(Another) evening with the photograph album

Finally, in today's post-a-thon, some more photos of lovely Oxford.

Fragments (Part II)

Some more things I've found amusing... Yes, I have no life and I should get out more.

I know lorry drivers are traditionally a bit on the heavier side, but still...
















Another victory for the City and County of Swansea Education System.
















Don't really know why this made me laugh - just the draconian possibilities of the slightly unfortunate wording, I suppose.













Thanks to F. for leaving this for me to find in the kitchen one morning!

Evidences of respect

The animal protesters have been at it again, but this time the scientists (and others) are fighting back. I find it rather ironic that, while the anti-lab protests I've seen (see photo) have been roughly equally police and protesters, apparently the pro-lab people numbered in the many hundreds.

The Animal People (for want of a better term) have announced that all of the University’s students and staff are legitimate targets. Tee-hee-ho, as my housemate H would say. What larks.

The thing is, you see, that I’m actually pretty much against animal testing. To say that we, as human beings, have the right for our own purposes to inflict injury and death on other creatures who can’t fight back is a dangerous thing. There have been (and still are) too many individuals or whole societies who will define as non-human other human beings – Jews, or homosexuals, or Native Americans, or people with mental illnesses, or people of any ethnic minority – for me to be comfortable with the idea that our power over other species should be so far-reaching. I’m not claiming that animals have “rights” per se, but that we have a responsibility not to demean our humanity by exploiting our ability to use and abuse any sentient being which is weaker than we are. After all, as Gandhi said, “the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”

To define biomedical research as “cruelty” is to use an emotional discourse which is far more appropriate to cosmetic testing, or to fox-hunting or dog fighting or any of those activities whose “sport” lies in the enjoyment of an animal’s pain. I’m assuming that this new biomedical lab (whose work with animals, incidentally, will apparently only be a small part of its overall research mission) is not going to be a place of wanton animal torture and cruelty. In fact, from all I’ve heard, there will be high standards of care for the animals used there, which is laudable. But I nonetheless still disagree with animal testing. If you could prove to me that the discomfort or death of, say twenty rabbits, would definitely produce the answers the scientists need in order to make important medical advances, I would consider that that was probably a justifiable exchange. But the problem is that this testing is precisely that – testing. The outcome may be nothing at all except possibly injured or dead animals, and a human culture which believes in its own right to do what it will with weaker species.

It may surprise you, all this being said, that I will not be protesting against the new research lab. And this brings us back to the Animal People. To a greater or a lesser extent, they are disrupting the work of an entire academic establishment. I’ve had my own research set back by their protests, and I’m solidly in the humanities division – the only way animals come into my work is when I have recourse to my stuffed-toy bunny for comfort when the writing’s going badly! I also know people whose working day is constantly disturbed by these protests because they happen to be scientists who work in the Science Area – although they are theoretical physicists or psychologists who work with computer modelling. And I’ve heard from friends about protesters trying to hand their leaflets, which are often very disturbing, to primary-school children on their way to and from lessons.

The Animal People have turned rational protest into hysterical terror tactics, and to align oneself with the animal-rights movement and against the new lab feels like aligning oneself with these destructive and counter-productive protesters. In their zeal, they have turned many moderate people like me, who are against animal testing on principle, against their cause.

Children’s voices (Part II)

I’ve been reading on BBC News Online about school attendance figures, and that apparently teaching manners to children improves their behaviour. No, really?!

As I was reading all about the truanting problems some schools have, though, I suddenly had the irrational feeling of regret that I will never again have a free day off school! I never truanted, partly because I was too afraid of parental wrath if I did, and so the odd free day – because there was snow, or the I missed the bus, or whatever – was absolutely to be treasured. I suppose that an unexpected day off work may one day bring the same feeling, but I’m not sure; as a child, or at least as a well-brought-up child with parents who value education, your feeling of autonomy regarding going to school is very small. As an adult, there’s always the option of just calling in sick, after all. So, though I have no other reason to lament the demise of my schooldays, I do mourn for the free day off.

He could make you laugh

Had a wonderful evening yesterday, as my delightful friend A invited me to evensong and dinner at her College. The service made quite a change from what I'm used to "at home", with all the proper BCP bowing and scraping and devices and desires and all that jazz, as well as an interesting and erudite preacher. All of which made up for absurdly uncomfortable pews.

The great revelation of the evening, for me, came not in our in-depth discussion of men and their faults (though this was illuminating!) but in watching Kind Hearts and Coronets. I've always avoided Ealing Comedy like the plague, but now I've found out what I was missing, I'm going to have to reconsider. Haven't laughed so much in an age! The hats, for goodness sakes!

Regard the moon

My new camera rocks!

I didn't quite catch your name

I don't like the internet very much. It's useful and pretty and helps with my work, but it also has weird people and the FBI and stuff on it. So I've decided no more photos of people (especially not me!), no more facebook profile, none of this at all. I like anonymity.

The evening with the photograph album

Well, dear Reader, the most exciting events have happened in the past week or so.

Firstly, my wonderful friend N came down from Glasgow to give a paper here, so I got to meet up with him for a few hours and catch up on old times. Haven't seen him or M for ages, so I'm planning a Scottish trip soon - their two kids are looking scarily grown-up, and I think I need to get there before they're taller than I am. We were also taken out for dinner at Pierre Victoire (=posh!) by the seminar convenors, along with othermembers of the seminar, so a good time was had by all. Well, by me, certainly!

Secondly, please admire my new camera! The old one broke, so I decided on a bit of an upgrade, and it is truly beautiful. Unlike my old Kodak (which was lovely and worked very well until its unaccountable demise), the Fuji has lots of manually adjustable settings so you can take pictures in the dark, when it's raining, etc. (See photos of our truly atmospheric gate... yes, well...) It also has good auto settings for when you really can't be arsed. Very happy, I am.

The other exciting news is that I will be doing some freelance work for the OED. OK, so, I'm not going to be the next visitor in Dictionary Corner, but still I'm very pleased.

Nothing else so much, really. Teaching going well, and I'm enjoying doing some GCSE tutoring via Jacari - this last also raises even higher the phenomenal respect I have for my mother, as I have come to realise exactly how very difficult it is to teach well, and how much time you spend worrying that you simply aren't doing a good job. Who'd have thought that I'd be revisiting Romeo and Juliet for GCSE ten years on? And, for that matter, the blasted Weimar republic, too! It's very good for my brain to have to dredge up all these old facts and convert them into English... "Germany had no tradition of democracy before the Weimar era..." Thanks, Mr. Connick, for being such a great History teacher!