Mythology

On holiday I read "Mythology" by Edith Hamilton. I have owned this book for a long time, but I thoght it would be good to read it in Athens.

When I was a child I was very interested in Greek mythology. There is a lot more shagging, killing and jealousy in tales of Ancient Greece, but those Gods are nuch nicer and more fun than the Christian God.

I didn't remeber that Hercules had killed his family. This is never mentioned in the TV shows with Hercules. I usually watch the Hercules cartoon on Sunday morning (to improve my German).

The book also briefly covered the Norse Gods, such as Odin, Loki and Thor. I wish that there has been more information about the Norse Gods. I liked that they felt doomed -- just like me. Oh well I can just wait for Branagh's film about Thor.

4th day in Athens

On my fourth day I had to finish a talk I was writing for a meeting a couple of days after I got back. Given that it was only a 5 day holiday, I was depressed to have to spend one day working. This was what is known as a career low point (not that I have a career I might add).

It is taking me longer and longer to write talks. My attention span is completely destroyed. There is always a delay when I try and do anything with a computer. My concentration mean free path is about 20 seconds.

I was drinking a beer in my hotel room. I had got a little miniature bottle of hard liquor. When I looked at the label, I saw that it was called "Toxixic". After smelling I decided that I wouldn't want to try drinking something with a potentially dangerous name. It would have been embarrassing to explain that how i got sick.

So as a flew out of Athens I thought well that was a nice break. I was happy to visit Greece and get away without seeing any belly dancing.

An open letter to the Acropolis Museum

Dear director of the Acropolis Museum, I recently visited your fine museum in Athens. I wanted to buy a copy of The Parthenon Marbles: by Christopher Hitchens. But you don't sell it!

It is well known that in the past, when Englnd was ruled by Aristocrats and public school boys, there was a lot of stuff stolen from abroad to be stored in great country houses and then museums. I saw your video about how Lord Elgin stole the Marbles from The Parthenon. I know that you want the marbles to be displayed in your museuem. I think that Hitchens's books make the case that the stolen artifacts are returned.

Perhaps you don't want to stock the book so that you don't give offence to any visiting Lord or Lady doing the "grand tour". Bollocks man, show some gumtion. The current set of public school boys who are running England are the feeble offspring of several generations down the line after the slaughter in the trenches in the first world war. You need to be firm with them, either you bribe them (underneath their posh voices they are just crooks) or you horse whip them and set the dogs on them. Personally I would go for option 2. Then you would get your heritage back. Yours, Craig A lover of Gyros

day 3 in Athens

On my third day in Athens I went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Frankly this was more pillars, but they are so huge and old. If there wasn't a blasted attendant with a whistle, I would have sacrificed something to try and talk to the old Gods, before these nasty single sky Gods came along.

After that I went to the newish Acropolis Museum. This is a very modern museum that holds stuff from the Acropolis. I felt a bit dehydrated in the museum, so I didn't give it my full attention. It is very stylish museum.

2nd day in Athens

On my second full day in Athens I decided to visit the Acropolis of Athens. The Acropolis dominates the skyline of Athens. Getting to the Acropolis involves walking up a hill. However, after living in Wuppertal, I have plenty of experience of vertical motion.

What can I say the buildings were amazing. They are just so big, even though they are half broken. I was feeling awestruck by the huge mighty pillars of marble. Perhaps this is where Plato and Aristotle stood and thought deep thoughts. I started to think deep thoughts and then I looked out over the city of Athens. "What a shit hole", I thought. Athens is an incredibly ugly city. All the buildings are made out of ugly concrete. I doubt that there ws any central planning, and probably many bribes recieved to allow various buildings to be thrown up.

There are attendants who check that no one is doing anything inapropriate. They blow whistles, if they think you are doing anything wrong. There were two teenagers sitting on a wall looking out on the wonder that is Athens. One attendant kept whistling and the two kids kept chatting until the attendant came right up to them.

After doing the classical tour I was hungry and ready for lunch. I stopped at a restaurant and ordered an Ouzo platter. The waiter recommended a pitcher of Ouza to go with it. I couldn't remember how strong Ouza was, but a pitcher seemed like a lot. But as it was my birthday, I decided "well why not". (This shows I have learnt nothing in my 44 years of life). Actually, the pitcher of Ouza turned out to be a 12 Oz bottle with a bucket of ice. I also got a free Ouza "on the house" at the end of the meal.

After that I read for a while and had drinks in a few more bars, then back to the hotel.

A little bit on drinking

This year I have been trying to cut down on the late night drinking of beer, mostly because I was getting very fat. Unfortunately, no one has seemed to notice. I keep hoping that someone will say to me "it looks like you have lost weight," but no one does. Of course it could be that having a couple of beers in the evening wasn't affecting my weight, at all, so I will have to look at other possible causes (as well as drinking more again). I could try cutting down on the amount of fruit I am eating to see if that will do the trick.

As it happens I do mostly feel better for not drinking on workdays. I should be getting enough exercise because doing any walking, such as to and from to work, in Wuppertal mostly involves walking up some big hill. I still feel tired though a lot of the time Well, the previous two pargraphs were written at the begiining on March. There was a big slippage, because of my birthday and holidays. I was amused to hear the British comic Arthur Smith, say in a program about the day he had to give up drinking for medical reasons, that he never had a drink in the morning, so he never thought if himself as a problem drinker. He also mentioned that he never got up in the morning though.

I just wish I didn't feel so tired all the time.

Old post about Carnivals

Below is a fragement of posting that I started during the Carnival time in Germany. I actualy intended to work more, but I ended up going into the city center to buy a coffee maker (that I have yet to use). There were lots of people on the streets in custumes, but original people like me carried coffee makers

About the only good thing about getting old is that I am forgetting these Christain customs I was indoctrinated with when I was young. The equivalent thing in the UK, is pancake Tuesday

So it is Karnival time in this part of Germany. In principle, I should dress up in a costume and go to Cologne or Dusseldorf and watch the parade. Although I quite like the idea of dressing up in a large rabbit suit and then getting very drunk on the streets of Germany, I am not sure I can be bothered.

For posterity I did record a few scenes on TV with my flip recorder.

a little rain during my holiday in Athens

I meant to say that as I stepped out of my hotel on my first day in Athens, I found that it was raining. Oh no, i thought, this is going to suck. After such a long hard winter, I wanted a bit of sun and warmth.

I should say that the rain in Athens was fairly pathetic. Water came from the sky, but it was very light. Everything would be dry after 1 hour or so. When I lived in Glasgow, it rained every day for a month. This got me very depressed. I am not sure that I could manage more than a straight month of rain.

On classical music

The folks at Itunes sent me an email with various offers for classical music. I have always found classical music too intellectual for me, but my hard core anti-classical feelings have been softened by regular listening to the freakzone on radio 6. (And watching inspector Morse of course on the TV). Perhaps I don't hate classical music, but just classical musicians.

Anyway I took advantage of the Itunes offers and download some classical sympathizers of some kind. At the same time I decided to listen to "the sonics". The sonics were a garage band in the 60s, who many people feel were really one of the first punck bands. Fuck you Mozart!

Classical Athens day 1

For my first introductoion to classical Greece I went in the remains of Hadrians library. There was not much left, but the pillars are so impressive.

I am never a great fan of Cathedrals or big churches, because they seem to me to be monuments of worker exploitation by those pesky Christians. The classical buildings did imprress me, although they were built with slave labour no doubt. The Athenian Acropolis dominates the view from Athens.

On the first day, I only managed to view Hadrian's library, partly because everything shut early and I was reading too much.

On being robbed

In Wuppertal I always carry a small rucksack on my back, just in case I need some stuff, or need a place to put shopping. On holiday, I also carry a small rucksack, for my books and stuff. Sometimes in Germany I would forget to close my rucksack and then people in the street would stop and tell me my bag was open.

Did I mention I once owned an Android tablet. Well no more!

I was drinking a coffee in a small cafe close to my hotel. There are a lot of ownerless dogs in Athens. They mostly see to lie down and sleep. There was a dog sleeping near me. This guy asked me if the dog was mine. He then started talking to me. He told me he was Italian, and he had lived in America and had visited the UK, when he finally understood I was English. He told me he was just visiting Athens for the first time. He wanted to meet up at 18:00. The trouble is he sounded like a street hassler getting me ready for a con. Somehow he just talked too much.

o I was wandering around Athens trying to avoid the coffee bar the guy was going to wait for me in. I started to get lost. It was past 18:00 and I needed a piss, so I stopped in a bar. I was the only customer in the bar. The landlord was takking on the phone with someone in Greek, but I think he was trying to set skype up. I noticed that my ruxksack was open. "Idiot", I thought and closed the bag, after I had checked that nothing had fallen out.

After the bar, I got more lost in Athens. I found a metro station, but it was closed up. I think the metro was closed that day. It was not a great area to walk around, because there were a lot of "sex shops", although it wasn't a red light district. I was on a main road and was trying to figure out whether to go right or left on the road to get back to my hotel. There was a small corridor on one of the pavements, because of some building work. I felt someone behind me a bit and I speeded up. I am not a fast walker, so people busy trying to get home needed to get pass me. As I was trying to figure out how to get home, I noticed that my bag was open again. I checked the contents -- my android tablet was missing. Bastards!

I am not completely sure how they could sell a cheap Android tablet made in China. Also they missed the charger. What would Socrates have done I asked myself? So I went for a beer in a quiet bar amd then got a taxi back to the hotel.

When I got back to my hotel. The guy at the desk told me that someone had phoned for me, but he didn't have any details, because he wasn't on duty. This was a bit weird, because no one knew I was here. Paranoia costs nothing.

first day in Athens

So after getting a map from the hotel, I first walked the wrong way from the interesting parts of Athens towards Omonia square. I found a cafe in a tent, where I had a coffee and a big doughnut. A day later, I was warned off this square, by a polite Greek scammer, but it was OK foe coffee. I walked towards the more historical areas of the city, after I got the map the correct way round.

My hotel was near Monastiraki square. I walked around the general area. Unfortunately, I was in a reading mood. Rather than buy a guide book, I got a copy of a crime thriller set in Athens. The book was "Assassins of Athens" (Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery) by Jeffrey Siger. I had purchased that book via Kindle, and was reading it on my Android tablet (but more of that later). The book was a crime novel set in the high society of Athens. A son is killed and the police's investigation reaches the top of Greece's society.

Arrival in Athens

I have been feeling more than usually burnt out recently. So I thought a holiday was in order. I have been wanting to visit Greece for a while, so after checking online I decided on Athens, because it was cheap.

On Wednesday I flew from Dusseldorf to Athens via Paris.

Bitter experience has taught me not to trust taxi drivers. The information from the hotel suggested I took the metro, so that was what I did. Normally after I get off a flight, I normally wonder around the airport lost for a couple of hours. But this time, I found the trains quickly and got my ticket. The metro was very clean and modern.

In the carriage I acidently dropped a 5 Euro on he ground. An old couple, who couldn't speak English, told me it was there. Shit I thought, it was like I was testing Greece, now that I am living in Germany.

The hotel was meant to be near the metro station. The city seemed to be full of energy, with people walking around, even though it was close to midnight. I passed a little kiosk, it was still open, and I could buy beer. This is not Germany where everything closes around 8:00 pm. I found the hotel quickly. My room is a bit sparten, but what did I expect for the price. (There is very good wireless though)

Athens

It is holiday time again. I am just about to get a flight to go to Athens. I am really burnt on. So some R and R will do me good. I am staying in a hotel that is hopefully close to the main sites.

Return of the Master

I was at some friend's last night. We were discussing politics. I do try to make an attempt to remain calm and rational about the terrible things the Conservatives are doing with their liberal buddies to the UK. They seem to be asset stripping the UK. No doubt we will long for the time, when an MP just used to take money from the state illegally to clean his moat, rathefr thn give money to the banks. No doubt manry of the conservative MPs will endup working in thefinancial sector when they leave parliment.

There has to be a better way! The final years of the labour goverment were spent trying Keynsiam economics. As s result the ression didn't seem as badas one the during the 80s. Now that the conservatives are back in power things are getting worse again. I kept thinking I should know more about this John Maynard Keynes, so I purchased "Keynes: The Return of the Master" on Kindle

Part of the conservatives plans never made nay sense to me. Their idea that any jobs lost from the state sector would be immediately taken over by the private sector, never made any sense to me what so ever. After reading this book I realized that this is an assumption of classical economic models. As far as I can tell the assumption of the jobs going from the state into the private sector is just to make the equations easier to solve.

All you hear in the mainstream press is the idea of the efficient market theory, but after this last crash -- it doesn't look so efficient to me. It stunned me to see that a goal of Keynes economics was "full employment".

Keynes was also a part philosopher, as well as a speculator in the money markets. So the author recommends that the practitioners of the dismal science also learn about history and philosophy, rather than just concentrate on mathematical models. .

Allen Ginsberg

During my 20s I was a bit obsessed with the beat generation. This may have been due to me living in the US for 6 years of course. I did see Allen Ginsberg read poetry in Lexington. I can only remember some poem were he suggests that you something other than a cigarette in your mouth (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). He looked like an old uncle, but he was old, and such is fate.

The tipping point

I have just finished reading the tipping point by Malcom Glasdwell. The book discusses how things like street fashion can be very small at one time, but then can grow very big and become major national trends. I think many people read this book and think how can I use this to my advantage?

The cartoon is from a series that I semi-regularly read. I was looking up the author "Malcom Glasdwell" on Amazon when I realized that I knew who it was. I felt so busted....

Africa

I listen to many radio plays when I try to work -- thanks to the BBC iplayer. The Iplayer works for radio outside the UK.

I have also started to listen to the audio-books from the project Gutenberg. In the last couple of days, I have listened to Allan Quatermain by Henry Rider Haggard. I had heard of of "Quatermain" from the graphic novel (and the crappy film) the league of extraordinary gentlemen.

Quatermain is a fictional African explorer and the novel is about one of his adventures. Some of it is a bit bleak, because he is writing when he is close to death.

Anyway, think that he in some weird sense is a good representative of the aristocracy. I look at Prince Charles and I look at Cameron and I wander how the UK was an Empire was built around the ancestors of these useless public school educated idiots. Perhaps, Quatermain is the missing link, or more likely he is a fictional character to amuse blog posters over a long weekend.

Bill FAY

Today the freakzone radio show featured a forgotten Bill Fay album. I think he is great!

On the pleasure of walking ...

When I was a young student I used to have to go for a walk as a break from studying. when I was a student at Imperial College I used to walk a circuit along Cromwell road to relax from studying Physics. As I got older I stoped walking, so much, and the walks tended to be to the supermarket for food and beer.

In Germany most of the shops are shut on Sunday, so there is very little to do (OK, there are many things to do, but not in tandem with work). So over the winter I sometimes don't go out of the house over the weekend -- particularly when there is snow on the ground.

There is a big wood behind the block of flat where I live. Today I decided for a quest for the mythical Kneipe. I wanderd around the wood for a bit in the bitter cold. I found nothing, but dead leaves. My body felt tingely after my walk in a way that never happens after I after I walk to work. I never found a close by Kneipe, but perhaps I will explore more of the forest.

On getting high ....

I am trying to live a more European lifestyle. For example, in my German class at a night school in Glasgow, when the teacher said that many German kitchens did not have kettles, the students gasped in amazement.

Obviously the first thing I did was to buy myself a kettle when I moved in my rented flat. Recently I thought after over a year, I should try to use the coffee maker as well. So on Sunday or Saturday I move to coffee after two or three cups of tea.

I mostly drink tea, but I do drink coffee as well, but only maybe one or two cups a day. However, after drinking half a jug of filter coffee, my entire system starts to speed up. I feel slightly high. Ideas rush through my mind, but it is too unfocused to do anything useful. My body shakes more than normal. So this is what it is like to be European? I will get a coffee maker for my office as well.

Low lying fruit

Fucking Kindle. Yeah, Ok I can download a book in 1 minute, but I still have to read the bally thing.

I spend way too much time reading the online newspapers over the weekend. Last weekend I read an article by Will Hutton. It was a review of a book about the problems with the American economy. Like many people I am reading books about the general crapness of Western economies, particularly as our Tory government seems determined to destroy the British economy.

The title of the book was: The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better.

The basic idea was that the American economy had grown in the twentieth century because America had exploited lots of empty land, immigration of smart people. The author claimed that this was "like picking low lying fruit", because very little effort was required. Now things have stagnated, more effort will be required for economic growth. I think the central metaphor of the book was interesting, but I wasn't convinced by the facts in the book. In fact I probably just needed to read Hutton's summary of the book. (He did make the point that google and twitter, the great hopes for the twentieth century economy, don't employ that many people.)

Everyday drinking

I was excited to get in the post on Friday my copy of the book: Everyday drinking by Kingsley Amis. The book is a collection articles about booze in all its forms. Amis clearly liked to drink. There are many recipes for different cocktails. He was also fighting a losing battle against the overuse of wine at meals. As he points out, it is better to drink beer with fish and chips say, and most other traditional British food.

He quit drinking for a couple of weeks. He restarted with the second drink being a can of Carlsberg special Brew. He was excited by the intense taste of beer, after his little break. Special brew is a very strong beer at 9%. Many people in the UK, think that only tramps drink special brew. I sometimes used to drink one can a session when I lived in Glasgow. It seemed too dangerous to try more. Amis suggested mixing Special Brew with standard Carlsberg to make a cocktail. Wikipedia tells me that Carlsberg brewed Special Brew especially for Sir Winston Churchill in the 50s -- you see it really is the beer of choice for alcoholics.

One of the great quotes in the book is: "Food is the curse of the drinking classes" Here he is complaining about the decline of pubs, with music, children, and the smell of food getting in the way of conversation and drinking.

Some readers of this blog may worry that I, of all people, should not be reading books about drinking. When I was around 18, I was explaining to someone's parent, that I was drinking some type of home brew wine, because its was the favorite drink of Dylan Thomas. The parent retorted that "look what happened to him." I took another small sip of wine as a reply.

After reading the book, I am going to make a point of only drinking red wine with fish. Why? This will make a statement that I am not part of the establishment -- this is particularly important now that the public school educated have disgraced themselves in their greed in (mis-)running the country.

my work on the big society

Yesterday lunch time I worked in a soup kitchen of Wuppertal. There is something inspiring when you volounteer ones time to help people. I will never forget the look of happiness as I poured meat soup into the bowl of dirty tramp with a long gray beard. "God bless you guvnor," he said, and I felt a warmth that normally I only get with a good glass of 20 year old whiskey. (Now that I volunteer Germany will no longer need welfare and I will be able to buy plenty of good booze when my taxes are cut.)

After helping in a soup kitchen. I helped out cleaning the streets of the center of Wuppertal. yesterday. What if Kate Middleton visited Wuppertal and she saw rubbish on the ground, such as "burger wrappings." She will be not used to such corruption. I could never live with my self that a future queen of England would know that people throw rubbish on the ground, but not everyone has servants to pick it up again.

Of course some of you reading this post will think is this same Craig who bursts into tears, whenever British politics is discussed, and starts screaming "why didn't I vote in the last election?" and "How did these evil toff fuckers end up in charge", before jumping on a nearby table and ranting "that Etonians should be first horse whipped and the deported in poverty."

Well I worry that a future employer will look at my online presence and say what we want is a more true blue person. This is not just an issue for me, but other people who write intemperate remarks in facebook. What we really need is some kind of "App" that will write "worthy blog posts". In principle I could just write a bunch of fake blog posts, as the above. However, even writing a fake post on the "big society" takes time and effort. It would be much better to just let the computer do all the work.

Ideas for Dr Who scripts

Occasionally I day dream that my life is a success. For example I occasionally fantize that I am doing something worthwhile such as writing scripts for the new Dr. Who series. I have two ideas for plots.

• 1) Possible title: "Dr. Who and the assassination of Margret Thatcher" The plot is where Dr. Who goes back in time to make sure Thatcher dies in a hotel attack. This saves England from losing all its libraries and forests because of the greed of the current crop of public school toffs. Of course I would be hated by the sun and daily mail newspapers, but that would drive the viewing figures up. It would be cool to mix real life footage with the fantasy.
• 2) Dr. Who and AI. Dr. Who travels back in time and meets Alan Turing. There would be some plot about artificial intelligence thrown in as well. Turing got a bad deal from England, because he was given hormone therapy when he was found to be gay. He committed suicide. The very least we can do for him is to feature him in a Dr. Who episode. I would like to try and get Dirac in the show as well.

I would point out that if anyone steals these ideas, you should consider "getting sued" as the best possible outcome, because you will still have your knee caps.

What brought this rant on? There is a long piece in the Guardian newspaper about Michael Moorcock this weekend. When I was in my late teens and early 20s I did read a lot of Michael Moorcock novels. However at some stage, I stopped, partly because many of the books started to be the same, and partly so that I could explore other writers. Moorcock has recently written a Dr Who novel. I am so excited. I WANT IT NOW! Thanks to kindle I could actually buy it now, but I will wait for the second hand book to arrive.

Fads and Fallacies

On the recommendation of the bad science Blog, I got a copy of "Fads and Fallacies" by Martin Gardner. This is a great book that "debunks" a large number of pseudoscience fads. The book was first published in the early 50s, but many of the fads are still with us (mostly because people can still make money from them).

Some of the topics covered are: ESP, Dianetics, dowsing, Atlantis, and various food fads. Some things I have met, such as training the eyes so that you can see without glasses. Gardner is actualy fairly sympathetic to the attempts to test for ESP.

I really wish Prince Charles would read this book, but he is a lost cause to rationality. In the past I have taken a relaxed attitude to strange beliefs. People can believe what they want. However people are making a lot of money out of selling pills and potions.

I do "admire" some of the stranger beleifs, such as the Earth is flat or hollow.

59 seconds

A couple of years ago I was passing through an airport. There was a woman trying to get people to sign up for credit cards. She touched my arm -- I felt a shock of Electricity shoot through me. Now that I have read "59 seconds" by Richard Wiseman, I now know that she was just applying a trick to get me to fill in a form, and that she didn't really love me at all.

Wiseman's book is a self help book based on scientific studies. For example he reports on studies where they compare the number of telephone numbers of potential partners a person can get depending on whether there is a small amount of contact. The slight problem I have is that he reports a 10% increase in something, but then he doesn't give an error-bar -- but I suppose I should read the original papers.

Note that I don't want to give the impression that the book is just about getting laid, some of the chapter titles are: happiness, creativity, parenting.

blogging heads

This morning I listened to discussion about physics by two science writers.

One of the writers was John Horgan. He wrote a famous book called "The end of Science", the main thesis of which was that the study of new particle physics had ended because we have reached a scale in energy where it is too difficult to do experiments. (This pissed a lot of HEP people off).

What I liked about the video blog was that they had the same problems in remembering the names of ideas and people that I have. I worry about explaining science ideas to the public, particularly if I forget some basic piece of physics, or the name of some theory.

I assume they would be more polished if they had prepared more

Habsburg

While I was on holiday in Vienna I purchased the Habsburg Monarchy 1809-1918 by AJP Taylor.

Being English I don't know much about European history. The Habsburg's were a royal family who ruled many European countries. They prefered to cut deals by marriage rather than war. This worked for a long time, but the inbreeding caused problems in the end.

The book was about the relationship between Hungary and Austria and surrounding countries. It was interesting to read about the various compromises required to rule.

Stark

A long time ago my cousin gave me the book "Stark" by Ben Elton. For some reason I didn't get started on it. Elton was in some quarters viewed as a left wing comedian. I remember one of his routines based on him thinking about asking for advice on wine in a wine shop. Not so radical for us beer drinker.

When I finally started the book I really enjoyed it. It was a mix between "the monkey wrench gang" and a listing of Elton's stand up. The text would stop for a while where he would have a little rant against students say, or posh food in fast food restaurants. He often broke the rule: "show not tell", but still good fun.

On learning German

I was sitting in my regular German class on Thursday. One of the other students was answering many of the questions about the new words we had been told to learn. I almost leaned over to him and said "you fucking swot.". Luckily I didn't -- not very professional for someone working at a University. I would like to point out that I did try to study for the test.

I am just not good a learning languages. I would like to say it is because I am old, but I had exactly the same problems when I was at school. Also when I was rationalizing being at the bottom of my German class in Glasgow, my explanation for why the retired people knew more German than me was that they had more time, because they were working. p> What kind of world is it when I am taight how to buy a beer in Geramn, but I am not taught what Urknall means?

On history

When I was a student I read Constructing Quarks: Sociological History of Particle Physics by Pickering. What I remember of the last part of the book was that he noticed that in the early 1970s people studied hadron spectroscopy, but in the late 1970s research switched to studying deep inelastic scattering of quarks. None of the problems with hadron spectroiscopy had been resolved -- in fact people are still worrying about them now.

Pickering suggests that the study of physics is relative, because people just study what the community thinks is important, rather than objective reality. I don't want to downplay the importance of "fashion" in choosing research projects, but the reasons people started working on deep inelestic scattering was because they found quarks, And quarks are fundemental particles, the study of which is the whole point of particle physics. So I thought that Pickering's conclusions were a bit stupid.

The reason I mention all this is that I have just read "in defence of history" by Richard Evans. The book was discussion of the debate between historians and those nasty post modern "scholars". When I was at school, I remember being taught in history about primary and secondary sources. However, many of the postmodern people don't even distinguish between fiction and history, so they don't worry about primary or secondary sources, or any concept of reality.

On the whole I though that Evans tried to be balanced and see some positive things in the all the crap of postmodern theory. He did point that they have extended the study of history beyond what Kings and States do.

Evans spent over 50 pages complaining about some of the reviews about his book in the afterword. After reading that I will try to be more careful in making sure that I quote with the "no" and "not" included.

The irony of this for Pickering's work is that if all is relative, then so his work.

Radio plays about Narnia

The BBC iplayer recently had a number of adaptations of the Narnia tales of CS Lewis. When I was a child, I really enjoyed "The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe". I wasn't a total freak, because I didn't \read more than the first book. As I got older I realized (or read somewhere in a fashionable left wing newspaper) that the novels were based on Christianity, set in some weird pagan world where some of the animals can talk. I also read some CS Lewis novel that was not a children's book. I remember some guy was very happy to join some inner sanctum at a college or University. This was also some nasty Christianity propaganda in the mix.

I really enjoyed the radio plays about Narnia, although I felt very guilty about liking them, because of my high minded political beliefs. I thought the play for "the last battle" was a thinly veiled attack on the Church of England - not a bad thing. Anyway, what do I like about the Narnia novels? The swords of course! I am a sucker for a sharp blade.

I stupidly missed the radio play for one of the books: "The Magician's Nephew (1955)" It is not important, but I will not be happy until I have completed the series.

On marriage

have decided to get married. I was reading in some "self help book" that married men live on average an additional 7 years beyond those who remain single. When you get past 40, an additional 7 years is a lot.

Of course if my new wife finds out she will say "I did wander why you kept saying 7 more years at our Wedding." But what can should she do. If she really loved me, she would be happy that I would live a bit longer

The slight problem is that I am not sure who to get married to. But I am assume the internet will provide, as it does for everything else.

goodbye snow -- for a while

On Friday the snow started to finally melt.

There has been snow on the ground for a month.

I was told that normally the snow stays a couple

of days in Wuppertal. However, last year there was snow

from December till March. Also everyone changed to

snow tires on their cars.

No doubt the snow will be back, but it was nice to walk

on solid ground on Friday.

Journal of Solitude

Last week I read "Journal of Solitude" by

May Sarton. The book was esentially a diary of her life

for one year, as she tried to write poems. She lived

alone, but had a lot of friends. It was beautifully written,

but not a lot happened. Her house was in the American countryside,

so the weather and behaviour of the wild animals was important.

She liked to pick flowers to put in the house. At one point she

has a major temper tantrum because someone said some

of the flowers were faded. Given that I have four vases in my

flat, but I only use one to hold a device to clean the windowns,

I think I would have annoyed Sarton, if she had known me.

Anyway, she managed to conjure something sweet from the drabness

of a year in the country. I still prefer, and indeed need

the pounding energy of the city.

self harm

I once innocently asked someone I was training

with why his arms were covered in cuts. He muttered

something about "self harm". I was embarrassed, but

it still seems a reasonable question -- given that

it was a martial arts class.

I now have a big gash on my right arm. I would

like to say I obtained this injury from some exciting

activity, but I just scratched it while putting by

backpack on. (It doesn't hurt).

The Strange Death of Liberal England

While I was on holiday I read "The strange day of

Liberal England" by George Dangerfield. This was the

history of the Liberal government just before the

first world war. Now that we have this crappy coalition

goverment, with the liberals living their dream of being the

conservative's whipping boys, before they are voted into

obscurity. So the history of the liberals is of more interest.

There were a number of challenges that

the 1906 Liberal government had to face. There was the issue of

home rule of Ireland, the suffragettes, and growing

industrial action. I didn't realize that the suffragettes

were so violent -- they burnt down buildings.

Dangerfield claims that elements in the

Conservative party were fermenting civil war in

Northern Ireland. I was shocked that there was almost

a rebellion in the British army, because of the NI issue.

It was interesting to see the history of industrial

action at the time.

I am not sure there are any lessons for the current liberals from this book.

There is also a band called "The Strange Death of

Liberal England."

More rants against banks managers

What do I spend my time in the evening? Worrying about learning German. I am just not very good at learning new words. I have written down the word for Bank manager so many times, but it just doesn't stick. My guess for bank manager is alliyo bla bla. In reality it is: der Filialleiter for the bank manager. So I got the "all" coorect at least.

So as Kenneth Clark says in the book civilisation

It is arguable that the non-existence of a clear concrete German prose has been one of the chief disasters in European civilization.

Passages

For the last couple of weeks I have been reading "Passages -- the predictable crisis of adult life" by Gail Sheehy. The book documents the various crises that a person goes through during their lives. The book is based on interviews with couples and single people.

Many of the case studies dealt with men getting close to 40 and them worrying about their careers. There were crisis aroud 30 as well. She claimed that people start to want to change after 7 years. The book is slightly out of date, because some of the problems were caused by women not working. There are also problems at the ages around 20 and 30 of course. Some of the stories appalled me. One guy gets his wife preganant so that she can't go to law school. He wanted lots of kids, but he was only willing to sepnd 30 minutes with them in the morning and evening. What a shit!

One problem with me is that I am too old and many of the problems have passed. I should have faced them and grown as an individual, rather than remain the same. I do now see more patterns in people's behavior. How

Many of the case studies dealt with men getting close to 40 and them worrying about their careers. There were crisis aroud 30 as well. She claimed that people start to want to change after 7 years. The book is slightly out of date, because some of the problems were caused by women not working. There are also problems at the ages around 20 and 30 of course. Some of the stories appalled me. One guy gets his wife preganant so that she can't go to law school. He wanted lots of kids, but he was only willing to sepnd 30 minutes with them in the morning and evening. What a shit!

One problem with me is that I am too old and many of the problems have passed. I should have faced them and grown as an individual, rather than remain the same. I do now see more patterns in people's behavior. How this helps me I don't know.

Actually, of course I am ready for my mid-life crisis. Since I am not married, I can't get divorced and trade in my wife for a younger model. I may have to make do with changing careers.

final post on Bosnian trip

On my third day in Bosnia I couldn't be bothered to do any more tourist stuff. So I just stayed around the old city area of Sarajevo and read "Bosnia a short history" by Noel Malcolm. Bosnia is stuck between Crotia and Serbia, both of which in the past have been keen to absorb Crotia into themselves. Some of the states in this area of Europe almost seem to exist as an accident. The book did convince me that Bosnia was a seperate state and the arms embargo against them in the 90s was wrong.

I was thinking why didn't I know about the siege of Sarajevo during the 90s. I used to get the news from the radio, but I didn't read the newspapers then. Even worse I can remember someone in the US, telling me about getting boots from dead soldiers. Also two years ago, I heard a postdoc ask if he coukd stay another year in Glasgow if war broke out in the Balkons again. So if I was paying more attention, I should have noticed. These days I spent way too long reading online Newspapers, so hopefully I will follow future events like the siege of Sarajevo in more detila, rather than reading about 15 years later.

When I was waiting at the airport for my flight, I saw my first women in a Burka. Given that Bosnia has a large proportion of Muslims this was surprising, since I used to see many womwn in Burkas when I lived in Liverpool. This is a small example of how the Muslims and Christians integrate well. (OK this is based on a very small time and spatial location).

When I look over the post, I can't help thinking it is not detailed enough. It doesn't help that I am writing the post 3 months after the end of my holiday. I hope that my brevity has not insulted anyone who lives in Bosnia, or countries close by.

New year 2011

y celebrations at 24:00 last nigt were not very satisfactory. Last year when the new year started, there were suddenly many explosions outside my window. Given that I was also confused my beer, I thought that a war had started, so I dived for cover. The fireworks looked spectacular. The fireworks were just a lot of personal displays joining together (the power of crowds), rather than a big organised display.

Last night I was more prepared. I had a glass of black sparkling wine that turned out to be more red than black, ready to toast in the new year. As you can see from the video, the fireworks were not particularly impressive this year. It sounds as though someone on a balcony around here was firing an automatic weapon. I could also use the video as a model of the big bang in the multiverse.

Coders at work

I have just read "Coders at work" by Peter Seibel.

This book contained a collection of interviews with people who have developed important pieces of software such as javascript. The interviewer asks questions about the process of writing code, what books they read, how their career developed. It was interesting to see how most of them didn't use UML or any other diagram formulation, other than some pictures on a white board. Some of them had to also get other people to help them with the version control systems.

I thought this book was fantastic! However, I am not sure I would ever recommend it to students. It would distract them to see the pragmatic techniques used by these coders. Although many of the interviewers used many techniques from computer science degrees.

It would be nice to have a similar book from theoretical particle physicists, that explained what people actually did. However, given the big egos of many theorists and their hopes for Nobel prizes, many of the interviews would end up as fantasy. Personally I wouldn't want some one like Hawking to contribute.

Getting ready for new years eve

I am getting a better at this living in Germany business. On last years New year's eve I went down to my local supermarket at about 4. Only to find it was shut. I didn't expect it be open until 8, but closing at 4 seemed a bit extreme. In the UK the supermarkets put up huge signs with their opening hours, weeks in advance of any holiday. This is particularly weird, because the shops hardly ever close anyway. In Germany, the supermarkets put up a little sign with the hours, if you are lucky. They also close at any execuse.

On New Year's even last year, after I found that my local supermarket was closed, so I walked into town. But I found no open supermarkets, not even the one in the railway station. I was starting to panic that I was going to have a dry New years eve. Luckily I found the off license near the railway station was still open.

This year I went for my beer supply at 12:15 -- just to be sure. There is still snow on the ground, so I am not keen to go for a drink in a bar. Anyway I have not found any fun bars in Wuppertal -- mostly just grandpa pubs. At the super-marked I also got some black fizzy wine. There will be fireworks all over the valley at 24:00, which last year looked very pretty. I have just downloaded the latest series of Dr. Who from Itunes so I am set for the evening.

This year I went for my beer supply at 12:15 -- just to be sure. There is still snow on the ground, so I am not keen to go for a drink in a bar. Anyway I have not found any fun bars in Wuppertal -- mostly just grandpa pubs. At the super-marked I also got some black fizzy wine. There will be fireworks all over the valley at 24:00, which last year looked very pretty. I have just downloaded the latest series of Dr. Who from Itunes so I am set for the evening.

My cousin told me about a German tradition of watching some video of a women and servant eating a dinner on New Years eve. When I looked it up I found that the sketch was actually in English.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest

Yesterday was another wasted morning. Thank God, trilogies only come in threes. I finished off reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson. I started reading the book when I was traveling, but I was to tired to finish it off on the plane and train.

The book was cleverly plotted and it was fun to watch all the investigations come together. Also I got some insight into the way jounalists work -- although perhaps not those who work at the Sun and other UK tabloids.

There are rumors that Larsson had started a fourth book before he died. There is still the mystery of Salander's sister. Also, perhaps there could be a little cyber warfare against Sweden. Anyway I am done after reading three.

Well, perhaps I should watch all the films (from Sweden and not the planned crappy Hollywood remakes) now..

X-mass 2010

So another trip back to the UK for Christmas. I flew into Manchester airport from the Bonn-Cologne airport with German wings. Needless to say I was worried about problems with snow and ice. Every year now we seem to have sub zero temperatures from December to March. I managed to fly in and out on days with no fresh snow.

On the bus from Manchester to Burnley I saw how cool Manchester is. As well as Christmas markets, the city also now has Ferris wheels. I like the way the Cathedral is almost hidden away and not the main area of the city -- as it should be.

On the bus, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a women sort out a cable to a MP3 player. When I looked more closely I saw that she was actually knitting, and of course she was old.

Now I don't want to complain or rant on about stuff, but there was aspect of my holiday, that was not very satisfactory. I was expecting to watch most of the last series of Dr Who on the Iplayer. However the BBC had not repeated any of the episodes recently, so the Iplayer was empty of Dr Who. I was distraught. OK, I enjoyed the Dr Who Christmas special, but it wasn't enough!

Now I don't want to complain or rant on about stuff, but there was aspect of my holiday, that was not very satisfactory. I was expecting to watch most of the last series of Dr Who on the Iplayer. However the BBC had not repeated any of the episodes recently, so the Iplayer was empty of Dr Who. I was distraught. OK, I enjoyed the Dr Who Christmas special, but it wasn't enough!

Back in Germany, there is nothing on the TV, apart from some a program about the Tudors.

X-mas reading

During my Christmas break in Burnley I read Witch & Wizard by James Patterson.

The main reason I read the book was because it was free and I like magic in a totally non-nerdy way. The book was free, because it was given away as part of some literacy drive. The target audience for the book was young adult. I liked the technical aspects of the story. He flipped the perspective of the story from the brother to the sister for every chapter. Also the chapters were very short, which is good, when a person's reading time is sneaking off during an episode of Eastenders.

The author James Patterson has written a lot of books.

snow

It seems only yesterday that there was snow on the ground, but it was March maybe. I have not been out of my flat all weekend. I start to go crazy if I don't go out for a couple of days. Of course, when I say out, what I actually mean is go to the shops or work, rather than a long hike through a forest.

The picture is the view from my window.

Cloud computing

I have spent part of the weekend reading "Cloud Computing" by Christopher Barnatt. The basic idea of cloud computing is to run many applications on giant data servers hosted by big companies, such as google, rather than on your own computers.

Gven that I already use many cloud computing servies such as google docs and indeed this blogging site, I didn't really learn that much. Many of the cloud computer ideas were around in dot-com era, but the time was not right then. Now with broadband and 3G these techniques are more practicable.

I did see people pushing cloud ideas a couple of years ago, but it wasn't clear to me that they would take off. What I did gain from the book was that, these tools are great for small businesses. There is a lot of software for doing things like payroll.

music in Wuppertal

When I lived in Kentucky I walked into a small club called "the Wrocklage" and heard some guitars, and I thought "I can live here for a while."

I have not found any good music clubs in Wuppertal, but I have not been looking too hard. Sometimes I do need to hear some wild sounds and suck down a couple of beers. Last Friday I found club pavillon that is close to the railway station. It sometimes seems to host live music. This evening I could have gone to see a metallica tribute band, but it is cold and there is some snow on the ground. This is probably part of the problem, perhaps my wild years are behind me. (I think not).

civilization

While I was holiday I finished reading "Civilization" by Kenneth Clark. This was the book for an old TV documentary that followed art and the growth of civilization.

One think I decided to note was that he didn't know where chivalry came from. In particular why the women had to be chase and worshiped.

When I was ordering some stuff ftrom Amazon.de, I needed to make up an order upto 20 Euro to get free shipping. I purchaded a copy of "A Xenophobe's guide to the Germans".

I am not going to discuss in detail evrey point, partly just in case there are any German readers and I don't want to upset anyone, but mostly because I have the feeling that I have read it before.

One interesting point was that the book claimed that many German toilets are designed for ease of studying a person's crap - for health reasons. And indead you can see that the toilet in my flat allows a careful examination of my shit. This will be important tomorrow after the two chillis I added to my stirfry. My stomach is burning, but I feel like a food hero,

Two Way split

I moved some books from a box in my office to my home. On top of a pile of books, I saw "Two Way split" by Allan Guthrie. This was a book I got from Waterstones for a pound.

The book is a thriller based on robbing an Edinburgh postoffice. There was a bit of mental illness thrown in. I enjoyed reading the book, but it was ultimately pointless. Still that is what I wanted.

The Morality of Murder

Umm, I have just had a pretty non-productive weekend. At least on Saturday, I had the excuse of having a minor hang over. Today I did some computer work, but it was mostly setting jobs off, and that is time consuming and not so interesting.

This evening I had meant to work on a project, but while reading the BBC technology papers I found a web site with videos of lectures from Universities. This is like the Utunes from the Itunes store, but I can watch them under linux.

I made the mistake of watching "The Morality of Murder" from a Harvard Professor. I only watched the first 10 minutes of the lecture. I thought the lecturer's techniques was fantastic. Now that the fees for the UK Universities are going up, we sometimes discuss what a person gets for the 25,000 dollars tution fee for a top US University. Now I know! I hope the lectures doens't degenerate into some justification for torture, such as waterboarding.

Watch it on Academic Earth

Friday night shopping

There is not much night life in Wuppertal, so I have to find my own entertainment. Last night I was shopping at my local supermarket. To amuse myself I look at the other people's shopping at the checkout and try to guess their life. The tall woman in front of me was buying a 10 inch pizza, a bottle of some sugary wine, some sweets, and some other stuff of little interest..

My guess was that she was single with an age close to 30. What did she think of me life? I was buying 3 cans of beer, a small bottle of vodka, and some fruit, but no pizza. Perhaps I should have smiled at her.

Malt Salt

One of my German colleagues was complaining about the completely normal British habit of putting vinegar on chips. My mouth started to water, as I thought how much more tasty the French fries, I was eating, would be with some vinegar on them.

I have poured something from a small jug onto my fries in Wuppertal. This turned out to be milk, so I was not best pleased. I could fill my hip flask with vinegar, but that would strike people as weird, and the flask would hold a year's supply of vinegar.

There is an article in today's Guardian about Malt Salt. Vinegar flavoured salt. Now that Amazon supply groceries, I did try to see if I could order sme from them, but no (not yet anyway).

Local Wuppertal beer

Like most towns in Germany, Wuppertal has a local brewey. When I was in the supermarket on Friday, I saw a bottle of Wupperhell bier.

Although I am not a beer expert. I don't have too high standards for beer. For example I have drunk Tennents and Carling when other beer was not available. I didn't really enjoy the Wupperhell beer as much as I wanted to.

Vindaloo

Quite often Europeans say to me "English food is shit". I am usually stunned to hear this, and I try to list all the great traditional English foods. However, my list starts and unfortunately ends with Roast Beef. In the UK I would mostly eat Indian, Chinese, or Greek food.

I spend a lof of time trying to find that strong chilli hit in Germany. A number of times I have ordered a Vindaloo curry in a restaurant in Germany. I know the correct German word "scharf", but still I always end up with a mild curry. When I order a Vindaloo in the UK, there are gasps of horror and worry. After two mouthfulls I can't feel my mouth, and I can't taste anything for a couple of days.

I keep hunting extra hot sauces in German supermarkets.

The origins of the second world war

I have been secretly reading "The origins of the second world war" by A J. P Taylor. This was a controversial books when it was published just after the second world war. Taylor discusses the origin of the second world war in terms of state craft. He doesn't just say the second world war happened because Hitler was evil.

This is not a revisionist history, because the fate of the Jews is discussed, but this had very little influence on the war. I would like to point out that I didn't read the book, because of the "German question", but because the people on the left who advocate ethical miltary intervention in conflicts, use the example of the second world war as a justification.

I now have a better idea of appeasement, and the issues with Austria, Checkoslovakia, and Poland.