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A personal weblog with photographs and comments. Quiet ramblings, quite rambling...

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Answers.com discuss the measurement of time:

The origins of our current measurement system go back to the Sumerian civilization of approximately 2000 BC. This is known as the Sumerian Sexagesimal System based on the number 60. 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour - and possibly a calendar with 360 (60x6) days in a year (with a few more days added on). Twelve also features prominently, with roughly 12 hours of day and 12 of night, and 12 months in a year.

A large variety of devices have been invented to measure time. The study of these devices is called horology.

An Egyptian device dating to c.1500 BCE, similar in shape to a bent T-square, measured the passage of time from the shadow cast by its crossbar on a non-linear rule. The T was oriented eastward in the mornings. At noon, the device was turned around so that it could cast its shadow in the evening direction.

A sundial uses a gnomon to cast a shadow on a set of markings which were calibrated to the hour. The position of the shadow marked the hour in local time. Pliny the Elder records that the first sundial in Rome was looted from Catania, Sicily (264 BCE), which gave the incorrect time for a century, until the markings appropriate for the latitude of Rome were used (164 BCE). Noontime was an event which could be marked by the time of the shortest shadow on a sundial. This was used in Rome to judge when a court of law was open; lawyers had to be at the court by that time.

Wikipedia has a more interesting definition of time itself:

There are two distinct views on the meaning of time.

One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence, and time itself is something that can be measured. This is the realist’s view, to which Sir Isaac Newton subscribed, and hence is sometimes referred to as Newtonian time.

A contrasting view is that time is part of the fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and number). Within this structure, humans sequence events, quantify the duration of events and the intervals between them, and compare the motions of objects. In this second view, time does not refer to any kind of entity that “flows”, that objects “move through”, or that is a “container” for events. This view is in the tradition of Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant, in which time, rather than being an objective thing to be measured, is part of the measuring system used by humans.

Interestingly, large chunks of the text of both entries are electronic carbon copies.

Meanwhile, according to Newsweek:

China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is “an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation.”

You couldn’t make that up.

These guys seem to get around - here they are in Southall, London.  Ironically, for a company that is named after a word meaning a large tillage plot (of land) they seem to be obsessed with digging up the land all over the place.

I’ve been reading the Chronology of Waste via ChickYog. If you look at nothing else, check the graph three-quarters of the way down.

Today the old man was in London, unveiling a statue of himself in Parliament Square. Zefrog was there and posts some photos of the event on Flickr.

The photograph above is from earlier in the year when Graça Machel (pictured with her husband) was awarded an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University in South Africa.

This is a story from about three weeks ago, but I had forgotten about it until earlier today.  The above photograph shows a billboard which announces that the Sevenoaks Chronicle, one of our local rags, is covering a new twist in a “sex debate row in Oxted”.  Not knowing that there had been a sex debate row in the first place (let alone the new twist) I went online to find the story. It turns out that the row concerns a leaflet that was stocked in our local bookshop, Paydens (pictured below).


The “new twist” can only be the news that the bookshop no longer stocks the leaflet, entitled The Outrage of Immoral Sex, which summarises the aims of sex education in schools, saying:

It is not difficult to see that sex education is a weapon in the hands to those who are promoting a revolution against God’s standard of sexual behaviour.

Our children and grandchildren are the targets of a massive state-sponsored propaganda campaign against Biblical morality.

Oh dear.  It seems that person behind the leaflet is a member of the right-wing group Christian Watch. For examples of their modus operandi, see here.  They were one of the groups that objected to the GPA advertisement linking homophobia to Christians (a complaint which was largely upheld).

Meet Griff quotes Doctor Seuss’s Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? in his comment on those who feel “called by God” to watch over the rest of us naughty people. If these groups object so strongly to being associated with homophobia then why don’t they ever bring out pamphlets attacking bullying and homophobia in our schools as being “unChristian”?

Original:

Spoof:

I don’t want to belittle the real risks of stranger danger, but it is known that:

the number of so-called “stranger” killings of children in England and Wales has remained stable for about 30 years ...
[And] it skews the public debate away from the area of greatest risk to children, which has always been the home and those relationships forged in innocence, with baby-sitters, teachers, sports coaches and so on.

The other immediate thing that came to mind when looking at the sign above was: “Why the dog”?

Meanwhile, with reminders of a schoolboy joke, the rings around Uranus are currently aligned with earth - a once every 42 year event.

This is the view over the chalk cliff down to the sea below: the final view of many. Link: Home Truth’s interview with Keith Lane.

Keith Lane is a window cleaner from Eastbourne and his wife Maggie died a year and a half ago, she was suffering from depression and committed suicide by jumping off of Beachy Head .

A week after her death, whilst visiting the spot where his wife died, he saved a women from jumping.

Since then he has been visiting the beauty spot regularly to try and stop other people from dying the same way. He talks to Paul about Maggie and why he’s keeping his own ‘suicide watch’.

Thanks to Keith and other volunteers, the numbers were down last year.

What you saw:


What I saw:


I have a huge selection of these, after swapping photographs with my colleague after the walk on Sunday.

The following Reader Offer at the Guardian is amusing, but it’s a good cause. Plus it could easily be a hot and dry summer next year again.

With the prospect of another hot and dry summer, it’s time to start collecting precious rainwater now to help guard against possible water shortages. Most garden plants prefer rainwater to chemically treated tap water and there is the added benefit that it is free!

It’s been a while since I posted something along these lines, so here goes. From top left clockwise: (1) What you saw (2) What I saw (3) What you saw (4) What I saw. 

This collage could also be subtitled The Seven Sisters Walk.

This is the view back across the Seven Sisters from Birling Gap to Cuckmere Haven in the distance. I walked the Seven Sisters (along the top of the cliffs) today with two friends from work. Although the skies were ominous (at times) we were spared any rain.  The Wikipedia article points to the fact that Birling Gap is advertised by Naturist UK.  On their website they state that

Birling Gap made the news recently because local residents are campaigning for work to be undertaken to protect their properties from the on-going coastal erosion, while the National Trust feel that nature should be left to take its course.

Birling Gap is National Trust land.

Links: Save the Gap campaign, Birling Gap History (also a pro-revetement website, a BBC News article on Birling Gap and coastal erosion, and English Nature on the case for allowing nature to take its course.

Another flower spotted while at the recent family gathering in the park. This doesn’t seem to be a common UK thistle, and I was told that it was a Medetteranean thistle. We tend to think of the thistle as being a Scottish native, but it seems there are many varieties, some even found in Jordan as this picture shows. 

According to the Wildflowers and Weeds website, thistles are in the “sunflower family” (and the “artichoke tribe"). These terms don’t sound very scientific, but here’s what the site says:

The Asters are the largest family of flowering plants in the northern latitudes, with 920 genera and 19,000 species found worldwide, including 346 genera and 2,687 species in the U.S. and Canada. Only the Orchid family is larger, but it is mostly restricted to the tropics.

Many species of the Aster family are cultivated as ornamentals, including Marigold, Chrysanthemum, Calendula, and Zinnia. Surprisingly few are cultivated as food plants other than lettuce, artichoke, endive, plus the seeds and oil of the sunflower.

The Aster family consists of two subfamilies. The Dandelion subfamily includes a variety of plants with dandelion-like flowers. The ray flowers typically over-lap all the way to the center. The petals have strap-like, parallel edges with squared-off ends. The stems and leaves of all species have milky juice, and all are edible, but bitter. Bitter substances like dandelion greens are helpful as an appetizer to stimulate digestive secretions before the main meal. Eating your dandelions can help reduce problems with indigestion later. Keep in mind that there are many other plants with milky juice that are not related to Dandelions, including some that are poisonous. Be sure to check the blossoms for proof.

The Aster subfamily is much larger, made up of eleven tribes, some of them radically different from the others. Thistles and knapweed are found in the Artichoke tribe.

The Chamomile tribe includes the most aromatic members of the Aster family, such as sagebrush, yarrow, tansy, and of course, chamomile. As a kid I encountered many different species of sage (Artemisia). There are 19 species just in Montana. But without a patterns approach to go by, I didn’t have a clue where to start, so I brought each specimen to the university herbarium for identification. These days, when I see a new fuzzy green-gray plant, I immediately crush a leaf and smell it to test for a sage-type smell. Each species smells different, but there is a common pattern to the smell that is undeniably sage-like.

The photo at the site which most resembles the specimen of thistle that I photographed is labelled Cirsium vulgare or Bull Thistle, which is “an imported invasive weed from Eurasia”.  However the site is based in the USA, so this classification should not been seen as a comment on the flower selection skills of the gardening team of Southwark Park.

According to today’s Friends of the Earth Tip:

The number of disposable products is on the increase - for example plastic razors, cups, paper towels, wipes, nappies, plastic bags - even disposable cameras. These generally involve the consumption of more resources and energy than the reusable alternative. Try to avoid disposables, and choose a less wasteful alternative.

This is an important point, and one which Laura made earlier this year in a comment on this blog. Recycling is an expensive activity: better to consume less in the first place!

The angle of the bee on the flower is a bit unreal.  If I had painted this you would have thought it was badly done. I’ve been out two nights in a row now (last night and tonight) and don’t have the energy to write a decent post.

For the second day in a row this is the scene that greeted me when I arrived at my client’s site this morning.

Now we are getting some rain we should all be collecting it in water butts. Not having one yet I am gathering the rain on the trampoline and siphoning it to my vegetables. The trampoline has recently been used by the birdlife as a ‘bath’.

Found in the so-called “Rose Garden” in Southwark Park