2014 — 7 May: Wednesday
The sun is still shining1 as my initial cuppa cools toward drinkability. Speaking of cooling, I've actually turned down the central heating 'room' thermostat in the hall by 1C in readiness for / anticipation of our brief burst of summer. I lazily / simply leave the system on 24x7 and use each radiator's valve to do its regulating thing "underneath" the control of that main regulator at the foot of the stairs. The living room rarely dips below 19C, which suits me fine.
This morning, it's currently at 20.5C.Overnight processing...
... of the news I heard yesterday evening of the death, at 93, of broadcaster and composer Antony Hopkins — I had no idea he was so elderly — reminds me that it was he who, all unknowingly, instigated my longest-ever search (a little over 20 years) for a particular piece of music (Fra'Angelico) by a particular composer (Alan Hovhaness). Of course, it didn't help that I lacked the correct spelling of the surname I'd scribbled on to a scrap of paper and kept in a desk drawer for two decades and more. In fact, by the time I finally tracked down the chap, he too was dead!
Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia tells me the BBC seems to have expunged every one of Hopkins' fascinating scripted talks about music from, as it were, the record.
Biomass
What an unlovely word:
At present, the total biomass of mammals raised for food vastly exceeds the biomass of all mammalian wildlife on the planet (it also exceeds that of the human species itself). This was
certainly not the case 10,000 or so years ago, at the dawn of the age of pastoralism...
There is, to be precise, a peculiar, implicit equivalence in the way we tend to think about killing
animals, and about driving animal species to extinction: One animal species is morally equivalent to one human individual. Thus we say that the Steller's sea cow was hunted to extinction,
in much the same way we might say that the vicar has succumbed to gout.
A fascinating essay.
Gotta love the jargon
The extensive number of routings that would have been required to de-conflict the aircraft with lower-altitude flights used a large amount of available memory and interrupted the computer's other flight-processing functions, the FAA continued. (Link.)
It's been a while...
... since I last nipped down to the seaside, but the weather forecast today isn't encouraging. I expect the sea will still be there when I next think of it.
I had initially decided...
... last night that I quite fancied the idea of re-watching a film that had, last time I saw it, made me laugh out loud at several points. I enjoy laughter. So, confidently opening up the appropriate simple flat ASCII text file to pinpoint its location in my CaseLogic folder system I quickly found myself staring, instead, at quatre points d'interrogation ...
Ugly Truth Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler DVD ???? Film £3.55 2011/04/30
... precisely where the physical location of that particular DVD should have been shown by an alphanumeric string. Being a chap who, in extremis, can make an occasional decision I decided that, rather than have a fun time2 I would simply watch something else. Hence the re-examination of "Atom Heart Mother". However, when I was in WH Smith this morning, idly browsing, I snaffled a fresh copy, and a couple of other items:
The du Sautoy looked interesting when I browsed it. The TV series is based on Michel Faber's novel. The only one I've read by him was a well-written (but ghastly enough to give away) horror SF item called "Under the Skin" that I read (for want of something better to do) while displacing Ubuntu by Windows 7 on my then-new BlackBeast. I gather the novel has supposedly been turned into quite a good film. It's on my little list.
I see the first of the forecast showers has now arrived, in time for a spot of quite late lunch.
My afternoon listening...
... is a selection from the largely-audio items dropped off by Mr Postie today. First, two Blu-rays of music by Steven Wilson:
And these classic favourite CD titles, all now carefully remastered. I doubt if you need help identifying them:
I'm delighted to report all traces of pre- and post-echo from analogue tape print-through (or was it vinyl cutting lathe adjacent track interference?) on the 1974 Supertramp album have been banished. (Can you believe I once bought the half-speed-mastered Mobile Fidelity Lab super vinyl edition for £30?) And I've twice heard Nicky Horne play extracts from what he claimed was a mastertape of the Pink Floyd "Animals" album. Even delivered via radio it was clear that the recording was a mighty fine one. The original vinyl release did it no favours.
My evening viewing...
... began with the "Ugly Truth" (still very funny) and moved on to the 1988 two-part 'Horizon' documentary on Richard Feynman: "No ordinary genius" which I have both as a not very good quality A/V file made from off-air recordings of the two episodes, and as a slightly higher-quality DVD-R I recorded for myself when it was repeated in 1993. (Still sparkling and crackling with wit, too.)