Something for the Weekend
Monthly Archives: March 2016
Thinking Thursday #6
Here begin the problems to sharpen the young is the beginning of a wonderful text which it is believed was written by the Carolingian scholar Alcuin of York (c.735–804). The work presents over fifty mathematical puzzles many of which remain a challenge even for modern readers. Here is one of the best known, which you may well have come across before:
A man has to take a wolf, a goat and a bunch of cabbages across a river. The only boat available can accommodate just two of them at a time. It is well known that if left alone together the goat would eat the cabbages, and the wolf would eat the goat; but the man has been ordered to transfer all of them to the other side dry and in good condition. How can he achieve this?
As always there’s no prize other than the satisfaction of solving the puzzle — but do feel free to show off by putting your answer in the comments.
Answer on Sunday evening, as usual.
Oh, and no cheating!
Oddity of the Week: Not Taxidermy
Should you be of a mind, it is quite easy to buy examples of taxidermy: just go to a few local auctions and you’ll soon find all manner of creatures in glass cases.
But you can now go one better: Upholstered Faux Taxidermy Heads and Animals.
American artist Kelly Rene Jelinek fabricates life-sized replicas of taxidermied animal heads using fragments of upholstery fabric. The results are surprisingly modern sculptural objects that mimic traditional anatomical mounts.
See more on Colossal.
Your Interesting Links
Another of our monthly round-ups of links to items you may have not wanted to miss the first time round.
Science & Medicine
The Black Death, a strain of bubonic plague, wiped out an estimated 50 million people in Europe during the 14th century. But it didn’t then disappear.
Ever wondered how scientists choose those awful Latin names for species? Here’s the low-down.
We know cats are odd creatures, but apparently cats’ legs are extra weird.
Manx cats have no tail. It’s genetic, see, but that brings other problems along with it.
And yet more on cats … here are a dozen cat myths debunked.
Scientists and medics are beginning to discover (realise?) that our circadian rhythms affect the way drugs work.
Finally in this section, here’s an interview with one of our top science writers, Ed Yong, on being a science journalist.
Sexuality
Sex educator Emily Nagoski (author of Come As You Are) gave a TEDx talk on “Unlocking the Door to Your Authentic Sexual Wellbeing”. Here’s the video, and transcript.
Seems we’re too busy these days to have sex, but two minutes sexual arousal for its own sake can help a lot — apparently.
Environment
Beavers. It seems the ones in Devon are helping fight floods as well as improving the environment.
There’s been a lot of work in recent years on the intelligence of corvids. Now it seems corvids are the key to saving the world’s forests too.
Social Sciences & Business
Parenting — we all know it is tough work. But here are two articles, both from the Guardian, which might help. First “How to raise a brilliant child without screwing them up” and on a similar theme “How to get your kids to 18, sane and not hating you“.
Some thoughts on why we don’t live in a perfectly nude world?
History
Archaeologists are beginning to piece together the lost town of Dunwich which has progressively been reclaimed by the sea over the last 1000 years.
And now for several items on London’s history …
Firstly on the dissolution of London’s monasteries.
And on the two great 17th century diarists, Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn.
In his series on “Unbuilt London” IanVisits looks at the proposed Georgian Houses of Parliament.
There are lots of monsters in London, but they aren’t all scary.
Food & Drink
Why is it that some things we find tasty other cultures find disgusting, and vice versa?
Shock, Horror, Humour
And finally, IanVisits provides an entirely level-headed and rather interesting discourse on the EU referendum without coming down on one side or the other.
Another round next month.