38 years

Posted on

This was released over 38 years ago. Yikes.

It’s still evocative and lovely.
It popped up on my timeline yesterday, and was just perfect for the moment, because I actually was a bit miserable then. Ironically, it cheered me up a bit.

Terrible lip-syncing, as was always the way with Top of the Pops. And Morrissey doing his level best to be cool, despite the vacuous, mainstream show on which he’s ended up.

Yet he still manages to look suitable chastised and dramatic as he hits that third verse:

You’ve been in the house too long, she said
And I, naturally fled.

Oh. And that quiff. Timeless.

Poo studies return – and they’ve got some worrying news

Posted on

Truth be told, Poo Studies never went away. It’s just that – thankfully – they haven’t had very much to tell us about recently.

It does look as though that has changed recently, though.

Poo Studies is the fun name for the SAMRC surveillance programme for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in more than 80 wastewater treatment plants across 6 provinces in South Africa. Basically, as the link above describes, we can accurately predict the future when it comes to local Covid-19 infections simply by looking for bits of the virus in the wastewater (sewage) in the vicinity. It gives us a 1 or 2 week heads up notice on any impending wave of Covid-19 infections, and therefore up to three weeks on increased hospital admissions.

But while our wastewater has been tested very regularly for quite a while now, there’s really been nothing to tell us about. Until now.

And if you think that Cape Town is a steep rise, wait until you see what they’ve been excreting in Worcester, just on the other side of the tunnel:

To me, that actually looks like someone dropped some virus into the thermocycler. I’m intrigued to see if that is actually a genuine result, although that little rise between 19/09 and 26/09 does do a bit of groundwork. If it is genuine, well, no-one is saying that we’re all going to die or anything, but it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Covid levels are rising again. This is, as we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, the MO of this viral infection. But that sort of increase is a bit concerning.

But what variant will this be? And how will it affect South Africa with its under-vaccinated, over-exposed population. My microbiology senses are tingling with mounting anticipation (and a teeny-tiny amount of dread).

Weirdly, still here

Posted on

I wasn’t supposed to make it through yesterday. None of us were.
A “high up biologist” told us so:

But here I am, cruising through October 11th, almost like “the toxins present in the mRNA poison covid vaccine” didn’t get activated. Or didn’t exist. Just like the high up biologist.

Weird.

Meanwhile, back in actual reality: Boosters save lives.

This was England (and the IOM)

Posted on

A lovely little collection of images in The Guardian late last week, promoting an exhibition which includes the work of documentary photographer Chris Killip.

This one is a fog-(on the Tyne)-gy Wallsend, dated on the site as being taken in 1976. But the Tyne Pride – one of the huge ships being built at the Swan Hunter shipyard which was the be-all and end-all for all the families living in that area at that time – was actually launched in late 1975, so I think that might be incorrect. They built BIG SHIPS there back then. Here’s a better view of just how big:

Mark I Raleigh Chopper FTW!

I know Chris Killip’s work from his time on the Isle of Man, mostly documenting Manx farming life in the early 1970s. Not a lot had changed in the previous 100-odd years for many of those communities at that time, and not a lot changed in the 15 or 20 years after that either, so I recognise quite a few of the places and scenes (and maybe even one or two of the people?) from my time over there as a kid.

There are plenty of those images on the Manx Museum ‘iMuseum’ site here.