recently, in or near London

Mostly in Kew Gardens or Hampstead Heath.

walked yesterday at Great Meadows

Here are a few photos:

Turtle, Mound (nest), Snake (look closely), Frog, and can anyone tell us if those are Grebes in the last picture?   [Update: Thanks to an alert commenter those aren't Grebes, but are American Coots.  Here is the Wikipedia entry to further confirm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Coot - Thanks AlanB]

why progress is hard

This insightful blog post by Julian Sanchez  demonstrates, here in the context of climate change debates, why making ratonal progress in the public sphere can be so hard.

see: http://www.juliansanchez.com/2009/04/06/climate-change-and-argumentative-fallacies/

Money snippet:

Actually, I have a possible advantage here as a peddler of horseshit: I need only worry about what sounds plausible. If my opponent is trying to explain what’s true, he may be constrained to introduce concepts that take a while to explain and are hard to follow, trying the patience (and perhaps wounding the ego) of the audience.

challenges

found this (more or less) on the web:

"View all problems as challenges.
Look upon negativities that arise as opportunities to learn and to grow.
Don't run from them, condemn yourself, or bury your burden in saintly silence.
You have a problem? Great.
More grist for the mill. Rejoice, dive in, and investigate."