2013 — 3 August: Saturday
Rugby is not just a game played by gentlemen with odd-shaped balls. It's also one1 of the "sports" I would happily pay to avoid. Big Bro, on the other hand, can't wait to see his new grandson out on the field, it seems:
I assume — at this relatively early (13 days?) stage of little Ethan's post-natal development — as a mascot. I'm guessing the stripes are some form of tribal signifier. I'm not au fait with any of these primitive artefacts of cultural anthropology, Antipodean or more local.
Speaking of which...
There was a story in the TES back in 2009 about a set of Christian qualifications (the International Certificate of Christian Education) being claimed as equivalent to international O and A levels. We (naturally) here in the Benighted Kingdom have a guvmint agency — the National Academic Recognition Information Centre (Naric) — and the Benighted Knaves in it approved this tosh. I linked to this eye-watering story here.
Fast forward three years. It seems you can't keep a good story — or a rabid Christian educational curriculum originating (in part) from Texas — down. Naric is still happy despite some of the "science textbook" claims including our local star not being fusion-powered, evolution being an "indefensible theory" and homosexuality being a "learned behaviour". (Taught by Catholic priests, I assume?)
Fun guys
Listening to these mycologists, reminds me of this:
Bought, and read, 36 years and one day ago.
Dusty tidings
I was faintly surprised — even mildly disappointed — to see how relatively few crumbs (albeit, jolly well-toasted ones) fell out of my kitchen toaster when, in a sudden (mild, hopefully transient) attack of domestic godliness, I unplugged it and upended it over the kitchen sink. Someday quite soon I may yet tackle the cupboard (full of tins) that has been largely neglected since mid-October 2007. Who knows? I may even open up one or more of Christa's wardrobes for scrutiny at this rate. Mind you, I would first have to unpack or move the solid barrier of storage cartons with (if fallible memory serves) much of the contents of her study in them before I can get at any of the mirror doors.
One doesn't want to rush into these things.
I've also decided...
... to take heed of Len's teasing about my paranoia about BlackBeast's (I mistakenly think) high internal temperature(s) by disconnecting, and removing, the uppermost vertically-blowing case fan. I'm still running the large, very quiet, Zalman to cool the processor chip, and the rear-blowing case fan on its lowest speed setting. This, at a stroke, renders the box essentially silent. And, with a living room ambient of 25C this afternoon, I don't think this snapshot is too alarming after an hour or so of "silent running":
Running? I suspect "gently toddling" would be nearer the mark.
Catching up (as usual)...
... with my slowly shrinking "Late Junction" backlog, I was delighted to hear (from the 1st of May, this year) Bill Laswell's reworking (or, if you believe the CD cover, "reconstruction & mix translation") of the Miles Davis piece "In a silent way" from Laswell's Panthalassa album and only very mildly upset to realise this already dates back to 1998. The sublime original, of course, is from 1969. How does that even happen?
[Pause] On a related front, I'm now delighted to have watched "Liberal Arts". Nice little movie.