Ontogeny!

 - Recapitulates Phylogeny!

As a matter of fact it doesn't, although it's still a catchy statement, nicht war?

     What does it mean?  It was created by a German biologist who considered that the various developmental stages of the human embryo reflected it's physical evolution over time.

     Catchy, pithy, and wrong.

     So.  The question is, why on earth did it pop up into my mind from the various haunted dark recesses therein?  I haven't studied biology for decades, my reading consists of murder mysteries and military history and my work is in HR.

     Answers on a postcard to the Mansion, please ...

"Ex Machina"

Another bus poster film inspiration!

     Hmmm.  Calling it an "inspiration" is a bit of an untruth.  "Ex Machina".  So one of the protagonists used to be a machine.  And now it's -  a pile of parts at the local council's recycling site?  Constituent material in a Coke can?  A heap of rust lying at the bottom of a cliff?

     Poke me awake with a bamboo skewer!

As ex as a machine can get

Hubble And The Pillars Of Creation

You may not recall when the Hubble Space Telescope was first launched, but Conrad does.  One of the cameras had a flaw in, if I recall, a spherical lens.  How the comedians mocked the faulty camera!  How they laughed  at the faulty camera!  How they laid barbed words upon NASA about the - oh and then the camera got fixed and they suddenly went quiet*.

     Of late, Hubble has been revisiting earlier photographic triumphs, including the above named "Pillars of Creation", viz:

From pillar to post, in a sense

     Those pillars are immense, five light years in length.  Far off, too - seven thousand light years distant.  They're called the Pillars of Creation because of the swarms of young stars being born in them.  

     An impressive photograph, eh?  You Hom Sap can manage some quite clever things when you put your minds to it.

I was going to post about Exoplanets, but you've had Exmachine and the HST so - no more astronomy for you tonight.

"Foxcatcher Vs The Metro And "Guilty Pleasures"

That's what the writing says, although given that it was about twelve hours ago when it was scrawled, Conrad is <ahem> a little unsure about exactly what he meant.

     I shall go out on a limb and say - because "Foxcatcher" HAS NO FOXES!

     And because the Metro is certainly GUILTY whilst incurring NO PLEASURE!

     Nor does it have herrings.

See?  No herrings.

Rejected Doctor Who Titles

Oh deary me, there do seem to be simply loads of these left to spoof, when yesterday I implied that they would run out quite soon.  Sorry**!

The Drain of Morbius

The Weeds of Doom

The Gland of Fear

The Talons of Doris Shufflebotham

Image of the Fendahling

The Punmakers

The Invasion of Lime

   All guaranteed perversions of the old Classic Who era.

"Dybbuk"

Everything is connected.  I'm convinced of it. 

     Why?  Because this word popped up in my mind this afternoon as I strode toward the kitchen, intent on making a cup of hot Marmite for my stale bread.

     I had a vague sense that it was Jewish, and to do with ghosts, and by Jove it is indeed!

      The whole term ought to be  "dibbuk me-ru'aḥ ra'ah", which means "a cleavage of an evil spirit", and refers to the possession of a person by a ghost, generally one of less than noble character.  What was Conrad clattering away on the keyboard about last night but his character Niall Bloom, purchaser of a house haunted by an evil ghost.

I Googled  "dybbuk" and this came up.
Hang on, is that the head of a Herring?

I Take It Back.  The Metro Does Have Herring

Richard Herring.

     Everything is connected and this is more proof!

Bigging-up wolves: a nice touch, Richard

I Had Forgotten About Taking This Photo

Which is still more proof THAT EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED!

I confess they are sardines, not herring

     I took this photo at lunch because yesterday I managed to spill sauce on the floor, my shoes, the table, a plastic tub, pretty much everwhere.  Thankfully none went on my shirt as smelling of fish-flavoured tomato*** does not win you any friends in the office.

* Either that, or NASA had them assassinated.

** Actually I'm not.  Tee hee!

*** Or tomato-flavoured fish