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Archive for April, 2007…

The Great Man-Made River Project and Libyan Democracy

April 13th, 2007 5 Comments

UPDATE 21st Feb 2011: Despite the general tone of this post, in which I show admiration for the achievements of the Great Manmade River Project and sympathy for Gadaffi’s political philosophy of direct democracy – I have no illusions about the real nature of the regime, and I FULLY SUPPORT any revolutionary pro-democratic action that is now taking place, and ABSOLUTELY CONDEMN the violent actions of the government.

I listened to a Radio 4 programme on the Great Man-Made River project in Libya. For the moment at least, you can listen to it here. It’s the mother of all water engineering projects, and as I’ve said before in this blog, I have an odd fascination with this kind of thing. Apart … read on »

Starlings, The Flocking Algorithm and Avian Beatboxers

April 13th, 2007 1 Comment

Just as the starlings are becoming noticeably active, at the peak of their breeding season, is a good time for this post. In fact, I can hear them right now as I write this.
These thoughts have been waiting in the wings now for a long time, since about a year ago, when I became fully enamoured of sturnus vulgaris, the European starling. People don’t give much thought to the lowly starling. Even those with a positive interest in wildlife often ignore these commoners among birds, favouring romantic rarities such as golden eagles.
I’ve seen golden eagles and they are indeed magnificent. The first time I saw one was with Stu on Ben Cruachan, our first munro. We had stopped for a … read on »

Easter Egg-rolling

April 13th, 2007

Laura and I rolled eggs last Sunday for Easter. Any available slope in Holyrood Park was littered with egg remains. I didn’t know it was still so popular. Anyway, I rose to the challenge set by Laura – who does this every year – and painted my egg with great application, but not with food colouring and crayons as suggested, but with acrylic paints. I’m very proud of one of my efforts (we had two eggs each), which can be seen above. It’s such an ephemeral thing, because soon afterwards you destroy your artwork and eat the contents. But I couldn’t help capturing it forever with my camera.
And in case anyone wants to pull me up on my lack of … read on »


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