AGED AQUARIUS

We have a water problem. We are not to use the tap water for drinking, cooking, nor brushing our teeth. Apparently the water treatment plant has found high levels of aluminum in the water and has put out notices over the web and by pamphlet with instruction not to consume.

With texts flying back and forth word of this got around very quickly! Duncan, our brickie, got a text from his wife and he informed us! Neighbours popped in and out of houses all around us checking that folk had heard. Our immediate neighbours were down at our local sports centre and were told by the management. So all in all, quite good information. Why this has occurred? It's all a bit of a puzzle...

The supermarket quickly emptied of bottled water so we were left wondering what to do as we are not sure how long this is going to go on. (We recall about 5 years ago we had our water supply contaminated with diesel and it was nearly a week before the situation was successfully resolved.)

But Iain has turned out to be the Water-Carrier Hero of the Hour! He came up with the bright idea of going down to the boat which is on a pontoon in Bowling (5 miles away) and has a stand-pipe with plenty of water and, more importantly, not in the affected area. So he arrived home with our boat water containers full to the brim with lovely fresh water!

(Actually a big problem has been trying to determine if one is, indeed, in the affected area but this problem was solved by finding an excellent map on the water suppliers' website. Anne said they did not get notification; it turned out they are supplied by a different water treatment works. One could also search by postal code which helps a lot.)

Now it must be remembered that we have a Big Tap in the Sky so tonight I am going to put out a saucepan or 2 to catch some rain water. (However it is a clear night. I went out to see the state of the moon as tomorrow is the day there is to be a particularly special perigee, of the moon, i.e. close to the earth and hence appears larger.)

In the meantime one does one's best...! Like Marie Antoinette with "Let them eat cake" I guess some of us will just have to drink whisky!

TOODLE LOO

Midst the large flakes of snow falling this morning a vehicle arrived to take away the chemical toilet that has graced the front of our house all winter. This was for the use of the various builders and workmen who have been our 'guests' for the last 3 months.

It had become a rather fetching garden feature on this street where all the houses look the same. It even had its own rakish angle perched 'neath the front-of-house window... like the Leaning Tower of Pisa... or should that be Pee-sa?

Hooray! It's away! Duncan arrived to build the wall in the sit-ootery in the back garden and finish the front steps. Gradually the jobs are finishing and the place is getting back to normal. Time to toast the beginning of the end of all the building work!

JAPAN: STRUCTURES THAT SURVIVED

The earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan continue to shock us as we are presented with the TV news images along with phone and video images of the event.

One of the images is a video of tall buildings in Tokyo swaying. They did not collapse. It is here. (Look at the gap opening between the buildings as they move.)

Amazing! A miracle? Why? Well, I put it to you: there is a reason and here is one case in point (oops... that's a pun):

In the early days of Iain's civil engineering career his subject area of research was Tall Buildings. We are talking of the 1960s and 1970s.

His work involved looking at this type of building, Ronan Point (London). In 1968 there was a gas explosion which demolished a load bearing wall causing the collapse of one entire corner of the building. The structure had been constructed from prefabricated concrete panels bolted together like a giant meccano set.

Analysis of tall buildings was his subject area and over the years he wrote books on this topic and then wrote on more general topics to do with modern structural analysis.

Here is exactly what we are talking about (written in the late 60s when in Chicago):

This Portland Cement Association book is here.

And he still working on the topic.: these books (hardback above and paperback below) are available from either the publisher here or his own website here.

A TRIBE OF PHILOSOPHERS

Every Thursday morning I try to listen to the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time hosted by Melvyn Bragg. It is repeated later in the evening and also is available as a podcast here so I seldom miss its erudite discussion.

The topic yesterday was Free Will and there were 3 philosophers contributing:

Simon Blackburn, Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge
Helen Beebee, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham
Galen Strawson, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading


Melvyn Bragg writes a newsletter after the programme. One nugget from the many:

There were "some wonderful quotations. Simon Blackburn quoted from Schopenhauer, who suggested that imagining we have free will is exactly as if water spoke to itself: I can make waves (yes! in the sea during a storm), I can rush downhill (yes! in the river bed), I can plunge down foaming and gushing (yes! in the waterfall), I can rise freely as a stream of water into the air (yes! in the fountain), I can, finally, boil away and disappear (yes! at a certain temperature); but I am doing none of these things now, and am of my own accord remaining quiet and clear water in the reflecting pond."

"Einstein wrote: If the moon, in the act of completing its eternal way around the earth, were gifted with self-consciousness, it would feel thoroughly convinced that it was travelling its way of its own accord on the strength of a resolution taken once and for all. Darwin wrote of the great delusion of free will."

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Photos by John A:
[1] Top - Canisp from Elfin (north-west Scotland) in December 2005
[2] Bottom - North Harris (Outer Hebrides) taken at the weekend