Monthly Archives: March 2016

amusements, science

Oddity of the Week: Tully Monster

Oh, now, come on Evolution! You can’t really create something that looks like this …


Oh, you did!? … Hmmm …
Yes, indeed Evolution did create this beast which looks like an obese foot-long earthworm with a trunk and a spade-shaped tail? And, yes, eyes on the end of it’s handlebars!
It lived 300 million years ago and its fossil was discovered in 1995 by Francis Tully; hence it is known as the Tully Monster or Tullimonstrum gregarium.
However it is only now that scientists are beginning to get to grips with what it really is — a lamprey.
Read more on The Atlantic.

natural history, photography

Weekly Photograph

Sorry, we’ve not had a photograph for a couple of weeks; there’s just been too much going on and I’ve not been doing any photography.
Over Easter weekend I’ve seen a Jackdaw in our garden on two occasions. We’ve been here nearly 35 years and this is a first for our suburban west London garden, although I have once in a while seen the odd jackdaw around. Whether they are just passing through, or whether there is a colony establishing somewhere near-ish, I have no idea; although as an area we don’t have any significant number of jackdaw-friendly buildings/chimneys for nesting. These aren’t brilliant photos — they’re grab shots taken with my point-and-shoot through the study window — but (at least for me) they are an interesting record.

Jackdaw
Jackdaw
This chappie flew off with his contraband, hotly pursued by the local crows.
Jackdaw
Click the images for larger views on Flickr

current affairs

Rightly Measured (2)

Following up his Tuesday piece in the Guardian (mentioned here) Simon Jenkins yesterday expanded on his reactions and why current reportage, reaction and policy is so dangerous. As he says in

The scariest thing about Brussels is our reaction to it

our current reactions serve only to act as recruiting sergeants for Isis.
Moreover compare the current paranoia with:

During the more dangerous and consistent IRA bombing campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s, Labour and Conservative governments insisted on treating terrorism as criminal, not political. They relied on the police and security services to guard against a threat that could never be eliminated, only diminished. On the whole it worked, and without undue harm to civil liberties.

All in all I find this rather worrying.

current affairs

Rightly Measured

Simon Jenkins, writing for the Guardian website has a properly measured response to yesterday’s horrific events in Brussels: Our response to the Brussels bombings requires patience and restraint.

amusements, natural history, science

Oddity of the Week: Wombat Shit

The wombat is a large, solitary and nocturnal relative of the koala, native to Australia. It has poor eyesight but an excellent sense of smell, which is its main navigation aid.


It also has a very strange ability under its belt: its shit comes out in cubes. Yep, unlike other animals which produce cylinders (eg. dogs), pleets (eg. rabbits) or splats (eg. cows) the wombat’s turds really are cube-shaped.

Why? Well it seems it is all down to the physiology and motility of their large intestines. But it turns out it is also a useful attribute to have.
Find the full story over on The Conversation.

current affairs, food+drink

Sweet and Sour

As one might expect, Christopher Snowdon (he who has taken the new alcohol guidelines apart) writing over on City AM is not at all impressed by George Osborne’s new tax on sugar.
It’s a money spinner; no more, no less — at least according to Snowdon. For my money, if we really want a tax on sugar to reduce consumption as well as raise revenue, Osborne has missed several tricks:

  • tax all forms of sugar in all products
  • tax all sweeteners (natural and artificial) including honey and stevia (on the basis that they encourage a liking for extra sweetness)
  • make the tax a sliding scale, starting at something small for less than (say) 1g per litre or kilo, rising to something draconian (20%, 25%) for over 10g per litre or kilo
  • make it a consumer tax (like tobacco duty) rather than a levy on the producers

That would hopefully affect all consumers, relatively equitably. It would encourage people to buy less-sweetened products (without having to give up sweetness completely). And encourage producers to reduce sweetener content with substantial price advantages, and hence hopefully higher sales/greater market share.

amusements, food+drink

Oddity of the Week: Edible Spoons

Anatoliy Omelchenko of Triangle Tree has designed the Edible Spoon Maker.
It works on the toasted sandwich maker principle and allows you to bake your own edible spoons from either home-made or ready prepared dough in only a few minutes.
In this video Omelchenko demonstrates the device using ready-made biscuit dough:

Find out more over one Triangle Tree.