... of the seven deadly sins, the eighth and most horrid is emotional blackmail ... whilst for this blogger, the only sacred thing is life itself
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
delights and perplexities and ambiguities
In the sun dappled Ashdown Forest, smaller trees are
occasionally to be seen encased in honeysuckle, and others in roses.
A woman seated at a bus stop in Acre Lane opens a small
handbag and pulls forth a large mirror with a black plastic frame that exactly
fits in to it. She turns her head very slowly
from side to side for a minute whilst holding the mirror perfectly still. It has two cracks, widthways and length ways
which cross near the centre, and the four segments are non-aligned. I can guess what she sees but have no idea
what she is looking for.
Before leaving work, I approach Mick, probably the best
Irishman that ever drew breath, and shyly beg to ask a question of an unusually
personal and intimate nature.
“Is it
true that you have had your body tattooed all over with shamrocks ?”
In less than a second he replies, “Not
entirely !”
"must see" mosaic films animations about children who are refugees
i wandered in to the drivers' rest area at four thirty this morning and this was playing to an empty room
i was rooted to the spot, and tearful
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01k7c4q/Seeking_Refuge_Episode_1/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/seeking-refuge-navid-s-journey-from-iran/13805.
htmlhttp://mosaicfilms.com/2012/06/seeking-refuge.php
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/jun/18/uk-child-refugees-stories
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
"Immensely proud of how little money he made from them" ... donald nicholson ... making knowledge of metabolic pathways freely available
i only found donald nicholson's obituary in the guardian today ... you might justifiably describe him as saintly
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/may/29/donald-nicholson?INTCMP=SRCH#
http://www.iubmb-nicholson.org/
http://www.iubmb-nicholson.org/swf/tca_cycle_v9.swf
http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/img/assets/4202/MetabolicPathways_6_17_04_.pdf
Sunday, June 24, 2012
3BTs
Flying south between downpours, brushing across the waving tops
of storm bruised trees, beneath a background of rushing tumbling waterlogged
cloud, two herons struggle to hold close their courses along a wiggly line on
their way from Battersea Park towards the pond at Clapham Common.
Resisting the temptation, but gladdened by having the option,
of using our central heating at midsummer.
Rediscovering cocoa-induced oblivion whilst falling in to a
deep sleep on the sofa.
graham carey died ...
... he arrived in malmesbury when i was about twelve
he was a full-time controversialist and a part-time egoist who annoyed and upset quite a few people
but wherever i was concerned he was unsparingly generous and tolerant
... and i must surely have annoyed and upset him a few times
best of all, whilst my educators were numbing me with everything anodyne,
he introduced me at an early age to the appreciation of such things as ...
brecht and john osborne
richard avedon and bill brandt
hans coper and ben nicolson
ben shahn and jackson pollock
walking the hills and valleys with maps and marching with protestors
alan ginsberg and walt whitman
the civic trust and john betjeman
stanley kubrick and francois truffaut
... and the notion that anyone, however high and mighty, might occasionally be persuaded to listen to reason, or poetry
http://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1855/images/index.html
later ... i discovered his touchstones were Rousseau, and David Holbrook
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/sep/01/david-holbrook-obituary
Friday, June 22, 2012
mind hacks ... one of my favourite sites ... Q. what makes us laugh ?
the picture of a munoz sculpture is not from the article
http://mindhacks.com/2012/06/20/bbc-column-what-makes-us-laugh/
Monday, June 18, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
3BT
In a tree lined village street at Lingfield, as I drive
cautiously along the approach to a busy junction, a jay emerges from the last
tree and comes gliding down towards something I cannot see that lies in the
path of my truck. For a second or two as
we approach one another, I am able to look down on him as he spreads his
beautifully coloured wings in preparation for landing, but just as I am about
to panic so he changes his mind and swoops up again to disappear beyond my
shoulder.
In a winding country lane running along one of the Wealden
ridges, as I slow to make room for an oncoming van, a kestrel with wings held
high and tail in the up position, drops down along a dead straight landing
path, touches the road for half a second, and then flies back up and away,
along that very same line; carrying something in one talon that is small enough
to be a vole.
As the truck trundles along the edge of a vast undulating
field of wild flowers, so a skylark slowly descends until she vanishes in to a mist
of buttercups.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Friday, June 8, 2012
check out the solar weather ... nasa's solar dynamics observatory shows the sun in lots of wavelengths
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/
scrabble about in the small print and you will find links to up-to-the-minute HD images, filtered and then re-integrated in "false" colours, allowing you to see what's going on ...
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/f_094_335_193pfss.jpg, for instance
most of whatever else you might want to ask is in the booklet / pdf
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/docs/SDO_Guide.pdf
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
if you didn't have chance to read the book ... rory stewart's two part series on afghanistan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01jb9fn/Afghanistan_The_Great_Game_A_Personal_View_by_Rory_Stewart_Episode_1/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01jk7qd/Afghanistan_The_Great_Game_A_Personal_View_by_Rory_Stewart_Episode_2/
and you can always read the blog from his day job...
http://rorystewart.co.uk/blog/471-the-acquisition-of-knowledge
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
neuro images ... not to be viewed at meal times
http://neuroimages.tumblr.com/
found with the help of the always excellent ...
http://mindhacks.com/
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
regellers at prince's ... provoking a short meditation on welshness and non-welshness
i suppose that, from having spent a part of my childhood amongst people with a welsh way of speaking and thinking, i must have become both sensitized and de-sensitized to some aspects of welshness
consequently i was neither dismayed by the people i encountered last week, nor downhearted by the dilapidation of the towns
indeed, i found myself thinking how much fun it might be to live in a nice little terrace with welsh neighbours on either side ...
tom jones on the one side, perhaps, and catherine zeta-jones on the other !
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