Cocktail shots were one of those marvellous developments of the nineteen eighties, a bit like Pot Noodles. Fast, quick to take effect, and above all easy to make, thereby massively enhancing the quality of life. So today our researchers have come up with the easy route to cocktail success- two and three ingredient ultra shorts which will get you going anywhere from Magaluf to Middlesborough.
We have pause here to make a nod to today’s site link. Love to know is a marvellous compendium of fun advice on people, pets, homes and gardens, beauty, travel and hobbies. They sound like a civilised bunch!
So click on their site to learn of The Forest Fire Shot (scotch and pine syrup) The Cinnamon toast shot (some unusual de Kuypers in there, people) the Apple Jack (did they once have a number one hit back in the day?) and lots, lots more.
Bank Of England Independence Reports that Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss may end 25 years of independence for the Bank of England raise more than one eyebrow. If she does it, it suggests that every important financial and monetary decision will first have to be run through the editorial offices of the Daily Mail. Let’s hope they’re as good at economics as they are at winning elections! Here’s the Indy, one of the Mail‘s Bete Noirs:
Source for the goose, source for the gander Except the poor old geese won’t be swimming in the Thames any time soon. Not in it’s upper reaches anyway. Many, many years ago an inveterate climate change denier told us “I’ll believe in global warming when the river dries up (OK, he meant the Avon) However we suggest he reads this , sourced from the Guardian
Levelling Up in California Economic inequality is a colossal drag on economic efficiency, partly because it engenders poor health outcomes. Nature offers a truly thoughtful analysis: Can Science confront inequality’s deadly toll?
In California’s San Joaquin Valley, the people who work in the fields, orchards and meat-packing plants are among the hardest hit by COVID-19. Food and agricultural workers in California had an almost 40% increased risk of dying last year, compared with the risk for the state’s general population. Tragically, this inequality is no surprise: a century of research has shown that social determinants drive disease. The question is, what is science going to do about it? “We know what the impact is of a lack of employment, a lack of fair wages, a lack of transport, of poor education and racism,” says public-health historian Graham Mooney. “So, if public health has no power to influence these issues, then public health becomes nothing.”Nature | 23 min read This in-depth feature from April 2021 was a finalist for this years’ National Institute for Health Care Management Trade Journalism Award.
Quantum Confusion Ever had ten minutes to spare and though to yourself “I’ll master quantum physics today?” We tried it once, and collapsed into a sea of hundreds of different particles all with different names. Protons, muons, neutrons, leptons, gluons, quarks… you might as well try to learn the names of all the different types of animals and plants in a museum of natural history. Now the Conversation describes a new naming scheme which tries to make sense of this vast pool of data
It’s reality that makes the world go round Because it really, really is round, like a giant football, as María Belén Muñoz García proves for El País. (anglophones-translators at the ready)
And Finally…..Is LSS too anglocentric? We don’t want to start navel gazing, but one or two overseas readers have suggested we focus a little too much on Old Blighty and its myriad problems. Well, we sit in England and speak the language, so our news and comment feeds are going to be heavily biased towards those on offer in that country.. And remember this…..other countries have rivers, quantum particles, social problems…..you name it. England is indeed just another country, which means your problems won’t go away either. But all feedback is welcomed and we will try as hard as ever to represent the problems and views of the wider world as far as our resources will allow it.
Vladimir Putin expected an easy ride into the Ukraine. You can tell that by the desperate measures the Russians are taking to plug the gaps in their military. Despite overwhelming advantages in size, they are struggling badly. Even with their current, scaled-down objectives. If it were not for the firm support of China, the Russian economy would have collapsed weeks ago.
Why? We could cite several reasons. The determination of a free people not to be enslaved. Support from other free peoples such as Europe and the United States. Endemic gangsterism and place seeking in the Russian armed forces and wider society. But for Christopher Woody,[1] writing for The Insider, there is another reason. It’s all to do with command and control, and it may have deeper lessons for us all.
Woody points to major differences in the training and doctrine of the NCO cadres between the two adversaries. Basically, the Ukrainians devolve a lot more decisions down to their NCOs, who are empowered to make tactical decisions in the heat of battle. And this addresses the most important feature of any combat: unpredictability. The Russian structure, and doctrine, is top-down, hierarchical and therefore highly inflexible. “No plan survives contact with the enemy” It’s an old saying and has been attributed to many. But commanders and nations forget it at their peril. As do companies, schools, hospitals, newspaper editors and the politicians that serve them. The operational costs of turning people into robots can be very high indeed.
As we write, it is impossible to predict the outcome of the current war in the Ukraine. But Vladimir Putin is asking his people to pay a very high price for his own lack of thought and of flexibility. How long will they continue to pay it?
Oh, those naughty boys (and girls) at the Big Oil Companies! According to some authors, such as Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes,[1] companies such as Exxon, BP and many, many others have been running advertising campaigns which were, it is alleged, less than entirely fair and balanced on the rather dangerous problem of climate change. Who would have thought it?
Well, we at LSS would rather that you made up your minds for yourselves, gentle readers. Fortunately, the authors have provided a library of old ads, so you can judge for yourselves.(“the forgotten ads which told us climate change was nothing”)
It was certainly an eye opener for us! Up to now we have always viewed big oil companies as paragons of integrity, at the cutting edge of truth and progress, interested only in the betterment of mankind and the creation of a bright shiny new future. And now, in the editorial offices of LSS, a tiny worm of doubt has crept into our minds! And to quote Nick Nolte from Mulholland Falls “here’s what I want you to do”
A read the article, linked at [1] below
B Have a look at this report on the Tobacco industry. Do you notice any similarities or differences? [2]
stories of more than passing significance, we think:
AI predicts all protein folds It took humanity about 100 years to understand the shape of a handful of proteins, and that was using the best brains and technology we had. Now AI system Alphafold has basically cracked the lot in minutes. In the short term, it will be a boon for medical researchers. And the long run? It implies there is an intelligence greater than our own starting to form on our planet. And that’s before quantum computing has got started. Anyway here’s Nature Briefings, AI predicts the shape of every protein
Tiger, Tiger Yesterday was International Tiger Day and most of the great and good of the conservation world ran a promotion or did a little media to help these iconic animals. We’ve chosen a link to the inestimable WWF site where you can make a contribution by adopting a wild tiger. Remember how much carbon-capturing habitat that will save as well.
Have a heart LSS is nothing if we’re not always promoting new ideas in medicine. Regular readers will recall our latest wheeze was Base editing. Well, here it is in action
Women on the Ball Women’s football has come on in leaps and bounds. Tomorrow the ladies offer us a nation -gripping, nay, world-gripping final. Let’s hope they read about this in places like Afghanistan and Texas, where the position of women is a little less favourable. Jonathan Liew for the Guardian
Shoot the Messenger Executing the bearer of bad news was one of the perks of tyranny in classical times. The same mindset is shown by those who have been trolling weather forecasters for stating simple facts. Next time you meet a climate denier (or an antivaxxer) you may be looking at a budding little dictator. Don’t date them! Merlyn Thomas for the BBC
You may have youthful memories of hurling stones at the nuts in the shy at some long-ago fairground. But the coconut tree (Cocos nucifera)[1] has a far more illustrious potential than that. For not only is the basis of many great cocktails, as we shall see. But it is also a member of the wider palm family (Arecaceae) [2] which has given us such useful products as dates, carnauba wax, rattan, palm oil, Palm Sunday, sago dyestuffs and any number of decorative trees for our gardens and public spaces. And has been doing so since at least Biblical times.
So what better way to salute this most generous tree, or group of trees, than to raise a glass to it based on its own products. Our researchers have visited that eminent site A Couple Cooks [3] to once again bring you a marvellous choice of recipes and pictures, far better we confess than anything we could produce ourselves at LSS Visit it now via the click below. All we can do is select a couple of classics which will grace any tropical holiday, or warm summer garden.
The Piña Colada A juicy mix of pineapple, rum and coconut cream with lashings of cooling ice. It’s been the subject of more than one popular song, and an instant recognition drink all the way from Santa Barbara to Benidorm.
Creamy Coconut Margarita Coconut cream, tequila, lime juice and triple sec. A must for any cartel of cocktail thirsty chums coming round to your place tonight!
Coconut Martini Short and simple, like a comment piece in The Sun. The authors closely associate it with their Margarita (above) but compare the recipes for yourself. Why not even try to make one?
Well, there’s our tip for the night. We are off now to enjoy one of our own. We do hope this little blog is the start of a good weekend for you all.
Well there’s a counter-intuitive one! Because in England at least the word “conservative” is usually associated with slightly more elderly gentlemen in blazers, intoning over tankards at bars, who have generally seemed, er, how to put this?-reluctant-to adopt new trends in society such as feminism, multiculturalism, gay sensibilities and so on. All the things which they and their newspapers have variously derided as “trendy,” “politically correct,” or “woke”, according to the fashions of the hour.
As ever, appearances can be deceptive. Because it was the Conservative Party that gave the UK it first ever female Prime Minister. This was considered to be terribly radical at the time, but she turned out to be a formidable operator, and Labour had nothing to put against her, either male or female, for years. The second female Prime Minister was a Conservative. And their next election will produce either another woman, or a member of an ethnic minority as our next Prime Minister. And the current cabinet and party contain quite a sprinkling of minorities from different backgrounds, all of whom arrived in their places through merit and hard work.
Against this, the record of the so called “progressive” parties has been thin indeed. They talk the talk. But when it comes to walking the walk-well just look. Every Leader of the Labour Party has been a white man from Keir Hardie to Keir Starmer. The Lib Dems experimented with a female leader back in 2019, but the results were not exactly happy, and they have since reverted to type. So why the Conservatives’ advantage?
One possible explanation is that the Conservatives are unashamedly the most Capitalist party. They assert the primacy of free markets, because nothing so quickly sorts out the fools from the wise, and allows talent to flourish-and rise. As Adam Smith so wisely noted, all religious and national identity markers will eventually become secondary to free markets, as they stand in the way of the most efficient flows of capital and labour. What starts as a local brand soon becomes world wide, if it is successful. Consider Microsoft, McDonalds and Rolex if you want.
The trick of the Conservative brand, or its unique selling point ,if you like, is to convince supporters that everything will stay the same. For nothing frightens people so much as being told they have to change. Yet presiding over truly radical shifts in population, economics and language. A successful proposition indeed.
#conservatives #labour #lib dems #multiethnic #multicultural #adam smith #free markets
A slightly older follower of this humble blog recently stated “how much we have learned from TV” (about the world, she meant). Surely, we pointed out, we can learn much more from the internet?
On the face of it our slightly superior take seems justified. She was talking about the golden age of TV in the 1970s when the UK boasted a massive three (count ’em, three!) terrestrial analogue channels. Whereas the interweb offers if not an infinite, then at least a fractal number of resources, sites, encyclopedias, graphics, images and above all the humble but ultra-important hyperlink. So, no contest then. As an educational resource the interweb knocks spots of old style TV.
Except there is one tiny doubt. Old Style TV channels were limited. But they were still fascinating (we bathed in colour back in 1970) and therefore you still watched. And that meant sometimes, somewhere, you would be forced to watch something you didn’t know or didn’t like. Because someone cleverer than most of us had said “I think you ought to see this.” (radio can work like this on a small scale, forcing fans of Bach to endure a little Phillip Glass from time to time-but it’s strictly within genre stations).
The trouble with the internet age is that you have a choice. You can click away if you don’t like something or don’t want to confront its unpleasant implications. You can join communities of like minded believers, blissfully pleasuring each other in silos of mutual reinforcement and belief. Belief, notice, not thought. And people do. A lot. Hence the rise of things like conspiracy theories and Donald Trump.
The road to wisdom lies through challenging assumptions, not knowing things. There was no golden age in TV or anything else. But this little trick of having to confront something new must be preserved before it is altogether lost. The question is: how to do it?
some stories that may be of more than passing significance
Do Sleep disturbances predict Parkinsons Disease? “Forewarned is forearmed”, they say. And early diagnoses can make a tremendous difference to patients. Here Adrian Cordellat has a story for El Pais about research that suggests that disturbances to sleep patterns may be a long term harbinger of the onset of this terrible disease. (This link’s in Spanish, so a lot of regulars may need their translation app)
Banging on about Base editing Again! Just because we were full-house on CRISPR a year ago never meant we thought it was the last word in gene therapy. So just to make sure all you great readers know there’s a new kid in town, here’s a marvellous reprise of base therapy from the inimitable Nature Briefings: Trial Puts CRISPR Cousin to the test
Time makes ancient wisdom uncouth It’s always good to revisit basic assumptions. All those confident opinions about “it’s all that serotonin wot causes yer depression, mate” may about to be seriously shaken. So say Joanna Moncrieff and Mark Horowitz at the Conversation:
Conservation Success No animal was more iconic in the early days of the conservation movement than the tiger. Now there is real hope that this magnificent animal may be turning the corner of survival. Recently we’ve seen stories about lynxes, right whales and elephants too, so there is hope that barbaric practices of the past may be coming to an end. The Independent‘s Maroosha Muzaffar explains
The Jurassic was a crucial period in the history of life on our planet. Allosaurs, stegosaurs, plesiosaurs, icthyosaurs-there’s so much to see,you’d have thought that someone in Hollywood might have made a film about it by now. Recently we set off to explore it, courtesy of England’s famous Jurassic coastline, in the sturdy company of our LSS research team and some long standing readers. It was a long hard series of days, or rather day, clambering over rocks, chipping out all those ammonites, belemnites and oolites, to say nothing of our efforts to preserve, classify and write up our findings in Learned Scientific Journals. By three thirty we were entirely exhausted and returned to our base camp to rest and refresh, before donning some entirely more appropriate apparel and setting out in search of some altogether more congenial discoveries.
It wasn’t long before we found a pleasant cocktail bar in the town of Bridport which was able to offer us several glimpses into the latest advances in Science. Among these we enjoyed an Elderflower Spritz, a Bridport Dagger and a Dark ‘n’ Stormy. But best of all turned out to be their classic Negroni. Connoisseurs will recognise as as one of those outliers, possessing a special quality all of its own, a kind of dry, rich, acerbic almost liquorice-y vibe which no other major cocktail quite captures. An entirely appropriate reward for those who had spent their day at the cutting edge of intellectual progress. No pun intended.
Our hosts were not so foolish as to offer their peculiar recipe. So for today’s little blog we shall fall back on that old favourite The Bartenders Guide[1] which works in ounces, dammit, and leave you lot to take it from here.
In a glass mix 3/4 ounce gin, 3/4 ounce Campari, 3/4 ounce sweet red vermouth over generous broken ice. Stir and garnish with a slice of orange. Now sit back and be grateful that your ancestors, the mammals, finally defeated the dinosaurs. All that effort and sacrifice, so you could enjoy your cocktail today!
[1] Bohrman, Peter: The Bartender’s guide Greenwich 2005
Learning, Science and Society 