What a surprise

I have just read in 'Brain in the news' (from the DANA foundation), that helmet-to-helmet hits have been made illegal by the National Football League (in the US), as part of a drive to reduce the (rather large) number of serious head injuries. While the President thinks that this is a bit sissy and is taking the spirit out of the game. Don't know how many such hits he did in his own sporting days, before he got his draft exempting bone spurs.

This to prove that I can do late night tweets too.

Reference 1: http://www.dana.org/.

A parable

Prompted by something or other I read, probably in the TLS or somewhere like that, I have been reading ‘Awakenings’ (reference 1), a big book in its time which was made into a big film. A book about Sacks’ use of a drug called L-dopa in the late 1960’s on a group of patients in a long-stay institution, mostly suffering from the long term effects of a bout of a now obscure disease called encephalitis lethargica (introduced at reference 2) – not that it was obscure at the time, that is to say following right on from the flu pandemic which started at the end of the first world war.

Towards the end, in the chapter called ‘Tribulations’, writing about the rather chaotic, bipolar consequences of taking this otherwise splendid drug, he made the striking observation that you cannot expect to control a complicated illness with one dimensional variation of a single drug. Cranking the dosage of a single wonder drug up and down, however carefully, cannot be expected to do everything. Which observation gave rise to the parable that follows.

The snap is taken from the Ordnance Survey map of a mountain – Beinn luthan Mhòr – to the north east of Blair Atholl, in the middle of the Scottish Highlands, a little to the east of where the River Tilt makes its turn to the west, and it is intended to represent a projection onto two dimensions of the state space of one of these patients.

The idea is that the more or less healthy bit of the patient’s world is represented by the more or less level space at the top of the mountain, here outlined in blue. What is left of the brain can more or less cope with the patient wobbling about inside this space, with some such wobbling suggested by the dotted black line. The normal ups and downs of daily life. But the wobbling can sometimes get too much for this brain and the patient tips off down one of the flanking slopes, down into the depths, perhaps of florid sexuality, despair or terror. From which extrication, that is to say rescue, can be difficult.

We suppose that we have four drugs working in this space: green, red, blue and brown, each pushing the patient in some direction or other. By controlling the dose one can control the speed of travel, but what one cannot do is change the direction of travel. So depending on the shape of the region of health, the patient’s state is more or less fragile. If, for example, one is in a thin bit of the region of health running north and south, and the drug of choice works east and west, things are going to be a bit tricky. I think that meta stable might be a bit of jargon which crops up in this context.

Another of Sacks’ points is that long term disease can do real damage to the brain, not easily repaired, damage which in my parable would be represented by the region of health shrinking, becoming smaller, perhaps more stretched out and fiddly, like one of those gerrymandered congressional districts in the USA. A region of health from which it is all too easy to fall – or to be pushed. With it not taking much of a push: perhaps a cross word from a fellow patient or a carer. Or not having the right sort of cake for tea. Or running out of cigarettes.

While the region of health of a healthy person is an extensive, sun-lit, upland plateau, with all the dangerous slopes a good way away. A person who has a sunny, relaxed life in consequence.

To deal with the rest of us, one needs a battery of wonder drugs, with each one covering one of the cardinal directions, and blood tests every hour, on the hour. Brain scans on Sunday mornings. Something which will perhaps be accomplished by an intelligent arm band by the time that I enter the field. I certainly hope so!

References

Reference 1: Awakenings - Oliver Sacks – 1973. Picador edition of 2012.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalitis_lethargica. With reference 1 above being reference 6 herein.

Trolley hunt 1

With only three weeks or so to go, it seemed best to see what could be done in Tunbridge Wells, since we were there.

Cut across to the railway station to check in the car park there. Promising, but nothing. Then checked around the Range (reference 1). Again, a promising looking place, which I had not come across before, but nothing.

Worked our way up towards St. John's Road, checking various interesting side streets, alleys and car parks. Still nothing.

We had thought the bus station in St. John's Road might have been a good place, but it turned out to be a bus garage rather than a bus station, in any case all closed up with half the roof missing.

The large St. John's church was complete with pleached trees, but was firmly shut, for the second time of asking, as I recall.

Refreshments at Basil of reference 3. A whole food establishment with some quite decent looking cakes. Mine was a sort of light brown cake involving nuts and a lot of some sort of white goo on top. Not bad at all. There were also various gluten free offerings, pretty much de rigueur these days. Not like when FIL started out as a coeliac maybe sixty years ago now.

In the end, we settled for a basket, as a consolation prize, tucked in between the Saint John's Yard bar (reference 2) and restaurant and the small Sainsbury's next door. The small Sainsbury's didn't want it as they had moved onto plastic. Headed back towards town centre and tried M&S at the BP petrol station. Ditto. Tried the fairly newly opened Waitrose at the Shell petrol station. Ditto.

We were now stuck. Also confused by the fact that the basket was a lighter weight affair than the baskets usually deployed by the bigger supermarkets. Decided to abandon the half point we might just about have scored for it, and it is now destined for gardening duty here in Epsom.

Reference 1: https://www.therange.co.uk/stores/tunbridge-wells/.

Reference 2: https://www.saintjohnsyard.com/.

Reference 3: http://www.foodbybasil.com/.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/03/after-some-years-visiting-town-we.html. Memory fails again, as it seems we did actually get into the church mentioned above back in 2016, a getting in which I had completely forgotten about. But I am still fairly confident that we had been refused by a cleaner before that.

Hagen

A week or so ago to the Wigmore Hall to hear the Hagen Quartet, to hear them do Schubert (D173), Webern (Op.5 and Op.9) and Haydn (Op.55 No.3).  With the Webern having been substituted for the advertised Berg (Op.3), a substitution which did not greatly bother us, our knowledge of the music of both of these composers being more or less zero. As it turns out, the Hagen Quartet played the Webern Op.5 when we last heard them about a year ago, noticed at reference 1. Perhaps it is a favourite of theirs.

A cold and damp evening, so I went so far as to break out my brown winter scarf. Thought about duffel coat.

Two track cleaning trainsets at Epsom, one on th Victoria Line and one on the Waterloo line. It struck us as an odd time of day to have service traffic running about. And leaves on the line is more of an issue south of Epsom than north.

For once slightly irritated by the price of th wine at Wigmore Hall, reliable though it is. An irritation probably triggered by the unusually slow service. Cock & Lion in the interval.

Into the hall, where we had been relegated to row L from our usual row I, presumably on account of the popularity of the quartet, as I would not have thought that the Webern was a big draw. Flowers rather less symmetric than usual. Viola player with a fancy silver dress and the view of her shoulders so afforded reminded me of being told that a viola was a heavy instrument for a lady - with these shoulders not looking muscular at all - but there must have been hidden depths as I am sure that if I tried holding a viola in the playing position, I would give up after not many minutes at all.

Schubert good, Haydn better, Webern interesting. But this last was not, for me, as dismal as the programme notes would have it. Except in the sense of being rather empty, particularly towards the end, of not being anywhere and not going anywhere.

Returned to a noisy Oxford Circus with loud noises coming from two of the four corners. Plus a talkative gentleman advertising Jesus. Perhaps it was the full moon, visible above. There was a M&S trolley at the top of the stairs down to the tube, but BH was firm about not capturing it. Not that I knew where the likely M&S was: Marble Arch for a big one, Green Park for a little one?

Offered a seat on the train at Vauxhall by a young lady. An offer which I think I accepted. I also noticed that, for the first time, there were plenty of lights on in Vauxhall Tower, the tower said to be mainly owned by absent foreigners with hot money who fancied a bolt hole which was also a good investment. Although they may be disappointed, at least in the short term, if Project Fear has got it even half right. The last thing to catch my eye was an advertisement for the Funding Circle (reference 2), which I have come across about before but never looked into, beyond muddling them up with Newable of Epsom (reference 3). After a quick peek this afternoon, perhaps they both deserve a longer peek.

PS 1: consulting Gmaps, I find that the M&S concerned was probably the one on the south side of Oxford Street between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road. Maybe a five minutes walk from Oxford Circus? From where one might have pushed onto the 'Tottenham' at Tottenham Court Road? A place I used to have a soft spot for, mainly on account of its ceiling paint job, now, sadly, rebadged as the 'Flying Horse'.

PS 2: telephone defeated by the poor light and the photographically unfriendly type face of the body of the text.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/11/hagen.html.

Reference 2: https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk/.

Reference 3: https://www.newable.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2013/11/soweto-gospel-choir.html. The only previous notice of the 'Tottenham' that I can find.

More charity

A flat complex under construction in Ewell Village. A complex which a sign on the hoarding says involves at least some central government money and which will be operated by the Abbeyfield organisation, last noticed at reference 1.

A charity which is presently mainly into providing an unusual form of accommodation for older people who no longer want a fully independent life, but which seems to be moving into the mainstream. Will it end up as mainly a provider of building management services for central and local government? Will all the volunteers who presently help to keep things going be displaced in favour of paid staff?

Going forward, how will they position their brand relative to McCarthy & Stone?

Nothing wrong with all this, but hardly what the founder had in mind. The world has moved on.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/12/mccarthy-stone.html.

Charitable operations

Not being able to buy a Guardian at our local Costcutter yesterday, I settled for a DT and a pink'un. Out of which fell a glossy supplement called 'Wealth', a mixture of advertisements for luxury goods, advertisements for wealth managers and a modest amount of copy.

One bit of copy was that snapped left, which tells me that Dartington Hall is seeking to raise its game by issuing four and a bit percent bonds to the tune of £20m, issuing which looks to be on the margins of what charities are allowed to do.

Which leaves me a bit uneasy. Are charities growing too big and sophisticated for the charitable hat to fit? Maybe we ought to be looking at what they do about this sort of thing in Europe - rather different, I believe, than what we do here, with their not having our kind of charities and trusts at all.

We were also led to wonder whether the heiress from the US of A who set up Dartington in 1925, was the model for the Mrs Serrocold of Miss Marple fame. Agatha did, after all, live just across the Dart from Dartington.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/10/dartington.html. Our last visit to the place.

Reference 2: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103078/. They do it with mirrors: the Miss Marple in question.

Another market failure?

A week or so ago we took the film 'Captain Phillips', over two sittings, as I found the loud, throbbing music a bit much after getting on for an hour of it.

A good enough film, about a large US registered container vessel - the Maersk Alabama - being attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia in 2009. But it left me rather cross. You had say £50 million's worth of container vessel being captured by four men operating from something scarcely bigger than a rowing boat and then being rescued by a massive US naval deployment, probably hundreds of millions worth. A capture which could easily have been seen off by a few ex-servicemen with heavy machine guns, cost piffling compared to that actually incurred. So why did the ship owners not do it?

Was it as simple as the marine carrying trade being very competitive and owners preferring to dump the costs of seeing off pirates on the worlds' navies and insurance companies rather than taking some elementary precautions themselves?

I am reminded that lots of merchant vessels carry flags of convenience, that is to say that they operate out of the marine equivalent of tax havens. With the owners not even paying any tax in support of the services they are expecting. To be fair, not the case in this particular case.

One argument against machine guns is suggested by the Wikipedia article on the subject which suggests there were thousands and thousands of passages in the seas in question - which means that putting guards on all of them would have been expensive. Convoys better VFM (to use an acronym which was on the tips of all civil service tongues at one stage in my career there).

PS 1: I am also reminded that I find western governments inappropriately squeamish when it comes to just shooting pirates or sinking their boats out of hand. Not sure that I am too bothered about such people getting a free and fair trial. Although that said, we used to have a place called execution dock in east London, so presumably at least some of the pirates infesting the eighteenth century seas got brought back for trial, fair or otherwise.

PS 2: and it just so happened that at about the same time as we watched this film, a Somali who had taken one of the smaller roles in it was convicted of a rather nasty assault, I think in a fast food outlet, in the Manchester area.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/11/market-failure.html.

Reference 2: Captain Phillips - Greengrass, Hanks and Abdi - 2013.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/06/marine-engineering.html.

Reference 4: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=execution+dock. Not very close encounters with Execution Dock.

Reference 5: https://www.maersk.com/. A Danish company. No idea what its tax arrangements are.