Edge Done

Microsoft have updated its browser, Edge. It says, inter alia:

“When you use InPrivate browsing, your browsing data (like cookies, browsing history, and passwords) isn’t saved on your device after you’re done.”

I think they mean:

“When you use InPrivate browsing, your browsing data (like cookies, browsing history, and passwords) are not saved on your device after you have finished.”

It is pity that “updated” so often means “dumbed down”. And anyway, I do not like the idea of

Unmasking

The lack of common sense exhibited by computerised machines (or more exactly, the algorithms that direct them) might be either infuriating, or amusing, according, I guess, to your mood.

The day before yesterday, the Telegraph put up an interesting and informative comment piece by my daughter Annabel: The truth about Asia’s face mask obsession. The general drift of the piece was that the ubiquity of facemasks being worn in public these days in Asia has got nothing much to do with any sound health reason. Indeed, they are generally useless or worse in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. Rather, there are cultural reasons why people in Asia like to wear them.

The Telegraph, like other newspapers, derives income from advertising, and I was amused to see that the advertisement that was put up bang next to Annabel’s article was advertising – you can probably guess what’s coming here – surgical face masks for purchased by the general public.

Something similar happens in the blogosphere. Readers of these pages might note that

Weighting

Whilst waiting for the medical profession to provide me with a new hip in the New Year, I have been a lot less active than usual, which has unsurprisingly led to my putting on a bit of weight.

There seem to be two major drawbacks to going on a diet.  The first is that diets are unpleasant, leaving one hungry and/or having to eat ghastly food. The second is that they rarely work in the long term.

I am trying a fasting diet, of sorts. No dinner. The idea is that I can have what I like for breakfast and lunch, but then at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the shutter comes down: nothing to eat or drink except water until the next morning.

Obviously, this is good, in that I’m not required to eat raw carrots, lettuce or fish sticks. Surprisingly, after several days on this regime, it is not nearly as annoying as one might think. Ordinarily

Silence and Tears

Dipping into Byron is a mixed pleasure. There is a lot of pointless guff that is barely better than doggerel, and then there are some jewels. The other day I came upon this bitter-sweet poem (well, it is like a song lyric, really), which I had not read for many years, and had forgotten. I could set it to music. Except that the last time I did that – to We’ll No More Go A-Roving – Leonard Cohen promptly copied me with his own version.  Well, it is too late for him to do the same with this one:

When we two parted
   In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
   To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
   Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
   Sorrow to this.

Recent thoughts

 

For various reasons, I have not posted so much recently. But I have a couple of moments now, and here are some recent thoughts:

Rain

We at the beginning g of September now, towards the end of the rainier winter on the Fleurieu Peninsula, but neither my rainwater tanks nor my dam (“Loch Phenelry”) are yet full.

If my croquet lawn is to flourish over the summer, I need some more rain.

Hong Kong

Ever since the British government handed back (unnecessarily, in my view) Hong Kong to the Chinese, Hong Kong was doomed. Without any pleasure in saying so at all, I fear the protesters have no real prospect of succeeding. Hong Kong used to be a colony of the British, but was free, in that the government did pretty much what the people wished for, even though there were no elections. Now and for the foreseeable future, it is a colony of the Chinese, and not free: now the government does what the Chinese want.

Forbidden Fruit

For many people, that which is forbidden is all the more delicious.

For me, as for many other people, the best fruit is knowledge. There is a delight in

Soaking rich

You would need to be seriously, seriously rich to want to spend $49,157 for a bath.

It does not even come with taps. They are

Water in a Cage

Bushfire is a real risk in Australia, and one of the rules is that when you are cutting the grass in a paddock, you’re supposed to have water on hand. So that if the blades hit a stone and create a spark, and if that spark starts igniting the dry grass, you can put it out straight away. Before it grows into a proper bushfire.

Until this week, this was a challenge because, although I have a perfectly adequate 12 litre sprayer, there is nowhere to carry it on my Toro zero turn Timecutter.

However, my friend Jeff, who knows how to do lots of things, including welding, has for a modest price knocked up a lovely cage which slots onto the back of my machine.

So now I can

No Escape

Some cats are escape artists, but Antigone Victoria Powderpaws (Tiggy) appears to be the exact opposite.

So far, she has got herself stuck

• in the Girls’ Dorm
• in the larder (twice)
• outside
• in the pan cupboard
• inside the grandfather clock.

This last one was the most remarkable. She had to open the door before being able to climb in.

It is not entirely obvious what goes on inside

Hat Trick

I sometimes attempt The Times crossword puzzle. Sometimes I finish it; more often I do not. So I was quite pleased to finish each of the last three days’ puzzles.

Some people think they are a waste of time. On one analysis, of course, they are. But there are so many divergent problems in the world: it does seem to be soothing to solve a convergent problem from time to time.

27181 was moderate. I had to look in the dictionary to see that HERDWICK is a sort of sheep. 27182 was not too bad. 27183 was really quite hard, I thought. If I ever knew, I had forgotten that BASEBAND is a technical term for a radio frequency. I had to check an atlas to see that ORAN is a North African city. And I needed the dictionary again to see that to TORREFY something is to dry it.

It is possible to do these puzzles on line.  But I print them out, partly because

Animal Games

The animals have been playing a new game: “What Shall We Do with a Champagne Cork?”

I throw the cork. If Perdita gets it, she dances around the lawn, throwing the cork up in the air in delight like a killer whale does with a seal. Only rather less dramatic. Obviously. After a while, she gives it back, so that we can do it again.

If Merlin gets it (he is remarkably nimble on his feet), he lies on it, and pretends to have nothing to do with the game at all. “Cork? What cork? I haven’t seen it”.

It is a much better game than “Eat the Spoon”. For that, they operate as a tag team. Merlin jumps up onto the kitchen benchtop, finds a wooden spoon and pushes it off down onto the floor. Perdita then eats it.