The Cost of Electricity

I have been looking at setting up a web server at home.  As this will involve leaving a computer running all the time, I have been looking at low-power PCs.  While estimating what the impact on my electricity bill would be, I was pleased to discover that, at current UK prices, running a 1 watt appliance for 1 year will cost approximately £1.  This pleases me almost as much as when I found out that I walk at a speed of approximately 100 metres per minute.

Norton Internet Security Icon Missing from System Tray

Yesterday I upgraded my Norton Internet Security from the 2009 version to the 2010 one.  This morning I noticed that the yellow NIS icon was missing from the system tray.  My heart sank.  I have had problems with this before and it took hours, even days to sort out.  However, this time I came across this article at the Symantec Norton support site:

Norton icon does not appear in the system tray after I install the latest updates for my Norton 2010 product or Norton 360 Version 4.0

I downloaded the patch, applied it, restarted my PC, and the NIS icon is back again!  I feel much better now.  Malfunctioning security software makes me very nervous, almost paranoid.

Amphibious Bistort

From a few years ago: amphibious bistort, Persicaria amphibia (=Polygonum amphibium).

Photo taken beside the top lake in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2007-08-24.

Microbiological Manga

I have often suspected that the Japanese were deeply weird.

From the Wikipedia page for Moyasimon:

Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture, known in Japan as Moyashimon (もやしもん), is a manga series created by Masayuki Ishikawa. ... The series follows Tadayasu Sawaki, a first-year college student at an agricultural university, who has a unique ability to see and communicate with bacteria and other micro-organisms.

From the list of characters:

Tadayasu Souemon Sawaki (沢木 惣右衛門 直保, Sawaki Souemon Tadayasu)
Voiced by: Daisuke Sakaguchi
Tadayasu Souemon Sawaki is the main protagonist of Moyasimon and attends an agricultural university in Tokyo as a freshman. His middle name is the yagō of his family home; it is usually omitted, and he is called "Tadayasu Sawaki". He is a childhood friend of Kei Yūki and his parents run a mold-starter producer (種麹屋, tane-kōji-ya). He is able to see and communicate with bacteria and other microorganisms.

Kei Yūki (結城 蛍, Yūki Kei)
Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga
Kei is a childhood friend of Sawaki and, like him, a freshmen. His parents run a sake brewery (making them customers for the mold starter from Sawaki's parents). It is revealed after a brief disappearance by Kei from the main plot, that Kei is gender dysphoric, and that he has stronger feelings for Sawaki than initially let on.

From the list of micro-organisms:

Hiochi Kin (火落菌)
Lactobacillus homohiochi, the "bad guy" of the series. A fructivoran which makes sake go bad.

Lactobacillus yogurti (L.ヨグルティ, L. yoguruti)
Voiced by: Miu Nakamura
Used to make Japanese yoghurt. Speaks in a very formal accent.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S.セレビシエ, S. serebishie)
Voiced by: Misa Tamagawa
Creates alcohol out of sugars. Hangs around Kei in the anime.

I rest my case.

Babar the Freedom-Fighting French Elephant

Last night I listened to a radio program about the BBC during the Second World War (The Friend in the Corner, episode 2 of 6, broadcast on BBC Radio 7 at 7:30pm Saturday 13th March 2010), and the above phrase in it caught my attention.  It occurred in the following context:

A letter arrived from a man in Italy: "If you could only see us in the evening", he wrote, "sitting around the corner where the wireless is, listening to your words, you would think we were sick people inhaling oxygen".  That man, and many like him, have been inspired by Colonel Stevens of the Italian service, Frau Wernicke of the German service, Bob of Radio Orange, and, of course, by Babar the freedom-fighting French elephant.

This was followed by a man singing a French song, presumably from one of the Babar broadcasts (my French is a bit too rusty to make out what it was about).

To me it seemed slighty surreal to think of Babar the Elephant, a fictional figure fondly remember from distant childhood, being used to encourage French resistance to the Nazis (it sounds like something from 'Allo 'Allo!), and I wanted to know more. A little Googling revealed that the Director of BBC European Intelligence during World War Two was a Jonathan Griffin (1906-1990), a poet, translator and diplomat, who actually translated Babar the Elephant into English, though it wasn't his translation that was used in the classic 1930's English edition - that was done by Merle Haas.  It is not clear from what I have found, whether Griffin did his translation before or after his work for the BBC during the war, nor is it clear that he was involved in the Babar broadcasts, but it would seem a strange coincidence if he wasn't.

[Incidentally, Radio Orange was broadcast to the Netherlands by the Dutch government in exile. I have no idea who 'Bob' was, but I did find references out on the web to Colonel Stevens and Frau Wernicke in relation to BBC broadcasts to occupied Europe during the war]