21.2.12 Somebody Fetch the Syrup

I swear it’s made more delicious by the fact that it’s a Tuesday. There in lies the beauty of pancake day – in all honesty if it was a Friday I probably wouldn’t bother (or do it with booze) but as its a Tuesday it’s an amazing treat. A couple of us tucked in to some ten o’clock pancakes, we made some regular pancakes (crepe style) and some gluten free buckwheat pancakes, American style with blueberries in. The recipe was from the BBC food website, it can be found here and I can promise you that they were lovely.

Now I know the background of Shrove Tuesday, pancake day’s real name, because when I was younger I went to Sunday school and that was the kind of thing we were taught. It marks the last day before lent, which is a 40 day fasting period, culminating in the resurrection of Christ over Easter. Believers fast as an offering or sign of devotion prior to this event. Apparently, what I did not know, is that pancakes are traditionally eaten as this fast is supposed to exclude the rich food that comprise pancakes (eggs, flour, milk etc). I guess this fits with girls giving up chocolate for lent! Although we tend to give up a vice for lent, orthodox Christians give up meat and dairy.

It also provides a nice lead in to an alternate name for Shrove Tuesday – Fat Tuesday. But I did find out that the word Shrove comes from the term shriving which was an ritual whereby Christian’s confessed their sins and gained absolution for them.

The tradition of pancake races is thought to have originated in 1445 when a woman was making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, lost track of time until she heard the church bells going and then raced to church still holding the pan! How very very foolish.

So I already knew that pancakes were delicious but today I refreshed my memory as to why the tradition began and also learnt a few things about the day.

DC

20.2.12 From Belfast with Love

As I looked out of the meeting room across the Thames, JB’s chirpy northern voice greeted me as though I had been joined in the room by a slightly sketchy London open-air bus tour guide. He rattled off a couple of facts about the scene before us as though he had caught said bus to the meeting as was desperate to tell us some of what he had learnt (imagine assuming people would be interested in what you’ve learnt!) The most interesting tit bit that he imparted related to the war ship harboured slap bang in the middle of the Thames – The HMS Belfast.

Based just around the corner from Tower Hill, originally a Royal Navy light cruiser it is now operated as a museum ship by the Imperial War Museum. Taking a year and a half to build, construction on Belfast started in December 1936 and they tied in her launch with St Patrick’s Day (17th March) 1938. The 613ft 6inch boat is quite the impressive ornament on the Thames now but at the time it was the pride of the Navy and cost over £2.1m.

Serving during World War II, HMS Belfast helped to patrol the Arctic guarding convoys of ships and helping in the bombardment of German defences during the D-Day landings, she was one of the HQ ships during the storming of Normandy. The Belfast also served in the Korean War before finally being decommissioned in early 1971 as she was deemed no longer preservable.

Nowadays, the ship can be visited as a museum (adults are £14), featuring examples of what living at sea is like, a Comms room that shows off controlling a fleet at war with interactive elements and a gun turret that demonstrates life at war.

So what pearl did JB impart on us? Well, today I learnt that the 6-inch guns on the A and B turrets that face North, if fired, would hit the London Gateway Services 12 1/2 miles away on the M1 – now that’s some impressive fire power, maybe Iran will think again after all?

DC

19.2.12 Sunday. The Day of the Rest of the Bottle

Let me be the first to tell you, drinking alcohol is the worst thing to do in cold weather. Hot soup is the best because the process of digesting food helps to warm you up.
Morgan Freeman

Well Morgan, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you couldn’t be more wrong (about the alcohol bit – soup is delicious). Now normally, despite my penchant for a good night out on a Saturday, Sunday is a day of rest for me but this time it was different. After a good night out on the Saturday, lunch to get over the wooly head was a must and Mexican food was the perfect prescription. However, a cider and a Corona over lunch made the night before kick in and suddenly all bets were off.

We moved across the road, a freezing trip i can assure you Mr Freeman, to All Bar One and settled into, what I now realise, is one of life’s greatest pleasures – Sunday drinking.

To reinforce how grateful we should be for this Sunday privilege we need only look to Wales who, due to an 1881 drinking act were unable to partake in alcohol on a sunday until as recently as 1960. Despite some’s claims that this has caused a death of welshness, it is clear that the activity can serve as a great bonding experience. Drink reforms in the UK in 2005 now allow pubs to be open all day should they have the correct license but most still close at 11pm on a Sunday for financial reasons. This, in my mind at least, adds to the mystique further.

As a disclaimer, I should mention that alcohol should always be drunk in moderation, not least as the death toll due to alcohol has steadily risen year on year. As per the below graph from recent medical studies:

Part of what’s great about it is that it’s one last staunch refusal to let go of the weekend, part is that it feels like you shouldn’t be doing it and part is that sometimes it just feels good to give into an impulse desire. One things for sure, Sunday I learnt that occasionally rest can wait for Monday night.

DC

18.2.12 Won’t Someone Please think of the Children?

As I drove along listening to Radio 1, the guest at the time mentioned guns and the host, I think it was Dev, made a joke that you couldn’t mention guns on the BBC “pre-watershed”. Now I know that the watershed is 9pm and its an indicator that you can get away with slightly more in terms of content and language as it is seen as an adult. What I don’t know is why on earth they call it the watershed!

The above picture shows what’s known as a watershed in nature and originally I obtained the picture as a joke, but It appears that the television example was born out of the watershed in nature. You see the dictionary definition of a watershed is “an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins or seas.” This description of a natural dividing line accounts for the line between general television content and post-watershed adult content. This explanation of a watershed even explains the reasoning behind “watershed moments” as they are moments that mark a significant change in the metaphorical landscape.

Ofcom, the television regulation board, has defined the UK watershed as 9pm-5.30am although this regulation only applies to usual tv, not pay per view or channels that are pass code protected, such as Sky’s movie channels. The watershed as we now know it was introduced following the television act of 1964 with the aim to preclude and protect children from more adult programming. These regulations extend to not only programming but also adverts in much the same way as movie certificates also apply to pre-film trailers.

Watersheds across the world are subject to different cultural norms and as a result aren’t all the same. The earliest start to a watershed is New Zealand at 20.30 whilst the latest are Finland and Greece who’s start at midnight. A recent Ofcom study showed that 77% of parents thought that the watershed in the UK was at the correct time but some expressed concerns at certain programming verging on unsuitable – soaps (14%), films (14%), reality programmes (12%) and music videos (11%). When you think about some issues dealt with by Hollyoaks etc this view point seems understandable but it’s surprising that more weren’t worried about music videos.

I completely appreciate why we have a watershed, and think its useful to shield young eyes from certain programming – although my Dad let me watch the first Terminator film when I was 7 or 8, it never did me any harm….. Well ok, not much. But today I learnt where the term actually comes from and why we have watershed moments.

DC

17.2.12 What is in a Name?

When I run I tend to wash over the televisions in front of me, listen to some music and generally zone out. Occasionally I focus in on a tv set for a few minutes just to provide a differentiation from this usual routine, often Sky Sports news gives me some quick updates to steer my mind. Post work (5.30-6ish) is another matter however, as the scheduling appears to be made up of the Simpsons, Hollyoaks, Come Dine With Me and quizzes, which provides the chance for an occasional learning.

On this particular case the question was related to which surname (with a choice of 3) would denote someone who shoe’d horses (it turns out the answer was Farrier) but this got me thinking the age old question, what’s in a name?

There are 5 main types of surname etymology:

Given Name – a name, such as a clans name that derived from the leader or head of the family/clan eg. O’Brien (or any other Celtic name!)

Occupational Name – the focus of today, a name derived from the family business/trade eg. Farrier

Location Name – based, obviously on the area/region the family hailed from eg. Washington/Wessex

Nickname – sourced from a nickname of a former family member. Eg. A word that used to mean strong or small etc

Ornamental Names – Mainly found in Jewish or Far-Eastern families eg. Word in Jewish that mean Star etc.

So now we know these, what are the meanings or sources of the 10 most popular British surnames I hear you clamour! Well:

1. Smith – Derived from the Anglo-Saxon “smiten” meaning to strike (blacksmith)
2.Jones – Meaning son of John
3.Williams – A descendant of William
4.Taylor – An occupational name for a tailor
5.Brown – A nickname used to describe complexion, hair or garment colour
6.Davis – Son of David
7.Evans – Son of Evan
8.Wilson – Son of Will
9.Thomas – Derived from the popular medieval first name Thomas
10.Johnson – Son of John

I can’t help but feel the popular English names are somewhat boring, though I guess that makes sense, but most of the mean “son of….”. So I’ve decided to find some meanings of people who have recently text me surnames (Lloyd-Williams didn’t make the cut as it probably means son of William!):

Buckland – from a total of 9 different English towns. It meant book land
Maguire – a Celtic origin meaning son (in this case daughter) of Uidhir
Mogford – derived from an English hamlet that through the years has been lost.
Cook – Anglo-Saxon for, you guessed it, a cook or seller of meat
Langston – after the villages in Devonshire and Hampshire
Golden – Louise will be surprised to know its not Jewish but rather a nickname for one with golden hair

So there we go. I’ve learnt a lot about surnames, and that most English ones are of relatively boring origins!

DC

16.2.12 Artisan Belgrade

“Chicken Caesar & Bacon on Artisan – Chicken, Bacon, Rocket, Caesar Mayo, Italian Cheese and an Artisan Baguette”

Artisan? It appears that my sandwich is actually on a nice crusty baguette, I have no idea what exactly about it makes it Artisan. Is it the shape? Is it the flour that it’s made with? Well it can’t be the latter as I consistently see this word bandid around to describe things such as wells and pottery, bookshelves and roofs, and I’m no expert, but none of those are made with flour.

And so I’m left confused as to what exactly is so special about my bread and why I should care. The dictionary definition of Artisan is:

1. (Business / Professions) a skilled workman; craftsman

2. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Art Terms) Obsolete an artist

So from this I could gleen that my bread has been made by a skilled craftsman, by this I presume they would mean a baker, which surely implies that by default, the rest of their “non-artisan” bread is not made by a skilled craftsman. It appears that this term has been taken up by marketing departments to describe something that has been “hand made”, and add a little bit of middle class eloquence to the humble sandwhich (and potentially an extra 50 pence).

I genuinely thought there would be more to this seemingly granduous word. As the term origniated and was widely used during Medieval times to describe skilled workers for whom this was a self employed profession ie. baker, blacksmith, potter etc. Which I can only imagine is vastly at odds with those who work in a huge kitchen for Pret a Manger.

So today I learnt the meaning of the word Artisan, so there shall be no more confusion, well about that anyway, there will still be plenty of confusion as to why my sandwhich costs 50p more.

DC

15.2.12 Unclear Nuclear

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was described as looking like he was “unwrapping a gift” as the world looked on with a worrisome glance whilst the Iranian president ceremoniously unveiled his nations new domestically made nuclear fuel. These developments in their nuclear programme were passed off by them as attempts to ensure fuel supplies but the rest of the world fears it points towards the development of nuclear weapons.

They also showed off their new uranium enrichments centrifuges which are said to be faster and three times more efficient and all of this came after his announcement last week that they would never halt their nuclear programme. BBC news correspondents out in Iran claim that these recent advancements are proof of Iran’s determination to master nuclear technology by themselves and to prove that UN sanctions don’t work. All in all pretty scary stuff. This advancement leaves Iran with the current ability to produce a middling grade of enriched uranium but the fear is they will soon develop weapons grade uranium. But what is weapons grade uranium and how do you enrich uranium?

Picture by Scaramooche

The process of enriching uranium is designed to separate the isotopes to increase the percentage of the isotope u235 as it is the only nuclide that is fissile with thermal neutrons (ie. capable of sustaining a chain reaction with thermal neutrons). The main problem with separating these isotopes is that there are only tiny tiny differences between each and as a result the processes have to be slow and exact. There are two main methods, gaseous diffusion and gas centrifuge (a more modern technique that uses less energy).

Gaseous Diffusion
Involves passing gaseous uranium through a selectively permeable membrane to separate the isotopes. However, dispute it’s use during the Cold War era, this technology is rapidly being phased out.

Gas Centrifuge
Involves cylinders of gaseous uranium being spun around in a centrifuge to gradually separate the heavier Isotope from u235

Highly enriched or weapons grade uranium is comprised anywhere in excess of 85% u235 but rudimentary nuclear weapons have been made of uranium composed of 20% but this is merely deemed weapons usable. The highest level of enrichment ever reached is 97%

Today I’ve learnt that the progress Iran is making is, in fact, pretty scary and I’ve learnt a little more about the background of enriching uranium – I think I’ll leave it to the mad men and dictators of the world.

DC

14.2.12 Hallmark of a Love Fraud

Don’t worry all my coupled up, loved up, (one day washed up) friends, please don’t worry. You see, it’s not that we single folk resent your tweets, blogs, Facebook posts, vulgar displays of romance on valentines day (ok it is a little), this year our main annoyance is that it’s a Tuesday. Yes that’s right, whilst you sit in a whisper sweet nothing’s to each other over a steak that the guys burnt and a card that he got from the petrol station on the way home from work, we don’t want to sit and read about it. No we want to be out, dancing, drinking and laughing with the other single folk to remind us that we’ve still got it best, but due to this cursed calendar were forced to be in thinking about work problems.

To be honest, I’m not even that annoyed – I’ve often thought of Valentine’s Day as a bit of a corporate swindle, where all of the emphasis is placed on guys to prove their love by spending excessive amounts of money on things that would normally cost half the price, whilst the girls does very little. NB. Should any ex’s read this, you’re obviously excluded from that comment. Which lead me to thinking, where does all of this rigmarole come from? There must, even it it’s been dreamt up in a corporate tower somewhere, be a back story. Kind of like that Simpson’s episode with Love Day:

Apparently the earliest back historians can trace a sign of celebrations around the date was during the pre-Christian era in ancient Rome, where a three day festival took place including the 14th. There rituals were a little different to ours though, men stripped naked and whipped young women on the arse to prove their virility – ok, so maybe not that different.

The term valentine appears to come from around 197 AD when Valentine of Terni was martyred by imprisonment, torture and then beheaded. Later mythology has claimed that this took place on the 14th though this part seems to just have been added to tie things together. This story is partially mirrored around 289 AD when Valentine of Rome is martyred, but as he was imprisoned he, supposedly, cured the blindness of a jailers daughter. There are also numerous romantic extensions to this tale that are equally likely to have been contrived.

Around 496 AD the Pope declared the 14th “St Valentines Day” largely as a move to counter the Pagan festival of Lupercalia. In 1400 this descent into madness continued as the French (who else??) opened a court of love that dealt with things such as marriage, divorce etc. During the 18th century the exchanging of secret love notes on the day became more common, complete with poems et al. Then in 1913 the issue was compounded by Hallmark. The popular getting card company decided it was time to monetize love and started producing cards and made the day more “official”, similar to their creation of Mother’s and Father’s days. Now it’s estimated that in excess of 1bn cards are exchanged annually!!

Now I don’t mean to be a cynic but today I learnt that this “day of love” truly has been something created to make big businesses even bigger and actually has very little to do with love. I mean it truly is a massive leap to go from a few men being martyred with Valentine in there name to a multi-billion pound business. So I beg you all, next year just wait a few days until everything goes back to its normal price – and then truly surprise the one you love/fancy/want to have sex with. (but still get a card off she’ll kill you)

DC

13.2.12 Viral Marketing

I guess it’s just that time of year. I’m normally one of the lucky few who just get a mild case of sniffles when the temperature drops. Not this year, no this year I became one of many who suffer from the assorted ailments going around. After feeling a little off on Sunday evening I awoke Monday morning to what can only be described as the most nauseating flu I have ever felt. I was dizzy, I felt like I was on the verge of vomiting, my eyes were throbbing, my throat hurt to swallow – the whole nine yards.

In 3 1/2 years at OpenText I’m proud to say I had never had a day sick (I know, what a hero right?!?), but as I reached Paddington station, all of that changed. I went home and spend from 9am Monday to 9am Tuesday in bed, with the exception of 15 minutes, darting from shivering to excessively sweating – it was awful. The whole experience left me thinking of a question my mother had asked me regarding something my mother had asked me a while ago to test me as she had learnt something in the course of her day. She asked if I knew the difference between a virus, a bacteria, a parasite and a fungus, and more precisely whether I could explain the difference.

I’d have to admit that I didn’t, as was self evident by me describing what had cause my illness as a virus, a bacteria, a bug and many other things in between. So I did the honest thing in admitting defeat and went about some good, honest, fact finding (Definitions courtesy of MedicineNet.com

Virus
A microorganism smaller than a bacteria, which cannot grow or reproduce apart from a living cell. A virus invades living cells and uses their chemical machinery to keep itself alive and to replicate itself. It may reproduce with fidelity or with errors (mutations)-this ability to mutate is responsible for the ability of some viruses to change slightly in each infected person, making treatment more difficult.

Examples of viruses are: HIV, Influenza, Cold Sores, Chicken Pox

Bacteria
Single-celled microorganisms which can exist either as independent (free-living) organisms or as parasites (dependent upon another organism for life).

Examples of bacteria are: E.Coli, chlamydia, gonorrhoea,

Fungus
A single-celled or multicellular organism. Fungi can be true pathogens (such as histoplasmosis and coccidioidomycosis) that cause infections in healthy persons or they can be opportunistic pathogens (such as aspergillosis, candidiasis, and cryptococcosis) that cause infections in immunocompromised persons

Examples of fungus are: athlete’s foot, thrush, candida

Parasite
An organism that lives in or on and takes its nourishment from another organism. A parasite cannot live independently – viruses and bacteria are specific types of parasite

Examples of a parasite: malaria, parasitic worms, Kim Kardashian

Today I learnt that we all eventually fall foul of colds, and that there’s a difference between a virus (like I had) and bacteria. Sometimes we know that there’s a difference between things, but could you really articulate it?

DC

12.2.12 Division Runs Deep in the Division

Much like any other Premier League football match, it started with a handshake. Or rather in this instance it started with the lack of a handshake. As Liverpool striker Luis Suarez walked past Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, ignoring the latter’s outstretched arm you could feel the tension amongst the players ratchet up.

To understand the scenario you really have to rewind to an earlier encounter between the two sides. Following a brief spat of shoving during play Suarez walked off and appeared to say something to Evra that provoked a hostile reaction from the French left back. Following some serious allegations after the game that Suarez had uttered a racist slur towards Evra, the FA investigated and found Suarez guilty, hitting him with an 8 game ban.

The handshake was supposed to take the sting out of the bitterness and show that both teams could concentrate on putting it behind them, the ignorance of it served to exacerbate the situation. However, even without “handshake-gate”, Manchester United vs Liverpool is always a derby game unlike any other, filled with tension and animosity from players and fans. Sure there’s the success of both clubs to take into account, and the proximity of the two cities but when you look at other close derbies there’s not quite the same intensity – so where does it come from?

Due to increasing industrialisation during Victorian Britain and the two cities proximities to each other, a normal rivalry developed, much like areas in the midlands etc. These differences were put aside to build the world’s first inter city passenger railway – The Liverpool and Manchester railway. At first the two cities weren’t sure that they want to be linked due to the rivalry but the committee put in extensive work to show how vital the link would be, it was even found that it cost more to transport goods between the two cities that it did to import them from America in the first place.

So the rivalry could still be put aside for the good of trade, but all of that about to change with the building of a canal. The Manchester Ship Canal is 36 miles linking Manchester to the Atlantic Ocean. Opening in 1894, the canal took 6 years and cost £15m to build (or less than one Luis Suarez) and was proposed to counteract the economic depression and boost employment by creating the first industrial park in Trafford. Prior to this Manchester’s business thought that the charges levied on them by Liverpool’s docks and stations were unreasonable.

Unsurprisingly, the build of the canal was strongly opposed by Liverpool and they managed to delay permission for several years but when it was eventually built it was the start of a fierce rivalry. Workers in Liverpool saw the canal as putting a huge number of them out of work and serving as an attempt to cripple their industrialisation and local economy. Football being, predominantly, a working class sport, this eventually served as a suitable outlet for this animosity and rivalry to be realised.

Today I learnt that it didn’t, in fact, all start with a handshake but instead with a canal, understanding a little bit better how the hostility between the two areas arose.

DC