Friday Night: What did James Bond REALLY Drink? David Leigh has all the answers

Say the words “James” and “Bond” in that order, and the world thinks of an elegant upper middle class Englishman sipping a vodka martini in the casino of an exclusive hotel. He’s very image of suave sophistication concealing deadly menace, so much so that the words “shaken, not stirred” have become associated with the Brand, a bit like the chimpanzees in the old PG Tips adverts.

That’s because most of us are familiar with the films, which are a long way from the books, many of which date back to the 1950s. The real James Bond was an eclectic drinker, as David Leigh explains in this excellently written article for the James Bond Dossier website [1] called, naturally enough, What does James Bond Drink? And the truth is :anything he can get. Because as David explains, the original , on paper only, Bond was jetting round a world where globalisation was barely nascent. So if you went to Japan you drunk Sake,in Turkey, Raki, in the Balkans Slivovitz. And so it goes:David details the entire social activities of this famous character in delightful detail.

But we’d like to add our own take by discussing why Bond was like that. We think we discerned it at the beginning of Goldfinger where Bond is sitting in an airport lounge downing whiskies and smoking like an old diesel as he tries to de-stress after having killed someone on active service. Musing on life and death as he waits for his flight. We actually knew quite a few men like this. Because the Bond books appeared in the 1950s when most of the male readers would have strong memories of killing and being killed in World War 2 There are even hints in one volume that the literary Bond may just have been old enough to catch active service at the very end of the war.(Ian Fleming was on active service in Intelligence for the duration) Many who had escaped physical wound nevertheless carried what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.(PTSD) There was no term for it then; and anyway to visit a doctor would have been widely regarded as Cissy, and lacking in moral fibre. You just got on with it. Or self-medicated, brooding deeply night after night on whisky and full strength cigarettes , while god knows what phantoms flitted before their eyes. One of the reasons the Bond franchise has been so successful is that the books are actually jolly good writing. We think they have captured 1950s Man very well. Sad actually, isn’t it?

What does James Bond drink?

#film #cocktail #james bond #ian fleming #writing #books whisky #cigarrettes #stress #war

Antibiotics: troubles down on the Farm

“Hey-Farmer! Leave them antibiotics alone!” we might be tempted to sing to the tune of the popular ditty by the Blue Floyd, Pink Mink, or whatever they were called. At first glance, it seems clear: the misuse of antibiotics in farming is one of the major causes of increasing antibiotic resistance. According to the lucid report from Alliance to Save our Antibiotics, over 70% of antibiotics are put into farm animals, not humans. This folly began in the 1950s as a way to boost yields. But it has since become a way to keep the poor beasts in unhealthy conditions which no creature should endure , All as a profit driven source for more food-and what has that done but make us all more portly and obese?( we speak from experience)

Which might lead the unthinking reader to create a new outgroup called “farmers” and start blaming them for all the world’s ills. But it would be wrong. Firstly, the only time we had to deal with farmers for professional reason, we found them to be intelligent, courteous and incredibly knowledgeable about their profession[2] Secondly, for all but the richest, the farming life is one of incredible struggle: a year battling prices, weather, disease, thieves and much sorrow besides, all for one day when a years crop is put into a pitilessly unpredictable market to a price that can hardly ever match the sheer value of the effort of the labour that produced it. When the name of the game is short term survival, no one, and we mean no one, should blame any farmer anywhere for reaching for the nearest short term solution to get them through to the next day.

And there are hundreds of professions like this where the margins are tight, and survival is provisional: in construction, sales, distribution…..where people are almost forced to take a narrow, focussed approach to their task. Is it really fair to ask them to look at the broader picture on matters like antibiotics? Are you really surprised when your electrician,-an intelligent likeable chap- compares the complexities of Brexit to negotiations over gymnasium membership? Is the real problem societal and economic? For more than forty five years now the we have created a society where economic activity is focussed relentlessly around short term goals and intense competition. It may get brick walls built more quickly. But it does not foster collective wisdom, nor the ability to process large societal decisions with anything approaching informed opinion. One day there may have to be a reckoning with this model, if only on the grounds of survival.

[1] Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics | Antibiotic Overuse in Livestock Farming

[2)Keir Hartley The Historic Petworth Herd Sussex Local Nov 22 pp 17 -19

#antibiotic resistance #agriculture #farming #economics #society #Brexit

Gorillas and the next Pandemic-only this isn’t a health story, it’s really about AI

We’ve always been big fans of primates large and small. So we hope you’ll be as cheered as we were by this piece Can AI help stop the next pandemic disease? from that redoubtable site Nature Briefing. Because we couldn’t help thinking-if can work for gorillas it can work for humans too. It’s an interesting story in itself: but it made us think much deeper about the true transforming power of AI, upon which we shall riff a little below-after you have read it, gentle readers:

Researchers are harnessing the ability of AI tools to identify patterns in large data sets to try to predict spillovers — the transfer of pathogens between species — before they happen. In Uganda, the approach is showing early promise in protecting endangered mountain gorillas, as well as the livestock and people who interact with them. Other researchers are trawling through databases to identify new zoonotic viruses in samples that were not necessarily collected for that purpose.

Nature | 11 min read

So what do we really think? Ostensibly its another good news science story (especially of you’re a gorilla) And it obviously has hopeful implications for when the next pandemic strikes-another LSS old favourite. But-we hope you will indulge us with our own take, because we think there’s something deeper going on. Look at the gap in technique compared with COVID -wracked 2021, the last real pre-AI year. Back then, researchers would only have been able to compare one data set at a time: logs on gorilla movements, human settlements, genomes, weather, livestock………you name it. Now our invisible chums do the lot for us simultaneously, in real time. And to make predictive ecological models, construct counterfactuals and many other things, all based on real time integration of field data. Quite a step change, isn’t it?

Five years is a short time for a new world to be born. But it is such, for it carries the true characteristic of a new world-there’s no going back. And somehow its this story that has finally brought it home, at least to this Editorial Board: this AI thing is as big as the advent of metals, or the Industrial Revolution. What do you think? We’d love to know.

#gorillas #ecology #modelling #pandemic #conservation#Artificial Intelligence #technology

Farewell Dolly Parton: you were truly a member of the Great and the Good

We at LSS have a confession: we never much cared for the Country and Western genre of music. Perhaps it was certain political and — er — philosophical associations it evoked, perhaps just the sound. But for those of us whose genre is the Baroque and whose Main Man is JS Bach, the good ol’ C&W was something we ignored at best. Until along came Dolly Parton, whose quip “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap” suddenly gave us a moment like those dismayed physicists who first confronted the Michelson–Morley experiment and realised everything you had previously believed was wrong.

For it revealed that we were in the presence of a formidably intelligent and accomplished mind. One that rose from a profoundly humble background to pen such world‑beating hits as Jolene, 9 to 5 and I Will Always Love You. Who worked with the greats in her own genre but also such luminaries as Paul McCartney, Miley Cyrus, Elton John and many more from the summits of world music. Who starred in successful films like Steel Magnolias and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. And whose steely will and business acumen protected her from the fate of many female celebrities, trampled on by the men in their lives. Not Dolly. Don’t even think about it, boys.

But that is not, gentle readers, why Dolly Parton merits a very special place in our Blog’s Hall of Fame. It is her magnificent accomplishments in promoting the virtues of Learning and Science which earn her our highest accolade. Exhibit 1: her munificent donation to Vanderbilt University at the height of the COVID‑19 pandemic, which helped support early research contributing to the Moderna mRNA‑1273 vaccine. Exhibit 2: the breathtaking will to found the Imagination Library, which since 1995 has mailed over 300 million books to children across large stretches of the world. If that’s not creating readers for us, then what is?

A few years ago we ran a blog (LSS 9/2/24) in which we mocked a group we called the Great and the Good. We hoped we evoked a world of senior politicians, editors, orchestra conductors and other assorted ranks of la haute bourgeoisie who sit around drinking chianti and telling each other how much they have accomplished. Well, now we are going to evoke those words in their real sense to laud someone who was really Great and truly Good. Sleep well, Dolly — you have earned your rest.

[1]Dolly Parton obituary | Dolly Parton | The Guardian

[2]Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library | USA, UK, IE, CA, AU

#library #mRNA vaccine #country and western music #philanthropy #music #entertainment #literacy #education #learning

Cocktails from America: The Manhattan

In Cocktail homage to the United States, until recently the greatest nation on the planet, we have chosen the Manhattan. That ne plus ultra of the 1920s when America set out to rule the world through Modernity and Finance: and the island of Manhattan was the very centre of that rule. No, not Rhapsody in Blue, not Wall Street, not Macey’s, not even the New Yorker;-we firmly showcase the Manhattan because it is the city distilled: dark, glossy, slightly dangerous, and absolutely convinced of its own importance.

Prohibition didn’t kill the Manhattan, it made it forbidden and therefore mythic. It was the one they served in a joint off Times Square where you went in with a nod and password, and the man who served it was one of those Damon Runyon types who wore a waistcoat and knew how to keep his mouth shut. Because the clientele included not just flappers, journalists, gangsters and politicians, but also more than a few cops who did not carry the principles of their Office uncomfortably into private life. So as you mix one tomorrow night, you’ll have Manhattan, maybe even the Bronx and Staten Island too: but a fleeting taste of those brief decades when Democracy and Hyperconsumption looked like they would be the future of the world. How time trumps all of our illusions!

Method Freely adapted with thanks from the Hamlyn Ultimate Cocktail Book, that Bible of Style for sophisticated readers of all lands. Put five ice cubes into a mixing glass and add one measure of sweet vermouth and three measures of rye or bourbon whiskey. Stir them well and then strain sin hielo into a chilled cocktail glass. If you must decorate, a cherry on a stick might do: but you would have got some very old fashioned looks whether you were in Queens, Broadway, or any of the other choice locations across the length and breadth of old Gotham City in its Jazz age peak.

Enjoy a pleasant weekend,

#Manhattan #cocktails #New York #Jazz Age #prohibition #damon runyon #george gershwin

Why antibiotic resistance will be very bad news for your Grandchildren

Photo by Monstera Production on Pexels.com

Despite our occasional diversions into such recondite fields as History and Economics, this is still front and centre an Antibiotics resistance blog, gentle readers. Which is why when an article as good as the one we’re showcasing today called Antibiotic Resistant bacteria increasingly leaving children vulnerable to common infections, global study finds by the inestimable Melissa Davey of the Guardian, we drop all else in its favour.

And it’s packed with goodies, it touches so many bases: if you’re antibiotics fan get a load of this:

There’s a whopping great survey of 82 countries: 106, 581 samples, over 22 years, all controlled by some of Australia’s most prestigious learned bodies. If that isn’t great statistics then you can call us David Spiegelhalter [2]

Several of this blog’s sinister old favourites such as Acinetobacter baumanii, Klebsiella have their usual run out-don’t you love ‘em?

There’s a forward prediction to 2035 which ought to make anyone pause for reflection.

Despite the efforts of brilliant journalists like Melissa, learned scientists of all stripes and even dare we say our own humble efforts, antibiotic resistance is still the ignored elephant in the room of ~~medical science.~~ Sorry we meant human existence. Yep, we meant it.

Talking of which, the all too human failings of poor diagnosis and over prescription, agricultural misuse and poor public health are driving our collective squandering of this precious, once only ever, resource.

The less discussed economic aspects are touched on. Get this: there is sometimes a reluctance to run trials on children and developing treatments for them can be less lucrative for pharmaceutical companies There’s yer problem, guvnor.

The usual hero organisations such as the WHO get a mention, and rightly so given the Herculean task they face.

And a sad, sad story about a lad called Harry whose brief life will be utterly dependent on the rest of us finally doing something about this common peril

If we were to present a class of Freshpersons with a jumping off point which summarises just about every trope in the antibiotics story, then this article would be our choice. Well done Melissa, And keep ‘em coming.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/21/antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-increasingly-leaving-children-vulnerable-to-common-infections-global-study-find

[2] David Spiegelhalter – Wikipedia

#antibiotic resistance #bacteria #microbiology #health #medicine #infection

A big thank you, an apology and a nod to a few old blogs

We’ve been having some technical problems particularly with e mails this week. These are now largely resolved, but the amount of time and energy involved meant that normal productive service has been largely impaired. To sort of make it up. We thought we’d do two things: repeat our normal thanks and apologies, and then take a quick look back at some of the blogs which we think you might like. Note: we didn’t claim the blogs were “good” “better” “our best” or anything like that. We just think they were different and we put together unrelated things in a new way: or we showcased some original work by somebody somewhere.

So thanks to all readers, followers subscribers and everyone else who makes this humble little blog possible.

Now forward to the past.

On medical research we have been stalwart champions of the cause of discovering new types of antibiotics : we’ve averaged at least one every couple of weeks on this, so back references are superfluous. But we’re also proud to have picked up on exciting new developments such as CRISPR Cas-9 and Base Pair editing (LSS 9 9 23 et seq) and our blogs provide a nice series of snapshots on whats been unfolding over recent years.

Conservation and sustainability has been a constant theme. We managed to combine it with antibiotics on a blog called No plants No antibiotics (16 6 26) But you’ll find climate change all over the place here: and rightly so in a site devoted to reason and evidence

World Government has been a more recent theme: not because we are necessarily in favour of it, but we do think someone needs to make its case. Which we did starting with our series of 8 1 25.

Contradictions have always fascinated us. Such as: what does it mean to be Right Wing in the modern world? You can be for Free Markets, or you can be for the traditional nations. But you can’t be both for long, as our two blogs The Kronenbourg Question (7 6 22) and Is Donald Trump a Socialist? (7 4 25) pointed out

And finally: our Roman obsessions: we seem to use that Empire to explain everything from modern geopolitics to cultural decay to climate change. Key to our modern understanding of this ancient Empire is the work of Professor Harper whom we first showcased in our blog 17 12 22

Please keep all your ideas and suggestions coming. Wew are deeply honoured to be noticed by so many people in so many different parts of the world. Above all: keep reading. That’s what makes our day

#climate change #politics# economics #medicine #health #history #dna

Roman Coin hoard has lessons for our times

Southern Britain 297 AD. A frightened Roman official, alone in the woods, is frantically digging a hole. It is unaccustomed work for a man of his rank, and he sweats, while nervously looking over his shoulder for soldiers, secret policemen, or even hungry peasants. Why is he here? Any number of reasons could have caused his fall: civil war, a coup, a sudden change of Emperor. Hole completed, he quickly throws in his entire wealth-a bag of gold coins, jewels and silver cups, and takes one last look at them before filling the earth on top. Carefully,he notes the position of larger trees and certain other markers. For one day he hopes to return, when Fortune has turned again. But he never will. He is the last person to see these things before they are unearthed, over seventeen hundred years later into a world of AI, Space technology and jet airliners. The darkness closes-and opens.

Such are always our thoughts when ever we stand in front of a hoard of Roman treasure in a museum. Who left these things there? Why? What was in their mind when they left them? And-why did they never return? When we read this story of the latest hoard to be unearthed [1] near Ilminster in Somerset , covered in this excellent Guardian piece by Steven Morris, these thoughts and many others came back. Hoards are invaluable to historians and archaeologists, because the coins allow solid dating estimates, which are worth far more than gold to serious scholars. Their occurrence rises in direct proportion to the frequency of political and economic troubles in the Empire. And nowhere was more troubled than the provinces of the Britannias in the period 286-296AD [2] when rebel rulers tried to set up a separatist regime against the central Empire. The likely date of the finds (297) offers haunting possibilities for speculation about their likely loser, and the subsequent events of his life.

But what fascinates most are the hoards themselves. Unlike amphitheatres, churches and other remains, which decay and otherwise change in tune with the society around them, hoards are frozen in time. The last time they were seen was in a declining empire, wracked by pandemics and climate change. A melancholy time of failing trade, broken roads-and an overwhelming mood of doubt and uncertainty. Where increasingly authoritarian governments tried to hold together the remains of a failing world with ever more repression and ever more dubious promises of a return to the long remembered Golden Age. Yet the Empire had endured for so long and was still so big that people who buried the coins could imaging no other possible form of political and social organisation. And were not able to break out of the cycle of decline until they could. Perhaps there is a lesson for our times in there too.

_{note – we worked really hard to get our Roman uniforms right. We hate those films and programmes where they dress fifth century Romans in the clothes and uniforms of about AD 14}

[1]Somerset detectorist strikes gold with ‘spectacular’ Roman ring find | Roman Britain | The Guardian

[2]Carausian revolt – Wikipedia

#archaeology #roman empire #coin hoards #history

Would you visit Sussex without a porpoise?

One of the many advantages of our mighty office block is its proximity East Croydon Station. A short saunter puts the tired Senior Executive ( junior staff have work to do) on a train which will, in only a few minutes, whisk him from all the towering skyscrapers, crowded tenements and tiresome colleagues, transporting him rapidly into the beautiful county of Sussex. With all its rolling hills, lively cities, quaint villages, castles and pleasant coastal towns. For example, the sea front at Worthing has been compared to that of Nice in France-although admittedly only by people who have never been to Nice.

But the best thing of all about Sussex is its thriving ecosystem of websites, newspapers and magazines at every level: village, neighbourhood, county -which not only cover all aspects of local life but acts as a thriving hub for the forces of economics and commerce. Among the best and brightest is Sussex Local, a widely distributed website and glossy colour magazine which covers both community events plus stories of wider national potential such as science or conservation. Riffling through its pages we came across this story (alright, we wrote it, but that’s beside the point) of a a brave and erudite scientist called Thea Taylor who has devoted her working life to the care and preservation of the large cetaceans which still inhabit the English Channel That’s right, porpoises, dolphins and sometimes even larger beasts are not just hanging on, they’re trying to come back into the waters of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world(it’s still open, folks) Dodging super tankers, evading trawlers, and jumping to the delight of excursionists and more serious yachtspersons alike. They still represent a genuine large wild megafauna in easy access of great cities like Brighton and London. But to keep them that way, Thea needs your help. You could start by reading the scintillating article we have published. [1] Or could you find a way to help Thea and the Sussex Dolphin Project directly? If you save the creatures in Sussex, you’ll help to save them everywhere.

[1]https://sussexlocal.net/back-issues-categories/2026/

[2] Sussex Dolphin Project

#dolphin #english channel #porpoise #brighton #consevation #ecology #nature #oceans

Friday Night Feast of Fun: What to Wear for Cocktails

A few years ago (LSS 15 5 20) we received a plaintive call for help from a reader in Bridport in Dorset. He posed an age old and much-debated question: how should the Gentleman of Fashion dress for Friday Night Cocktail?. And this is the answer we gave

“Dear Mr AF: the rules on this have always been very prescriptive, but fair. In winter, a dark blue or black jacket, striped shirt, creased chinos and smart black shoes. Tie; anything regimental. old school, or your golf club. The building, not the thing you hit the ball with! In summer you may sport a light jacket, summer being defined as any date from Easter Sunday until the final Bank Holiday in August. You may of course wear a Panama. But don’t wear it indoors, or you will look like a numpty.”

Well, we will not change a dot or comma of that answer. Rules of dress are timeless, like rules of Golf or Morality. What you see above is how it is ladies and gentleman and we can no mor exchange that than we can ask for a rewrite on one of the Ten Commandments. (not even the one about Adultery) But we will add an appendix. A coda if you like, to recognise the times we live in.

Because since that blog was published quite a lot has changed. global temperatures have climbed by roughly 0.3 °C, 2024 became the hottest year ever recorded at about 1.55 °C above pre‑industrial levels , mountain glaciers have kept shrinking with more than 27 m water‑equivalent lost since 1970 and record mass losses in five of the past six years , and extreme events—heatwaves, storms, floods, droughts, and fires—have intensified across almost every corner of the biosphere. Yes, it’s got hotter, quite a lot hotter and it’s not just because you are standing too near the barbecue fire, ladies and gentlemen. So, just as St Benedict wisely relaxed monastic rules to make them more bearable , we are going to relax the Cocktail Code. A bit. In the warmest weather only. Gentleman may, with discretion, wear a polo shirt if working at the barbecue or serving the drinks, provided that you clear it first with the Guests.

Well there’s our advice . It’s nearly Six British Summer Time as we pen these lines, so we, like many of you are already thinking of slipping in to the time-honoured garb and wolfing down that first Pimms. We hope you enjoy your evening too, wherever you are.

#cocktails #clothes #global warming #st benedict #climate change #pimms #gin