Nothing much else is happening for us. We’re still waiting for the replacement parts for the car and there’s still a bit to be done to the new pantry but, with a little bit of luck, it will all come together today. Jamie stayed here last night so I won’t let him go home until the pantry is done.
I’ve been musing on a report I heard on the radio the other day about an archaeological project to take DNA samples from Egyptian mummified ibises. Wow! It seems that mummification of animals was common in Ancient Egypt and around 10,000 ibises were mummified each year for thousands of years, so there are, literally, millions of mummified ibises available for the project, Wow, again!
The plan, of course, is to track the evolution of DNA over a 4000 year period. As a benchmark, the scientists will also take samples from a modern population of Sacred Ibises in Africa.
When I checked the internet for information about mummification practices in Egypt, it seems that almost any kind of animal could be mummified, from bulls to snakes. Cats were popular. Some of the mummifications were of pets but others were to do with religion. Offering a mummified ibis was something like lighting a candle in memory of a dead relative.
For a change of pace this week, I set aside my crime fiction for a history book about the causes of the First World War. The book is called Churchill, Hitler and “The Unnecessary War”. The author suggests that poor decision making in that pre-war period laid the groundwork for thirty years of unbelievable carnage (he says that WW2 is just a second phase of the one conflict). One of the interesting points raised is that Kaiser Wilhelm did everything he could to avoid war with Britain but Churchill was determined to have the conflict. The excuse of helping brave little Belgium was flimsy at best. And the Treaty of Versailles was a travesty; even at the time, sensible people saw the seeds of WW2.
The other fall-out of the decisions made at this time led directly to the demise of Britain as a world power. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Britain was the centre of the largest empire ever seen; by the end of WW2, it was a spent force.
US President Wilson’s dictum of self-determination, coined in the 1910s, has led to the fragmentation of European states and the setting up of tiny, unsustainable countries around the world. It continues today with the formation just this month of South Sudan. It seems that every minority now wants to be self-governing: the Basques, the Kurds, the Tamils, Western Australians all want to have their own separate countries. Where will it end?
It seems that my brain is starting to get its act together after 18 months of post-retirement stagnation and I’m craving intellectual stimulation. Maybe I should go back to Uni.
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