Ideas worthy of discussion

Strikes me that there are two types of people in the world, those that inhabit the domain of ideas, and thrive there, and those that don't. Eleanor Roosevelt is often quoted for suggesting that great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small minds discuss people. I can kind of see where she was going with that but I don't totally agree, in my experience the domain of ideas is often as much about who has the idea as the idea itself, you can have the best idea in the world but if you don't have the personality, drive, incentives, resources, contacts, platforms etc. to spread it then it might as well not exist and therefore won't be "discussed". Of course you can have an idea (even a bad one) and give/sell/lose it to someone with these attributes who can go on to exploit it, but it's still mainly about people. For me Socrates was closer to the mark when he said that the "unexamined life was not worth living" and I think that's true. It seems to me that an essential component of happiness and feeling fulfilled in ones life is to be curious and possess a spirit of adventure that leads to new ideas and experiences, ideas that are worthy of discussion.

 

Double Citra

We "zoomed" a few mates for drinks and a chat last night, it was fun and good to catch up. I tried a new Verdant beer called "Fruit, Car, Sight, Exhibition" a luscious DIPA (Double IPA) loaded to the brim with Citra hops in the boil kettle (hot side) but also loads of Citra hops in the dry hop (cold side) too. I love Citra hops, and this just burst from glass, mango and citrus, hazy and pillowy with a really addictive spikey carbonation, excellent work from the Falmouth firm.

 

A Hit..

We had a bottle of wine with dinner last night for a change, lush it was too, a grand cru from Burgundy (Musigny) with a decent bit of bottle age. I'm always apprehensive about Burgundy, it's such a difficult region to pin down and very hit and miss for the uninitiated (like me) Fortunately this bottle was a hit, lovely lifted fruit, cherries, farmyard and a lingering finish. I bought this wine in a sale about 15 years ago and it's aged beautifully, in fact I reckon it would last another 15 at least and be none the worse for it.

 

Ear, ear

The "Vincent" mug...

 

Friday Smirk

I'm often amused at how some of our religious brothers and sisters think about "atheists", there's often a perception that non-believers are somehow boring or "less fun". I guess the crux of this debate is in how you define "fun"; if it's spending hours on your knees whispering magic spells to an invisible patriarch then I guess religious people have more "fun", and they're more than welcome to that! I, for one, think I'll just crack on with thinking for myself, a "monkey in shoes" rather than a "sheep", after all we all know what shepherds end up doing to sheep! (the pretty ones at least)

 

Mustn't grumble..

The Sun was out today (for a change) and although chilly, my walk at lunchtime was very pleasant. I spotted this weathercock (not a word you use very often!) on top of a local church spire gleaming in the November sunshine. It made me reflect on our current predicament, we've ended up in Tier 2 of the Government lockdown rules, so no inter-family mingling for us for a while, still, at least we can meet outdoors for bracing walks like the one today. It would be a shame to get this far and catch this pesky virus just when the cavalry is about to arrive, anyway, mustn't grumble! (as Chas and Dave would say) This particular building has been here since the 1860's and the town itself since Roman times, i.e. over 2000 years, so the current pandemic certainly isn't the first or the worst to afflict these parts! However, we should feel reasonably smug in the thought that this is the first pandemic that will (hopefully) be snuffed out by a newly invented vaccine created during the epidemic itself! We do science, we learn about how reality works and we adapt, perhaps with the exception of what goes on in the building in the picture.. 

 

Midweek Mirth

It must be Christmas soon, there are Easter Eggs in the supermarkets..

 

Taste experiment

Last Friday night, as I was constructing a culinary delight for my family, I thought I'd crack open a little "novelty beer" that I've had in the cupboard for a while. Called "The Tickle Monster" it's a beer from Siren, my local craft brewery in Finchampstead. Labelled a "Triple IPA" it's essentially a pale ale but made in a very strong (alcohol) style, it had also been flavoured with mango fruit and been "spun" on cedar wood giving it some very bold flavours to play off against the 11% ABV. I was expecting it to quite boozy in the sense of leaving an alcohol burn in the throat as some Imperial stouts and barley wines do, but it was surprisingly drinkable, no hint of it's underlying dangers! Certainly not a beer to quench your thirst with, more a "taste experiment", but a decent one never the less.

 

End in Tiers?

So, the "end of lockdown" tiers have been announced, but no one knows which one they're going to be in yet. We're hoping that we're going to be a T1 kind of place next week, allowing family to visit etc., but we're on the borderline in terms of infection rates so could be a T2 if unlucky. Good news about the various positive vaccine results popping up now though, Science to the rescue! The mRNA techniques used in the Pfizer and Moderna products are really interesting, something that may bear tremendous fruit in years (and future pandemics) to come, just need to sort out the cold-chain constraints. I have a couple of good friends in the "Pharma biz" on the scientific side of these efforts, they seem very optimistic that they (we) can get these jabs distributed quickly (and that's not "corporate happy-talk") Let's hope nothing untoward springs out of the woodwork between now and the safety sign-off in a few weeks time..

 

Beer of the year

I think I might have found my "beer of the year" last night, I cracked open a can of "This is a Concept" while making dinner. It's a West Coast style IPA from Cornish wizards Verdant, now, one of the things that Verdant are renowned for is their obsession with New England style IPA's which are hazy, pale, hop forward and with hardly any bitterness. West Coast IPA's on the other hand are (usually) clear and hop forward but with a hefty whack of bitterness that leaves your mouth demanding another sip. Usually, when it comes to breweries they tend to specialize in one or the other, however, when it comes to straddling the two Oceans it seems that the lads down in Kernow know how to truly nail both styles. An absolutely stunning beer, almost perfect, soft mouthfeel with keen bitterness, a sweet malt character (like great German lager) big hit of citrus hop flavour and just perfectly balanced. Not one for the mild mannered weighing in at 8% ABV but so rich and flavorsome, definitely one for the wall of fame.

 

Live..

Live footage of the UK leaving the EU

Give it up, losers..

Donald Trump's top team to now sue Grecian 2000...

 

Urban Nature

Nature in all it's glory but in an "urban" environment. This picture is from a competition being run by the Natural History Museum you can see some more examples on their web page (follow the link) and they're stunning. I particularly love this one of the Kingfisher, the colours of these birds are just fantastic and, in my experience, they're unmissable in the wild. Often seen as just a flash of scarlet and iridescent blue darting across the surface of the river or stream, unforgettable!

 

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo on target as usual. When you live by "faith" rather than evidence and reason, anything you may imagine could be possible and perhaps even any deed done in it's defense justified..

A cartoon for everything

Te he... It's true, there's an XKCD cartoon for everything!

 

Pace-maker

Continuing to notice improvements to my fitness over the Summer and into the Autumn, I did a walk today which covered around six and a half kilometers and managed to do it in under an hour. The average pace was a whisker over 9 minutes per kilometer which is pretty good I reckon (for an old git) as when I started walking at lunchtimes back in the Autumn of 2018 my average pace was around 13 minutes per KM. Onwards and upwards, next milestone will be to get a 6k done in under 9 mins per KM, now if only it would stop raining every day I might just make it before the end of the year!

 

Just a blip?

I see that the orange peril is still clinging onto the delusion that he won something, how embarrassing for intelligent Americans everywhere! Although it's not unlike our own bumbling Prime Minister who quotes pointless Latin phrases but can't seem to manage to comb his hair (what is it about some world leaders and their weird hair?). Anyway it seems to me that both cultures (US & UK) these days seem to encourage and reward infantilism, why? Is is the fault of reality TV or perhaps video games and social media, or maybe the lack of critical thinking in schools? Who knows, but whatever the reason, let's hope it's just a blip.

 

The Zoom Economy

It's interesting how different people are dealing with the move to "online working" that's been going on around the country over the last 9 months. In my own case, our (expensive) offices have essentially been shut down since mid-March and although I pop in now and again to look after various computers that need attention I'm not particularly missing "office life", nor does it seem to have affected my productivity in any way. If truth be told my productivity now is probably higher now than it was this time last year! Much less in the way of people "hovering" around my desk for political rather than functional purposes, and distractions from people bringing their bloody puppies, babies and hyper-active toddlers in for people to gawp at have fallen to zero (rolls eyes)  In all seriousness though, I find I'm working less hours and yet getting more done?

Work-life balance is definitely tracking in the right direction, in fact we switched to a 9 day fortnight over the Summer, i.e. people took Friday afternoons off, and again, productivity was just as good as a normal 10 day fortnight (just goes to show what people used to do on a Friday afternoon in the office!) As a consequence of the emergence of the so called, "Zoom Economy" I'm seriously considering moving house to somewhere with much nicer scenery, less cars and warmer weather than the UK home counties, so long as it has good broadband connectivity and decent beer of course! I was speaking to a business colleague today who has "worked from home" on the island of Tenerife for the last 2 months in a fully serviced apartment with hot-tub, pool and veranda overlooking the ocean all for a few hundred Euro a month, and frankly no one even noticed, apart from his own family! Isn't it amazing how, in every crisis, there's always an upside to be found somewhere!

Wuhan birthday wishes..

A rather grim anniversary today. It was exactly one year ago that the first known case of Covid-19 was traced to a 55 year old Chinese man who had visited a "wet market" in Wuhan, China. So far the disease has claimed 1.33 million lives (and those are just the ones we can easily count) To put this into some perspective that's roughly a 9/11 sized event every day for a year (and counting)! This puts Covid at around 10th in the list of things that kills most people worldwide, quite an impressive performance from a standing start last November. 

Let's not forget that although the cavalry is on it's way in the shape of effective vaccines, it'll still be many months before they start to reach the masses (i.e. you and me) and we're just entering the Winter flu season in the Northern Hemisphere. And yet, there are still people out there who feel "oppressed" because they're politely asked to wear a paper face mask in crowded indoor places like shops, in order to save other people's lives! Ah well, I have it on good authority from a Doctor friend of mine that it's a well known medical fact some people behave like complete arseholes most of the time, still, natural selection is usually swift and reliable.

Covid Adverts

Lovin the new German Covid-19 adverts...