Fever Few

The Large Hadron Collider yesterday - It's in Keswick you know.

There is some ambivalence towards Big Bang Day in our house. Despite excitement about the Torchwood Radio play, there is some worry amongst the younger members of the household regarding the possibility of the whole thing going on at the Large Hadron Collider causing a real Big Bang instead of just a hyperbolic BBC one. Some sleep has been lost. I blame The Radio Times. I suppose this is not a conspiracy theory because the nay-sayers are not claiming that the scientists want the world to end - just that it might if something unforeseen happens. However at least they won't be able to come out shouting "I told you so!" - if anything does happen, our end will be the instantaneous separation of the particles making up our bodies meaning that the thought won't even begin to be able to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing our minds. The ultimate humane death I suppose. It won't be hell - it will be blankness. Pah! Shake of head and dismissal of doomsday scenario. See you next Wednesday.

To be honest I don't hold out much hope of the programmes to accompany the "hitting of return" that will start the whole thing off, being anything other than the standard BBC puff that is science broadcasting these days. The exception at the moment is Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery which is a wonderfully measured programme - harking back to the glory days of such programmes as The Body in Question and The Ascent of Man. The only problem with it is the lack of time - no documentary series gets a 13 week run these days with 3 or 5 being the standard number while Casualty and the cliche-by-numbers that is Holby City get continuous slots. A few extra seconds between scenes gives TV programmes an serious air which when missing renders everything like a soap opera aimed at those with short attention spans. Still, if that's they way we get people to be interested in science and culture then so be it. Last night's surgery was lacking in gore but I suspect that next week's might be quite shocking as it is about facial reconstruction. Click the picture below for related information.




Sweep of notes:

Dark Autumn Afternoon. Handwriting changes "feel" of writing depending on mood
and other things. I've forgotten something in the meantime. Forgotten it twice
now! Got it! My extremes of mood seem to be smoothed out, like keeping the value
of a currency between arbitrary values to allow its future conversion. I like
this attempt to join up every letter.

And that's your lot.