Today’s Guardian Newsblog had a link to the MoJo blog, which linked to a post about the amount of TV news coverage concerning the genocide currently taking place in Sudan. American network news has reportedly given Martha Stewart five times as much coverage as the Darfur crisis. This is not a uniquely American deficiency. The same can be said about news-time in the UK. Since the tragedy of the Boxing Day tsunami, the main headlines have swung between Michael Jackson’s trial, various Tory and Labour policy failings, Charles and Camilla’s wedding (yawn), and Pope JPII’s illness and subsequent death. Such subjects should not be ignored, but, equally, should not be the non-stop focus of BBC/ITV/C4/C5’s news coverage. It’s as though the main news outlets have little interest in events that do not directly affect the affluent Western world (sometimes more effluent than affluent!). Surely with all the impetus to ‘drop the debt‘, and so many politicians heading out to Africa for photo shoots, the TV stations would pay more heed to what’s happening in Western Sudan. There’s a chance for peace in southern Sudan now, with reconstruction talks taking place. How about turning the spotlight to Darfur? One blogger has: Coalition for Darfur. Check it out.

As for Iraq, don’t get me started… I find it easier to cope with the anger and frustration with some black humour. Which is why Terry Jones writing for the Guardian has been very good for my sanity. His latest: Let them eat bombs. A-ha-ha.

I’m back to reading journals. Nature News has a report of the anti-bacterial properties of brass jugs: brass jugs polish off disease. Apparently, the copper in the brass jugs leaches into the water, and interferes with the membranes of E. coli (tested in dilute cultures and naturally contaminated water). Within 48 hours, the bacteria levels are undetectable. A quick Pubmed search pulled up a 2004 paper by Brick et al., the abstract of which states similar anti-bacterial properties of brass.

My question is: can those who need clean water the most afford brass jugs? Or have the capability to store water for 2 days? The reason most of the poor in the Third World use plastic jugs is because they’re cheap and more readily available. Which is more economically feasible: more safe wells, ceramic water filters, or brass jugs? More to the point, which can Oxfam get to them?

The post title is my sad attempt at a tabloid headline.

Got a little bored while Flashmob: The Opera was on. Did another GU quiz.

Do you know your classical composers?
You scored 10 out of a possible 11
Fortississimo
Bravo! Encore! You know this stuff inside out. Have you – like Faust – met your own Mephistopheles who promised you unnatural powers in online quizzes? And we bet you know who wrote Faust the opera too (yup, Gounod)

Funny that. Tonight’s Flashmob opera was loosely based on Faust by Gounod, although the arias were taken from quite a few different operas.

Funny looker
Originally uploaded by framboise.

Tabloid story in Guardian Unlimited’s Newsblog today: Birds of a feather. An interloper male osprey has taken up residence in a love nest belonging to long-term partners, Green XS (f) and NoRing (m). This is a story far more gripping than the other headlines lately (PJPII, C&C, 05-05-05…). The BBC is hosting an opsrey webcam and providing the latest updates in this love-triangle.

I don’t have any opsprey photos, but here’s one of a punk bird I took on Islay last March. It has green plummage down its sides (colouring similar to a wood pigeon), and a wee tuft on its heid. Have just uploaded some of the other photos I took on Islay on Flickr. As with all my other Scotland photos, they’re rather dreich (dull) due to cloudy skies. But amongst these were the odd two or three in dazzling sunshine. It’s unfair to say that it’s always cold, wet and windy in Scotland. Some days are better than others, but you have to judge the weather over a period longer than most tourists’ holidays of a week or two. For instance, the last week has been positively sunny, with the odd spell of high wind or rain. True, we’re headed to a cold and wet weekend, but the weather will swing around again.

My pet hypothesis about Scottish Spring is that it’s all tied into the lambing season. Almost all farmers arrange matters so that lambs are born sometime in April, around the Easter period, as threat of frosty weather should have dissipated by then. This, however, conflicts strongly with a natural law that states that the birth of vulnerable animals MUST be accompanied by the worst possible weather. So, every Spring, there is a pull-me-pull-you fight between the common sense timing of lambs, and the all-powerful Sod’s/Murphy’s/narrative Law for bad weather, resulting in the freaky weather we have every April. So, next time you curse and swear at the lashing rain, think of the poor wee lambies who not only get drenched and muddy, but have to grow up with the knowledge that the very act of their birth ruined everyone’s Spring holidays.

No shots of any of this year’s lambs yet. For some agricultural photos, have a look at the Bed and Breakfast website I set up. It’s very basic and amateurish, but will be updated when I can think of a better way to present the information.

I’m also trying to work my way through GU’s many quizzes. This one fits in with my spring lamb hypothesis: Are you a diehard townie? My result:

Ah, those darling cuds of hay
You are truly in touch with nature, so well done – this is probably your first time on a computer.

Clearly, the last 5 years of agriculture-by-proxy have turned me from a cosmopolitan chick into a hick from the sticks…

Yikes! I would have never called myself an opera buff, but scored a freaky 80% on a mock Wagner Ring Cycle quiz on Guardian Unlimited:

“Wagner’s Ring
You scored 8 out of a possible 10
Evidently a Bayreuth junkie, you’ve clearly read the writing on Wotan’s spear and could get round Valhalla in a blindfold. If you’re not already wearing horns in your helmet, we suggest you lighten up and go to see Bernstein’s On the Town instead.”

It’s weird ‘cos I’ve never paid much attention to Wagner’s operas (something about his anti-semitism creeping into his art that I don’t like), and only saw “Das Rheingold” on BBC2 on Easter Sunday. BBC2 were meant to televise “The Walküre” live, but could only screen the first act as Bryn Terfel (as Wotan) was ill.

Then again, GU quizzes aren’t all that difficult. Of four options, there’s always one that’s too way-out (e.g. references to the OTHER ring trilogy, where Tolkein borrowed some of Wagner’s made-up mythology), one that’s too anchored in the real world, and one that’s close enough, but has a giveaway falseness you can guess around. Hmmm… That wasn’t very clear. I should make better notes of the GU quizzes when I do them.

Hey! I’ve just noticed that my weather pixie changes her kimono. It’s green now, but was red last night… Aye. She’s a true pixie all right.

Browsing other “kimono”-tagged photos on flickr brought up an interesting 12 layer kimono, made up of denim, with leather trimmings (click here for the back view). Although it’s probably just an exhibition piece, I think it’s absolutely fantastic that old national costumes are still being experimented on and brought up to date by modern designers/artists.

As an aside, I thought I’d find out a bit more about junihitoe. The ‘juni’ refers to the Japanese romanji word for twelve, and the ‘hitoe’ refers to unlined kimonos. Such kimono were worn back in the Heian period (794-1185 CE) by noble women. The Sugino Costume Museum’s site has an excellent page that shows each layer sequentially (reached by first opening a pop-up Java window from the first photo: ‘Juni-hitoe’; then clicking on ‘Habillage d’un juni-hitoe’). It appears that the 12 layers aren’t comprised solely of kimonos. The junihitoe on this website has the following layers:

• Nagabakama, a pair of trousers
• Kosode, kimono with short sleeves
• Hitoe, an unlined under-kimono
• Five Itsutsuginu layers, with a different coloured trim per layer
• Uchiginu, the top kimono
• Uwagi, another top kimono
• Karaginu, a vest
• And finally, Mo, the train

Gorgeous! But oh-so impractical! And you’d have to have so many different pieces to coordinate with the appropriate season. It’s definitely a ladies-who-lunch thing. There are also photos of the accessories needed for the elaborate hair-dos (kamiagegu), fans, tabi without a split, and rather clumpy looking shoes that they probably shuffled about in when they weren’t sitting pretty…

Another excellent site originates from Kyoto’s Costume Museum. Its pages on the Heian period has a host of photos, accompanied with explanations, of various costumes worn by different members of the court.