We're not allowed to travel more than six miles from our front door unless on a journey of 'vital' necessity. The drive through bakers and the prospect of a freshly baked croissant will have to wait. What a riot of croissant buying there will be when lockdown ends.
We make do with an early trip to the waterfall and then a detour to the strawberry farm to pick up four more punnets. The farmers wife is having to do the harvesting herself as the team of pickers from Senegal haven't made it to France this year. She's employing a team of local teenagers but their attendance is sporadic and output lower. Sales to villagers and uprooted Parisians is brisk but demand from local greengrocers has plummeted.
The field of wild orchids undoubtedly suffering from the lack of rain. It must be getting on for a month and a half since we had more than a sprinkling. On our way back up the hill we see the first of the irrigation systems in action. What's it going to be like by high summer ?
Back at The Rickety Old Farmhouse there is a moment of high drama. Village C-A-T sees Sophie. Sophie sees village C-A-T. They both look at each other for the better part of five seconds. C-A-T arches its back and hisses. Sophie throws her head back and lets out the PONette howl. C-A-T wisely disappears over a wall. Sophie, oblivious to its disappearance, goes hurtling across the village green in full on 'chase' mode. Let it never be said that life in a small French village where nothing ever happens is quiet. A glass head from Egypt. How was it made ? :https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-an-egyptian-red-glass-portrait-head-of-6312702/Not at all sure about having Elon Musk implant a neuron measuring transponder in my brain. This technology is presumably being developed as a treatment for people with brain injuries ( and I'm sure Air Force pilots will be guinea pigs soon ) although there doesn't seem to be a regulatory agency to monitor what's going on. The video doesn't tell me whether the poor monkey suffered any pain or discomfort which I'd have thought would have been an important issue. It does at least get a banana milkshake for playing PONG all day long :https://youtu.be/2rXrGH52aoM
6 comments:
The demand for punnets is plummeting. Now there's a tongue twister.
The Mind Pong video is amazing, and not a little disturbing. I too will not be queuing up for an implant from Mr Musk.
Interesting the English strawberry farms used to get pickers from Europe, and the European farm got them from Senegal....
Hari OM
I read about Musk's neuralizer on Friday... seems to be thoughts of 'curing' Alzheimer's and other demntia states. Long way to go I suspect.
I swear I can taste and smell those strawberries - so how about touting Sophie's blog as a neural stimulator?! YAM xx
I admire Elon Musk's confidence and vision, although I am not yet ready to entrust him with my brain or the brain of anyone close to me. My daughter has an unusual form of epilepsy, which involves audio and visual hallucinations that are often lumped under the heading of "Alice in Wonderland Syndrome" (she's fine with medication), and a friend referred me to a book by a British neurologist titled "Brainstorm". It is basically a series of epilepsy case studies, but her introductory chapter explaining why she chose her profession really captured what a mystery the brain still is. Some technology like this will surely change the world for people with neurological issues, but it may take a while longer ... We finally made to the Hebridean whiskey pop-up this afternoon, before it closes this evening. It was very crowded, and they had actually managed a fair approximation of a barley field on a shopping mall plaza. The "Classic Laddie" has received a thumbs up from my husband. He also purchased a (apparently much more expensive) bottle of "Islay Barley 2011," but that's being set aside for "later."
The neuralizer video smacks of those awful sci-fi films of the 50's, when everyone in a town was controlled by implants. I, too found the whole thing disturbing, and not sure that that the monkey was very happy either, but I'm relieved that it had a reward.
Luscious strawberries, they look really tasty.
Re croissants, in the first lockdown, to avoid trips to the bakery (only a few houses away; the issue was encountering people, not distance), I would call and order several dozen croissants, which I would then put into a few large freezer bags and keep in the freezer. Not as good as fresh, but much better than supermarket or the pop-open cans that you bake yourself.
I would not trust implanting anything from Elon Musk, not even hair. Have you seen any of the videos of students being able to take control of their teacher's hand in an experiment--the electrodes weren't implanted but wow, I wouldn't want anything that's controlled by somebody else. Sounds too much like the zombie locusts.
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