My tradition is to have a weak cup of tea in the morning. When I was sent away to boarding school for eighteen months when I was 9 I stopped taking sugar in my tea – I have no memory why. When I had high blood pressure after the age of fifty I stopped taking…
Eagles
Wild was the day – Wilder still the night – Bright was the sun – Brighter still the stars – Wild was our love Still wilder our despair – Wilder still our words Birds that we were Eagles both of us – Wild on the wing – Wilder still our flight – Thro’ the wild…
Useful spftware
Inkscape is a very useful free programme from source forge (an open source website for the most part). It creates the actual readable barcode from those provided to FootSteps from the allocation authority here in the UK, Nielsen’s. The barcodes are given as .svg files which are vector images so you can make them bigger…
Space Food
Astronauts have to eat all that dehydrated picketed food which I am sure contains all the nutrients they need for space missions but can get very boring. And using magnets to keep the foil wrapped edibles on a tray seems … well unusual to say the least. Why have a tray? But living in the…
You Thought Fakes News was New?
In 1878, a New York publication, The Daily Graphic, published their own April Fool’s prank. Thomas Edison had recently invented the phonograph, and people thought there were no limits to what the famous inventor could do. The publication fabricated an article attesting that Edison had invented a brand new machine that could turn water into…
Sun at last
Today is feels like spring. The birds are singing away (again too few but at least some are here) and there is no rain and bright sunshine. It mist make some people very happy for Easter and I am sure believers will feel it is a sign of the risen. There are a lot of…
Once Upon A Time
I had bees. Last year at this time I had placed two hives together and both were full but when I split them one hive vanished into the other. I am guessing I did not have a queen in one of them. Then the numbers fell until there were a few handfuls of bees going…
Interesting
Facebook and to some extent LinkedIn has been awash for five months with the Gaza war. They filled posts with massive generalisations and invective aimed at the Israelis. No words have been aimed at the hatred of Hamas or the indifference of Egypt both of whom have it in their power to end the war…
Let’s Get Ready to Fight
Listening to a European Parliament member on the World Service say we need to prepare for war if we want peace. Apparently most of the aid money going to the Ukraine from Europe is used to buy weaponry made outside of the European Union. Surely, he says, we should manufacture it here. Arming oneself to…
Structural Engineering
There is something about bridges going down that hurts even more than seeing a house collapse. It is the idea of connection being lost and deeply associated with our long history with water – all the early city states were built near and around rivers. But bridges always have a life span. The main thread…