It’s been a hot day.
Another hot day.
Mrs 6000 is partying up a storm at The Met.
Little Miss 6000 has been thrifting in Hippieville, man.
And the Boy Wonder has been doing Dodgeball stuff in the sunshine.
Me? I stayed home and kept the beagle company. Working through some jobs while I did so.
All the jobs are done, and I feel the need to sit down and watch a football match or two.
One thing I never saw in the UK was Ibises. Well, only in the zoo.
But we have a few types here in Cape Town, and this is (probably) the most common. Step forward Bostrychia hagedash – the Hadeda Ibis. One of the few local birds which has the same name in English and Afrikaans (see also Bokmakierie and Hamerkop), it’s named for its call. Honestly then, it should be the Raap-Raap Greer Ibis, but let’s not get picky.
These may be rather dull and drab, with a well-earned reputation for being very noisy, but they’re also curious, gentle birds and I love them. And their Linnean name (see above) sounds just like something out of a well-known book and film series about a school of witchcraft and wizardry.
We’ve got a few more that have come into our area over the last couple of months, and I would much rather have them here than damned Egyptian Geese or (more) Guineafowl.
So, yes: more of this please (just not at 6am on the weekends, thank you very much).
Wow. Look at that.
It’s the 23rd January 2025, and that means it’s exactly a whole 21 years since I upped sticks and moved from Oxford to Cape Town. A whole 6000 miles from civilisation… (if you can call Oxford that).
Since then, several (or maybe even more) things have happened, including marriage, kids, a beagle, a couple of houses, a cottage and maybe the odd Castle Milk Stout here and there.
Nothing special planned today to celebrate – maybe just an early night, given the lack of sleep this week.
But hey: here’s to the next 21.
As a scientist, I have written a lot of stuff which is detailed, well referenced, and (I think, at least) explains things in a straightforward, step-by-step manner which can be understood by the layperson. Sometimes, I write them on the blog. Like this, maybe. However, recently, those sort of posts have been few and far between. They take a lot of research and effort and this blog is something of a hobby for me, not a job. I simply don’t have the time to lob out 2,000 words on stuff very regularly. I’m sure this is a relief to some of you and a bit of an annoyance to others, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles, much to the beagle’s delight.
Other people do write stuff for a living though, and so I’m going to piggy back on a really well-researched, really nicely written post here today. It’s from Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE), which is a sceince communication website:
Providing a direct line of “translated” public health science to you.
And they do exactly that: cutting through the big words and the jargon…
Scientists, Engineers, Lawyers and, most of all, Medical Doctors have been using unnecessary terminology to maintain their lofty positions in society for years. I hate it. One of the most important things I have learnt during my career is that presentations, explanations, even informal chats about work and technical stuff should always be pitched according to one’s audience. Sure, chat to the Prof about Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase producing Gram Negative Bacilli, call them ESBLs – he’ll understand. But when you’re explaining it to your mum, call them “superbugs” – and then she’ll understand too. Otherwise you’re wasting your time.
…to give a easy to understand – and so a useful and easy to learn from! – version of what’s happening in public health at the moment.
And that’s exactly what Kristen Panthagani has done here.
[PDF mirror here for anyone struggling with the Substack website]
She describes in intimate detail and open, honest language why Trump’s health policies – in the hands of the loony RFK Jr. – are based on inconsistencies and nonsense, and the huge and very real costs of getting this sort of thing wrong. Which they are clearly doing.
It’s a really great read with fundamental concepts which apply to so many other of the dodgy internet health cowboys and grifters plaguing us out there, and I’d fully encourage you to take a few minutes out to read through it and follow some of the links which support her watertight case.
I’d write more of this sort of thing if I could.
For the moment, though, please enjoy someone else’s fine work.
This really – really – isn’t an Elon Musk blog, but imagine my surprise, given his appearance on here yesterday, and then his… er… “appearance” at the Presidential Inauguration overnight, to find his dentist on Geoguessr today:
In Israel of all places, nogal. I did… Nazi that coming.
I’m so sorry.
Presumably, those canisters outside are from the weird, alien bloodfluid that keeps him alive when he’s getting a filling done.
Nothing to see here. All perfectly normal. Sugar water. Must find sugar water. Human suit becoming itchy.
The scariest thing about this is it’s not even the scariest thing he did last night.
It’s all rather surreal, and even somewhat amusing until you keep in mind that this is actually real life and it’s actually quite serious.
The next four years – which were already going to be really terrible – have begun even more terribly than we could have imagined.