Monthly Archives: August 2009

Boeuf Tartare avec un oeuf.

03 Monday Aug 2009

Posted by in The Dining Room

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The Geoffrey Russell Nightmare Special

The Geoffrey Russell Nightmare Special

The walk around Montpellier resulted in needing to have lunch so we dove into one of those intimate little lunch and dinner places that seem to appear as soon as one gets hungry, especially in France and even more so in the south of France.

We were shown our seat and left to ponder the menu including a wine list. The atmosphere was intimate with lighting subdued and with all sound reduced to a sotto voce. The garcon in white jacket and with the right un-pretentious manner, putting even the most belligerent customer at ease, came around our table to take the lunch order. The choice by Helvi was a sound one, a piece of top side beef with vegetables and ‘Pomme de Frites’. She was asked for her preferred choice of the ‘boeuf’ to be rare, medium or well-done.  Medium was her choice.

I had chosen the ‘Beef Tartar’, and told the garcon to have it ‘medium’ cooked as well. He laughed heartily but I did not really understand the finer points of his laughter until after the dish arrived. A plate of raw minced steak with a raw egg in the middle of it was what finally turned up on our dimly lit table. There was nothing cooked about it, never mind the ‘medium’ part of it.

I bravely finished the plate but Helvi sensed my lack of enthusiasm and asked if everything was alright. I confessed my total ignorance of beef tartar and thought that the dish was a kind of steak done rare. A bit Russian perhaps, with images of horse riding Tartars doing the cooking of the meat on a fire after a fierce battle deep inside the Crimea.  This embarrassing dereliction of culinary knowledge has been a source of endless mirth and enlightenment to our friends when the tale of medium cooked ‘beef tartar’ at Montpellier gets re-told by my beloved wife. It has been an ice breaker at many a social evening.

In the case of readers being surprised by this embarrassment, please consider that so many of my friends probably think nothing of eating vegemite, a food so horrendous to look at, so terrible to contemplate inside its brown jar, that I feel justified in making slight of this minor slip up.

Glenda and Daphne talk Nanotechnology Shampoo

02 Sunday Aug 2009

Posted by in Ladies Lounge, Politics in the Pig's Arms

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Tiox Nanoparticles

Tiox Nanoparticles

By Madeleine Love‡

Glenda of the Pigs Legs Waxing and Beauty Salon wanted to get some promotional nanotech shampoo samples trialled….

G:  Daphne – do you want to try this nano shampoo?

D:  We’’ve already talked nanotech Glenda, and I’’ve done my hair anyway.  What about you?

G:  Is Loretta around?

D:  No – maybe you need to ask someone else who’s tried it.  Do we know anyone?

G:  What about Julia’’s partner?

D:  Which Julia?

G:  Deputy Prime Minister, Education Minister Julia.  Mr Gillard’’s a hairdresser.  I met him on a styling course a few months ago – keen on the red shades.

D: I never like to criticize a woman in public life but I don’t like Julia’’s hair colour.

G: Give him a call.

D: Ringing… Here’s the news: Julia released a nanotech Education package for schools a few months ago – AccessNano.  Apparently shampoo’s covered.  Here’s the web address:  http://www.accessnano.org/teaching-modules

D: Logging on….

[Recommended background music:  http://www.accessnano.org/files/teaching-modules/space-elevator/SpaceElevator_Animation.mov ]

D: Look at this PowerPoint module for the year 7’s. http://www.accessnano.org/files/teaching-modules/space-elevator/SpaceElevator_Module.ppt#350

“What if you could build a stairway to the moon?

“What if a path to the stars was paved in carbon?

“What if we had an elevator to the space station?

D: They say it would help to fix a broken toilet in the space station.  That’s good, isn’’t it?

“The space elevator is a theoretical concept – it would provide a permanent link between earth and space.  The cable in a space elevator could only be constructed from an extremely strong flexible and lightweight material, such as carbon nanotubes.

D: Look at the animation…Turn the sound up, Glenda

http://www.accessnano.org/files/teaching-modules/space-elevator/SpaceElevator_Animation.mov

D: Freaking Awesome!  Nanotech wonder!  You and me into space, Glenda.

G: Moving on, where’s Julia’’s Shampoo Education package?

D: Scrolling… Access Nano Teaching Modules… This’’ll be it – Personal Care Products – this one’s for the year 9’s.  That’’s a good time for shampoo education, isn’t it Glenda?  The girls are just getting old enough to earn and spend.

G: This is amazing – I’’ve been lobbying to get hair care into the education system for ages.

D: We’ll go for the solid information in the teacher’s’ guide notes on this one… http://www.accessnano.org/files/teaching-modules/personal-care-products/PersonalCare_GuideGeneral.doc

“Section 6: How do you choose a shampoo?

“Ask students to give a list of properties they think a shampoo should have.

“E.g. It must feel thick or creamy in the hands, and must produce a nice feeling lather. Should smell nice, and not be too expensive.

“What sells a shampoo? Herbal extracts, amino acids from exotic proteins such as silk, nano particles?

“What is the main purpose of a shampoo?

“The prime purpose of a shampoo is to clean the hair, however if the cleaning is over done the protective oils in the hair are stripped out.

D: Glenda, this is quality stuff.

G:  I can’’t believe how good this is.  Read on.

“How do we make informed decisions?

“What information would you need to know before you would consider buying this shampoo which uses ‘NANO’ directly as its brand and claims to contain titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, which could penetrate more effectively into the hair and, thanks to its photo catalytic oxidation characteristics, oxidize the harmful residues after hair perming.”

“How would you make a decision regarding these claims made by the manufacturer?

D: Are they saying that the nanoparticles can oxidize the harmful residues after hair perming, thanks to their photo catalytic oxidation characteristics, or is that a claim too?

Glenda was eager

G: Look at the link Julia gave the girls… http://andrewofftheroad.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-shampoo-movement-toward-nano.html

“The bio-safety of nano-technologies or products have become a heated issue in at least US or UK as I know, but in China, there is currently no restriction in this field. If the shampoo really contain nanoparticles, however, I think the first issue woiuld [sic] not be the safety, but the effects of TiO2 as a dye. As a well-known white pigment, TiO2 possesses an outstanding chemical stability. In a country where a black hair is regarded trait of beauty, applying white dye on the hair may hardly be favourable in this case.”

G: It’s when you read the fine print that you find out about the risk – wouldn’’t want a nano-shampoo that changed your hair colour.

D: Thank goodness for Julia.  That’’s why we need more women in politics.

Glenda looked at the nano shampoo samples and thought about Julia’’s hair colour.  She decided to ask Loretta to try it.

A nanometre is a billionth of a metre.  DNA is a few nanometre’s wide.  Hair is 80,000 nanometres thick.  Nanoparticles are generally regarded as anything that has a dimension less than 100 nanometres, but sometimes up to 300 nanometres.  There are two principal concerns.  One relates to size.  Very small dimensions can penetrate cell and nucleus boundaries.  The other relates to chemical reactivity.  While Big Titanium Dioxide might be relatively inert (it is used as a pigment in paint as well as in pre-made icing in your supermarket), Tiny Titanium Dioxide has altered properties.  Nano titanium dioxide is invisible, reflects light, and if Glenda tried the sample her hair may gain ‘luminescence’, but we don’t know if such an effect has been validated.

Typically for the new-tech world, products went into the market place before the safety of the materials were reviewed in a precautionary manner.  It escaped existing regulation because ‘titanium dioxide’ was an approved product – there were no regs for the tiny variety.  There are nanoparticles on plastic film encasing supermarket products, cooking utensils, sunscreen and ‘beauty products’.  We understand there are also some nanoparticle products in a few powdered ‘food’ products.


Carbon nanofibres (space elevator material) have similar properties to asbestos – incredibly skinny and can wiggle through anything.   The ACTU held a seminar on Feb 6th this year.  http://www.actu.asn.au/HealthSafety/Campaigns/ACTUSeminarNanotechnologyTheNextAsbestos.aspx

Steve Mullins’’ presentation pointed to regulatory problems:

  • • No regulatory acceptance that nanomaterials are more hazardous
  • • No nano specific risk assessment or controls mandated
  • • No nano specific monitoring equipment
  • • No nano specific MSDS
  • • No exposure levels
  • • No labels
  • • No requirement to inform
  • • No health surveillance
  • • No training
  • • No nano specific PPE

• Where nano specific risk management applied or promoted, end up trying to apply controls designed for larger material anyway.

• There is no coordinated approach

There are now many studies coming forward on nanotech fibres and particles.  Go into pubmed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez , type “mesothelioma carbon nanotubes asbestos” – read the study summaries.  Or type in  TiO2 “titanium dioxide nanoparticle safety”.

On April 14th the ACTU went out into the media saying that nanotechnology was the next asbestos. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/14/2541876.htm?site=news

The world authorities on the safety concerns related to nanotechnology appear to be the Australian branch of the Friends of the Earth.  They have complied several documents of studies, as well of lists of products such as sunscreens which are free of nanoparticles.  http://nano.foe.org.au/

Apparently we can wipe our benches with our silver-lined anti-bacterial nanotech underpants.  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/12/2596423.htm?site=news

A National Enabling Technologies Strategy is being developed.  A discussion paper was released.  I got it on 21 July.  Submissions are due in on 7 August. http://www.innovation.gov.au/Section/AboutDIISR/FactSheets/Pages/NationalEnablingTechnologiesStrategyFactSheet.aspx

Governments are acting as cheerleaders for industry rather than regulators.  GM crops are so last centurty.

‡Glenda, Daphne and the Pig’s Legs Waxing and Beauty Salon are entirely fictional, and our Glenda could thus not have done a styling course with a Mr Gillard in real life.

Cyrus Part the fourth

02 Sunday Aug 2009

Posted by in Cyrus the Great: Chronicles

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CHAPTER 2:  Born to Die

Harpagus

Harpagus

“Curse you all for fools!” Astyages bellowed furiously. His advisors cowered fearfully as he berated the Magi from the throne, “Less than a year since you advised me to marry my daughter to Cambyses and the gods have sent me another dream; and this one is even more worrying than the first… Now you’d better tell me what it means and be sure you tell me the truth or, by all the gods, I’ll make sure none of you is troubled by dreams ever again!”

The Magister paled visibly as the blood instantly drained from his face in fear; he bowed deeply as he fearfully replied, “Your majesty, we will do our utmost; tell us, what is the nature of this new dream?”

Calming down only slightly, Astyages said, “I dreamt that from Mandane’s womb there grew a huge vine, which first filled the whole city and then grew to over-shadow the whole of Asia. Now, tell me what you think this dream means?”

Terrified, the Magus answered, “Lord, this dream is very similar to your first dream; if your daughter should give birth to a child, that child would grow strong enough to rule over all Asia…”

“As I thought…” Astyages mused darkly, the furrows of his forehead deepening as he frowned and finally asked, “And is there nothing I can do to prevent this?”

The Magi looked at each other desperately; each hoping to find some kind of inspiration in the others’ eyes; only to discover there was nothing there but the reflection of their own terror of what their king might do to them should they fail to find a satisfactory answer. Although they said nothing of it, the Magi had to a man instantly realized that this new dream suggested Mandane was already pregnant; just as quickly, they had also realized that the only way to avoid the future which now threatened them would be to either kill Mandane before she gave birth, or else to kill the baby as soon as it was born.

None of the Magi dared to even remotely suggest either of these desperate courses of action; yet they knew they must find an appropriate response; Astyages was already looking at them impatiently. The Magister took his courage in both hands and looked his king in the eyes, frankly revealing to the monarch the terror that was in his own, as he answered, “Sire, it is not for us, nor for any man, to tell you what you must do with your own family; this must be for you alone to decide…”

As the Magister had hoped, Astyages was astute enough to understand what this reluctance to answer him signified; indeed, it was much as Astyages himself had expected. His expression turned from anger to misery and then finally to determination, as he finally turned to his servant, Harpagus, who was standing beside the throne, and said quietly to him, “Harpagus, send a herald to Persia to fetch Mandane!”

The servant bowed respectfully as Astyages continued, “She is to come home at once! Say nothing of why; no-one is to hear about this dream. Is that understood?”

Harpagus bowed again deeply and said, “Of course, your majesty; at once, your majesty!” With an obedient bow, Harpagus quickly left the room.

Once he had gone, Astyages turned once more to the Magi and barked at them, “Now get out of my sight before I have your useless heads removed from your bodies and displayed on spikes at the city gates!”

As the Magi backed out of the throne-room, bowing and scraping even more deeply than Harpagus had as they went, they each said silent prayers of thanks to the gods that they still lived; to suggest that a man sacrifice his own grandchild is a very delicate thing; to suggest that a king should do so, unthinkable!

***   *****   ***

Astyages realized that he would not have been sent this second dream if Mandane were not already pregnant. Even so, he felt the need to observe his daughter’s condition for himself, but he feared that if he were to meet her, his face might reveal the darkness of his intentions. He decided that it would be wiser not to greet her in person; he instructed a slave to greet the couple for him, with apologies that the king could not personally attend their arrival due to the pressures of state business. As soon as these slaves informed him that his daughter’s carriage had been sighted in the distance, Astyages climbed up onto the battlements which overlooked the gatehouse with Harpagus and the Magister so they could observe her arrival unseen.

The same enormous wagon, drawn by its team of a dozen oxen, which had taken them to Persia less than a year ago, now brought them back; pulling up noisily just inside the city gates. As her maids helped Mandane to descend, Astyages observed that she was indeed heavily pregnant. With a woeful expression which reflected the utter misery he now felt, Astyages turned to the Magister as, grasping the latter’s shoulder in a strong grip with his right hand and shaking him roughly, he said,

“Pregnant! By the gods, this news should fill me with joy, but all I feel is dread! Well Magus, what do you advise now?”

The Magister’s’ response was darkly enigmatic, “My Lord,” he said softly, “it is not for me, nor for any man to advise you how best to manage your own family affairs; if there is still some way to avoid the disaster foretold by your dreams, you alone must find that path…”

The consistency with which the Magister had insisted on refusing to answer this question, merely repeating his earlier response, underlined for Astyages that there was no way to escape the horror that appeared to be the only way he might possibly avoid catastrophe; yet the alternative horrified him even more. But whatever it cost him; regardless of what, or even whom he must sacrifice to do so, he was absolutely determined that his sovereignty must be preserved.

“Well then, now I know what I must do! Out of my sight, worthless dog!” he said, dismissing the Magister and waiting for him to go, before he turned to address his minister,

“Harpagus, escort Mandane to the women’s quarters; she is to stay there until she delivers her child; if it’s a boy, you are to bring it to me as soon as it is born.”

(to be continued…)