Archive for Britain
Ada L. at the ATI [6 October 2022]
Posted in Statistics with tags Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing Institute, artificial intelligence, ATI, Britain, City of Westminster, data science, London, sculpture, STEM, University of Warwick on September 29, 2022 by xi'an
a journal of the plague year³ [beginning of the end?]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel, University life with tags 000ers, 14, BD, book review, border worker, borders, Britain, Broad Peak, Caravaggio, Cayenne, chiaroscuro, China, Cho Oyu, COVID-19, Dhaulagiri, Everest, film review, French Guiana, Gasherbrum, Gurkhas, Guyane, Journal of the Plague Year, K2, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Nanga Parbat, Nepal, Netflix, Nirmal Purja, Pakistan, pandemics, PCR test, Reinhold Messner, sherpas, Shishapangma, side-effects, Tibet, University of Warwick, vaccination on January 29, 2022 by xi'an
Made my first trip to Warwick this year despite the travel restrictions imposed by the omnipresent Omicron version. My flights got repeatedly cancelled, meaning I had to fly through Schipol (thanks for the Gouda cumin cheese and stroopwafelen!) and leave at more-than-early hours (even by my standards!). But had more conversations than usual, plus delivered my lecture masked-face-to-masked-face to 19 Warwick students, the first time in 709 days!
Read [in French] the two BDs of Milo Manara on Michelangelo [Merisi or Amerighi da] Caravaggio, which was a Xmas gift!, with as always great in the large scale and character drawings, if not Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro, but less in the scenario, esp. the second part and even more esp. given the agitated life of the artist. And another BD taking place in Cayenne, in 1742, whose drawings also appear in local guides.
Watched 14 Peaks: Nothing is impossible on Netflix, following Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja [of Everest jam fame!] and his team as they manage to climb all 14 eight thousander peaks over 6 months. Including Shishapangma in Tibet, with the added hardship to procure a climbing permit from Chinese authorities for that mountain. The documentary focuses a wee bit too much on Purja’s persona and not enough on the team of sherpas and on the climb itself. Except for the summitings there is very little about the technical difficulties of each summit and the hardships and failed attempts. For instance, the amazing feat of first installing fixed ropes for all 14 summits is only alluded to. Despite reservations about the use of supplementary oxygen (without which, as stressed by Messner, the attempt of climbing all 8000ers in one season would have proved truly impossible and suicidal) and heliporting from one base camp to another, the enormity of the achievement of this team of sherpas remains a monument in the climbing world. (Even only considering that Everest, Lhotse and Makalu were climbed in two days total!)
a journal of the plague year² [closing again]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel, University life, Wines with tags book review, border worker, borders, Britain, COVID-19, film review, Japan, Journal of the Plague Year, manga, Osaka, pandemics, PCR test, side-effects, University of Warwick, vaccination on January 7, 2022 by xi'anHad to cancel my third and final trip to Warwick this year as the Omicron scare had countries locking their borders (too late, most likely), meaning the UK was reinstating on entering travelers a self-seclusion period until the test results were known. Despite getting my third shot in time (with no side-effect whatsoever). And France retaliated in imposing PCR tests as well…
Read (over the Atlantic) an older novel of William Gibson, The Peripheral. Which is a rather standard cyberpunk Gibson with lots of (2021’s) brand names (at least at the beginning), a messy build-up of the (dual) universe, plenty of gadgets, a long-going form of fascination for super-lethal weapons and militarised survivalists, followed by a vague explanation of the temporal paradox of conversing with the future/past, and a rather lame closure with a shoot shoot bang bang resolution and some people getting absurdly rich… I am unsure I will get through the second novel, The Agency, which I bought at the same time, unless we manage to fly to French Guiana on Xmas day. Even though The Guardian is quite excited about it.
Watched Kan Eguchi’s The Fable after coming back from Mexico (not on the plane, when I slept most of the flight), which is cartoonesquely funny, except for lengthy fighting scenes. As it should, since directly inspired from a manga. While I missed the jokes about Osaka’s special dialect and food, it was absurdly funny! And fit for a particularly rainy weekend. The second installment, which I watched later, is darker and more disturbing…
a journal of the plague year² [not there yet]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel, University life, Wines with tags Birmingham, book review, bread making, Britain, COVID-19, film review, gardening, Henri Poincaré, homecooking, Jeju Island, Journal of the Plague Year, pandemics, Seoul, space race, Tor Books, University of Warwick, vaccination on November 27, 2021 by xi'anReturned to Warwick once more, with “traffic-as-usual” at Charles de Gaulle airport, including a single border officer for the entire terminal, a short-timed fright that I actually needed a PCR test on top of my vaccine certificate to embark, due to wrong signage, a one-hour delay at departure due to foggy conditions in B’ham, and another ½ hour delay at arrival due to a shortage of staff and hence no exit stairs available! And got a tense return to B’ham as the taxi line in Warwick had vanished!
Read the first novel of P. Djèlí-Clark A Master of Djinn after reading a series of short stories and novellas of his, taking place in the same fantastic Cairo of the early 1900’s. This was enjoyable, mostly, again thanks to well-constructed characters (apart from the arch-villain) and the appeal of the magical Cairo imagined by the author. I did not feel the appearances of Raymond Poincaré or von Birsmark were really needed, though. Also kindled A history of what comes next, by Sylvain Neuvel, which I got as a free (Tor) book. Which is an interesting take on the space race, with a pair of (super-)women behind the entire thing. And a lot of connections to the actual history. I somehow got tired in the middle, even though I finished the book during my commuting to and from Warwick.
Watched within a week My Name, a dark Korean TV drama, as I found it very good and rather original (albeit with some similarities with the excellent Jeju-based Night in Paradise). The storyline is one of a young woman, Ji Woo, seeking revenge on her father’s killer, by joining the criminal gang her father was part of and infiltrating the police (not really a spoiler!). At the beginning, this sounded like gang glorification, hence rather unappealing, but soon things proved to be quite different from how they appeared first. The scenario is of course most unrealistic, especially the (brutal and gory) fights where the heroine takes down endless rows of gang members and where the participants almost always recover from knife injuries that should have been fatal or at least permanently damaging. And the ineffectiveness of the police in stopping the drug dealers. However, when watched as a theatrical performance, the main characters in My Name, most especially Ji Woo, are well-constructed and ambiguous enough to make this descent into darkness worth watching. (Given the conclusion of the series, I cannot imagine a second season being made.) Also had a short go at Night Teeth, which proved a complete waste of time!
Misera Carta Privationis
Posted in Kids, Travel with tags Brexit, Britain, England, Human Rights, King John, Latin, Magna Carta, migrations, nationality, refugees, Statistics without Borders on November 25, 2021 by xi'an
Read in The Guardian of 18 November that the UK Government was pushing for a new bill on nationality and borders that would
- open the possibility for said Government of stripping British citizens of their nationality without noticing them (and hence depriving them from appealing the decision)
- barring anyone arriving in the UK by an illegal route from claiming refugee status
- criminalising anyone trying save an illegal immigrant life
- giving UK Border Force staff immunity from prosecution if their operations result in death
which are failing basic human right principles in the country that established the Magna Carta as a basis for a lawful government… (From a cynic perspective, the 1253 charter was only giving right to a very small fraction of the English population, while serfdom lasted until 1574.) And another illustration of how Brexit is more easily used to cut rights than to establish new ones.
