OK, guys and gals, here’s another round of links to articles you may have missed — and it contains all sorts of weird and interesting stuff. As usual we’ll start with the more scientific and end up with, I hope, something a bit easier.
All vertebrates have single eyes as we do. But most insects have compound eyes and they work in a rather different way to our vertebrate eyes.
We probably all know by now that our guts are host to many different microbes. But so are most other parts of our bodies. So girls, here’s a look at what lives in your vagina. And no, I don’t imagine that male parts are too much different!
And while we’re on the subject, here are 10 things you maybe didn’t know about vaginas.
So just how does one link from there to Neanderthals? Oh, right this is how! It is being suggested that hunting with wolves helped humans outsmart the Neanderthals. Which would mean we were beginning to domesticate canines a lot earlier than previously thought.
But by then the Neanderthals were turning eagle talons into jewellery (right) — that’s only some 130,000 years ago.
It seems my scepticism in the last set of links was well founded because apparently the research was NOT showing that gerbils were to blame for the plague; it was badly interpreted by journalists.
Good news for the gerbils, but it seems there’s bad news for the Celts. Apparently research on Britons’ DNA is demonstrating that the Celts are not a single genetic group.
From Celts to computer programmers … here are nine truths computer programmers know that most people don’t have a clue about.
And here are five languages which could change the way you view the world.
And continuing our recurrent theme on nudism, here’s a piece on the benefits of social nudity, especially stress reduction. (Long read)
On the other hand what could be better at reducing stress than the perfect gin & tonic?
Which actually brings us on to things historical … First off here’s a piece on the rivers of London from artist and cartographer Stephen Walter’s forthcoming book The Island: London Mapped.
Second up the history of something familiar to all Londoners, and much overlooked: the London Plane Tree.
And yet still on the history of London, here is a piece on the Elizabethan Theatre in London.
Finally something we hope doesn’t happen for many years … a look at what might happen when the Queen dies. It could be the most disruptive event in the last 70 years, but I suspect it is all a bit more planned than this article implies.
That’s all, Folks!