I am giving a talk this Saturday in the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge:

Earth Talks. Feel free to pop in if you are in the area, it's free admission and there are other family based activities happening in the museum during the day.

I can laugh now (how I laugh) after escaping the mire of an organisation being dragged down by an American business model some 10 years out of date now...

...but it still raises the blood pressure to come across examples of the silly lengths some companies will go to, to disguise their actual identities.


A 'Waste Management Park' is a 'Dump' pure and simple.

A 'Retail Parc' is obviously something run and managed by either someone without a proof reading facility or pretensions to moving their business elsewhere in Europe

I could quote many examples, but at least the UK gets its own back with the following:

'Family Butcher'

'Neighbourhood recycling centre'

How I grinned to see the look of horror on the face of a visiting researcher from the States when I introduced him to these two beauties...

Ok, so bite me. But here it is, my nose has been so firmly pressed into books by and about Charles Darwin that it has kind of sucked up all of my spare reading time. Now that the first of the Darwin projects are under control, I began reading "The Year of the Hare" by Arto Paasilinna on the bus to work this morning. So far quite hilarious with short chapters devoted to different characters but all having in common the thread of the man Vatanen with a wild hare poking its head and ears out of his jacket...

Well, that is the house move over and I started work in Cambridge on Monday. A really frienly, relaxed and happy environment. I made the right decision leaving Edinburgh when I did. *phew*

You want to know how I tell that my blackcurrants are ripe and ready for picking...I'll tell you. I keep a sharp eye out for the Blackbird who appears in my garden and seems remarkably friendly with me (taking worms from the hand etc.) See when my back is turned? The feathered thief is onto the currants and my dreams of ice cream and tangy berries dissapears down his gullet.

Such is Nature, such is life!

Who created that then?

Anyhow, something to mull over, a recent read

Pseudolarix Golden larch bonsai taken on August 4th 2007

Droplets Bronze Fennel in my garden after a mizzly day in August

Live Earth Concert: Wembley Stadium, London

SPINAL TAP: 'Hello, Wimbledon!'

:)

This was Spinal Tap...

Flew out of Glasgow airport on Friday morning (June 29th 2007) bound for Rekyjavik in Iceland. I sat just inside the main doors of the arrival hall and made a few phone calls and texts while waiting for C. to come back from the shop.

Had I sat there the next day, I might not have been around to write this entry now. The Saturday (June 30th) was my birthday, not the most pleasant way to be reminded of your own mortality, but hey, them's the breaks.

So excuse me for taking a terrorist attack on my homeland personally.

Both CNN and SKY news had good coverage on the hotel room tv, so I sat wide-eyed with a stiff Glenmorangie to hand and pondered over what wasn't destined to happen to me this time around.

In from the Land of the Ice and Snow Just flew back from holidays this morning. Many sagas to relate. This is a picture taken by one of the geothermal pools in the lava fields of the South-west corner of Iceland. The blue-white colour to the water is due to colloidal silica...think opals.

Pinus pinea This is a 30 day old seedling of Pinus pinea. I sowed two of these seeds straight after New Year. If you are fond of pesto or pine nuts, then you will have met this species before! The pot was a charity shop buy from last year. I think it is a hand made effortfrom someone's craft evening class.

So, H5N1 has been confirmed in a poultry farm in England. Looks like Bernard Matthews has copped it.

Let's break it down: The 'H' stands for the protein hemagglutinin (16 variations to choose from). The 'N' stands for the protein neuraminidase (9 cards in that deck). Chop and change one variety of H and one variety of N and you can see that this particular Influenza virus has a lot of raw genetic material to choose from. The joys of mutation, natural selection and selective adaptation...

A few sites that may be of interest:

The CDC

Pandemic Influenza Contingency Plan