The Great British Euler diagram

Because many people need a reminder now and then.  Additional notes from the source:

The republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom are the only two sovereign states in this image. They are shown in red. Ireland and Great Britain are both islands and are shown in green. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are constituent countries of the United Kingdom and are shown in orange. Here, the term "constituent country" is not used in the same way that "country" is usually used; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are political entities within the UK, and it is the UK which appears in international bodies such as the United Nations and NATO...

There are many other islands in the British Isles which are not shown here. Most of these are politically part of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or the republic of Ireland, with the exceptions of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, which are British crown dependencies and not part of the UK (or ROI) at all...

"Britain" is not a technically correct term for any political or geographical entity. Nevertheless, "Britain" is in frequent use, and taken to mean either "the UK" or "Great Britain". This usage is pretty unfair to Northern Ireland whichever way you look at it...

Ireland is popularly referred to as "the Republic of Ireland" in order to distinguish it from the island of Ireland, and the country is indeed a republic, but "the Republic of" is not part of the country's official name, and I suppose technically this means that the R need not be capitalised...

I am one of those guilty of using the term "Britain" (104 times so far in this blog).

Wolf breath

A reminder that winter is coming.  Which, in turn, reminds me that I should add this Paul Winter video:

I believe my clarinet-wielding cousin once exchanged riffs with a wolf up near Ely, Minnesota.

Top photo source unknown; found at Obey the Pepsi Cat, via Lushlight.

Economic crisis in farm country

Excerpts from an article at the StarTribune:

The number of Minnesota farmers defaulting on agricultural loans has swelled dramatically since 2008, reaching levels not seen since the 1980s farm crisis permanently altered the state's rural economy.  Lenders have sent farmers more than 3,670 default notices in the past 12 months, according to the University of Minnesota's Farmer-Lender Mediation Program. That's up 83 percent in just two years...

It's not only small family farms, she said: "It's everything." Most of the default notices are coming from small-town banks, where farmers often turn for at least some of their borrowing...

Jim Anderson, a farm financial analyst in Rochester who works with the mediation program, said he doesn't think banks are the bad guys in the current situation. Many rural banks have really worked with farmers in trouble. But in an age of intense bank scrutiny, some loans just smell too sour, he said...

"You could make the case that notices are up because regulators are taking a more aggressive stance on lenders taking action against delinquent borrowers," MacKay said. "The real question is: Is that an indicator of more challenging times or more aggressive banker management of farm credits?"

More at the link.

The meanings of words change over time

Found at Comically Vintage, which specializes in panels from old comic books.

"Gas leak prompts Fannie evacuation"

Found at Criggo, where there are a lot of similar newspaper gaffes.

Griffin

Image found at BibliOdyssey.

An Instance of the Fingerpost

This is the best book I've read this year.

Everyone describes An Instance of the Fingerpost as a "historical mystery," but the mystery component is in my view a minor part of the book.  Granted, the plot does revolve around the question of who put poison in the wine bottle, but as a whodunit it would pale next to the works of classic mystery writers.  The value for me was to step right into the 17th century and get a sense of people's lives and attitudes and beliefs.

The story is told by four narrators (which, as my wife reminded me, is basically the format for Rashomon), and, as in that movie, the narrations differ on key points.  By the time I was on the third narrative, I started going back to read the first one again to compare salient points.  Doing so was not  onerous, because Pears writes in a style that's very easy to read, and despite writing about the 17th century he seems to avoid the temptation to litter the text with archaic words.

The most difficult aspect (for me, perhaps not for you) was that much of the action and motivation of the characters center on the Restoration of the English monarch in the 1660s, which I have never much understood, or frankly cared about.  But I did learn a lot about ordinary people's lives and the role of women and the birth pangs of medical science and the conflicts of religious dogma and the ethics of the time.

This is not a quick read; you're looking at some 600+ pages even if you don't flip back and forth to compare stories.  But it won't take long to figure out if you like it or not; I should think in an hour's time, after reading a chapter or two, you'll know whether or not you're going to enjoy it.

After finishing this book, I checked out another novel by this author (The Dream of Scipio), but found that one too cumbersome to follow as it shuttled between three people in different centuries; Pears is an art historian by profession and has written some mysteries about that field of study, so perhaps I should try one of those.

Those who have read the book, please feel free to chime in with your own thoughts.