2014 — 6 February: Thursday
Hello, pension! Say "hi" to the bank account for me. If you stay there long enough.
Since I won't be...
... attending the Winter Olympics I don't intend to think too hard about this morning's BBC "news" suggestion for my next worry bead: ingredients (that "could be" used to construct a bomb aboard a plane) "could be" concealed in tubes of toothpaste1 and smuggled into Russia on flights. I note the US guvmint has neither declared an explicit terrorist threat along these lines, nor raised the current number of "terror alerts", which remains stubbornly at zero. But that's clearly less exciting.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed — and hence clamorous to be led to safety — by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
What an endlessly self-entertaining species we are. All too often in a great hurry to push others into a probably endless void of nothingness for no very good reason that I can detect.
Having barely dodged...
... the rain while hunter-gathering my next crockpot's worth of nutritional pig- and vegetable-based goodness ingredients — and in the process piling another £18-71 on to my JLP 'credit' card2 — guess who owed (on 30 September 2012) $16,066,241,407,385.89? And to think Christa and I used to worry about our pitiful mortgage, which never exceeded £35,000 at any point. (Link.)
John Walker took an amusing look at the US public debt in the light of C Northcote Parkinson's "Law".
Sad geek...
... that some foolish people mistakenly believe me to be, I'd noted the beautiful cinematography of that Richard Curtis film "About Time" on Tuesday evening, and further noted (while enjoying all the 'extras') young Mr Curtis admitting that he'd deliberately got hold of a chap named John Guleserian for the job after seeing a 2011 film he'd shot called "Like Crazy" — the which I knew not one jot of...
Mr Postie delivered it today. He also happily told me about the "fantastic" Cat walking shoes that he got from Brentano in West Quay. I figure if Posties don't know about comfortable all-weather footwear then nobody will.
Once again, it's somehow become time for lunch, methinks. The tum rumbles (and the rain splashes) ever on. I've cunningly lined up a cuppa and a biccie over with Roger & Eileen later this afternoon, after the car has finished having its wash out on the drive.
It's been quite a while...
... since I saw the BBC Horizon documentary "Invasion of the Virions" (I mentioned it here). I remain interested, however. On Monday I started browsing, but was unwilling to pay the High Street price for, my copy of this (which was also delivered today):
The evidence seems to be pointing to a much larger rôle for viruses in evolution and many biological processes than was dreamt of in our philosophy (as it were). Given the continuing arguments about whether or not the crafty little devils are even alive, it amuses me to read tales of the people who are steadily chipping away at our profound ignorance. And to think my grammar school careers advisor wanted me to go "into" biochemistry!
Those two ABBA CDs showed up, too, though I'd already downloaded the 39 "auto-ripped" tracks. They were a jaunty little popular beat combo in their day.
Sorry to be so thick, but...
... how does President Obama make the leap from freedom of religion to national security? NPR reports he's told a non-denominational gathering of political leaders that freedom of religion across the world is important to national security and is a central tenet of U.S. diplomacy. Crikey.