Piltdown paradoxically presents robustness of science

It is 100 years since one of the great scientific hoaxes was perpetrated. In 1912, 50+ years after the publication of Darwin's seminal 'Origin of Secies' there were paeleo-anthropologists who were desperate to find the missing link between humans and their primate ancestors. so desperate in fact that if an unscrupulous 'scientist' were to come along and present them with some manufactured 'evidence' they would be all too willing to believe him. Enter Charles Dawson

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248916/Piltdown-Man-The-truth-fraud-revealed-100-years-fooled-world.html

He 'found' the skull of an ancestor with both human and primate characteristics in situ in the gravel beds near Piltdwon alongside much sought evidence of tool use by this species. It was a sensation and for 50 or so years seemed to have proved that missing link. Dawson however was a dubious character, an amateur who inveigled his way into scientific societies through amazing discoveries, a good proportion of which later proved to be fake.

At the time there were those who were sceptical but they were swept to one side by the excitement of the find, the prestige it brought to British paeleo-anthropology and the sheer desire of so may to confirm a find that was almost too good to be true.

Any scientist will tell you however if it seems too good to be true then it probably is just that; too good to be true. Every piece of evidence must be painstakingly analysed. Your own theories and desires for certain conclusions to be reached must be put to one side. If the evidence proves you wrong that is still a valuable conclusion and you have learnt something worthwhile and modify your approach/opinion.

It is in this latter point that the robustness of science can be seen. There were voices of dissent about Dawson's find and they didn't go away. Eventually the finds were proved to have been faked, teeth filed to look more human, bones stained to match the look of the age of the gravel pits. Dating methods much improved and were applied disproving once and for all the alleged ancientness of the bones.

Science is good like that, you are allowed to be sceptical, to question, to check, to re-check, to bring empiricism and new evidence to bear. Unlike religion there is no dogma, if you prove a previous scientist wrong it does not have to diminish them Einstein's universe view does not match Newton's but we still think they are both great scientists.

So in a way Dawson did us all a favour. whenever you look at the 'evidence' people present then analyse it rationally, bring critical thinking to bear and remember that when we have eliminated all else whatever is left no matter how seemingly impossible must be the truth.

Ever evolving language

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20332763

Language is, was and always will be a tool of communication. There are those who want to cherish and protect it, keeping it safe from all 'harmful' transformation. I am one of the first to shudder when the English language is mangled and processed and re-designed in the mouths of some, the linguistic barbs of teens for instance are incomprehensible at times. Some text language seemed like it would need a Rosetta stone to decipher initially. Yet we are and have adapted to things and will continue to do so. Simply because language is just that; a tool to be used and adapted.

No engineer would still want to use hand driven equipment if they could replace it wit water driven, steam, electric, solar whatever that was more productive and efficient. They understand the importance of adapting tools for their benefit. Hence so should we who sometimes seek to protect our languages. We need to be less precious about it. the Internet has opened up global communication in an unprecedented manner, and if that means the adaptation of language in multiple directions leading to greater ease of communication then that can only be a good thing.

The mistaken belief that language is sacrosanct may be an egregious conclusion.

Emphatically NOT Ada's 197th birthday.

I have to begin by professing my ignorance her. Prior to today i had never heard of Ada Lovelace. It is very gratifying then for those associated with her, with Babbage's early computer and in the realm of mathematics to have her celebrated. It is always a pleasure to learn about someone new and of the contribution to society/knowledge they have made that one might never otherwise have known of. For this Google should be saluted, it is something they do well.

However, - it is emphatically NOT Ada Lovelace's 197th birthday today As Google so inappropriately claims! Not to put too fine or indelicate a point in it, the lady is dead. She has passed on is no longer with us. She is NOT celebrating her 197th birthday! one imagines if she were she would be accompanied by someone from the Guinness book of records, historians clamouring for interviews and medical students/Doctors trying to assess the reason of such longevity.

Today is the anniversary of Ada Lovelace's birth - the 197th anniversary at that. There can be no objection to celebrating such a thing, least of all from me, just so long as we remember it's NOT her birthday but the anniversary of her birth.

Clever viral advertising - Star Trek and the missing 12 seconds

Well, yesterday (and today for that matter) the Internet was a-buzz in the land of nerdery as trailers were released for next years 'Star Trek - into Darkness' film.

The main point of contention thought is that the Japanese trailer is 12 seconds longer than the on released to Western markets and shows an obvious homage scene to Wrath of Khan as we see 2 hands meet through plate glass a la Kirk & Spock in Star trek 2.

Whilst I 'm sure they're not repeating this plot line with a crew so recently put together and a potential series of films in front of them on e must question the editing policy here.

Why have those extra 12 seconds in Japan and nowhere else? Well, to be honest I think it's a brilliant marketing ploy. They know the Internet is globally connected - people will talk about this. People talking about your film - long before it actually comes out - and creating a viral news story like this is probably better advertising than just doing the full trailer direct globally.

So there you have it, we live in a tech savvy connected age, where even the advertisers of monstrously huge franchises realise the value of the viral marketing scene - and just how much coverage 121 seconds of film can reap!

Happy Birthday SMS

20 years ago on the 3rd of December the first officially recognised text message was sent, a rather charming if brief 'merry christmas' from one colleague to another. It is doubtful whether those involved in the inception of the idea can have had any inkling of how socially prevalent it would become. It is estimated that last year alone 8 trillion text messages were sent! Aside from just how much revenue this must generate for the networks involved, that figure is truly staggering.

People complain that we have lost the art of conversation. That we no longer communicate, that we are inhibited from interacting with each other because of all the artificial barriers in place, such as texting and the Internet. Perhaps we should take an alternative view though.

The proliferation of sites like Facebook and Twitter, the explosion of subject specific Internet forums,(catering to the individual on so many levels, e.g. the sports or teams they follow, the TV shows they watch, the fictional characters they wish to discuss and many many more), the irresistible rising tide of texting reflect one thing - we humans have an inherent compulsion to communicate and we invent ever more elaborate ways to do so. There are so many channels to go through now we are spoilt for choice. it's not that we can't communicate any more, it's more a case that we have to select what we want to discuss from a sea of information and interest.

So Happy Birthday SMS - you opened up another channel of communication - and this is a good thing.

The enduring magnificence of a certain consulting detective

125 years ago today (22/11/1887) a truly magnificent literary creation was borne onto an unsuspecting world. 'A study in Scarlet' was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual. One can only envy those readers the thrill of the discovery of the new. The originality of the story, the brilliant characterisation of the Platonic loving relationship between Holmes and Watson - all of that was still to come.

Even now those first encountering these same characters are often magnetically attracted to them. So what is the secret of Conan Doyle's success here? Is it that the characters are trapped in the amber of the Victorian epoch and that we like to bathe ourselves in the watery tides of such history? Surely only partially at least or recent updates such as the wonderful BBC TV series 'Sherlock' would not have been so well received. Is it that the stories are somehow fantastical and take us beyond the realms of the every day? Again, not really - there's no Hogwarts Express to transport us away here! Could it be then that the writing is of such a staggeringly high standard that we are all muted in the presence of its' spectacular brilliance. Well, again - no. Even the most ardent Sherlockian would find it difficult to argue that point.

Might I humbly suggest that one thing above all brings us back to these stories again and again? The brilliant characterisation of the central figures and their fraternal bond. We enjoy the rapport of the good human Dr and his seemingly unapproachable 'calculating machine' of a friend. A friendship which ever endures and which is the heart of all these wonderfully evocative stories.

If you have never read them before (what HAVE you been doing with your time if not?) then I for one would heartily recommend them and there is no better place to start than with The Study' itself!

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/244/244-h/244-h.htm

Darwin & Wallace

I cannot begin to express what a very great joy it is to find this online;

http://wallace-online.org/content/frameset?pageseq=1&itemID=S043&viewtype=side

It is more than appropriate to see Wallace receive some of the requisite acknowledgement he deserves. Don't mis-interpret me here, I am a huge supporter of Darwin. His abundance of collected evidence and the depth of his studies lent massive credence to these theories. Lest we forget however, Wallace came to strikingly similar conclusions independently and I for one believe he deserves greater, wider recognition on a par with that received by Darwin.

Whatever your opinion on that however it is an inexpressibly wonderful Joy to be able to scan their joint paper through the wonderful world-opening auspices of the Internet.

Correlation does not mean causation

Chocolate makes you brainier! You can envision the screaming over-hyped headlines of the red top media on this one. A recent study suggests that more Noble prize winners consume high levels of chocolate than non- winners.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20356613

Realistically there is probably no correlation between the two and the BBC article here reflects that well. It is interesting that this sort of 'report' has come out though as each year around this time in the run up to Christmas there is always a surge in medical evidence supporting all sorts of supposed benefits to be gained from chocolate and alcohol (What is the provenance of these reports are they all sponsored by Cadbury & the Bordeau marketing board?).

Always fun, always this time of year - look out for the coming slew of health promoting benefits from these products and remember the argument against correlation and causation!

Not just the Atlantic but our vocabulary divides us too

Today, on both sides of the Atlantic the 2012 'word of the year' has been announced. It doesn't have to be something lexicographers believe will necessarily become an extension to the English language. more a word that defines and yet also reflects the time that created it.

In Britain that word is  Omnishambles. A satirical, political, witty,humorous, idiosyncratic, quirky and meaningful word that bring s something refreshing to the lexicon.

The American word of the year is GIF a noun that is starting to be used as a verb meaning a compressed file format for images.

I know which I prefer - the one with elan, class, substance and humour, but perhaps that's just me. Anyway we should all perhaps be grateful that on neither side of the pond was YOLO chosen!

Engaging with the electorate

Like many other people I share a certain sense of relief that the US election is finally over. Just like the last one we had here in the UK this thing seems to have dragged on endlessly. Now however - hurrah it's over. The one abiding thing I always take away from American elections however is the commitment of the voters. Sure some of them are crazy redneck hicks with bigoted views that make Homo Erectus look like a 'modern man' and others are so far out of left field they may not be on the same planet as us, but the one thing they really seem to do is care. People had to stand in line 6 hours to vote - they weren't happy but they DID it!

In this country we are always taught not to discuss religion or politics if we don't want to end up in a heated debate - and it's good advice it really is. But would we have the dedication/passion to stand in line for 6 hours to vote for our party? I'm not so sure. So congratulations to America for having a robust sense of democracy at election time, and congratulations to America on not electing a man with the least sincere smile I have EVER seen (you know who you are Mitt). Now I wonder if we could ever get the British electorate so engaged?

Richard III final resting place - exciting debate even now?

It seems amazing that Richard III's final resting place can excite controversy even now, 500+ years after his death but it really can. on one side we have those arguing he was an anointed King of England and therefore is entitled to be buried in Westminster Abbey, on another that he was a Yorkist King who spent the last 12 years of his life in the North of England and had made his own plans to be buried in York Minster, and finally another point of view that he should be buried in Leicester cathedral. Why Leicester? Well, that's where the dig that may have discovered him (we await DNA testing) was based and the Richard III society has worked for some time with Leicester University and Leicester Council to bring this about.

Personally, I am most happy really that it stirs historical debate about the man. Was he the man-monster the Tudors portrayed or a paragon of virtue who lived up to his own motto of 'loyalty binds me'. probably neither, somewhere in between and very much a man of his time one imagines, but it is great to see history stirring debate and shows how passionate we can be about our heritage.

If I had to pick I'd say York Minster as that was his choice, what he had planned and he was  Yorkist King based in the north. (But perhaps I have a vested interest in that view being a yorkshireman myself!

Perhaps this punishment would be a little harsh?

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/10/08/republican-candidate-fuqua-endorses-death-penalty-for-rebellious-children

Having looked at the (above) news item, I was left in no small state of wonderment! According to this good old conservative christian American gentleman the best way to deal with wayward children is to execute them!! Or at least to paraphrase the wonderful insanity of the man he 'does not believe execution would have to be used often on a child who defied their parents' ( once is probably enough unless they mis-behave enough to return as zombies one might surmise!). This he says would act as a deterrent to other misbehaving children. Might one also suggest it would imply some kind of radical social breakdown were parents wantonly practising infanticide to deal with their wayward offspring?

Of course, he's not suggesting this isn't done properly. No, they would have to 'follow the proper procedure in order to have the death penalty executed against their children'. This by the way is an actual quote, not a comedic mockery of an over zealous religious fundamentalist caricature.

Proper procedure?!? How can there be a proper procedure for ordering the execution of a misbehaving member of ones own offspring. Now parents WOULD carry some incredible authority under such a law but then again so did the national socialist in Germany thanks to some of their laws and in neither case can be claimed a moral high ground.

All we ask for is rationality, reason and fairness in life and we'll all get along fine - even without recourse to executing our children!

Girls CAN do physics!

Recent reports have suggested that the ratio of girls to boys taking physics as a choice, particulary at A level is a massively uneven one. It would seem that many girls do not consider physics an option. The underlying question must be what is dissuading them? In my case (speaking from the male side of the gender spectrum) it was not that I didn't enjoy physics, one was just not good enough at the underlying maths to pursue it.
That would be a reasonable explantion, except that I am confident that as high if not a higher proportion of girls are competent enough in mathematics to pusruse this course.

Unfortunately, despite this being the 21st Century there has to be a genuine concern here that one of the reasons for this is gender stereotyping. The idea that physics is just not for girls (as ridiculous as that sounds!). Statisitcs may support this too, whilst only 20% of students chosing physics are girls in other sciences the split is much more even, 50/50 for chemistry and actually 55% girls for biology. So why physics? Is it because it leads to engineering, astrophysiscs, theoretical physics and lots of potentially male dominated worlds? Who knows?

What I do know is this, no girl/boy should be dissuaded from doing ANY subject because of peer or social pressure. Social conformity may be one of the most restricting and noxious social ills we face. Be what you wnat to be, do what you want to do and attempt to achieve whatever you can in whatever area whatever your gender!

Phillipine cyber crime law - protection or control?

The new cybercrime law has come into effect in the Philippines. Overtly it is designed to protect people from cybersex, child pornography, identity theft and spamming. Which all sounds very noble. Except for the fact that those things could be policed in different ways. Pornography can be blocked by the state, spamming halted and identity protected legally. There seems to be something much larger at play here. The Philippine state is effectively taking away freedom of speech and the right to individual expression. I say this because the new law also includes a proviso for libel as a cybercrime punishable by up to 12 years in jail. No-one would advocate people hiding behind their twitter avatars and blog identities to hurl vitriol. At the same time however criticism of government in rational debate is a healthy thing and this may undermine that. Humour is always a great weapon in any political situation and social tyranny can be undermined by making the tyrannical appear ridiculous. Will this not stunt such possibilities. The Philippine government can be applauded for any attempt to stamp on legitimate cybercrime - cybersex and the rest, but they should not be this draconian to the point of strangling their own people's ability to express themselves through open criticism.

The 'Britishisation' of American language? Jolly Good wot!

Firstly, let me link the story for your persual forthwith;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19670686

It would appear from studying the details of the story (above linked) that there are a select few American academics despairing at the 'Britishisation' of their proud linguistic history. Quite aside from the obvious irony of complaining about a British infulence on the English language this amuses and irritates me in eqaul measure when one thinks of the 'Americanisation' of the British language that has been ongoing for years.

That aside we are living in a metaphorically shrinking world bridged as it is by the wonders of technology and the interactivity of social media. Thus we can only expect greater cultural homogenisation.

Finally of course, we must always remember that language is interactive. The currency of popular linguistics will cut both transatlantic directions & beyond. Language is an ever changing, ever evolving thing and as such we should embrace and celebrate those changes wherever we can.

So to any 'Britishised' words that have slipped into the American consciousness I can say this - 'jolly good that man, now keep a stiff uppper lip in your lingustic sevice. Time to celebrate with a  cup of tea anyone?'

Hubble the mind boggler

Over the years the Hubble space telescope has sent back some truly amazing pictures. Now it is in the news again for capturing 'extraordinary pictures of the universe'. they are both fantastically inspiring and at the same tie give one a sens of infinitesimal inconsequentiality. Very little can be added to the sense of awe in words, in some cases a picture truly does paint a thousand words. hence I can offer little of more worth than the wonder itself at this link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19728375

NB it is worth remarking how small a portion of the sky this image actually represents!

An insult to Islam?

There is a film causing a firestorm of hatred through the Islamic world. The fact that it was developed and produced in America doubtless fuels some of the passionate responses towards it. I have never seen the film and can therefore not comment on it directly.

 It is a point of wonder to me though, how many of the people ina delirium of religious fervour have indeed seen the film. One need only recall the vitriol spat towards Salman Rushdie after publication of the 'Satanic Verses' by so many who had avowedly NOT even read the work to know that a mob response can be engendered without recourse to reason.

Which bring me to the core thought of this post. Why can people not be led by reason rather than passion? It worries me when the PM of Egypt calls for the criminalisation of criticism of Islam. Firstly how America chooses to govern herself internally is surely not his affair (unless it was to affect his country directly). Secondly, how can anyone call for the right to free speech be taken away?

The latter is an abiding principle of western civilisation. A principle tat is Worth defending. To have to protect a faith legally does not reflect well on the inner strength of that faith. Many Christians were insulted by Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' but the educated amongst them would not call for its eternal banning/censure. Nor would they take to the streets in angry mobs over it.

We can only hope that eventually whatever your faith, or lack thereof, we can all learn to tolerate and accept each other in the very short time we share this world.

Denegrating a venerable game

Came across an article on Grantland which you  can find here http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8362701/the-evolution-cheating-chess

The thing that stood out the most for me was that the main protagonist was not only cheating his opponents (out of title and prize) but also himself. The joy of chess is that no two games are ever the same. Familiar perhaps (certainly in the errors we make) but never identical. There are so many options, so any patterns and responses that can occur. it truly is a beautiful as well as a technical game. We can learn as much , if not more, in defeat than we can in victory. To have played your best, to have enjoyed it whatever the outcome, those are the joys the venerable game has to offer and I would recommend to anyone not to take those experiences away from themselves in this way.

'Rooked' indeed.

Andy Murray and nationality

Andy Murray finally got the monkey off his back and won a grand slam tournament. A moment of personal triumph one would think. Yet there are Scottish nationalists who wish to hijack it. They want it to be Scotland's win and to play on his Scottishness.

The point is not whether he is Scottish or British - he's bot h a Scots Brit (just like Sir Chris Hoy and all the other team GB medallists, including Murray, who represented Britain at the Olympics). The point is rather though can we not just celebrate the personal triumph without it becoming a political football?

The Internet has metaphorically shrunk the world, we are all e citizens together now so let's not emphasise those nationalistic tendencies too much and just celebrate the achievements of another who deserves personal recognition.

Inspiring a generation

Well the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics have come to an end. They were hugely enjoyable and hugely successful for Great Britain.

Now however comes the hard part. They are supposed to leave a lasting legacy and to 'inspire a generation'. i really hope that happens but I'm not so sure. I know plenty of people now that it's over who are back behind their remotes waiting for the next TV 'event' to come along. Long term I hope that that's the exception, because regardless of how many medals team GB collected the important thing from these games is will they have made a difference? Let's hope so!

Farewell to the carefree melody of Summer

Summer is limping to a close, its July to August dampened carcass a remembrance now only of  the wetter times we had. The nicest thing about the school summer break is that it allows childrens' personality to flower. They are not daily faced with that most daunting of judgements from other children, - are you an individual, and should you therefore be ostracised. At home at least they have the comfort space and freedom to be themselves.

Which is why the rush back into school at this coming time of mists and mellow fruitfulness can seem all the sadder.

The one great hope is that they will be schooled in how to think, how to consider and most of all how to reason. instead they will be put upon the grindstone of progress and looked at as potential numbers for grades. An education and a qualification are not always the same thing, but I wish they could be.

Lt us hope then that teaches out there, children themselves and parents too can support wherever possible the individuality of their children and hope that it leads them to discoveries and learning that is both fun and inspiring.

If not the Autumn will give way to along withered winter of disaffection and nobody wants that!

Despite its faults sometimes the internet is just wonderful

You can criticise the Internet so easily. There is so much dross floating in its waters it is a wonder anyone can swim through to things they actually want. Many of its auspices are so inescapably transient. we can waste swathes of time playing pointless games, reading a series of irrelevant articles or being endless;y distracted by social media.

And yet.

Yet, it is a wonderfully democratic place where anyone can search out that which interests them. it offers entertainments and transient pleasures certainly. we can question the provenance of some of the things we see and read on the net too. Despite this however it is a wonderful gateway to worlds that before could have been beyond the reach of so many.

Sadly in these straitened times libraries are being closed. A narrow view if ever there was one, saving money but failing to underpin education or inspire imagination in the long-term. Not here in the e-space though. In the intellectual ether of the on line word there are many gems and joys.

None shine greater than the repositories of access to knowledge and entrainment that are represented by free on line access journals and e-books.

We will all have our tastes, but for me, one of the great things is free access to classics that people may never otherwise read.

Thus I leave you with this link from the Gutenberg project. Who knows where it Will lead you, but I hope it is on true literary odyssey.

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3160/pg3160.html

The passing of a living icon

Neil Armstrong was seemingly a shy but determined chap who was in the right place at the right time to become one of the most remembered men in history. His modesty & poise should be as well remembered as his singular achievement (after all nobody else can be the 'first' human on the moon!). It was an odd sensation his passing. Responses ranged fro the banal -'Neil Armstrong -meh' that I saw on Twitter (one supposes the author's own achievements must be staggering to invoke this response) to page upon page of tribute and quote in certain areas of the news.

The odd thing is this. Nearly all of us never met Mr Armstrong. We never knew him and yet we felt we did. He was a part of the fabric of our lives. He stood on the lunar surface before I was born and the last moon mission as completed whilst I was still in swaddling clothes and yet I feel an affinity for them. They see to mark the zenith of an era of optimism and hubris tic positivity traceable back to the 50's but fuelled mostly by the 60's era of belief in the possibility of the fulfilment of dreams.

So let us not mourn the loss of the man but instead celebrate the life of the icon and all that it represents - to dream the impossible dreams and to achieve them.

The internet troll awoken from its self-comforting slumber

On a lunch break recently I happened across a radio debate on the subject of Internet 'trolling'. A couple of British celebrities had elected to leave Twitter due to the abuse they routinely found aimed at their accounts by those of a trollish persuasion. A maddeningly saddening fact when one considers that social media and the Internet represent a well-spring of knowledge coupled with a real chance to share and build a sense of community (all be it a faux community).

I cannot for the life of me understand these people's motivations. If someone is not your cup of tea then don't follow them' they can get on with their lives and you can get on with yours without your lives ever having to intersect.

However, I digress, back to the radio debate in question. Somehow the producers of the show had managed to winkle a self-avowed troller out of his lair and have him interact live on air. One suspects that had this been a TV show where he had to face people in an intimate studio setting rather than on the end of a phone he would have declined. What can one say? Said troll was virtually linguistically incompetent. He was bereft of any reason for his actions and completely unable to defend them against the salvos of rationality that were probably peppering his conscience for the first time.

The awakened troll was a sad indictment of 21st Century culture and its ability to allow those with a callous and often bigoted heart have free rein with anonymity as their shield. And yet. Yet we would still all want to cling to the liberty of individualism and the right to free expression I am sure. A problem with a duality at its core.

All one can say with certainty is that if this troll was truly representative of the intellectual capacity of others then the generalist user of the net, the bloggers the tweeters, the surfers and more have absolutely nothing to fear.

As has often been said let us not go into a battle of withs with such people, it is unfair to take on an unarmed opponent.

Mars Rover Curiosity has been safely landed on Mars. By any measure this is an astonishing feat of engineering and a triumph of scientific imagination. I have had nothing to do with this personally and yet it makes me astonishingly happy. The very thought that humanity has the breadth of imagination and skill to pull off something so monumentally challenging and to use the modern parlance 'awesome' is inspiring. It is a triumph of 'scientific imagineering' (a term I hereby coin and expect to get next to no general usage for evermore!).

More of a watcher than a doer

I was going to suggest that my musings here have been sporradic but that suggests a frequency of output to which I can lay no claim. Oh I'm sure I started with great intentions. After all wasn't this a perfect chance to foist my own jaded views onto the world? Yet it never seems to happen. What can be the cause of this malaise? Laziness possibly. Wel lyes and then again no. I have always been slow to action, teachers' likened me to hibernating tortoises in their class, but I think it cuts deeper than that. I love sport,(bear with me there is a connection here), I have even occasionally played them. However social awkwardness and physical dyslexia do not make for a spoting superstar. What they do make is an introverted watcher who likes to think abut the substance of what they are watching. This is a trait that can spiral out into all reaches of one's life - the preference to think, ruminate, dissect, savour and generally cogitate in the place of action. Hence I am a watcher whils others are doers. Thus movement on this blog will not move at the pace of many others - lets face it I'm probably reading and thinking about those other sites a the same time as you.

A grammatical sculptor

There are many great writers in the english literary tradition. Dickens characterisations for example are unarguably glorious, Austen's social commentary unmatchable and on a more recent note Pratchett's humorous set pieces often glorious. Occasionally however you come accross an authorial voice that is both sublime and distinct. P.G. Wodehouse is one such. Not so much a writer as a literary sculptor. There is not a wasted word or a spare similie in the writing. We do not often encounter perfection in life but when we do all we can do is bathe in it's glories, so that's what I shall be doing today - letting the wonderful world of Jeeves & Wooster wash over me. i can only hope you are having as much fun as I shall be in this paragon of Englishness!

Byron's haemarrhoidal graffiti

This following ode is graffiti left in a toilet attributed to Byron -

O Cloacina, goddess of this place,
Look on thy supplicants with smiling face.
Smooth and consistent may their offerings flow;
Neither rashly swift, nor insolently slow.

And to think he could have gone for Byron waz ere! Also notable that the young man who was 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' was as engaged with people's motions as my grandparent's generation who seemed fantastically obsessed by one's cloacal tendencies.

The sesquipedalian verbosity of Mr Stephen Fry

I have recently been reading Stephen Fry's 'paperweight' covering much of his work from radio, periodicals and newspaper. I can recommend it to anyone who loves to see the english language opened up in all of it's humorous and intellectual glory. Here is a man who can stretch a point thus;

"capable of describing a scintilla of an iota of a shadow of a suspicion of an atom of a fraction of a ghost of a tithe of a particle of my horror, shame and pitiable distress"

I won't spoil it for any narrative explorer who hopes to later sail the Amazon of words that flow around this sentence by giving away the context. I merely highlight it as an example for you entertainment, delight and possible edification.

An absence of pretence

One cannot help but look upon the feline outlook with some envy. Not for them the awkward social constructs necessitated by human society. If they think little of you they are happy to express it. I am sat typing & it is abundantly clear from the expression on my cat's face that as far as he is concerned I am the last bastion of an evolutionary dead end that should be curtailed as soon as possible. Thank goodness he needs to be fed every now and again or I wouldn't rate my survival chances too highly! Occasionally I feel that we should be more feline in openly expressing our views on the merits of others, perhaps that way as a society we wouldn't have supported the inexplicable emergence of 'talents' that have dominated tabloid headlines down the years. Then again who else could we have sat at home and wondered in our own smugly feline way if they weren't just the sort of evolutionary dead ends the cat judges me to be?

Hello

HI! Welcome to my new blog where I'll be posting random bits of stuff that are of interest to me and hopefully occasionally to you too!