Phenomenological space-time

Someone or something pointed me at an article in the New Scientist recently about our perception of time, on which I shall report in due course, and in which there was a reference to reference 1. For reasons too tedious to go into, I was reading this article in a version which had the text formatting stripped out, which meant that you could neither click on nor expand the reference and it was some time before I tracked it down.

In the course of all this, I was pleased to find that if you send an inquiry about such things to the New Scientist itself, you do get a helpful reply after a day or so. A proper organisation which actually does service the in-boxes of the email accounts which they choose to make public.

The article in question turned out to have appeared in Science, a sort of US equivalent to our 'Nature', published by the AAAS. Now I do have a login with these people, but a free login which does not confer digital access to this particular article and they do not seem to have a buy single article option, in the way of a lot of other magazines. Or even buy a single issue for around $10 option in the way of Scientific American. So what to do?

First thought was that the Royal Institution has runs of scientific journals on their bookshelves. Fairly extensive bookshelves, so perhaps they carry Science. I was just going to pop in, but on this occasion I thought to phone, to learn from a helpful archivist that they do not have a walk-in library any more and that the runs of journals to be seen on the shelves are more by way of décor, part of what you are buying when you hire a meeting room.

Second thought was the Westminster Reference Library behind the National Gallery, which I have used occasionally in the past. Phoned them up to find that they certainly did not carry the actual magazines and that they probably did not have digital access either.

Third thought was one of the libraries at UCL, the website for which suggested member of the public could walk in for around £7.50 a pop. They should carry such a magazine. So off to London to see what I could do.

Off the train at Vauxhall to find no Bullingdon's in the long stand in the tunnel under the tracks, reinforcing the impression that TFL are not putting as much money into them as they were. Reinforcing my irritation that the various competitors are allowed to litter our streets with their cycles.

But there were a few left at New Spring Gardens Walk. So pulled one and off to Westminster and Trafalgar Square to find no spaces in the stand at Willian IV street. But there were a few left in the small stand behind the National Gallery. Journey time of 18 minutes and 57 seconds, well inside the 30 minute limit. Decided it was time for a little something and headed back towards Terroirs for a drop of their Pierre Précieuse, first taken more than three months ago on the occasion noticed at reference 3; DeLong would have to wait until later.

The open space in front of the National Gallery even fuller of tourist stuff than usual and I was irritated by a chap who had commandeered a large plot so that he could charge passing tourists to draw their own heart, in chalk, on one of the paving stones so enclosed.

Three out of the four cheeses were Brexit proof

Terroirs all present and correct, with staff as cheerful and competent as usual. Bread and butter followed by a sort of rabbit stew. All as good as we have come to expect. Plus, of course, the Pierre Précieuse, which continues to satisfy. Possibly also a spot of Ciello Bianco, from Sicily, while I was waiting. Followed by a spot of Kirkham's, from Lancashire, taken with mixed bread. Kirkhams's looks to be a single farm cheese (see reference 4), like Lincolnshire Poacher in that regard, and tasted a little like Cheshire: not bad, but I still prefer Poacher. Rounded off with a spot of their bottom of the range but still quite decent Calvados, taken outside, while we watched the goings on in the street - which did, after all, contain Charing Cross Police Station.

Goings on which included a van from Berry Bros, from St. James's on the posh side of the square. Surely they weren't delivering to Terroirs?

Decided at this point that there would no be little point in visiting the library at UCL, so that has to wait for another occasion.

So across Hungerford Bridge to admire the flashy clothes of some of the holiday makers there. From there into the Festival Hall to find some sort of community event going on in the Clore Ballroom, a community event which involved a lot of young people and a lot of brass instruments. Trying to find out this morning what this might have been, I find that I have missed two important events.

First something called 'Kiss My Genders' which does not look like my sort of thing at all, with the puff including: '... Kiss My Genders is a group exhibition celebrating more than 30 international artists whose work explores and engages with gender identity ... Spanning the past 50 years, Kiss My Genders brings together over 100 artworks by artists from around the world who employ a wide range of approaches to articulate and engage with gender fluidity, as well as with non-binary, trans and intersex identities ...'. The Guardian is alleged to have thought that it was just the thing.

Peppa Pig

The Hasbro operation

Rather more relevant, a Peppa Pig event, to which, had it not been so hot, we might have been tempted. Not least because we read in yesterday's Telegraph that the Pig franchise has been sold to Hasbro (reference 5) for £3b or so. Who says that we don't make anything any more? A company once called Hassenfeld Brothers for the three brothers from Poland who founded it in Rhode Island in 1923. The place more famous for its Rhode Island Reds; or at least it was when I was small, as I had story books which featured them.

Clouds, looking east

Lots of interesting clouds to be seen from the train. Not like anything I recall seeing.

Reference 1: Phenomenological space-time: toward an experiential relativity - A J DeLong – 1981.

Reference 2: https://www.aaas.org/.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/alien-cheese.html.

Reference 4: http://www.mrskirkhamscheese.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://hasbro.gcs-web.com/corporate.