Pure serene

Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Yet did I never breathe such pure serene
Till I heard PooterGeek speak out loud and bold.

Okay, so I'm paraphrasing Keats, but really, you gotta read the whole thing. Laugh? I almost choked!

Warning: Not suitable for people drinking hot beverages near their keyboards.

I have mail

So, not having checked my e-mail for some time, my laptop is telling me I have 283 unread e-mail messages. And all I can think is: "I wonder if that's a prime number?"

Turns out, it is. It's also a backlog. I'm getting round to it, though I was initially tempted to adopt the Solent solution.

Blaming Wal-Mart

I've heard Wal-Mart blamed for a lot of things, but John Harris (writing in yesterday's Guardian) comes up with a new one on me.

In the States, a recent survey by the National Endowment for the Arts revealed that the percentage of people aged 18 to 24 with experience of reading novels, poetry or plays had fallen by a third over the last 20 years. Given that the same period has seen the rise to retail omnipotence of Wal-Mart, it isn't hard to join the dots.

Join the dots!? Is he kidding? The idea that Wal-Mart's rise is responsible for literature's decline is like saying that global warming is caused by too few pirates: correlation does not imply causation.

Unless, of course, you hate supermarkets and like blaming Wal-Mart. Then, it seems, anything goes.

Bomb scare

BBC Wales reports that army bomb disposal experts were deployed in Swansea today after a suspicious package was discovered on a local bus.

Judging from the image accompanying the story, I don't think the army were taking the incident too seriously. Either that or someone needs to explain the whole concept of Remote Control to this soldier.

A drowned city

I stayed up late last night watching ABC’s coverage of Katrina’s aftermath. The devastation is mind-boggling and the logistical problems facing the emergency services are daunting. A correspondent at VodkaPundit highlights the difficulties:

Imagine trying to resolve the 9-11 mess if NYC was under six feet of water, all comms were out, the interstates were flooded and the majority of the infrastructure more or less completely out of commission.

And then there are “the 2%'ers”.

Biggest behavior problems are among those who are going cold turkey and there are quite a few. Cops figure that is going to get worse and with it the associated problems.

Those problems are already legion. Reuters reports that Loiusiana Congressman Charlie Melancon says as many as 100 people have died in his district as a result of the violent disorder that has broken out in the city. And Louisiana Govenor Kathleen Blanco has warned that National Guard troops deployed in the area are under orders to "shoot and kill" to restore order.

Meanwhile, in contrast to large-scale natural disasters in other countries, I haven't yet come across any reports of offers of aid or disaster relief from the international community or NGOs.

It looks like America is going to have to deal with this thing on its own.

Us and them

The BBC reports that researchers have completed the sequencing and analysis of the chimpanzee genome. It's long been held that chimps are humanity's closest living relatives, having diverged from a common ancestor only about 7 million years ago, but now we can see just how close that relationship is.

The study shows that our genomes are startlingly similar. We differ by only 1.2% in terms of the genes that code for the proteins which build and maintain our bodies. This rises to about 4%, when non-coding or "junk" DNA is taken into account.

The long-term goal of the project is to pinpoint the genetic changes that led to human characteristics such as complex language, walking upright on two feet, a large brain and tool use.

As the study’s lead author, Tarjei Mikkelsen of the Broad Institute at MIT, says:

We still do not have in our hands the answer to a most fundamental question: What makes us human? But this genomic comparison dramatically narrows the search for the key biological differences between the two species.

Nature magazine is commemorating the project’s completion with a special web feature on Pan troglodytes, including some previously-unseen footage of chimpanzee behaviour.

Random quote

It has been established beyond doubt that the placebo-controlled, randomised controlled trial is not a fitting research tool with which to test homeopathy.

Society of Homeopaths

Random picture

Games Day

The Big Fella's hosting a War Hammer/LOTR games day, today. Half a dozen ten-year-old boys are about to descend on us accompanied by armies of plastic orcs and homemade scenery.

They'll keep themselves amused for hours, and all we have to do is feed them. They won't stop for a meal in the midst of battle, so feeding them means providing snacks and sodas throughout the day.

I'm not sure I'll get much blogging done today.

Three weeks in bed

Bedrest: it's a cure-all, I tell you!

A month ago, my seasonal asthma kicked in. In previous years, I've required hospitalization and been close to death on more than one occasion.

In the past, even on good days, I'd be incapable of all forms of exertion - walking any distance or climbing stairs, for example. And on bad days, acute hypoxia would leave me incapable of recognizing when I needed emergency medical attention. Mac has, quite literally, saved my life on more than one occasion.

This year, as my symptoms worsened, I took to my bed expecting at some point to end up back in hospital,. It didn't happen: it seems I've gotten away lightly this year. I've had symptoms - sometimes they've been debilitating, mostly they've been irritating - but nothing like in previous years.

So what's changed? The only difference I can see is that , in the past, I've tried to work through my asthma season, ignoring the symptoms and carrying on like I'm not ill. It doesn't work, of course - I used to quickly become exhausted and eventually I'd be forced to lie down. This year, I did things differently. I didn't try to soldier on. When I got sick, I went to bed and stayed there until I got better. It worked!

Mac regards this as the right way to respond to illness but, for me, it's revolutionary. I was brought up to soldier on, and not to let things get the better of you. My family's attitude to illness held that symptoms, unless obviously and immediately life threatening, were to be ignored. In practice, this meant that, whatever the complaint, if your head wasn't falling off you would likely be told to "get on with it". To even acknowledge a symptom was tantamount to giving in to it. And "giving in" was the worst crime in the book.

Mmm. You know, maybe Mac's right, perhaps I do have a characteristically male attitude to illness.

Anyway, I’m up and about again.

Catching up

Having been off-line for nearly a month, I'm busy dealing with a backlog of e-mails. As a result, posting here will be light to non-existent for the next few days (no change there, then).

I'll be back.

Remember me?

I’ve spent the last few weeks with my head in my hands: computer problems have prevented me posting, my e-mail is totally screwed and my regular tech support has moved to Oxford.

Nobody told me there’d be days like these.

Out and about

It's been a fine sunny day in the South West. We took a picnic out to Chepstow Castle and had lunch by the River Wye.

Fine weather, nice food, good company and a seriously impressive castle (much of the original Norman hall-keep, built in 1067, is still standing) - we had a grand day out.

Shabbat Shalom

I'm a regular visitor to Joe Katzman's Good News Saturdays at Winds of Change. Mostly, I go there to read T L James's regular series of posts on Sufi Wisdom.

As terrorist Islam does its best to discredit the religion, it's important to remember that there are other voices within the faith. One such is the Sufis, a branch of Islamic mystics with roots in many religious traditions. The lessons of Sufism are often communicated through humorous stories and mystical or romantic poetry.

This morning, James once again features one of the many stories told around the figure of Nasrudin, whose exploits I'm coming to regard as a kind of spiritual soap opera - in today's episode, Nasrudin gets burgled.

The BBC on terror

PooterGeek is back. And he notes a strange distinction in the BBC's reporting of indiscriminate attacks on civilians:

The agents of Al-Qaeda who murder innocents in Iraq are different from the ones who murder innocents in the UK because the ones in Iraq are "militants", whereas the ones in Britain are "terrorists".

And USS Neverdock says the BBC has some explaining to do:

Perhaps the BBC would care to explain to the victims and their families, how this could happen since, according to the BBC's "The Power of Nightmares", this is all just a "myth".

For those who missed it, the BBC documentary's principal contention was that "the threat of terrorism to the West was a politically-driven fantasy".

How wrong can you be?

The aftermath

Today's attacks in London have so far claimed the lives of thirty-seven people and injured hundreds more. The transport system, both in London and beyond, has been severely disrupted and, at least in the capital, is unlikely return to normal for several days.

And yet, there is no sense of panic or despair, only a quiet resolve to carry on despite the carnage, and a fierce determination not to be intimidated. Whatever the perpetrators of today's events hoped to achieve, they are mistaken if they think the British people can be cowed into submission.

Tony Blair's response to the blasts seems characteristic of the national mood:

It's important [...] that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world.

Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilised nations throughout the world.

This evening, my thoughts go out to the victims of today's tragedy and to the families of those who lost their lives.

London bombings

Scary question (via Scott at the Daily Ablution) from Sky's coverage of the incidents: "Do these look like conventional explosions?"

Probably - it seems the attack was intended to disrupt London's transport rather than to cause major casualties - but it's too early to know for sure.

UPDATE
11.45: Normblog has updates.

Instapundit and Tim Worstall have links.

London under attack

The BBC is reporting that a series of explosions rocked central London this morning. Major incidents are reported at Edgware Road, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, Russell Square, Allgate East and Moorgate. There are, as yet, no indications as to the number of casualties.

My eldest son just rang to say he's safe - he's visiting London with his friends and they were planning on going into the center today. They're not going anywhere now: the Underground has been closed and there are no buses running in central London.

I've told him to stay put, anyway. And when he's ready to come home, I'm going to go get him.

BBC News are being very cagey about it, but it looks very much like a co-ordinated terrorist attack. It was always a possibility and London's emergency services have trained hard to deal with incidents of this kind. It looks like they're responding well to the crisis.

Cooking not blogging

I haven't been blogging much recently.

Recovering from a couple of bouts of serious illness while trying to maintain some semblance of a blog has been difficult. But I'm reasonably confident that I'm on the road to a full recovery. Mac and the boys are, of course, extremely pleased - they've missed my cooking!

As evidence of my continuing recovery (and to give you a flavor of life in the Junior household) here's this week's menu:

Sunday - cannelloni stuffed with spinach and ricotta
Monday - chicken fajitas
Tuesday - kofta bhuna, chana dahl, pilau rice & homemade chapatties
Wednesday - cheese & lentil wedge wth a tomato and tarragon coulis
Thursday - felafel, humus, baba ganoush, salad and pita
Friday - spaghettini with garlic and fresh herbs

They're just the evening meals. Lunchtimes, I like to experiment with new recipes (Monday, it was fettuccine all'arancio). And, in the afternoons, I'll sometimes make treats for when the boys get home from school - homemade potato chips, fried dumplings or onion bharjis. The rest of the time, I'm shopping or planning next week's meals, which hasn't left much time for blogging.

Still, there's hope. If my recovery proceeds apace, I should be back to more or less regular posting sometime soon, maybe.

Look out for me, huh.

Favorite movie stars

The results of the Normblog movie star poll are up. It's nice to see Cary Grant take the top spot; next to Jimmy Stewart, he's my favorite actor and a Bristol boy to boot (Mac went to the same local school).

Here's the way I voted (with four out of the top five):

Ingrid Bergman
Humphrey Bogart
James Cagney
Kirk Douglas
Cary Grant
Katherine Hepburn
Robert Mitchum
Barbara Stanwyck
James Stewart
Spencer Tracy