Personal Blogs

“I shall bequeath you my piano”, said Ludwig grandly.

...a maths website and was amused to read at the bottom

You are visitor N+1, where N is the number of visitors before you.

Were α, β, γ, δ... the Runes of Athens?

This afternoon 'Moonraker' popped into my head. I don't have the slightest idea why. It's book by Ian Fleming and a subsequent film, but I can't remover anything about either.

But then because the air is always full of wordplay, I instantly thought of 'Runemaker'. Does such a work exist? So I went to check and the good news is that there are least two books with that title, which I found rather pleasing.

Here's something I learned about only last week

The Romans built fish ponds by the sea. [1] Constructed of masonry, they were holding tanks to provide wealthy owners of seaside villas, and perhaps commercial fishmongers too, with access to fresh fish. As the shallow Mediteranean tide (only a few centimetres) rose and fell the water in the tanks was refreshed via a system of sluices. These ponds are mentioned by Columella, writing sometime in the first century CE.

We consider that incomparably the best Fish-pond is one which is so situated that the incoming tide of the sea expels the water of the previous tide and does not allow any stale water to remain within the enclosure. [1]

A number of these tanks have survived in amazingly good condition and are still more or less at sea level, showing the latter has not changed a lot in 2000 years.

This tells us something important, because in the last two decades sea level has been rising at about 3 mm a year [3] and accelerating. If this had been going on for the last 2000 years the fishponds would be under 6 m of water by now. The fact that they aren't indicates that the current rate of incease in sea level is something that has just developed very recently. If it had been going for even as long as 200 years the fishponds would still be under a foot of water.

So something has been happening quite recently that has made the seas rise by an unprecedented amount.

[1] https://harvardmagazine.com/2016/08/what-roman-ruins-rev

[2] Columella, On agriculture, trans. Forster and Heffner

[3] https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/climate-change-evidence-causes/question-14/

Q. Why does Father Christmas feel great when he wakes up?

A. Because he's on the top of the world!

Abstract = Boring manual about braking systems

Collage = Art school

Easel = Decapitated weasel

Engrave = Outcome of road crossing

Impasto = P's up next

Picture = I selected you

Pigment = Hog's intention

Portrait = Harbour fees

Salon = Continue sailing

Watercolour = That hue is awesome!

Mysteriously

In rough wind the plum blossom

Still hangs on somehow.

Convalescence. Get over it.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Please welcome: Mrs and Mr Less, and their talented son Maurice.

I wondered why so many people were jumping on my wagon. Turns out it had been banned.

And when we've been, and gone, we still won’t know

What does it mean to be, or what it means to go.