Bah Humbug

...is the correct expression for anyone living in a house of disorder, which ours is by the way. So Bah humbug.

We had our bedroom plastered, the last room in the house to be done after three years of living here. So the entire contents of the bedroom are distributed about the house, we are sleeping in the front room until the room is ready to move back in (spent tonight applying a coat of paint) and much of the house has that annoyingly fine layer of pinkish dust that inevitably follows a plastering job.

On the upside, we've replaced all the radiators with nice modern efficient ones to match the nice modern green boiler (it's white, but you get the idea) so the house has never been warmer, and the chickens are all laying daily, so we have three eggs a day to deal with - see earlier post about 100 things to do with an egg.

Which doesn't link to anything I've stumbled on lately, so here for your enjoyment is an oddly addictive challenge - How Fast Can You Type The Alphabet? I have managed a sluggish 6.06 seconds, Girl has done 8.17, which has led me to believe I need to curtail her computer time as this is disgustingly fast for a ten year old. Wifey plodded to a risible 13.5 seconds, but will be the first to confess she can't type. Girl and I were second and third.

http://playfreeonlinegames.eu/playonline/typethealphabet.html

One of my all time science heroes was Stephen Jay Gould, a professor of palaeontology at Harvard, and so much more to those who were touched by his incredible life. Gould was a huge influence in my young zoological career, and the man who really turned me on to evolution theory through his essays and papers (On The Origin of Species may well be the "bible" for evolution theory, but makes a very dull read).

The real reason he is my hero though is that whilst being one of the most prolific science writers of his generation, he made time to respond to the childish letter sent by a Nottingham undergraduate asking him why men had nipples. The thoughtful and uncritical note he sent back remains one of my most treasured possessions.

However what first switched me on to SJG was the titles he generated for his books and writings. Whilst most scientists would publish "A study of arthropod timelines in the cambrian to precambrian fossil record" (feel the eyelids drooping?), the first SJG paper I read revelled in the title "The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: A critique of the adaptationist programme". And the content matched the title, using the shapes in a cathedral roof and the ranting optimism of a Voltaire character to form a well reasoned argument about pre-adaptation in evolution theory.

SJG died in 2002, but he lives on in his work. I have a shelf of his books (actually, a box in the loft since we moved) but stumbling across this website has prompted me to dig them out and re-read the lot.

And yes, he even made it onto the Simpsons.

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/