This is just wonderful!

This beautiful piece appeared today in 3quarksdaily, and I just had to quote from it:

Dermatology & Galileo

A creationist student of mine with a wart the size of a gumball on the end of his nose recently told me science is overrated and is anathema to God.  In the same breath he said he was seeing a dermatologist about the wart.

I asked, “Have you prayed about this?”

He said, “All the time.”

I asked, “Has it helped with the wart?”

He said, “I don’t pray about the wart.  I pray for forgiveness for consulting a dermatologist.”

As his guru, I told him it would be smart to meditate not only on the wart, but upon his inclination to view God as an idiot.  He looked at me as if I’d told him the earth revolves around the sun and excused himself to call his dermatologist on his iphone.

–Roshi Bob

It’s a good thing when a team has complete confidence in their driver. On the other hand, it’s possible to get carried away with this. Today’s German Grand Prix was a good example. Lewis Hamilton took the pole, and at the start of the race he simply ran away from the field. Only one thing could spoil his domination: a Safety Car period. And sure enough, Timo Glock’s suspension broke, his Toyota snapped into the pit wall, and out came the Safety Car. Everybody lined up, and waited for the pit lane to be opened. The obvious strategy was going to be to pit under yellow, take on the final set of tyres and enough fuel, and then wait for green. Inexplicably, McLaren told Hamilton to stay out, not to pit. They seemed to think that he’d been going so quickly that he would be able to pull out over 20 seconds in just eight laps, so that he could refuel under green without losing the lead. Lewis did his best, but he could “only” pull out about 14 seconds. He rejoined in fifth, and provided a thrilling finale by passing his team-mate, muscling his way past Massa, and then blasting by Piquet to take the win.
Coming so soon after his British Grand Prix win, this was another crushing victory. The Ferrari team must be feeling really demoralized. Even though they still lead the Constructors Championship, Raikkonen could only finish sixth, while Massa was unable to put up any resistance and couldn’t even run down young Piquet for second. ((According to Massa, he had brake problems during the closing laps, and this sounds quite reasonable – it seemed that every time we got a cockpit shot of Raikkonen’s car, he was fiddling with the brake balance.)) So Hamilton has opened up a four point gap over Massa at the top of the Drivers Championship, 58 to 54.
There’s two weeks until the next race, in Hungary. I’ll be on the road then – I’m heading back to India, visiting Chennai on business – so I’ll be relying on my trusty electric monk DVR to urge on Lewis to victory.
UPDATE: From the official FIA post-race press conference:

Q: Lewis, on behalf of all race fans we have to thank you for making that such an exciting race by not coming in with the safety car. You gave yourself so much work to do in the latter stages of the race.
Lewis Hamilton: Well, thank you. I didn’t plan on doing that.

What an extraordinary drive by Lewis Hamilton at today’s British Grand Prix! Horribly wet conditions, with great puddles of water on the track, and a few dry spells to tempt people into risky tyre changes. Everybody seemed to be spinning, or sliding off the track, except for Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren, and he wound up winning by over a minute, lapping everyone up to third place. Unquestionably the best drive of his short career.
The Driver’s Championship is in a fascinating state: half-way through the season, we have a three-way tie at the top, with Hamilton, Räikkönen and Massa all on 48 points. Nine races down, nine to go. This is going to be fun.

(Scooter’s “Jumping All Over The World”. H/t to the Pub Philosopher.)

Here’s one of my very favourite TED presentations: Richard Dawkins on how we understand the world. How we evolved in “the Middle World”, why the intentional stance works, and what it may be like to be a bat. ((So much for Thomas Nagel.)) It’s so obviously true that it’s quite beautiful.

(Tip o’ the hat to In Search of High Places.)

Essential viewing.

They finally broadcast the last episode of Life on Mars here in the USA. I thought that the writers handled it well, within the time constraints of a single one-hour episode. ((Shorter in the UK – BBCAmerica has tons of ads.)) They managed to sustain just the right level of uncertainty throughout: as the account in Wikipedia put it, “Ultimately the viewer is left with ambiguity as to which to emotionally accept as real: Sam’s life in the present day or his life in 1973.” Most viewers will lean one way, of course; I think I may try watching it again while gently nudging myself towards the alternative interpretation.
The only real weakness [MILD SPOILER ALERT] is that when Sam and Morgan were in the cemetery, Sam didn’t raise the obvious objection about his knowledge of events between 1973 and 2006. But that’s a nit.
Bottom line: this was one of the most interesting and well-produced television drama projects of recent years. I understand that work is proceeding on a US version; while most such transfers are doomed to failure, I hope this works. But will the US producers have the courage to present 1972 as it really was, warts and all?

I just received (from Amazon, naturally) a fresh shipment of what every self-respecting expat Brit needs in his kitchen cupboard. Yes, that is a small container of Patum Peperium at the front.


The QFC that I patronise, up on Capitol Hill, carries a couple of really nice sharp Cheddars, slightly crumbly, that go beautifully with Branston Pickle or Marmite. And then of course there’s Beecher’s Handmade Cheese down at Pike Place Market….