This is just such a beautiful picture, taken by Richard Austin & published in todays Times, that I wanted to keep a copy where I could find it
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Wild swans
This is just such a beautiful picture, taken by Richard Austin & published in todays Times, that I wanted to keep a copy where I could find it
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Half the number plus a half
Aged 6, I had a mystery illness. All I can remember is that I had German measles, off school for a week. Went back to school on a Tuesday, sent home at dinner time & put to bed
The next thing - which must have been a good couple of weeks later - is being taken to have a blood test at the hospital. Although I was a bit better by then we took the absolutely unheard of & unprecedented step of going by taxi. It had a very small, high rear window of smoked glass, which fascinated me
I was well enough to leave the hospital on foot. As a reward for my bravery we went to WHSmith & I got a new Noddy book - number 4. I remember feeling cheated that I did not get numbers 2&3 to complete my set
I was off school for 6 weeks altogether. The nearest we ever got to a diagnosis was glandular fever without the fever. When, some months later, my glands came up again, the doctor who came was not my beloved Dr Hayward - with his tweeds, mustache & smell of tobacco - but a thin young man with dark hair & hornrims. As soon as he tried to feel the back of my neck I, uncharacteristically, ran screaming to hide behind the settee & refused to budge
Some of the 6 weeks I spent at my Nanas. To keep me amused she taught me to play patience - the simple 7 card kind that used to come free with Windows (which version always annoyed me because it played to the wrong rules) As a 6 year old I used to have trouble keeping track as I laid out the cards. It was tedious to start over, but too complicated to try & work out where I had gone wrong if I ended up with the wrong number of cards in one of the rows or columns
Somehow I very gradually worked out (it must have taken over a year) a way of checking as I went along. All I had to do was keep count of the total number of cards & do a simple check at the end of every line
I had discovered the formula for the sum of the first n integers
To this day I remember it most easily in the form I devised
The next thing - which must have been a good couple of weeks later - is being taken to have a blood test at the hospital. Although I was a bit better by then we took the absolutely unheard of & unprecedented step of going by taxi. It had a very small, high rear window of smoked glass, which fascinated me
I was well enough to leave the hospital on foot. As a reward for my bravery we went to WHSmith & I got a new Noddy book - number 4. I remember feeling cheated that I did not get numbers 2&3 to complete my set
I was off school for 6 weeks altogether. The nearest we ever got to a diagnosis was glandular fever without the fever. When, some months later, my glands came up again, the doctor who came was not my beloved Dr Hayward - with his tweeds, mustache & smell of tobacco - but a thin young man with dark hair & hornrims. As soon as he tried to feel the back of my neck I, uncharacteristically, ran screaming to hide behind the settee & refused to budge
Some of the 6 weeks I spent at my Nanas. To keep me amused she taught me to play patience - the simple 7 card kind that used to come free with Windows (which version always annoyed me because it played to the wrong rules) As a 6 year old I used to have trouble keeping track as I laid out the cards. It was tedious to start over, but too complicated to try & work out where I had gone wrong if I ended up with the wrong number of cards in one of the rows or columns
Somehow I very gradually worked out (it must have taken over a year) a way of checking as I went along. All I had to do was keep count of the total number of cards & do a simple check at the end of every line
I had discovered the formula for the sum of the first n integers
To this day I remember it most easily in the form I devised
Half the number
Plus a half
Times the number
***********
I have been reading an awful lot of Victorian memoirs, lives & letters, & biographies in recent years. Someone, I cant remember who, told how his elder brother had told him Theres a formula for that when he struggled with a similar problem. The boy was enchanted & went on to a career as a mathematician
Might the same have happened to me if I had been that lucky? Probably not, to be honest. Though I usually understand, dimly, what mathematicians are on about, I have no real wish to join them
Anyway, I was a girl. And, as a boy called Keith Boden once said to me, quite viciously Girls arent supposed to be good at maths. I was 12 & just thought that proved how silly boys could sometimes be
Monday, November 19, 2007
Where are all the obese hoodies?
It is odd that the young men who are proto hoodies, or at least NEETS, look almost universally thin & underfed to me. Although there are plenty of clearly obese families pushing trolleys round supermarkets, you dont see many obese young men hanging around the street
If I were a more galvanised or galvanising kind of person I would set up a kind of soup kitchen for them. A funky one, or whatever word the young people use nowadays. Lots of plates piled high with mashed potatoes, slabs of white bread, sausages, bacon, eggs & puddings to get some fruit down them. Gallons of full fat milk & orange juice. Cod liver oil dressed up as supplements
That after all is the diet on which we were reared. And, as a too-little noticed American study quite recently reported, although the chance of surviving cancer or heart disease is higher for our age group in the USA, the chance of succumbing to one or other in the first place is lower for those born over here.
And we are the generation which produced all those first in my family to go to university
If I were a more galvanised or galvanising kind of person I would set up a kind of soup kitchen for them. A funky one, or whatever word the young people use nowadays. Lots of plates piled high with mashed potatoes, slabs of white bread, sausages, bacon, eggs & puddings to get some fruit down them. Gallons of full fat milk & orange juice. Cod liver oil dressed up as supplements
That after all is the diet on which we were reared. And, as a too-little noticed American study quite recently reported, although the chance of surviving cancer or heart disease is higher for our age group in the USA, the chance of succumbing to one or other in the first place is lower for those born over here.
And we are the generation which produced all those first in my family to go to university
Misunderstandings
When the jogging/fitness craze first began it became clear that surprising numbers of people thought that survival of the fittest, in the Darwinian sense, had something to do with the need to exercise
It strikes me that the famous Watson/Crick model, especially in its modern multi-coloured ball & stick representation, encourages many people to think that you can design a baby in the same way that you can design a necklace, by picking & choosing from a tray of all available genes which look just like beads
And its surprising how many people react I hadnt thought of that if you point out that designer babies mean the end of the fun of making them in the old fashioned way.
It strikes me that the famous Watson/Crick model, especially in its modern multi-coloured ball & stick representation, encourages many people to think that you can design a baby in the same way that you can design a necklace, by picking & choosing from a tray of all available genes which look just like beads
And its surprising how many people react I hadnt thought of that if you point out that designer babies mean the end of the fun of making them in the old fashioned way.
What was the question?
I gave up school physics soon after I ignominiously failed to get some 'experiments' right. I think they were to do with parallelograms of force
It took me quite a long time to realise that school experiments are anything but. The whole point about an experiment is that you do not know the answer when you start. In true science, at least for a good Popperian, a different outcome disproves the hypothesis. Unless you can show that the way you set up your experiment was different from the original in important ways
School physics disappointed me anyway because it seemed to have nothing to do with questions or explanations of things which really interested me - principally stars, radio waves, why water makes a noise
And it may not have helped that I was the only girl & the teacher was principally the boys sportsmaster, filling a hole in the timetable
It took me quite a long time to realise that school experiments are anything but. The whole point about an experiment is that you do not know the answer when you start. In true science, at least for a good Popperian, a different outcome disproves the hypothesis. Unless you can show that the way you set up your experiment was different from the original in important ways
School physics disappointed me anyway because it seemed to have nothing to do with questions or explanations of things which really interested me - principally stars, radio waves, why water makes a noise
And it may not have helped that I was the only girl & the teacher was principally the boys sportsmaster, filling a hole in the timetable
Litter
Is it my imagination or is there much less litter around since the smoking ban was introduced?
The prediction was for us all to be wading knee deep through discarded fag ends. But then there are a lot more street ash trays around which encourage people to dispose of them properly now
That doesnt really explain why people should have stopped dropping food wrappers, till receipts, drink cans & cartons though
Could it be that discarded cigarette ends used to encourage people to think that their own bit of litter wouldnt matter, wouldnt make any difference?
Although I am a smoker I have always been careful not to drop my butts on the ground. Or at least since a visit to West Berlin in 1979. There the streets were so pristine that I would not have dared
Is it too much to hope that gum chewers will now get the message?
The prediction was for us all to be wading knee deep through discarded fag ends. But then there are a lot more street ash trays around which encourage people to dispose of them properly now
That doesnt really explain why people should have stopped dropping food wrappers, till receipts, drink cans & cartons though
Could it be that discarded cigarette ends used to encourage people to think that their own bit of litter wouldnt matter, wouldnt make any difference?
Although I am a smoker I have always been careful not to drop my butts on the ground. Or at least since a visit to West Berlin in 1979. There the streets were so pristine that I would not have dared
Is it too much to hope that gum chewers will now get the message?
Guinness is good for you
I read that sales of Guinness are on the slide
Imagine the shock! horror! reaction if someone today proposed that Guinness should be available on NHS prescription
And yet it used to be. Recommended for those who needed building up. Poor people who struggled to provide themselves with an adequate diet, or for those with illness-induce poor appetite
Including, if memory serves, nursing mothers. No doubt to be drunk while the poor little baby was alone outside in the garden
An elderly gentleman with mobility problems occupied a flat below us when we lived in Kensal Rise in the 1960s. Happily the bay window in his living room looked out across the road to the off licence. So he was able to put a sign in his window when he had a new prescription. The Guinness, in 1/4 or 1/3 pint cans was then delivered to his door
Other food stuffs could also be prescribed. I seem to remember that baked beans were on the list.
Its not that many years ago that I read the practice had been finally discontinued. Now they prescribe very expensive nutrition drinks instead
Imagine the shock! horror! reaction if someone today proposed that Guinness should be available on NHS prescription
And yet it used to be. Recommended for those who needed building up. Poor people who struggled to provide themselves with an adequate diet, or for those with illness-induce poor appetite
Including, if memory serves, nursing mothers. No doubt to be drunk while the poor little baby was alone outside in the garden
An elderly gentleman with mobility problems occupied a flat below us when we lived in Kensal Rise in the 1960s. Happily the bay window in his living room looked out across the road to the off licence. So he was able to put a sign in his window when he had a new prescription. The Guinness, in 1/4 or 1/3 pint cans was then delivered to his door
Other food stuffs could also be prescribed. I seem to remember that baked beans were on the list.
Its not that many years ago that I read the practice had been finally discontinued. Now they prescribe very expensive nutrition drinks instead
Friday, November 09, 2007
Tryfan
A sad story in the papers the other day about a boy who died on Tryfan. What surprised me about the coverage was the very firm statement that There are no easy routes up Tryfan
Well obviously, it depends on what you mean by easy, & it is certainly a good idea to discourage inexperienced walkers from having a go
I went to the summit for the first time when I was 8. My father took me. He was very experienced, I was no complete novice, used to living in the Peak District & family holidays in Snowdonia
I had a little secret dream as we climbed. A boy had been featured in Granpas Daily Express because he had climbed Snowdon at the age of 12. I could beat that, in a way, though perhaps Tryfan didnt count because it wasnt the tallest
I may actually have been conceived on Tryfan - my parents spent their war time honeymoon cycling round Snowdonia & my mother always spoke particularly fondly of Tryfan
By coincidence another recent story took me back to those hill walking days. A warning never to drink untreated water, even from a fast-flowing mountain stream. Apparently e.coli is everywhere now. My father taught me never to drink from a stream below a certain point, in case there was a dead sheep higher up. After that, you were OK
Rations for a days climb usually consisted of a block of dried dates, cheddar cheese & chocolate. We had a little aluminium pan in which to boil water using some kind of white block which could be lit to provide heat
Well obviously, it depends on what you mean by easy, & it is certainly a good idea to discourage inexperienced walkers from having a go
I went to the summit for the first time when I was 8. My father took me. He was very experienced, I was no complete novice, used to living in the Peak District & family holidays in Snowdonia
I had a little secret dream as we climbed. A boy had been featured in Granpas Daily Express because he had climbed Snowdon at the age of 12. I could beat that, in a way, though perhaps Tryfan didnt count because it wasnt the tallest
I may actually have been conceived on Tryfan - my parents spent their war time honeymoon cycling round Snowdonia & my mother always spoke particularly fondly of Tryfan
By coincidence another recent story took me back to those hill walking days. A warning never to drink untreated water, even from a fast-flowing mountain stream. Apparently e.coli is everywhere now. My father taught me never to drink from a stream below a certain point, in case there was a dead sheep higher up. After that, you were OK
Rations for a days climb usually consisted of a block of dried dates, cheddar cheese & chocolate. We had a little aluminium pan in which to boil water using some kind of white block which could be lit to provide heat
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Cartoons
Equal opportunities
A bundle of cartoons fell out of an old commonplace book. From the date of the book they ought to be all over 10 years old, though I cant be sure.
Its amazing how topical some of them still seem. Or maybe we just have a lot of the same obsessions
A bundle of cartoons fell out of an old commonplace book. From the date of the book they ought to be all over 10 years old, though I cant be sure.Its amazing how topical some of them still seem. Or maybe we just have a lot of the same obsessions
Art of our times
Shops generally have not put up NO SMOKING signs for years now. Everybody knew it wasnt allowed. Now everywhere has to show them. Next the law might catch up with what shop owners (especially of clothes shops) have known for years now; they need to put up signs saying NO FOOD OR DRINK
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
What do we know?
Poor soul, in this thy flesh what dost thou know?
Thou knowst thyself so little, as thou knowst not,
How thou didst die, nor how thou wast begot.
Thou neither knowst, how thou at first camst in,
Nor how thou tookst the poison of mans sin.
Nor dost thou, (though thou knowst, thou art so)
By what way thou art made immortal, know.
Thou art too narrow, wretch, to comprehend
Even thyself; yea though thou wouldst but bend
To know thy body.
Have not all souls thought
For many ages, that our body is wrought
Of air, & fire, & other elements?
And now they think of new ingredients,
And one soul thinks one, & another way
Another thinks,
& tis an even lay.
Knowst thou but how the stone doth enter in
The bladders cave, & never breaks the skin?
Knowst thou how blood, which to the heart doth flow,
Doth from one ventricle to th'other go?
And for the putrid stuff, which thou dost spit,
Knowst thou how thy lungs have attracted it?
There are no passages, so that there is
(For aught thou knowst) piercing of substances.
And of those many opinions, which men raise
Of nails & hairs, dost thou know which to praise?
What hope have we to know ourselves, when we
Know not the least things, which for our use to be?
Thou knowst thyself so little, as thou knowst not,
How thou didst die, nor how thou wast begot.
Thou neither knowst, how thou at first camst in,
Nor how thou tookst the poison of mans sin.
Nor dost thou, (though thou knowst, thou art so)
By what way thou art made immortal, know.
Thou art too narrow, wretch, to comprehend
Even thyself; yea though thou wouldst but bend
To know thy body.
Have not all souls thought
For many ages, that our body is wrought
Of air, & fire, & other elements?
And now they think of new ingredients,
And one soul thinks one, & another way
Another thinks,
& tis an even lay.
Knowst thou but how the stone doth enter in
The bladders cave, & never breaks the skin?
Knowst thou how blood, which to the heart doth flow,
Doth from one ventricle to th'other go?
And for the putrid stuff, which thou dost spit,
Knowst thou how thy lungs have attracted it?
There are no passages, so that there is
(For aught thou knowst) piercing of substances.
And of those many opinions, which men raise
Of nails & hairs, dost thou know which to praise?
What hope have we to know ourselves, when we
Know not the least things, which for our use to be?
John Donne The Second Anniversary 254-280
Imagine not knowing what hair & nails are made of. Having the media filled with people arguing the point, calling their opponents ignorant or stupid.
Although it is easy to feel quite smug about how much more 'we' know these days, I often wonder if it is possible to say whether an individual can know more than did someone like Donne? OK, a lot of what he knew was wrong (we think) but theres also an awful lot 'we' have forgotten because it is not much use to us in our daily lives
Shoulders
Another non-modern picture of a woman
with sloping shoulders. Will they ever come back into fashion again?
with sloping shoulders. Will they ever come back into fashion again?Not if the modern models amazingly horizontal collar bones are any guide
Monday, November 05, 2007
Lies, damn lies, and Florence Nightingale
There is probably no department of human inquiry in which the art of cooking statistics is unknown, & there are sceptics who have substituted 'statistics' for 'expert witness' in the well known saying about classes of false statements
Sir Edward Cook : Life of Florence Nightingale 1913
This sounds like the source for the saying about lies, damn lies etc.
Not Disraeli after all. More like a judicial joke
Sir Edward Cook : Life of Florence Nightingale 1913
This sounds like the source for the saying about lies, damn lies etc.
Not Disraeli after all. More like a judicial joke
Feeding baby
Libby Purves mentioned in her column the other day that the Truby King insistence on regular 4-hourly feeds stemmed from research on calves
Funny that. The edition of Dr Spock which I used said that the idea came from incompletely or inadequately controlled clinical trials on human babies.
Gastro-enteritis etc used to be major killers, evn in the developed world. Trials of methods which involved scrupulous sterilisation somehow also introduced a rigid time table. The death rate was cut dramatically
I suppose that makes sense in a way - if feeding times are erratic & unpredictable it gets harder to ensure sterilisation
It took time to establish that a rigid feeding timetable in itself had no independent effect on the risk of disease
There are eternal lessons here. Make sure that you have thought about all the confounding variables.
And why do we have to keep on re-learning the message about cleanliness?
Funny that. The edition of Dr Spock which I used said that the idea came from incompletely or inadequately controlled clinical trials on human babies.
Gastro-enteritis etc used to be major killers, evn in the developed world. Trials of methods which involved scrupulous sterilisation somehow also introduced a rigid time table. The death rate was cut dramatically
I suppose that makes sense in a way - if feeding times are erratic & unpredictable it gets harder to ensure sterilisation
It took time to establish that a rigid feeding timetable in itself had no independent effect on the risk of disease
There are eternal lessons here. Make sure that you have thought about all the confounding variables.
And why do we have to keep on re-learning the message about cleanliness?
Link
Fear
Fear is by definition irrational since it is caused by, is a reaction to, something which has not happened yet
Fear in itself is not necessarily irrational – sensible mice are fearful of cats -Peter Brooker
Fear in itself is not necessarily irrational – sensible mice are fearful of cats -Peter Brooker
Exformation
Exformation: That part of communication which doesnt have to be uttered because it is a shared understanding between speaker & listener
Can exformation travel faster than information?
And what do scientists mean by information anyway? Where is the knowledge, to coin a phrase
Can exformation travel faster than information?
And what do scientists mean by information anyway? Where is the knowledge, to coin a phrase
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