My girlfriend has a book of limericks, which has been entertaining me recently. A few gems (starting with a metalimerick):

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

A rocket explorer named Wright
Once travelled much faster than light.
He set off one day
in a relative way
And returned on the previous night.

In a notable family called Stein
There’s Gertrude, there’s Ep, and there’s Ein.
Gert’s poems are bunk,
Ep’s statues are junk,
And no-one can understand Ein.

There was a young lawyer called Rex,
who was sadly deficient in sex;
Arraigned for exposure,
He said with composure:
“De minimis non curat lex”

My best photos at Max Hammond Photos.
More of my photography on Flickr.
Stock Photography at Alamy

So I’ve taken the plunge and begun learning to make reeds for oboe. I ordered a beginner’s kit from Howarth (upgraded the knife to a dual blade swiss army thing made by Wenger) and spent most of yesterday binding and scraping. My binding’s not bad; nothing leaks. And I worked out how to scrape, but developing the skill to be able to make reeds reliably is something that will take some time. I read somewhere that after about 1000 of them I might know what I’m doing. 2 down, 998 to go…

Writing about: Sussex VC reprimanded in Commons report

A senior chemist with close links to Sussex told THES: “Remarkably the biologists, medics and biochemists have agreed to forgo the investment in new academic posts that they had been promised to allow the funds to be transferred to rebuild chemistry.”

The chemists don’t want to merge, the biologists want to save chemistry, the RSC is spitting vitriol and now a commons select comittee is giving the VC a good kicking too.

Don’t misunderstand the situation: the future for many chemistry departments is not good, but Sussex should not be one of them.

Now, I’m not normally a fan of strings, but:

Writing about: Europe diary: Feudal power

Mark Mardell has an excellent description of the interaction of the various organs of the EU – the full thing is well worth a read if you have a moment.

I spent about 17 years covering British politics, so it’s not surprising that people often ask me how the politics of Brussels and Westminster compare.

It is too early to make a proper judgement as I have spent a lot of time just getting my head around the system, and how the institutions relate to each other. My starting premise was their unique nature. But on reflection I’ve changed my mind.

I think now you can understand the EU’s institutions by imagining a feudal power of the early Middle Ages. The European Commission is the King and his court, the Council of Ministers is the House of Lords and the European Parliament is the House of Commons.

Writing about: Wired News: The Wikipedia FAQK

Well, Wikipedia exists in a state of quantum significance flux. It’s simultaneously a shining, flawless collection of incontrovertible information, and a debased pile of meaningless words thrown together by uneducated lemurs with political agendas. It simply cannot exist in any state between these two extremes. You can test this yourself by expressing a reasonable opinion about the site in any public space. Whatever words you type, they will be interpreted by readers as supporting one of these two opposing views.

I like the idea of wikipedia. Really. But this piece by Lore Sjöberg really sums it up well…

Eeeeek!

My best photos at Max Hammond Photos.
More of my photography on Flickr.
Stock Photography at Alamy

More back catalogue. It’s hard to believe that this was almost a year ago already.

My best photos at Max Hammond Photos.
More of my photography on Flickr.

It’s funny how sometimes different contexts bump into each other. I’m at home, finishing my PhD thesis, and now I’ve got an easter egg (just the same as I’ve had for as long as I can remember), sitting on my desk next to letters telling me that I’m going to need to fill in tax returns, bookings for flights so I can go and visit my girlfriend, keys for my department. It’s all a bit confusing really.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pieran spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again. – Alexander Pope