Sun dog over the Channel

I saw a rare and wonderful atmospheric display yesterday: a sun dog. If you are unfamiliar with the term, allow me to explain. Sun dogs are caused by the refraction of light through ice crystals in the high atmosphere. These crystals have to be hexagonal in shape in order to work their magic. But if they form, and when they do it is generally in high, thin sheets of cirrus cloud, a bright, rainbow like spot appears 22 degrees out from the sun- about a stretched hand away. Unlike rainbows, which experience a double internal reflection before the light from the raindrops reaches our eyes, in sun dogs they are refracted only once, hence they are much brighter and the red is on the inside, the opposite to a rainbow. Because they are sun-ward, unlike rainbows which of course are opposite the sun, they can be difficult to see, but if you shade your eyes from the direct glare of the sun you will sometimes find them if there is wispy cirrus about. As it was yesterday.

And it was more than just a blob. It was a broad strip, stretching up towards the zenith, where an entire halo was beginning to form. And directly above the sun an even more unusual phenomenon had formed: a "Parry's arc" which requires the ice crystals be aligned at a very specific angle to our eyes. A little wedge of brilliant light sat there, forming part of the whole wonderful display.

I was visiting my Mum at the time, and pointed it out to her. Her eyes are, even at the age of 92, are at least as good as mine, and she could see it clearly. She loved it, though with her dementia, it is unlikely she retained the memory for more than a minute.

Sun dogs are a sign of change. They often indicate a weather front is on its way, usually a cold one. Approaching cool air pushes under warmer air, forcing it upwards where the water droplets freeze, sometimes into the magic hexagonal shape. But I have noticed that when I see them it signals some sort of change in my life, and sometimes a good one. It can't signal a good change for my Mum: her life is on an inevitable downward spiral, but it might just indicate a favourable turn for me- God knows I need one.

Dead means dead: get used to it

Last week it was revealed a dying 14 year old girl was granted her dying wish to be cryogenically preserved until such time as 1. A cure could be found for her fatal brain tumour and 2. A way could be found to bring the dead back to life. Good luck with that girlie. And good luck to the thousands of others, mainly Americans, who have gone down the same road.
The technology for this technique is pretty simple. After death the body is essentially freeze-dried, reducing its bulk by 90%, as 90% of us is water. The remainder is then kept as -196 degrees Celsius, the temperature of liquid nitrogen. Then we wait.

Of course this isn't cheap, in a variety of ways. It cost the girl's parents a one-off fee of $37,000. But then, the costs of keeping something in a very deep freeze should be accounted for. It's an energy-expensive process to do this, especially as they will have to keep doing it for hundreds, thousands of years, or even, if my suspicions are correct, forever.

At the moment we can freeze cells, embryos, say, or sperm. But that's it. It would be tremendously valuable if we could freeze whole organs, like kidneys or hearts, but we can't. In fact we are a long way off achieving it. As for whole human bodies (or heads: I understand some people in the US are freezing only their heads, waiting for a time when they can be a) be re-vivified and b) be attached to some sort of android body), that lies a long way into the future.

Next, bring the dead back to life. Tricky. Impossible at present, ands to be honest, I believe it always will be. A proponent of the freezing industry recently said that we are constantly re-defining what death actually means. CPR, defibrillation and so on has changed the game for everyone, and that's a recent invention. People who have died of hypothermia can be brought back as long as an hour after their heart has stopped. True. But all that means is that they didn't actually die. Death has a very clear definition attached to it, and once a line is crossed, the human body can't go back. And I think we'd all be a lot better off getting our heads round that and concentrating on the important bits, i.e. Living, instead of hoping against hope we can find some sort of escape clause. Dead means dead, folks, and there's no way round it. No matter how rich we are.

Brexit stole my Toblerone, or Hilary trumped

Have you seen the new Toblerone? Now, and it's down to Brexit, apparently, it resembles not so much the Alps as the South Downs. I imagine there'll soon be a thriving black market trade in the "classic" design ("Oi, mate, wanna old-style Toblerone? I'll need paying in euros, mind")

Poor old Hilary, huh? Who'd have thought one of the most unpopular women in America could ever lose an election? That one of the least inspiring orators with a husband whose past is every bit as shady as Donald's, who offered nothing more exciting for the future than more of the same old same old, could fail to inspire an American electorate already feeling abandoned by an elite who cares more for globalisation than the problems in Ohio or Michigan? Well, there you go.

I hesitate to come over all I told you so, but on Tuesday morning last I said to the guy in the corner shop I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Donald win, even that I was expecting it, what with the lurch to the right the entire world has been experiencing for at least the past year. Us lefties are rapidly becoming an endangered species; here, in the U.S., where I understand Donald is even thinking of bringing that formidable political analyst Sarah Palin into his administration, in France, where I'm told Marine LePen stands a very good chance of  becoming their next president next year. I tell you people, we're screwed!

 Or are we? I cannot bring myself to believe Donald will do all those terrible things he was elected on the strength of promising. He'll soon see how life works in the Washington machine, with his advisors whispering in his ear ("I'm sorry Mr President, you can't do that") and in the event very little changing at a fundamental level. I fucking hope so, anyway.

Enemies of the people?

That's how the Daily Mail described  (minus the question mark) the high court judges who said the government has to take the Brexit deal to Parliament before it is ratified. Enemies of the editor and owner of the Daily Mail more like. They of course want the hard Brexit so they can practice unfettered capitalism without any annoying restraints laid on it by the EU. Yet these hard Brexiteers were the ones saying it was all about preserving our great British Constitution when they appealed to us to vote leave. Now it's actually worked they don't like it. How dare they? How dare they insult these judges, people who aren't interested in Brexit one way or the other but were simply carrying out the task they're paid for?

Now parliament will (hopefully) get a say in how these negotiations are handled and make sure Britain doesn't deteriorate into some Eastern European, third rate economy where only the already wealthy will flourish.

Well done British judiciary! I for one trust you to do a good job. Even if the Daily Mail doesn't.