2010 — 18 September: Saturday
Again, it's rather a lot after midnight1 — I've unpacked only 10 of today's batch of 20 cartons, but it's now 00:56 and I desperately need some sleep. G'night.
Brrr
Big Bro's email is back on the air, so now I know it's 35C and 90% humidity in Brunei at the moment. Nice. [Pause] It's now 09:12 and I'm just back from a quick burst of supplies shopping. Damsons have reappeared. But they won't be going into today's crockpot.
Shocking?
I can't remember the last time I was shocked by a photograph. This one doesn't even come close. Some of the comments are pretty dire, however. Right. Time to get crocking.
Wait! A nice image...
... to go with this piece about "Proofiness" — "the art of using bogus mathematical arguments to prove something that you know in your heart is true — even when it's not."
I see it's now a year and a couple of days since I last prepared damsons. The "de-pipping" process remains tedious. This time, instead of piling the result into a jar mixed with vodka and sugar, I'm going for a simple stewing process that should blend very nicely with some of the icecream I bought many months ago. Hedonistic, or what?
King Baugeas
I recently mentioned that I'd overlooked a reference in that comic masterpiece, "Fungus the Bogeyman", to this king. Out of carton #64 a few minutes ago popped my little cache of Raymond Briggs books, so I've just re-read it, and here's proof that the Wikipedia entry is correct:
Out of the same carton fluttered a sheet of paper on which I'd scrawled the following:
It's been said that the sound of a rattlesnake sounding off can make a coyote's rectal muscles pucker at 50 paces.
Rachel Johnson, editor of "The Lady" — and winner of the 2008 Bad Sex award — has just described the Trident weapons system as a "Willy-waving anachronism". Brilliant. (Source.)
Keep it complicated
This was the title of an article by Adrian Berry in an ancient "Guardian". I'd photocopied it (on an IBM copier), but it hasn't aged well, so I scrabbled around for other options. I'd been reading about that old "Dr Myron Fox" experiment (see KOL), which also features in the piece. But the bit that amused me was the example of "Unintelligible Profundity" Berry quoted, which I've so far seen two variants of — in a technical communication magazine (an equally aged photocopy), and in my pristine copy of Robert Weber's 1992 anthology "Science with a smile". Here's the punchline:
Back in my Acorn RiscPC days I used a DTP program ("TechWriter") that would have made this sort of typesetting almost trivially easy. I was faintly appalled when I discovered how complex the "Formula" module of OpenOffice has managed to make it, nearly two decades later. So I've cheated.
Profile of Feynman listened to? Check.
Cartons emptied? All but one. Check.
Next cuppa, and episode #1 of "West Wing, season #7"? As soon as the Beethoven's finished. It's 22:30 and we've lined up a little stroll (possibly the Selborne one) for tomorrow.