Friday 17th February 202
I have just posted a comment on Bowland Climber's blog and then thought it was worthy of using as a post here for those who don't read BC's blog - if you want to see the full context CLICK HERE
https://bowlandclimber.com/2023/02/17/keeping-it-local/
“contentment is the prime objective” – your quote. A conclusion I came to about an hour ago after watching a documentary on Porton Down, It was presented by Michael Moseley, a scientist who is a gift to TV producers as a natural presenter. I usually watch Moseley’s programmes with enthusiasm. Unfortunately the Porton Down thing was so harrowing I had to switch halfway through, but feeling a bit guilty about jibbing on something that is so profoundly serious and relevant to our existence as humans.
I found “contentment,” partly sullied by the guilt, in a benign Scottish TV documentary about an outdoor gent trekking down Glen Etive with a sporty young girl, running, jumping into rapids with no heed of Elf And Safety, and then cycling to the head of Loch Etive,
Unfortunately there was no panning shot to The Slabs.
A little rant while it is in my mind
I notice that when government ministers, and especially prime ministers visit workplaces for a self promoting publicity opportunity, they can't help going macho, perhaps emulating that culture now identified as endemic amongst certain public services. What I am getting at is the business of doffng the tailored suit jacket, and rolling up the sleeves, just halfway up the forearm of an immaculate white shirt. Our erstwhile blond p,m. was typical, but I was disillusioned to see Starmer doing the same the other day. I can understand what they are trying to demonstrate but in my opinion it just makes them look silly
I think I have to ask why this search for contentment - a glance at Marvell's well known ditty would soon remind one that there's a time and a place for everything.
ReplyDeleteNot being a tv person, I know nothing of this Moseley, but one should be glad of what they do at Porton - maybe the knowledge can give one a sense of comfort, if not contentment. Deeper therefore into the realms of H&S, perhaps one might recall the (manufactured, no doubt, in a shuttered studio) hullabalo about Waitrose 'Farmers' displaying the job's battle signs - so imagine the paroxismic pseudo-outrage if your photogenic politico did not pay full obeisance to the 'site rules'.
And the harder the job to get recalcitrant workers heeding essential precautions, using that breach as their model !
Gimmer - Just as reasonable for me to say WHY NOT search for contentment. That does not mean that I pursue that path to the exclusion of all else, far from it. I do try to keep abreast of current affairs and battle on to cope with the less desirable tasks that life throws at one. But when I am presented with somebody injecting Serin into a live rabbit and continuing with the gruesome footage as it kicks, twitches and dies an obviously unbelievably agonising death I begin to wilt, but I stick it out until I am informed they have now produced a concoction that is (can’t remember the exist percentage) but something like a hundred times more toxic than Serin. Watching them handle this stuff in the laboratory with a complex of glass tubes, flasks, and connecting joints, and manhandling bottles containing only a few CCs which is enough to wipe out the population of a country, the potential for catastrophe with accident, failure of materials, an earthquake, or whatever makes me feel more uneasy than standing near the edge of one of the White Cliffs of Dover.
ReplyDeleteI have looked at Mosely on Wiki and see that he is not so much an in depth scientist as I thought, but he did qualify as a doctor (ex- Oxford) but is no longer registered as such having pursued a career as a TV and media presenter. He is obviously fairly well respected within medical circles as a responsible presenter on medical issues - albeit some time ago see this quote from Wiki:
"He was named Medical Journalist of the Year in 1995 by the British Medical Association.[3] In 1996, the programme was noted as one of the most important factors to influence British general practitioners' prescribing habits.”
I can hardly see that half rolling up shirt sleeves is part of Health and Safety procedure.
From me (Sir Hugh) - just to clarify, I am not wholly against responsible scientific experimentation with animals - the benefits over the years have I suspect been huge. I hope that every effort is made to minimise such methods and alternatives used wherever possible, and that proper legislation is in place to monitor and set the required standards for the welfare of such animals. I hope none of that legislation has gone overboard with the rush to scrap much of the EU legislation that is currently afoot.
DeleteThe basic, essential point about Porton is that if you don't know you cannot defend against it - whether a hostile state actor (as the phrase goes these days) or a new or mutant pathogen. It sounds to me (purely from what you say) as though the programme you cite was concentrating on the ineluctable unpleasantnesses essential to identify, to know and to protect - ie the usual business of trying to undermine vital UK institutions by the bbc and 'hate-britain' agenda of the left. Perhaps there was a second or two of context at the end for those not put off by the deliberate manipulation of the gore - the nominal statutory counterbalance.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry over-much. These politico-industrial gestures almost always carry self-punishment. The visiting talking head from Whitehall is supplied with a site helmet that is never properly adjusted. As a result it sits on his/her noggin like (to quote one of our ancestors|) "a pea on a drum".
ReplyDeleteRR - I'm not worrying, rather despairing.
ReplyDelete-----------------------------------------
gimmer - the programme had balance. I wasn't really doing a "review" rather picking out my personal reaction. They did show how rogue states (Sadam etc.) hd used this kind of stuff, again somewhat ghoulishly, but suffice to support us having some kind of deterrent or working knowledge for possible protection.
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