I read yesterday that George Blake has died. I’m old enough to remember his escape from Wormwood Scrubs jail in 1966 but not old enough to recall his trial with much clarity. I walked past the jail in Hammersmith a few years ago and it was Blake’s name that came to mind. Notoriety is strangely long lived.
Anchoritism
Missed Conjunctions
It’s been cloudy in the evenings this week even when it hasn’t been raining. So I never saw the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn last Monday. Tonight, the weather was very different. A beautiful evening, though cold, and a slightly hazy sunset. The re-appearance of Mars above a waxing moon embroidered the pretty skyscape shortly after the 1610 sunset. I set up the camera and spent almost an hour moving and adjusting my tripod, practicing with numb, gloved fingers in the failing light. I chose to take photographs of some of the many people taking selfies while bathed in the golden sunset.
The Arts of War
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.
Sakharov Prize
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.
Codicote 218
I wonder what Bernard Shaw would have made of social attitudes today?
‘Human society is like a glacier … it is really flowing like a river’ opined Shaw.
© Simon Robinson 20190707
Addicted to Delusions
16 carried at The Varsity game in 2007
Let’s think about delusion for a few minutes. [It gets a bit ranty below but it’s a daily journal not paid journalism.]
I heard that people in English pubs are throwing away the food they must buy in order to purchase alcohol. If we aren’t surprised, shouldn’t we wonder about addiction? And the motives behind opening the pubs?
Or perhaps it’s just the cost of meeting your mates when stress needs some relief. To the punter, the discarded meal is just the cost of a pint. Why not have two rather than three? Job done.