Today we devote our cocktail page to the life and times of Henry Charles Albert Davis Mountbatten-Windsor, known to the readers of popular magazines and newspapers as Prince Harry Duke of Sussex, who has been in the news lately, somewhat. Harry and his wife Meghan Markle belong to the whole world; so what follows is definitely anthropology not British navel gazing.

For reasons we do not understand, this rich but essentially unremarkable couple have fallen dreadfully foul of the right-wing British tabloids. Odd: when we were young their readers used to toast his impeccable CV. Privately educated at Eton, best of regiments (Blues and Royals) and on to a seemingly raffish life of a young aristocrat on the social scene. Allegations about flings with young ladies were greeted with a knowing smirk and a wink of the if-only-it- were-me kind. Suddenly, around the time of his betrothal to Meghan, all changed, both with the media and his family. And has stayed dire ever since.

So, purely in the interests of balance, we are going to base our cocktail selection on Harry. Balance it, as t’were, on his fine mane of ginger hair (couldn’t do this for brother William!) And the site we have chosen is the incredibly aptly-named Make me a cocktail– [1] Its beautifully presented and photographed pages will give you the details, making them another must for fun lovers of all social classes and backgrounds everywhere. They’ve got lots and lots of good ones, so we have simply picked out the best mixes.

Ginger smash That’s Harry alright! A delicious tropical mix of lime juice apple liqueur and dark rum, whose gingery bit comes from the strips of that plant cunningly introduced click now for more!

Azaadi Refreshing mix of pineapple juice, Cointreau ,dark rum and naturally made ginger juice Will get all couples clicking glasses.

Tropical fruit punch Lime, pineapple and orange juices, kicked to life with a real slug of rum. Looks good, tastes good and by golly it does you good, or so we found

The Harvest Sparkle Complex mix of honey, prosecco, ginger and bourbon Sounds like a nice full taste for the discerning connoisseur!

https://makemeacocktail.com/recipes/s/?ing=91&msclkid=119a5d0dc24b11ecb581969ada85ee59

We often wax lyrical here about new advances in computing (LSS passim). And how even the most advanced AI system may soon be rendered obsolete by its smarter sister, quantum computing. Now David Nield of Science Alert [1] reports how a humble Namibian rock may contain just the right compound to make quantum computers real. How so? Apparently it contains Cuprous Oxide (Cu2O) which if cut thin will allow the formation of Rydberg Polaritons. As anybody in the Dog and Duck will tell you, these are complicated quantum phenomena which are simultaneously light and matter. Don’t worry too much about the physics. The point is such an entity will store any value between 0 and 1, unlike boring old digital computers which can only do 0 and 1. The way is truly open to a revolution in computer speeds, and hence marvellous possibilities in things like nuclear fusion, health and food production.

So what has all this got to do with ol’ Pooters? Well you may have noticed he has started a brutal destructive war. Why ? Because his mind is wedded to an ancient, primitive doctrine of conquering land. Who holds the biggest bit of land is best,. The Top Banana. Mr Big. Some say it all goes back to the nineteenth century, but we think it probably dates back to Australopithecus. The possibility that science and technology might offer a better life to us all just does not occur to him. He has drawn all of us into a sterile process of death and destruction, whereas we might have such possibilities. That is why he must be stopped.

[1]https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/an-ancient-namibian-stone-could-hold-the-key-to-unlocking-quantum-computers/ar-AAWlUXm?o

#putin #quantum computers #artifical intelligence #ukraine

Spin, gloss and bluster all you like. But the actuarial tables of a declining nation tell the true story, as we have alluded to in blogs past, And the set reported by the OECD make grim reading indeed for the poorest women in England. [1] Although our write-up uses Andrew Gregory of the Guardian, we found it in many media outlets. And it’s a tale of real injustice.

Let’s imagine three different sisters from the same English family who, by chance of marriage or work (as these things usually are) end up at different parts of the national income distribution. The eldest, Laura, marries a successful property developer. She can expect to live 86.7 years, comparable with the overall average for Japan, which is the best in the world. The middle sister, Anna, marries a teacher; Her life expectancy is about 83 years, coming in at 25th out of the 38 OECD countries; mediocre. The youngest, Amy, who ends up as a single mum working as a care assistant can expect 78.7 years of life, which puts her on the same average level as women in Mexico. Without disrespect to the good people of Mexico, a sombre comparison indeed.

It’s the truly vast gaps that impress; for life expectancy grows from decades of lived experiences, of either easy comforts or crushing burdens of deprivation and disappointment. This is one data set of many, and we need to know more. But it seems to point to an England that is made up of about three different countries, with vastly different life experiences. Rather like Victorian Britain, in fact. And the social legacies of Victorian Britain were the direct cause of its decline in the following century [2]. We don’t know about your country, overseas readers. But British followers should be concerned indeed.

_{we thank Mr Peter Seymour for this idea}

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/17/women-in-englands-poorest-areas-die-younger-than-in-most-oecd-countries?msclkid=337d4c91c07611

[2] Corelli Barnett The Audit of War Macmillan 1986

#poverty #women #life expectancy

As the first part of the year draws to a close we wish to offer a big thank you to all readers, contributors and those who have helped with ideas. In particular we thank our new followers and all those who take the trouble to say how much they have liked the posts. They are now too numerous to list here, but you will recognise yourselves from this.

It has been an eventful spring. But the big issues like Climate Change, Womens’ rights and freedom of speech won’t go away. We believe in those causes not out of a sense of moral obligation but because solving the problems they pose will make all of us more prosperous.

So in our last post before the holiday we wish all of you every success

#climate change #antibiotic resistance #global warming #democracy #womens rights

The greatest legacy of Vladimir Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine will be that it diverted attention from efforts to combat climate change. Which means that when the war is over we are going to have to move fast. Most reasonable people agree that, human nature being what it is, the best way to achieve this is to let someone make a bit of money from solving the problems.

Clever scientists are not short of ideas. But to get them to the market requires navigating a complex world of middle men-lawyers, marketeers, patent rights johnnies, financiers, bankers and the like. Now Guoping Hu, Eric F May and Kevin Gang Li, writing in Nature, describe how their invention to capture methane will actually get to market and make them a small sum in time to make a difference.

Capturing methane could make an enormous difference to climate change, because it has thirty times more warming potential than carbon dioxide. Unknown gigatonnes of the stuff pour from oil wells, gas plants and refineries; but it’s always been a devil to separate it out from other gases, especially nitrogen. The answer for the authors was ionic liquid zeolites {1] which you can read about in the paper. But they didn’t stop there. Instead the article focuses on a tour de force of how they navigated the treacherous waters of design, manufacturing, marketing and selling until they got to market in half the time it normally takes. It’s something any budding sci/tech entrepreneur might like to read, especially those whose ideas are needed by a dying world. But please do it quickly!

click on the link below or go via Nature’s lead in here

Industrial chemists Guoping Hu, Eric May and Kevin Gang Li share lessons from commercializing their methane capture technology in ten years. “That sounds like a long time, but it’s actually fast,” they write. “Patents last for only 20 years, making it a race against time.” To spur others on, they share advice on how to speed along the path from development to testing and manufacturing.Nature | 11 min read

[1]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00999-3?utm_source=Nature

#putin #climate change #global warming #methane #capture #zeolites

When we started this blog-and indeed the Facebook page the proceeded it- our major aim was antibiotics. To draw attention to their failing supply, the dangers this posed, and of course efforts to develop new ones, or at least safe alternatives. Back then in 2015 the situation looked pretty bleak. But we rolled up our sleeves and with the help of kind persons who know far, far about IT than we do, we made a start.

Nothing we did could be equal to the efforts of Professor Colin Garner and his charity antibiotic research uk. Yet we got on the team and did our part in all sorts of ways. As did many, many others to a far greater extent. Including many of you who will be reading this, who helped and encouraged tirelessly.

Now we are happy to bring you news that real progress is being made. According to BBC Health [1] and other outlets, two new antibiotics called cefiderocol and ceftazimime will soon be available on the British NHS. What’s more it looks like their use will be more carefully guarded than older antibiotics. And someone has worked out ways so that it’s economically viable for drugs companies to produce the stuff.

So forgive us if we at LSS give a modest cough, point to ourselves and then say-thanks for following us this far. There is a long way to go, to coin an old platitude. But a start has been made. A ray of light indeed in the gloomiest of Aprils.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61068074

Homepage with ASK

#antibiotic resistance #superbugs #research

Yes it’s a stress-filled world out there right now. To add to our worries about global warming, pharmaceutical collapse and plastic pollution ,we now have to cope with the failures in anger management at the top of the Russian leadership. Any normal person might be forgiven for thinking it’s all getting to be a bit much.

Well, why not get a pet? According to Ann Hemingway of The Conversation, acquiring a furry friend such as a dog, a cat or a horse can can really chill you out. Apparently these animals invest in building and maintaining long-term emotional relationships. There is even evidence of therapists turning to our four-legged friends for their help in calming down traumatised children. We remember a fantastic story from 1996 of a tiger cub who was taken to meet the inmates of London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. The genuine joy of these patients was unforgettable. If anybody who was thre reads this, let us know-you’ll be in your thirties now!

So a nice little heart warmer for you today-but think about it. A dog might be a lot healthier for you than benzodiazepines. Because they won’t take you for a walk.

https://theconversation.com/pet-therapy-how-dogs-cats-and-horses-help-improve-human-wellbeing-180378?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Late

#cats #dogs #horses #animal welfare #stress

with thanks to many contributors this week

Mushrooms talking? Life is incredibly diverse and strange, as anyone who has even glanced at the huge unseen world of bacteria and fungi will tell you. Is it even possible these things can talk to one another? Both the Mail and the Guardian seem to think so

https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/06/fungi-electrical-impulses-human-language-studyhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10690195/amp/Mushrooms-talk-recognise-50-words-researcher-suggests.html

_{we thank Mr Gary Herbert for this story}

Maths models make drugs methodical To see a thing done well, the fine tuning of means to ends, has always been our delight. Now it seems we could use mathematical models to enhance the delivery of some of our best drugs and medicines, Here’s Nature Briefings

Mathematical and computational models might be able to aid scientists in deciding the best dose for a future COVID-19 vaccine. The spectacular speed and effectiveness of the vaccines rolled out so far could have been even better if the amount given in each shot had been based on more than educated guesses, say advocates of the new technologies. Researchers typically use past experience and animal testing to find a sweet spot for vaccine doses that minimizes side effects and maximizes efficacy. Modelling that considers side effects, efficacy, the interval between doses and the type of immune response might be able to help.Nature | 13 min read

Manipulators at war. It’s an iron law of organisations, whether democratic or dictatorial, private or public. The different departments spend as much time fighting against each other as they do against the enemy. This piece came up because Mr Putin and his boys are in the news. But we recognise echoes of many places where we or friends have worked. The Conversation

https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-inside-the-complex-web-of-russias-warring-intelligence-agencies-180512?utm_

Massive impact It’s a commonly asserted that a huge asteroid impacted the earth and wiped out the dinosaurs on a single day 66.5 million years ago. We have always disagreed, believing in fact that it happened on the Friday afternoon of the week before, so as to spoil everyone’s weekend. Like asteroids, like airlines so to speak. Now some amazing research by some scientists at the university of Manchester seems to have found a place which shows what happened on the very day of the strike here’s Live Science

https://www.livescience.com/dinosaur-fossil-from-day-of-asteroid-impact

Apparently the BBC have produced a documentary about this, fronted by Sir David Attenborough his should give details

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61013740

See what we mean about people doing a job well? See you next week!

#fungi dinosaus #mushrooms mr putin #organisations #medicines #drugs #covid-19

Easter is coming, and you might think that the mudslide of solid eatin’ chocolate which is about to engulf you will be enough. Think again, gentle reader, for we are proud to present not one but 47 recipes, for chocolate cocktails which means you can drink the stuff at the same time you scoff. How’s that for ergonomics? Our researchers toiled in the depths of the Interweb to bring you three sites with glorious recipes, so let’s waste not further time!

The Spruce Eats-31 recipes: What we liked about this was the way that old classics are given a chocolatey twist. There’s chocolate martinis, a margarita and variations on good old milk shakes. Plus an erudite and learned discussion comparing the delights of Creme de cacao and chocolate liqueur. Yet we are tipping the time honoured Brandy Alexander, which we first observed being mixed in a pub in West London in 1976, almost before we realised such things as cocktails existed. Good ol’ Spruce Eats, we’ll come back to them again. Meantime, here’s a link

https://www.thespruceeats.com/tempting-chocolate-cocktails-4163725

BBC Good Food Many say the BBC and its truth telling was one of the Allies’ greatest weapons in World War 2. We hope the same now! To acknowledge this most civilised of institutions we link to their eight recipes. We think the salted caramel rum hot chocolate could keep you warm in case of those sudden icy blasts which can blight many an Easter plan, despite the abundant evidence for global warming.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/chocolate-cocktail-recipes

Love to Know Finally our researchers insisted that this site joined the list, as there are some actual recipes. Who were we to refuse such admonitions? For a real difference, why not check out their Chocolate mint julep, a real spring treat by the sound of things.

https://cocktails.lovetoknow.com/cocktail-recipes/8-great-chocolate-cocktails

According to well-attested research, the average person is said to consume 37.7856 Easter eggs between Maundy Thursday and the last weather broadcast on Monday night. So why not add to your pleasure by washing down that egg with one of our truly delicious suggestions-and make a real Easter to remember?

#chocolate #cocktails #easter #pascua #semana sancta #spring

“In summer the grasshopper sang, while the ant worked. In winter the grasshopper had nothing, while the ant had a whole cupboard full of goodies. And some more in the freezer in the garage.” So ran the story of ancient Greek Fabulist Aesop. And his ideas have been used ever since to justify ever more Work as the supreme human virtue. From the Bible (also big on ants) through Weber and the Protestant work ethic to the efforts of such intellectual luminaries as Priti Patel and Dominic Raab [1] who characterised British workers as” among the worst idlers in the world,” work and a long hours culture have been exalted as the ultimate pinnacle of the human condition. Dissenting voices such as Keynes and Trades Unions having been crushed in the 1980s,,by the mid nineties it was common, at least in London where we lived, to hear of people like lawyers and doctors who were working fourteen hours a day, plus commutes. And bringing stuff home for the weekend!

Yet British productivity remains low compared to both advanced European countries, and the United States. Is there a chance that all these long hours are actually a drag on progress? Our indefatigable correspondent Mr Peter Seymour would like to present two lines of evidence which seem to open up debate, to say the least

Jandra Sutton of the Metro tried to run her life on a four hour working day [3] She was amazed not only at how much more productive she was, but at her burst of enthusiasm. It made us think-have you ever worked with one of those types who never seemed to go home, but lived at their desk? Did they really do more than everybody else?

And anyway, is working in huge 12-15 hour blocks really good for your health. What if it’s disrupting your sleep plans? Tanyel Mustafa, again of Metro[4] fame thinks we may have evolved to sleep in completely different ways

Ever since youth people are continually harassed to work harder, work longer, work quieter. work smarter, work…..well just work more really. To become ants, not grasshoppers. Wise admonitions-or just gaslighting?

[1] Britannia Unchained 2012

[2] https://www.economist.com/britain/2021/11/20/britains-economy-does-not-lack-oomph-but-productivity-is-lagging?

[3] https://metro.co.uk/2022/04/03/could-a-four-hour-work-day-make-us-more-productive-i-gave-it-a-go-16378826/

[4] https://metro.co.uk/2022/04/03/could-a-four-hour-work-day-make-us-more-productive-i-gave-it-a-go-16378826/