history, links, medical, natural history, nudism, photography, science

Monthly Links

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You really didn’t want to have missed these items …

Science, Technology, Natural World

The latest estimates are that Earth is home to around 20 million species of insect – that’s way more than was previously thought. [££££]

It’s interesting how non-native parrots thrive in cities – and largely don’t compete with native species. [LONG READ]

London’s Kew Gardens has digitised its 7 million plant specimens. [££££]

Here are some surprising facts about aquatic flora, including that seaweeds are not plants!

So what is it that makes about 10% of people left-handed?

Venezuela recently suffered a double earthquake, but why did so many buildings collapse?

Trust the Swiss! They’re pioneering putting solar panels between railway tracks as another way to generate electricity without using too much land for solar panels.

Now away from Earth … astronomers have detected “raspberry sugar” in a dust cloud in our Milky Way galaxy.

Health, Medicine

Drug chemist Derek Lowe looks at the very high failure rate of new drug candidates over the last 50-60 years.

I bet you didn’t know that hospitals routinely use antimatter! [LONG READ]

One academic writes about what it is like inside the UK’s top secret chemical weapons laboratory at Porton Down. [LONG READ]

There’s a new catalogue of viruses revealing which pose the greatest threats.

So now for some real, and scary, surgery: Irish surgeons have been able to remove a brain tumour through an eyelid!

Sexuality & Relationships

OK, boys, understand this … your ejaculate is not a waste product

Is it acceptable to state a preference over your partner’s pubic hair?

Art, Literature, Language, Music

Here’s an article on iconic and revolutionary Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki (above).

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Archaeologists have at last managed to decipher 4000-year-old Linear Elamite from ancient Iran.

Back at home in the UK, archaeologists continue to rewrite what we thought we knew about Stonehenge.

An entire Byzantine town has been found in Egypt’s Western Desert

Back at home again, medieval football could end up getting you killed.

And now the story of the 17th-century siege of Basing House. [LONG READ]

London

And at last we journey to London to hear the story of Westminster Cathedral. [LONG READ]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Here’ are some thoughts about the human body and why for some naturism feels right.

And then here are some thoughts on sleeping naked. [LONG READ]

And finally I’ll leave you with a look at some of the world’s strangest nude traditions.

quotes

Monthly Collected Quotes

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And so it came to pass that we reached the appointed date for the delivery of this month’s (fairly short) collection of quotes.

I don’t know how to save the world. I don’t have the answer. I hold no secret knowledge, as to how to fix the mistakes of generations past and present. I only know that without compassion and respect for all of Earth’s inhabitants, none of us will survive – nor will we deserve to.
[Leonard Peltier]

Our world is not divided by race, colour, gender or religion. Our world is divided into wise people and fools. And fools divide themselves by race, colour, gender or religion.
[Nelson Mandela]

The natural sole purpose of beauty is to admire it.
[John Ruskin]

Having a calm and compassionate mind enables us to use our natural intelligence more effectively.
[Dalai Lama]

It’s absurd that common sense has become so uncommon.
Sleep at night.
Eat real foods (enough to offset your energy needs).
Don’t starve yourself.
Move your body, sometimes hard.
Don’t drink too much.
Don’t smoke or vape.
Connect with other people, in person.
Spend time outdoors.
[Brad Stulberg]

Personally I have never been to a lap dancing club and have no intention of going, but it annoys me intensely that Councils seem to see it as their divine right to stick their noses into such things.
If there are men who are silly enough to want to waste all their money in such places and women who are happy to earn quite substantial money by jiggling their lady bits at a bunch of drunken half-wits, then where is the harm?
I know, objectifies women blah, blah, blah, promotes an unhealthy view of women amongst men blah, blah, blah, but that’s just nonsense.
Our entire society objectifies women, so it’s a bit hard to just pick on these clubs, and these chaps have probably always had an emotionally stunted outlook, and the clubs are unlikely to change that much.
[Rudi Gunn; http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/apr/21/lap-dancing-clubs-human-rights]

The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes, in seeing the universe with the eyes of another, of hundreds of others, in seeing the hundreds of universes that each of them sees.
[Marcel Proust]

history

July Quiz Answers

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Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

General History

  1. In what year did the Battle of Waterloo occur? 1815
  2. Which ancient civilization built the city of Machu Picchu? Inca
  3. Which famous historical document begins with the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident”? The Declaration of Independence
  4. The Aztecs even used cocoa beans as what? Currency
  5. In what year did the Berlin Wall fall? 1989
  6. What event marked the beginning of World War I? The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2025.

books, quotes

This Month’s Poem

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Ariel’s Song From The Tempest (Act 5, Scene 1)
William Shakespeare

Where the bee sucks there suck I:
In a cowslips bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry,
On the bat’s back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Find this poem online at Shakespeare Network

history, memes

July Quiz Questions

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Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month.
As always, they’re designed to be tricky but not impossible, so it’s unlikely everyone will know all the answers – just have a bit of fun.

General History

  1. In what year did the Battle of Waterloo occur?
  2. Which ancient civilization built the city of Machu Picchu?
  3. Which famous historical document begins with the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident”?
  4. The Aztecs even used cocoa beans as what?
  5. In what year did the Berlin Wall fall?
  6. What event marked the beginning of World War I?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history

July 1926

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Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

1. Birth. Hans Werner Henze, German composer (d.2012)

9. In Portugal, General Óscar Carmona takes power in a military coup.

10. A bolt of lightning strikes Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey; the resulting fire causes several million pounds of explosives to blow up in the next 2-3 days.

Picatinny