2014 — 27 December: Saturday
Reports from the rest of the UK1 suggest I was right to close a couple of windows overnight. "Blow, blow, thou winter wind" and all that sort of Shakespearean stuff. Is it too cruel to suggest that bland apologies to stranded travellers and advice to defer their journeys don't really, erm, cut much ice?
Of all the things I won't be doing today I suspect "going out" is going to be one of them :-)
I wonder if...
... Big Bro can spot his (old) house from orbit?2
Much the best story (and picture) in today's dismal collection of news.
And there's me...
... thinking3 it was just me!
One of the most striking features of the neuroscience literature is the contrast between the image of "thinking" presented there and our everyday experience. The emphasis in neuroscience is on how the brain does things: how we process visual information, how we record memories, how we move our limbs and comprehend language. It's true of course that most of us are capable of all these impressive feats — but rarely with anything approaching computer-like efficiency. We make bad judgements, we misunderstand, and most of all, we live in mental turmoil. The mind feels like a battleground of clamouring voices, not a sleek and efficient circuit: "I'm bored with this task, but I have to finish it. Or perhaps tomorrow? Shall I just make a cup of tea?"
My cup under-floweth.
It's a dirty job...
... but somebody has to do it. "Weedy analysis of data dumps", that is, not feuilleton creation. (Link.)
Keeping...
... the post-Xmas elves busy, I now have a few items of viewing in the delivery pipeline:
- "Dreamchild" the Gavin Millar / Dennis Potter look at the later life of Alice Liddell
- "Hearts and Minds" the Vietnam documentary
- "Heart like a wheel" showcasing Bonnie Bedelia
- "Naked Kiss" Sam Fuller's 1964 pulp masterpiece
- "Congress" the recent Ari Folman film on BD
- "Jagd auf einen Unsichtbaren" on BD (don't ask me why they omit "Man" from the title)
- "Twilight's Last Gleaming" a stunning Cold War era escapade on BD
Nearly time to eat. What do you fancy?
"Nowt that will mask the taste of brown sauce." (Uncle Mort.)
[Long pause]
Nearly time to eat. Again. What do you fancy this time?
"See above." (Actually, I don't care for brown sauce.)
I couldn't say...
... which of these two radio programmes was the better. However, they both kept me glued, as it were, to my chair. The first (21st-Century Mythologies) is an update of Roland Barthes and his essays. The second (Pink Mist) is an amazing "poem".