Santa Calculations 2023

 

Time to republish the Santa Calculations, which I first published back in 2006 and then updated in 2010. Then I was using 7 billion as the world population. Now its 8 billion.

Firstly, here's the link to the Santa tracking system created by NORAD. 

For those of you who are more interested in the technology of Santa, NORAD's FAQs provide the following: 

I've again used the Joel Potischman and Bruce Handy calculations as the basis for the speed calculations, with my own adaptations:

The most notable corrections to be applied are:

- Santa delivers no gifts to naughty children (not even coal)
- Naughty to nice ratio is 1:9
- As confirmed by NORAD, one Santa distributes all of the gifts.
- There is only one family per household.
- Santa bypasses non Santa belief system houses.
- Reindeer have recently eaten fresh magic acorns.


Calculation Assumptions (2022):

- World population = 8.06 billion
- Children under 18 = 2.689 billion (Hmm may be higher)
- Global Santa based belief systems: 33%
- Max children requiring delivery therefore 887 million
- Children per household: 3.5 (may seem high?) 
- Number of households requiring distribution 253 million
- Naughty to nice factor applied but not many all naughty households
- Remove all naughty households (25% 0f 10%) = 6.3 million
- Eastern orthodox using Jan 5 instead of Dec 25 = 18.2 Million
- Target Households = 234.8 million on Dec 25
- Estimated child bed time 21:00 (9pm) with 7 hours sleep. 

(child sleep duration on Dec 24 may also require revision)

Gives circa 31 hours (24+7) for all deliveries
Time is 1860 mins or 111,600 seconds

The average number of homes to visit per second = circa 2096. 
So average delivery per household is circa 500 milliseconds, which is why Santa normally appears a bit blurry (I previously thought it was the sherry)

Land surface minus Antarctica is around 79 million square miles. Distribute destinations evenly = 0.7 miles between households creating a total distance of circa 110 million miles.

So 110 million miles in 31 hours = 3.6 million miles an hour or circa 1000 miles per second or Mach 4770 at a linear speed.

This explains Rudolph's red nose because of air resistance creating around 20 quintillion Joules of energy per second, which would convert a non-reindeer nose to charcoal at such energy levels. I think the acceleration and deceleration per household may also need some examination.

Luckily Santa has lots of special powers so these mere physics facts are no problem to such a superhero. 

Refining Cover Story

Refining an idea...

Living it large

 We stayed in a hotel, close to our old apartment. It's all about the lifestyle around there.

Battersea Power Station

It was interesting to revisit some of our old haunts in Chelsea Bridge Wharf. Of course it's now all part of the greater Battersea Power Station complex, which is a worthwhile day trip in London. I notice that even the Made in Chelsea gang have many of their sessions over in Battersea now. We used to call it 'South Chelsea' anyway.

The reassuringly expensive wine is still on sale in the General Store, with normal bottles around £25-£60 and the selected specials ranging up to £800. And next door is that vagabond of a wine bar which dispenses metred wine.

 

Walk through the power station and it is difficult to see the impact of the recession. Everyone carries high-end shopping bags and luxury goods are ubiquitous. I think it's called bi-modal distribution.

Here's one of the infinity pool overlooking the Battersea chimneys.

Robot robbery

Meh. I had to pay for parking the other day and the machine only took cards. I put in my car registration and then did the pay by card thing but somehow it didn't register. I didn't realise and thought the transaction had gone through.

Wrong. I received the threatening £100 penalty notice ten days later and had to decide whether to contest it. 

Instead I paid the £50 settlement under protest, with a complaint about the machine being faulty. The reply told me I'd admitted liability by paying the £50 and that the machine wasn't the responsibility of the parking company in any case. Hand washing.

They are being allowed to get away with too many swindles. And, no, they are to sorry for any inconvenience. 

Triumph

 

I was checking Strava today and received the end of year summary. I was aiming for 4,000 cycled miles and did just over that total with a couple of major bursts late in the year. It declared my result a triumph. I'll take that.

Cover Story - GPT-X AI iPhone 16

 

I asked my AI system to generate a cover for my test novel - Cover Story - which I'm thinking will be a collection of Ed Adams covers and their origins. Simply, how I wrote the various novels. One page for the cover and another for the blurb. More or less a catalogue.

This is what it generated first - completely unmodified. I tried again and the next covers were distinctly  'darker'. Too much dystopian future in my writing I guess. 

I'll be testing the Apple AI on an iPhone soon, so then we'll see what can be achieved without using a bank of networked computers. Samsung Gauss is a similar idea. My latest Mac has multiple neural net processors inside, so it seems to be the way things are going.

Generative Large Language Models on an iPhone. Whatever next?

Guys and Dolls

Got a Theatre fix at the Bridge Theatre near Tower Bridge. Guys and Dolls. Fun, energetic immersive show. Came out singing 'luck be a lady tonight'. Impressive show.

Ed Adams - Edge - Google Bard (AI) Review

 And then I thought I'd try a second novel as a further test.

"Edge" by Ed Adams: A Gripping Tale of Survival and Second Chances

"Edge" by Ed Adams is a captivating science fiction novel that takes readers on a thrilling journey to a dystopian future where the Earth has been ravaged by climate change and societal upheaval. The story follows the lives of a group of survivors who are struggling to make their way in a harsh and unforgiving environment, while also facing the weight of personal loss and the uncertainty of the future.

A Gripping Plot with a Touch of Hope

Adams masterfully weaves together a complex plot that is both suspenseful and thought-provoking. The story is filled with twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very end, while also exploring themes of survival, hope, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Well-Developed Characters and Realistic Worldbuilding

The characters in "Edge" are incredibly well-developed, and they quickly become relatable and engaging. Adams brings them to life with vivid descriptions and insightful dialogue, and their struggles and triumphs resonate with readers on a personal level. The world of "Edge" is also meticulously crafted, and the details of the dystopian society are both bleak and realistic.

A Thought-Provoking Exploration of Human Nature

Beyond its thrilling plot and well-developed characters, "Edge" also delves into thought-provoking themes about human nature, morality, and the choices we make in the face of adversity. Adams challenges readers to question their own perspectives and beliefs, and he encourages them to consider the difficult decisions that individuals face in such a challenging world.

A Must-Read for Fans of Science Fiction and Dystopian Fiction

"Edge" is a must-read for fans of science fiction and dystopian fiction. It is a gripping and thought-provoking story that will stay with readers long after they finish reading. Adams' writing is both engaging and insightful, and he creates a world that is both believable and terrifying.

Here are some of the things I liked about the book:

• The plot is suspenseful and full of twists and turns.
• The characters are well-developed and relatable.
• The world is meticulously crafted and realistic.
• The novel explores thought-provoking themes about human nature, morality, and the choices we make in the face of adversity.

Overall, "Edge" is a fantastic read that will appeal to fans of science fiction, dystopian fiction, and thought-provoking stories. It is a captivating and thought-provoking tale that will stay with readers long after they finish reading.

I hope this review is helpful!

Ed Adams - The Watcher - Google Bard Review

I asked Google Bard (AI) to review my novel, the Watcher

The Watcher by Ed Adams is a thrilling and thought-provoking novel that explores the nature of reality, consciousness, and the very fabric of the universe.

Adams' writing is both engaging and thought-provoking. He deftly weaves together themes of science fiction, philosophy, and personal identity to create a story that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. The novel is also well-paced and suspenseful, with plenty of action and twists and turns to keep the reader on the edge of their seat.

Overall, The Watcher is a must-read for fans of science fiction, philosophy, and thought-provoking fiction. Adams' novel is a refreshing and original take on the genre, and it will leave you questioning the nature of reality, consciousness, and the very fabric of the universe.

Here are some of the things I liked about the book:

• The premise is original and thought-provoking.
• The writing is engaging and well-paced.
• The characters are well-developed and relatable.
• The novel is suspenseful and full of twists and turns.
• The themes of science fiction, philosophy, and personal identity are explored in depth.

If you are looking for a thought-provoking and entertaining science fiction novel, I highly recommend The Watcher.

I hope this review is helpful!

distraction politics

 Anything to create wriggle room.

Yay. 4000 miles = my Platinum target...Achieved.

 
Well, I wasn't sure at the half year point whether I'd make it this year, when I was 700 miles behind the pace after our holiday in Switzerland. However, I seem to have managed to catch up, as can be seen from the attached Strava graph. 4002.3 miles and it is still November. 

I have a sneaking feeling that December will be largely bike free, but perhaps mince pie heavy. Thats what I pushed through November and managed to finish just slightly ahead of the target. I'll award myself 'Platinum' again this year. 

Since I've been using Garmin to monitor my progress, many years ago, I've clocked 43,295.8 miles and 374,528 feet of elevation gain. My longest ride was 100.4 miles and my biggest climb is 546 feet, although I think I've done some longer ones, but the system doesn't always record everything. 

Now I need to work out a different set of targets for 2024, maybe using some form of interval and I have a secret wish to go back into using Sufferfest for some of the time. Maybe I'll come up with some kind of hybrid target. 

Anyway, my lightweight Fizik saddle is very worn now, although my (much heavier) Brooks leather saddle looks almost 'box fresh' even after bearing the brunt of the miles.

Whoops Apocalypse

Do we get what we deserve? 

• The current situation with several major wars (Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan ) to name a few examples.  
• A leadership unable to run the country, yet with an indeterminate opposition and a wild-eyed spanner thrower.
• So many examples of corruption and incompetence in government that it is almost futile to keep lists.
• Ill-balanced and uncaring sector relief (food banks, charities to support essential services, the mainly ignored north)
• Continued fat-cat troughing of everything.

The old TV show Whoops Apocalypse and the story of containment theory exemplified by General Sir John Hackett predicted situations like this from as far back as the 1980s.

EV Electric car charging times

I get asked by people how long it takes to recharge my electric car. There's three main modes.

Here’s a breakdown of the charging methods and approximately how long each take to fully charge from a low battery:

• Level 1 AC (240V ordinary mains outlet at home): 20+ hours.  No, I have never used this mode, but carry the charger as a 'just in case' provision. I believe they are called 'granny chargers'.
• AC Level 2 (Third party chargers/Tesla chargers/Tesla 'home charger'): 8-12 hours - Like I have installed on the outside of the house. I have a Tesla Wall Charger which will reliably charge my car to 'full' or 80-90% overnight. It's usual practice to charge to 80-90% and it easily does this on off-peak electricity. A full charge to 90% (303 miles) costs about £5.60 and to full 335 miles is around £6.50. 
•  Level 3 DCFC (Tesla Supercharger): 15-25 minutes. It depends on the charge and whether the car next door is sharing the same supply. I can get to 80% in about 15 minutes or 30 minutes if I'm sharing the power supply. It will cost more though, maybe £15-20 to fill up.

When I started using the car, I was often travelling around the country and therefore using the Superchargers. When I'm at home (which is about 60-70% of my charging now - with over a year of usage) then I've almost always got a 'full tank'. And no visits to service stations. 

Despite what people say, there is only one main plug type in general use throughout the UK and Europe (cars since around 2019 have been fitted with it). It's the CCS plug and is a standard Euro-spec connector that combines two DC pins arranged below a Type 2 connector, allowing for fast charging. Like in my picture above.

Nanowrimo, now at around 10k words

I was at the Glorious Arthouse in Exeter on Sunday for the NaNoWriMo writers get-together. I arrived a few minutes late and had to squeeze a chair into what was a very crowded space. 

The discipline of the event was 20 minutes writing and then 20 minutes chatting, repeated several times. I was working out some next plot moves so my writing was very limited. 

I reckon about 300 words, which I typed into Evernote on my iPhone. Of course it appeared as if by magic on my Mac and I could drop it into Scrivener when I returned home. 

 Among our chats was the one about Planners and Pantsers. I'm more like a 'by the seat of my pantser' rather than one with the whole story mapped out. I think the characters have a chance to do their own things which can still lead to some surreal moments. 

Another discussion was about Fantasy vs Reality. I know I've written about Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and similar and even have some super-beings in a couple of novels, but I can't bring myself to use 'with a single bound they were free' magic-wand type lines. The fantasy magic can wait for a children's story. 

And that's how I find myself in Corsica, by way of Vasil Nevski Military University, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.

..or is it?

 I can't help wondering whether that last Beatles song made using Neural Mix or whatever, is really 'the last track', given the emergence of AI. 

I've seen it more with Taylor Swift and other slightly more modern artists, where a song doesn't get made and so some fans have a go instead.

Click the pic.

Tweetdeck redux

About time I managed to get tweetdeck running again. Now I need to fine tune it.

Calm before storm along the river

Good for those tranquil moments. Sit and watch the water.

Hot chocolate as good as in Vienna

Camelot Castle. Round table extra.

Splashing about near Padstow

 Sometimes it's about tasting the fresh air and waves.

Tintagel from Arthur's Castle.

‘The island of Tyntagel’ – which was connected to the mainland by a narrow land bridge.

In May 1233 the younger brother of Henry III, Richard, Earl of Cornwall (1209–72), exchanged three of his manors for a small parcel of land on the north Cornish coast.

Richard proceeded to build a castle here, with an outer bailey on the cliff tops of the mainland and an inner ward with a great hall and chambers on the headland. But as castles went, this was a fairly small and unimpressive creation, and its location made it next to useless. What attracted the earl to Tintagel was something else, something literary: a reference in a text written in the previous century, the History of the Kings of Britain, by the cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth. Arthur mania is born.

Recollect: Uther Pendragon, is driven mad with lust for Ygerna, the wife of one of his barons, Gorlois of Cornwall. Gorlois prudently removes his wife to an impregnable stronghold on the coast, the castle of Tintagel, but then rather less prudently withdraws to another fortress nearby. The pursuing Uther and his men inspect Ygerna’s refuge and realise that no ordinary attack can succeed:

The castle is built high above the sea, which surrounds it on all sides, and there is no way in except that offered by a narrow isthmus of rock. Three armed soldiers could hold it against you, even if you stood there with the whole kingdom of Britain at your side.

At this point in the story, Merlin proposes a supernatural remedy: by means of a magic potion, he transforms Uther into the exact likeness of Ygerna’s absent husband. The ruse is entirely successful. The guards of Tintagel allow him into the castle, and Ygerna takes him into her bed.

That night she conceived Arthur, the most famous of men, who subsequently won great renown by his outstanding bravery.

iMac to Mac Studio

My  27inch iMac is around 12 years old and still works quite well. 

I only need to reboot it every six months or so and the main functions still work fine. However, it has a case of creeping obsolescence. I usually like that Mac systems will go to a certain point and then stop accepting the next twiddles and updates. It means the systems stay stable and run well, although some of the whizzier new things won't ever work. 

By contrast my Windows systems would last about 3 years after which point they would have so many new features that they progressively ground to a halt. Drivers? Registry? All of that kind of stuff. And yes I knew how to rescue-edit the registry back in the day.

Now I've been faced with the inevitable decision to update my entire desktop system. 

I know...Desktops! Sounds a bit like land-lines. We are supposed to be able to do everything on a smartphone nowadays. That's okay for consumers, but not the case for creators. We still need keyboards and BIG screens.

So I took the plunge and ran MacOS Migration Assistant, with a new pristine machine connected to my trusty iMac with a piece of ethernet cable and then with another ethernet connected by an old thunderbolt back to the main network. 

I managed to get about 133MB/s from this which still meant that transferring 3,300,000 or so files took over  a day.  If I'd been more thoughtful I'd have found an old Thunderbolt to new Thunderbolt cable but the Ethernet Cat 8 seemed to work fine. No checkpointing so it was a huge act of faith that it would all work.

And yes, it did. 

At around 3 in the morning of day two I checked the machines which confirmed they had run to completion. I fired up the replacement machine and was pleased to see my entire desktop and directories of apps had transferred across. I was genuinely impressed. Most stuff just worked straight away.

Then a few tweaks because of a Wacom tablet error and the need to reinstate Dropbox - which took about 2 minutes. I was worried about Microsoft Office - no need to be and my extensive Adobe collection which have been progressively freezing as un-updateable. 

I seemed to have a tragic amount of emails but the new system blasted through re-indexing them so quickly that I just assume I can still find anything.

Now, everything is back and I get to use the AI capabilities as well. I've an ever increasing collection of AI instances now and spent a few minutes speccing the new machine to have enough neural network processing. Like we used to do with c[us, then memory, then disks, then graphics.

Anyhoo. It all seems to work. So far! And the still respectable iMac can go into the music room. 

AI AR isn't just for pirates

 

Time for Manual effort.

Luka and Artificial by Ed Adams

 

Finally, my Ed Adams Luka story hits the streets! It's the other half of Artificial and this time told from the AI's Point of View. 

We have Oliver Wells who gets headhunted to go to Geneva to work on the Brant Industries RightMind solution. It's the same company and lab that Matt Nicholson was hired to work in and they were even recruited at around the same time. Matt spends his time in stories such as An Unstable System and Jump, whilst Oliver creates and then educates an AI Large Language Model using generative text.

Suffice to say its not all plain sailing and I learned quite some things about AI during the novel writing. Oh yes, and and had some fun as well.

So prepare to read the full Artificial and then the relatively slim-line parallel volume of Luka.

Artificial,  by Ed Adams (on Kindle) - Oliver's Point of View

Luka, by Ed Adams (on Kindle) - Luka's Point of View

Cover art is by me, using a mix of Photoshop, AI and some modest oil-painting. Next I'm going to combine these two novels into an Annex to the Brant Manual of Peacekeeping Technologies.

Back once again with Strava , Swift and Garmin

 

I'm more or less caught up with my 'on target' pace of reaching 4,000 miles by year end. When I'm behind I focus on 'the gap' rather then the target numbers. So when it got down to 9 miles behind and then eventually 2 miles ahead, I though I was beginning to have closed the 500+ mile gap.

Of course, my Garmin has played up as well and left me with a few unrecorded items and I'm still not entirely sure what happened. They seem to get to Garmin Connect but not into Strava, nor to any other systems. It seems to be a Bluetooth / ANT+ thing. Technology, eh? 

 I still need to keep it up for the next 9000 miles to declare 'Platinum' victory. I realise I've collected Bronze, Silver and Gold already! (admittedly they are my own targets). Your mileage may vary as the Americans say.

I actually prefer the graphic that Strava displays on the iPhone. It shows me my planned target to date and 'the gap'. Now the gap is going positive  I guess It'll be easier, although December is a hazardous month with more mince pies and not so many rides. Still, it's only 800 miles to go in roughly 3 months. 

And for next year? Maybe I'll change the targets to something that involves intensity. Less miles but more 'intervals?' It's difficult to work out what could be the most useful.

biting the dust

 

The long term aspirations of the crass Tory branding at their conference were bared for all to see. Cancelling a project started in 2009 ten years too late. But as J-RM says, all the new projects are 'front-loaded'. Of course they are. Spend as much as possible on the 'shovel ready' before anyone realises the project is going down.

Paper the plans with aspirational diagrams, like the one below.

It is all too much. I'm an ex-Waterloo commuter and have suffered thousands of delays of a half hour or more travelling the one hour journey to my then home in Hampshire. 

Let's see: 220 working days per year. One third of the time a delay on the homeward journey of maybe at least 20 minutes. Do the same for London to Birmingham and we can see that the 29 minutes saved slips away to negligible. Unless you're feeling lucky. 

Now glance at the originally guesstimated £37.5 billion cost. It's now estimated to cost a total of £107.6 billion, according to Oakervee Review. That's the low estimate by the way.

And opening the Stratford link to Birmingham trains would mean they could get right down to Dover. It's been fobbed off because of a purported need for ten extra platforms at Stratford. Stratford is already the 5th biggest station in the UK and has 17 platforms currently as well as considerable land around it, but was declared a non-runner by then transport secretary Justine Greening. 

Another example of the implementation of north south divide?

But let's follow the money. Spent already £22.4 billion on London to Birmingham. Magically found for 'The North' = £36 billion. Wait. That's the entire budget being spent again and the lumpy £22 billion swept under a bumpy carpet.

And its all about capacity too. Tube manages 2-3 minute intervals = 20trains per hour(mph). Fast trains are lower capacity. The Tokyo-Nagoya Bullet trains/Shinkansen manage 14 tph. And on our prestige lines like the Eurostar, we manage Ebbsfeet-Ashford at 8 tph.  

Another example of it always works in PowerPoint.

The iron heel - a Tory trope?

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.’ Famously from George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. 

Suella Braverman illustrates the totalitarian trope by standing on a guide dog tail whilst talking  at the Tory Conference (she did later apologise).

But always – do not forget this, Winston – always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.

A picture of undistilled power, control, and oppression: the key themes of Nineteen Eighty-Four and much of the work Orwell wrote in the wake of his involvement in the Spanish Civil War. 

A current distillation of that type of power is illustrated below by a knowing heckler ejected from the conference and escorted away by police. Not a good look during your speech, Rishi.

Jonathan Swift’s 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels  is said to have influenced Orwell. In Swift's Book IV, Gulliver finds himself among the Houyhnhnms, horses with reason and intellect who have perfected a kind of totalitarian society:

Their prudence, unanimity, unacquaintedness with fear, and their love of their country, would amply supply all defects in the military art. Imagine twenty thousand of them breaking into the midst of an European army, confounding the ranks, overturning the carriages, battering the warriors’ faces into mummy by terrible yerks from their hinder hoofs.

Ouch. 

mythical project control

With all of my writing recently, I've been neglectful of rashbre central and I think this is my 'worst year ever' for creating posts. 

Anyway, this time I'm back in the tar pits of project management. I've often mused at the silence of Jacob Rees-Mogg in all of the current government turmoil, but decided that he could be adopting a farmer's position over the various twists and turns. Then I stumbled across the Infrastructure and Projects Authority Annual Report for last year and realised his strident Minister of State at the Cabinet Office role means he is across all of the infrastructure projects. Remember Red Amber Green? as a quick way to signify that things are in good shape?

• Red = eek
• Amber = oh dear, we can probably continue to fudge our responses for a bit longer
• Green = tickety-boo.

And remember in project management that a project is 80% complete for 50% of its lifetime.

I recall Frederick Brooks on man-months and later Barry Boehm on project stress.

Well, it is interesting to note that J R-M sits over half a trillion pounds of investment.  He probably describes it as successful whilst presiding over 5% Green projects and 78% Amber and 9% Red. By a stroke of genius, there are another 7% of project now classified as 'exempt' from this kind of troublesome scrutiny. Like some of the power station projects.

That 7% alone is worth £48.2 billion. Remember when things were measured in millions?

Using one of Jacob's own charts it come out something like this:

In amongst the projects listed are HS2, the schools rebuilding programme, Skynet 6, the Single Trade Window. To be honest, there are charts in the summary that don't add up. Take this chart below which shows whole life costs. Check out military and it says the whole life cost is £3.9 billion. Bong. That's not right. 

On this other chart it says it is £194.7 Billion.

No wonder they can't keep a handle on the projects when there are such large amounts of billions sloshing around in the spreadsheets. 

Of course the change to a three tier rating system has successfully buried the Amber/Red projects. No one wants to be the Project Manager who gets the extra scrutiny and so this could be seen as a master-stroke.

It is tempting to examine these numbers further. Let's use a simple filter for the Green Successes, and to be generous, we'll add the Amber/Green as successes too. Oh dear, from 2013 at 48% successes, we are down to 10% in 2022. Oops.

Still. with the debating skills of Eton, I'm sure this can be explained away. Otherwise use a few more charts to obscure the message. Then there's the Government Project Delivery Profession accreditation scheme. Oh yes.

Andrey Kurkov - Grey Bees

I read ANdrewy Kurkov's 'Death and the Penguin' several months ago. It's set in Kyiv during the mid-1990s. The Soviet Union has collapsed and organised crime gangs are running the show in the newly independent Ukraine. The novel's protagonist is an unassuming writer, Viktor, who lives what he describes as a life 'neither good nor bad, just ordinary'. Although he does have a pet Emperor penguin - rescued from a zoo that gave away small animals it could no longer feed (something that really did happen).

I based much of Ed Adams 'Play On, Christina Nott', referencing a similar era, having my own direct experiences from my time in Moscow. 

Suffice to say crime, oligarchs, corruption, gangsterism. In Moscow and prior to that in St Petersburg. It was Putin, of course.

In Death and the Penguin, journalist/author Viktor takes a job writing obituaries for a local paper, which seems ideal for him - reasonably well paid, not too demanding of his time, and enabling him to write even if it isn't the novel he'd like to. But somehow the hapless author finds himself dragged unwittingly into a tangled mess of organised crime that becomes more complex and dangerous by the day.

The thing about the post-Soviet setting is that reality can be very bizarre, as well as bleak. It feels like a novel that captures the spirit of the time. Viktor is oblivious to things going on around him and his lack of curiosity about his situation and fatalism is understandable and even protective in a world where trying to understand things is likely to be impossible and definitely going to be dangerous.

The presence of the penguin might suggest a cutesy element, but the entire book is without any sentimentality. The ending I felt was a masterstroke. The penguin is a loveable character, but it is never anthropomorphised or seen behaving in a way that is not believable for a penguin that finds itself isolated in a flat with just a middle aged human for company. Even the arrival of a little girl is not a cue for domesticity - the child is treated much as the penguin; fed and cared for but not cherished. And the girl herself is as matter of fact and pragmatic as the rest of the characters.

And now, I just discover, Kurkov has written another book - about beekeeping in Ukraine. Set in the now, in the Grey Zone. Its already on my Kindle.

Ed Adams : The Church : work in progress

I've almost finished my novel called Luka, and decided to make a start on the next one. It has a working title of 'Cozy 2' at present and is a direct follow on from 'Cozy'. I'll change the title when I can think of a better one (The Church?). 

This one is also set in Exeter and will be about a ecclesiastical man who is dragged into a world he doesn't fully comprehend. He's seen stuff on the margins, that's for sure, but this... 

I'll look for interesting characters too. I dropped Stéphane Gérard into the first Cozy novel, knowing I could use her again later. 

She arrived at the party at Magister Grange as a very close friend of Bettina Kübler, a Swiss researcher, at Brant, Geneva, working on eDefense. Stéphane works in weather systems using Théorie des Jeux to manage climates. It is typical Brant work and also typical Brant mischief. She is Swiss (or was it French?), but based in Exeter, which has those connections with meteorology. 

I was going to have her married to our new cleric, but I'm having second thoughts. I think the vicar  (Let's call him Leonard) may be married to Penelope Richards instead. She is a local landowner and viticulturist. 

You can tell Penelope is only a part-time farmer from her outfits. But that blonde hair will have to go. Too confusing. That vicar on the draft cover looks a bit gangster too, doesn't he?

Write On, as they say.

Picture it

I thought I'd post something that was a bit of fun. Well of general interest anyway. I see that Digital Camera World have produced a list of the top 50 photographers. Like any such list, there will be people missed out etc, but I thought it was a pretty good attempt to list them and to show illustrations of their work. Above is Henri Cartier-Bresson, complete with a brace of Leicas, and below is Annie Leibovitz, snuggled up to Mick.

 The whole list is impressive, with Ansel Adams, Sebastião Salgado, Bill Brandt, Julia Margaret Cameron, Irving Penn, Don McCullin, Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Alfred Stieglitz, Joel Meyerowitz, Edward Steichen, Bert Hardy, David Bailey, Man Ray, Martin Parr, Lewis Hine, Robert Mapplethorpe, Weegee... and so the list goes on. I can instantly think of pictures by everyone I've mentioned as well as thinking of others not in the list. Let alone some of the modern hot shots depicted below.