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Walking Commentary

Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023

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DNA and Behaviour

March 24, 2021 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

I saw an eye-catching item among many in a summary of global consumer spending. I don’t recall where I saw it but it stayed in my mind. In the segment on healthcare, a graph illustrated the huge outlays on treating symptoms over the last two decades. The graph also had a prediction for various consumer spending categories for the coming twenty years. It included that the next two decades will see phenomenal growth in DNA editing. Bear in mind this is you, the consumer, spending on DNA editing. It seems that our immune systems will be completely transformed in the near future and we will be happily paying for such DNA treatments. If only I knew an ethicist with whom to share my concerns.

That got me thinking about the plight of the Tasmanian devil.

Another day, another magnolia hunt
The Killiney Obelisk is the hub for our 5 km radial exercise zone.
[Read more…] about DNA and Behaviour

Filed Under: Anchoritism Tagged With: bbc, cancer, cloning, darpa, dna, encyclopaedia britannica, ethics, photos, tasmanian devil, technology

Hens’ Teeth

March 2, 2021 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

I had to go to the dentist recently because a damaged molar needed attention. A week later, I returned to have no more than a few proud microns of enamel polished down in order that my jaw would close properly.

Jaws are truly remarkable things. Ask a jawless lamprey sucking on mud soup if they suffer jaw envy. Ask an oral cancer patient if they’d thought much about their jaws before calamity struck?

A titanium mandible in an oral cancer survivor.
[Read more…] about Hens’ Teeth

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: booklink, cancer, dublin dental hospital, lia mills, melvyn bragg, photos

The Garden Issued

February 26, 2021 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

Chapbook or photozine? I wish I’d thought of calling them the former before I started publishing photozines. And I wish we’d thought to set up Bracket Books Ireland long before now. Either way, we intend to fail better next time.

Garden went into the post-office yesterday. It’s the second book, the February edition, for the current subscribers. I’d anticipated the pandemic-slowed postal services would make local deliveries on March 1st. It seems that nothing is predictable and miraculously, some arrived today.

Cover of Garden Photozine
Yes, these were taken at home during the pandemic.
[Read more…] about The Garden Issued

Filed Under: Chapbooks, Fake Memoir Tagged With: cancer, chapbook, fabhappy, issued, npr, photos, photozines

The Muglins Issued

February 12, 2021 by Simon Robinson 4 Comments

It’s a bit late for January but the production issues have been overcome and we mailed out the first issue of the photozine today. The free subscription list of thirty-nine is full but that doesn’t mean a request for a free copy will be ignored in these first few issues.

The Muglins as I saw it yesterday, long after the first photozine went to press.
[Read more…] about The Muglins Issued

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: cancer, chapbook, fabhappy, issued, photography, photozines

Time Reverses

December 22, 2020 by Simon Robinson 1 Comment

I was reading about entropy and time just before I went to sleep last night. I was so fired up about what I read that I disturbed my wife’s sleep with some mad ramblings about video frame compression and diffs. Effectively, what I was saying was that, as a kid, I had read so much science fiction about time travel that I’m inclined to believe it’s possible. It’s not that I have faith that time travel will occur, it’s more that I can’t ignore the possibility.

Front and back scans of three pressed flowers.
Desaturated but for red.
[Read more…] about Time Reverses

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: booklink, brian christian, cancer, lia mills, photos, scanography, time

New Saliva and Prostate Facts

December 19, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

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.

Beautiful Light this morning. Industrial Dublin port as seen from Dun Laoghaire Pier.
[Read more…] about New Saliva and Prostate Facts

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: bbc, cancer, inside science, photos, prostate, science, skene's glands, spurious correlations, the week, usa today

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