Spring

After two weeks holiday I have just had 4 days back at work.  The holiday started with an inch or so of snow on the first Sunday morning, followed by several coolish days.  But now the weather is positively warmish.  I even walked to the station in my shirt sleeves this morning and that was at 6:30.  The profusion of greenery was quite noticable in the woods between Farnborough and Frimley, as were the occasional flowers: blue-bells, broom, and some purple things that I should really get round to looking up.  The birds are singing: thrushes, great tits, chiffchaffs, etc.  Quite a lot of jays about too.  On Wednesday morning I glimpsed the tail of a deer disappearing into the undergrowth.

Air-Raid Shelters at Hardwick House

One of a row of air-raid shelters at Hardwick House, Whitchurch, near Reading, UK (here on Google Maps).  When I first walked past them, several years ago, I didn't realize there was more than one; maybe they were more overgrown then.  Actually, there are four in a line parallel to the Whitchurch-to-Mapledurham track.  Here I suggested that they might have been a starfish site, but I now think that is wrong and it is more likely that they were air-raid shelters for people living or working at the House.  Maybe Hardwick House was occupied by a branch of the government or the military during the war?  Does anyone know?

All four shelters are identical in layout and construction.  Each has a little closet (a toilet?) next to the entrance door.  Each main room originally had a circular skylight with a metal ladder to it, though the westernmost one's ladder has been detached.  I understand that these skylights were emergency exits for use in case the main entrance was blocked by bomb damage.  The main rooms seem to be particularly, even unnecessarily, roomy.

[2023-11-24: An article on the history of Hardwick House here http://whitchurchonthames.com/Hardwick%20article.pdf says that during World War Two it was occupied by the Anglo Argentinian Tramways Company.  Presumably these moved out from their head office in London to avoid the blitz. The air raid shelters would then have been for their employees.]

The God Delusion

My wife, Liz has been reading The God Delusion and this afternoon she was discussing it with Zoe.  Liz was just saying "I think Richard Dawkins is converting me" when there was a loud rumble of thunder.  I think she just unconverted.

Web Annoyances

A few months ago, my greatest annoyance on the web was with the WordPress 'Snapshot' images that pop up when you mouse over links on certain blogs.  I find it hard to fathom the mind of someone who obviously has the good taste to use WordPress, and yet enables such amateurish screen-junk.

However, my current annoyance is customer satisfaction survey pop-ups.  These seem to have suddenly come into fashion on well-established commercial sites, even Microsoft who I would have thought would have known better.  My first reaction on seeing one is to click the browser's 'Back' button to leave the site.  This is maybe because I associate such pop-ups with malware.

Non-Confusing Quantum Mechanics

Over at Overcoming Bias, Eliezer Yudkowski has taken it upon himself to explain the basics of quantum mechanics in a non-confusing way.  I do think he is succeeding, at least so far.  Here are his first posts on the subject [list extended to include later ones on 2008-04-27]:

• Quantum Explanations
• Configurations and Amplitudes
• Joint Configurations
• Distinct Configurations
• Where Philosophy Meets Science
• Can You Prove Two Particles Are Identical
• Classical Configuration Spaces
• The Quantum Arena
• Feynman Paths
• No Individual Particles
• Identity Isn't In Specific Atoms
• Decoherence
• The So-Called Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
• Which Basis Is More Fundamental?
• Where Physics Meets Experience
• On Being Decoherent

Update on Thu 2008-06-12 by Tristram Brelstaff

Eliezer has posted a definitive list of links to all of his quantum physics posts here:

• The Quantum Physics Sequence