POTUS Syria Promise and Amazon Castigation. Stephen Hawking Service. Eggs and Oral Neutrophils.

So far the economic impact of brexit has been relatively unnoticed by us, the average people on the street. We have adjusted to the fall in the value of the pound and some manufacturing firms are talking about a rise in orders. There are still counters to this, with the Guardian reporting that 11% of manufacturers have lost contracts due to Brexit, 58% saying that their prices will be increasing to offset the additional brexit costs. 46% intend to pass the costs on to customers.

President Trump is keeping himself in the news with two controversial pronouncements: He is hinting at a US withdrawal from Syria, in flat contradiction to defence experts who expect such a move to create a vacuum that can only benefit Iran, the Russians and potentially ISIS.  His second blast is at Amazon, with the claim that it it is causing the US postal service to lose $1.50 on average for every parcel it delivers for the internet giant. Yet the Postal Regulatory Commission, overseeing the industry, states the US Postal Service makes a profit from its contract with the company. It is the letter side of the postal service chich is losing money. Most commentators are pointing to the fact that Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is also the owner of the Washington Post, which writes articles unpalatable to the President's world view.

Avoided Cambridge today as the city streets were expected to be filled with people paying their respects to Professor Stephen Hawking on his way to the private funeral service at St Mary's, the university church. His ashes are to be interred next to Sir Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey, the first scientist to be buried there for 80 years. he joins Charles Darwin, Sir Ernest Rutherford and Joseph John Thomson, the latter both atomic physics pioneers. I can't help thinking that it would be fitting if his ashes had a last trip on one of the new pioneering space rockets before ending up in his final resting place as he had always wanted to travel into space. His real immortality will be in the papers and ideas that he contributed to theoretical physics and cosmology.

I successfully completed the third day of chicken sitting for a neighboring friend and spent an afternoon fascinated by what I saw under the microscope. The two are unconnected but the chicken sitting has already been rewarded with eggs. Appropriately, there was a David Attenborough narrated program on eggs on TV tonight. The two differently shaped eggs shown above left me confused about what they might say about the contrasting evolutionary directions the respective chickens who laid themwere going in. Meanwhile, Jane was in an artistic mood, planning her next project.

My intention was to get some decent pictures of mouth epithelial cells using phase contrast on the microscope, hopefully with some bacteria on them. Phase contrast is an optical method that makes transparent biological specimens more contrasty under the microscope. I mounted by cheek scrape in sputum under a coverslip and began to search for cheek cells suitable for photography. I was however distracted by the large number of active neutrophil white blood cells that I hadn't expected. Whilst the epithelial cells that slough off the inner cheek are immobile and probably dead, the neutrophils showed a very active cytoplasm and some movement.

The mouth is obviously an entry point into the body and naturally a host to a wide range of bacteria, most of them beneficial - they keep other disease-causing bacteria at bay. The human body keeps these bacteria under control by sending out neutrophils, the most abundant type of white blood cell to eat the bacteria. I had read somewhere in the distant past that the mouth therefore has one of the highest concentrations of these disease fighting cells in our body. There is still very little known about the relationship of the neutrophils and their importance in the oral cavity. I tried taking two videos and a number of pictures, which now need to be processed.

1 Year Till Brexit Day. Keeping Birds Out of the Attic

Waiting for Brexit?

One year to go to Brexit Day on 29th May 2019, when we enter The Transition. The BBC news was full of reports on the consequences so far and opinions on panels of guests. Unsurprisingly, there was an even balance of companies benefiting from Brexit and others not; of Remainers and Brexiteers still broadly sticking with their opinions.

What did emerge was that most people still think Brexit is now the way forward, in some form or another. Panelists believd that the EU was currently on top in negotiations and that if brexit negotiations failed, the fault was more likely to be seen to lie with the UK.

Russia has responded to the latest expulsions of its diplomats with a counter-expulsion of 60 US diplomats from St Petersburg.

Today's own battle was our house v the Starlings. We heard the ominous noise of birds in the attic today. The tiles just above the boiler chimney leave a gap just large enough for a bird to enter. Several years ago, I tried stuffing it with foil. That probably lasted a week. Last year, wire mesh was tightly tucked into the apertures. They eventually got pulled out. This year, with the help of our neighbour, we stuffed the holes with mesh and laid more mesh over that area of the roof. I wonder how long that will be successful.

Russian Diplomats Expelled in Dramatic Support for UK. To Germany by Train.

Rhine by Kaiserswerth 

Well, it is perhaps a reflection of life continuing despite Brexit and world politics, that the momentous events of the past six days occurred in the background whilst I was on a family visit to Germany. This is what I incidentally caught had happened, from snippets of the news:

1. The EU agreed to the provisional transition agreement with the UK, though there are issues still to be resolved.
2. 13 EU countries, Australia and the US announced they would expel some Russian diplomats in varying numbers from 2 to 60, the latter by the US. This was an unexpected show of solidarity with Britain after the Skripal poisoning, showing the importance of working together - at a time where we are separating ourselves from our newest neighbours.
3. Stormy Daniels and some of her legal support are interviewed on CBS 60 minutes about her brief sexual encounter with President Trump.

I was more taken up with travelling and the visit. Going by train  might take longer, but it is a more relaxing way to travel. Punctuated by three changes and four different trains, there is the backdrop of changing scenery and the occasional conversation with fellow passengers. 

The fact that you start in one country, cross two others to complete the journey in the one with the final destination, gives me a more real sense of making a journey. 

The same journey by plane would still involve two train journeys topping and tailing the flight. The total journey time is shorter at seven hours but two and a half are waiting/checking in and out of airports. It just feels more stressful.

Travelling by car, the around 650 km journey would take about the same time as the train journey, with 7 to 9 hours of actual travel punctuated by two rest breaks, extending the journey time to 9 to 11 hours. It is tiring.

The four days were spent with my mother, food shopping, celebrating her birthday and meeting family. The baking practice over the past year proved useful. I baked two lovely moist carrot cakes, a lemon drizzle cake and a batch of oaty biscuits.

We drove to the Netherlands to visit old family friends, we'd first met them on a camping holiday in the Basque region more than four decades ago and they have been part of lives ever since. We took carrot cake and came away with chocolate and a Midsomer Murder's DVD. The gentle detective series has managed to win followers in both the Netherlands and Germany. On Tuesday, the rain cleared and we took a walk in the sunshine along the Rhine by the crossing to Kaiserswerth.

On the return journey, I missed the pre-rush hour connection to Cambridge and had an hour to kill. Coming out of the Eurostar exit, I took my time wandering around St Pancras station looking for photo opportunities. The Betjeman statue and a nearby collection of artistically designed and decorated dog kennels were obvious choices, as were the ironwork ceiling and general station space. St Pancras is the more attractive of the two when compared to Kings Cross, it's neighbour.

I'm not good at people photos but was lucke enough to capture a German couple emulating the kiss modelled by the sculptor Paul Day on him and his wife in the sclupture titled The Meeting Place. The frieze around the base of the statue also gave me an opportunity to try stretch the panorama function on my smart-phone to its limits by trying to take a panorama whilst walking around the statue.

The last enjoyable moments before the last leg home were the chat with the piano player, tinkling away on one of the two pianos in the main St Pancras concourse. He had played on nearly all of the 55 Street pianos in London. Apparently there are more than 1800 street pianos installed around the world. 

Took today to recover with a head-ache curing lie-in, tidy up the Stereoscope book to send to the printers and rescue my Camilla sourdough culture after a fortnight in the fridge.

The UK Fisherman's Tales from Glory to Despair to Success

Detail of Cod Scale

With the UK fishing industry crying betrayal at the government's backing down on repatriation of fishing rights on brexit and during the transition period, I wanted to have a look at the issue. The first important discovery was, that it is important to have islands around your nation. These help you extend the area that is recognised as your Exclusive Economic Zone. The UK does rather well, with an EEZ of 6.8 million square kilometers of sea, with most of it extending out from the North of England and Scotland as there are fewer landborders with other countries to limit it.

The EU Common Fsheries Policy decided that the allocation of proportions of the total catch of any type of fish would be decided by where fishing had been traditionally been conducted by different nations in 1970 as a reference point. This was unfortunate for the UK as at that time most of our fishing fleets were fishing off the coast of Iceland, that is, until Iceland extended its territorial waters by 200 miles and excluded the UK fleet.

The next blow to UK and EU fishing was the imposition of fishing quotas, in an attempt to limit overfishing. This crudely limited the time boats were allowed at sea and how much fish they could land in that period. The quotias were routinely set politically above the minimum levels for sustainable fishing. So fishing boats were limited in what they caught and fish still kept declining. Whilst there were nearly 50,000 fishers in the UK in 1948, numbers sank to about 20,000 by 1976, remained steady till 1994 and then began to decline to a present figure of around 6,000 vessels. Admittedly some of them were much larger and more efficient, but it was still a drastic decline.

The EU introduced stricter regulation coupled with more effective monitoring of catch and realistic, science based quotas. The result, fish stocks began to recover and become sustainably fished in this new century.

Brexit appeared to provide the possibility of righting an historical wrong, where nearly 60% of fish and shellfish were caught by EU vessels in UK waters. A simplistic view of take back our waters and return to a new dawn of British fisheries beckoned. The Scottish Fishermen's Federation commissioned an Opinion Paper by Robin Churchill, Emeritus Professor of International Law, University of Dundee which found that yes, the UK could boot off all foreigners and allow the (mainly Scottish) fleet to rule the British Seas once more.

But with the UK fishing industry forming only 0.5% of the UK's GDP, they were an easy sacrifice to make for the sake of a larger picture of agreeing the transition arrangement for the UK leaving the EU, though Michael Gove probably phrased it a bit more diplomatically in parliament today.

Then there are of course the practical realities. Many of the different fish species spawn in areas outside of our EEZ and migrate into it as adults where they are caught. There is also the political reality that, just as in the UK, other EU nations view their fishing fleets in an iconic historical light out of proportion to their actual value to the economy. The last thing any government wants is a messy cod war with trading neighbours.

Yet there is also some pride to be had in our modern fishing industry. We might only have 30 to 40% of the catch BUT, this is equal in value to the catch in our EEZ by the other EU nation's fleets combined. We go for better quality fish and also higher value shellfish such as nephrops (scampi to you and me). 

In fact, the UK has risen in the fishing league table in the EU, to quote the Fullfact article on the issue:

'The UK’s share of the overall EU fishing catch grew between 2004 and 2014. In 2004 the UK had the fourth largest catch of any EU country at 652,000 tonnes, by 2014 this had grown to 752,000 tonnes and the second largest catch of any country in the EU.'

Transition Deal and Erased Red Lines. Unusual Ammonites and what ate them.

The UK and EU agreed on the transition period from March 2019 to December 2020.

The three major successes for the UK are:

1. That business has a breathing space to adapt before Brexit sets in (though this will not be finalised till the agreement is signed in 2019)

2. That the UK can begin negotiate new trade agreements during the transition (but not implement them till afterwards).

3. During the transition period, the UK can still benefit from the existing Free Trade Agreements with up to 40 other countries and any new FTAs initiated in the transition period until it leaves.

As part of the agreement, former UK government lines have fallen away:

1. There is still no solution to the Northern Ireland Eire border, but the agreement stands that there will be no hard border. The UK has agreed that the fallback position is an alignment of the UK with the single market and customs union.

2. EU citizens rights in the UK are maintained (and vice versa for UK citizens) during the transition period, though to quote the Guardian 'Jane Golding, the chair of British in Europe, which represents 1.2 million Britons living in other EU countries, said the agreed legal text provided more free movement rights after Brexit for English cheddar than to British citizens'.

3. Scottish fishermen were also disappointed that EU fishing rights/regulations remain unchanged for the next two years.

The deal is by no means complete and it will have to be approved by the other member states but it looks like a major block has been overcome to moving on to the next stage of negotiations.

Hardline brexiteers have so far been muted in their criticism.

Cambridge was quiet today and the exasperated call from a stall owner as we hurried through the market on our way to lunch made me laugh and stop. Mal's fossil stand had a cornucopia of fossils and we ended up chatting good-naturedly about geological slides, polarisation and microscopy. Cheered up all round, one specimen really caught my eye - three large unravelling ammonites. These were actually Ancyloceras ammonites, also known as Heteromorphs (differently shaped!) that really did look like a partially uncoiled spiral. We do not know much about these heteromorphs, apart from them arising at the latter stages of the Ammonite rich period. How mobile were they? Did they just drift around, slowly catching things within their grasp?

Ammonites are actually thought to be more closely related to the modern octopus and squid than the similar looking modern shelled Nautilus. They were successful predators (pretty successful if you see the layers of them fossilised in rock at the far end of the beach at Lyme Regis on the fossil coast). Which then begs the question, what ate ammonites, these octopus like molluscs living in hard shells? Probably other ammonites and their octopus and cuttlefish relatives. The latter certainly have a sharp beak, are capable of camouflage and surprise attacks. They catch and deal with formidable crabs as food, so cracking open an ammonite could well have been in their repertoire.

Conflicting Major and Minor reports on Brexit Progress Released. Cold but Snow-free Cambridgeshire

With David Davis heading to Brussels this week to resume negotiations on the transition deal with the EU. Apparently concessions have already been made. These include accepting the EU deadline for the end of the transition period and a fall-back from the fisheries position promoted by Michael Gove, of the UK taking back full control of fisheries.

The debate heated up again to day as the  Exiting the European Union Committee released its main report on progress to date on the negotiations. This concluded that at there moment there was little progress on resolving an open Irish border. The report rejected the EU fall-back position (of a border in the Irish Sea) and urged the government to come up with counter proposals.

The most controversial comment in the majority report was that there could be insufficient time to complete negotiations of the UK's relationship with the EU during the transition period and that preparations should be in place to agree an extension of the transition period. The thorny issue of the UK simply being a 'rule taker', still beholden to the EU and the ECJ was also raised and it is hoped that some level of influence in discussions will be agreed.

The committee was split on this issue in particular and a minority report by the hard leavers on the committee was issued, which accused the major report of having been "written in the slough of despond, despairing and defeatist". (Apparently, issuing such minority reports does occur as committee members are often bipartisan, an issue here with remainer and leaver MP's on the committee).

Whilst Cambridgeshire seems to have been spared the dramatic snowfall seen in Lincolnshire and the South again, it was a gray, bitter day today. At least last weeks cut flowers still provided a touch of warm colour indoors. I spent the afternoon working on the Quekett Bulletin. Jane was busy designing greeting cards.

Was Your Facebook Profile Misused for Trump and Brexit votes? Snowflakes.

Snowflakes on the garden table

There is an unexpected link between Cambridge and the last presidential campaign. Or rather involving Cambridge Analytica. According to an Observer expose, assisted by whistle-blower Christopher Wylie, The company had acquired access to 50 million profiles, about a third of North America's Facebook users.

This was achieved through a personality test app called thisisyourdigitallife, built by academic Aleksandr Kogan (independently of his role at Cambridge University). Users were paid and could benefit from the app in exchange for providing access to their Facebook profiles - and therefore indirectly to those of their Facebook friends. Facebook sought and believed assurances from the company that the information was only for research. However, the data was apparently being offered to clients, including very interested intelligence agencies, as a source for targeted campaigns.

Allegedly, this was recognised as political gold by Steve Bannon and Breitbart, and an opportunity for gaining sophisticated psychological and political profiles to be used for targeted political social media campaigns during the Republican presidential campaign. According to the Federal Election Commission, Trump’s campaign hired Cambridge Analytica in June 2016 for than $6.2 million. Cambridge Analytica denies that the Facebook info was used.

Facebook has since withdrawn access to its services to Cambridge Analytica.

Articles available here: Reuters and The Guardian

Investigations are also being pursued in the UK to see if the information was used during the Brexit referendum campaign see Business Insider article.

You can check your Facebook activities by downloading your FB archive.
Quite amazing what you find out about what you have been involved in, fortunately no obvious link  to thisisyourdigitallife in my archive.

As previously, the Beast from the East 2 missed dumping significant snow on our region today. There were sufficient light flurries for me to be hopeful of photographing some snow flakes. Howerver, the teperature fluctuated around 0 degC, with surfaces not being quite cold enough for flakes to settle without melting till late afternoon. I then tried taking pictures with the smartphone and a 10x lens attached, with minor success. I hope that there will be more opportunities tomorrow morning.

No Border Controls in Ireland or at Dover - That's 'Taking Back Control'

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee gave a strongly worded warning to the government that its pledge of no border in Ireland is only possible if the UK stays aligned with the EU rules for the foreseeable future.There is no technologcal solution in sight that could be completed and implemented in time for our exit next year.

Watching Chris Grayling (Transport Secretary) on Question Time yesterday, I too heard the claim that there would be no border checks at Dover when we leave. The initially surprising statement shows a level of pragmatism as there is currently not the space available to park the innumerable lorries at the port for checks. It does however make a mockery of the phrase 'Taking back control!'

The main news is still the fall-out from the Skripal poisoning, with the unusual addition of another murder of another  Russian exile and businessman, Nikolai Glushkov, this time by strangulation. Bodyguards for rich Russians are apparently back in vogue.

Decided to forgo networking today as there was further work on existing books.

Holidaymakers Not Warned of Brexit Risks. Recommending Stephen Hawking's Other Books.

The Guardian picks up on the impact of Brexit on travel today, especially as about three quarters of all trips abroad are to the other 27 EU countries.

Which? had warned that holidaymakers were not being warned of the potential risks of Brexit to their  plans when making bookings. There is as yet no agreement in place about how flights are going to be regulated and agreed between the UK and the rest of the EU after 19th March 2019.

Several major travel companies have not yet told customers about possible cancellation procedures and refunds, as well as issues arising from items outside agreements, such as car or villa hire. Apparently,  Thomas Cook looks to avoid any embarrassing compensation or reimbursements by changed terms and conditions, which class any airspace closure in the same category as 'natural disasters'!

The Prime Minister has announced the expulsion of 23 Russian operatives (presumably spies) by the end of the week as well as financial restrictions on Russian oligarchs. So far, there have been supportive noises from robust statements from the US, at the UN security meeting and Germany. Russia itself has been fairly dismissive and the opinion generally appears to be that condemnation of Russia plays into President Putin's hands, adding to more support back home for his imminent re-election.

Across the Pond, impressed to see that school students have been demonstrating today against the US gun culture and demanding change. 17 minute silences were held, including outside the White House bounds, one minute for every student killed in the most recent shooting.

Big news today was the passing away of legendary physicist, Stephen Hawking. Yes, I too have a copy of 'A Brief History of Time' on the bookshelf, though I cannot remember if I read it completely or not. Feeling a bit jaded, I thought I would read a more recent updated version of our knowledge of physics: I downloaded the Kindle version of the children's book that Professor Hawking co-wrote with his science communicator and most frequent co-author, daughter Lucy. The book is called George's Secret Key to the Universe and so far I've enjoyed relearning about the origin of stars and been introduced to a pig called Freddy. The series extends to at least another four accessible books  and I like the way that there are hyperlinks within the book to short sections of factual information.

I phoned Ulli to chat about his planned marathon route through the UK and in return received another book recommendation. It's 'Dark Web' by Veit Etzold (in German), which will have to wait until I've finished Cordeila Fine's 'Testosterone Rex', which I am dipping into occasionally.

US Progress on Gun Laws. Firing Tillerson by Tweet. Tigger Hammond. My Two Front Teeth

The V&A on the way to the Natural History Museum side entrance.

President Trump backtracked on increasing the age of gun ownership to 21 after threats of NRA lawsuits, citing there was “not much political support (to put it mildly)” for the policy. Campaigners are obviously disappointed and the current level of support for increasing the age for gun ownership stands at 70%, according to recent polls. On the positive side, the President does support a new strategy of 'Extreme risk protection orders', where guns can be taken away from people deemed to be at risk of suicide or other relevant mental health issues. The evidence based method has shown that in Connecticut, where the orders have been used since 1999, that for every 10 risk warrants issued (and guns temporarily removed)), one life is saved.

However, all this news was overshadowed by President Trump's sacking of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson via Twitter. The news had to be broken to him by an aide as Tillerson did not follow Twitter. Mind you, it was probably only of matter of time as the two were not on the same wavelength and the Secretary of State had been undermined or contradicted by the President over the past year on a number of occasions.

More worrying is perhaps that the replacements for Secretary of State and Head of CIA, Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel respectively, were supporters of water boarding and Guantanamo Bay. Supporters of torture and internement/prison camps of dubious legality.

Before he left, Tillerson did come out strongly in favour of the UK position against the misuse of possible Russian Novichok nerve gases on UK soil and President Trump seems to be supporting the UK too. Other EU countries have also expressed strong support. Russia is dismissive of the accusations and threatens to respond in kind if there is any action by the UK government. The deadline for the response requested by Theresa May has just passed. We await to see what the consequences announced are tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Philip Hammond gave an upbeat Spring assessment on the UK economy and possible signs of national debt beginning to decline to Parliament, comparing himself to a bouncy, bouncy, bouncy Tigger (of Winnie the Pooh fame), as opposed to the doom-mongering Eeyore's on the other side of the House. However, there were no tax or big spending decisions, merely a more positive outlook, one which is, according to political reporter Laura Kuenssberg, aiming for a future position for the 2020 elections. 

Tellingly, the UK economy is currently the slowest growing of all G7 economies, down to 1.5% in the first part of the year.

The rather mild and partially sunny day was rather eventful, starting with an incipient migraine, fortunately quashed in time. It was followed by a delightful visit to the dentist to have some extensive drilling on my front teeth, fortunately without pain, but still nerve wracking. I rewarded myself with a hot dog on the way home. Yes you CAN eat immediately after having a filling done if it is set using UV. I then traveled to London for the Quekett Microscopical Club AGM, after which I gave my talk/demonstration on macrophotography.

UK Bureaucrats replace EU Bureaucrats. What are Novichok Nerve Poisons and How Do They Work

Painkiller crystals

The solution to ridding ourselves of EU bureaucracy and bureaucrats is - increasing our own! This is according to a study just released by the Institute for Government independent think tank. It is particularly galling to find that a government that has been cutting public spending in a major austerity program has been dramatically expanding the number of civil servants over six departments to cope with the administrative burden of Brexit, to an anticipated tune of up to £2 bn.

DExEU: adds 650 new staff
DIT: employs 800 extra staff
DEFRA: Harvests 1200 new brexit related staff
Home Office: expects to bring 1500 staff in by September
HMRC: anticipates requiring 3000 to 5000 extra staff by March 2019

Oh, and that is just the start to cover us for the transition, costs will rise in the period afterwards.

Most amusingly, the EU manages to dealing with agriculture, fisheries and the environment with1,657 staff in three departments (457 more than DEFRA)- but that's for all 28 countries including the UK!

Full details can be gleaned from the downloadable PDF from the Institute for Government site.

Some putative Novichok forms

The Prime Minister announced to parliament today that the nerve agent used to poison former double agent  Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, as well as a policeman, was a Novichok agent. 

Novichok agents were developed by Russia with the following aim, according to several sources referenced in Wikipedia:

• To be undetectable using standard NATO chemical detection equipment;
• To defeat NATO chemical protective gear;
• To be safer to handle;
• To circumvent the Chemical Weapons Convention list of controlled precursors, classes of chemical and physical form.

Their name means "Newbie" or "Newcomer"

These nerve agents belong to a class of chemicals known as organophosphates. They target an enzyme important in nerve message transmission, called acetylcholinesterase and stop it from working.

The way it works is as follows:

Source: Macalester on Nerve Agents

Normally a nerve signal releases a compound called acetylcholine from the nerve to get a muscle or gland to act (like putting your foot on an accelerator).

• After transmitting the signal, Acetylcholine is quickly broken down  by an enzyme called acetycholinesterase, to stop the signal from persisting (like taking your foot off the accelerator).

The figure on the left, from Macalester's article on Nerve Agents, shows the process in more detail.

• Nerve poisons stop the acetylcholinesterase from working (they are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors).

• This allows acetylcholine to build up (foot permanently rammed down on the accelerator). 

• The consequences, muscles are locked into permanent action, glands overproduce their hormones. Eyes begin to stream, mucus to flow and important muscles like those for breathing or the heart are locked. That is how they kill.

The Prime Minister has given the Russians 2 days to come up with an explanation how one of their chemical agents was used for an attempted assassination in the UK, potentially endangering a wider group of people.

On a lighter note. I was quite chuffed today to get a request from an US researcher to use some of my fruit fly pictures (of Spotted Wing Drosophila) from another blog for a conference talk they were going to give next week.

Will US Outlaw Bump Stocks? Cable Blames Over 65's For Brexit. Cheese Cake Success on Mother's Day

Ash black slug on wall in Ely

President Trump's decision to agree to talks with the leader of North Korea continues to make waves as it is not clear whether there any prerequisites for the talks. e.g. North Korea giving clear signs of moving on nuclear weapons. In the meantime, it actually looks as if the US Justice Department is moving towards making the bump-stocks illegal. The is could be by classifying them under 'machine guns', as they help convert semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic ones. Whether the legislation will come to fruition is another matter. in the meantime, the EU-US talks about the US tariffs on steel and aluminium broke up without any decision. 

Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable baldly blamed the Brexit vote on an over 65's who had a "nostalgia for a world where passports were blue, faces were white and the map was coloured imperial pink". This contrasted with the 70% of under 25's who voted to remain. He was speaking at the party's Spring Conference, where he also pointedly commented that ."Looking around the auditorium, we are very, very white. We must prioritise making our party more ethnically diverse." By the evening his comments had drawn a backlash from mainly Tory MPs. 

Chancellor Philip Hammond was on the political chat show circuit today with the message that this year would see the tipping point when the budget deficit would begin to decline. However, he also refused to state that there would be more money available for cash strapped councils.

Salisbury nerve gas poisoning story takes a new twist. The 500 plus visitors to the pizza restaurant and nearby pub being urged to wash the clothes they wore on the day. This was to avoid the effects of slow accumulative poisoning by any traces of nerve poison

I had a second try at making a cheese cake with Quark that wouldn't collapse on removal from the oven - this time, yesterday, with success! Just mixing the cheese layer ingredients together rather than mixing in a stiffened separate egg-white worked.

With today, Mother's Day, being grey but drier than yesterday, we took a trip to Ely for a walk around the town. We dropped into the Babylon Gallery for the last day of an exhibition of sculptures and caricatures by Sid Burnard and Ralph Steadman. Since most pubs and restaurants were full, we stopped off for a small snack at the Cathedral cafe. On the way back to the car, spent some time photographing bricks, plants, mosses, lichens and an Ash black slug before returning home to tea and cheese cake.

The President's Big Surprise. Seratonin, Mammoth, Ergonomics and Staff Engagement

St Ives to Broadway

President Trump has agreed to Kim Jong-un's request for a meeting, possible date sometime in May. This came as a bit of surprise to the President's own pres team, which was getting ready to deal with the fall-out  of the tariff declaration and also the bubbling Stormy Daniels affair. This news effectively blew them off the front headline, at least for today, and the Russia investigation is quietly ticking out of sight. If the President achieves a breakthrough with North Korea that does not turn out to be another broken promise, that will be a real achievement.

In the UK brexit news also has taken a back seat as the main interest is in the deepening investigation in the poisoning of retired Russian/UK double agent Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia, and of Det Sgt Nick Bailey. No official finger pointing yet - waiting for more evidence. This has not prevented the press immediately blaming Russia.

The day started off in sunshine with a bacon sandwich and an interesting conversation at the taproom on careers after science teaching, prompted by a necklace in the shape of the molecule of seratonin, the happiness hormone. Walking down towards Broadway towards the Norris, stopped to smile and photograph a wicker pig by a dog bowl with dog biscuits. Apparently the owner is an animal loverr!

At the Norris, it was clearing up duty, where I got off lightly with the task of photographing canvasses made by children at various Norris events. Hidden among them was a memory from the Mammoth exhibition I'd set up. One of the assistant curators at the time had drawn the outline of a mammoth and coloured balls of craft wool had been placed nearby with a glue stick for children to be creative with. This turned into one woolly mammoth that would cope with the cold.

At HBN, it was time for member presentations, with David Cartwright and Debbie Stevens. David talked and demonstrated on the ergonomics of seating in the office and also on the actual requirements for employers to regularly review staff seating and any actions implemented. Debbie presented on the impact of presentation, dress, attitude and core values on an organisation's productivity.

Trumps Tariffs Test Friend's Mettle. Calais Port Issue Tenfold Worse than Irish Brexit Border. Fake News Beats Truth

"You wanna by my friend, don't you!" is effectively the message issued by President Trump's imposition of tariffs of 10% on aluminium and 25% on steel imports. So far Canada and Mexico have been excluded from the tariffs. Apparently, the President will also make concessions to true friends. Should be interesting. At least the decision is received positively in some areas of the US, a good move if you are planning for a second term in office.

The President had removed the US from the Pacific free trade negotiations. Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam signed up to the The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), covering a market of 500 million people and 13% of the global economy.

Meeting with the EU's Donald Tusk, the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar,  piled on the pressure on the UK negotiating team, emphasising that Ireland needed to know the fall-back position to establish a “common regulatory area” between the island of Ireland and the 26 other EU states would apply of no open border solution could be achieved.

The Border with Ireland? Calais would be 10 times worse, claimed the boss of the port of Calais, Jean-Marc Puissesseau, who stated that permanent 20 mile long tailbacks were likely on a border. He helpfully added “At the moment, 70% of food imported comes from the EU. Even if that goes down to 50% after Brexit because of controls, it still needs to flow smoothly; people still need to eat. If there are delays it could end up rotting on the side of the road.”

Spent a whole day with a good friend and author from microscopy tackling a revised issue of his book we originally prepared in 2009/2010. Even with archive files retained  since then, it was a painstaking formatting and proofing exercise. We are halfway through, another session in the future beckons.

There was still an hour before we were to set off this evening to our German 'Stammtisch' with friends, with nothing to take along. Used the time to make another batch of soft oaty biscuits, accidently with half the sugar, which still tasted fine - possibly due to the substitution of cocoa fat for half the amount of butter required. An enjoyable evening with a great apple sponge cake and an aside conversation on macro-photography of insects, including lepidoptera.

One of my favourite authors, Terry Pratchett would be smiling wryly about the shock revelation that fake news travels faster through the social media than real news. His excellent book on journalism and the search for truth, aptly named "The Truth" featured the saying 'A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.' Mind you, the original quote has been attributed to famous people from Mark Twain to Winston Churchill.

EU says Free Trade Agreement is best UK can hope for. On being Chief Judge at a Toastmasters International Club Competition

Apple skin

Donald Tusk introduced the EU guidelines for the future trade agreement with the UK after brexit - see actual text here  (https://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/European-council-Art.50-23-March-2018-Draft-Guidelines-1.pdf)

Key phrases:
In this context, the European Council reiterates in particular that any agreement with the United Kingdom will have to be based on a balance of rights and obligations, and ensure a
level playing field. A non-member of the Union, that does not live up to the same obligations as a member, cannot have the same rights and enjoy the same benefits as a member.

The European Council recalls that the four freedoms of the Single Market are indivisible and that there can be no “cherry picking” through participation based on a sector-by-sector
approach, that would undermine the integrity and proper functioning of the Single Market.

Basically as Donald Tusk said today, the best offer for a relationship with a UK that wants to be outside the customs union is a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

This is a contrast with the aspirations expressed by Theresa May for the UK. Chancellor Philip Hammond spoke at the HSBC  today on the finance sector and emphasised that it would only be in the interests of the UK and EU to maintain some closer links for the sector, something not even mentioned in the negotiating guidelines.

There was some positive news, according to a Reuter's report, 'The European Parliament will call for a broad-based “association agreement” with Britain after Brexit that goes beyond a narrow focus on trade, according to a draft resolution to be voted on next week.' The resolution suggested including an agreement covering four areas: trade and economics, foreign policy and security cooperation, internal security and thematic cooperation.

My mind was on other matters (in addition to work). I'd been volunteered to be Chief Judge for tonight's Huntingdonshire Speakers Club International Speech competition by the event's Chair. This club competition was the very first stage of the annual competitions that would aim to find the best global Toastmasters International Speaker. I'd been both a competitor and a standard judge at previous club competitions but this was a step change. A couple of hours printing out reams of required material and wading through competition rules meant a modicum of confidence when i turned up early at the venue. it was even more daunting for the Chair as she was taking on a the key role of running the whole event for the first time too.

There were actually two competitions, with three speakers volunteering for the International speakers competition and three others for the Evaluation Competition. We had to share the briefing of competitors, time keepers, the actual judges, tally counters and secret  Tie Break adjudicating judge. We got through the first competition with only minor glitches and were running smoothly for the following Evaluation competition. Our club's two winners were chosen and now go forward to the next level, the district competition - and we wish them the best of luck!

US-EU Tariff Slanging Match. UK-EU Posturing Prior to Next Negotiations. A New Cooker Arrives.

There is a bit of a slanging match going on re tariffs between the US and the EU, mexico, Canada and other Countries. 'Well if you are going to increase tariffs, so are we! Nyaa, nayaa!'

The posturing re the brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU has also been shaping up since Prime Minister May gave her speech on her vision of brexit and the relationship with the EU. "Lacking substance and double cherry picking" is the reply from across the Channel.

There was also news in the FT that secret aviation negotiations between the UK and the US stalled because the offer being made was less favourable to the UK than the current EU ones. The main issue of the day is however the possible poisoning of a former Russian spy and his visiting daughter in Salisbury, both in a critical condition in hospital.

Kim Jong-Un has unexpectedly announced that his country is willing to give up nuclear weapons if North Korea's security is guaranteed and military threats are removed. Is it manipulation or have President Trumps threats of massive retaliation made an impact?

Big event in our household was the arrival of our new cooker from AO. One slight problem yesterday, we're told that delivery today would be within a set 4 hour slot - which we would first find out via their app today - with deliveries starting at 7am. So early to bed and then waking at 5am to check for our slot - sometime between 4 and 8. Was this am or pm? The A14 and a late pickup came to our rescue in delaying an apparent possible 7:30 am delivery to beyond 8:30 am, allowing a shower and breakfast beforehand.

We had made the effort to move out the old cooker and remove the decade of hidden accumulated grime yesterday and the exchange of old for new happened quickly. What was unexpected was the necessity of having both ovens on full power for half an hour to remove whatever coating there was inside. The acrid perfume permeated the kitchen despite open window and exterior doors, and still lingers. No doubt it will take time to to clear. At least the scent did not penetrate into our sausage dinner and new loaf baked in the oven.

We suddenly have at least three books that have been consuming our time nearing completion, the pressure is due to ease at last.

Milton Local History Group meeting this evening with an update on village residents at the 1911 census. Quite a number of widows and forgotten street names. This was followed by a session where we split into groups extracting data from records of the fallen in WWI.

A Cheese-Cake Cup-Cake Experiment

Partial success with Cheese-cake cup-cakes

Apart from President Trump increasing the trade war stakes by suggesting that he will impose tariffs on imported european cars, and Jeremy Hunt explaining how wonderful Theresa May's speech was yesterday in uniting both conservative remainers and brexiteers, not much of interest politically.

Not really feeling up to much today, and with a pot of curd cheese (Quark) in the fridge, I thought I would have another go at making cheese cake, inspired by a 'cream-cake deficit' post by a friend on facebook.

I took my inspiration from a recipe for 'Muttis bester Käsekuchen' (Mummy's best cheese cake on the basis that it used ingredients I currently had in hand. That is, apart from the minor fact that it used 1kg of  Quark and 3 eggs, and I only had 250 g of Quark and two eggs.

Undaunted, I decided to go for:

• A quarter of the recipe amounts
• Make little cup cake sized cheese cakes instead of one large one
• Use whipped egg white to make the filling lighter!

For the base

Ingredients & Preparation:

• 25 g butter
• 25 g caster sugar
• 1/2 egg yolk
• 65 g plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of milk

These were rubbed to until I had a coarsely crumbed dough.

The  crumbs were distributed over 9 paper muffin cases in a 12 cup cake hole tray and then stamped down to a base with a glass and evened out with a finger!

For the Filling

Ingredients & Preparation:

• 250 g Quark (soft curd cheese)
• 62 g sugar
• 1/2 egg yolk
• ***1 egg white beaten until stiff peaks formed
• 40 g sunflower oil
• 20 g Birds Custard Powder
• 125 ml milk

I mixed all the ingredients EXCEPT the stiff egg white together first to get a faint pink smooth mixture. Then I folded the stiff egg white into the mix. This was done carefully until the mixture looked smooth again.

Baking

The cheese-cake mixture was then spooned in equal quantities on top of the dough base.

The small cheese cakes were baked at 170 degC in a fan heated oven for ****45 minutes. They looked spectacular - like this!

Having had past experience with a collapsing cake, I left them to cool in the turned off oven. However, they still came out looking like this!

Chilled in the fridge, they still tasted delicious!

*** I think next time, I will simply add an egg directly to the cheese cake topping mix (as the original recipe specified, duh!). 

**** The original recipe specified baking one large single cheese cake for 90 minutes, I think that the cup cake sized cheese cakes could bake completely through in less that the 45 minutes that I gave them.

Theresa May's Balancing Act Speech. Steely Opposition to Trump Tariffs. Wintry Outing

The Prime Minister gave her speech on the planned relationship with the EU, presenting some more detail and aspirations. The emphasis of the speech was on economic factors. Key points were:

• Restating that we are leaving the EU and customs union.
• Rejection of Norway or Canada models of agreements with the EU.
• Acknowledgement of impact on Northern Ireland and Eire.
• Intention to make border as soft as possible.
• 'Life is going to be different(!)"
• Acceptance that EU law relating to EU matters will still impact on the UK.
• Wanting a say in key matters relating to Data security and transport.
• Ability of EU and UK citizens to work in each other's areas (though presumably with some restrictions)

I could go on but the full text is here: Prime Ministers Speech on Brexit and relationship with the EU today.

This was largely a speech to a domestic audience, or should I say the two extreme wings of her party holding her to ransom, both on the remain and brexit side. One analysis stated that the success of the speech would be measured by whether one or other of the party wings looked overly happy - which would make the speech a failure. If they were relatively neutral, then the balancing act had been maintained.

The polarisation was reflected in other reactions to the speech. These included cautious optimism from business and the DUP that the Prime Minister might be taking steps in the right direction towards negotiations. Sinn Fein, the German leader of the EU Centre Right Coalition and Nicola Sturgeon were scathing to various degrees. Der Spiegel has an article on three reasons why Brexit will probably happen (no real change in voter balance between remainers and brexiteers; high hurdles politically for a course change; a lack of political will). The message is gradually sinking in that the UK is really (reluctantly) willing to cut off its ties and sail into an indeterminate future.

President Trump's planned tariffs on imported Steel and Aluminium are raising ire in Canada, the EU and China - and internally in the US. However he is currently sticking to his guns. Speaking of which, the White House attempted to reinterpret his statements on gun control measures in a way that would cause less offence to the strident defenders of the second amendment.

Found myself hurrying to the bus stop this morning as it seemed from by bus app that Stagecoach had changed the bus timetable without letting us know. However, setting off four minutes earlier made the connection to the guided bus more convenient. I arrived early in St Ives and hurried against the wintry breeze through a decimated market, where traders had obviously thought twice about coming out due to the snow and ice.

After a bacon butty and networking at the Taproom, it was off to the Norris to help prepare materials for tomorrows Civilisations activity. Interesting conversation about the benefits of a winter cruise to Norway for the Northern Lights (and rare hurricane force winds). Also had a great example of an interconnected world, where someone who has fallen in Australia, getting a cut to the head, phones the UK for advice and help, which is then supported by another contact back in Australia. Fortunately all was well.

Snow flakes began falling and swirling around the museum at around 2 pm so caught the buses back home before a small dump of one or two centimeters of snow. Spent the evening doing some more microscopy for Open Studios.

Public Posturing on Brexit Red Lines. US Steeled for Import Tariffs. Cambridge still a Snowmageddon Free Zone.

EU and UK negotiation stances set out again in public today.

The UK had already made some concessions on the status of EU citizens in the UK during Brexit.

Donald Tusk and Michel Barnier emphasise that with UK red lines, there is no chance of the promise of a border free Ireland being realised.

Theresa May holds cabinet meeting in preparation for her great speech planned for Friday.

David Davis blusters that if EU does not change its stance on legal demands that would keep Northern Ireland within EU rules, the UK will threaten to withdraw from paying the £39 billion Brexit divorce bill.

Theresa May recorded as saying that a open border in Ireland is not possible if the UK leaves the EU.

President Trump in the meantime is ruffling waters on two separate counts. The first is his call for a bipartisan deal on introducing some gun control measures such as greater checks and raising gun ownership age limit for certain types of guns. This put the republicans on the spot and also ran counter to the NRA interests.

The second, the announcement that strong import tariffs (25%) will be imposed on imported steel and aluminium next week, to protect US jobs in the sector. The announcement ted to a 400 point drop in the Dow Jones index as manufacturers worry about the increas in production costs.

Cambridgeshire seems to be one of the few spots in the UK relatively unaffected by the snow chaos hitting the South and the North. After the Beast from the East, we are now awaiting storm Emma hitting the South and west of the UK. Again, it looks as if Cambridgeshire will be unaffected. Tomorrow will tell. I'll go to St Ives but give Huntington a miss just in case there is a sudden change.

At tonight's artists and Craftists, finished off my letter D illustration and started E, which will incorporate an echidna.