zotz | Back at work

I've been off for a couple of days with a cold, but I'm back now and the filter wheel's still working after more than a week. While I was at home the US unilaterally withdrew from another international treaty and the Peerage seem to have woken up for a while. I'm glad they have, like, but if they'd made a habit of this sort of thing for the last couple of decades instead of vaguely complaining then reluctantly waving everything through, then maybe we wouldn't have quite the need to abolish them.

Everyone's away to somewhere called Asilomar, so I have the place to myself to clean the microscopes to my hearts content free from interruption. So that's exactly what I've been doing.

Those of you who are local to this neck of the woods should note that there's a Writers' Bloc reading on Wednesday at the Canon's Gait on the Royal Mile. I think it starts at Eight, downstairs, and has the usual sort of punnish name - specifically, The da Vinci Cod. I heard a rumour about one of the authors and a particular story which may get a re-airing, so I for one am certainly planning to attend. With the usual box of tricks for immortalisation porpoises, of course.

Further to last week's pointer to the Guardian article "Anyone seen the Entire Population of China?", Dave Orford (erstwhile drummer with The Entire Population of China) has written in. Apparently the name came from a comment about the number of potential band members they had.