Moon sighted?

News is coming that the moon has been sighted in Pakistan, shortly after the former science minister gave a statement that it would be scientifically impossible to sight the moon in Pakistan tonight. Rumour has it that the prime minister’s wife, the peerni as she is known, declared that Eid could not be on Friday […]

Moon sighting

Thursday is Eid here in Turkey, and in most of the rest of the world. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the usual nonsense continues. After the triumph of science last year, the science minister and information minister have changed portfolios, and the new minister, a particularly unimpressive son of a great poet, hastily announced that the phases […]

Punching octopuses

There was a social media flurry a few days ago about octopuses that punch fish, seemingly for no reason. Sometimes, it appears, there is a reason. This fascinating article is about octopus hunting parties, where the octopus is a hunter and is accompanied by a motley band of fish who act something like hunting dogs […]

Skeletons

I’m reading a very interesting article in the New Yorker about a pile of skeletons near a lake in the high Himalayas. It’s a curious piece, both rather romantic and occasionally draws me up short, such as with throwaway lines like the following, referring to genetic analyses of ancient bones: Under the scrutiny of science, […]

A new star

It was not turning 40 that has brought home to me how old I am but the fact that is the third time in my lifetime that the revelation of Ophiuchus as a constellation displacing Sagittarius has rocked the world. Truly there is nothing new under the sun. Speaking of which – this was a […]

Ring of fire

What a triumphant day today was, the day of the eclipse. This was an annular eclipse, on the day of the solstice, with a long but very narrow band of totality which happened to pass through Chiayi, the town from which went to Alishan a couple of months ago. Though knowing of course that the […]

Note of caution

The newspapers and so on have been getting over-excited about the BCG, and I had also started to hope it was true, for all my ‘it’s population, not individual’ muttering at family members who sent the pre-print of the study. So here is the note of caution.

Smoke and ash

Yesterday, as I was sitting glumly staring at my computer, my father decided to have harmal done. This is a hallucinogenic plant that is burned as a folk remedy for allergies. A small brazier was taken from room to room, and the ground seeds cast upon it to fill the house with a pall of […]

The dangers of the internet

I went to visit someone quite elderly and we had a cup of tea. When the lid of the sugarbowl was lifted underneath, instead of sugar, were packets of Splenda. This was not particularly surprising. What was surprising was that also in the bowl was a sprinking of long freshly plucked leaves. I enquired, learned […]