A Few Quick Notes 310

-After a few days of relatively nice weather we have slipped into rain and wind. Apparently this type of weather is supposed to be here tomorrow as well. The one major upside of this is that I presume it is helping with the Spryfield fire, so I guess in the long run this is probably a very timely turn of events (though maybe it would have been a little better yesterday afternoon).

-On the subject of the Spryfield/Herring Cove/Purcell's Cove fire that started yesterday afternoon (and that I covered in a few posts yesterday), while listening to the news I have heard suggestions that this may have had something to do with the end of the school year. As the public schools are still in session I presume these references are to universities, though I am not really sure I am following what it is they are suggesting. If these people are trying to suggest that people are going into the woods and having barbecues, or something similar, why not just say that. Instead every comment I have heard is vague and seems to jump around the point. Furthermore, as far as I know, the cause of the fire isn't known (and it certainly didn't seem to be known yesterday afternoon), so why people would jump to such conclusions seems a little strange to me.

-Neil, Rebecca, and Rebecca should be returning from their Saint John New Brunswick conference later today. Aside from them all getting there safely I don't really know anything about the experience. Presumably Neil will have plenty to blog about when he gets back.

-This morning I noticed that the two pots of chives that I had were rather infested with spider mites. Because chives don't have regular leaves with undersides the damage caused by the spider mites wasn't as noticeable. I now presume that these plants where what allowed the spider mites to jump to the bean plants I planted a few weeks ago. Soon after discovering the infestation I decided to get rid of the plants and wash all of the empty pots and trays. At the moment the only thing I have growing on the infested living room shelving unit is the zebra aloe, some dill, some beets, and two African violets. The reason these plants have remained is that they are showing no signs of infestation. I really hope this does the trick.

-I decided to bake a little more bread this morning. At the moment the final two loaves are in the oven. While the bread looks fine, the crust seems to have a slightly different texture than I was expecting.

-It seems that the name 'Swine Flu' has become a matter of some debate. My understanding is that a number of groups, including the WHO and the pork lobby, are interested in having the disease called by another name (ironically they want to call it the same name as the 1918 flu). I have a hard time believing that such a change is really worth the effort. It would seem that the efforts of such organizations might be more reasonably used for other matters relating to the outbreak. More importantly, it seems perfectly reasonable, at least to me, that the name of the disease reflects its origin (the animal not the food). To change the name of this disease helps downplay the significance of animal to human disease transmission, something that has the ability to be quite problematic. If anything we should at least acknowledge this risk, particularly as most of our recent flu scares in recent years have developed in this way (as well as other diseases). This isn't just a safe little thing that came out of thin air, it clearly came from a certain type of animal and other such diseases might come from other animals in the future, and this is something that we shouldn't forget. If this gets us to think about our food sources and farming practices it is probably not a bad thing, hopefully we might find ways to reduce such occurrences in the future. To ignore the origins is this disease is to increase the risk of similar issues arising again.

-A few days ago I started reading a pretty bad biography of G.K. Chesterton, so far I still have hardly any idea who he was or why I should be reading his biography.