Thanks to The Bad Astronomer, I’ve just discovered Professor Richard Wiseman’s Quirkology web site. Some interesting things here; it makes me think about acquiring the eponymous book. Of course, perhaps that was the Professor’s intention all along. Oh, and I liked the gorilla reference as well.
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The Pink List
The Independent On Sunday has published this year’s version of its Pink List – their annual celebration of the great and the gay in British life. I was somewhat surprised to see Derek Jacobi marked as a "new" entry onto the list. I would have thought that Jacobi deserved a place on the list from the very first time the IoS produced it.Leave a comment
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The Golden Compass
I see that the film of the first book of Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials is to open at the end of the year. The marketing has begun with the opening of a web site: The Golden Compass.The film looks good, but I do wonder whether the resulting trilogy of films can do justice to the books. Having said that, Peter Jackson did a good job with The Lord of the Rings, so it can be done.Visitors to the site can see what their own personal Dæmon would be after answering 20 questions. Mine is apparently a vixen called Amantha.Update: hello, the vixen seems to have transmogrified into a tigress – someone must be manipulating the results…One response to “The Golden Compass”
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Mine’s a chimp called aneida. I’ll keep an eye on her.
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Geoffroy St. Hilaire Was Right
Back in the 19th century, Geoffroy St. Hilaire proposed that vertebrates and most invertebrates were inverted copies of each other. Vertebrates have a dorsal nerve cord and ventral heart, while an insect has a ventral nerve cord and dorsal heart. It was an idea that was dismissed at the time, but the latest advances in molecular biology seem to prove that he was actually right. PZ Myers has the full fascinating story over at Pharyngula.Leave a comment
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Stephane Halleux…
…makes the most amazing anthropomorphised creations. Like something from Tim Burton or Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.Leave a comment
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A Rat Made of Diamonds
The human mind is capable of making many things appear real. For example, this elderly lady who:…sought medical help because she believed that an abdominal operative procedure would be necessary to remove a "rat and a teddy bear made of diamonds" that she believed had grown within her.I continue to be grateful that the majority of my perceptions continue to be shared by those around me, such as, for example, the fact that there is a nest of rats in our compost heap and that I, and our farmer neighbour, can at least attest to the fact that (a) they aren’t made of diamonds and (b) so far we have trapped nine of the buggers.One response to “A Rat Made of Diamonds”
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Oh my heck – darn. You know, going mad, as opposed to just feeling like I am is one of my greatest fears. The poor woman. The human mind is amazing isn’t it.
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R.I.P. Jan
I mentioned a few weeks back that one of our neighbours had been told that he did not have long to live. Alas, the doctors’ prognosis was accurate, for yesterday we attended his funeral. He was a popular man, and 200 friends and neighbours were there yesterday to say farewell. As is traditional in this part of the Netherlands, his coffin was brought in by members of his family and his nearest neighbours. The service was simple, but moving, with his three daughters speaking about his life, and music (chosen by Jan) by Bach and Schumann.He will be missed.Leave a comment
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A Cruel Punishment
As Ophelia says, over at ButterfliesAndWheels, I don’t understand the morality behind this. The Irish Health Service (i.e. the persons in it who have taken this decision) seems to want to inflict a cruel and unusual punishment on this young woman.Leave a comment
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The Science of Hypnosis
Here’s a terrific site exploring the science that is known about hypnosis and suggestion.(hat tip to Mind Hacks for the link)Leave a comment
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Ouch!
This is almost certainly an urban legend, but it brought tears to my eyes (of pain and laughter) just the same.And then there’s this little ditty…Leave a comment
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Frog Chorus
The frogs in our ponds have tuned up for their annual performance of the Frog Chorus, and are currently giving night and day renditions.
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Postcards Of The Future
Here’s a nice little collection of postcards produced by a German cacoa manufacturer in the 1900s, showing what life might have been like in the year 2000. Predictions are so difficult to get right…(Chris, this one’s for you)Leave a comment
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Anatidae Anomalies
This is an extraordinary story about the genitalia of ducks.Apparently, while male researchers have lovingly described the bizarre penises of the males of many species of ducks, none of them have ever thought to check out the corresponding receptacles of the females. They simply assumed that the oviducts were simple and straightforward tubes, and then theorised extravagantly over why the males of some duck species have unusual penises. It has taken a female researcher to discover the truth – the female oviduct ain’t simple either.Let’s hear it for Dr. Patricia Brennan, a behavioural ecologist, who has gone where no male researcher has ever dared venture before. Carl Zimmer, over at The Loom, has the story.Leave a comment
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Topsy-Turvy
That women continue to be oppressed in all sorts of subtle, and often not-so-subtle, ways does not surprise me. So the latest news that the Iranian government are enforcing "correct" Islamic dress codes on women (tell me, do the men ever get the same treatment?) raised simply a sigh of resignation with me. But what really caught my eye was the quote from Sae’ed Mortazavi, Tehran’s public prosecutor:"These women who appear in public like decadent models, endanger the security and dignity of young men".Er, hello? I’m sure he absolutely believes that nonsense. In any rational world he’d be laughed out of office; the horrifying thing is that he probably reflects majority opinion in Iran. Terrifying.Oh, by the way, don’t assume that this is just a nasty little result of Islam; Christian men can be equally stupid. It seems to me that men, and stupidity, are the common denominators here…Leave a comment
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Homophobia in Jamaica
Terrance, over at The Republic of T, points out the hypocrisy of Jamaica’s Public Defender when responding to the homophobia that seems to be endemic in Jamaican society. Terrance also includes evidence of the homophobia – a rather disturbing video of a mob attacking someone waiting for a bus. It’s worth reading Terrance’s blog entry, and I strongly advise that you do.Leave a comment
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The Pink Plateau
The news that Lord Browne of BP has resigned over lying to a court about his relationship with a man strikes me as rather an honourable thing to do. Certainly it is in direct contrast to the attempts of Paul Wolfowitz to hang on to his position at the World Bank despite all the evidence against him.I agree with Matthew Parris’ analysis in The Times today:"What this story is really about is the awkardness of gay sex in the business world and our general fascination with the lives of the rich and (in Lord Browne’s case) slightly famous"It is entirely understandable that Lord Browne would have started out in the closet – after all, he joined BP in 1966, when homosexuality was punishable under British law. And as Parris, I think rightly, says:"When he was a young man, just starting, there is no way he would have made it to the top as an openly gay junior executive. The choice was between celibacy and a discretion bordering on deception. As the years rolled on and attitudes began to shift, it was too late for him to shift with them, disavowing impressions he had allowed to arise at the start".Choosing to be openly gay in the business world runs risk to be subject to the effect that has been dubbed "the Pink Plateau" – the Guardian has a background story about its effect and its prevalence, still, in the oil industry. The mask that Lord Browne has worn over the years has cost him dearly – literally over 15 million pounds. And, perhaps it’s just me, but in Mr. Justice Eady’s judgement, I caught something of a lip-smacking revulsion of homosexuality in the words he chose. Also not entirely unexpected, I suppose. Some parts of society move more slowly than others. But now that the mask is off, once again I think Parris is right when he says:For all the misery Lord Browne will be enduring over the next few weeks, there will come a morning before the year is out when he awakes with a sudden sense that a Damoclean sword that has hung over him for so long, has vanished. His torment this morning will not be entirely unmixed with relief.Update: Having now read Mr. Justice Eady’s judgement in full, I can accept that I would be off the mark from characterising it as purely "lip-smacking revulsion of homosexuality". It is altogether much more subtle than that. Nonetheless, I would argue that Lord Browne has been made an example of, and perhaps in harsher terms than might apply to other mortals. The mask has a cost.Update 2: This Guardian leader is a good summary of what I believe to be a fair stance on the matter. As for the Mail newspaper, words almost cannot express my loathing of its twisted values. As Wilde said, we may be all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars. I might add that clearly the Mail is not, and has its snout shoved firmly down into an open sewer, but that would be an insult to pigs everywhere.3 responses to “The Pink Plateau”
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Geoff,
What evidence is there "against" Wolfowitz? The WSJ gets a little polemical here, but mostly because earlier arguments like this were ignored. It seems to me that, yet again, a reformer of an international institution has ruffled the wrong feathers and must be made to pay.
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Robert, it seems to me that there is sufficient evidence. I don’t doubt that he has "ruffled feathers" – but refomers can either produce positive or negative results with their reforms – and it would seem to me that his methods are proving counter-productive. See this, for example (including the link to the Washington Post article). The WSJ editorials seem far too simplistic – straying into cheese-eating surrender monkey territory…
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Robert, OK, the inevitable has thankfully happened, and Wolfowitz has gone. I cannot help but think that he was, and remains, a despicable shit. When I read words such as this: ‘After several days of haggling, in which the UK acted as an intermediary, board representatives reluctantly agreed to accept Mr Wolfowitz’s assurance that he acted “ethically and in good faith in what he thought were the best interests of the institution.”’ I cannot help but think that he was not suited to a role that calls for morals. Ethics and Wolkowitz seem to me to remain perfect strangers.
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Family Tree Applications
I’ve mentioned before that my brother has an interest in genealogy, and is doing his best to trace our family tree. I’ve recently come across a couple of software applications that aid in visualising genealogical data.First up is Family.Show – a rather jazzy application written for the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) software that is present in Windows Vista. Actually, it’s more of a concept than a full-blown application. It was expressly created to show off the capabilities of WPF, which is does to quite a striking effect. The source code of the application is freely available, if you want to have a go at extending it.Next is a web-based application, available at www.geni.com. The interesting thing about this is that is it a collaborative application. Both my brother and myself (or indeed anyone else we explicitly invite to join us) can work on the same family tree. This collaboration feature is a terrific plus point. It’s meant that we can each work on building up different branches of the family, as well as correcting errors or adding details to each others’ work. Geni is still in beta, but is definitely usable at the moment. The development team have a blog, and there are discussion forums devoted to the application. Worth checking out if you have an interest in drawing up your family tree.Leave a comment
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Alice In Sunderland
While I’m on the subject of graphic novels, I must mention Bryan Talbot’s Alice In Sunderland. Its subtitle is "An Entertainment" – and what an entertainment it is! A great fireworks display of a book – fizzing with ideas and connections over the history of Sunderland and the people who have strutted on its stage. If you’ve never dipped into a graphic novel, thinking that you left comic books behind with your childhood, then I do urge you to take a look at this. It will open your eyes and create sparks in your brain. Wonderful, wonderful stuff.Leave a comment
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Fun Home
I mentioned Alison Bechdel’s biography of her family, and her father in particular, some while back. Now, Amanda Marcotte writes a review of the book (Fun Home) that is worth reading in itself.Leave a comment
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