Mixed Socks, Mixed Brexit and Mixed 100 days of Trump

Doing things differently today. Optimising use of two solitary socks; Going out to plant nursery to buy plants; then actually planting a significant proportion of them. Exhausted by unusual activity.

The full text of the European Council guidelines on Brexit negotiations agreed yesterday is available here: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2017/04/29-euco-brexit-guidelines/. The Express gives a typical response "Theresa May slaps down Juncker as she REJECTS Brussels' hardline Brexit demands". The UK manages to irritate the rest of the EU by blocking EU budget talks because of the upcoming general election. The rationale for not being able to agree/make a decision, is given as the purdah on making sensitive political decisions during a general election. Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood thinks that, with an extreme Brexit,

“If Scotland becomes an independent country then the UK will no longer exist. The danger to us is the merging of England and Wales, almost like a disappearance of the country really". 

In the past few days economists suggested that the Brexit slowdown has begun, with the UK's economic growth more than halved to its lowest rate since the EU referendum, now just 0.3% in January to March, 0.7% lower than the previous quarter."

The main news today in the UK concentrates on the different tax stances of the Tories and Labour, the former being cagey on whether taxes will rise, whilst Labour  has categorically stated it will not change VAT or National Insurance in the coming years.

Watched the Jeremy Paxman Panorama report on President Trump's first 100 days, and did not really hear anything new. He has taken action, successfully in some quarters and been blocked in others. The important news for me regarding Trump was that the EPA was undergoing changes - as it said in the press release on the site on Friday:

"WASHINGTON – EPA.gov, the website for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, is undergoing changes that reflect the agency’s new direction under President Donald Trump and Administrator Scott Pruitt. The process, which involves updating language to reflect the approach of new leadership, is intended to ensure that the public can use the website to understand the agency's current efforts. "

The page on Climate Change is still "being updated". Thousands marched in the US on the anniversary of President Trump' first 100 days in office to protest that climate change is real.

Lie in, hustings editing, and EU27 negotiating position

Saturday 29th April. Had a lie in, went shopping with Jane and then spent the afternoon editing and tagging the sound recording of yesterday's HBN Mayoral Hustings. Uploaded to the Internet Archive.

Brexit news from Brussels: The EU 27 took just 4 minutes to agree to the way forward document proposed by Donald Tusk, for negotiating Brexit with the UK. The principles were as iterated yesterday, Settling the rights of EU residents in the UK and vice versa, Agreeing financial committments between Britain and the UK, Avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. UK response fairly muted as everyone appeared to be more interested in the major boxing match impending that evening.

Mayors, People, Money and Ireland - and Trump's 100 days

Today's excitement for me was hosting the HBN Mayoral Hustings in Alconbury Weald. Jane had invited all seven of the candidates last month, after great difficulties in finding any information of contact details on many of them. Three agreed to come, Kevin Price (Labour), Rod Cantrill (Liberal Democrats) and Peter Dawe (Independent). On the day, only the latter two appeared. Fortunately, they were the two who actually had real business experience in the past (indeed, Peter had to sell Cambridge TV to take part as a candidate).

Richard Wishart, our social media and technology afficionado, had suggested and then agreed to do a live broadcast from his phone on Twitter. I took along my tripod and tablet holder to assist, and also used my H1 microphone to record a separate audio track for a podcast.

Prior research and preparation provided the psychological support at the start of hosting. The candidates, the 15 in the room and the 50 online viewers soon got the meeting flowing. We began to see clear differences in the focus of the two candidates, Rod emphasising the need to build communities, Peter looking at using technology to tackle local problems, with both agreeing that their key role will be as influencers on the unitary and district councils. I only had to intervene occasionally to curtail overlong responses or bring in different members of the audience. The live broadcast and audio recording worked successfully throughout the discussions. We all had a much better understanding of the two candidates and their styles by the end of the debate. It certainly narrowed down my choice to between the two when voting next Thursday. By this evening the total of online viewers was 77 and growing.

Today, saw the release of the 'Invitation letter by President Donald Tusk to the members of the European Council (Art. 50)'. It outlined the key principles for discussion by the 27 members of the EU minus the UK for the EU Brexit discussions. Der Spiegel summarised them very succinctly as sorting out "People, Money and Ireland" before the next stage of discussions with the UK. In more detail, this means addressing the status of EU citizens in the UK and vice versa, establishing the financial commitments from both the EU and the UK, and ensuring that there would be no hard border re-established in Ireland. This contrasts strongly with the UK preferred position of parallel negotiations on leaving and agreeing on new trade arrangements.

We are coming up to the milestone of President Trump's first 100 days tomorrow (Saturday). The US fleet is still off the North Korean coast and the North Koreans launched a medium range missile test, which exploded shortly after take-off. So far, he has on the one hand been stalled by finding his actions on Obamacare and immigration blocked. On the other hand, he has taken actions internationally, in Syria, that were seen positively in the US. Furthermore, he has been adapting to the challenges of his role. His realpolitik includes realising that at present, Europe cannot be split and he will be negotiating with the block, with the UK pushed down the trade deal queue; that China has to be kept on board for trade and influence with North Korea; and that NATO might not be so redundant after all.

Picture editing, hustings planning, Merkel warning and May slamming

Bullring in centre of Spanish village

Completed the editing of the pictures taken for the Norris, a cycle of load image, straighten, remove keystoning if needed, contrast, resample and save. In the afternoon planned for the HBN Hustings with 3 of the mayoral candidates tomorrow. Wondering how the event will go, will it be a bit of a bullfight?

Thinking of bullfights. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to her parliament in stark terms, of the 'illusion' that some British polititians have of getting a Brexit deal as good as the existing membership.
'A third state, and that's what Britain will be, cannot and will not have at its disposal the same rights ... as members of the European Union,' Mrs Merkel said, and added, 'I must say this clearly here because I get the feeling that some people in Britain still have illusions - that would be wasted time.'

Well, this should have been guaranteed to be a red rag to a bull or at least a red rag to a red top or two. There was a robust response from Prime Minister Theresa May, that tough negotiations were ahead and accusing EU leaders of preparing to "line up to oppose us" over Brexit. However, the Sun proceeded to underline Mrs Merkels point by not seeing that the situation described could occur at all, because we all wanted free trade.

Thinking of living on another planet, the Cassini close flyby of Saturn revealed pictures of a major storm and of clouds scudding across the planet's atmosphere.

Wood Green; Donkeys at PMQs; De-escalating US-NK Tension

A phone call from Carel in France prompted me to book for a meeting in June at the Natural History Museum. It's "Connecting with the Crowd", a one day cross-disciplinary conference to explore best practices and new perspectives on crowdsourcing citizen science. I submitted abstract for a five minute talk on the science engagement experiment we did with the Quekett.

Jane and I had an early lunch and then went to help out on the Huntingdonshire Business Network desk at the Wood Green Business Fair. It was the best attended fair at this venue for the past few years, not so much humming, but roaring with visitors and activity. It was a busy couple of hours, meeting both friends and engaging visitors to our desk in conversation.

It was the last Prime Minister's Questions time in parliament today, and what an unedifying spectacle of donkeys braying, triumphalism and point scoring it was. Enough to turn anyone off politics. The new Dalek mantra is "Solid and Stable".

Pre-election news dominated over Brexit, but there were a few undercurrents in the media. A Financial Times article comments on how the Home Office is now advising EU nationals to hold off applying for residency and simply go onto a mailing list to await information. This is probably to stave off being swamped by applications for residency; 92,000 permanent residence applications were received from EU nationals in 2016 alone - and as I know from German friends, each requires an arch-lever file full of the 5 years residency evidence to accompany the 85-page application form.

The EU's Jean-Claude Juncker and his Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier met with Theresa May over lunch in advance of the EU's Saturday meeting to discuss Brexit policy. News tonight that the UK will still be bound by European Court of Justice for the next five years. A track change?

President Trump had three surprises for us today.
1. He backed down on insisting that funding for the building of his wall to Mexico should be included in the financial plans he needed to sign to stave off a total government shutdown this week.
2. The White House announced "The Biggest Tax Cut Ever!" A reduction of US corporation tax to 15%.
3. Trump makes a move to de-escalate US-North Korean tensions by
a) holding a large military exercise with South Korea close to the border with North Korea,
b) bringing in the Thaad defensive missile sytem into the country, to the alarm of China, and,
c) as Headmaster, invites entire Senate to White House for North Korea briefing.

Post Community Cafe Speed Warning as Ivanka Trump left unruffled

Sending repeated emails to answer questions by printer to confirm what I actually want done. Is this bad? Actually no! The conversation ensures that we do things right. Also had a chance to do some more picture editing for the Norris. The Corel Photopaint update is great, with the ability to address rotation and keystoning effects, speeding up my editing.

Jane, Sue and I ran the Community Cafe again this afternoon with great help by volunteers Elaine and Natalie. It was lovely to pick up my two lifts, Hilda and Rene, and catch up on our incidental news on the journey to and from the Community Cafe. I'm reminded every month that this is a vital day in the calendar for our regulars, providing a place to socialise as an alternative to the housebound routine. It can even lessen pain for a couple of hours, with Janet, our craft table leader who suffers terribly from back pain, coming alive and relishing the participation.

Coming back home, still amused by the speed warning in our street, which appears to warn our neighbours not to exceed the speed limit when parking on their drive!

There is a lot of Labour bashing in the media again today, but I, for once, quite like the fact that they have made it a promise to give existing EU residents in the UK security with respect to their future in the UK after Brexit. Getting really irritated with Prime Minister May telling us all what she wants from us, though she did make a great slip in wanting to lead the world in "preventing tourism"!

Reports are also abounding of the soundbite of an audience booing Ivanka Trump when she talked about her father and his respect for women at the Women20 Summit (women in business) in Germany. A rather exaggerated description of a muted audience dissatifaction.  She was also quickly typecast as German Chancellor Angela Merkel's route to President Trump's ear. Whilst the accusations of Trumps nepotism and lack of clarity in Ms Trumps role are fully justified, she did have a right to be there as a business leader in her own right, even if she was the junior member of the panel in terms of seniority and experience. Der Spiegel made the point that Ivanka displayed an unruffled composure, politeness and a willingness to learn from her attendance as the Women20 Summit, in marked contrast to her father's more brusque style.

Still feeling apprehensive about the French presidential elections. Marie Le Pen is targeting exactly the type of audience that helped Trump to power and the UK to Brexit.

Rising Resistance to Brexit? Will the EPA Open Data site be shut down?

Composite image of Europe at night, 2016: Credits: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data from Miguel Román, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Approval from one author to proceed to print after minor correction of proof, also approved Quekett Bulletin to go ahead with printers. After that both Jane and I driven to distraction re upcoming events this week. at least we went out and bought some good cakes and biscuits from Daily Bread for the Community Cafe tomorrow. Finished off the working day with starting to edit the Norris photos from Friday. This evening, first play with the microscope for ages. A PMS box on Honey bee parts did not sound promising, but found unexpected beauty in a sea of delicate fronded hairs on the abdomen and recurved wing hooks to photograph.

Apparently Labour has a Brexit strategy, they will scrap the Brexit White paper and emphasise the benefits of the common market and the customs union. Given the current parlous nature of the l;abour party, one might actually have more faith in Open Britain, which is aiming to garner support to remove hard brexiteers from their marginal seats in the upcoming election. Does this mean that we are moving away form a party politics system to an agenda/policy driven one? There also seems to be an increase in younger people registering to vote, which will also raise the pro EU sentiments.

This evening, the Independent claimed that President Trump would be shutting down the open access climate and environmental data of the EPA on Friday 28th April this week. Reading the story and also checking with a Forbes article on the same subject, suggests that this is actually a more complicted situation. The EPA site will be one of many governments sites to close down if POTUS forces a government shutdown by not signing funding bill. The question will then be whether there will be sufficient government funding afterwards for the EPA site when it comes back online.

The story reflects a bigger issue, and that is the susceptibility of centrally held data and systems to failure and loss of funding, or the vagaries of policy changes. Kalev Leetaru, data and society commentator for Forbes looks at the balance between centralised and distributed data and the pros and cons of control being with a major corporation or government in his article at https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/04/24/no-the-epas-open-data-website-is-not-going-away-the-future-of-open-science-data/#1b42eaab18b5

My Pond; Trouble across the pond; Impact of French elections on Brexit

A day off at last! Enjoyed a lie-in and then went to Anglesey abbey with Jane for a light lunch and walk around the gardens. In the afternoon, we finally got around to digging the hole for my pond and installing it.

Crossover Brexit and Trump news, with a weekend Times article claiming that President Trump would now put the EU back ahead of Britain in trade agreements, after Angela Merkel made it clear that Germany would not do a single country deal with the US. When repeatedly asked whether the US could get a trade deal with Germany, Mrs Merkel said that deals were only possible with the EU bloc - and apparently the US president finally got the message.

More trouble brewing in the US with a looming potential government shutdown in the US as the President has not yet signed a funding bill because it does not contain funding for his Wall. Without a deal, funding for the government will run out at midnight on 28 April, Trump’s 100th day in office.

And as the US aircraft carrier approaches North Korea, the latter threatens to sink it in a single strike.

Emmanuel Macron and Marie le Pen going on to the second stage of the French Presidential elections - one candidate staunchly pro European, regarding Brexit as a big mistake, the other staunchly anti EU and pro Brexit. This French election could have a big impact on our Brexit progress.

March for science and antibiotic resistant superbugs

Off on a photographic mission today, to Wyboston Lakes and the regional International Speech competition and also the Evaluation competition with 6 contestants each. At least there was a light lunch. I took several hundred photos, a subject for the Milton Contact blog. Spent a couple of hours in the evening editing them and winnowing out the dross.

The big event of the day, although it did not necessarily make the main headlines, was the global March for Science. Focussed by the Trump administration's retreat from supporting action and research on climate change, the dramatic reduction in size planned for the EPA and even the support by some for creationist arguments. It takes a lot for non-political scientists to come out in a political march. According to the Independent, marches were held in 500 cities around the world. 

The news did feature strongly on CNN online. the UK however, is now dominated by election politics. France is wrapped up with the first stage of the presidential elections and the terrorist attack last week that resulted in the death of two policeman. German news is full of the splits in the far right AfD and the threats to Merkel.

An immediate need for more research and development is to combat antibiotic resistant superbugs. Back in February, the WHO released a priority list of pathogens for which we require new antibiotics:

Priority 1: CRITICAL

• Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa, carbapenem-resistant
• Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant, ESBL-producing

Priority 2: HIGH

• Enterococcus faecium, vancomycin-resistant
• Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant, vancomycin-intermediate and resistant
• Helicobacter pylori, clarithromycin-resistant
• Campylobacter spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant
• Salmonellae, fluoroquinolone-resistant
• Neisseria gonorrhoeae, cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant

Priority 3: MEDIUM

• Streptococcus pneumoniae, penicillin-non-susceptible
• Haemophilus influenzae, ampicillin-resistant
• Shigella spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant

A Norris Day

A Norris Museum sort of day today, after a late breakfast at the A14 networking. It was great to do some photography again for the museum, starting off with prints and then paintings. Usually there for a couple of hours in the morning on Fridays, today was a long session running till 4pm. Back home by quarter to five, I just had enough time to prepare for a trip to Colmworth to talk on Mammoths and Man for the evening to the village society. Despite the apparently isolated location, it was a well attended event and I didn't send too many to sleep.

When backups work and the future is Carbonaceous

Our pristine newly paved road tempted me to do another picture for the Unusual occurrences at Hall End series, which chimes in very much with the end of the world jitters still in the background today.

Really appreciated the benefits of an online backup when helping a fellow author with their new computer. Because all the key work was backed up to the cloud on Dropbox, everything was back to normal very quickly on the newer machine.

Enjoyed a fascinating series of talks at the CETC (Cambridge Enterprise and Technology Club) on Miracle materials. The future was obviously black, carbon black and infused with nanotubes and graphene sheets. They presaged a future of stronger composities, TFTs (thin film transistors, as I learnt today), better conductive materials. We had a demonstration of flexible screens which would work with LEDs and OLEDs (just google it), and hints at new sensors. A closer future was also self healing concrete - a reality not too far away with test panels already in place.

Sad news of two policemen being killed by a terrorist on the Champs-Elysees, dominating all media.

Hidden amongst the terror hype is news of the visit of the new president of the  EU Parliament, Antonio Tajani to Theresa May. He had two clear messages. A, that if the UK decided not to proceed with Brexit, it would be welcomed back and B, That the rights of EU citizens were a red line that could result in a veto of any Brexit deal if not kept.

Milton Country Park missed by 1km asteroid

I find that a trip to the dentist, even if just for a check-up, justifies a small reward. Generally, it is an Italian ice-cream. Today, I unexpectedly met a recent addition to our budding authors in the waiting room and we therefore celebrated our survival of the ordeal with a coffee/tea and some cake in a nearby cafe. Returning to the town centre, I bumped into Ann Petre, for whom we had published three books. Based on a Cambridge population of 124,000, the probability of meeting two authors in Cambridge at random was 15,376,000,000:1.

Back home , finally finished the Spotted Wing Drosophila paper by 8pm and sent it off to the QMJ editor. Hurray!

This evening's talk at the Milton Photographic Club was by Peter Higdon, on the challenges of setting up and writing a photographic blog on Milton Country Park. The original one year project is now starting its third year. Two key messages from the talk.

The first was the slowing down of how he took photos. Initially, he was photographing a picture a minute during a 40 minute visit to the park, with a view to having 4 pictures for a week's blog Later he began using a tripod, because the tree-shaded paths in the Park required longer exposures. this meant choosing locations, subjects and scenes more carefully. The new procedure meant fewer pictures, but a higher success rate in getting good ones for the blog.

The second was a change in writing the accompanying text to the photos in the blog. Peter did not want it to be a diary. Initially, his texts were extended captions describing the scene. As time went on, he began delving into plant names, their meanings and the associated folklore. a particularly good example was how you named a flowering bank of flowers. Whether the same plants were described by their name of Cow Parsley or Queen Anne's Lace made a big difference in how the audience saw judged the plants.

Calling for feedback on the sort of challenges he might tackle in this project for the coming year in the country Park, the audience was generous in their varied and useful suggestions.

Milton Country Park is no Yosemete, as Peter would say, however, by taking a sympathetic camera and eye over the years into the park, he has made an interesting and worthwhile blog. Just google 'Milton country park through the year' by Peter Higdon, or click this link http://a-year-in-the-park.blogspot.co.uk/.

Judging by UK media headlines, World Peace has been generated at a stroke by the impending UK snap election announced yesterday; there is no real other news. The move to hold the election was voted through Parliament today, with only 13 MPs objecting.

Looking a bit harder, there is the reassurance from China that "China expresses serious concern with recent trends about North Korea's nuclear and missile development."

Across the pond, the news is that the US Armada that had been travelling into the Indian Ocean away from North Korea is now reversing it's direction.

Another near miss tonight, by 1.8 million kilometers, as an asteroid the size of the Rock of Gibraltar shoots by the Earth. 

May's June election and trust in Trump tumbles

On to the introduction and references as well as the discussion of the SWD paper during the day.

Prime Minister Theresa May begins the week after Easter with a bang! Proposing a snap election in six weeks time, on June 8th. Apparently the opposition have been doing too much opposing and limiting her progress on Brexit.

Personally, I can only see it as an opportunistic move - things aren't too bad yet on the road to Brexit, the opposition is actually way behind the Conservatives in opinion polls.

Speculation and interpretation is rife. In the UK, eyes are looking to marginals where Labour or LibDems might win back seats. Quite a number of the public are taking the view "Oh no! Not another election".

Commentary in Der Spiegel suggests a mixed response in Germany and EU too. First, more uncertainty in dealing with the UK. Then the overly optimistic hope that the Brits will see sense and perhaps step back from Brexit and vote accordingly. Katja Adler, BBC Correspondent in Europe heard alternative opinion that it would be good if Theresa May came back with a stronger mandate as this would help negotations - in the EUs favour!

Interesting survey on Sky stating that actually 68% of people asked thought it was good to have the vote, though many agree with viral 'Brenda video' "You're Joking. Not another one! Oh for God's sake! Honestly, I can't stand this!"

Hilarious bit of news on CNN about the US armada sailing towards North Korea. The ships "were on their way to participate in military exercises in the Indian Ocean, some 3,500 miles in the opposite direction." They are however considering whether to shoot down the next missiles that North Korea launches - or not - as there is still a lot of concern about it triggering North Korean action.

Mind you, President Trump might need the distraction. The Washington Post comes up with a lovely quote too "The 100-day mark of the Trump presidency is approaching, and his aides are worried that the media narrative will depict his historically awful lack of accomplishments with highly unflattering levels of accuracy."

According to a Gallup poll, the percentage of people who think President Trump keeps his promises has sunk from 62% to 45%.  Interesting when looking closer at the figures is, that women have lost the most trust in him keeping promises, a change of 25% from 62% to 45%. However, not to read too much into the poll as his main supporters, Republicans and Conservatives, only mark a slight drop and are still strongly behind him.

Cake and Star Trek Beyond highlights of the day

Slept in. Continued to write results section of SWD paper, refining graphs and making language simpler and more understandable. Went for a walk to the river and back. Ate cake. Watched Star Trek Beyond.

Brexit news dragged up via internet search: Daily Mail "Project farce! How a year on from George Osborne's dire warnings on Brexit, just two of his 19 forecasts have come true"; The Express "Theresa May's plan to stop EU-funded groups DESTROYING Brexit from WITHIN".

Only real news affecting EU is Erdogan's referendum victory clearing the path for his ascension to a presidential type of government. Verbal threats of all out nuclear war emanating from North Korea.

Wedding costs, Armageddon deferred, and Money slinking out of the UK

Weddings. Have they just become a market for exploitation and money making? With an impending wedding in the family, we are constantly reminded about the unique nature of selling the dream of a magical day: Want to hire a venue? Of course - Oh it's for a wedding? That's a considerable up-price on the usual rate. A rich, iced, celebration fruit cake? £25 at the upper end. Oh, you want an undecorated three tiered wedding cake? Here's our bargain offer for you at £299! Today's item of anguish was wedding dresses, with prices starting at around £800 to £5,000 or more. The average cost of a UK wedding was £25,000 in 2015, rising to £27,000 in 2016. For one day.

Current society has managed to raise the expectations for the bride of the big day dramatically. The enormous pressure inexorably grinds away for the year or so of the planning involved in a momentous 24h that are the apotheosis of a woman's life. But in this day and age, £27,000 just about gets you a deposit for a mortgage. That's a much better investment for a life together from my perspective.

If you have the cash and want to splash out on a no expense spared wedding - go ahead! But if you are beginning to feel that it is all just too much, remember that it is not just the one day together that is important, it is the wonderful days and life together as a couple in the years afterwards. It is simply common sense and a potential reduction of stress to search on Google for alternatives that will give you a memorable day at a more reasonable cost. You are not alone. Try https://goo.gl/vkfo9d

Thinking of the end of the world - North Korea launched a missile today and immediately defused the growing global tension at least for the day - because it blew up prematurely. Minor Brexit news in the Lloyds is thinking of setting up an EU base in preparation for Brexit, joining the band of UK financial institutions quietly preparing to transfer business and jobs out of the country.

The Lemur's Tale, Ophelia Redpath

Saturday 15th April. Armageddon deferred at least for the day, this afternoon, Jane and I drove over to Histon for an Easter Craft fair. The most memorable stand was Ophelia Redpath's, showcasing her illustrated book, The Lemur's Tale - see http://opheliaredpathcouk.ipage.com/?page_id=32. The illustrations were beautifully painted in oils on paper. unusual perspectives and luminosity, and interspersed with equally lovingly detailed black and white illustrations. The book has been the culmination of over a decade of painstaking work. We chatted about her illustrating, and her own delight, pride and enthusiasm in her art shone through. Ophelia had found a publisher who must have shared her desire for getting everything just right and doing justice to the work. As a publisher who works with other children's authors, it was both privately and professionally a pleasure to see a work and collaboration so well done. Ophelia had other prints on sale in equally beautiful detail and we could not resist buying one.

Hot Cross Buns today, Armagedon tomorrow?

Last day looking after the chickens, last egg collected. Listening to the radio, heard the magical words "Hot cross buns!" and decided to make our own. Following Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe in his bread book and ended up making eight gigantic hot cross buns. Jane and I had to share a single one as one each would have been too much. The rest of the day spent writing Spotted Wing Drosophila paper.

No real Brexit news, just speculation: The Telegraph on UK scrapping EU Green targets when we exit; The Mirror picks up a story run in the Irish Times, where Ireland's top Brexit official John Callinan claims that the British government is slowly realising Brexit is “an act of great self-harm” and that upcoming EU-UK negotiations must seek to limit the damage; EU insiders tell Politico UK may be accepted into the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) until a permanent model is established, the UK would have sot accept core principles and pay for privilege; Der Spiegel reports on concerns in the EU that the UK is still at the table in trade agreements whilst at the same time beginning talks with potential future partners, thus gaining unfair advantages.

Its shortly after midnight here as I write, it's already 7:30 am in North Korea, about to celebrate its founder and now deity's birthday. The possibility  that there might be a nuclear test in the country is on the cards. If so, how will the US will respond. After all, President Trump has already bombed Syria for a gas attack on civilians, followed this yesterday by dropping the 'Mother Of All Bombs' in ISIS tunnels in Afghanistan, and directed a fleet to return to the waters close to North Korea.

I could say the world is holding it's breath, but in reality, the papers, TV News programs and social media are devoting a couple more minutes per hour on speculating what happens next:  What will North Korea do; how will the US respond; what are the likely consequences of escalation. A leaderless South Korea has a capital of 12 million people within easy reach of the North Korean Army. And then if China is drawn in to a conflict? Armageddon might relocate here.

Chicken Eggs and MOAB, The Mother Of All Bombs

The chicken egg; Brexit bureaucracy threatens to separate children from parents; The Mother Of All Bombs.

The neighbour's chickens have been laying one to two eggs a day. Eggs does not describe them properly. These are monsters weighing in at around 80 g, compared to the 50 g of medium sized eggs we normally buy. Bird eggs are little miracles of nature. The yolk is formed first inside the chicken. It's coated with a membrane and followed by a coating of albumin, in turn coated with a membrane. These stages are completed within a couple of hours. Over the next 20 hours, the egg shell is added. All that on a daily cycle for a couple of years. Nutritionally, an egg is fantastic - a safely encapsulated store of  around 75 kilocalories of protein, fat and quite a number of vitamins and other nutrients. Boiled and scrambled eggs have been on the menu several times this week.

The Guardian highlights another case of Brexit bureaucracy potentially splitting a family with the parents being granted residency, but their UK born and schooled 15 year old son and 12 year old daughter were sent separate notices by the Home Office, notifying them that their applications for permanent residency had been refused. The parents are now reapplying on behalf of the children.

A couple of days after decrying the dropping of poison gas bombs and conventional barrel bombs in Syria, the US have dropped their largest bomb to date in action, the 21,000lb MOAB on a suspected ISIS complex of caves and tunnels in Afghanistan. Officially, MOAB stands for Massive Ordinance Air Blast, but its nickname is the Mother Of All Bombs. The impact is experienced as equivalent to a nuclear blast. Its principle effect is a massive blast wave up to a mile in every direction. So far there is no information on the effectiveness of the attack. The Russians have their own Father Of all Bombs. Apart from being bunker busting bombs, their objective is psychological, to instill terror.

Global nerves mounting in anticipation of North Korea's anniversary on Saturday, with a nuclear test being hinted at.

But let us not forget that other great Trump project, the wall at the border of Mexico. Give any architect a brief and they might come up with a much more imaginative solution. In this case it is for the border region to become the home of a furutistic hyperloop and separate shared nation. Business insider goes on to quote "The plan would cost approximately $15 billion — less than the $21 billion that the Department of Homeland Security estimated a border wall would cost. The designers also predict that their system would create $1 trillion in trade."  See http://uk.businessinsider.com/design-trumps-border-wall-hyperloop-2017-4.

Protecting data, Rational Brexit, Passwords at US entry

From Megabytes to Terabytes; Backing up my data; Sanity entering Brexit government; Gving up your passwords to devices and social media when visiting the US?

Yesterday's talk at the Quekett was about Citizen Science recovering information from historical journals. Today was my quest to recover information. Working with books, we are used to dealing with text amounting to a couple of megabytes of information. to be clear, that's a couple of million bytes of information, or MB. Add pictures, and the amount of information used increases dramatically. In fact, a full page picture in a book takes up as much memory as the text in the rest of the book.

Using moving pictures takes you into another league. A ninety minute novel text, transformed into a film, uses a thousand times the information. Now we are in the realms of billions of bits of information, or Gigabytes (GB). That film can fill a DVD with a bit of space for interviews, out-takes, at about 4 GB capacity. By the way, the memory stick shown above can store about 4 DVDs of information.

The decade of work, photography and filming stored on my computer now takes up two million million bytes, 2 Terabytes or 2 TB. And there lies the rub. That is a lot of information to lose by a computer failure. A backup, or even two backups, is a sensible precaution.

Last year, everything was hunky-dory, I had a back-up being maintained on a hard drive and a backup of the backup in the cloud. Avarice in the form of a dramatic price rise meant that I had to switch Cloud backup providers. Despite the superfast internet connections, it has taken several months for the cloud backup to complete, indeed, it will still need another week before I'm fully secure.

Today I also had to review the hard drive backup and switch to a new system. Fortunately, that is a lot faster and in a couple of hours I will be able to breathe easy again.

On the Brexit front, I read an interesting article by David Marsh of OMFIF where he claimed that some sanity was beginning to enter Prime Minister May's government. Important changes in attitude are:

• The Prime Minister appears to have won the backing of key UK cabinet eurosceptics for a more lenient approach to EU departure talks.
• Britain has said it would abide by some rules – including free movement of citizens – during a transition period.
• Acceptance that no full trade deal can be concluded until after the UK leaves and conceding that immigration from the EU could continue until after the next British election in 2020.

 See https://www.omfif.org/analysis/commentary/2017/april/dashing-hopes-for-bigotry/?utm_source=OMFIFupdate

Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee (PACAC) released its report 'Lessons learned from the EU Referendum' today. Buried within it were gems such as: The Government should have prepared more re Brexit; Prime Minister Cameron should have stayed on to deal with the mess generated; That the crash during voter online registration close to the deadline for submissions had the hallmarks of a cyberattack - pointing out that Russia and China had the capability. https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmpubadm/496/49602.htm

Leaving a rather bad taste in the mouth was the news that when visiting the US, UK tourists may get asked to hand in passwords to their electronic devices or social media accounts or be denied entry. This would be under a new “extreme vetting” policy being considered by the Trump administration. It could be a catch 22 situation. If you refuse to hand over your password, you can be denied entry; If you hand over the passwords, you are leaving yourself open to security breaches and cyberattacks, so have to spend additonal time and measures to protect your accounts after crossing into the US.

US citizens have a right to enter the US and can argue against such a policy with less risk. Non US travelers have no rights of access. In January, Susan Hall, head of technology and intellectual property team partner at law firm Clarke Willmott said “I’m aware of at least one conference on cyber security and ethical hacking which switched to Toronto at short notice because of these concerns.”

Quoting from the Guardian article, "One specific action foreign travellers can take before flying is to fill in a US Citizenship and Immigration Services form G-28, which allows a traveller to nominate an attorney to represent them if they are detained. Without the form, it can be difficult for travellers to access legal representation while held at the border." Full article link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/09/uk-tourists-to-us-may-get-asked-to-hand-in-passwords-or-be-denied-entry?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Positive London v negative Russia. Sean and Boris have bad hair day

A trip to London; Simmental cattle and Soybeans; Sean Spicer Hitler gas gaffe and retraction; Syria, Tillerson, Trump and Putin; EU Parliament seat reduction?

Thanks to Jane, I just made the train to London at Waterbeach and found myself sitting opposite an older couple. They were cattle farmers from Michigan, visiting one of their children posted here. Today was the family outing to London. I was fascinated to learn that rather than the image of vast cattle herds, they keep around 50 cattle. The reason that this is successful, is that they are Simmental cattle, a versatile breed from the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland. They are grown on pasture, without hormone or antibiotic treatment, as high grade beef.

It turned out that we had another thing in common, cyst nematodes. I'd worked with plants trying to make them resistant to potato cyst nematodes in the past. The farmer was bedeviled by the related soybean cyst nematodes, which adversely affected his crop of the plant.

Coming into Kings Cross Station, I turned on my microphone to collect record station sounds for an Evelyn Glennie project, as she is this years Resident Artist at Kings Cross. I turned off the microphone as my Piccadilly line tube left the station.

The afternoon was spent at the Quekett Committee meeting in the Angela Marmont Centre of the Natural History Museum. A welcome tea and carrot cake afterwards gave the necessary break before the evening's talk by Dr Geoffrey Belknap from Leicester. It was on using Citizen science in the 21st Century to recover and preserve information from the citizen science journals and periodicals from the 19th Century. This included the Quekett Journal. I learnt of two useful resources - www.biodiversitylibrary.org and www.talk.sciencegossip.org.

Also made aware of another Victorian woman scientist and children's book author, Mrs Margaret Gatty, from researcher Jenny Bryant. Margaret Gatty had an interest in marine biology, writing an accessible book on seaweeds and corresponded with other experts in the field.

Returning by tube to Kings Cross in the evening, I turned on the microphone and let it run, poking out of my cloth briefcase. In the station, I bumped into the Michigan couple again and chatted a bit before going off to order a light pizza and tea. I switched off my microphone as the train left the station.

White House Speaker Sean Spicer, came out with a whopper today, with the statement that not even Hitler used poison gas against his own people. Ouch! Holocaust denier? The press, Jewish groups and no less than Barbara Streisand responded vociferously. Sean apologised publicly, admitting his error at a false comparison.

Secretary of State Tillerson received backing from the G7 meeting for last week's US strike on Syria, in response to the gas attack on civilians. However, resistance from Germany, France and Italy meant that he did not set off for Russia with the threat of added sanctions against Russia. This caused proposer Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson a bad hair day in the media - literally. Whilst the West is trying to shame President Putin over his embarrassing links to illegal poison-gas-using President Assad, President Putin is preparing an alternative scenario, that of rebel forces using poison gas and making Assad the fall guy.

With such public differences, neither the West or Russia are going to publicly change views. President Trump is still bullish about having done the right thing in acting against Syria and dissing Obama. How long will it be before POTUS finds himself mired in the same way in the mess that is the Syrian conflict, with Assad winning with Russian help. Do the UK and/or the US actually have a plan?

Regarding Brexit, apparently the EU parliament is trying to decide what to do with the UK delegate places once the UK has left; redistribute amongst other countries or scrap and reduce delegate numbers.

A non-day. Barrier reef dying.

A visit to Addenbrookes today for a routine DEXA scan. Work. A visit by a friend. More work. An evening playing with data for the SWD paper. Started watching 'A girl walks home alone at night', an Iranian western with a cool vampire in a burka on a skateboard. Slow but engrossing. No real Brexit or Trump news. Lots of angry rhetoric. Awaiting Tillerson's trip to Russia.

Mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef is a grim warning sign of global warming. The reef needs about a decade to recover from a bleaching event but it already suffered extensive bleaching just a year ago. Corals are temperature sensitive symbionts of corals and algae that give them their colour. Elevated sea temperatures caused by switching current patterns do occur naturally, resulting in coral stress, which leads to the ejection of algae from the coral. Over the short term, the corals can recover by taking up algae again. however longer stints lead to coral death.

The news of the current coral bleaching achieves a column in the I, two minutes on Sky News, then it is quickly passed over for the immediacy of the Trump family influence on POTUS and the UK following the US lead.

Sandcastles and striped cliffs, Bombings and Strike forces

Henwatch; a visit to Hunstanton and the geology of the cliffs; Consequences of POTUS actions in Syria and offshore from North Korea.

One egg eaten and another collected during todays's Henwatch before we set of with S & L to Hunstanton Old Beach. As this was anticipated to be the hottest day of Spring, before an abrupt decline in temperatures tomorrow, many others had the same idea and we his the queues just before bypassing King's Lynn. We therefore diverted onto minor roads parallel to the jammed A149. Entering the rolling Norfolk countryside, we cruised through picturesque villages and the green (and rape yellow) Spring countryside.

Anticipating a crush at the beach cafe, we stopped off at the King William IV Country Inn and Restaurant in Sedgeford, purely by chance, and treated  ourselves to a roast Sunday lunch. We arrived and hit the beach refreshed. S was introduced to the essentials of any beach visit, including paddling, building and manning sand castles till the incoming tide finally forced a retreat, and dam building. The brisk breeze whipped our clothes and gave the offshore kite-surfers the chance to race and tack across the choppy water, occasionally leaping and become airbotne, so we retired into the less breezy area close (but not too close) to the cliffs.

The cliffs at Hunstanton have a characteristic orange, red and white banding from bottom to top, as can be seen in the picture above. The orange is the 108 million year old Carstone formation; the red is the 101 million year old Hunstanton formation and the white is the 99 million year old Ferriby formation. These layers were created as sediments, when the sea level was 200m higher than present possibly reflecting a combination of extreme greenhouse conditions and heightened plate tectonics in a period called the Late Cretaceous. The Hunstanton and Ferriby formations are rich in fossils and when scouring the fallen rocks you might find ammonites, belemnites, echinoids, brachiopods, bivalves, sponges, worm tubes, corals and crustacean burrows.

After a tea and ice-cream at the cafe at on the cliffs above the beach, we set of home, this time going along the north coastal road, through Brancaster.  We passed two of the unique round towered churches, before heading inland into the hills leading to Fakenham and Swaffham, eventually returning to the flat plains of the Fens.

Condemnations of President Trump's action in Syria were mounting with warnings from Russia and Iran of consequences because, ironically, of a 'red line' being crossed. In the meantime, The POTUS had also ordered ordered a navy strike group to move towards the Korean peninsula, due to growing concerns about North Korea's missile program. Now that China's President Xi Jinping had returned from the summit in the US, it appears that apart from a get to know one-another session, not much was decided. How are the Chinese going to interpret the surprise attack on Syria during the Chinese President's US visit and overshadowing it, and the redirection of the US navy strike group back to the seas off Korea? Global tensions seem to be ratchetting up.

Chickens and Boris Johnson

Saturday 8th April. The day began when I answered doorbell in Dressing gown for the official "Handing over of the Cabbage", an important ritual when taking over the holiday responsibility for a neighbour's chickens. A quick check of the chickens later did reveal a large, freshly laid egg, the compensation of Henwatch.

The rest of the day was spent analysing the data from the Spotted Wing Drosophila survey, a Quekett Citizen Science activity from October last year which needs writing up for publication in the Quekett Journal. On our evening walk down to the river and back, we admired the silhouetted trees against the evening sky.

Today's news was still reverberating with the aftershocks of the US strike on a Syrian airport in response to the use of chemical weapons, and the hunt for answers about the motives of the Stockholm truck killer.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson mad a surprise announcement that he was cancelling his visit in the coming week to Russia after speaking with  US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. His argument was that, since Mr Tillerson was travelling to Russia in the same week, it would be better if one voice spoke for the West rather than leaving the opportunity for Russia to play the two off against each other by mixed messages.

App Food, Rape Fields, Syria Bombed and Stockholm violated

HBN networking; Lunch by app; Rape fields, Trump's 59 Tomahawk missiles bomb Syria; The Stockholm killer lorry.

Jane and I set off for the HBN committee meeting in Huntingdon, diverting via the A428 and Papworth with the A14  blocked from the M11 junction eastwards. The meeting segued into the normal networking, so I lured Jane to Wetherspoons for a meal afterwards. This turned out to be a good defensive strategy as there is a well known phenomenon of being 'hangry', getting irritable with hunger. I did have to show off my new familiarity with the Wetherspoons ordering app. It's a great asset at peak times, as you can order and be served directly at your table. In the post-lunch calm, with the bar easily accessible, it only earned me the ascerbic mutter "Be faster to order at the bar!". Good humour was restored in direct proportion to calories consumed.

I had to jump out of the car on the home journey as the rape fields were in full bloom in the sunshine, something I'd missed photographing in past years, where clouds inexplicably appeared whenever I had a camera ready. Fortunately, it was still early in the season and the pungent oils were not yet emanating from the plants to cause the hayfever- and flu-like symptoms many people suffer from.

In contrast to the calm sunny day in Cambridgeshire, World news was dominated by two main events.

The first was President Trumps surprise announcement of the bombing of Homs Airport in Syria, as a response to the crossing of the red line of sing chemical weapons in the attack on the rebel town of Khan Sheikhoun. 59 Tomahawk missiles rained down on selected targets on the Shayrat airbase in a $59 million display of force. Russia and Syria had been warned of the attack to minimise human casualties. The news media endlessly interpret and analyse the event, Russia and Syria protested, the UN Security council held a meeting at which the memorable US Representative Nikki Haley justified the action - and threatened further action my follow.

The questions now are whether this is just a one off or is the US entering a new dangerous phase of Middle East involvement. There are doubts that there is any underlying long term strategy. However, bombing another country decisively always creates a good impression in politics at first. So it is with President Trump, who, in a single stroke, appears to have moved from being an isolationist to a World leader in the eyes of many. He is being applauded by the Republicans and Democrats, the British and the French, But according to CNN and Der Spiegel, Trump has alienated his far right followers for deviating from his America First promise and doing a U-turn on his past rhetoric of  "Don't attack Syria!". Most recent noises from the the US, was Russia complicit in the use of nerve gas in Syria? POTUS - realist, opportunist, or simply reacting to bad news on TV?

The visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping has disappeared off the radar. The Syria attack occurred during the evening dinner attended by the two presidents, with Donald Trump making his statement to the world as President Xi Jinping retired to his hotel for the evening. I did see a byline that POTUS had accepted an invitation to visit China. What message is the Chinese President returning home with?

The second main item on the news was the lorry used as a weapon in the pedestrian area of Stockholm, killing at least four people and injuring dozens of others. The lorry finally crashed into a store window and burst into flame. The driver escaped, but current reports suggest that a man matching the driver's description has been arrested. Whether this is a terrorist act or a lone agent still needs to be determined.

Lichens, Photography, Pastel Play.

Peter Higdon, Milton photographer, came over this afternoon for a session to photograph lichens under the microscope. Peter has been writing his "Milton Country Park through the Year" blog, a long term project to take time and explore the many facets of the landscape of our local park through the seasons. See http://a-year-in-the-park.blogspot.co.uk/

Lichens are easily overlooked, simply as encrustations on rocks or trees. However, take a closer look and they are rich in texture and structure. We spent a couple of hours on the project: First selecting which lichen and particular areas to photograph; then taking series of between 30 and 60 pictures to capture slices of focus from the lower portion of a sample to the tip of a microscopic frond; finally combining the images into focus stacks. Of the three different lichens, one was a favourite and will hopefully feature in Peter's next blog article.

Lichens are unusual organisms because they are a symbiosis of a fungus and at least one type of algae - and possibly bacteria too. They are also indicators of  environmental health with different lichens showing lesser or greater sensitivities to pollution.

This evening it was Milton Artists and Craftists time again, a great monthly activity run by Richard and Marie. We had a large attendance, dragging over an extra table to make room for late comers. Painting, drawing, colouring, making, and laughing at the adult Mermaid coloring book. My favourite page captioned "You can never finish reading a book underwater" (because it falls apart).

I'd taken a photo of a mother and child in Spain and had a bash at trying to create a pastel version. I spent most of the time on the upper detailed picture and then dashed off the picture below. Not satisfied with either. Top one - mother overworked, bottom one, baby face too fat. Well, you can only learn by making mistakes.

Little Brexit news today. More focus on President Trump as he ratchets up a stronger verbal response to Syria - and meets up with Chinese President Xi Jinping. News full of speculation. I'll await actual news tomorrow.

Pollen, EU Brexit vote and Syrian Chemical attack

Left airborne pollens (pink) and dust (other irregular bits) taken from car roof in April 2014. Large pink pollen grains are probably Ash, smaller ones, Birch. Right, six different insect carried pollens from top to bottom, left to right: Apple; Hollyhock, Geranium, Venus fly trap, Lily, Unknown.

Rampant plant sex causes hayfever attack, explanation. EU Parliament votes on their Brexit strategy. Syrian gas attack, who is most likely to blame and consequences.

Today, I suffered from unfortunate side effect of indiscriminate, rampant sex. Not on my part, but rather plants, causing hayfever, of which more below. I battled through with Bulletin edits and some emails till having to crash in bed for the afternoon, exhausted from sneezing almost continuously.

Considerate plants are generally those with visible, colourful flowers. They rely on insects to collect their pollen, deliberately or accidentally, and deliver it from one flower to another. Some lovely examples of their pollen can be seen in the panel of six images top right. Their pollen is sticky and does not get into the air.

Inconsiderate plants, including many native trees from hazel, ash, birch and pines, and practically all of the grasses, simply shed vast quantities of their pollen to drift in the wind, relying on chance that at least a few pollen grains will land on the right plant to fertilise. These are the ones that become the bane of our lives by causing hayfever.

Plants, understandably, want to ensure that they are only fertilised by pollen from the same species. In fact, some are so picky, that they want to protect against potential incest and will only be fertilised by different members of the same species, rather than by themselves or very close relatives growing nearby.

Pollen grains are therefore coated with a fine layer of proteins that very specifically signal where that pollen comes from and who it will be compatible with. Unfortunately, these protein signals are also identified in us hayfever sufferers as being foreign. When we breathe in pollens through our noses, our bodies react as if these were foreign invaders, like cold viruses, and try to get rid of them - hence the runny noses and sneezes. Another defence response is inflammation - which gives us the itchy eyes.

Because the pollen proteins are unique for a particular plant species, we can develop hayfever that is specific to just one or a few plant species. I haven't been tested, so unfortunately, I only know that I'm probably allergic to one of the tree pollens that starts spreading in April, possibly beech. Oh, and also a grass in the summer - and also dust mites. My hayfever tablets keep this under control 95% of the time, but sometimes the allergen load is so high, I get days where I'm severely hit, like today.

The EU Parliament voted and passed its proposed negotiation stance: Phased negotiations, with exit talks first, followed by trade negotiations, rather than the parallel negotiation preferred by the UK; Transition conditions to not exceed three years; and keeping open the option for individual UK citizens to apply to keep EU rights.

The rising outrage about the chemical attack in Syria on the village of Khan Sheikhoun reached both the White House and United Nations, It prompted President Trump to say his mind had been changed on the Syrian regime and its Russian backed President Bashar al-Assad. The U.S. Permanent Representative, Nikki Haley, was quite outspoken at the U.N. Security Council, holding up pictures of gassed children to the Russian Representative.

The West blames Syria for dropping chemical bombs, the Russians say that conventional bombs were dropped on a rebel chemical bomb store or  factory. According to New Scientist, The latter explanation is unlikely. Sarin degrades rapidly, so is usually stored in a binary form. The amount generated and released by a bomb strike would be low. Furthermore, it says:

"Moreover, if Syrian air strikes released the agent by accidentally hitting an enemy cache, they were improbably lucky, as they managed to do the same thing at three separate locations in the area within 24 hours: SAMS reports two attacks on nearby villages the previous day that produced fewer casualties but with similar symptoms."

see https://www.newscientist.com/article/2126905-syria-chemical-attack-looks-like-nerve-gas-and-was-no-accident/

The UN Security Council did not even come to a vote (Russia has a veto and would have used it). As I stated yesterday, it is the gathering and accumulation of evidence for future trials that will bring results in the long run. In the meantime, even President Trump acknowledges that Regime change in Syria is currently unlikely. Meanwhile , it is the civilians who will continue to suffer.

No Deal Brexit and Nerve Gas Attack Inaction

Book designing; Oral history, Critical Brexit White Paper; Nerve gas effects.

A day of designing book covers, with me completing the April Quekett Bulletin and Jane the cover for "Alfie Bear Goes to Work".

The highlight of the day was interviewing local Milton resident, Tony Stubbings, about growing up and living in Cambridge and Milton during WWII and after, right up to present. From avoiding fighter plane strafing on Newmarket Rd to a passion for rmusic and scouting gang-shows.

Unexpected memories and interruptions from the 21 strong audience, many of whom knew Tony.

The 3rd report of the Exiting the European union committee, "The Government's negotiating objectives: the White Paper" was published today, though a third of the panel (all Brexiteers) walked out on the final setting of the report. There were many points covered in the report, but the one they objected to had already been well summarised in a Foreign Affairs Committee’s recent conclusion. It was that the no deal exit"represents a very destructive outcome leading to mutually assured damage for the EU and the UK”. The 3rd report asked that "The Government should therefore conduct a thorough assessment of the economic, legal and other implications of leaving the EU at the end of the Article 50 period with ‘no deal’ in place. This should be published."

Brexit news was overtaken by the aftermath of both the attack on the St Petersburg  metro and the apparent poison gas attack by Syrian forces on rebels.

The most likely agent used in Syria is sarin, a nerve agent. According to Wikipedia, initial symptoms following exposure are a runny nose, tightness in the chest, and constriction of the pupils. This is followed by difficulty breathing, nausea and drooling. You continue to lose control of your bodily functions and salivate, weep, urinate, defecate, have strong stomach pain and vomiting. Your eyes and/or lungs may also blister and burn. You then begin twitching and jerking,  followed by epileptic fits. You then die by asphyxiation, because it is impossible to control your breathing. And if you survive, you will have permanent neurological damage.

War is appalling, but gassing is a particularly abhorrent action. Whether there will be any immediate as a result of this abomination is unlikely. President Trump is more concerned with blaming previous administration. However, evidence will be collected, samples analysed and the results kept. And maybe, when war gives way to a political solution, some perpetrators can be held to account.

Bulletin & St Petersburg

Catchup with Jane today on outstanding, ongoing and future work.Completed the QMC Bulletin inner today but still need to do the cover. Gibralter Brexit furore settling down. Main news today is about the bombing of the underground in St Petersburg. One bomb exploding in a carriage in transit, another found disguised as a fire-extinguisher.

Sabre rattling by UK and USA or just media hype?

Fed Camilla and Ryvilla, hope they recover after an overlong stay in the fridge. Baked a loaf and had a roast lamb dinner. Admired Jane's second owl painting again. Spent rest of day on QMC Bulletin and almost finished it. Great day in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat races today - both won.

The Brexit news is dominated by the Rock of Gibralter, which, I am humbly corrected by the family geographer, is not an island, though possibly a peninsula. Much to my surprise it is also not precisely on the southern tip of Spain right at the mouth of the Mediterranean. Gibraltar is a little dangly bit further east.

However, it is British, will remain British and Michael Howard significantly contributed to calming the situation. He reassured us that, just as Maggie took us to war over the Falklands with 'another Spanish-speaking country', the Prime minister would show similar resolve re Gibralter - immediately interpreted by the media as the UK possibly going to war with Spain.

Fortunately, someone noticed that other regions of the UK had been overshadowed by this furore. Spain stated that it 'would not block' Scotland's EU application.

President Trump has started an investigation into the 'unfair' trade balance with a range of countries (China, Japan, Germany the main contenders) with a view to imposing trade tariffs if necessary. Before the results come in, he will be meeting the Chinese President this week. In a Financial Times interview today, he said that if the Chinese would not exert pressure on the North Koreans re their nuclear and missile programs, then the US will do it alone, which again has been interpreted as military action.

I cannot give you the actual quote because the FT copyright statement forbids copying and pasting the text here AND reusing it if quoted elsewhere, as in the Sky and BBC news I'm watching - you'll have to check it out yourself - which of course is what the FT wants.

Real news tonight is that immigrant lad badly beaten up by group in UK is recovering and the aftermath of both the Australian floods and the Columbian landslide that killed hundreds.

Watched Lilo & Stitch for the first time - reassuringly sane compared to the current world.

Gibraltar v Scotland? Disappearing Climate Change

Purveyed the magic book of dreams that is the Screwfix catalogue, bought a new plug for the tumble-drier and a new extension cable for the garden. I then spent the afternoon working on the Quekett Bulletin. Tried to eat a bit less as I gained 1.5 kg in weight in Spain.

Judging by the uproar and constant speculation news, the other nations of the UK must be feeling a bit miffed that Gibraltar has now received priority treatment from the UK government.

The proudly British little island, population just over 30,000, has been a British Overseas Territory since being ceded to Great Britain "in perpetuity" under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, as what appeared to be part of a bribe to secure Britain's withdrawal from the war of the Spanish Succession. Spain has being attempting to regain the territory ever since, despite the resistance of the island's population and the UK.

With the UK now exiting the EU, Donald Tusk has signaled that the EU will be taking a supportive position to EU member Spain, insisting that Spain has a say in any decisions arising from Brexit that could affect Gibraltar.

This has obviously raised alarm bells and patriotic flags in Westminster and added another unexpected complication to the Brexit negotiations, initially cancelling out the 'We might withdraw from EU Security' card in PM Theresa May's letter.

The outcry has overshadowed the debate on The Great Repeal Bill, which plans to relieve the UK from the yoke of about 19,000 EU laws by making them all British law at the stroke of a pen. Worryingly, the bill also includes so-called "“Henry VIII clauses”, which will then let the government change those laws without recourse to parliament! A great transfer of power to the government.

Catching up on activity across The Pond, scientists are increasingly feeling affected by the new administration. In Der Spiegel, German biologist and researcher in the US, Heike Lindner, now feels that the working environment has significantly changed. Heike comes from  the former East Germany and thinks that it is not so far-fetched that, just as people are already been stopped from coming into the US, there may be future restrictions on who may leave.

Arctic researcher Victoria Hermann found that since January, the surge of data on the Arctic that used to be available on US government sites has transformed into a slow, incessant march of deleting datasets, webpages and policies about the Arctic. Fortunately, the information is not lost, still being stored elsewhere, but it adds to the workload trying to find new sources of formerly easily accessible published research. in a Guardian article, Victoria says:

"I now come to expect a weekly email request to replace invalid citations, hoping that someone had the foresight to download statistics about Arctic permafrost thaw or renewable energy in advance of the purge."

and

"The consequences of vanishing citations, however, pose a far more serious consequence than website updates. Each defunct page is an effort by the Trump administration to deliberately undermine our ability to make good policy decisions by limiting access to scientific evidence."

Full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/28/arctic-researcher-donald-trump-deleting-my-citations.

George Orwell was familiar with the process and had the Ministry of Truth in his novel 1984, which rewrote history as required.

Before we sit on our own laurels, it should be noted that the subject of climate change has been remarkably quiet in both Brexit and the EU.