about thirteen. This was introduced as a variant on the original Top Ten chocolate ice cream version and was truly awesome. At least I thought so, but apparently no-one else did because after a month or so it vanished from the store freezers and that was that.

I've noticed someone has also nominated the minty Top Ten as their favourite long-lost ice cream on a Woman & Home forum - so maybe it's time for the manufacturers to have second thoughts?

change for the worse?

2009-11-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

There was a moving interview on the radio yesterday evening. A nurse in her seventies was telling the story of her life.

For more than fifty years she lived according to her birth gender as male, feeling from early childhood that she was really a girl, but toughing it out through life as a soldier and a farmer, marrying and fathering two children.

At around 55 the marriage failed, and the interviewee decided there was still time to become a woman and enjoy a good life before the onset of old age, and was referred to a specialist for advice.

The advice of course was that such a transition should be made slowly, with two years initially just dressing as a woman, before any treatment could be started. And that that treatment would take another three years to complete.

This seemed out of the question for someone already in their mid fifties, keen to start a new life, and a private clinic was approached.

This surgeon had no scruples about scheduling surgery in a matter of weeks, and the woman she had always wanted to be stepped out into the world shortly afterwards.

She has found great companionship and pleasure in nursing, and has had at least one good relationship with a man, but she told us that none of her previous friends and family could accept her new life, and that everyone she used to know had turned away from her, including both her children.

Despite this, I felt sure she would be so relieved, so contented to be at last in her own body, that she would be prepared to discount the loss of such small-minded people from her past.

But the interview closed with the question I think maybe it always does: Knowing what you know now, do you think you made the right choice?

And this time the interviewee answered: No, I don't think I did.

Which just seems so heartbreakingly sad.

today was the day

2009-11-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

when unusual or unexpected books were in the news.

First there was discussion about the upcoming publication of the working papers of what would have been Vladimir Nabokov's last book, had he lived to turn the working papers into a book and not asked his executors to destroy them.

And second was the story about C G Jung's Red Book having recently been put into the public domain, allowing his disciples to read for the first time the private thought processes that led Jung to develop his theory of archetypes and the collective unconscious. Jung's own handwritten and decorated Red Book has been on exhibition in New York since early October prior to publication of a facsimile and translation of the Book.

It seems a strange coincidence that these two books written so many years ago (30 and 80-90) should become available to the public at almost the same time, both in facsimile, but neither of them perhaps with the author's complete support.

anniversaries

2009-11-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

Media excitement today over the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall completely overshadows any commemoration of the much grimmer events that occurred fifty one years earlier in Austria & Germany.

Kristallnacht - the night of broken glass - on 9 November 1938 was one of many events that showed the world what would be the likely fate of the european jewish population over the next seven years.

Why nobody noticed, nobody cared, is maybe a question we should be addressing alongside the feverish studying of Hitler and the nazi party that forms such a central part of the history curriculum in schools these days.

What use learning to recognise a tyrant if you don't also learn how to resist one?

Ritter Re-born?

2009-11-07T22:56:00.005-08:00

Were reports of the death of the Ritter Square some months ago exaggerated?

A visit today to the Waitrose foodstore at 50 Hauxton Road, Trumpington, Cambridge revealed a healthy display of both the Marzipan and the Whole Hazelnuts Ritter Sports, with best before dates of June 2010.

As opportunity permits, your fearless reporter will investigate previous known sources of supply at the supermarket best known for its ongoing attempts to take over the world (T****); at Hayes Garden Centre in Ambleside; and at retail booths in rail stations at London, Victoria and Leeds, West Yorkshire.

The results of this investigation will be published here first - but may be somewhat delayed until such time as your reporter has occasion to travel between South London, West Yorkshire and the Lake District.

In the meantime, have a break?

nimby

2009-11-07T00:25:00.000-08:00

sadly we can confirm that neither of Friday night's mega-massive lottery jackpots has landed in our back yard.

I guess some are just destined to stay on the treadmill until retirement age arrives.

But at least I'm changing treadmills in a week's time, which is maybe the next best thing to a mega-massive lottery win?

ivy league

2009-11-06T12:30:00.001-08:00

(Warning: barefaced boasting alert - if you don't like boasters, the first part of this is probably not such a good post for you to read!)

For twelve months we didn't want to broadcast the news that we had a daughter trying for a place at one of the top two UK universities in case we pointlessly raised expectations or put a hex on proceedings.

Then when she achieved the grades she needed and was accepted, we didn't want to broadcast the news because it just seemed like outright boasting.

And now here we are partway into her second year and it suddenly hits me: if I don't make the most of the opportunity pretty soon it will be too late. University will be finished, she will be off into the real world, and I will have missed my chance to jump onto the table and share this wonderful and amazing news with the world.

So, here it is:

My daughter is a student at Cambridge University, one of the top universities in the world.

And not just any old student at one of the best universities in the world. In her first year exams she came 5th equal out of the 74 on her course, putting her in the top 10% of a group of students who might be expected to be among the brightest in the uk. Wow.

The strangest thing is that she was offered a place at Cambridge without having any of the extra-curricular points we had thought might be essential - she wasn't in a sports team, didn't play an instrument, wasn't one of the team of Head Students. It seems she was accepted solely because of her attitude to work and her exam performance. Perhaps government pressure on the top universities to open their doors to more students from non-privileged backgrounds is having some effect - even though most of my daughter's co-students have indeed come from fairly elite schools rather than their local comprehensives.

Thanks to the amazing education system in the uk my daughter's success has all been achieved without payment of a penny over and above our regular taxes. She attended the totally free and open-to-all local state schools, worked hard and achieved her grades. The government pays her university fees and a living allowance (subject to our household income not being above certain limits) and once her education is finished she is committed to repaying these loans out of her own income, at a reasonably affordable level, in each month that she earns more than a pre-set amount.

Currently there is no need in the uk to set up a college fund before you can hope to attend university. It's just down to you to repay the government loan out of future earnings, in the knowledge that those earnings will probably be enhanced with a decent degree behind you.

Socialism seems to get a pretty bad press these days, but it's hard to argue against it being a good way to run a decent and humane society. Let us support our citizens when they need it, and they will support us when their situation improves.

From each according to their ability, to each according to their need?

More Lines of Beauty

2009-11-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

From our vantage point above you we enjoy many sights considered beautiful, from sun rise over a mountain range, or a flock of scarlet birds wheeling in the skies beneath us, to the wonders taking shape within some of your human cities.

If you take pleasure in line and colour and materials perfectly selected for their place, spend a moment at www.archidose.blogspot.com and enjoy some of the beauty displayed there.

G & M

2009-11-04T12:33:00.000-08:00

General Motors - automotive leaders currently causing global financial confusion

Grand Marnier - cognac based liqueur with orange

Genetic Modification - shortcut to developing new plant varieties while causing public outcry

Gregor Mendel - Moravian monk who discovered the science that underlies genetic modification

GrandMother - formerly grey haired & cuddly, these days equally a blonde in a business suit

Grant Maintained - schools funded by government money and run for the benefit of the wealthy

Grand Master - black belt of the chess world

Gina McKee - star of the show Our Friends in the North despite appearing opposite both Dr Who and James Bond

Gladys Minor - sister of the better known Morris

Groucho Marx - the one with the moustache (not to be confused with the ones with the harp, the club and the capital)

G&M - like S&M but more Glamorous

G&M - like G&T but more Minty

G&Ms -like M&Ms but more Garlicky

Hello?

2009-11-03T13:53:00.000-08:00

This is Mrs Jupiter here, taking a quick look round while Mr J catches forty winks. Not that he'd admit to any such thing of course - he'll have been considering important matters of state no doubt according to his version of the story.

Those of us who can hear the snores might be expected to think otherwise.

I'll go now so as not to outstay my luck, but I'll pop back sometime to fill in a few of the gaps Mr J seems to have left.

Kind regards,

Mrs J.

nine more days and counting...

2009-11-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hoping for an early, early night tonight.

Training up my replacement seems to be completely exhausting, even though she's bright and quick to learn.

Shouldn't have taken my eye off the ball like I did twice today though, thinking she was good to go on her own for a while and me needing to finish another piece of work.

Both times resulted in problems - the first time definitely down to me not giving enough information; the second - who knows?

So, first task tomorrow is hunting down the source of a $5.00 mismatch on the cash account.

Let's hope it doesn't take too long.

highway to heaven?

2009-11-01T12:55:00.001-08:00

The 50th birthday tomorrow of Britain's first motorway is being greeted with as much acclaim as though this stretch of road had some kind of religious significance for the local mortals.

And perhaps it does - car-worship has become an accepted form of observance, so maybe the motorway network is revered as the perfect means for the display of your pimped and polished automotive idols.

one thousand days

2009-10-31T06:13:00.000-07:00

A 1969 film reflects on the brief queenship of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII.

Anne of the Thousand Days tells the story of Henry's meeting and wooing of Anne; of her failure to bear him a son, and the unsuccessful attempts to politick her way out of trouble that end with her public beheading.

There are now One Thousand Days remaining until the opening of the London Olympics in July 2012.

Let's hope there is no public beheading (metaphorical nor actual) scheduled at the end of that story.

While we wait to find out there will at least be something for us to watch this evening - a spectacular firework display from the BT Tower in London, from 8.45 to 8.55 gmt, live on BBC1!

Brad & Janet

2009-10-30T16:42:00.001-07:00

we hear there's an amazing spectacle in prospect tomorrow.

organisers in Brighton, the UK's south coast seaside resort, hope over a thousand people will dress in fishnet tights, stilettos and feather boas (which perhaps in Brighton would hardly be noticed) but -

after an hour's rehearsal, participants will attempt to break the world record for the largest group of people performing the Rocky Horror Show's Time Warp dance.

how brilliant is that going to be!

if there's unexpected thunder from a clear sky tomorrow you'll know that up in the clouds we just couldn't resist joining in:

with a jump to the left, then a step to the right ...

so, farewell then

2009-10-29T15:28:00.001-07:00

norman painting
and phil archer.

hard to know
which
was the real character

when they had been
one person
for so many years.

but borsetshire
will miss
them
both.

(with apologies to ej thribb, now available in all good bookshops)

un-fair play

2009-10-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

Seems a bit underhand of that tennis guy to boast in his book that he ran rings round the drug test system.

He obviously didn't have much else of interest to attract buyers for his story, but he's effectively ensured no-one else will ever get away with making a stupid mistake.

But he was all right, so what the heck?

ground control to Ares 1

2009-10-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

commencing countdown, engines on
check ignition and may -

Alas and alack; I fear my liver isn't what it used to be.

That final goblet of wine last night was surely one more than it could cope with - as today's sorry weather bore witness.

But I promise you sunshine and fluffy cloudlets by tomorrow's dawn - or Bacchus shall bear the weight of my displeasure.

bad day for the glazers

2009-10-25T05:31:00.000-07:00

Who'd own a sports team?

First Manchester United lose to Liverpool at Anfield in the English football premiership competition.

Then Tampa Bay are pretty much swamped by New England at Wembley in the American football NFL, or at least it's pretty much looking that way right now (Dewey defeats Truman, anyone?)

alors! asterix 50ans

2009-10-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

Bonne anniversaire Asterix!

50th birthday celebrations aplenty at the moment for the indomitable Gaul and his village, still fighting the Romans after all these years - including a commemorative postal stamp in France.

For the first time we miss not being able to drop in a picture to illustrate our post - but alas that knack seems to be for mortals only.

a literary moment

2009-10-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

The minor godlet reports that college work has started with a look at American writer Martha Grimes. Within her novella The Train Now Departing is reference to the lines by Wallace Stevens:

Beauty is momentary in the mind -
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.

which seem complete by themselves but are part of the exquisitely beautiful Peter Quince at the Clavier.

Wallace Stevens was apparently on dining terms with Robert Frost, and had the distinction of breaking his hand against Ernest Hemingway's jaw in an attempt to box with him.

Stevens' words about beauty bring to mind The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. The eponymous line being both the sinuous curve of the ogee, and a reference to the 1980s restorative of choice.

The book is an examination of the wild excesses of the 1980s in the UK; was 2004 Booker prize winner; adapted as a BBC television series three or four years back and probably merits a place as an EngLit classic. It is a book full of life and love, (gay) sex and drugs, and the sadness of watching the person you love die inch by painful inch in front of you.

London Calling...

2009-10-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

News reached us today (sometimes I must admit we are rather behind the times) of an interesting sporting event to take place at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday.

We hear that American Football is to make another appearance in the form of a game between Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Patriots.

Last time a similar event was held the visitors complained that the grass was awful - I hope the Brits have learned their lesson and laid more suitable turf this time round.

If the skies are not too cloudy we hope to take a peek at the proceedings on Sunday - all those padded shoulders and tiny waists hurtling towards the opposition do make quite an entertaining spectacle even if the rules of the game remain a mystery to most of us.

Rome v. Canterbury

2009-10-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has graciously given the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams fourteen days notice that the roman catholic church seeks to boost its numbers by kindly permitting dissatisfied anglicans to convert to catholicism whilst retaining their anglican traditions.

This recruiting tactic aims to draw in those from the Church of England who are so far from enlightenment that they cannot stomach the notion of a female bishop. Shame on their misogyny.

One positive outcome of the exercise could be earlier consecration of female bishops in the Church of England, as those opposed to such consecrations would be free to transfer to Rome.

So maybe that old saying about god's mysterious ways isn't so far from the truth after all.

constellation consternation

2009-10-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

NASA's Ares 1-X rocket was heading for its launch pad earlier today, ready for a two minute test flight later this month.

But with money short, the future of the Constellation programme, intended to replace the existing space shuttle fleet, is now in doubt.

An expert committee reviewing manned space flight is expected to report back to the White House this week.

All our fingers are crossed, but if the report goes against, I guess we'll just have to wait for Zefram Cochrane.

time for a change.2

2009-10-19T14:08:00.001-07:00

Two weeks today since I told the big wheels at work that I would be leaving. And since then the place has seemed altogether better. Mostly because I'm concentrating strictly on my own work now, instead of forever looking round to see if anyone else needs a hand.

Today I made a start on typing up handover notes and tidying up the mess and muddle of computer files I inherited three+ years ago.

The checklist of regular jobs I jotted down the other day looks as though it would take an acre of print to explain, so I may just do a few headings and hope to fill in the detail face to face with the new person. Let's hope it's someone who has done a similar job before.

And someone who doesn't mind not taking more than three days holiday at a time during most of the year...

the future fights back?

2009-10-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

Following continuing problems with the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and the cancellation in 1993 of the United States Superconducting Supercollider, two eminent physicists have suggested that these machines may have sabotaged themselves from the future in order to prevent them manufacturing the hypothesised Higgs boson (aka the God particle).

Nielsen is one of the founders of string theory, and respected for his 'deep and original' (physics speak for 'apparently crazy but might be proved right in the end') thinking.

This latest suggestion is curiously reminiscent of stories about the Ultimate Answer to the Universe and Everything, and supercomputers multi-networked until they are indeed capable of controlling the universe.

But at least those were just stories.

telling the future

2009-10-16T13:54:00.000-07:00

interesting book published by a professor from NYU, giving details of how he takes known facts, leavens them with the psycholocigal insight that people always tend to act out of self interest, purees them in his computer, and hey presto - the Future unfolds before him.

apparently his predictions have been statistically tested and found to be outside the limits for random success.

strange how you mortals have always felt compelled to look ahead in this way.

doubtless you will say it's part of what makes you human.

fit, fun, forever young

2009-10-15T14:58:00.000-07:00

What a glorious story about the 100 year old woman winning a gold medal in a super-seniors shot putt event.

It isn't clear whether this has always been her event, but competitive spirit drove Ruth Frith to train six days a week, bench pressing 80 lbs.

Ms Frith claims the secret of her success is that she Hates Vegetables and never eats them, so I suppose that's a vote for a high protein diet then!

the hundredth day

2009-10-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

all good things ... was the title I think of the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation

but holds true here to mark the final day of the 4th plinth project in London.

The cherry picker collected the last plinther shortly after 9am this morning, having to remind her to bring her belongings with her as she left, and returned a few minutes later bearing men with cutting equipment to remove the safety netting.

There has been far more publicity today at the close of the project than there ever was during it, which must say something about what news editors think are good stories.

Up here we have our ceremonial t.shirt safely preserved for posterity - and are grateful to be in that place where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.

Though we're not quite so sure about mildew.

now you see it ...

2009-10-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

Looks like we'd better take care next time we're earthbound.

New security scanners are being trialled that can detect weapons hidden inside clothing.

Unfortunately they achieve this by detecting everything hidden inside the clothing - including an accurate outline of the person wearing the clothes.

Which sounds a trifle embarrassing for the ordinary mortal, but nothing to the incident that might occur should one of our number be subject to such a scan.

Bearing in mind our visits with you sometimes fail to be skin deep.

education otherwise

2009-10-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

Schools in the uk are having a bit of a bad press at the moment.

Send your children to nursery and they run the risk of suffering abuse from staff and having pictures of the atrocity posted on the internet.

Allow your teenager to follow an art course and run the risk that a novice teacher will not see the danger as your child plunges their hands into a bucket of plaster of paris in order to make a mould.

Unbelievably both these horror stories have been in the news this week. The nursery abuse has only recently come to light, but the art class incident happened three years ago - the school has just been ordered to pay a fine, equivalent to 2,000 Euros for each of the eight fingers the student lost when her hands were burned almost beyond repair when the plaster heated up as it set.

The biggest drawback people usually cite against home educating is that your children will not have the opportunity to mix with others in their age group.

Suddenly this doesn't seem so much of a price to pay.

vegetarian spiders?

2009-10-11T05:14:00.001-07:00

This seems to have hit the news today, though apparently the spiders have been observed since the 1890s.

Unusually these spiders don't hunt for prey but eat the tasty leaf-tip buds of the acacia tree. Their main problem seems to be avoiding the ants that try and preserve these buds for their own use.

Rumour has it that despite their 'vegetarian' diet the spiders do occasionally eat each other when leaf tips are scarce, and help themselves to ant larvae too - presumably on the well known basis that eating flies is murder but larvae are justifiable homicide - though I suppose that should really be justifiable larvicide.

As to why a thumbnail-sized central american spider should be named after a black panther - that is the secret of George & Elizabeth Peckham.

peace to the world

2009-10-10T04:43:00.000-07:00

Your media have had so much to say about the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama that we can hardly add anything new.

Maybe it's an indication of the battle-ready state of much of the world that the committee fell so eagerly on the late nomination of the new boy on the block. Someone who must surely have attracted no negative comments if only because of his short time on the global scene.

Here is a leader with worldwide influence who seems to embody the notions of peace & love even if there has not yet been time for his underlying philosophy to effect any changes.

We wish him the human support he will need to see the changes he dreams of take place over the next few years.

He certainly has our support.

(except for our belligerent friend Mars, of course, who took to his bed in utter despair this time last year).

moonshine

2009-10-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

Oh dear. NASA has almost caught us out.

Your scientists are so right that water was to be found on the Moon.

It's just that we've been mining those reserves for as long as we've needed water to distill our triple strength nectar and ice for our ambrosia sorbet.

Let's hope there's still enough left for your human needs when you take up residence.

unionised deathwish?

2009-10-08T14:45:00.001-07:00

Here we are trying to recover from economic meltdown caused by the recent collapse of the financial system. And what are the trade unions in the UK doing? They seem to be going on strike. Are they completely mad?

Understandably the refuse collectors in Leeds are taking action. Following a job evaluation scheme of council posts the rate for their job has tumbled and many seem likely to take a substantial pay cut. At least that's the way the workers see it, though the council of course has a slightly different version despite having to agree that wages will fall.

Maybe jumping onto the West Yorkshire bandwagon the local bus drivers seem to be out on the streets too. Protesting perhaps against the reduced services proposed by the bus company. Though goodness knows how the company justifies such reductions when revenues must be sky high if the price of a bus ticket is anything to go by.

Moving to London there is trouble underground, where workers on the tube system are apparently unhappy with conditions that include such eminently non-Victorian entitlements as - eight weeks holiday a year...

But the granddaddy of them all of course is The Royal Mail. A venerable institution with a union unfortunately committed to a policy of suicide by strike action. With personal mail already converting to the internet, strike action will surely provide the spur for the Royal Mail's remaining business customers to transfer allegiance to the parcel carriers now offering mail distribution services.

Membership of a workplace union is a right all workers need, to ensure there can be no exploitation by the employer. But it begins to seem that workers might need protection from their union - when the union is a big business itself, with entrenched interests in maintaining a high profile and demonstrating its power by encouraging strike action.

physics v literature

2009-10-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here in the uk there is concern over a continuing decline in the number of students opting for the traditional science subjects.

Little wonder perhaps when, given the opportunity yesterday to publicise the winner of a science prize and the winner of a literature prize, the media tended to total overkill with the literature story - which was mentioned in every news bulletin after the announcement was made, and to ignore almost completely the physics prize - which seemed to merit only one mention.

Not much encouragement for would-be scientists there then.

This story seems even more depressing given that the science prize was the Nobel prize for Physics, half of which was awarded on Tuesday (to a British/US citizen who had studied and worked in the UK) for groundbreaking achievements in fibre optics - which are surely a cornerstone of today's global communication systems.

Set against this the Man Booker prize for literature, awarded to the British author of a historical novel.

Somehow there doesn't seem much comparison between the value of these contributions to global society, and it's a shame to see the broadcasters opt so wholeheartedly for the easy story.

without the minor godlet

2009-10-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

after a long & lazy summer break the minor godlet has girded up his loins and returned to his chosen seat of learning.

the very clouds seem less comforting in the early days of his absence, and we take what little ease we can from morpheus' gentle embrace.

in time for sure the stillness around us will become a gift to cherish.

a signal for the loud return no doubt of minor godlet, belly empty and bag of laundry overfilled - to shake us up again from our hard won tranquillity.

time for a change

2009-10-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Exciting times ahead maybe; there is a new job on offer which promises a supportive atmosphere for staff and clients. Downside is a substantial cut in salary.

After the misery of recent months this seems a complete no-brainer and I have leaped at the chance with open arms.

The office bad guy sweetened his expected toxic rant with the most audacious string of lies - and this time I was able to look him in the eye and tell him so. And he didn't even look abashed - just changed tack to try and win my sympathy. The sad truth is the guy has major emotional and self esteem problems, but thank goodness I no longer feel I have to stand there while he beats me over the head with them.

Welcome to my new stress free life!

(I hope... )

can people learn to be happy?

2009-10-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

It tends to be accepted that some people are naturally optimistic and cheerful, while others are born to be miserable negativists.

But maybe all is not lost for those of a gloomier outlook - maybe a little gentle meditation before bedtime can soothe away the worries that prevent a good night's rest. Help show the way to a central stillness where it might be possible to put aside the pressures of everyday busyness.

Try your search engine with Happiness through Meditation and see if anything looks good to you.

Maybe we can turn the world into a giant bubble of happiness.

Except for the places suffering from horrendous natural disasters of course. It's up to the gods to fix those.

soul music

2009-10-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

is the title of a fascinating programme on Radio 4 that runs in short series from time to time; the last one's just finished.

Each programme takes one piece of music that has the ability to affect listeners deeply and plays that one piece of music while five or six people talk about what it means to them, how it is significant in their lives.

Over the years the programme has introduced me to some pieces I probably would never have discovered otherwise.

The ones closest to my heart include Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), composed by Richard Strauss in 1948 towards the end of his life; Spem in Alium written for eight choirs of five voices around 1600 by Thomas Tallis ; Gregorio Allegri's Miserere from 1630, written for performance in the Sistine Chapel using the text of Psalm 51, and Georg Friedrich Handel's coronation anthem Zadok the Priest, composed in 1727 for the coronation of George II - although this last piece I did know before I heard it discussed on the programme.

If you don't already know these and you get the chance, spend a little time with some of them and you might fall under their spell too. Or on the other hand of course, you might just think they're boring old rubbish and wish you hadn't wasted your time!

old news

2009-10-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

At last details have been published about the incredible fossil finds made in Ethiopia fifteen years ago.

The fossils were found in a sedimentary layer dated at 4.4 million years ago, and included the shattered skeleton of a female human ancestor which has been painstakingly reconstructed - and named Ardi.

Unexpectedly she seems to have lived in woodland - it had previously been thought that human ancestors only learned to walk after they had moved to the grassy savannas.

This news is exciting even for us, as we have to admit our own history does not go back nearly so far, mankind having conjoured our existence a mere 750,000 years ago.

send in the clowns?

2009-09-30T13:46:00.001-07:00

Well this is something for us to look forward to:

Our first clown.

Doesn't seem very level headed though, to talk of tickling the astronauts while they try to sleep.

What does he think will happen if the crew turn into a bunch of sleep-deprived caffeine addicts?

We'll just give that flight a miss, thank you.

disappearing choc shock

2009-09-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

Bad news that world cocoa supplies continue their downward slide.

The major manufacturers tell us they will have no choice but to increase point of sale prices for their chocolate nibbles - but when did they need an excuse anyway?

Rumour reaches us of a company called Hotel Chocolat who have an engaged ethics project supporting cocoa growers in Ghana, and are reviving cocoa plantations in St Lucia.

Perhaps we should give them a try, rather than put our money into the international coffers of the corporate giants.

the day after yesterday

2009-09-25T15:48:00.000-07:00

We're safely back to our own cloudscapes today, after our earthbound adventures yesterday.

It seemed the excursion went well, and several good reports were received about the loud stripey jacket (still available to view if you missed it, web address as last post).

We'll be staying safely within our comfort zone for the next little while as we regather our energies. It brings us to exhaustion having to embody ourselves to spend time amongst you mortals.

The notion of softly supporting cloudlets, and plentiful ambrosia being brought to us by cheerfully smiling cherubim is infinitely welcome, so we will now retire gracefully until we find ourselves recovered.

statues?

2009-09-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hot news at the moment is that a group of us are planning a trip to join you mortals for a few hours.

We've managed to tweak the system to get ourselves a stint on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. Not for one of the peak hours; that would have been just a bit too obvious - but look out for our representative on Thursday 24th September, between 6 - 7 am, London time.

Go to: www.oneandother.co.uk/participants for plinth watching - drop 'participants' to go straight to the live view.

So far we've not picked the lucky candidate for the starring role, but whoever it is will be wearing a particularly loud stripey jacket, so you'll be sure to know we're there.

We'll make sure we give you a wave; mind the shop for us until we get back on Friday!

light extinguished

2009-09-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

Hard to imagine a programme that started out as a radio soap opera way back in 1937 is still being broadcast as a television show in 2009 - but that's how it's been with Guiding Light.

Until today.

Falling audiences have convinced bosses to cancel the show, and even though there were around two million regular viewers it's now too late for any cable network to step in as many of the show's actors have already moved on to new parts elsewhere.

The end of a long and action packed era.

Wonder if any of today's shows will last as long.

next step 'one small step' in klingon?

2009-09-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

On 17 September 1976, a mere four years after the decision was made to develop a low cost reusable space shuttle system, NASA's first orbiter spacecraft was rolled out.

This was a test vehicle not itself built for space flight, and had had the working name Constitution - but during development there was an orchestrated write-in campaign by trekkies so that the spacecraft actually rolled out under the name Enterprise.

A worthy tribute to the continuing mission to explore strange new worlds, even though as an orbiter of course, there would only ever be this world.

But perhaps this one's strange enough.

tomorrow's war?

2009-09-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

The minor godlet brought us good reviews of a film he saw recently: The Hurt Locker. Apparently set in an army bomb disposal unit, the suspense and rising tension really struck home with the college crowd and has raised the interest of some of our greybeards to such an extent that we have arranged our own viewing tomorrow afternoon.

There will be wine of course, as we enjoy the show, so just imagine the heated discussions the old warriors among us will enjoy - Call that fighting? Where are their spears, and the swords for hand to hand combat? This is nothing but magician's tricks, to cause such harm from such a distance...

sabbath prayers

2009-09-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

We have noted that for some of your very many religions Sunday is the day marked out particularly for religious observance.

Why this should be is not quite clear to us, as those of you who wish to commune with your god surely will do so on more than one day each week.

The time seems long gone when those working for a living could only be sure of a break from their labours on those days set aside for churchgoing, but perhaps it suits your religious leaders to organise their lives so.

We were particularly interested to overhear one piece of religious radio programming from the UK today - featuring the Archbishop of Canterbury discussing his relationship with god and prayer. He seemed a man full of humility and love, tending rather to the quaker way of speaking with god, out of inner stillness.

For ourselves, we admit we do sometimes enjoy a bit of singing and dancing from those trying to catch our attention, just to liven things up on what can be something of a dull day you understand.

Wage Slavery

2009-09-12T00:23:00.001-07:00

Yesterday morning I stood in the kitchen and shed tears at the prospect of going into work. And then I pulled myself together and set off for the office.

During the morning an opportunity came up for me to mention to my boss that all was not going too well in my section and that I was in a bit of a state - to which she replied "I am too" and gave me a couple of extra pieces of work to do.

I'll be back there again tonight, helping support the fight against injustice (which is what we do) but now and again it would be so nice to have a little more support for the staff within the office too.

folding stuff

2009-09-08T12:51:00.001-07:00

burma; thailand; japan - an exotic threesome, bound together in a recent story with a sweet sounding top layer, but a bitter taste at the centre.

A Thai origami contest this year was won by a twelve year old boy whose plane stayed aloft for twelve seconds (or for a more dubious twelve minutes, according to some reports). Victory has brought entry to a prestigious Origami Airplane competition in Japan, but unfortunately the boy did not have the papers necessary to re-enter Thailand if once he left.

How so, given that he was born in the kingdom? Because his parents are Burmese migrants with only temporary permission to live and work in Thailand, so that their son is only a temporary resident.

Apparently there are half a million people in this situation in Thailand, effectively stateless, many of whom feature on a list of those who will be considered for 'repatriation' to Burma in February 2010.

The sweetener to this sorry tale is that following something of a national outcry the young champion has been granted a temporary one-use permit that will enable him to travel to the competition in Japan later this month. After which he will revert to his current status.

brotherly love?

2009-09-06T06:11:00.001-07:00

some religious belief systems are built around the idea of forgiveness (forgive them father, for they know not what they do; forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us).

other religious belief systems retain the central tenet of a just revenge against those who have harmed us (an eye for an eye).

the recent release on compassionate grounds of a (wrongly?) convicted bomber so that he could go home to die seems to have stirred many passions.

it seems that astonishingly many of those who would claim adherence to a religious belief system that favours forgiveness, are adamant that this compassionate release was the wrong decision.

perhaps it is good that sometimes we get the leaders we need, rather than the leaders we deserve.

no such undertaking...

2009-09-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

three score years and ten: the regulation lifetime, since britain declared itself at war with germany and world war two was underway.
Not quite twenty one years since the end of the war to end all wars, with its mud and its trenches and its poets.
The new war would bring us bigger horrors, with its camps and its mushroom clouds.
How hugely grateful should those of us born in the west during the last seventy years be that we have never had to face such a situation.
Let us give thanks and praise.

no need for Armageddon 2

2009-08-31T13:20:00.000-07:00

We hear today that our meteor-zapping powers may no longer be required.

One of your engineering companies has designed a spacefaring vehicle that can fly alongside any meteoroid calculated to threaten a collision with the earth - and the simple presence of the spaceship over a long enough period of time will just gently alter the course of the meteoroid away from the danger zone.

Slow and steady saves the human race?

dutch courage

2009-08-27T13:50:00.001-07:00

How we smiled to hear the news about the nugget of moon rock on display in Amsterdam for the past twenty years.

A gift from a US ambassador to a Dutch prime minister in 1969, now revealed to be a very earthly chunk of petrified wood.

Surely a gift also to your conspiracy theorists who like to believe the moon landings never happened.

chocolate related news

2009-08-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

Rumours have reached us that the divine Ritter Sport squares Are no more. They have ceased to be. They are ex chocolate bars.

Apparently the current economic climate has brought production at the family run firm to an end.

We can hardly believe this is true, but the minor godlet heard it from a college friend who was told by a woman who works at the confectionery stall in the local train station. So we fear the worst.

To take up the words of the heroic Harriet: if only those Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters, you can be sure no chocolate manufacturers would have been harmed in the making of this global financial crisis.

Vacancies!

2009-08-23T04:19:00.001-07:00

Guest bedrooms are being prepared; big-breakfasts researched; tour guides trained.

We want to make a good impression when those first tourists arrive in a year or two.

Especially as they will be the high rollers, the big spenders, people who expect The Best.

We wonder how long it will take for them to realise that once they've stepped over this particular threshold, there's no checking out again.

Sometimes it's better to watch and wonder, rather than to jump right in.

aloha hawaii

2009-08-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

Let's hope the next 50 years see progress towards rebuilding the Hawaiian national and cultural identity that was swept away under a mountain of leis and crazy shirts on the island's incorporation into the American Dream on 21 August 1959.

HOW old??

2009-08-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

Today is the day decreed by those who decide such matters that Jupiter can celebrate a birthday each year.

This year not such a special one, though it may be that next year will be a prime number (yes, Mr Google agrees) so that will be something to look forward to!

The intention is to spend the day gazing at some of the world's most beautiful and stress-reducing countryside - just hillsides and lake shores; imagining the soothing breeze off the water.

Somehow just thinking about it makes me feel better!

Holiday Reading?

2009-08-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

Back from his latest vacation visit the Minor Godlet brings details of two books he stumbled across at the home of his hostess - one he rates Alpha Plus, the other, Delta Minus.

To start with the loser, published five or six years ago, a supposed medical thriller by Robin Cook called Seizure:

Unlike some of Cook's other books (such as Coma) this one unfortunately failed to thrill right from page 1. There were characters you could hardly raise any interest in, having conversations in agonisingly stilted language and becoming involved in almost unbelievably ludicrous events. Obviously written post Da Vinci we had to put up with a trip to Europe to visit a Cardinal in connection with the Turin Shroud. Back home the Mafia were somehow dragged in from nowhere and through it all you had to wonder how the central characters ever managed to build up a business together. The medical plot was gripping, involving surely-not-far-off procedures in DNA manipulation as a way to cure progressively debilitating diseases such as Parkinsons, but it seemed as though that story, which surely started out as the whole point of the book, was completely swamped by all the junk.

In fact, after the obligatory 500 or so pages there was no time left for any kind of resolution of the issues raised. It felt as though the author must have received a request from the publisher for delivery of the manuscript and just typed a few closing paragraphs before he pressed Print and leapt into a taxi.

On the other hand, The Lazarus Child by Robert Mawson was rated an utterly gripping read.

Published a little earlier, in 1998, this also deals with the development of medical procedures whose time you feel is almost here, in the field of coma research. It is easy to feel drawn into the lives of these characters, centering around a family whose children are involved in a road accident. For the most part the writing cuts and jumps so that we helter-skelter along, though there are some slower, descriptive dream sequences. These fit perfectly into the flow of the book, despite seeming maybe a little LordoftheRingsish.

Mawson gave himself plenty of time to finish what he had started before the publisher's deadline hit, leaving the satisfying feeling that you can imagine how the lives of the characters continue after you put the book down.

Or maybe that's just me.

engineering for beginners

2009-08-14T14:03:00.000-07:00

We see your investigators have uncovered more details about how the early mortals used to live.

Looking at the stones used for tool making at one site around one hundred thousand years ago the investigators realised the stones had been heat treated to make it easier to split off the sharp flakes used as cutting tools.

But what the investigators can't see is that while those early engineers were working on the relationship between variables such as temperature and time and stone sizes, the early marketing people gathered round to talk up the tribe's new process for making the local stones fit for purpose to ensure a bright new tomorrow.

It amuses us to see that some things never change.