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A sword attack, heroism, and knee-jerk exceptionalism. 

Wednesday May 1 2024
Yesterday, an apparently maniacal sword attack in a peaceful London suburb resulted in the death of a teenage boy, and injuries to bystanders. 
Media coverage was inevitably lurid, even by the standards of current reporting of state-sponsored bloodshed around the world. 
 Students of journalism would do well to study the skills of attention-grabbing headlines this morning. 
Unusually, it is not easy to identify the newspaper from the headlines.

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A compilation of recent posts from social media sites.

@revpaulwhite

One or two of my correspondents on twitter have suggested that I preach the gospel here more often, rather than be political.
So, today the first reading at mass was the story of Philip baptising the Ethiopian eunuch from Acts 8.  We therefore celebrate the fact that a non-binary, black, African was baptised into the church long before anyone in England was Christian, and we remember that the outpouring of the grace of God is not limited by our prejudices.
Amen.

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I am possessed. How I became a slave to my new iPhone

A cry from the heart. A short while ago, I was a reasonably functioning human being, capable of independent thought and action... then I acquired my new iPhone. 
It replaced my ancient model, which was showing all the functions of a deteriorating piece of hardware. After great hesitation, I plunged into buying the Apple 15 phone, allegedly the much-improved version of my existing product.
The transfer was easy-peasy, or so, my fellow members of the Apple cult assured me. Unassured, I took their advice.
I will spare you details of the purchase and transfer of vital information from my old phone. I now realise I have fallen into a diabolical plot, which renders me helpless against forces that threaten to ruin my life.

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Hysteria from commentators as the Candidate's tournament ends with a win for 17 year old Indian prodigy Gukesh.

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The case of the constipated bishop

There is a lot of Chess played outside the elevated levels of our distinguished first team. I was struck by the interesting games played in the recent match in the limit league between ourselves and Chorlton. The match produced a fine example of what I am calling the case of the constipated bishop.

It was clear to me that the players were intensely focusing on their own games and may not have had a chance to see much of what was going on around them. So my thoughts from the sidelines may be of interest and perhaps value. 

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The solar eclipse, and the alleged financial irregularities of the Labour politician and deputy leader Angela Raynor are two topics attracting attention.

@BriefcaseMike
Our media's obsession with an eclipse in America is weird. But I suppose you could view America being plunged into darkness as a rehearsal for a possible second Trump Presidency, metaphorically speaking. #bbcpm
@Occupy
BREAKING: President Biden in a newly released video trolls Donald Trump by mocking the time that he stared directly into an eclipse. In it, the president is seen standing on the same balcony where Trump stood during the eclipse in 2017, except Biden is actually wearing proper eye protection. 
"An eclipse is worth marveling at” he says “But don't be silly, folks – play it safe and wear protective eyewear,"
@DavidHeadViews
Why can't Americans watch the total eclipse of the sun quietly?

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In an exclusive interview for TudoRama, William Thompson, philosopher and submariner (rtd) examines a difficult social dilemma, drawing on his lengthy experience 
of resolving such tricky matters ...

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Anger management. How using a shredder might help.

Writing negative reactions on paper and shredding it eliminates angry feelings, a Japanese study finds. Even this podcast might trigger some listeners into a rage. But listen on.

In ancient Rome, the Stoic philosopher Seneca believed “my anger is likely to do me more harm than your wrong” in his work De Ira (On Anger). More modern methods include a workout on the gym punchbag or exercise bike. But the humble paper shredder may be a more effective – and accessible – way to decompress, according to recent research.

A study in Japan has found that writing down your reaction to a negative incident on a piece of paper and then shredding the note, or scrunching it into a ball and throwing it in the bin, gets rid of anger ...

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The death of Peter Higgs on Tuesday 9 April, 2024, gave rise to attempts to explain his contribution to our understanding of the nature of the fundamental forces of the Universe. The eulogies affirm his status of a giant in the field. The attempts to explain that contribution to the layman have faced considerable difficulties.

I have tried to explain the limits to current understanding, and the need to rethink our deeplyheld assumptions about reality.

I write as one such layman, albeit it one with a PhD in radiation chemistry. In some mitigation, the entire theory of the fundamental building blocks of the Universe has changed dramatically by the work of theoretical and experimental physicists over the last fifty years.

I can do no more than to outline how commentators have grappled with communicating the work which earned Peter Higgs his Nobel Prize in 2013. His ideas transformed thinking about how particles acquire mass...

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The traumas of modern life. Buying a new smart phone.

Assurance companies have arrived at a list of the most dangerous traumas we encounter in our everyday lives. Top of the pops is the loss of a loved one. This is closely followed by divorce. And then, extreme experiences such are encountered on the battlefield.
I wish to add to this list, the traumatic experience of buying a new smart phone. It is a fact universally recognised, that a person suffering a terminal decline in performance of an iPhone, is in need of a new model.

This report is being made of the first 24 hours after I suffered this experience personally.

My long-time phone can just about be described as smart, although it is designated as such, having been manufactured in the early days of such machine intelligence being marketed by those geniuses responsible for producing Apple phones.
Increasingly my phone has been showing signs of terminal decay not least in my attempts to charge it up overnight only to discover in the morning that charging has not occurred.
The decision to replace it was taken with a considerable amount of hesitation. I sought council among my tech-savvy friends. I scanned the web for useful information.

What I learned did not please me. Apple has moved on to its fifteenth generation of Smart phone. The current generation has its own variants, ranging from standard but still very expensive, to the genius-smart versions costing more than a weekend family holiday abroad ...

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