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August 20, 2004
A silly season ....
Over the last few days there have been a number of examples of news reporting that reflect the fact that, at least in Europe, our political masters are off enjoying their summer hols. First of all, there is the cartoon depiction of "Super Prezza" leaping to the rescue in all manner of strange circumstances dressed in a "Superman" type outfit with his Y-fronts showing. This arises from his having been involved in the rescue (while out on a white water boating jolly in the Welsh Mountains) of another canoeist. One wonders who was in charge in Downing Street while the Deputy Prime Minister was out on this little jolly.
Then there is the report carried in a couple of papers which always seem to have something of this nature to report, of the Norwegian swimmer who found himself with a large Norwegian Grass Snake inside his swimming shorts. Even the curator of the Oslo Museum seemed to be unimpressed by this - mind you, I suspect, given the temperature of the water in the Norwegian Fiords even at the height of summer, that the snake would hardly have been able to find anything to damage! At least we haven't had the usual crop of "Elvis seen alive on the Moon" stories, but I expect it's only a matter of time!
On a more intelligent note, there is a report [unfortunately dead-tree version, only] of the discivery of several huge craters under the Antarctic Ice Sheet. They are all from one asteroid strike - the object was reportedly six kilometres in length - and hit at a time when Homo Erectus was still strutting his stuff and avoiding being eaten by most of the carnivores he reputedly shared caves with. The big question is why, when this strike was at least as big, if not bigger, than the one which hit the Mexican Gulf and wiped out the dinosaurs, did this not lead to a mass extinction? The scientists think that it is because the one in the Mexican Gulf resulted in a huge fireball and flung ash and debris into the atmosphere generating a "nuclear" winter, while the one in Antarctica hit and vapourised ice, showering the atmosphere with water vapour.
In the latest health scare, researchers have discovered what they claim to be a link between living near a petrol station and leukemia. It seems that children living near a filling station are more likely to develop this disease (I am never sure about calling any of the "cancer" family a "disease" - the triggers do seem to be genetic rather than anything else) due to petrol vapour - particularly the benzene ring aromatics that are now so prevalent in "unleaded" petrol.
Still on the scientific, the Cassini probe now circling Saturn has found some extra "moons" in the rings and has taken some fascinating photos (with another load to come on a closer pass) of Titan, the largest lump of rock in this corner of the Solar System and rated at about the size of Mercury, although, as it orbits another planet, it is classed as a moon. There is some speculation about what the Cassini probe will find when it gets closer; some think it may show up lakes of hydrocarbons - oil to most of us - which sort of begs the question of the origins of this material. Certainly if it is the result of degradation (as some argue) of carbon based "fossil" materials (such as vegetation and animal remains) then this raises a few questions about life forms on this strange little world. If not, then we may need to rethink some of our concepts of the origins of our hydrocarbon "fossil" fuels and its sources!
Finally, I guess we have to mention the still rumbling fire service pay dispute. Amazing how quiet its gone now that all the politicians are on holiday, isn't it? Trouble is, of course, that this is the lull before the storm, and it hasn't gone anywhere. The Union is both right and wrong in pursuing this, even though the Bank Holiday working argument is a nonsense, and both sides know it. In the end, it will be a settlement that will satisfy nobody, serve the public not at all, and the only winners are likely to be those whose ambition is to get the top jobs in the fire service even though they hold no qualification for them and know even less about what it actually does or how it does it. As one politician put it before all this blew up - it's the one public service everybody wants to be associated with. Give it another five or so years and see how everybody is wondering what went wrong.
Well, lets enjoy the respite while we may. All too soon, "cometh the hour" - who knows what the "man" may be like.
Posted by The Gray Monk at August 20, 2004 09:20 AM