(30 January 2021) For me the last weeks of January I always feel a little gloomy. Christmas is over, all the decorations have gone, I have had my birthday and the weather is usually rubbish.
This year is even worse with death stalking the streets, unable to socialise and Brexit biting.
There is hope with the vaccine but it is worrying that there is uncertainty on the best time period for the booster and whether or not the vaccinated can still be infectious. I fear the appearance of the Chicken Theory so that people feel happy with one (though it is not perfect) rather than having the rapid booster.
Also, some joy at the USA electing an ordinary mainstream, slightly kind gentleman rather than the alternative.
My current thought was formed from a recent newspaper headline quoting the Prime Minister that the new Covid variant was “30% more deadly”. Frightening news.
I read the article. It stated that the death rate for old Covid as 10 in 1,000. That is 1%.
The new variant had an estimated death rate of 13 in 1,000. That is 1.3%. Therefore, the death rate has only gone up by 0.3% – concerning but not a cause for panic. Always do the sums.
A resolution for this year is to take at least one photograph every day and I will publish a gallery for each month (if I manage to get galleries working). Below a picture summing up the end of festivities.
The colour changing mug has its last cup of tea before hibernation.
(13 June 2020) Busy week for me as it was my mother’s funeral. It was a shame that the crematorium was bisected by massive power lines.
I am the executor so have to handle all the admin. I went to four banks to do the necessary paperwork and all the staff I dealt with were helpful, professional and kind. So, praise for Co-operative, Nationwide, Santander and Nat West banks. (If bank bots are crawling through this; all based in W5).
While in praising mood I do not normally endorse products. There is a firm who keep emailing me to get various cleaning products to blog about. I fill in the form, give the website details and they never choose me. I am not sure why.
However, I will praise the Mint Magnum which is by far the best of them all. (If Magnum HQ want to send me a crate it will be well received).
Our dog has to take tablets but her paws can not pop them out of the blister pack so I do it and conceal it within the cheapest, most obviously plastic, “ham”. The supermarket had run out and substituted what appeared to be posh air dried etc ham. But the small print said it was made of “Formed Ham”. I wondered what this was.
The internet tells me
First of all the individual meat cuts must stick together and when cooked, retain the shape of the mold without having any holes inside. This is accomplished by producing sticky exudate on the surface of meat pieces. Think of it as glue that binds the individual meat cuts together upon heating. The exudate is formed when the muscle’s cell structure is disrupted which releases protein called myosin. The disrupting of the muscle structure is accomplished by a physical action such as cutting or mechanically working meat pieces inside of the tumbler. For making formed meat products fine cutting or grinding is out of the question and massaging or tumbling is the preferred method. Using mechanical action by itself will tenderize meat but will not produce enough exudate. To release more proteins salt and phosphates are injected to meat prior to tumbling.
In other words, rather than cutting off a pig’s back legs, cooking them and slicing them, (you see these hanging up in delicatessens), they take all sorts of pork flesh lumps, smash them around in a machine (a tumbler) and chemicals so it all sticks together.
I am sure that consuming such products is ok (if pork is included in your diet) however, once again, it is the Chicken Theory in action. The rich will always continue to eat proper slices of pig leg, we delude ourselves by eating the mechanically produced stuff (did you ever wonder what they do with the eyelids?).
Delving into this a little further I discovered that Gammon, also pig’s leg, is sold uncooked. I assumed that this would be ok. Sadly not. The expensive gammon is a whole lump, the cheaper lumps are formed. Thus, even though you cook it yourself it is still mechanically produced.
(5 June 2020) Finally got my new glasses today. I have been without a lens for three months and had a couple of years of imperfect vision. Seeing the world with crystal clarity is a grim experience.
The global epidemic gives an interesting contrast in the way governments operate. Ours, who have been in control for the last ten years and twenty-seven of the last forty, do not seem to be very good.
All governments have to make decisions on structures, systems, taxation and regulation, amongst other things. Ours barely appear competent in doing these even adequately. At the heart of it is the way the elite live in their own bubble and see the world differently to us- leading to the wrong solutions. If this is the Anglo-Saxon model then I despair.
This week’s cause is to join the Ban Disposable Barbecues Campaign.
People rightly complain that fools take them into the countryside and set the area ablaze by accident. I question why people need to cook something if having a nice day out- they can just make their own sandwiches or prepare delicious tasty salads. Even with kwin-oh-hah if desired.
I even see people using them in the local park- where they are specifically proscribed
However, the EVEN MORE shocking thing is that they do not work well at cooking food- not enough heat is generated for long enough. So, you set fire to the wild and give yourself food poisoning.
Is that a good day out? Chicken Theory in action- people pretending to be cavewomen- “being in touch with nature etc”.
Finally, it is disposed of – more litter. Waste and resources thrown away.
This has to go onto my list of Things to Ban.
The nice people at change.org have a petition on this- do sign it.
(28 May 2020) I was pleased that the charge for foreign NHS workers to use the NHS was dropped. An (imaginary) senior source said it was my posting that tipped the balance.
Overshadowing all the important news is the story of Mr Cummings and his behaviour. I have little to add immediately other than to ponder on how many people in this country have a relative with a spare house. I am also outraged that he altered a blog post from a year or so ago to provide evidence for his interesting garden speech in a borrowed white shirt.
I wondered why this occurs, how he, and others, can be so out of touch with reality.
I then reflected on “reality” and perception. I can reveal that it is, probably, like this.
There is actual “reality” as would be seen by an extra planetary observer
Each individual perceives “reality as they think it is“- dependent on their development, upbringing, peer group and eye sight etc.
The latter leads them to seeing “reality as it should be“
It is clear, in my mind, that all individuals have different grasps on “actual reality”.
Politicians are often the most disconnected as they are constantly “spinning” events- to the extent that most actually genuinely believe what they are saying. The Instagram phenomena is another example of people adjusting other people’s perception of their own reality; certainly, perceiving one’s self through self-referencing appears to be on the increase. I await the clever sociologists to explain all this.
Similarly, the Brexiteers pictured a reality of down trodden British people under the thumb of wily foreigners. Sadly the Remain camp did not pitch the reality of sad Brits looking in at the party they could not join but tried to use logic and facts which, though objectively correct, did not chime with the perceived reality of the Leave voters.
How is this relevant to this week’s story?
Mr Cummings, Mr Johnson et al all originate from the narrow upper echelons of society. They both were privately educated (only 7% of the population are) and went to “Oxbridge”- (being part of the 1% who follow this path. To quote from the Social Mobility Commission
“The research finds that power rests with a narrow section of the population – the 7% who attend private schools and 1% who graduate from Oxford and Cambridge. The report reveals a ‘pipeline’ from fee-paying schools through to Oxbridge and into top jobs. 52% of leading figures in some professions, for example, senior judges, came through this pathway, with an average of 17% across all top jobs. 39% of cabinet ministers, at the time of the analysis in Spring 2019, were independently educated. This is in contrast with the shadow cabinet, of which just 9% attended a private school.
Therefore, while I feel no sympathy for their actions the frightening aspect is that they genuinely do not think they have done anything wrong; it does not just compute in their mindset.
It is obvious that reform is required.
Perceptions of reality is something I will return to-it is the Chicken Theory in action.
To cheer me up and thanks to Bridget Riley who created the picture below, showing the fluidity of perception.
(30 March 2020)it has been a couple of depressing weeks as the country locks down. As I take my prescribed compulsory healthy walk I see a jogger at a crossroads. The road is empty but I cannot avoid the impression that at any moment a stumbling horde of the infected will be chasing after him.
I comfort myself
with a healthy but dull salad then make it perfect by piling
mayonnaise all over it which somewhat reduces the healthy eating
cachet.
So I got to thinking about mayonnaise, a delicious product and one where the brand leader is actually the best. However given that the suggested portion size is absurdly minuscule and a sensible one is quite a lot, regular consumption would be an easy route to obesity.
Thus eating the good
stuff should be an occasional treat.
This is a problem
for the manufacturers who would like the public to eat it more
frequently but still be capable of getting off their sofas.
So they invent a “Lite” version (I suspect the universal refusal to spell it properly is indicative of their secret shame) and to make it low in fat churn up several unusual ingredients(defined as ones you won’t have in your food cupboard) See the difference below.
Proper
Version
Inferior
Version
Rapeseed
oil (78%)
Water
Water
Spirit
vinegar
Pasteurised
free range egg and egg yolk (7.9%)
Modified
corn starch
Spirit
vinegar
Sugar
Salt
Pasteurised
free range egg and egg yolk (4.0%)
Sugar
Rapeseed
oil
Lemon
Juice concentrate
Salt
Antioxidant
-calcium disodium EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic
acid)
(as
a medicine it is used to treat lead poisoning and is recognised as
being very safe)
Cream
Powder
Flavourings
Citrus
Fibre
Paprika
extract
Colours
(carotenes, titanium dioxide E171 sourced
from ilmenite, rutile, and anatase
Thickener
(xanthan gum E145 derived
from the fermentation of a bacteria anthomonas
campestris, which also causes black rot on leafy vegetables)
Flavourings
(contain milk)
Preservative
(potassium sorbate E202)
Lemon
juice concentrate
Antioxidant
-calcium disodium EDTA
So this is a perfect example of The Chicken Theory in action- rather than having a nice treat now and again it appears lovely to frequently guzzle on inferior substitutes (and sell a lot more jars).
Everything has to
start somewhere so we start with the Chicken Theory (and a picture of
a tiny kitten to represent beginning).
For several hundred
years chickens were relatively rare and eaten only as a special meal
by the mass of ordinary folk. The wealthy, of course, stuffed
themselves as much as they desired.
Nowadays, we eat as
much as we want. And it is cheap. My regular supermarket (no name no
sponsorship) sells them at £2.07 per kg.
However this is a mutated version of those proud chickens our ancestors ate. Follow the link to read about chicken growth.
However the wealthy
also eat chickens- but not these ordinary ones; my supermarket sells
organic free range ones at £7.45 per kg. -over 300% more expensive.
Thus the Chicken Theory is simply that we happily mimic the behaviour of the wealthy while consuming an inferior product.
