Four anecdotal health and safety tales from memory. These are encounters from a span of two decades that serve to illustrate how things might escalate to tragedy. And special for today, a bonus with a cautionary afterward.
[Read more…] about Escalating Bad ThingsThought For The Day
‘I keep getting asked for a list of the next four black swans’ Nicolas Taleb said recently. Taleb wrote The Black Swan in 2007 and the people who ask this question are showing that they don’t understand his observations. The book wasn’t always easy but it was compelling. [Cliff’s Notes might help if you’re short of time.]
[Read more…] about Thought For The DayThirty Minute Exercise
We went for a walk on the east pier in Dun Laoghaire this morning where it was overcast and spitting rain as sailors got ready for the day’s racing.
[Read more…] about Thirty Minute ExerciseHeadlines and Thoughts
Eid Mubarak.
We watched Aljazeera news this morning and the headlines included scenes of celebration of Eid from various parts of the world. There was also coverage of the end of the Hajj, the start of the annual wildebeest migration, the European weather forecast and the 45th President of the US criticising the integrity of the American voting system.
I’ve witnessed Eid el Adwa, the Festival of Sacrifice, in the UAE, Algeria, Tunisia and Indonesia over the years. I’m a vegetarian these days but back then, I enjoyed a celebration meal or two among colleagues and friends. I recall one evening in Algiers when Karim, an excellent chef and master of the barbecue, served up an elaborate green salad. I declined politely, half jokingly added that my wife was a vegetarian and I needed more meat. Next thing you know he brought over a selection of more unusual cuts of halal lamb. He was delighted to share liver and the sheep’s head with me. I began to wish for the green salad while taking yet another lesson in why it’s important to be careful what you wish for.
[Read more…] about Headlines and ThoughtsA Week In Three Photos
The summer weather has not been kind here in Dublin. In a mock despair, we ended up doing a jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen table while it lashed rain. The puzzle took several days and it made an interesting photographic challenge once completed. How do you make a jigsaw interesting but different to the picture on the box? There are hundreds of ways but I wanted to do it with a tilt-shift adaptor on a 50 mm manual lens. I really like this photo with a focal emphasis on two tourists in front of an iconic London bus. It was raining there too.
[Read more…] about A Week In Three PhotosA Vegetarian Year
Caveat emptor: my musings may not be complete let alone correct.
My first year as a vegetarian year has passed quickly and comfortably. We took How Not To Die very seriously and this excellent cookbook makes regular appearances on the kitchen counter even now.
You probably realise that wine, beer, bread and blue cheese exist because of fungal agency. Having met these big four, you’ll recognise that the benison of yeasts and spores is unobtrusively vital to our everyday lives. You have learned to avoid the yeasts and moulds of decay because the mycotoxins have a well deserved bad reputation. Good fungus, bad fungus. A sad fact you may not know is that fungus kills more humans than malaria (I’ll let you search for fungal diseases alone).
[Read more…] about A Vegetarian Year