rachel.blog

insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman

  • Durham

    Yesterday we went to Durham – “a perfect little city” – according to Bill Bryson. In his book Notes from a small island, Bill Bryson summarises so well the feel of the place, so I’m going to copy and paste his words here: Why, it’s wonderful – a perfect little city – and I kept thinking:…

  • British weather rocks!

    English weather gets a bad rap. I just love it and will try my best to explain why. It’s never hot and humid, the lighting is softly dimmed and when it rains, it’s more of a drizzle than a downpour. Hot and humid makes physical activity unpleasant. Animals in hot climates tend to sleep in…

  • The Daily Mail Song

    Yesterday I made a post with a loaded title and I was curious to see whether this would influence my stats. It did; the title generated more traffic than usual. What does that say about us? I can understand why tabloids like The Daily Mail choose such ridiculous headlines because headlines sell newspapers. A friend…

  • Bushy beaver or prepubescent pube?

    There’s a disturbing trend going on in the female body hair department and this is towards less hair down there. Women go to a salon where they spread their legs for a stranger who smears hot wax nail-bitingly close to important bits, strips of cloth are applied and then the whole lot gets ripped off.…

  • Leicester

    We went to Leicester for the weekend. Leicester, I have learned, has something of a bad reputation in the UK. When I tried to find out why this is the case, it is simply that there is a large immigrant population there. This is certainly true but I did not feel unsafe there, the people…

  • Be prepared!

    Be prepared! that’s the boy scout’s marching song, Be prepared! as through life you march along. Be prepared to hold your liquor pretty well, Don’t write naughty words on walls if you can’t spell. Read more: Tom Lehrer – Be Prepared Lyrics | MetroLyrics I was never a Boy Scout, for obvious reasons, but nor was…

  • Yorkshire Museum of Farming

    We cycled to the Museum of Farming on Sunday. It was just outside York so a fair distance for me on the bike but easily manageable and very, very enjoyable. I feel truly alive at the moment with all this physical activity. The museum itself was a great deal more than just a museum. There…

  • I have great legs!

    I have great legs. Is it a bit conceited of me to say this? I don’t know, but I do know that cycling around for a month on Busby (my bakfiets) has given me really great legs and I don’t ever want to say goodbye to them.  Why, oh why do the politicians of Auckland…

  • 25 years of the IPCC

    In anticipation of the release of the IPCC assessment on climate change next week, I thought I’d post this video from Nature.com about the final report. Scientists are now 95% sure that the climate is warming and that we’re largely responsible. There’s also a good summary at Nature.com, The Final Assessment. Note: If you’re having…

  • Women and scientists threats to society

    Australian politics has become so extreme that it is now bordering on funny. Australians have shamelessly elected someone who not only thinks coal and cars are king but who also inexplicably once said, I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number…

  • Don’t believe what you read in the Daily Mail

    It goes without saying doesn’t it? But judging by the comments on a couple of recent climate change articles by Daily Mail journalist David Rose here and here, people will believe anything. Last week, David Rose wrote an article telling us all that the we are headed for global cooling. This week, he has an…

  • Le Tour de York

    The Tour de France in 2014 will start from North Yorkshire and the people of York are starting to get excited about this. When I first heard about it I was puzzled because I thought this famous French cycle race was always held in France. It is called the Tour de France after all. And…

  • Cycling makes me happy

    Something I knew all along turns out to have some evidence to back it up: cycling to work makes you happier. Urban Studies Ph.D candidate Oliver Smith surveyed 828 commuters in Portland Oregon to determine commuter well-being among different modes of transport including cycling, walking, bus, rail and car. Here’s what he found. I am…

  • Jorvik and the Vikings

    York was once a thriving Viking city called Jorvik. Archaeologists in the 70s and 80s discovered the houses, workshops and backyards of these Vikings as they were 1000 years ago. They are now on display at the Jorvik Viking Centre in York. I took the kids there to have a look and it was fascinating…

  • Australians say no to rail

    It’s no surprise that I am not a fan of Australia’s new Prime Minister. In particular, I disagree with his views on climate change but here I want to write about his plans or lack of for urban/commuter rail. To quote Tony Abbott, We have no history of funding urban rail and I think it’s…

  • Australia’s anti-science government

    A little while ago I wrote a post titled Should politicians choose what research to fund? This was based on news from America that a Republican Representative was attempting to install a set of criteria chosen by politicians for funding research. One of the criteria was that research must be of the utmost importance to society…

  • Knaresborough

    Today was a fabulous day. It was one of those days that was completely unplanned with the decision to go somewhere made at the last moment. This morning, on impulse, we caught the train to Knaresborough, a market town less than half an hour away. Knaresborough is a gorgeous and fascinating place and I thoroughly…

  • The case for a Sovereign Wealth Fund

    I’ve been wanting to write about this for sometime and now seems like an appropriate one with Australians looking like they’re about to elect an anti-science government determined to dig up every last speck of coal they can find. George Monbiot, who has come up with the term “Abbottalypse“, describes this strategy as a “21st-Century…

  • Why isn’t it getting colder?

    Most people in New Zealand and Australia will be familiar with the terms El Niño and La Niña which describe the Pacific ocean-atmosphere oscillation and which influence local temperature and rainfall. For Australia, El Niño events tend to bring warmer temperatures and drought while La Niña often brings widespread rain and flooding. The floods of 1973-1974 occurred…

  • Cycling the Solar System

    Not often in my life, never actually, have I had people proclaim, “COOL!” just at the sight of me but when I go cycling on the bakfiets, it happens all the time. Ok, so they’re referring to the bike rather than to me but I’m not going to let the facts get in the way…