I invented a dangerous new razor; Arthur’s Razor. It’s sharp and it’ll make your hair curl.
It’s a brain teaser for the future, place your bets and remember, everyone’s a winner.
Is it better to know life’s changed but to feel the same or for life to stay the same but to feel different.
Please think about it carefully.
Robert David Jackson
Good evening, it’s 6pm here and I’m feline good at the moment and in the mood to write something a bit off beat which may interest one or two of you, particularly if you like music and have pets.
For no particular reason I remembered an article I read yonks ago that stated that cats and dogs can like some human music but not all genres and found that some excellent recent research had recently been done by the University of Wisconsin.
What Kind of Music Do Cats Like? What Science Says – Catster
The research suggested that cats didn’t like Bach’s Air on a G String.
Frankly it’s a beautiful bit of music but listening to it I came to the conclusion that the multiple violins are way too high pitched for a cat to enjoy: cats screech when they’re in distress and purr when they’re relaxed.
So then I wondered whether a cello soloist (cats are generally solitary) was more to a cats taste and found the following piece of Bach’s music.
But here is the bit where I lay claim to being a smart arse, The University of Wisconsin researchers asked a composer to come up with music that cats like and here are the results.
Home | Music for Cats | David Teie
Notice the similarity?
So pussy lovers don’t ban Bach, ban the violence of the violin.
And here’s one for dog lovers, Pennywise over Pink Floyd.
That’s my own suggestion
Finally I’m going to go really left field and suggest that a lazy lion might get that bit more lively and hungry with a bit of old school drum ‘n’ base or maybe some proper thrash metal.
I reckon this set at Wacken would wake ’em.
It’s no surprise this plastic cockney has spent the best part of 15 years in the UK’s knackered mental health system.
Not just cities, but towns and cities in new countries I either haven’t visited or haven’t visited in decades.
Back in my 20’s and 30’s I did a lot of sailing and lived on my own small yacht in the Mediterranean for 5 years which I thoroughly enjoyed.
At the age of 53 and possibly having a mid life crisis along with some other trauma and life changing and possibly affirming events over the last couple of years I have decided I would like to sail again while the spirit is willing and the flesh just about up to it too.
This time I thought I’d like to see more of the UK, Europe’s Atlantic coastline and the Baltic. Writing this post I’ve even thought of a potential route, weather, winds and tides permitting: from the UK down to the Channel Islands, across to Brittany, north to the Baltic and then eventually back via the Shetlands. There seem to be so many fantastic and beautiful old towns on this route and sailing is a cheap and efficient way to see them (as long as you don’t get too scared or seasick).
I’ve even started looking for boats that would be suitable and found the below one, the Vindo 40. They’re beautiful boats and very seaworthy, unsurprising having been built in Sweden, but they’re not the only type I’d consider as long as it can cope with the odd gale.
Adios, aggravation
Good morning globe, todays missive from the massive comes all the way from a different Angle (me!).
I am going to make an argument that vitiligo (light patches on the skin) is not an illness at all, it is a useful evolutionary adaptation that occurs due to the global climate’s tendency to change naturally over time.
Firstly, the sun’s rays are essential in helping us produce and regulate a number of vitamins and hence hormones in the body, ask yourself why English people go red and then tan on the Costa Del sol and why you notice the black people in western society with white patches on their face and hands (known as vitiligo).
I then looked up whether there was a connection between vitiligo and depression (I expected to find a positive answer and did). The point is it’s hard to work out whether this is caused by psychological factors (it makes you stand out and look different) or the condition itself.
But then maybe it’s just the body’s way of adapting to a changed or changing climate and actually should be left untreated and celebrated as just a natural and healthy part of who you are and not considered an illness at all and covered up, maybe the increased sun exposure from having lighter skin could be your body simply telling you it’s happier this way and producing more feel good dopamine from vitamin D.
NO ONE DIES FROM VITILIGO.
Ask yourself why having freckles is cute and vitiligo is ugly? I don’t see the difference, neither of them are a problem.
WARNING: I am not a medical professional, scientist or nutritionist: please do not act on any of my posts carelessly if you suffer from any sort of diagnosed mental health condition without speaking to professionals first.
I’m going to start this post with a link to a youtube video from Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University which touches on the topic of this post; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
If you find this post of any interest I recommend watching up to the point when he moves on to diabetes, it’s not so long and in my opinion Dr. Sapolsky is really quite brilliant and engaging.
I started thinking about OCD because I can recognise traits of the disorder in myself, although I manage to reconcile myself with them in that they don’t seem to cause me any real harm. I am a bit of a hoarder, I have around 5,000 music CD’s, but then music is a big part of my life and may be related to the need for sensory stimulus stemming from being on the autistic spectrum and I collect art and ceramics which may also be linked.
At first when watching Dr. Sapolsky I started wondering whether there was an evolutionary reason for human OCD and it seems a reasonable argument.
My theory was that the OCD trait may be more prevalent in those people whose ancestors were either in occupations that required a lot of discipline and/or who lived in environments where survival itself was often precarious.
Thinking about the ancestors I know about, on my father’s side there were small tenant farmers, a fairly long history of forces men and women and coal miners and servants. All occupations that would have needed and expected strong discipline.
There is quite likely Jewish ancestry on my mother’s side although I don’t know of any obviously Jewish names as far back as I have gone, but once again this is a group which has often lived precariously as a minority amongst frequently hostile populations. That may have led to a desire to accumulate for safety and security – a way of buying yourself out of trouble if need be.
But watching Dr. Sapolsky’s video he talks about religiosity and learned behaviour as being driven by the amygdala and I wondered, once again, whether there weren’t dietry changes which may help me control my impulsive tendency to accumulate things I know I don’t really need.
A quick internet search revealed that the main neutoransmitters active in the amygdala are glutamate ones and inhibitory GAMA ones and the vitamin or vitamins that affect these: vitamin B6.
That led me on to look for sources of vitamin B6 and I found the site below which is worth a look.
30 Foods High In Vitamin B6 – Nutrition Advance
I wonder then should I be eating more tuna or spinach and then see if I don’t have to buy that shirt in the charity shop that I never really needed in the first place.
I may alienate a few of you with this wisecrack but I’m sure you’ll forgive and forget soon enough.
The Stepford Wives were the only robots where a smaller memory chip improved functionality.
Thinking about it, it’s notable that none of the wives were non-binary!
From sterile to virile to febrile once more in the manner of Neil Armstrong.
We have a problem.
It’s a pretty miserable day here, cold, windy and wet but I still ventured out early this morning to the Sandon boot sale having discovered it was on.
I didn’t expect too much and unsurprisingly there were only about two dozen stalls there today and not so many buyers but I still found some interesting things.
In fact I only bought off the one seller but a number of items. First a couple of pieces of old Royal Crown Derby which I paid £2 for and promptly sold to another stallholder for £6 (I bought him a cup of coffee as a gesture of goodwill).
Next a Royal Doulton Carnation part dinner service in varying condition for £12 (about 40 pieces). I bought this because I already have a dinner service in this pattern but I wanted the bowls. The rest will get sold when I stall out next spring.
But the two things I am most pleased with are here:
The cup and saucer are 19th century Spode and the backstamp dates them to about 1840. The set’s in lovely condition and cost me just £1. It’s joining my collection but if I did decide to sell it I would hope to get £20-£30.
The mug (not me!) is a Royal Doulton King Edward VII coronation cup from 1902 and is also in very good condition. It cost me just 50p. That said it’s not particularly valuable as these were produced in large numbers and I’ll probably add it to my collection until I decide what to do with it.
Do I really need any of this crockery? No; I really need this crockery.
Yes folks it’s time for another potcast, I just can’t stop buying pottery and porcelain of dubious worth because it’s interesting to me (it may be an autistic trait).
Here’s today’s charity shop find (along with some CD’s I’ve been listening to all afternoon).
It’s a little Japanese egg cup (I suppose it could double as a sake cup!) that probably dates from the 1950’s or thereabouts. There’s a few similar for sale on ebay but not too many although they really don’t appear to be particularly sought after looking at prices.
I particularly like the decoration in bold primary colours but now I’ve bought it I’m wondering whether it’s not my eggs that are hard boiled but is in fact my wits that are completely scrambled.
I've Got Summink to Say 
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