The grave of Scipio Africanus

In light of recent events – in particular the statue of Edward Colston here in Bristol being pulled down and plunged into the harbour last weekend – I thought it might be worth taking a look at something not entirely unrelated: The grave of Scipio Africanus, situated in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church, Henbury, Bristol.

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Tales from the pandumbic – part 8

Fools and their social distance are soon parted I’ve just nipped to the shop to get some bread and a few other bits and pieces, and having gone around the store and picked up what I wanted, I headed for the checkout area. I reached the checkouts, and stopped at the appropriate line marking, just as someone else arrived ahead of me from another aisle. He went straight up to the belt and began unloading his shopping from the basket. That all sounds fine so far, doesn’t it?

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Named that film

A recent conversation in the comments section of a post on Rick Murray’s blog saw Rick trying to identify an old children’s TV show. It reminded me of the time I was trying to identify something from a memory of one basic scene.

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The cream of the crap

If you follow me on Twitter you’ll know my opinion on Brexit – and by extension, what I think of the current UK government with Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. If you don’t, my feelings can be summarised as this: Both things are a crock of shit.

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Tales from the pandumbic – part 6

The disinfection deception In The Fomite Trap, I offered a simple explanation of what a fomite is – but to recap, a fomite is something on which traces of a virus can be deposited by someone who is infected, later to be picked up by someone else who is uninfected. The fomite trap I was talking about was an A4 plastic sleeve that people had to put their hands inside to retrieve other fomites, such as pens.

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Tales from the pandumbic – part 3

The fomite trap Before delving into this tale, it is important to understand that a ‘fomite’ is an object or surface, onto which a virus can be deposited by one person, and from which it can therefore be picked up by another, who may then go on to become infected if they – perhaps inadvertently – touch their face before washing their hands. And so we come to the fomite trap:

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