2015 — 28 June: Sunday
It's nice to see that some things — in this case, the appeal of the Aubrey/Maturin exploits in Napoleonic-era Mediterranean warfare — don't change. I rather think it was where I first met the word "otiose", too.
An overnight email...
... from Big Bro1 awaits some portion of my attention. [Pause] I wonder if he realises that 'flattening' his calendar page into a PDF has both rotated and truncated some of the data?
Today's weather...
... doesn't look too bad as I sup the initial cup to a swirl of Scarlatti. It's already a balmy 24C in the living room, too. Breakfast beckons. But then doesn't it always at about this time? I'm such a creature of habit.
Arcane words
I was slightly taken aback (a maritime term!) halfway through an interesting piece on the history of the long-time mystery that is altitude sickness...
Tibetans have been living on the Tibetan Plateau, which varies between 3,500 and 5,000 metres, for more than 30,000 years. Andean tribes are considered to have been
altitude-dwellers for perhaps 11,000 years. It appears that the two groups have been taking different evolutionary paths.
Andeans have bigger lungs, more hemoglobin and more erythropoietin than sea-levellers. This means more air is processed to extract more oxygen.
... to meet again the word "erythropoietin" — I first met it in the context of the weekly "EPO" injections I was giving Christa during her chemo. And I last met Mr Twigger when I quoted from his concluding paragraph on boring monopaths.
This strikes me...
... as another good concluding paragraph:
But I fear it means I seem to be running out of political parties to support.
I didn't request...
... the new "OK, Google" hotword detection though it's definitely been installed on the version of Chrome that runs on my Android SHIELD Tablet PC. And there doesn't seem to be any way of disabling it. Much good may it do them. Chrome's also on my Android smartphone, but that spends most of its time switched off.
Back in April 2008...
... I discovered a useful Greek record store (lpcdreissues.com) and successfully ordered from them a copy of an old favourite called "OobleeDooblee Jubilee":
I used them again five years later for an MP3 download of Judy Dyble's "Talking with Strangers". Given the current financial upheavals in Greece I was pleased to receive an email assuring me that I can still use PayPal to keep them afloat...