Walking Commentary
Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023
Last evening, I walked the dog the very short distance to the Obelisk on Killiney Hill. It was close to 4.30 when we set out, the sun having set thirty minutes earlier, and I hoped to see the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the western skies.
We all know that facts taken out of context can be misleading, that spurious correlations can be misdirecting. There’s even a website (and a book) that specialises in spurious correlations. One of my favourites is the 80% correlation between the letters in the winning words of a spelling bee and deaths from spider venom. Ah, the joys of unmoderated, unrefereed information.
There’s a gifted amaryllis in bloom on the kitchen window sill. A very considerate birthday present that required a light watering every day. The first bloom opened after eight weeks and the second bloom followed a couple of days later.
We’re still enjoying the massive blooms after a week in which their weight has required support. It was hard to stake them without damaging the roots of these remarkable bulbs that hoisted two huge flowers a metre into the air.
How would you defeat the bias of language? I don’t mean a bias that demeans or excludes people. I mean the bias that results from the lack of comprehension. Communication of representational, figurative or abstract thoughts can be tricky, even with a common language. And harder still to convey as the overlap in the roots of language lessen. A Venetian might understand the gist of an Argentinian story but what’s clear when uttered in Japanese is almost certain to be opaque to someone who hears in Greek.
We met some people on the pier this morning and while talking, I noticed a few seabirds had come close enough to be identified. Great northern divers (or common loons) in winter plumage. It had rained so hard over the night that I decided not to bring a camera. I had guessed the light would be dull, that the storm would have caused the sea to raise sand from the sea floor and muddy the waters. And besides, it might have rained again.
The European Parliament has announced that the 2020 Sakharov Prize is going to the Belarusian opposition Coordination Council, a predominantly female group who are holding out for dignity and democracy. It’s surely a mark of the 26 year reign of the podpolkovnik (supreme commander) Alexander Lukashenko that this is the third time the prize has made its way to the troubled Belarus.
