Sinbad the sailor

We very much enjoyed taking Alex and Ellen to see the pantomime Sinbad the sailor at Whitby. This was by the Whitby amateur players and was in a very traditional style. It was a refreshing change from the hackneyed plots of Cinderella and the like. I very much approve of the old fashioned principal boy as a girl and a man playing the comic dame.  The plot had two villains Evilina the bad witch and the Old Man of the Sea. Evilina appeared throughout to be a satisfactory target for hissing and booing. The Old Man of the Sea featured in an underwater scene and provided the” behind you” scene. There was a lot of play on Sinbad’s name with Tinbad the tailor as one of the comic characters and Ginbad the gaoler and Winbad the whaler making appearances.

They had a very imaginative underwater scene where ultraviolet light was used to illuminate giant fish and ship wrecks while keeping the manipulators invisible. This was used for the joke of a shark swallowing a frog and emitting a loud burp. The frog looked an awful lot like Kermit and led the shark on a merry chase.

There were all the usual local references which largely went over our head. However it was obvious that local rivalry with Scarborough featured. The one unusual item of audience participation was in “What shall we do with the drunken sailor” when on the chorus “Hooray and up she rises” we were encouraged to fling our arms up in the air. We had excellent balcony seats and it was amusing to look down on the stalls. Our seats were rather odd being on the wings of the balcony where a box might be situated in another theatre. Ellen really amused herself looking down on the stalls and the orchestra pit. I say orchestra but there were three, piano, drums and guitar.

The pantomime was staged at Whitby Pavilion. This is an old style cinema and theatre combined  with a large new wing with two giant exhibition or event rooms. The pavilion has a unique situation being at the bottom of the cliff by the edge of the sea. To drive past on West Cliff the Pavilion is almost invisible with only glimpses of the roof. There is a vehicle approach which loops down and also a pedestrian approach by steps and footpath. Because of the slope of the ground the new portion is at two levels perhaps a smaller third level above. Between the theatre and the new exhibition halls is snack bar. We sometimes visit to sit and watch the waves.

The exhibition halls have a very wide variety of events. The forthcoming Steampunk weekend will exhibit probably in both. We watched Alex who participated in a local youth event last year. He was playing the trumpet We have been to arts and crafts displays and various other events. In general in Whitby the Pavilion is “where its at”. Having said that we have  found there is another lecture theatre elsewhere while the Whitby museum is also a venue for talks. The problem is that Whitby is generally too small to justify com which commercial cinema but generates  a large tourist audience particularly in the summer season.

Last year we visited the Steampunk exhibition and sales stalls. It was a fascinating view of how some people spend their time. Quite a few took it very seriously having costumes reflecting Steampunk interests. This is a little difficult to define but seems to reflect the Victorian era and the US West of the same time. One common feature are goggles around the hat.

He who beats his sword into a plowshare often ends up plowing for those who kept their swords.

Evolution

The great scientist Charles Darwin is credited with introducing the idea of evolution although really others were having similar ideas around the same time. However it was Darwin who collected the evidence and wrote the book on evolution by natural selection. The mechanism of evolution is essentially simple. Living things collect changes by mutation ie random changes caused by things like natural radiation on the recipe or the DNA of the species. Most of these changes are either inconsequential or for the worse. Some enable the organism to better suit its environment. This change then enables the organism to reproduce better than its confreres and it will gradually become more common in the population. We can say it has evolved to become better fitted to its environment

It is important to realise that fitness in this context means better adjusted to its environment. Almost all advanced organisms reproduce sexually so fitness may mean nothing more than being slightly more likely to attract a mate. For example if women were preferentially attracted to red haired men then one would expect the population of red haired men to proportionally increase. This points to an important factor- the trait must heritable such that red haired men were more likely to have red haired children.

I’ve often thought that one problem with the general view of evolution is that it is called the “theory of evolution”. In some eyes this implies it is just an idea which may also be accompanied by other different ideas. This is not so. Evolution has a mass of evidence in its support while alternatives such as those advanced by creationists have no supporting evidence at all. There is a common misunderstanding about the status of scientific theories. There are those who say that because any theory is liable to change in the light of new evidence then why believe any theory at all. Any new scientific  theory has to incorporate within itself all the evidence accumulated for the old. Thus relativity incorporates Newtons Laws of Motion but also extends them to new circumstances such as velocities approaching light speed.

I have said above that to take part in evolution changes must be inherited by succeeding generations . For example if by reason of type of work someone develops a hunched back through carrying sacks on their backs their children will not show the same characteristic.

This facet of evolution has historically led to some interesting views. For a long time Russian communists insisted that children could inherit characteristics acquired by their parents during their parents life. This was known as Lamarckist inheritance as opposed the Mendelian as in the common view. This suited the communist political view that evolution could be directed by training or will. Serious scientists always maintained this was a fallacy.

However there is some tantalising evidence that Lamarckist inheritance is just possible in limited and particular circumstance. One reason for listening closely to this suggestion is that a possible mechanism can be dimly perceived. Inheritance is governed by the bodies code , its DNA, present in every cell. Essentially this code, derived from the parents, determines a lot about the organism ( say a human ) . While the nature vs. nurture debate continues it seems as though some 50% of the characteristics derive from the DNA. However there is some evidence that the DNA code can be expressed in different ways according to simple chemical changes. This evolving science is called epigenetics.

One feature of Darwinian evolution is that its rate depends on the rate of change in the environment. If the environment changes quickly then if variants exist which can offer better fitness then they will quickly come to dominate the population. Bacteria can evolve antibiotic resistance in as few as one hundred generations. If the environment is unchanging then evolution will be slow or zero.

This leads on to the  important feature which is that evolution can only work where there is sufficient diversity in the original population. If no variant exists which meet the environmental change then evolution can only operate very slowly until chance throws up a mutation which can fit and which will soon come to dominate. In contrast if the diversity exists such that say some variants can survive and thrive better at higher temperatures then if temperature rises that organism will evolve such that higher temperature variant comes to dominate the original population.

That brings me to another lesson of evolution which is that it is not directed. There is no ladder of evolution with humans at the top, We are where we are because we fitted our environment better. If the environment changes then if our genetic diversity permits we will evolve with it. There is some evidence that possibly evolution may result in apparent steps backwards. For example Neanderthals actually had a larger brain than humans. On the other hand it may not have been so well connected.

What did the harassed lawyer say? Get off my case

China

China presents the liberal democracies in the West with a problem. It had been hoped that as their economic growth surged to an outstanding extent that this would be accompanied by a more open liberal state. At the very least it was expected that China would gradually accept international norms of behaviour. Sadly this is not the case.

Rather the recent tendency has been for China to indulge in more aggressive behaviour  both domestically and overseas. The aggression in the South China sea where China has fortified and militarised formerly unoccupied islets in pursuit of its claim for control of the area is worrying. Also the West has been weak in allowing Taiwan’s status as an independent state to be submerged in a Chinese claim. The result is that Taiwan’s status is being continually questioned and it risks becoming a country without any diplomatic representation as China’s bullying is effective.

The status of the one country; two governments agreement over Hong Kong is being ignored by China as it clamps down on any form of democracy. Elections within China are barely even a pretence .. Current leader, Xi, has been elevated to president for life.

Within China itself the suppression of minorities such as the Ouigurs looks very ominous with “re-education centres” looking worrying like concentration camps under another name. In the case of Tibet it seems clear that the tactic is to swamp native Tibetans with imported Han Chinese.

China has been very aggressive in its trade policy. Chinese firms are encouraged to buy Western high tech companies and pillage their technology. This even reached a level where it was a condition of trading with China that technology is handed over although this policy is now being downplayed. It isn’t as though Chinese companies are always backward. Huawei is considered to have a lead in mobile phone technology although it is considered a security threat. There is a recommendation from Western security agencies to avoid Huawei equipment.

Because China is such a massive market with 20% of the world’s population there is an insidious effect where companies are ready to compromise principles in order to gain access. An example is Google being willing to modify its search engine to accommodate Chinese susceptibility. The internet is fiercely policed in China so that internet users don’t have access to many sites where the government wants to prevent access. The great Chinese firewall has become notorious while at the same time companies like Alibaba and TenCent have become global internet giants.

All this and much more shows that China under its present regime is totalitarian state. Essentially relative economic freedom is allowed but social and political freedom is severely circumscribed.

The economic progress in China has been absolutely incredible. The country has progressed from a backward but developing country to first rank performance in 40 years. However this economic development hasn’t been accompanied by development towards democratic norms. The question now is to what extent China should be allowed free access to organisations such as the World Trade Organisation when they are blatantly ignoring normal trade rules. Unfortunately the Trump answer is to be an even bigger rule breaker. The moral authority of the USA is being thrown away by Trump .

I’m not at all sure of the answer. I suppose the best policy is cautious engagement. One part of the problem is that the present regime is cleverly playing up a Chinese nationalism and exceptionalism. Clearly we hope that in future China will evolve a more liberal attitude although there is little sign at present- if anything the  regime is becoming more aggressive  

Lawyers are people who can write a ten thousand word document and call it a brief.