Spocks Brain and Cambridge's Controlled Explosion

Pine needles

I'm currently watching "Spocks Brain" - from the original series - an antidote to the madness of the world and the super saturation of the post terrorism news. On the one hand we are told that it is important to carry on as normal, on the other hand, the media and politicians are now obsessed with reacting to the terrorist incident. The delicate and vital negotiations with Brexit, the risks to the economy, funding of the national health service, immigration - the whole rational electoral process now determined by one-upmanship and platitudes in dealing with terrorism. 

Vigilance is high and even Cambridge was affected, when an abandoned briefcase near St Mary's on Kings Parade raised concern. It was blown up by the army at around 9:50 pm and subsequently turned out to be harmless and not terror related. I do like BBC Mark Williamson's tweet, quoting Varsity on Cambridge diners evacuated after the suspicious package was initially found . One diner recounted "A policeman came down and demanded that everyone get out of the restaurant, so I grabbed my creme brulee and ran'. Quick thinking - will he pay his bill retrospectively, I wonder?

Now I'm watching the Sky Newspaper review of tomorrows headlines  - yes, its terror or calls to back either May or Corbyn to combat terror at the coming election. Internment is fashionable in debates, though there are voices pointing out that it wasn't very successful when tried in Northern Ireland.  You can tell how bad the situation is when the Daily Mail's Consultant Editor Andrew Pierce and Daily Mirror Associate Editor Kevin Maguire agree with each other instead of viscerally squabbling and talking over each other. Oh, relief, they've managed to start arguing again 7 minutes into the program. 

Spent Monday morning getting new front tyres for the car and then caught up with Jane on work plans for the coming week or two before working together on finalising another book cover. Played on the microscope in the evening, taking a number of photo-stacks and panoramas, to be processed in the near future. Today's image is one that I've prepared for Cambridge Open Studios this year.