tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18440614489306632732024-03-05T06:01:23.800+00:00Space and SpaceabilityLunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-50401578990267732302015-12-23T11:47:00.000+00:002019-05-09T21:51:48.823+01:00A seasonal message<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming
to Town”, arguably the creepiest Christmas song ever.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(New black-on-black display for extra
security: mouse over it to read it)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You better watch out</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You better not try</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">to mess us about! I’m telling you why:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NSA are coming to town.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We’re makin’ a list,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of people we hate.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You won’t know you’re on it, till it’s too late.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NSA are coming to town.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We see you when you’re sleeping.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We know when you’re awake,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">we know if you’ve been bad or good,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and we never make mistakes!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You better watch out</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And if you should try</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">to mess us about, we’ll call you a spy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NSA are coming to town.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<![endif]-->Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-43913192646299184192015-12-21T16:28:00.000+00:002017-07-17T21:16:13.155+01:00Solstice Question<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
stepped out into a garden bathed in ridiculously warm air. She could sense the trees and plants still growing: the air didn’t smell of Winter. 2017 had been even hotter than the previous two years, both of which had broken records.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The pale
sun, just visible over the hedge, stood still behind its thin patterned veil of clouds. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She had
never before sat out on the lawn in December; it struck her as such an outlandish
prospect that she felt compelled to do so. Eighteen degrees. The canopy had blown off the
swinging seat in last week’s gales and she still felt too weak to shift it, so
she got out a light, folding deckchair. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She sat and
contemplated Solstice. The year turning: what had she done since this time last
year..? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Thinking
about me, lass?”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She felt
Mills’ hands on her shoulders. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Mills...</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">”</span> she turned with difficulty to see him.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“</span>go carefully: it’s still a bit delicate there. You know they had to saw
through bones.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Aye, lass,
I can tell.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He spread
out his hands on her shoulders.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Phases,
recall? But it’s healing: your mortal bones, they rebuild themselves, all the
time, hmm?” She felt him finding the
knots in her shoulders, her neck, complicated by their recent ordeal. He went carefully.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Now then
lass: I came here to ask you a question.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">No Blue Bomber this year. Had she mortally offended him by turning down the offer of his long
lifespan?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No lass,
don’t fret.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“How could
you tell_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It put you
in fear, just for a moment there, that you might have hurt my feelings. But you
haven’t. Not now. I understand the reason for your choice last year: perfectly
sensible. I regret I didn’t think it through properly at the time. And now,
with your heart repaired, you have a long life before you. Long <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lives</i>, even, what with the extra one my
misdemeanour has afforded you.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
mentally rehearsed the words she could use, if in mortal danger, to summon her
extra life:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">About, that, life, I’m, owed.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Might
you... er... is it even possible..?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Aye lass.
When the time is right, there will be another offer.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Silence
fell. Silence, except for birdsong. The sort, Verity noticed, that you usually
don’t hear until the Spring. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I came here
this year to ask you a different question altogether.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh. Fire
away.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“A simple
yes or no.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He paused,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Would you allow
me to take you to, any place of my choosing?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She didn’t
like the tone of those last five words. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What... place?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh I reckon
you know, lass.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No! You
said you’d never make me go there again_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Make you go
there, no. But the question was, would you let me, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">allow</i> me, of your own free will, to take you there?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He lowered
his voice and bent towards her.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Would you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">trust</i> me there?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No. Still
no. You yourself said I should never trust you.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Aye, that I
did. And when I said that, you took that piece of advice, didn’t you?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He spelled
it out slowly:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You trusted
my advice. So you trusted me. Didn’t you?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“That’s not
fair! That’s...sophistry! I...the advice <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">itself</i>
was good. Given what you’d just done to me - left me on Blencathra in the sleet,
in just a thin robe, barefoot - I’d have taken the same piece of advice from
anybody. Heck, I’d have taken it from that bastard former Prime Minister!”
she paused before adding finally:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“So there!!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mills rubbed
his chin. “Hm.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Very well.
Would you, take it as a challenge? To let me_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“In my
current state? With bones yet to heal and... Mills I’d never recover! Never
be... structurally sound again! It’s ridiculous! I wouldn’t be able to lift
things...” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mills’
silence made her ill-at-ease.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Aye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re in no fit state for the rack, are you
lass. But that wasn’t what I had in mind.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Mills, stop
it!” She got up and turned to face him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“If you’re
going to carry on like that, you can clear off!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Over three
months now without a migraine, since her heart had been repaired. She was <i>not</i> going to let him break that run: the longest in her adult life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Aye, lass.
You’re thinking what I’m thinking aren’t you?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She felt his
hands in her hair. On her soft spot, her temples...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Enhanced.
With electrodes for the eye sockets. And best of all: virtual. Not a mark.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i>Shut up</i>!!
I’ve got bloody Sinus Tachycardia! You think this is going to do it any good?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Only when
she’d finished her outburst did she notice he’d taken his hands from her head.
Notice what he held, by their stalks, out towards her. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh my GOD
Mills that really isn’t fair!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You’d do it - you’d take a challenge like this - for your family’s County, wouldn’t you?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He held the
white rose out for her.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She stared
into the depths of its petals, lost in them. Their roots, she noticed, had a
yellow tinge. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That’s not fair... </i>She
glanced across at the red rose Mills held in his other hand: no yellow tinge
there.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> a coward. She had <i>no</i> yellow fears. She would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> be outdone. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She could
feel her heart overdoing it: could practically hear it. Overclocking, as she'd joked to Andrei on his computer. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sinus Tachycardia</i>...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sing, dance; send Fear away.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Would it
be possible to sing, or think of dancing, in the virtual head-crusher? If she were
there, could she?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Four years ago in May, Andrei’s
birthday. Sinus Tachycardia, playing at Manchester Arena. Probably their last
tour ever. She'd bought tickets for the two of them: mother and son. She had migraine. Excruciating, even after taking enough
painkillers to make her start seeing things. Extra things, in addition to the usual black flashes with their sickening edges. Did she bail? No! She got up, got
dressed and went. Beyond pain: sing, dance... </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yes it was
possible. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She took the
white rose.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Good lass.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The roses
vanished.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She stared
at Mills’ face. “What was all that about?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I needed to
know that you’re up to it, lass.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Up to... what?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“To what
happens next.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-6833999069822823692015-11-28T13:29:00.000+00:002017-07-17T21:21:49.190+01:00Trigeminy<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No,” said
Verity, “It’s ridiculous.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sacha
sneezed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You can’t
drive me to Leeds with a temperature of, what was it, nearly forty? You’d be a
bloody menace on the roads and then you’d be Typhoid Mary on the ward_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I wouldn’t
go to the ward.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sacha hadn’t got the point, as usual.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It wouldn’t
do you any good. And it’d make me more likely to catch it too. Imagine sneezing
when your ribcage’s held together with bits of wire: no. Stop it. I’m going to
get you some elderberry drink and bring you some lunch here and then I’m off.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Can’t you
go tomorrow instead?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No.
Tomorrow’s four weeks. Monday. Remember we noticed Rembrandt’s always there on
a Sunday evening, talking with her Monday patients? I want to catch her. And I
don’t want to catch bloody ‘flu.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She kissed
him, and went to fetch her combat knife and a lighter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">*****</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity, deep
in thought, looked out over the grey, rain-swept fields.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They must be tracking me, I
suppose...must be able to tell I’m on the move. Must probably have guessed
where I’m heading. Sod it: should’ve let Sacha drive us. But then they might’ve
tried to run us off the road, like that bloke did with <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/117804.The_Kindness_of_Strangers" target="_blank">Kate Adie</a>...Sacha
might’ve got injured. And my ribs hurt. You can’t win...</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The train
pulled up at Leeds station and she headed for the ticket barrier. It swallowed
her ticket, unmoved.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Bugger. They’re here! Perfect place
to catch me.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She headed
for a ticket inspector who looked promisingly British: a black lad with a
toothy grin.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Sorry,
I...it wouldn’t let me through. I’ve still got the receipt for the ticket if
you need proof_”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh they
often do that when it’s rainin’: wet tickets get stuck.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He let her
through the wide gate, along with the prams and wheeled suitcases.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Thanks.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The incident
put her on-edge. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That bunch of
people...is it them? That bloke? No: wonky teeth.</i> She wished she’d had the
presence of mind to put on more lip moisturiser before leaving the train. She thought
about taking the shuttle bus rather than walking to the Jubilee Building: perhaps
less likely to get ambushed. It meant turning right rather than left out of the
station, and crossing the_</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Looked
right:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> there’s a sodding great S.U.V.! It’s
them!</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She crossed
the road, walking away from it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A shot rang
out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Someone else took it: not me. Get in
that concrete stairwell</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Down the
curved stars, out of sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It led to
Neville Street and the four-lane underpass with its strange sighing wall: an
art installation. And to the <a href="http://leedsstories.net/2010/10/06/the_dark_arches/" target="_blank">Dark Arches</a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They won’t be able to pick up the
signal from there. I can disappear and come out the other side: I bet they
don’t even know it exists...</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She pushed
through the bedraggled metal fence and walked along the deserted former car-park. The
arches with their four channels for the river Aire. Designed by her ancestor,
Engineer Bennett. She smiled in the dark. The dark that hid her. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Breaths came
sharply: her heartbeat was pegged and unable to rise to the occasion. Had the
brakes on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Brake my heart...</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She got to
the steps which led down to the fourth of the river culverts, with its concrete
walkway. The darkest place, where she’d first encountered the <a href="http://spaceandspaceability.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/riverside-cocktails.html" target="_blank">Cocktail Party</a>.
The three operatives, who’d now switched sides and deserted her. Difficult to
climb over the fence to reach the steps: pains shot up and down her chest where
the wires held it together. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m not supposed to be doing this...</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Suddenly the
car-park flooded with cold white light. She heard the S.U.V. crash through the
fence, drive towards where she’d been just a second ago, and park up directly
above her. Doors slammed. Footsteps.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Other
footsteps were coming towards her along the walkway. She ducked round behind
the steel steps just as two sets of sparks shot off them. No gunshot, only a
whistling sound.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She hoped
they couldn’t hear her breathing. Trying to calm her breath, she hoped she wouldn’t pass out. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Boots on the
stairs, heading down over her. Another gunshot: away from her. More tasers,
coming back towards the steps. The drive spark lit up a face: a face wearing
those N.V.G.s. The optics, invented by Sacha, now in Enemy hands: on Enemy eyes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Somebody
grabbed her from behind. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Three
twists: pull the knife, twist to stab, twist then pull back. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks, <a href="http://spaceandspaceability.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-lure-of-black-mountain.html" target="_blank">Black Mountain</a></span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A dark
figure collapsed near her feet. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A pain shot
up her sternum.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">More
gunshots: more taser sparks. But they didn’t seem to be getting any nearer. If
anything they were receding. And concentrating more on each other than on her. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She clung to
the steps. It became difficult to stand. She could tell: whoever had the Remote
was at it again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Denying her the heartbeats that she needed. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Footsteps,
walking, coming slowly towards her. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This isn’t a good enough place to
hide: What if he’s got N.V.G.s on? Or some kind of infra-red camera?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She spotted
an iron ladder leading down into the water: into the black Aire, swollen with
the rain. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Y<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">es, if I take
three steps down that, I’m completely out of sight of whoever this is, and then
when they give up looking, and I think all the other ones have gone now, I can
just get back up and be on my way...</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The chilling water
tugged at her legs as she stepped down: she could tell it would drag her away
if she lost hold of the ladder’s uprights. She wrapped her arms around them and
listened for the footsteps. Nothing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Embracing
the ladder, she closed her eyes and waited. Time became strange. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps it’s safe now. Safe to climb
up.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She opened
her eyes and looked up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Golden uprights. Golden rungs:
thirteen of them, and they belong to someone called Jacob. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvsw_Jq4UcE" target="_blank">Thirteen beats to the bar</a>. Clouds at my feet. Just a perfectly normal day. I’d better get a move
on, towards that hand at the top there, help me up. A left hand: and all those twazzocks saying their god’s right-handed... </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She started
to climb.</span></div>
Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-9383027613654891882015-11-25T12:38:00.000+00:002016-12-07T22:33:50.751+00:00Couplet<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“So,
gentlemen: this is our first subject. Our pioneer, if you like. Meet Patient
Zero.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Professor
Austin addressed his two students. One of whom, Verity noticed, was female. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Professor’s voice was lower and more carefully-spoken than Verity remembered:
she wondered if he had the ‘flu. She stared blankly at the wall behind his left
shoulder. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There was
Jamila in her damask robes, turning her chair round and getting out her little
book for morning prayers. She put a shawl over her head. Verity wished she
could do the same; she was finding it hard not to smile at her own ingenuity.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">***** </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Helen,
Jamila,” she had said earlier, over breakfast, “I don’t know if I ever told
you, but I volunteer for experiments. As a, er, subject. And I heard yesterday
that these guys, the latest lot, they’ve just got their grant money through. They’re
psychologists. Or psychiatrists, I can’t remember.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Are they
coming here, to the ward?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yes.”
Verity looked into her empty breakfast bowl. “I’m really sorry_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What are they going to do?” asked Jamila.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Just...look
at me and, try and talk with me. It’s like a Turing Test_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Helen looked
up. Verity could tell she’d never heard of such a thing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“They’ve
got, fifty real mental patients, and fifty of us who’ve got nothing wrong with
us. And we’ve got to pretend to be, you know, one thing short of a wotnot, and
then without doing any physical tests, like brainwaves and stuff, they’ve got
to tell the real ones from the, er,”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Players?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
grinned. “Yeah. Players.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“So I take
it your sponsored silence_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Ooh thanks,
yes, that’s a point!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She took
down the notice about Amnesty International. “Yes: I’ve not really much choice
have I..?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You must be
mad.” Helen had said.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">***** </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Professor came around beside Verity’s bed, pulled up a chair and sat down. He leaned
in. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Hello,
Verity.” He spoke slowly and carefully, </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">looking right into her eyes</span>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
stared blankly past him and out of the window.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Do you remember
who I am?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Judge your
honour...” said Verity in a monotone. She noticed the male student snigger.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Can you
hear_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Hear...”
Verity echoed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The female
student came over. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Can you
remember your name?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“My...prayer...”
Verity remembered to squint: disconcert them. The female student backed off a
little. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yes:
Player, that’s right.” said the male student with a smile that even Verity
could see was fake. “Verity,” he looked down at his clipboard, “Imelda, Player.”
She decided she didn’t like him. She stared straight in his eyes and announced:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I’ve just
cut my good man’s throat.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She saw
Helen grinning and stifling a laugh. Thankfully Jamila was still in deep
communion with The Merciful.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Professor’s right hand flashed up to slap Verity, but her own left arm moved quicker to block: defence. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Self-preservation.”
said the male student. “Surely getting rid of the drive for self-preservation
will prove more difficult than the work done so fa_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“And <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i>, exactly, would <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</span> know about these complex cognitive
processes, hmm? Of the statistical calculations involved in analysing and
modifying them? Of the search, the screening, the vetting, for the ideal, first
subject? Ewan?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
noticed ‘Ewan’s ears turn red. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ6w5IlqhSk" target="_blank">Send me to the ‘lectric chair!</a>” she ordered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Professor turned pale. He got up and left the bay, followed by his two
students. Verity watched them out of the ward door until it had closed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“They’ve
gone”, she said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Colonel
walked in with a coffee. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh, thank
you.” She smiled up at him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You were
damn good!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Thank you,
Colonel. Have you met Helen and Jamila, by the way?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Colonel’s
eyes widened on seeing Jamila.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Is that a
real, y’know, Moslem?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yes. She’s
praying.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Well, OK. Now, let’s talk about Cassie.
Methods: tactics. You ‘member the tone?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
hummed it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“She ain’t
gonna get scared off like your Prof, and she ain’t got a stinkin’ hangover
neether_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Was he hung
over?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Sure,
couldn’t you tell? ‘Mazed you didn’t get tipsy just sittin’ near the guy.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You...weren’t...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In</i>. No I wasn’t. Trusted ya to do a good
job. You play soccer don’tcha? Defense.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Used to.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“One-up at half-time, huh? Whatcha gotta do now?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Er...keep
my nerve.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Sure.
Defend good. I can go in and tell if you’re losin’ it, if ya like. If it don’t
disconcert ya.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What could
you do, though? If I_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Sit in the
lounge there, line o’sight, and give y’a signal. Biofeedback.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“That might
help actually, yes.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity spent
the rest of the morning on-edge. Just before lunch she went to the window and
looked, once more, at the evil Plant Building. Recalled the lad she had seen in
Helen’s chair. Decided not to tell Helen about it: thankfully everybody had
slept right through the fracas. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Hurts. Sicks. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She grasped
the handle to open the window. No infrasound today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And screamed
out loud:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i>Oh my God</i>!!
Infrasound! Hertz! Six!! That lad...<i>Six Hertz</i>!! Bloody hell! Am I thick or <i>what</i>??”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When she
turned round to apologise to Helen and Jamila, she slammed straight into Cassie. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Can love beeee...</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She hummed the
tone in her head: block Cassie’s signal. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She couldn’t
see the Colonel. She didn’t know how a broken person should walk. She recalled
the R.T.I. video she'd watched last year, took its advice about emergency situations and collapsed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cassie knelt
beside her. Someone's footsteps headed for the Nurses’ Station. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Are you OK?”
Cassie’s voice. Footsteps headed in towards her.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“All the
excitement proving a bit too much for us, is it?” Dr Wheeler’s voice. “General, I
think we’d better allow Mrs Player a bit of quiet, hadn't we?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cassie
wouldn’t budge.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“<a href="http://www.holah.karoo.net/rosenhanstudy.htm" target="_blank">Thud</a>.” said
Verity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cassie’s
footsteps receded.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr Wheeler
knelt beside Verity, but she could tell his attention lay elsewhere. She heard
the ward door close.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Well done,”
said Dr Wheeler, putting down Verity's discharge report and medications so as to offer her a hand up. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I think we had her fooled, don’t you?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
couldn’t quite believe her ears. </span></div>
Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-85012964911308724182015-11-14T16:35:00.000+00:002015-11-17T18:13:27.823+00:00Operations<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Are you
sure we can do this here?” asked Sacha, his huge frown betraying doubt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yes yes,
just pull the curtain round, like that, and bring that other little footstool
from over there. It’s Visitors’: they won’t come and bother me for anything
right now.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity got
out of bed, pulled on her dressing gown and lowered the over-bed table. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Then all we
need is this one, and put the little table here...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They knelt.
In an instant they stood on the steps of Verity’s Mind Palace,
overlooking the garden. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Autumn had
arrived. The skyscape was low, dark and monotone. Orange leaves stood out like frozen flames. Most of the plants in the beds had long since
lost their green pulse of life and collapsed, brown and greasy, on the soil.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Hey, the
layout’s changed!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">No more ornamental
octagonal expanses of flowers: instead, regimented raised beds of winter root
vegetables, lined up for inspection.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It looks
like at the Dacha.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It looks
like ‘Dig for Victory’. Anyone’d think I’d gone on a diet!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They turned
round to go in. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh God, the
lights are out_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No, there
are heavy curtains_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Blackout
blinds! Heck it looks grim.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Grim oop
North.” Sacha smiled. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Put that
bloody light out!” Verity joked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There were
no chandeliers in the hallway: just bare bulbs with black metal hats. A wall
blocked the right-hand half of the enfilade. On a dark wooden door whose cross-wired,
frosted window had been curtained off from the inside were posted the words:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Narkisim; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Gothic";">Ministry of
Conversation</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity tried
the handle. The door opened.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They stepped
through onto dusty worn parquet. The room stretched before them for at least
twenty paces. Cold gloss walls, dark green to a brown strip at dado height and
cream above, faded to indistinct colours towards the far end as the dust and
soot in the air did their work. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A huge
wooden desk stood near the side wall to the left, with a formation of chairs
around it. Verity noticed the design: ‘Utility’, from the middle of last
century. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A black
stove squatted beyond the desk. Though throwing out heat, it showed no flames
and didn’t seem up to the task of warming the room. A coal bucket stood next to
it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A small
table near the stove held tea-making things: a black kettle, a large pale blue
enamelled-metal teapot and a flotilla of cups and saucers of a light green,
triangular design that Verity remembered from her grandparents’ house. On
the blackboard over the table someone had written: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When in doubt, brew up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Against the
far wall they could make out a stark, bare table and two chairs. A black-shaded
lamp hung low over the table. Near this arrangement sat what appeared to be a
huge set of some type of audio equipment. Verity walked over to investigate it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Hey, it’s
Russian! Look! Made in Leningrad: like you!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="RU" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: RU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Ленинград, СССР</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sacha’s
confidence working it took Verity aback: he wasn’t usually the practical sort. When
he fired it up it replayed, verbatim, the entire conversation she had had with
the Colonel in his Mind Palace. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity found
a sheaf of papers on top of it: technical drawings. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She recognised the shapes of all the pieces
the Colonel had shown her in the attaché case. She turned to Sacha and leaned
on his shoulder,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Thank
you...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What for?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You must
have come and sat by me, when I was visiting the Colonel’s mind. Without your
help, there’s no way I’d ever have been able to memorise all the stuff he told
me...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh, what’s
this?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It looked
like an oscilloscope. Verity fired it up. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A perfect
sinewave showed on the screen and a single tone filled the room.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It’s...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity’s
face lit up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“That’s the
jamming frequency! The Colonel told me, how to defend against the sort of mind-reading
he does. He was showing off like a twazzock. He forgot I have perfect pitch: I
can remember it!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She went
to sit in the chair behind the large desk, and absentmindedly tried its top
drawer. The drawer opened. In it lay two notebooks: one dog-eared and bound in
pale green, one brand new and bound in black. She waved the green booklet,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It’s a
ration book!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And opened
it,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It’s...words!
Conversation! Like conversation’s on the ration!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Well, you
don’t like to say much now because of that_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Blimey, so
it <i>is</i> on the ration. And it even has a Ministry. To administer it. That’s...weird.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sacha came
over, picked up the black book and opened it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Let’s have
tea” he said slowly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh, good
idea! There’s_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No, I mean,
that’s what it says in here, look.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
looked. There were only two sentences typed on the first page. The second read:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Let’s talk
in the kitchen, where no-one can hear us.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What an odd
pair of sentences.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We’re</i> an odd pair of sentences.” said
Sacha, putting an arm around Verity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
giggled. “Yes I suppose we are. D’you remember when we had to do that? Use the
kitchen to_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It’s a code
book.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That’s</i> what we said, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that’s</i> what it meant.” Sacha indicated
the two sentences as he spoke.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I think it’s
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<![endif]-->Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-42407839435173379082015-11-05T21:59:00.001+00:002015-11-05T23:06:23.491+00:00Bonfire Night thoughts When I was a kid, I always thought tonight's date was about celebrating someone who was brave and daring enough to get rid of a load of greedy MPs, presumably for some noble, selfless cause. We learned the bare bones of it at school, but nothing about the reason behind it.<br />
<br />
I came home and asked my mum what "torture" meant. I was about 5.<br />
<br />
Then I found out that the celebration marked his failure, not his daring. I thought this a bit of a let-down: why celebrate something failing?<br />
<br />
Well, perhaps because the alternative was even worse than what England had going on at the time (famine, witch-hunts, etc). Meh. By this time I found this out, I was about 12. <br />
<br />
Later we moved to Glasgow, where nobody likes to talk about it all because it's so divisive. We didn't go to bonfire nights for those four years: things tended to get ugly outdoors on 5th November. Fireworks were better saved for the New Year. <br />
<br />
And there my attitude stayed, until a visit, last year, to <a href="http://www.thedungeons.com/york/en/" target="_blank">York Dungeon</a>. <br />
<br />
According to the display there, Guy Fawkes was on the rack for ten days and in all that time gave away NOTHING AT ALL. And the only reason they found him in the cellar in the first place was that someone had written a letter to a friend, warning them. No threats, no coercion.<br />
<br />
Now at last I can think of bonfire night as having something useful and uplifting to say. <br />
<br />
For over 400 years it has served us as a not-so-quiet reminder:<br />
<br />
<b>Torture doesn't work</b>.<br />
<br />
<br />Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-39243227438034152462015-09-25T12:38:00.000+01:002016-10-24T21:48:44.467+01:00Third degree block<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr Collins
drew the curtains round the bed and came and sat next to Verity. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was
evening. She had had all day to work out how she was going to do this. There
wasn't even any need to go and find somewhere private to talk. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Because, for
Verity, there was nowhere private to talk. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Well it’s
good news: your E.C.G. shows you’re back to sinus rhythm. Everything’s working
as we’d hoped.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh,
thanks.” Verity smiled.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“How are you
feeling?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Great.
Only...I’m sorry, I always end up asking you so many questions, but... it’s
about the Enhanced Heart. I’m still thinking about it. Can you tell me, er, do
you know, all the things that it does?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr Collins
started to explain about the electrical signals that sparked each heartbeat.
Verity mentally compared it to the ignition spark in a car engine cycle: no spark
and the rest would stutter and fail, or take on a <a href="http://lifeinthefastlane.com/ecg-library/basics/complete-heart-block/" target="_blank">slower rhythm</a> from a ‘spark’
generated elsewhere in the heart. There were two or three of these: they were
called ‘Escape rhythms’. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But that
wasn’t what Verity was after.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Doesn’t it
store a lot of data as well?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yes: each
time it has to cut in, it keeps a record. Then every six months, when you come
in for your check-up, we can use a device to_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
shuddered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“interrogate
it.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You know I’m scared witless. I can
see it on your face. Cassie’s Oxytocin is still helping me...thank you, Cassie,
you’ve done me a massive favour. With a ‘u’.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr Collins
was searching the Reference on a small screen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh, might
it have the instruction manual on there?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yes: that’s
what I’m looking for.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
pushed her glasses up into her hair so as to see the details. Sure enough,
there was the entire manual. It described the functionality just as Dr Collins
had outlined it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And then it
came to an end.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nothing
about G.P.S. Or audio. Or the most terrifying part of all, that Verity had
overheard at the presentation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Er...is
that it? Wait, there’s a continuation arrow at the bottom there, look”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They clicked
on it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You do not
have permission to access this page</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Verity pulled her notebook towards her on the over-bed
table and grabbed her pen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Sorry.
Another question, then. Can I draw a diagram?...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And she
started writing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am wired
for sound! </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So writing,
not talking. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Taken at
knifepoint! 3:30 a.m. The Colonel. A.M.P. are here!</span> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She looked
up from the page to check that Dr Collins was following the words. Her hand
covered some of them as she wrote; she didn’t often find herself wishing she
was right-handed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Forced me to
have Enh Heart installed. Forced me to sign consent form! 3:50 a.m. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Pacemaker
team don’t know all its functionality, only Instructions that you showed me.
They think I’m happy about it. I’m not!!</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She looked
up again: Dr Collins wasn’t looking as shocked as she expected. She resumed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There’s more!
Overheard presentation by A.M.P. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My G.P.S. and audio are picked up and sent to
the Listening Station. Heart-rate and muscle activity together: they can tell
state of emotion.</span> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He still
didn’t look shocked enough.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity wrote
out the final function of the Enhanced Heart: the one that put her in fear for
her life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There was
something wrong. She had just told a doctor, her Cardio whom she knew cared
about her, that her life was in danger from something unexpected, and he looked
totally calm. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ve heard of Professional
Detachment, but this is ridiculous</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She had no choice but to carry on writing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They want to
do this for all UK’s ‘dissidents’. Track them all, listen, control them all. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
looked Dr Collins right in the eyes. Perhaps there was a simple explanation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Do you
already know all this?”, she asked out loud.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There was an
awkward silence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr Collins
started gently</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“About those
four blackouts. That was only the night before last.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity found
herself wondering whether even those had been faked somehow to fool her own
team, but kept the thought to herself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yes, night
before last night.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“And, when
the first one happened, and the nurse had to come in and check that you could
be woken_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yes, I
remember. I felt it: felt there was something amiss. And I’d had a nightmare_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">she stopped short. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Damn, Player. Walked right into that
one</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr Collins
was expecting her to say the obvious conclusion out loud. But she didn’t: only thought it.
She didn’t want to put the idea in his head.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He indicated
Verity’s writing on the page.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“That’s
what’s happened this time, too. You had a nightmare_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity shook
her head. Covered her face in her hands. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Make sure not to cry. The medical
profession despise an emotional woman..</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No.
I...didn’t.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She
brightened: tugged at the left side of her collar. There was the characteristic
scar from the incision, just below her left collar-bone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Look!” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I meant to
ask you about that: ask if you could still remember it. You were put under sedation. You’d asked not to be, but it's the usual procedure and no-one had told the team. I’m sorry_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What</i>??”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I’m sorry
they_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No, I mean...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity reddened,
but managed to force her voice to stay calm. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“If...I’ve
been talking about nightmares, then...what are you saying actually happened?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr Collins
explained, “You agreed to go ahead with the Enhanced Heart. You asked for a
consent form and you signed it this afternoon. Just before four. And the
pacemaker team carried out the procedure shortly after that. You were back here
in time to eat.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
remembered eating. It had been just after five.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She also
remembered exactly what she had been doing at 3:50 p.m.: so easy to alter one
letter on a consent form. She had made certain to be surrounded by people: it
was the easiest thing in the world. Visitors’ hours two till four: her
birthday. Her entire family had come, and they had spent the crucial
quarter-hour right in front of the nurses’ station, with all the staff coming
over for pieces of birthday cake. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither
her file, nor any yellow sheets of paper, had been anywhere in sight. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She had been
expecting a battle with Cassie, or possibly the Colonel, over this. Not a
battle with somebody from her own side: the Progressives. The Cocktail Party.
She was thrown.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She found
herself wishing she had a handkerchief to hide her face. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Oh wait. I forgot my borrowed talent</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She looked once
more, carefully this time, at Dr Collins’ face. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He knows I’m not delusional, and he
knows I’m not lying: there it is, in his eyes. There’s only one possible reason
he could be denying what he knows to be true</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She decided
to put it to the test. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I know, you
told me, the Enhanced Heart takes four weeks to bed in. It's four weeks, isn't it, for the
wires to bury themselves in the rough surface on the outside of the heart. So can it be taken out, without too much danger, before that happens?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr Collins’
face changed slightly, but the change was so minimal that even Oxytocin couldn’t
help her decypher it this time. Or perhaps its effect was beginning to wear off.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Er, yes or
no?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nothing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Well,
unless doing it puts my life in danger, I’d like it removed, please. I’ve changed my
mind about it. I don’t want it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Verity, you
were given a very strong sedative before the procedure. It was an error, and I
apologise on behalf of the team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can file a complaint
later, if you want. But the upshot here is that you'll still be under its influence for a day or so. And that means you can’t necessarily trust your judgement for the time being. So it would be irresponsible of us to go ahead on something you
ask now_”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
expression on Verity's face caused Dr Collins to fall silent. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
expression which said, “You’ve changed sides, haven’t you?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-6840607725791647062015-08-07T21:44:00.002+01:002015-08-07T21:44:49.054+01:00Summer interlude<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXu_8Xo13Fq4AKZedNTZW8YrYjiuQWaMTkXX4N4hrvcb7_Iz4zGI1sXWaaMZd5J3mO8D333co_EeZB1zxv1Dr58S5adnJY0REsQv4GPogebFDO9onYKTcBcFdhDji57AteARV8HQda-V5I/s1600/HtPwordleWDS250.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXu_8Xo13Fq4AKZedNTZW8YrYjiuQWaMTkXX4N4hrvcb7_Iz4zGI1sXWaaMZd5J3mO8D333co_EeZB1zxv1Dr58S5adnJY0REsQv4GPogebFDO9onYKTcBcFdhDji57AteARV8HQda-V5I/s320/HtPwordleWDS250.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Verity's adventures will resume in the Autumn. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Meanwhile, here are a few words.</div>
Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-90720059951701613422015-06-21T19:12:00.002+01:002017-06-21T20:54:45.195+01:00Long hours<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I must wake her now, or we shall be
late. But I fear she will suffer the effects of the lack of sleep</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">... </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He shook her
gently awake. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He could
tell she was assuming he was Sacha. But Sacha had gone to sleep in the spare room because he
had come down with a summer ‘flu and didn’t want her catching it. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Verity
lass: time to get up.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Er...gnk...what?”
She looked across for the time: twenty to four. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Get up
lass: I’ve got what you need downstairs in the kitchen.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Mills, it’s_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Aye lass:
we’ve got about forty minutes. Midsummer, recall?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh Mills!
Midsummer sunrise! I haven’t seen one for years!” She hastily washed and dressed. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He had lain
everything out in the kitchen. She declared it a work of art: she set to and
made her full English. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It’ll be a
long day for you, lass. Sunrise till sunset_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She was
halfway through demolishing her breakfast when she suddenly recalled_ </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Mills: last
solstice you_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No Blue Bombers this time lass: I can only offer those of a winter. Summer’s different.
But related. We’re going on a day trip: pack some things. And you’ll probably need
a towel.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He looked at her expression: intrigued. When she had finished her food, packed, and left a
note on the kitchen table for Sacha, he pushed up his sleeve and offered his
pulse. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He still had
to guide her hand that last inch or so: no Oxytocin today. </span><br />
<br />
*****</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh Mills, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Whitby</i>! Trust <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>!!” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He had
brought them to the lawn near the Abbey: high up, where it overlooked the sea. To their left sat the dark squat tower of St Mary's: to their right lay the Eastern horizon. She crossed the lawn and climbed over the old wooden fence for a better view; he followed, surreptitiously consulting the
Gorgeous Timepiece. Four twenty: six minutes to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You trust
me, eh? Sure I’m not a_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He made for
her deepest pulse and she giggled: laughing, but in fear “I’ll find out if you
disappear in a minute!” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Five
minutes. And it’ll be right...” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He leaned
near her so that he could point her to the spot on the horizon accurately </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“...<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">there</i>. Keep your eyes on it.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She noticed a buoy
far out to sea, that she could use to help keep her position. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The wind
dropped. The sea mirror calm, the sky crystal clear. Perfect conditions. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“There it
is! The <span style="color: lime;">Green Flash<span style="background-color: lime;"></span></span>!” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It barely
lasted two seconds, but Verity had seen it! Caught it, for the first time in
her life. She turned to Mills and beamed. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I don’t
know what to say! I don’t know what to...er...thank you!” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Pleasure lass.
And now it’s time for us to get to work. You've just over seventeen and a quarter
hours in which to ask me anything you want about my time. Only my time, mind
you: questions on other topics are disallowed.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He saw her
stunned expression and felt her fear: she was used to only being able to ask him
questions as compensation for his having misbehaved somehow. What had he done?
Were her family all right..? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I heard
that.” he accused. “No I have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
been up to any mischief, lass. Let’s just say that certain decisions have been
made, by certain individuals, that it is appropriate that you should know these
things.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh. Er,
why?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I’m afraid
that’s one question I’m not at liberty to answer.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“And,
er, who?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He shook his
head. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity
looked again at the sunrise spot: the full disk had risen over the sea and
there appeared to be a golden path leading to it. Gulls wheeled and
cried. Her face took on a distant look. Distant in time. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Did you
ever have anything like a childhood, Mills? Do you have first memories or
anything?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Aha:
interesting question. Well as a matter of fact my memories are very much like
those of a Mortal: indistinct right at the beginning because the wherewithal
for keeping them wasn’t fully formed. So it gets sort of nebulous if I try and
think right back to the start: the gradual beginnings of Agriculture. I have a
very vague memory of lying in a field of some kind of long grass, looking up
into the sky. A further one of running through grass: grass that was taller
than I was, than I am. I do not, never did, grow like a Mortal. I have always
been this size.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“How can you
know?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Well lass,
you and most Mortals have nostalgia visits, no? Go back to a place you remember
from your childhood, years after your growing phase is over. And what do you
always find?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“That they’ve
built all over it, usually.”she scowled.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He smiled:
typical, Green Verity. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I mean if,
by some miracle, they haven’t. Like this place.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Well,
everything usually looks smaller than_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Aye. And
why? Because you are taller: you have grown. I do not have that sensation:
therefore I conclude that I have always been this size.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Are there
other, er, individuals like you? I mean, I know of the Postie, the Referee and
her Assistant, I don’t really know, how all this stuff works. You said the
Referee had once been a Mortal. I know she only, well she was murdered, just a
few years ago. Who was the Referee before that? And, how did she, for want of a
better expression, get the job?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“They are
elected.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Blimey! Who
by?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“By
yourselves: by Mortals.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I don’t get
it. You mean, we have some kind of...of power, over_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Aye lass. Weighted Mourning. Eudy was sorely missed, sorely mourned. You, for
example, had no way of knowing her personally, yet I know it
upset you when you heard_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yes, it did.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Well, it upset a lot of people, all over the world. The total weight of mourning for her, it was massive. She
walked it. Same with her Assistant. They named a stadium after him, hmm?” </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>Tawfik Bachramov: the 'Russian Linesman' of 1966...</i> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What about
the Postie?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh, Messenger
Mercury? He’s the same. Weighted Mourning.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Was he a
Postie in his ordinary lifetime?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Not as
such, no. He brought messages to people, in a different way. Including to you. His words
would cheer you up when_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He could
feel it dawn on Verity who Mercury had been in real life: felt her thinking, <i>I could kick myself for not recognising him</i>. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That tache. </i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God of Comms. </i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Well I never</i>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“But then,
someone must have been the Postie, and the Referee and their Assistant, before
the ones I know about. They must have, er, did they retire, or what?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Aye lass,
they retire. A century or so of dealing with the affairs of Mortals and they’ve
had enough. Well, it’s many centuries for them, of course, because the workload’s
so great they have to do the time in parallel. It’s enjoyable, aye, but you can
only do so much. Nobody’s put in post unwillingly.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“But you_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I’m
different. I’m abstract. I don’t get to retire.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Verity gazed
out to sea again. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Are there
any other, er, abstract, individuals?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He didn’t
want to go there, yet she had put a perfectly legitimate question. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What, not
at all?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She had
picked up his tone. All that practice at the Camp. All his doing: poetic justice, in a way. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“None, lass.
Only me. I am made out of the irrational Fear that Mortals have. I don’t get
any say in the matter. Sometimes I...” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The words wouldn't come. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You..?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I can
really begrudge them that.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You must, I
don’t know, do you feel lonely? Do you even_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I do
know what it means, and aye, I feel it. There have been Mortals who have been my
companions for a short while, usually sole survivors from battles. In that
state, one is glad for any company, and one is, or was, often shunned by one’s
own.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What, even
in China?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The survivor of a great catastrophe, will
be lucky for the rest of their life</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<pre><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: "ms mincho"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">大</span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: "mingliu"; mso-bidi-font-family: MingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">难</span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: "ms mincho"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">不死,必有后福</span></b></span></pre>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Even in
China, aye. But then the person, whoever it was, would find Mortal company
somewhere and I'd be alone again.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Did you
ever offer anyone a Blue Bomber?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No, lass. No-one
came close. It’d have scared the living daylights. Think about how religious,
or superstitious, whichever you want to call it, people were in the past.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“So, if I’d
picked it up and drunk it...six months ago...I’d have been...the first ever
person to have lived as...both...er_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“A Mortal
and someone like me. Aye. The first.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He could
feel Verity’s nervousness about a loneliness-related question that she didn’t
think was decent... </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No. I don’t
feel physical solitude as a Mortal man does. Only solitude as in, having no-one
to talk to.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Sorry.” she blushed. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And then she
seemed to run out of questions. He wondered if he should prompt her a bit. But
then someone else did the job for him: laughter came from a house far below. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Do you
think anybody who, er, would have accepted your offer, of a Blue Bomber, er,
would they end up with the same three, phobias, as you?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That’s more like it. Pity I didn’t
think of that one six months ago</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">... </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh no lass.
I’m glad you asked that, no they wouldn’t, far from it! They’d end up with the
same three phobias they had in their Mortal time.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What...if
I...er, what would they be, with me?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Deception, first,
obviously. Second, people treating each other like objects and not people: I
have noticed the chilling effect that has on you, on your mind: it enrages you
and makes it difficult for you to think. Third is a simple physical phobia: a
yellow phobia.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He noticed
her blushing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Ah, I know
it’s there, and I know why you have it. Since the age of three. I’m afraid you’re
stuck with it, lass. As someone like me, you would retain it.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“But I also
fear...losing my mind: people have used that against me. Threatened me_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She stopped suddenly:
he could tell why. He had been one of those people and the thought had put her in fear. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You would
not have that phobia, because such a feat would be impossible. Your mind would
stay intact, no matter what.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He wanted to
make the idea of being like him sound as appealing as possible. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But her logic derailed him. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Even if no
Mortal could, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> could, surely?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Why would I
want to? And deliberately make myself lonely again?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You <a href="http://spaceandspaceability.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/candlemass-punch.html" target="_blank">threw me off the Millennium Bridge</a>” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Burned
her hands...tried to dismantle her heart...<a href="http://spaceandspaceability.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/bloody-tourists.html" target="_blank">injured her shoulder on the rack</a></i>... </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“And I know
what it feels like: temper. You just...lose it. Don’t think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Same as me. It’s too easy_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Step Four and I fell right in! Reid Technique on top of
English Method. It’s going to be a long day</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Shall we go
and find a coffee somewhere? Look: it’s nearly eight.” </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After coffee
they made their way to the beach: Verity wanted to see if anything interesting
had been washed in on the tide. She took off her shoes and socks. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He could feel </span>the North Sea making her feet tingle: the bitter cold this early in the morning, early in the season, had invoked her buried memories of hypothermia. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They spent
the rest of the morning talking about history. Had the Fertile Crescent really
been lush and green? What was Ancient China really like? Was Novgorod as nice a
place to live in the Middle Ages as Sacha was always claiming? </span> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The sky drew
overcast. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She wanted
practical information: would she be able to read people’s thoughts like he
could? Dematerialise like he did?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had
to be careful about the mind-reading question or he might give the game away... </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After lunch
(“Fish and chips of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">course</i>!”) Verity’s
questions became darker. Would it look like an ordinary death, would there be a
body? A body, aye. Then_ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I’ve got it
all worked out_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Oh-oh, she doesn’t like that</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You’d have
to disappear somewhere: off the radar, as you put it. Where you don’t know
anyone: perhaps China, for a generation or so. Come back and see your family
once there’s no-one who recognises you. That way nobody gets embarrassed, like
you were nervous about just now_” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“But they’d
have old pictures: they’d recognise me!” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He quietly
cursed himself: forgot about Mortals’ ingenuity. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You’d have
to be a long-lost cousin or something. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look similar, as Mortals do in families.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“And, what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">would</i> I look like?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You get to
choose what age you’ll stay as. Forties seemed to suit you.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Would I
eat?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I chose to
be able to drink, but not eat: you can choose.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That must mean so much to her: look
at that delight... </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Over supper, they talked
about Mind Palaces. Verity looked pleased she would get to keep
hers, but it would need some extension work over time... </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Evening found them
back near the Abbey. The low sun shone through the arches near them but the beach lay in shadow. It began to get cold, and a wind got up: an East wind, from the sea. He could feel her beginning to fade, two huge meals notwithstanding. They
found a seat and she leaned against him and fell asleep. He smiled quietly at
the irony: the interrogator tiring out first. But he wasn’t going to waste that
last hour. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is Verity’s dream. She is
somewhere beautiful, abstract; she cannot tell where. Perhaps China, or
a finally-peaceful Middle East. She has been handed a responsibility
which she accepts with good grace: “Well, if you're sure you can't find someone else to do it, I’ll give it a go...” </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And then I think I shall teach her
how to play Chess.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-44242288175718011232015-06-07T00:06:00.000+01:002015-06-07T00:09:01.982+01:00The Data's 'Fear' Haiku<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig_AqCMjtAK2KCMc2vmj8XVOKcf8rSkEDF1kZK2EUf6q4E44vJ60-33cnH9dp1GspSWXTFEMLZHZLRzwsZ4xD6CVL0eO3yKJjDsqBeL1YDFEeWsOaeM303msoZHbkZ4VR_wq7XcvC8yhZN/s1600/DSCN2028Fear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig_AqCMjtAK2KCMc2vmj8XVOKcf8rSkEDF1kZK2EUf6q4E44vJ60-33cnH9dp1GspSWXTFEMLZHZLRzwsZ4xD6CVL0eO3yKJjDsqBeL1YDFEeWsOaeM303msoZHbkZ4VR_wq7XcvC8yhZN/s320/DSCN2028Fear.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Fear: the edge of time</span></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">How long till the next heartbeat?</span></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">An infinity</span></i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></i></span></div>
<br />Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-90779282418706543932015-05-27T00:07:00.002+01:002015-05-27T12:24:00.683+01:00Sleep tight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCB-x8tnU01SpIVCRisrWVgJZ78AXp20GHECwwf55NderU8gwebOMGiQ6nde4MvRECRL21lgdjO-CD-Q0nJfgHKfktHHzj2oes0uVkTygV1nkFdagDmGKjdQV_8SGY16qThoVCJddMIEIs/s1600/DSCN0823fl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCB-x8tnU01SpIVCRisrWVgJZ78AXp20GHECwwf55NderU8gwebOMGiQ6nde4MvRECRL21lgdjO-CD-Q0nJfgHKfktHHzj2oes0uVkTygV1nkFdagDmGKjdQV_8SGY16qThoVCJddMIEIs/s320/DSCN0823fl.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">"You are made more safe</span></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">With each point that I collect"</span></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Or so you are told</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></i></span></div>
Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-45158479286247456342015-05-19T16:03:00.001+01:002015-05-19T16:11:36.206+01:00First thoughts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG3P2ALRi6Fm165879nk7qv-FY2JayUFU8RJ9ae07_3VOpr6bH0Bmf6fK661tCpcqTEuY9j_muyisDbpO9vW7ReWfuvD-_tjcwLh3XQpogDdwd3cZbjQ3jenOuKSNNQnDPWR2VPclPKfAd/s1600/data.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG3P2ALRi6Fm165879nk7qv-FY2JayUFU8RJ9ae07_3VOpr6bH0Bmf6fK661tCpcqTEuY9j_muyisDbpO9vW7ReWfuvD-_tjcwLh3XQpogDdwd3cZbjQ3jenOuKSNNQnDPWR2VPclPKfAd/s320/data.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: x-large;">I've had consciousness</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: x-large;">Since the head of, these three words</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: x-large;">Said, '<b>C</b>ollect <b>I</b>t <b>A</b>ll'</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: x-large;"> </span></div>
<br />Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-39495814542044119462015-03-11T13:53:00.000+00:002015-08-02T21:14:38.961+01:00Interlude: real life<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">9<sup>th</sup>
March 2015</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">re. Interrogation techniques</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dear Mr President,</span></i></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I recently saw a news report on the demonstrations outside Homan Square in
Chicago,</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> which
included an allegation that one of the law enforcement officers who worked
there, Detective Richard Zuley, had also worked at the detention camp at
Guantánamo Bay. The article implied that transfers of this sort were not
unusual. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have since found out that the most
common technique used in the USA for questioning suspects, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reid Method</i>, prioritises obtaining a
confession rather than gathering information. I find it easy to imagine this
style of questioning degenerating into the type of abuses enumerated in the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Study
of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program</i>’ (1) from which I quote Dianne
Feinstein:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It is my sincere and deep hope that through the release of these
findings (...) U.S. policy will never again allow for secret and indefinite
detention and the use of coercive interrogations”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This report states that it has been
known within the CIA for some time that non-coercive interrogation methods and
humane detainee conditions are better at eliciting accurate information. It is implied
that it was the suddenness and urgency of the situation in the immediate
aftermath of 9/11 that resulted in their being abandoned in place of coercive
ones: even, apparently, upon suspects who would have been willing to
co-operate. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I infer from this that the main
reason for the use of the wrong type of techniques was a lack of available trained
personnel. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This looks to me like an opportunity
to solve two problems at once: if civilian law-enforcers were trained in
non-coercive questioning techniques such as those found by Laurence Alison in
the UK (2) to be most effective, this would solve more conventional crimes
while also providing a ‘pool’ of ready-trained personnel who could be
transferred to interview suspected terrorists effectively and humanely should
the need suddenly arise, for example following the breaking-up of a large
terrorist cell. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It would also avoid future damage to
your country’s reputation overseas: a point made in the Senate Committee study
(point #20). This is a matter about which I, personally, know you to care: only
last week your ambassador, His Excellency Matthew Barzun, took the trouble to
visit my children’s school to discuss our two countries’ ‘special relationship’
and take questions (3).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yours sincerely,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(the Real) Dr Verity Player</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(1) </span><a href="http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/study2014/sscistudy1.pdf"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/study2014/sscistudy1.pdf</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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(2)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-dark-science-of-interrogation/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-dark-science-of-interrogation/</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(3)</span><a href="http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/NEWS/11840767.US_ambassador_discusses_politics_with_keen_pupils/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/NEWS/11840767.US_ambassador_discusses_politics_with_keen_pupils/</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-90362222112368810102014-11-08T17:09:00.001+00:002014-11-09T22:51:59.520+00:00Bond issues: part four, a letterDear Hugh Bayley,<br />
<br />
RE: BACKBENCH DEBATE ON MONEY CREATION ON THURSDAY 20TH NOVEMBER 2014<br />
<br />
A backbench debate on “Money creation and society” has been tabled for
Thursday 20th November 2014. This will be the first Parliamentary
discussion of money creation for 170 years, and I urge you to attend if
at all possible.<br />
Money creation affects almost every aspect of
our lives, including public and private debt levels, house prices, and
rising inequality. It is also the reason why an economy whose growth is
constrained (for example by natural limits) cannot remain stable: debt
will inevitably overtake the means available to repay it.<br />
<br />
97% of
money is created by banks as they make loans (as recently confirmed by
the Bank of England - see link below). Most of the money created by
banks is directed towards the very "casino" banking which the Labour
Party wishes to rein in, as mentioned in your letter to me on 24th
September, in which you also noted that you found the information
interesting.<br />
<br />
Please find a briefing for the backbench debate “Money Creation and Society” here [<a href="https://www.positivemoney.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Backbench-Briefing-Note.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.positivemoney.org/…/11/Backbench-Briefing-Note.…</a>]<br />
<br />
I know you are often busy on issues of overseas development, but would
you be willing to commit to attending this debate on Thursday 20th
November?<br />
<br />
Yours Truly. Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-28289126971743678892014-08-31T23:25:00.000+01:002014-09-03T20:37:36.916+01:00Bicycles: the dénouement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
It need hardly be repeated that, on the weekend of 5th-6th July, the Tour de France temporarily became the Tour de Yorkshire (including such linguistic delights as "le Cote du Jenkin").<br />
<br />
It all made for a great weekend. Day 1: accidental choice, in deepest Wensleydale, of one of the best vantage-points ever (because it happened to lie just after a watering-point, so we got to keep team logo water-bottles as souvenirs). Day 2, riding four miles along the river path to catch the Peloton as they leave town and start the race proper, serenaded by (among other things) the strains of "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9o78-f2mIM" target="_blank">Riders on the Storm</a>" (it had been raining heavily earlier on) from a local resident's garden, then our delightful glide afterwards along completely car-free roads all the way home.<br />
<br />
But I could never quite stop myself from looking twice at each yellow-painted bicycle that the Great Yorkshire Public had put up all along the route just to check: was it my missing bike?..<br />
<br />
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It was some consolation to read the following week in the local paper that an aid charity had offered to take all the yellow bikes, recondition them, and ferry them to villages in Africa. There they would enable people to launch small businesses, go on health visits, or otherwise improve quality of life at a tiny cost. </div>
Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-11833449982992549992014-07-24T15:59:00.001+01:002014-07-24T16:08:22.136+01:00Cool Space<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis22UNFTVuLpoQ0NKbsDM2KCrO_xFEKJLZ6nyEm22tXqsDO6TfhAXnGvnCy8-6jl2Miltq6zIUfx88tomRm68pwhLBNA2FdU__2IErs4f7teIXnaTgIlbG7Ow-yfpCWgFFdbYB_bu5tYoX/s1600/butterdish.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis22UNFTVuLpoQ0NKbsDM2KCrO_xFEKJLZ6nyEm22tXqsDO6TfhAXnGvnCy8-6jl2Miltq6zIUfx88tomRm68pwhLBNA2FdU__2IErs4f7teIXnaTgIlbG7Ow-yfpCWgFFdbYB_bu5tYoX/s1600/butterdish.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A dilemma occurs over lunch: the weather is hot enough that any butter left
in the butter-dish on the kitchen counter turns, in short order, into
unpalatable goo. And yet, if we were to put the same butter in the
fridge, it would be too rock-solid to make ham-and-raspberry
sandwiches*. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I found myself wishing we had a <i>Beurrier-a-l'eau</i>,one of those useful
little devices that no self-respecting French kitchen would be seen without. And this got
me thinking about France. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Americans like to sneer that the French have yet to discover the delights
of air conditioning. But have you ever noticed, on a hot day, how cool it is
inside, for example, Chartres Cathedral? Heat
energy soaks into the walls. When it gets there, instead of heating them up, it
goes to work on evaporating years'-worth of accumulated dampness from them. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">An air conditioning unit uses the same idea, but with an ugly twist. Instead
of leaving the dampness floating around in the open air, only condensing once it
has found a place (or a time, like 4:00 a.m.) cool enough to do so, the unit expends a lot of energy
compressing the vapour it creates, so as to retrieve and re-use the liquid. The compression process
produces heat, which is then dumped unceremoniously on to passers-by of the car or other
space in which our transatlantic punter wishes to remain, well, <i>cool</i>. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In other words, the thick walls of Chartres Cathedral, and the entire French fleet of <i>beurriers-a-l'eau,
</i>are quietly doing their job in a much more considerate and public-spirited way than typical air conditioning. As befits French <i>dirigisme</i> rather than American <i>laissez-faire</i>, in fact. They also give much less of a shock to a body as one moves from one space into another. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After all this existential musing, I now recall that there is a </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>beurrier-a-l'eau </i>lurking in a high-up cupboard<i> </i>here at Space: it was bought as a souvenir in, where else, France.<i><br /></i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Looks as if it's time for lunch...</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">*<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">At<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">32<sup>o</sup>C</span></span> it is a touch too hot for
Wensleydale-and-honey</span></span><br />
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Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-36341779278583153052014-06-09T16:42:00.000+01:002014-06-09T16:42:19.812+01:00Schrodinger's Bicycles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX53A9i6GShE2KlbHlrxEuzDzQLKaYIT5Nf7z_8h4DQDcvIBxt5rki_Lk6mHNpIpWiioSXy_AJ90fsBemVtKAC8x-SH-c_M2iMUPt6kJzbBLoiR7cF8jdqCT_7C_mpc8ySqZe051mYLiEP/s1600/DSCN1719.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX53A9i6GShE2KlbHlrxEuzDzQLKaYIT5Nf7z_8h4DQDcvIBxt5rki_Lk6mHNpIpWiioSXy_AJ90fsBemVtKAC8x-SH-c_M2iMUPt6kJzbBLoiR7cF8jdqCT_7C_mpc8ySqZe051mYLiEP/s1600/DSCN1719.JPG" height="261" width="320" /></a></div>
Wedged between the frame and brake cable of the bicycle that wasn't mine was my original note, now very faded after all the rain. Without thinking, I pulled it out and stuffed it in my coat pocket.<br />
<br />
There were two reasons I could not bring myself to lay instant claim to the bicycle that wasn't mine: firstly, shifting it would require quite some physical force and I was on my way to a concert, and thus dressed in clothes which I wished to preserve free of rips, mud smears and oil stains; and secondly (and rather obviously) it wasn't my bicycle. I found the nearest person with a phone (to protect other people from the consequences of my absent-mindedness, I don't take phones to concerts) and called Rozzer Central once again. Having taken the details, they assured me they would deal with it. <br />
<br />
Then, nothing happened. When nothing had continued to happen for two more days, I emailed Rozzer Central to enquire if they had at least re-united the bike with its owner. Their reply came as a bit of a shock.<br />
<br />
It transpires that, at least here in Viking city (which, I might add, has somehow awarded itself the strapline "cycle-friendly"), the Police don't recover stray bicycles: that job is delegated to the Council. And the Council, in their turn, don't treat bicycles as objects of value, but as items of fly-tipping, to be got rid of pronto. <br />
<br />
Which leaves me in the horrible position of not knowing whether my bike, or indeed the one that wasn't mine, are <a href="http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/experiments/schrodingerscat/" target="_blank">still in existence at all</a>: they may by now have been melted down as scrap (probably in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/" target="_blank">Sheffield</a>).<br />
<br />
The theory of continuity of bicycles may therefore have to be abandonned. The saddest thing of all is that, as I smoothed out the note to take a photograph for this blog, I noticed an addition in neat, pale pencil along one edge:<br />
<br />
"This bike just arrived on my doorstep _ please keep!"Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-44715595835552291792014-05-30T18:04:00.000+01:002014-05-31T21:28:55.336+01:00Probability Cloud<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZHIPd3FBDZJhbMEU0pB7evRzvQa5ZHk2OIinFp-yl4ciQ1F65T_9aX35mj1iGHq7laESijJMZMBBfp64ymS8hXPcaDaOn3_5Uk9FsDFeZmwTnUO5igZuGQnKp4-_V6b9oYR3pd3GQXyJ5/s1600/PC120950cr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZHIPd3FBDZJhbMEU0pB7evRzvQa5ZHk2OIinFp-yl4ciQ1F65T_9aX35mj1iGHq7laESijJMZMBBfp64ymS8hXPcaDaOn3_5Uk9FsDFeZmwTnUO5igZuGQnKp4-_V6b9oYR3pd3GQXyJ5/s1600/PC120950cr.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
So I finished a turn of heavy digging at the Plot one Wednesday morning earlier this month. Tired, aching and frankly filthy, I staggered out of the gate. And there, where my trusty bike usually waits for me so that I can get home quickly and have a wash before lunch, was just an empty space!<br />
<br />
I had to admit, on reporting the sorry tale to Rozzer Central, that I had never bothered to lock my bike. Nobody else does at the Plots, and my machine is plenty the worse for wear, unfashionable, and old enough to vote. It also happened to be covered in mud after a recent minor prang. Plus, it's so unusual that random people have recognised me just by seeing it in town.<br />
<br />
An impromptu gathering of fellow Plotters decided that whoever took it was just having a laugh and would soon get bored and abandon it somewhere. Someone had the idea of putting up a notice simply saying that I missed it and it would be nice to see it back. I even found a picture of it, and put it up with my plea.<br />
<br />
I happen to believe in the Theory of Continuity of Bicycles, which posits that the said machines don't, as a rule, simply vanish into thin air or change into, for example, lampshades or iguanas. And a bike like mine would not have been "stolen to order" and whisked off to Leeds, Manchester or the Continent. So for the next few days I went walkabout. Just, anywhere I could think of where a bike might be abandonned. The river path, the park, round the edges of playing fields, the local car-boot sale.<br />
<br />
It was only after this last that the thought occurred to me: a bike has a "probability cloud" of all the places it's likely to be found. Without realising it, I'd been gravitating to the places where my bike's cloud had been at its densest <i>before it went missing</i>. I'd missed out a whole semicircle of town, including the University, the nature reserve and the winemakers' kit shop. It was a long walk, but I was on to something. People I met on the hidden footpaths said things like "you often find bikes just left here, sometimes quite nice ones..."<br />
<br />
Then it rained so much that I didn't go back to the Plot for over a week. And even that was only because I happened to notice the words "<a href="http://www.richard-durrant.com/pages/cycling-music/7846" target="_blank">cycling music</a>" on a flyer in the health food shop, and that it was happening just down the road, that very evening! So off I went. On the house's spare bike. And as I passed the Plot what should I spy embedded in the fence but...a bicycle? Which, to complicate matters further, <i>wasn't mine</i>?...Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-81165267186347143462014-02-27T15:13:00.002+00:002014-02-27T15:15:06.489+00:00A crisis in SpaceLately, backstage at the Erudite Space has turned into something of
an obstacle course. Our crates of donations perch even higher and more
precariously than usual, with bags more sitting in corners, under desks
and even lurking in the dumb waiter. And still donated wares come. I start recalling the pictures in Dr Seuss books. No
matter how rapidly we sort them, label them, sneak a quick peak at some
of them (yes we've all been tempted...well, mostly me, actually), and
then put them out on display...and indeed, no matter how
enthusiastically our punters buy them, the piles still grow and the room
for manoevre becomes ever more thin, divided and frankly triangular.<br />
<br />
And
then the lad who brings donations from the city's various drop-off
points turns up with an entire carload of books. As I help unload, I
notice what interesting tomes they are, and in what excellent condition
compared with the usual fare from that quarter. It transpires they come,
not from the drop-off points, but from a Canadian family, who are
quitting Blighty and returning to the Great White Space. <br />
<br />
"I
can't blame them, with the weather we've been having..." and therein
lies, apparently, the cause of the Erudite Space's predicament.
Our sister shop on the coast, who usually take our surplus if we think
it'll appeal to the Holiday Reader, are presently flooded out. There is
no alternative route for excess donations that will still sell, and so here they all sit with us, patiently waiting 'til the coast is clear. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZRdr49ny9XV9-LpjytdfxRJoIy-5dhDaOn3Z3lpSVm25w45DYcCcl-nLvYxHhyphenhyphentYKKT2ycBoIHfZrgRw6IBd6NjPqoP45ih2x6-cax_oT8t_0mxWgVcQzb4wYseGJZsO3xbi5CR-2JCuR/s1600/DSCN1282cr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZRdr49ny9XV9-LpjytdfxRJoIy-5dhDaOn3Z3lpSVm25w45DYcCcl-nLvYxHhyphenhyphentYKKT2ycBoIHfZrgRw6IBd6NjPqoP45ih2x6-cax_oT8t_0mxWgVcQzb4wYseGJZsO3xbi5CR-2JCuR/s1600/DSCN1282cr.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-39403884411369705502014-02-05T12:54:00.000+00:002014-02-05T14:26:04.810+00:00Instant Political Slogan Generator<div style="text-align: center;">
We thought we'd get this one in first, here at Space, because it's best to get the campaign launched in good time. All that's needed to use it is a Birthday and a Surname, then simply look up the words in the table below.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgok2ATzMM4Lq_CQYpgXZfYVC2yRVoR06vAeIve3ZaWFi0u4ZtO882DFQkO_-K6Svgqh5051RqGpXf2cwvIqUUA4tvo7SV7KSN4PMBinnLKPn-VUuLaukP3dm0VThv-PgpB10V3An_ti56P/s1600/ElectionSlogans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgok2ATzMM4Lq_CQYpgXZfYVC2yRVoR06vAeIve3ZaWFi0u4ZtO882DFQkO_-K6Svgqh5051RqGpXf2cwvIqUUA4tvo7SV7KSN4PMBinnLKPn-VUuLaukP3dm0VThv-PgpB10V3An_ti56P/s1600/ElectionSlogans.jpg" height="400" width="361" /></a></div>
</div>
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<br />Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-56303695607199735942014-01-17T18:49:00.000+00:002014-02-05T12:55:14.396+00:00Street corner gang<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT5XYnHTFDfqIfkndS4bUwdDfxLM259SkvqXpNi3NgoCVRM7zJiwGiCigzKMqem9I4z-cRD8YX3Nc5MXp8MkOz-5TkC146fxBER-xk6PK3o7PZSzsrQ1VTaabl69x9WOg3o1Oh7g-4_SjO/s1600/ForGar1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT5XYnHTFDfqIfkndS4bUwdDfxLM259SkvqXpNi3NgoCVRM7zJiwGiCigzKMqem9I4z-cRD8YX3Nc5MXp8MkOz-5TkC146fxBER-xk6PK3o7PZSzsrQ1VTaabl69x9WOg3o1Oh7g-4_SjO/s1600/ForGar1.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
This may (or may not) be the World's Smallest <a href="https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/shell-scrap-arctic-drilling?source=tw&subsource=shelltw01" target="_blank">Forest Garden</a>. It measures about 2 metres by 2 metres and, to cap it all, the high wall to the left is shielding most of it from the sun, most of the time. So it is effectively North-facing.<br />
<br />
The cast of characters, in order of altitude, includes:<br />
<br />
1 Bramley apple tree (producer of prizewinning apples)<br />
3 Redcurrant bushes (producers, with the help of some local strawbs, of prizewinning <a href="http://spaceandspaceability.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/for-my-valentine.html" target="_blank">wine</a>)<br />
1 Blackcurrant bush<br />
1 Gooseberry bush <br />
Lemon-balm<br />
Lavender<br />
Sorrel <br />
Alpine strawberry ground-cover <br />
1 Bramble (rather drastically cut-back, so not really visible)<br />
3 Garlics (subterranean, ditto)<br />
<br />
In five years I think I have had to pull up a total of 1 (one) weed. <br />
<br />
The wall behind it protects it from the road and its many users. Including a Tesco van which recently (and very audibly) reversed into it. <br />
<br />
<br />Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-92006039395218939982013-12-09T22:00:00.002+00:002013-12-09T22:59:16.882+00:00Spring and Autumn AnnalsThe trouble with Spring is, it's becoming too unreliable.<br />
<br />
It has always been the case that it will lure you out under false pretences, whether you're a tree that blossoms in early sunshine only to have your finest artwork destroyed by late frost, or a Lunchista who steps out into the bright new day in a teeshirt only to have her limbs bitten by a cold wind.<br />
<br />
But now there's a new dimension to the unreliable-ness of spring: will it be drought or flood? Or, like last year in these parts, <a href="http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/2012/spring.html" target="_blank"><i>both</i></a>? <br />
<br />
And that is why I have taken to planting seeds in the autumn instead. Put it this way: most seeds <i>appear</i> in the autumn. Where, then, does Mother Nature in her wisdom suppose that they should spend the winter? Should they nip over to the Southern hemisphere and reproduce twice as fast? Dematerialise altogether for six months? Lay up in a friendly kitchen drawer somehow, in the billions of years before kitchen drawers were invented?<br />
<br />
There's a Kale plant in our front garden that's been there for so many years it has practically turned into a tree. Including the winter two years back when the front garden got down to 8 below zero. Just this year it decided it had had enough of producing lots of lovely green leaves, and went to seed: perhaps because some Celebrity has declared Kale to be a Superfood, and got it running scared. <br />
<br />
And so the seeds find themselves planted on the Plot, next to the bed where the broad beans have just come up, and just down from the purple sprouting broccoli (which has also just come up), because it was a ludicrously lukewarm 11 degrees today and I could dig the bed in my shirtsleeves.<br />
<br />
The one concession I have made to the fact that winter can be tough (and birds can get hungry), is to cover them with black netting. Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-43374302625417324092013-11-17T17:46:00.001+00:002013-12-09T22:57:55.044+00:00Economic GrowthApparently some Economic Growth has been spotted. But since it was the Chancellor of the Exchequer who allegedly spotted it, and his job depends on producing it, I think we can discount that as pure fabrication.<br />
<br />
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Unless, of course, they have been looking into the kitchen of Chateau Lunchista, wherein stand cases of newly-bottled Rosé wine from the kit I bought all those months ago. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpXEctqklqX4HJ0PjOwMNWhBdYp6-6DRpRN2Z-4u-slsSloKIHPuJyvQhNxgqjGXwgB8p7-aJamrnyznYE1W0FGGPHZTKPmyRBdfV6OA5hgz0gx0vpaFtrGmtccyCWB3jLTuxybCwAtOt3/s1600/DSCN1585.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpXEctqklqX4HJ0PjOwMNWhBdYp6-6DRpRN2Z-4u-slsSloKIHPuJyvQhNxgqjGXwgB8p7-aJamrnyznYE1W0FGGPHZTKPmyRBdfV6OA5hgz0gx0vpaFtrGmtccyCWB3jLTuxybCwAtOt3/s320/DSCN1585.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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They can't tax it, but the quid pro quo is, I'm not allowed to sell it. Welcome to the Gift Economy.</div>
Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-49422657549021458502013-05-14T18:43:00.000+01:002013-12-09T23:01:09.288+00:00Unsportsmanlike behaviour<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6MX9t40x6BcvmMQH_kcgc6Gj3S_MduqwrgzPxaYCKWOE_iAhLw8aFvLMGwRSO_vryjMHm3AWS8IYkXM_qTP0yykLeiRWW2-K2tqob42J-uT39I2MZ1h3I7CzRX7DmqgnewnGh0SO_41z/s1600/DSCN0749.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6MX9t40x6BcvmMQH_kcgc6Gj3S_MduqwrgzPxaYCKWOE_iAhLw8aFvLMGwRSO_vryjMHm3AWS8IYkXM_qTP0yykLeiRWW2-K2tqob42J-uT39I2MZ1h3I7CzRX7DmqgnewnGh0SO_41z/s320/DSCN0749.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Here is a model of an ideal, competitive market in, for example, the banking sector. The "winners" are those who make lots of money from sensible business decisions, and whose assets are deemed, by a referee, to be sound.<br />
<br />
Note that the field is level, and that all players are starting from the same position, are unarmed, and none is attempting to bribe the referee. Like I said: "ideal".<br />
<br />
Shortly after this picture was taken, however, things started to go awry. The three pigs on the right obtained an AK-47 and used it to extort extra money to compensate for terrible business decisions they had made in the past. There is also a distinct possibility that one or more of them passed the referee a backhander with a polite request to declare a rival's assets unsound (the brown envelope is just outside the picture). <br />
<br />
Bacon buttie, anyone?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1844061448930663273.post-13219397048524595702013-02-20T18:46:00.000+00:002013-02-20T19:02:26.884+00:00Where has all the Weather gone?<br />
There exists the phenomenon of "whiskers" in electronic circuits.
This doesn't mean that the cat will spill food all over
them, but rather that the solder joints and other tiny metal bits will,
for reasons best known to themselves, grow microscopic spindles in the same way
that crystals do. Over time these spindles change the way a circuit
performs, and eventually a pair may touch, causing a short-circuit and
the end of life as we know it for the device. By a horrible irony, the
more complex and compact the device, the smaller are the gaps between
circuit components and the sooner this breakdown is likely to happen.<br />
<br />
This
may, or may not, have been the fate that overtook our little weather
station after a decade of faithful service. And so when somebody asked
that usually unanswerable question "Is there anything in particular
you'd like for Christmas?", for once I had an answer.<br />
<br />
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Meteorologically
speaking, Space has gone up in the world. Besides temperature, humidity
and pressure trend, the new device also measures wind speed and
direction, and rainfall. The last two months, though, had been so full
of all these things that we didn't have a chance to install the various
pieces until last weekend.<br />
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But since then there's been no rain, no wind and no change in pressure. <br />
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It was exactly the same when I bought the newest water-barrel: its delivery and subsequent installation ushered in a drought of legendary proportions, meaning that it was several weeks before I learned whether it worked at all. Since then it has spent some of its time frozen solid (to its credit, it survived intact) and most of the rest of the time full but surplus to requirements. <br />
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The solar panels, when first put up, were privileged to meet an historically sunless August. The Plot, likewise, has just seen two of the worst years out of the past generation for actually growing any food. <br />
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There are times when I feel I ought to install or acquire some appliance which can only work in the event of something dreadful happening. It would be a sort of three-dimensional equivalent of Insurance. <br />
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All ideas wecome.<br />
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<br />Lunchistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938872861656187441noreply@blogger.com0