Monthly Archives: March 2014
Competitive cake-stand construction on a Sunday morning
Because it’s important to keep the mind alive.
Childhood is fleeting
Motion and camera blur on film. The boy in the red wellies is now a 22-year-old young man.
Aspire reflections
Creationism in the classroom; in 2 minutes you can help stop it; why you should
Readers in England in particular, please write to your MP in support of the BHA campaign to combat Creationism, including Creationism in publicly funded schools; details here. The rest of this post is an explanation of why, shockingly, such action is necessary. In post-principle politics, it would be naive to suggest that this or perhaps any feasible alternative Government is really interested in the merits. The Creationists are a coherent constituency, who make their voices heard. Defenders of scientific reality (regardless of their position on religious matters) must do likewise. Dr Evan Harris assures us, and he should know, that 20 letters to an MP are a lot (Glasgow Skeptics 2011). So the readership of this column, alone, is enough to make a real contribution. Do it. And ask your friends to do likewise.
The school “will retain its right to censor papers, under agreed conditions.”
Yesodey Hatorah (Charedi Jewish) Senior Girls School
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Aspire to a great weekend
A fishing boat from Islay, dragged from the archives.
Baby bracket
I squashed a few of these moving the log into position for taking the photograph, and these things are full of bright yellow fluid. The bracket in the photo is about the size of my thumbnail.
No Sugar Added
Jolly good, I thought, when my pal Ian gave me a sample of his favourite Malaysian coffee filter bags, I don’t like sugar in my coffee.
Well, the coffee was certainly strong, and very dark, and … somewhat tar-like. It certainly left an almost indelible stain on the counter in the kitchen! And thank you Ian for an unusual experience.
Being a bit of a label-reader, which probably comes of being an EHO in Scotland and therefore I’ve been involved in food labelling issues, I turned the packet over.
Carefully hidden under the folded seam was the list of ingredients. Reassuringly, coffee was “Not Less Than 50%”, but …
… next in line was sugar, not bad for a product with “no sugar added”. Obviously food labelling laws in Malaysia differ somewhat from UK and the EU. Perhaps the sugar was present in the form of caramel, which would explain the gravy-browning appearance.
And come to that, I can understand salt as an added ingredient, but margarine?
It’s a wide, wide, world.
Catkins
Photographed in the sunshine on Sunday afternoon.
Lobaria pulmonaria
I can’t help it, I love these structures.
Patrick Mackie 