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How's my seaiceing?

Its well past time to look at the sea ice extent. I don't have much to say, so here is a picture: We're currently well above the minimum - indeed, we're pushing the maximum of the AMSR era. That's not as meaningful as it might be, because 2012 was quite well up until only a few weeks back, so this could all change. But PIOMASS, too, is showing a slight recovery from last year instead of monotonic decline. This should all be no great surprise - we don't expect monotonic decline. As usual, if you actually care about seaice you're probably better off with Neven. Refs * Girding my loins: sea ice

Comment 10k: the winner!

A rush of controversial comments has pushed the burn rate up, and we're over the 10k barrier. You can all stop now :-). And I'm pleased to say that I have a worthy winner, with no need for me to fudge it (not that I would have done so, oh no indeed): Hank Roberts, with "Your willingness to identify yourself publicly is likely to depend on personal experience..." from von S getting tired of the ranters?. Eli misses by 1 - soooooo close, better luck for 20k. Now all we have to do is decide on the prize. Which should, I think, either be a guest post or a post by me on a subject of Hank's choice.

Stretham Old Engine

Stretham Old Engine is a former pumping engine out in the fens; visiting it is not too dissimilar to the Museum of fenland drainage that James visited a while back. You can see it from above and you can visit it's own website: strethamoldengine.org.uk/. It is best to visit it by boat, though, which we managed on a wednesday during the school holidays, and were even lucky enough to find it open. Sadly it is trapped in something of a vicious circle: they don't open often so get few visitors; and since they get few visitors they can't afford to open very often. Pix here; and I'll in-line a few…

Torygraph folk are a bunch of wackos

I quite like reading the Torygraph. Unlike the Grauniad it doesn't tell me what I want to know. But every now and again it is time for a reality check, and the most recent demonstration of their utter incompetence at reporting GW is Rise of sea levels is 'the greatest lie ever told', which uncritically repeats the tripe from "dowsing" Morner (the "facts" in the article are so badly at variance with reality that they aren't even worth refuting). And there is a good reason why he is the *former* head of the INQUA commission: http://www.edf.org/documents/3868_morner_exposed.pdf will provide some…

Aboriginal

Cycling back through the rain of the english summer, I was turning over in my mind who knew what in our firmware group, and thought of one person who had "aboriginal" knowledge. And immeadiately thought that the word is now perjorative, most clearly when reduced to "abo" by the Strines. But what I meant was what it originally meant: someone who has been there from the beginning, and has the kind of knowledge you only get as you make and watch the thing being built up around you. Thats a bit brief, isn't it? So let me point you at David Appells rant against the blogosphere. The G8 deserves…

Shermer in Virginia

Skeptic Magazine publisher Michael Shermer will be in Oakton, Virginia this Thursday, October 12, to discuss his new book Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design. The talk is being cohosted by The Alliance for Science and the National Capitol Area Skeptics. Regrettably, I will be unable to attend. Having heard Shermer speak several times previously, I can say with some confidence that will be an interesting and informative talk. If you're anywhere near Oakton, I strongly encourage you to attend. The talk will be from 7:30-9:30, but Shermer will be signing copies of his…

165/366: Wintry Science

It was bitterly cold over the weekend here in the Northeast, with daytime high temepratures in the single digits Fahrenheit. This has little to recommend it in terms of, you know, leaving the house, but it did provide an opportunity to try some SCIENCE! Unfortunately, I left the notepad with the data (such as it is) on it at home when I came to Starbucks to write, so I can't do the detailed write-up. I'll use it for the photo of the day, though, from which you can probably guess what I was trying to do: Starting condition for a science experiment. Detailed explanation of methods and…

156/366: Needles on the Roof

Random artsy shot from our back yard. This is the little bit of roof right over our back door. It's the only bit of roof left on the house that's asphalt shingle-- the main roof was always slate, and we got the bit of shingle above the garage replaced with fake slate not long after we bought the house. As a result, it collects crap in a way that the other bits don't. But it looks kind of cool and decrepit: Pine needles and moss on the small roof over our back door. Or maybe not. I dunno. Anyway, I noticed it, and it looked cool to me, so I took a photo.

What happens when the largest objects meet their twins? (Synopsis)

“Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth.” -Publilius Syrus Out in the depths of space, objects range from the incredibly small and low mass to the huge and super-heavy, shrinking down again for the most ultra-massive objects in the Universe. Image credit: The Antiope Doublet asteroid / ESO, via http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0718b/. But what would happen, on all scales, if you took two such identical objects and merged them together? Image credit: NASA. Find out what happens when the…

The Entire Universe, One Picture, and One Year

The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. -Carl Sagan If the story of our entire Universe's history, from the last stages of inflation and the Big Bang up to the present day, were to be compressed into one calendar year, what would it look like? As 2011 comes to an end, here's my final present of the year to you. (As always, click for a more readable, higher-resolution version.) Happy new year to all; may you all enjoy our shared story and journey while you celebrate. See you in 2012!

It's a good sign when the creationists are embarrassed to answer

Avidor has a video of an exchange between a defender of science (DFL) and creationist coward (R). It's amusing. Kate Knuth (DFL) asks a simple question—whether Tom Emmer (R) believes the earth is thousands of years old, or billions of years old—and Emmer runs away from the question. First he babbles about how he has a different science than she does, and then he justs asks her whether she's an evolutionist. It's just weird. They know enough to realize that they sound awfully silly when they claim the earth is ten thousand years old, but they don't know enough to think that maybe they're wrong…

UN Security Council Resolution on Ebola

Just a quick note. The UN Security Council has ad its first ever emergency meeting over a health issue, specifically the current West African Ebola outbreak. From a summary in Science, the Council ... ... unanimously passed a resolution that declared the spread of the virus a “threat to international peace and security” and called on the world to send more health care workers and supplies to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, and not to isolate those countries. ... U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who chaired today's meeting, noted that the resolution had 130 co-sponsors…

Gary Farber explains our family's eating habits

Not mine—the weirder and more peculiar the food, the more likely I am to snarf it down—but those of certain other members of the Myers clan whose identities I will abstain from mentioning, lest they decide to add some really interesting ingredients to my next meal. Anyway, it's an interesting study that explains why some people get queasy at the thought of food "touching"—it's a common response to fear of contamination. It's basically documenting the psychological reality of cooties. Now if only he had provided an explanation for how to overcome it — the prohibition on mixing too many flavors…

Trump's Latest Outrageous Claim: Obama Born In US

"After years of peddling a false conspiracy theory that President Obama wasn't born in the United States, Donald Trump — just 53 days before Election Day — now says he believes the president was born in the U.S. "President Obama was born in the United States. Period," Trump said at a campaign event in a ballroom in his new hotel in Washington. "Now, we want to get back to ... (bla bla bla)." That's from NPR. This is clearly going to hurt Donald Trump with his base. The accusation to begin with wad deplorable, after all. That was today, a few minutes ago. But yesterday ... Start about…

E.O. Wilson's Anthill

Anthill: A Novel Winner of the 2010 Heartland Prize, Anthill follows the thrilling adventures of a modern-day Huck Finn, enthralled with the "strange, beautiful, and elegant" world of his native Nokobee County. But as developers begin to threaten the endangered marshlands around which he lives, the book’s hero decides to take decisive action. Edward O. Wilson—the world’s greatest living biologist—elegantly balances glimpses of science with the gripping saga of a boy determined to save the world from its most savage ecological predator: man himself. I bring this up now because the Kindle…

Just a quick picture...

Ever wonder what it would look like if you took about 100,000 nearby large (i.e., Milky Way sized and larger) galaxies, reduced each one to a point, and mapped them? Well, at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, they did this, from the point of view of where we are in the Universe. We are the Milky Way, the one dot dead center in this image. Take a look, and click to enlarge: Does it make you feel insignificant? Or does it make you feel like you're a part of something wondrous? Or both? However it makes you feel, I hope you enjoy looking at it!

The Hand of God in Space?

Someone at the New York Daily News must have started celebrating April 20th a bit early. Because this beautiful supernova remnant, with a spinning, pulsing neutron star at the center: is no excuse to run a poll asking readers if this is either the Hand of God or a natural stellar formation. I could tell you about the power of PZ, and how since writing his post last week the numbers have gone from 40/60 to 5/95, but I'd rather tell you the one thing that every lefty knows: God is right-handed. Thanks a lot -- on behalf of all lefties -- for the reminder, big guy.

Pharmaceutical Absurdity

So I just got home from a visit to the doctor and the pharmacy. I have an outer ear infection and got a prescription for some antibiotic ear drops. When I stopped at the pharmacy to get the script filled, I noticed that one of the many products they sold over the counter was a copper wrist band that allegedly (read: pretends to) helps your health. The packaging said "Experience the magic of pure copper!" I found it rather disturbing that a pharmacy, a place that dispenses medicine and advice that people rely on as it concerns their healthy, would be peddling such useless, pseudo-scientific…

Shermer on Irving

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, has an op-ed piece in the LA Times about the imprisonment of David Irving that is well worth reading. He cites a famous passage from the Robert Bolt play, A Man for All Seasons: Roper: So now you'd give the devil benefit of law. More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the devil? Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that. More: Oh? And when the law was down - and the devil turned round on you - where would you hide? Yes, I'd give the devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake. Quite right.

Deutsche Resigns from NASA

Remember the story the other day about a 24 year old journalism graduate named George Deutsche who didn't know what the word "theory" meant and was telling the scientists at NASA what they can and can't say on the website? As it turns out, he wasn't even a journalism graduate. Texas A & M confirmed that he did not graduate from there, meaning he faked his resume to get the job. Washington is now abuzz with anticipation at the inevitable announcement of his nomination as director of FEMA. Here's my favorite line in the article: Repeated calls and e-mail messages to Mr. Deutsch on Tuesday…

New Barnett Article on Scalia's Originalism

Randy Barnett, one of my favorite legal scholars, has a new article available on SSRN called Scalia's Infidelity: A Critique of Faint-Hearted Originalism. In this article, he continues to distinguish "originalism, properly understood" from the brand of conservative originalism of which Justice Scalia is the most prominent advocate. In particular, it is based upon Barnett's William Howard Taft Lecture and is essentially a response to the Taft Lecture that Scalia gave in 1988, a very prominent speech in which he famously distinguished between an originalism that focused on the original framer's…

You Say It's Your Birthday...

We have happy birthdays to hand out for two of the good folks at the National Center for Science Education. Yesterday was the birthday of the NCSE's associate director Glenn Branch. And today is the birthday of information project director Wesley Elsberry. They are both really nice guys and Wesley in particular has, over the last few years, become a really good friend. After the very serious health problems he went through the last 2 years that nearly took him from us, today really is a day to celebrate. Happy Birthday, gentlemen. Next time I'm out your way, which I hope will be soon, the…

New Jersey's New Slogan

The great state of New Jersey - the Garden State - is on the lookout for a new state slogan. This, of course, has become the butt of many jokes as Jersey has long been. The jokes practically write themselves. New Jersey: What are you lookin at? New Jersey: Fugetaboutit It all reminds me of an old Robert Wuhl bit about the New Jersey legislature actually considering a bill that would have made Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run the official state anthem. That would, he noted, be the very first state anthem with the word "suicide" in it. "Baby this town rips the bones from your back" - tourism is…

WTF?

The incompetence is stunning. Richard Dawkins makes the Time 100 list, and who do they commission to write up his profile? Michael Fucking Behe. That's not just stupid, it's a slap in the face. It would have been no problem to find a smart biologist, even one who might be critical of Dawkins' message, to write something that expressed some measure of respect from the editorial staff. But to dig up a pseudoscientific fraud whose sole claim to fame is that he has led the charge to corrupt American science education for over a decade is shameful. I'm sure there's an editor at Time sniggering…

On The X Blog

In case you were not noticing, a few items have come up on the X Blog for your attention. I made a few observations from Bill Clinton's amazing speech last night and have a suggestion for my Republican friends. There's a wonderful bit of video in which Mitt Romney sits down with a plaid flannel jacket wearing Vet to hob-nob with the masses, and accidentally ends up in a conversation about gay marriage with a guy who would really like to share is veteran's benefits with his significant other. Be sure to watch it through to the end! And, there's been several special editions of the Sunday…

Baby Birds

This is baby bird week on 10,000 Birds. From the intro post: Somehow it seemed fitting that after our last theme week – Bird Love Week – that we should spend a full seven days examining what could be the results of that theme. It’s Baby Bird Week on 10,000 Birds and the adorable, fuzzy-wuzzy, itsy-bitsy, baby birdies will be everywhere! Can you handle the cuteness? If you go to the bottom of that post, you'll see a current listing of posts...as of this writing there are four beyond the intro...so you can explore them all. My contribution will be up tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Nvidia support for Linux UPDATED!

Linux inventer Linus Torvalds gave a talk recently at Aalto University in Finland. It is a very interesting talk that anyone involved in Open Source technology or computer software development would enjoy. During the talk, the issue of support for Linux from hardware manufacturers came up, and Linus had a comment for Nvidia, which it seems is not only non-supportive but maybe even anti-OpenSource. Linus's comment is below the fold becuase it is not work safe: If your browser does not support moving GIF's then you may want to go to the source, here. UPDATE: Nvidia has responded. They say…

What is Linked In for? Anybody know?

Over the last couple of years I've added contacts to Linked In with a certain amount of consideration. In other words, I've added only links that are "real" in some sense; they are friends and friends of friends, and colleagues and colleagues of colleagues who's name I recognized. Then, yesterday, my password was published on the internet. That's now been changed, but again, it is effort I've expended. I've gotten no benefit from being on Linked In. So far, I've spent time, and I've been at risk but with no reward. Why am I here and why should I stay? Anybody know?…

What the F…?

Let's support the troops! I always thought those stupid yellow ribbon magnets that people stuck on their cars were insulting in their triviality, but I did not know how low we could sink in the insipidity of token nods to those who are making sacrifices in the services. Mike Dunford received some helpful email from the military: Effective immediately, the word "Families" will be capitalized in all Army correspondence. Please ensure wide dissemination of this change. Thanks for your continued efforts to do all you can to provide steadfast support to our Army Families. There's an "F" word on…

Court To Hear CO2 Arguments

The EPA made what is called an "endangerment finding" a while back which asserts that it is appropriate to regulate the release of greenhouse gasses. This was challenged in court by science deinialists and energy interests via "the state of Virginia, the industry front-group Coalition for Responsible Regulation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Tea Party-industry front Southeastern Legal Foundation." Brad Johnson has a post outlining the situation here. The endangerment finding is based on a large and internally consist ant corpus of scientific findings. The argument against the finding…

Vote for Something Good for Kids to Do

Budget Travel is running one of those ill-fated Internet Polls to help make a list of the top 15 places to go for kids before they are 15. Sort of like bucket list but instead of dying you turn 15. One small problem is that the Creation Museum of Kentucky has been intruding in the top ten, even top five, of this list. You need to go there and vote for something else! Like, all the attractions that you happen to like that are lower than the Creation Museum at the moment. Click here to help save the Youth of North America from certain doom!

Traditional Inuit Knowledge meets Science

When I was a kid, I saw a photograph in an old Life magazine of a man standing on the ice somewhere in the Arctic, and a killer whale breaking trough the ice, much of the whale's body out of the water, a very short distance from the man. The whale was so close to the man that it was hard to say if the wincing expression on his face was due to being splashed with cold seawater or the thought that he was about to be ruthlessly mauled and eaten by the most vicious and dangerous creature on Earth. Those were the days... Go read my latest post at Surprising Science. You might be surprised!

Morbid tales to engage the student body

Greg Laden puts an interesting twist on the question of how many hominin fossils we have: the question should be, "how did they die?". We seem to have evolved from a species that was primarily a prey item on predators' grocery list, to one that succumbed most often to disease, to one where mortality was driven by violence (and now, at least in our prosperous corner of the world, where senescence exacerbated by sloth and gluttony is the common cause of death.) He's right. The cool questions our students ought to be getting excited about have nothing to do with the nonsense the Discovery…

The Palin/Bachmann Ticket Moves Into Position

Did anyone notice the straw poll results from the CPAC convention? CPAC is the Conservative Political Action Conference. With all this talk about Palin and Bachmann and Palin/Bachmann and Bachmann/Palin and so on and so forth, one would be surprised if they didn't come in at or near the top of the poll. Here were the results: Ron Raul: 30%, Mitt Romney: 23%, Gary Johnson 6%, Chris Christie 6%, Newt Gingrich: 5%, Tim Pawlenty 4%, ... Michele Bachmann 4%, Mitch Daniels 4%, Sarah Palin: 3%, Herman Cain 2%, Mike Huckabee 2%, Rick Santorum 2%, John Thune 2%, Jon Huntsman 1%, Haley Barbour 1%

F*$&%^#g spammers

So, I keep getting damn spam comments. I'd intentionally left things pretty simple for commenters 'cause I know what a pain it can be to have to register for something different at every blog just to comment, but something's going to have to change. Some options are to do what Ed's done and require TypeKey registration. I could do what Chris has done and moderate all comments, but IMO that's a bad solution for me because I'm so often away from the computer during the night and weekends (and even during the day when I'm in the lab or at meetings). So--what are your preferences? Any other…

Stensö Castle 2015 Fieldwork Report

Myself, Ethan Aines and Mats G. Eriksson are proud to present our report on last year’s fieldwork at Stensö Castle, Östra Husby parish, Östergötland. Lots of goodies there, and with an added meaty report on the bones by Rudolf Gustavsson! It was a very fruitful two weeks at the site, during which we found the missing half of the perimeter wall, abundant fine pottery from around AD 1300, a runic inscription by a certain Helgi, the bones of a skinned cat, and more. Here on Sb: Stenso 2015 Report (High-res, single-sided print) And on archive.org. See also the report for 2014, the first…

Stupidity from Melanie Phillips this time...

An astute (?) reader points me towards Even greener than he thinks by Melanie Phillips. Apart from starting off with a few good points (why is it "green" to fly by private jet to the Arctic for a photo-op) we are down to the usual tedium (the Hockey stick *isn't* fatally flawed; GW isn't based on it anyway (and in a feat of self-contradiction she declares in the next sentence that its also all based on computer modelling, which isn't true either); the world wasn't 2 oC warmer in the MWP; feedbacks are as likely +ve as -ve... and so on. Errr, which is why I didn;t bother to write a post about…

Weekend Family Blogging

Lots of people ask how SteelyKid is taking to having a younger sibling. Well, judge for yourself: This is during the Giants-Falcons playoff game this afternoon, but it's pretty typical. When both SteelyKid and The Pip are home, she's always running over to give him kisses and hugs and chatter at him. She's super excited to be a big sister, and that hasn't changed. Better yet, a few minutes after that first picture, she looked like this: And, in fact, she's still snoring cutely. We'll wake her up soonish, but for now, we're enjoying the break from constant, exhausting motion. Hope you and…

Belated Cute Blogging

Both Monday and Thursday were too hectic this week to get good family pictures. I got this one today, though, that I think is probably worth the wait: The great thing about taking pictures of really little babies is that they sleep soundly enough for you to futz around changing lenses and apertures and all that sort of thing. And so SteelyKid doesn't feel left out, here's a group shot from last week: The Pip is a little unhappy in this, but it's the best of the shots on my camera. I think my parents might've gotten a better one on their camera. Anyway, there's your weekly dose of cute.

Thursday Taller Blogging 080411

As she never tires of telling us, SteelyKid keeps getting bigger and bigger. How big? She can touch the ceiling! OK, she has to be on my shoulders to do it, but the distance between her head and the ceiling has gotten really small. She's huge! the picture above was taken by Kate standing a few steps up on the stairs. For the ground-level effect (more or less), click through below the fold. She wouldn't allow a picture tonight, which is a shame, because we spent at least half an hour playing the world's most ridiculous game of hide-and-seek. But these, from last night, were too good not to…

Friday Toddler Ego Blogging

This was a hellishly busy week, and today was especially bad. I barely had time to read non-work-related email, let alone write anything for the blog. And now that I have time, I'm too fried to write anything. So here's a bonus cute-toddler photo, with an ego-blogging element: That's SteelyKid sitting in my desk chair, watching the National Geographic video clip from the other day. She's pointing at the screen to say "That's you walking Emmy!" Which she does every time we play it, and it doesn't get old. I don't think she really gets the physics yet, but there's plenty of time for that...

Toddler On Wheels

SteelyKid and Kate are down in Boston this weekend, which has given me time to get some work done around the house, and go to some restaurants that they don't like. It's left me a little deprived of cute, though. So, as a counter to that, some cute video of SteelyKid riding her "motorcycle" (her term) down the small hill by Grandma and Grandpa's: (She can just barely reach the pedals, but can't use them very effectively, so she just scoots it along with her feet, and picks them up once she gets going. The abrupt stop at the end of this was in order to demand another jellybean from Grandma.)

Cat Does Experimental Archaeology

Bajs-Arne ("Shitty Arnie") is the family cat. Saturday, in a clumsy attempt to check out the view from the kitchen window, he overturned an hibiscus and created an archaeological pottery assemblage. It consists of a complete Swedish 2000s flower pot, a complete Swedish 1940s glazed China soup plate that the pot had been sitting on, and a large sherd of a Chinese 1990s glazed China soup bowl that had been plugging the drain hole in the pot. Shitty Arnie hopes to publish a note on the assemblage in a near-future issue of the Newsletter of the Department of Pottery Technology, University of…

Pimp my Grant Proposal

As I mentioned the other day, I'm hoping to do some Bronze Age research once my current project about Dark Ages magnate farms is done. The Swedish Research Council's annual application deadline is less than two weeks from now, and I've put a grant proposal together. The project title is In the Landscape and Between Worlds. Bronze Age Sacrificial Sites in the Lake Mälaren Area. The text is just two pages, and it's all about the research, no financial details. Dear Reader, I'd appreciate it if you would have a look and perhaps offer some constructive criticism! Update 26 March: I've submitted…

Sidewalk Polaroid

When I was in Florida a month ago, right after having lunch with an elder statesman of the skeptical movement, I found the above polaroid photograph on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. The signs above the windows have allowed me to identify the building as a Williams Scotsman "section modular office building". It's a moveable house that you rent for temporary needs. Judging from the state of the board ramp to the left, this particular specimen has been sitting there for quite some time. There are some palm fronds in the top right corner, suggesting that the house is somewhere in Florida…

Swedish Golden Age Science Fiction Mags

Here's something for lovers and collectors of classic science fiction. Häpna! ("Be Amazed!") was the seminal Swedish sf fiction mag, published from 1954 to 1966, with many translations of the US Golden Age greats but also much work by Swedish writers. Now the Alvar Appeltofft Memorial Foundation is offering nearly the entire backlog of the mag very cheaply, and they have a healthy number of copies of each issue, all in pristine condition. Dear Reader -- even if you don't understand one word of Scandy, can you honestly say that your living-room table is complete without a fresh copy of a…

The Amazing Meeting 5.5

Registration has opened for The Amazing Meeting 5.5, a skeptical conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on 25-27 January 2008. The conference takes its name from skeptical godfather James (The Amazing) Randi, who will preside over the event together with Hal Bidlack. The theme of the meeting is Skepticism & Activism. Among the speakers are 9/11-conspiracy skeptic Mark Roberts, Skepchick founder Rebecca Watson, anti-psychic campaigner Robert S. Lancaster and sf author Michael A. Stackpole. I'm going to TAM 5.5 as an emissary of the Swedish Skeptics Society (Vetenskap och Folkbildning) and…

North European Natural Caffeine Source?

An idle thought struck me. Let's say you're on the latitude of Northern Europe and you've become a locavore, someone who avoids foodstuffs that must be transported far from their production site. Let's also say that you don't like greenhouses. And finally, let's say you're hooked on coffee or tea. Is there a caffeine source that can be grown outdoors in Northern Europe? Most psychoactive substances only occur in a small group of closely related plants. But caffeine pops up in widely divergent branches of the floral kingdom. Does anybody know of a caffeine-producing plant that, say, a Dane or…

Weekend Fun

The Rundkvist family right before we went in and apprehended the extraterrestrial. Photo F. Gilljam. Friday was Mid-summer's Eve. Cycled with the kids to the local maypole celebration. Back home, I assembled the first barbecue I've ever owned and made some really nice souvlaki for our guests. Saturday we visited Felicia's charming parents in rural Grödinge, not far from where my grandparents used to have a summer house. Learned a lot about beekeeping the hands-on way, saw interesting plants & poultry. Sunday I took a long bike ride with the kids and logged three geocaches. And your…

And that's how successful our "intervention" in Afghanistan was

Aunty has a story about how Nato has formally ended its 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan. I got to watch it on TV, and noticed that the ceremony looked odd - like it was being held in a gym. And indeed the Beeb article sez Sunday's ceremony was low-key - held inside a gymnasium at the alliance headquarters away from the public. What that article doesn't quite bring itself to say - but the TV did - was that the ceremony was effectively held in secret, for fear of attack by the Taliban. That's the measure of how disastrous a failure its all been. They didn't add that last sentence, oddly.