Wednesday 24 July 2019

08:00 Lois and I wake up in a different bed from the one we started the night in. And we get up feeling a bit sleepy after a disturbed night with massive thunderstorms.

 pictures on a local news site showing last night's thunderstorm

Last night's thunderstorm was a bit unusual, we think, because to start with there was almost a stream of uninterrupted lightning, but with no really loud thunder that we could hear.

Some residents contacted the local newspaper and the local news sites to report this phenomenon and ask for an explanation – and their experts say that the storm was probably actually not that near here – the sight of lightning carries over great distances, but the sound of the thunder doesn’t  necessarily carry as far, depending on meteorological conditions , it seems. Who knew that?

The experts did not mention the Japanese storm god Susanoo-no-Mikoto, but I suspect the god has been in a bad mood ever since he unexpectedly failed to pick up top prize at last year's Westminster God Show, when the exciting newcomer, the Egyptian god Ra, again took the famous trophy home, according to my go-to news website, Onion News.

"Since 1877, the Westminster God Show has awarded its highest prize only to the most prominent deities, and Ra is undoubtedly one of the finest examples we have ever seen," said Judge Allison Brand, referring to the distinguished pedigree of the 26,000-year-old source of all life, that created himself from the infinite void and endless night.

"His victory is particularly impressive when considering this year's incredibly competitive field. [Japanese storm god] Susanoo-no-Mikoto, for example, really excited us as he rode the wave of a tsunami over the arena and called forth the power of lightning to defeat the world's evil spirits. "

"But at the end of the day, Ra is just a tremendously pretty god," she continued as she patted the god's falcon head and presented his handler with a purple-and-gold ribbon.

My god, what madness! And I feel sorry for Susanoo-no-Mikoto, the Japanese storm god, because he has missed out on the trophy repeatedly for at least 1,500 years, which is a little disappointing to put it mildly. He is a very nice god, with a good sense of humour, and is a good sportsman - and I actually met him when I lived in Japan nearly 50 years ago. We are still Facebook friends after nearly 50 years, can you believe!

flashback to 1971: a ski vacation I took with Susanoo-no-Mikoto, the Japanese

storm god (left) – and after almost 50 years he’s still my friend on Facebook, can you believe!
I pat the god's "tortoise" head before presenting his handler with a purple-and-gold ribbon.

09:30 Lois and I drive to the local Sainsbury’s supermarket to do the shopping. A man stops me in the supermarket's frozen food department and says, "Thank you, sir, I think you've just saved my life!"

Immediately I suspect some kind of scam: sometimes scam attempts and distraction thefts sometimes take place in supermarket parking spaces, we have heard, although not inside the stores, as far as I know: my goodness, what a sick world we live in!

In fact, this time there is a totally innocent explanation. The man turns out to be the last customer to have used my cart, and he has left his car keys attached to the bars - I hadn't even noticed them hanging there. And his car is an expensive one - a Range Rover. My goodness - no wonder he is happy to run into me, I have no doubts about that.

11:00 We come home and relax, but it is too hot to want a cup of tea and coffee, so for the moment we’re just drinking  glasses of water.

What I would most like is to be able to finish my work on the hedge that for 10 years we have shared with our late neighbour Bill, but it has already got quite hot - also the branches of the hedge are still a little wet after last night's thunderstorm.

12:00 We have lunch on the terrace and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap.

15:30 I get up and go out into the backyard. I pick up all the branches that I have cut off our late neighbour Bill's hedge over the past 2 days and stuff them into our brown garden waste bin, which the council’s  recycling truck just emptied early this morning at 7 am.

I come in, and Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch.

Recently, as part of our current downsizing mini-project,  I collected 8 bags of unwanted baby clothes that I came across in the attic, and Lois has sorted them by age of child. We now drag the bags out into the garage, along with about 6 boxes of her father's religious books. Her father was a lay preacher.

We hope that one of the other members of Lois’s sect will transport both the clothes and the books to the sect's headquarters in the city of Birmingham - the headquarters will store the books in their library and dispatch the unwanted baby clothes to third-world families, we hope.

(foreground) plastic bags filled with unwanted baby clothes,

which we hope to donate to third world families

Lois' father, a lay preacher left a lot of religious books,

which we hope to send to Lois’s sect’s headquarters in Birmingham.

I declare another phase in our present

downsizing mini-project officially over - hurrah !!!

18:00 We have dinner and afterwards Lois has to go out. She wants to take part in her sect’s weekly Bible class taking place tonight in Tewkesbury library.

I have a little alone time and spend the evening listening to the radio. It's hot and I turn on the fan in the living room.

I hear an interesting programme in the series "The Life Scientific", in which the series presenter, the charming Jim al-Khalili (crazy name, crazy guy) speaks with some scientist or other about their life and work. Today's guest is Robin Dunbar, the evolutionary psychologist.

Robin Dunbar is a somewhat unusual guest for this programme because when he grew up, he had no interest in science or mathematics at all - he was just into philosophy. Gradually, however, due to a number of random circumstances, he became involved as a student in studying gelada monkeys (closely related to baboons) in Ethiopia – good god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

Robin Dunbar, the evolutionary psychologist: he "never liked science"

It turned out that after Ethiopia, he came to spend most of his career studying primates, and analysing the statistics he collected on repeated expeditions to Africa. And during his career, he came up with a lot of game-changing discoveries in the world of primates, to put it mildly.

Primates spend a massive proportion of their days grooming each other, to remove leaves, burrs, thorns, etc. In the past, it was thought that the purpose of all that was basically hygiene. But Dunbar proved that the purpose was actually social bonding: the time spent on grooming was proportional to social group size, as he found out from the statistics he had collected.

But what led him to become famous worldwide was the so-called "Dunbar's number" he came up with. He discovered that the number of social relationships  that primates can maintain is proportional to brain size.

Brain size is crucial when it comes to creating relationships, it seems. And not just in the world of primates. Cats are all asocial animals, apart from lions. And cats’ brain size has not increased by barely a single cell over the 25 million years they’ve been around.

Unlike the cats, we can see an increase in the dog's brain size during their evolutionary development. Dogs are all monogamous, and their brain size increased at some point in their history, in order to cope with the stresses and strains (and pleasures) of their "marital" existence ha ha.

As for primates, the size of primates’ brains similarly increased as they began to form larger and larger, and more close-knit, social groups, originally for reasons of security, and because of the risk from predators. And the larger the group, the larger the group members' brains became.

At some point or another in his career, Dunbar then turned his attention to people. Apes tend to form social groups of 50, or so. He looked at the apes' brain size and human brain size, and predicted that people's corresponding ideal social group size would be 150, and this figure has been supported by his subsequent research on his human "guinea-pigs".

The number 150 is just an average by the way - so there is actually a range between about 100 (for extreme introverts) and about 250 (for extreme extroverts).

Dunbar says that 150 is also the average size of the world's remaining hunter-gatherer tribe groupings  - and of course, humanity spent 95% of its evolutionary history as hunter-gatherers.

He has also done some research focusing on the internet's social media - Facebook, Twitter etc - and he says the results are roughly similar in terms of the number of friends, contacts, etc.

Dunbar himself is at the lower end of the scale, he admits. He spends too much time studying humanity to create a lot of relationships. The poor thing !!!!

This is interesting - I suspect that I myself would not even come up to the lower end of the scale, to put it mildly - maybe I have a smaller brain size than I thought - yikes !!!! What will become of me?

22:00 But no time to worry about all that. Lois comes home from Tewkesbury and we hop into bed - zzzzzzzzzzzz !!!

Danish translation: den 24. juli 2019

08:00 Lois og jeg vågner op i en anderledes seng, end dén, vi startede natten i. Og vi står op efter en forstyrret nat med massivt tordenvejr.

 et par billeder på et lokalt nyhedswebsted, der viser nattens tordenvejr

Nattens tordenvejr var lidt usædvanligt, synes vi, fordi der i begyndelsen var næsten uafbrut lyn med ingen højlydt torden, vi kunne høre. Nogle beboere kontaktede den lokale avis og det lokale nyhedswebsted for at melde dette fænomænet og bede om en forklaring - eksperterne siger, at stormen faktisk sandsynligvis var langt væk herfra – lyn når til store afstander, men ikke nødvendigvis lyden af torden, afhængigt af meteorologiske vilkår, lader det til. Hvem vidste dét?

Eksperterne nævnte ikke den japanske stormgud Susanoo-no-Mikoto, men jeg mistænker, guden er været i dårligt humør, siden det uforventet mislykkedes ham at vinde sidste års Westminster God Show, da begejstrende omkomling, den egyptiske gud Ra, fik den berømte pokal med hjem, ifølge mit go-to-nyhedsweb, Onion News.

"Siden 1877 har Westminster God Show kun tildelt den højeste pris til de mest fremtrædende guddomme, og Ra er uden tvivl et af de fineste eksempler, vi nogensinde har set," sagde dommeren Allison Brand, med henvisning til den fornemme stamtavle på den 26.000 –årige kilde på alt liv, der skabte sig selv fra det uendelige tomrum og uendelige nat.

”Hans sejr er især imponerende, når man betragter dette års utroligt konkurrenceprægede felt. [Japansk stormgud] Susanoo-no-Mikoto, for eksempel, begejstrede os virkelig, da han red bølgen af en tsunami over arenaen og opfordrede lynets magt til at besejre verdens onde ånder. ”

”Men i slutningen af dagen er Ra bare en enormt køn gud,” fortsatte hun, da hun klappede guddommens falkehoved og overrækkede hans håndterer et lilla-og-guldbånd.

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid! Og jeg har ondt af Susanoo-no-Mikoto, den japanske stormgud, fordi han er gået glip af pokalen gentagende gange gennem mindst 1.500 år, hvilket er lidt skuffende, for at sige mildt. Han er en meget sympatisk gud, med en god sens for humor, og er en god sportsmand – og jeg mødte ham faktisk tilfældigvis, da jeg selv for snart 50 år siden boede i Japan. Vi er stadig Facebook-venner.

tilbageblik til 1971: en skiferie, jeg holdt med Susanoo-no-Mikoto,

den japanske stormgud – efter snart 50 år stadig min ven på Facebook, kan du tro!

09:30 Vi kører over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe ind. En mand stopper mig i supermarkedets frosne fødevarer-afdeling og siger, ”Tak min herre, jeg tror, du har lige reddet mit liv!”. Jeg mistænker umiddelbart et eller andet fup:  nogle gange finder fup-forsøg sted i supermarkedparkeringspladser, har vi hørt: du godeste, sikke et syg verden vi lever i!

Faktisk denne gang er der en totalt uskyldig forklaring. Manden viser sig til at være den seneste kunde til at have brugt min indkøbsvogn, og han har efterladt sine bilnøgle fastgjorte til barrerne – jeg har engang ikke bemærket dem hængende der. Og hans bil er en dyr én - en Range Rover. Du godeste – det kan ikke undre, at han er glad for at støde på mig, det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om.

11:00 Vi kommer hjem og slapper af, men det er for varmt at har lyst til en kop te og kaffe, så drikker vi for øjeblikket bare et glas vand.

Jeg har lyst til at gøre færdigt mit arbejde på vores afdøde nabo Bills hæk, men det er allerede blevet ganske varmt – også er hækkens grene stadig lidt våde efter nattens tordenvejr.

13:00 Vi spiser frokost på terrassen og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

15:30 Jeg står op og går ud i baghaven. Jeg samler op alle de grene, jeg i de seneste 2 dage afklippede af vores nabo Bills hæk og propper dem i vores brune haveaffaldsspand, som kommunens affaldsbil tømte i morges tidligt kl 7.

Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen og bagefter slæber vi de 8 plastiksække propfyldte af uønskede babytøj ind i garagen, sammen med omkring 6 kasser med hendes fars religiøse bøger. Hans far var en lægprædikant.

Vi håber på at en af de andre medlemmer af Lois’ sekt vil transportere både tøjene og bøgerne til sektens hovedkontor i byen Birmingham – hovedkontoret vil opbevare bøgerne i deres bibliotek, og afsende de uønskede babytøj til familier i den tredje verden.

(foregrunden) plastiksække propfyldte af uønskede babytøj,

som vi håber at donere til familier i den tredje verden

Lois’ far, en lægprædikant efterlod en masse religiøse bøger,

som vi håber at kunne sende til sektens hovedkontor i Birmingham.

jeg erklærer officiellt klaret endnu en fase i vores nuværende

downsize  mini-projekt – hurra!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bagefter skal Lois ud. Hun ønsker at deltage i sin sekts ugentlige bibelklasse, der finder sted i aften i byen Tewkesburys bibliotek.

Jeg har lidt alenetid og bruger aftenen på at lytte til radio. Det er varmt, og jeg tænder ventilatoren i stuen.

Jeg hører et interessant program i serien ”The Life Scientific”, hvor programmets vært, den charmerende Jim al-Khalili (skørt nav, skør fyr) taler med en eller anden videnskabsmand om deres liv og arbejde. Dagens gæst er Robin Dunbar, den evolutionære psykolog.

Robin Dunbar er en lidt usædvanlig gæst til dette program, fordi da han voksede op, havde han overhovedet ingen interesse for videnskab eller matematik – han gik bare op i filosofi. Gradvist imidlertid på grund af en række tilfældige omstændigheder blev han involveret som studerende i at studere geladier (nært beslægtede til bavianer) i Etiopien – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Robin Dunbar, evolutionær psykolog

Det viste sig, at derefter brugte han størstedelen af sin karriere på at studere primater, og analysere statistikken, han samlede på gentagende ekspeditioner til Afrika. Og i løbet af sin karriere, kom han med en masse spilskiftende opdagelser i primatologiverden, for at sige mildt.

Primater bruger en massiv antal af deres dage på at soignere hindanden for at fjerne blade, burrer, torner osv, og man troede i fortiden, at formålet med alt det der var hygiejne. Men Dunbar beviste, at formålet var social binding: tiden brugt på at soignere var proportionel med social gruppe-størrelse, fandt han ud af fra de statistikker, han havde samlet.

Men dét, der førte til, at han blev berømt verden over, var hans såkaldte ”Dunbars tal”. Han opdagede, at det tal sociale forhold, primater kan vedligeholde, er proportionelt med hjernestørrelse.

det såkaldte ”Dunbars tal”

Hjernestørrelse er afgørende, når det kommer til at skabe forhold, lader det til. Og ikke bare i primaternes verden. Katte er alle asociale dyr, bortset fra løver. Og deres hjernestørrelse har ikke steget over 25 millioner år.

I modsætning til kattene, kan vi se en stigning i hundenes hjernestørrelse i løbet af deres evolutionære udvikling. Hunde er alle monogame, og deres hjernestørrelse steg på et eller andet tidspunkt i deres historie, for at kunne klare pressen og stressen af deres ”ægteskabelige” situation ha ha ha.

Størrelsen af primaternes hjerner steg til vejrs, mens de begynder at danne større og større, og tættere, sociale grupper, oprindeligt af grunde af sikkerhed, og på grund af risikoen for rovdyr. Og jo større gruppen var, jo større medlemmers hjerner blev.

På ét eller andet tidspunkt i sin karriere vendte Dunbar sin opmærsomhed til mennesker. Aber har tendens til at danne grupper på 50, eller deromkring. Han kiggede på abernes hjernestørrelse og menneskers hjernestørrelse, og forudsagde, at menneskers tilsvarende ideelle sociale gruppestørelse ville være 150, og dette tal er blevet støttet af hans efterfølgende forskning med menneskelige ”forsøgskaniner”.

Tallet 150 er et gennemsnit – deromkring er der faktisk en bred vifte mellem 100 (for ekstrem introverte) og 250 (for ekstrem ekstroverte).

Dunbar siger, at 150 er også det gennemsnitlige størrelse af verdens resterende jægere-samlere stammer – og selvfølgelig tilbragte menneskeheden 95% af sin evolutionære historie som jægere-samlere.

Han har også lavet lidt forskning ved at fokusere på internettets sociale medier – Facebook, Twitter osv – og han siger resultaterne er i grov træk lignende, hvad angår antallet af venner, kontakter osv.

Dunbar er selv på lavere ende af skalaen, indrømmer han. Han bruger for meget tid på at studere menneskeheden til at kunne danne en masse forhold. Staklen !!!!

Dette er interessant – jeg mistænker at jeg selv ikke engang nå til den lavere ende af skalaen, for at sige mildt – måske har jeg en mindre hjerne-størrelse, end jeg troede – yikes!!!! Hvad skal der blive af mig?

22:00 Men ingen tid til at bekymre over alt det der. Lois kommer hjem fra Tewkesbury og vi hopper op i sengen – zzzzzzzzzzzz!!!