Exploring and reading with Hugh in 2026, part 2

And I'm some book notes behind, so I'll start by catching up, or trying to.

The Magic of Reality is Richard Dawkins's take on kiddie science. Pretty much as expected, and unspectacular.

South Africa's Nobel Laureates is very political, even when it doesn't have to be. That, to my mind, effectively bans this book from further consideration in this pub.

Bill Bryson's African Diary is a brief (61 small pages) account of a sharply-focussed visit by a group of five delegates (including Mr Bryson) to see the activities of one particular poverty-relief body in Kenya. They undoubtedly do good work, but if you're looking for the Bryson wit and good humour, or an idea of where to go / what to see / what it feels like to be in Africa, go elsewhere. This is not that kind of book.

After that undistinguished start, we need a palate-cleanser.

>5 hfglen:
You’re talking my kind of language. Thank you for the elephants.

Happy new thread! Echoing Peter's thanks for the elephants!

>6 pgmcc: stray thought while reading Mona Lisa: a Life Discovered. If it's not against all security to ask, is Amboise where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years anywhere within striking distance of the @pgmcc Secret Hideout?

>6 pgmcc: >7 Sakerfalcon: Thank you both! The other day while watching Dust Bugs on YouTube, it occurred to me that when I was still in primary school and went to Kruger the first time, one only saw elephants way up north of the Letaba River. There were only a few hundred in the whole reserve. Now there are about 12 500 of them and they're everywhere!

>5 hfglen:. Elephants!!! Happy new thread, Hugh!

>8 hfglen:
Now, I know you will willing sign the non-disclosure agreement, so here goes:

Amboise is where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years and it is about fifteen minutes from our secret base. It is where we go on a Sunday morning if we want to go to the market. It has a big market.

Leonardo lived in a small cottage in an estate called Clos Lucé. The estate has been converted into a park and museum honouring Leonardo. The Château cotains displays of his inventions and the park has mock-ups of some of his inventions including a tank, helicopter and various water control inventions. There is a bridge built by his method of building a bridge using just the wooden planks without any nails, ropes or adhesives.

His cottage is preserved as is his herb garden.

When he died his remains were buried in the grounds of the Amboise Château which is about two kilometers from Cloe Lucé. When they built a chapel in the Château it was decided to transfer his remains to a plot within the chapel. Apparently the remains in the chapel buried under the marble memorial to Leonardo are only partial. Apparently there was some issue when disintering him from the original location.

So, the short answers to your question are yes and yes.

>11 pgmcc: You're quite safe; I'm about 10 000 km away, but born idly curious! Many thanks.

Happy new thread! >5 hfglen: thanks for the elephants :)

Happy New Thread.

I will be avoiding that Dawkins. Actually I've been avoiding all but the older works of his, come to think of it.

Happy New Thread!

I was glad to see the elephants.

Happy new thread!

Thank you, all! There are plenty of elephants where those came from.

Mona Lisa: a life discovered. A fascinating biography of the lady in the painting. Half of me is sympathetic, thinking what a rough life she seems to have led; the other half says "so who didn't have a hard time then and there?" There is much to be said in favour of living in the 20th/21st century -- like living without the ever-present threat of incurable disease, and having plumbing that works.

>18 hfglen: Oh yes. Keeping the latrine area well clear of the drinking water is a priority. That book does sound interesting, though.

On this day exactly 100 years ago (31 May 1926) the then Governor-General signed a very short act into law. It is our National Parks act, which established the Kruger National Park. Most of the document is taken up defining the boundaries of the Park, but one clause allows other National Parks to be proclaimed.



This is one of several possible birthdays for the Kruger Park. President Kruger signed a proclamation for a reserve in the area in 1898, but appointed no staff and allowed no budget. After the Anglo-Boer War, the Sabie Game Reserve was re-proclaimed in 1902 with Col. James Stevenson-Hamilton as warden and an annual budget roughly equivalent to five minutes' worth of tourist income today. Col. Stevenson-Hamilton spent 45 years fighting for his "dusty, unkempt Cinderella", and had the satisfaction of watching her grow into one of the world's most respected Princesses.

>20 hfglen: Awesome.

>20 hfglen:
A great picture and an interesting bit of history.

>20 hfglen: Thank you for the great photo and bit of positive history.

>21 Karlstar: >22 pgmcc: >23 clamairy: Thank you all very much! Here is a video shot on the day of the centenary. Not, let it be said, the world's best but still interesting.

And a story about how the Railways had what turned out to be the civil service's ration of one good idea in a lifetime (recounted in South African Eden and several articles in the SAR Magazine.

One day in 1923 someone in Railways Head Office decided that it would boost profits if they ran a roughly week-long tour to the scenic parts of the Lowveld and Escarpment of the then Transvaal. So they organised a tour called "Round in Nine" leaving Johannesburg and Pretoria on a Friday evening and getting back on the Sunday afternoon a week later. The railway map meant the tour had to go through the Sabie Game Reserve, which the local farmers and land companies were vigorously campaigning against at the time. Anyway, the game reserve had no visitor facilities of any description at the time. So they intended to pass through at night. Stevenson-Hamilton objected strongly, and (after a row about "a bit of sport-what-jolly-good-show-ho-ho-ho"; the warden won that round and no firearms of any description were allowed on the train) the tour was stabled overnight at Huhla Siding, near what is now Skukuza, the Park headquarters. That night the reserve staff organised a party next to the train for the tourists. On the last day of the tour the train manager organised a straw poll asking what bits the participants liked most and least. To management's surprise, the almost unanimous verdict was that the best bit was the night at Huhla. And on subsequent tours the farm visits were quietly dropped, and one night in the reserve became two, with guided walks led by rangers in the day between. And the tours thus reconstituted were a money-spinner run every fortnight roughly from May to September (our winter; the rest of the year is hot and wet, and used to be very malarial) until war broke out in 1939. And when the idea of a National Park was up for debate in early 1926, there were some 4000 voices (of those who'd been on a Round-in-Nine tour) that the farmers and land companies hadn't reckoned with, raised in favour of the Kruger National Park. And the National Parks Act passed through all its stages in Parliament in a single day, with unanimous support of all MPs.

>25 hfglen: What a brilliant story. Not just the bit about the night spent in the Reserve, but the full account of how it all played out. Thank you for sharing that one.

>24 hfglen: >25 hfglen: Thanks for the video and the story.

>26 jillmwo: >27 Karlstar: My pleasure!

A Century of Steam-rolling. I was curious as to precisely why the Railway Society library at Inchanga has a copy of this ultra-specialist work. Having read it, I can only conclude that somebody bought it by mistake and used the RSSA library as a receptacle for rehousing unwanted books. The book contains every imaginable fact about steam (as opposed to diesel-powered) rollers and some mildly interesting details of the evolution of tarmac roads. Unfortunately the author's style varies between pedestrian and soporific. So I am still amazed at the recherché subjects on which one can find books that the publisher evidently intended to make a profit on. And yet, this one may not be a totally lost cause: a search of YouTube videos reveals some of parades of steam-powered road vehicles in UK that include a few steam-rollers in the procession, and I have an idea that the steam enthusiasts at Baynesfield (KZN) include in their number at least one owner of a vintage steam-roller.

Carrying on from #25. Five years after our first National Park was proclaimed, it was followed by a batch of three more: Addo Elephant National Park, 75 km from Port Elizabeth, Bontebok National Park, then near Bredasdorp (the southernmost town in Africa) -- the park was moved about 150 km to just outside Swellendam in the 1960s -- and Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, now vastly expanded as the Kgalagadi Transfrontier park, much of which is in Botswana (and which I have not had the pleasure of visiting).



Addo was originally about 8000 ha of bush about 3-4 m tall so solid that all one saw of the elephants was trunks sticking up like snorkels. But the elephants bred, and started to thin the bush, so one can now see several hundred of them easily. The park was vastly expanded about 30 years ago, and now includes former Forestry reserves in the mountains to the north of the original Park and on the coast of Algoa Bay.

>30 hfglen:
Excellent photograph. I love it.

>30 hfglen: Great picture and story. Did you take the picture?

>30 hfglen: Lovely photo :)

>31 pgmcc: >32 Karlstar: >33 Narilka: Thank you!

>32 Karlstar: Yes, in the "old" part of the Park on 10 October 2016.

>30 hfglen: Another amazing photo. Thank you.

>30 hfglen: But the elephants bred, and started to thin the bush,. Isn't that potentially a problem? I mean, that vegetation is critical to their well-being in terms of nutrition. How does the park manage to keep them from completely wiping out the bush that is necessary?

>30 hfglen: What a great photo! Thank you.

>35 clamairy: >37 Alexandra_book_life: Thank you both!

>36 jillmwo: There are a couple of points here.
1. Both elephants and vegetation are (still!) recovering from the Victorian hunting madness. Addo as we see it now is as close as it will ever be to matching 18th-century explorers' accounts. Elephant pregnancies last for 22 months each, so "the elephants bred" is not exactly a rapid process. And AFAIK Addo has been able to supply the nuclei of disease-free herds to private and provincial reserves in the Eastern Cape.

2.The elephant-friendly area of Addo has more than doubled in the last generation or so -- though a quick visit will show that the ellies are understandably less than wildly thrilled with the derelict farmland in the "new" part. Nonetheless, that is recovering and some adventurous souls use it.

>38 hfglen: I'd forgotten the length of pregnancy in an elephant so that's worth factoring in, I agree. But with regard to your second point, was the "derelict farmland" abused through over-use? The soil had no opportunity to recover and that's why they were willing to give it over to the elephants?

I love the elephants and the lioness!

Such beautiful creatures in Africa!

Standing up for Science is mostly a history of the South African experience of the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to early 2023, from the perspective of one of the leading medical experts driving the government's response to the virus. The detail is fascinating, but it is a hefty wodge to absorb in one go. Prof. Abdool Karim was chairman of the committee that advised our Minister of Health on measures to control the pandemic in this country, and the committee's advice mostly -- almost always -- worked. He is meticulous in telling us the evidence behind the committee's recommendations, and where they (like everybody else at the time) were groping in the dark. There are some chapters on denialism and disinformation; one is saddened but not surprised to see that one overseas politician's name appears so often here. He ends with a sketch plan for a response to future pandemics.

On the one hand there are passages that at first sight read like self-promotion, until one think and realises that they are simply a description of the way it was. Every now and then his turn of phrase (a strange pronoun or adverb, usually) may raise the reader's eyebrow for a moment or two. I would have appreciated a memory-jog on what the various lockdown levels entailed and the start and end dates when they were in force, though I have to admit the main reason for that is that one of our cats came to her forever home about a week after lockdown was lifted enough that we could go to Port Shepstone to fetch her.

Reread of Empire by Niall Ferguson. Every bit as interesting as the first time around, just over 10 years ago. Unfortunately the book is now over 20 years old, and a new edition updating the conclusion would be welcome.

>43 hfglen: When did Empire originally come out? How far out of date is the conclusion? (I do realize that the ten year anniversary of the passing of the Brexit legislation was within the past year. Is that what requires re-visiting in particular?)

>44 jillmwo: 2003, so 23 years at present. It's not Brexit, but Trump that changes much of his conclusion.

Reread of Reaper Man. Still enjoyable, but an early story in the Discworld canon. And so we see mentions of embryonic forms of several things, such as the continent of Xxxx (Fourecks) that received prominence later.

The Queen's Hidden Garden is, on balance, a strange mixture. Part of it is a description of the British native plants and immigrant "volunteers" growing in the grounds of Buckingham Palace; readability is improved because the text is lively and larded with puns almost up to Sir pTerry's standard, and references to traditional and popular culture. But the species-by-species list of the plants and what they are good (and bad) for is arranged on a deeply flawed system that is only of historical interest -- and had been for a century ot more even when the book was written. One reader spent time wondering at this point if David Bellamy had taken leave of his senses. When I looked on YouTube to see if any of his Bellamy on Botany episodes were available, and saw what came up, I stopped wondering. So it was no great surprise that the last 20 pages or so describe how to make your own wild garden and what to expect to move in.

I'm confuzzed. And just one of the good things about the GD (thanks, Clam!) is that for most things, you can find a local in the pub to ask.

Better Half and I are in the midst of watching Masterchef Australia series 17 on YouTube, and have reached an episode celebrating butter. But why on earth do they very clearly use Danish butter? Surely there's a dairy industry in Australia that makes the necessary (that would be somewhat fresher at the point of use)?

>47 hfglen: The Queen's Hidden Garden, sounds interesting. Waiting to hear the butter answer!

>48 hfglen: >49 Karlstar: I suspect there’s an advertising deal been done. The Danish brand you’re probably talking about has been heavily advertised on Australian TV from time to time (come to think of it, specifically as a cooking medium). Certainly there is Australian butter, I have some in my fridge right now, but I could buy Danish butter if I felt like spending the extra couple of dollars.

Just checked on the supermarket apps. The Australian brand I usually buy (manufactured here although the company is owned in New Zealand) is $4.90 for 250 gm of unsalted butter. The Danish equivalent is $7.25 for the same pack size. I notice I can’t find Irish butter on either supermarket app although I’ve certainly seen it in local supermarkets.

ETA Reddit sez that Kerrygold has ceased selling in Australia.

EATA Re the TV ads: here ya go.

>50 haydninvienna: Thanks. They certainly make lemon meringue pie look easy!

>50 haydninvienna: Many thanks. The price differential of just over 50% you mention is about the same as here. I presume most but by no means all of it is made up of transport costs (10 000 km as against 100-200 km here) and import duty.

>50 haydninvienna: PS. DD tells me that the Danish butter in the show is actually a "spreadable" blend. The equivalent home product is cheaper than "real" pure butter, which widens the price differential.

>53 hfglen: Usefully, the supermarkets here have to display, as well as the item price, a comparative price, which for butter is given per 100 gm. By that measure, the brand I usually buy (Western Star Original Spreadable Butter Blend, 500 gm size) is $1.70/100 gm. The nearest Lurpak equivalent (Lurpak Butter Spreadable Lightly Salted, 400 gm size) is currently $2.08/100 gm.

>52 hfglen: I had a long answer to this typed but got distracted and forgot to post it. Transport costs are a fairly minor part of the difference, I think, even for a refrigerated product like butter. I remember reading that most of the transport component of the cost of say a t-shirt, manufactured in say Bangla Desh and shipped to a shop in Birmingham, happens after the shirt gets unloaded from the container ship (are you there, Peter?). I think most of the price difference is the shop marking up a premium product.

Once you get hold of the idea that the real price of something is whatever it can be sold for, a lot of economics becomes much clearer! It amuses me that people say things like "My house is really worth $(large amount), but in today's market you can only get $(much lower amount) for it": sorry, but $(much lower amount) is its real value in today's market.

Better Half and I have been binge-watching Masterchef Australia series 17. I think @haydninvienna might find this and the following two episodes mildly interesting.