Yes, I know that feeling!
Something for the Weekend
All posts by Keith
Talking Sex Ed
As a society, and as individuals, we need to be talking about sex. More specifically we need to be talking sex education with our youngsters.
Emily Nagoski, author of the best selling Come As You Are, has written a short piece (for The Big Issue) on how we are failing to get a grip of sex ed, and what should be changed.
Thanks to my “sex ed”, by the time I got into my first sexual relationship, I had no idea … I didn’t have a damn clue. Nobody I knew had a clue … It’s all very well learning to put a condom on a banana, but it’s not much use if you then don’t know what to do with the banana, or what you want to do with the banana, or even how you feel about the banana in the first place.
Learning to put a condom on a banana — or indeed anything else vaguely banana-shaped — is certainly important, but it isn’t the whole story by a long way. And we need to be addressing the whole story.
You can find Emily’s full article here. Read it. It is important. For you. And for the next generation(s).
Oddity of the Week: Imperial Camel Corps
One of the more unusual of London’s WWI memorials is that to the Imperial Camel Corps in Victoria Embankment Gardens, just along from Embankment tube station, by the Thames.
Raised in December 1916 the Camel Corps was, as one might guess, established for desert warfare. The first men to join the Corps were Australian troops who had recently returned from the horrors of the Gallipoli campaign; they were quickly joined by troops from Britain, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and India.
The Corps fought in many of the Middle East campaigns and at one time numbered 4,150 men and 4,800 camels. Thanks to the camels the soldiers could travel long distances across remote desert terrain, carrying machine guns, mountain artillery and medical support. 346 troops from the Imperial Camel Corps lost their lives during WWI.
The small memorial was sculpted by Major Cecil Brown who had himself served with the Corps; it was unveiled in July 1921 in the presence of the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand.
From: WWI 100: London’s Memorials … The Imperial Camel Corps
Word: Panacea
Panacea
A remedy, cure, or medicine reputed to heal all diseases; a catholicon or universal remedy.
From the Greek (via Latin) παν + ἀκἐομαι, everything + to heal or to cure.
The OED says the first recorded usage in English was in 1548.
Weekly Photograph
So there I was in Uxbridge a few weeks ago, sitting waiting people watching while for Noreen to emerge from M&S, when these three beauties happened along. They seemed to be about to enact Act 1, Scene 1 of Macbeth.
Macbeth Act 1, Scene 1 in Modern Dress
Uxbridge, March 2015
Click on the image for larger views on Flickr
April Auction Oddments
Yet another round of the curious and the mad from our local auction house’s latest catalogue. Strange things and eccentric juxtapositions.
Interesting items including two pewter miniature boxes, an ambrotype, a Stratton floral compact, a Trinity College membership card, two walking stick handles, one with a silver mount, a miniature mirror, a miniature Bible, old bone-handled miniature brushes, one stamped Savory & Moore, a dried seahorse, a watch movement, a seal, pencil sharpener, etc.
Presumably the seal was after the seahorse as a light snack?
An interesting lot including a pair of spurs, an old burr wood snuff box, a pocket watch, cigarette case, AA badge, a crop, cigarette holder in carrying case, whisky flask, watches, costume jewellery, etc., and a leather notepad with silver corners
18 lead soldier musicians and 10 First World War lead soldiers, tanks, etc., and two small iron shoe lasts
A box of decorative crucifixes
A portrait miniature of a lady in a white cap and high-waisted blue dress, English School, c.1815, a miniature watercolour portrait sketch of a lady, English School, c.1825, a small bronzed silhouette of a young man, English School, early 19th century, all in black papier-mache frames, and an old photograph of a gentleman in a folding leather travelling case
Very small man, or good escapologist, if he fits in a folding travelling case!
A good quantity of interesting items including a large fish jaw with sharp teeth, a swagger stick with silver plated knop, a decorative brass clock, an oak desk inkstand with brass inkwells, 3 vintage fountain pens including Parker, a heavy figurine of the obelisk, 19th Century wooden gavel, a small quantity of Mappin & Webb silver plated cutlery, goblet on stand and a Balinese wooden Fo dog
A quantity of vintage wooden shoe horns and cobblers lasts
A pair of spelter gilt decorated table lamps in an organic style plus a pair of similar column candlesticks in the form of classical maidens on three decorative feet
I wonder when classical maidens evolved out their third foot?
A quantity of interesting items including a vintage top hat by GA Dunn & Co London, a boater by the York Hat Co, a quantity of kids toys to include a large doll, clown puppet, guitars, model soldiers, a drum by Peak Frean and a quantity of ornaments to include Bisson, tigers and a toy bird in cage, pearly king jacket, quantity of linen, etc.
A green leather vanity case by Mappin & Webb … two 19th Century heavy adjustable lamp bases on hairy feet, a cased Imperial typewriter …
A quantity of old medical syringes, a vintage Halford car horn, brass ceiling mounts, a cased set of butter knives, wooden frame, humorous oriental recumbent man, a leather and glass hip flask with silver plated lid etc.
A decorative sword, a Sony carl Zeiss handycam, an old violin, a brass and glass ceiling light and a decorative moon wall plaque
Two incomplete sectional walking sticks, one in specimen woods, the other in horn, antique or vintage, and a plain incomplete stick, possibly a penis bone
An interesting collection of African objects, comprising three carved wood figures, two carved and painted masks, ceremonial knife, fly whisk, wooden jar, goat toe armbands, also a globular box and a pair of ram horns
A vintage rhinoceros foot worked as a plant pot, circa 1900, an old whale tooth and a section of mammoth tusk
Clearly essential for every home!
A good pair of Italian reliquary panels, each with glazed recesses of rolled paper work enclosing named relics within an elaborate cushion frame in carved giltwood and cut paper, together with a small needlework reliquary panel, all probably early 18th century, together with a later reliquary and a carved wood portrait panel of a pope
An old Australian Aborigine boomerang, one surface carved overall with a wave pattern and with possible seaweed motifs at the ends, 66.5cms, and a club, possibly for throwing, with reeded finish and roughened end, 70cms
A miscellaneous collections of exotic items, Middle and Far Eastern, Indian, Maori, etc., comprising seven carved wood masks, a wooden figure, perched stone bird, Indonesian puppet, and six other items
An old waist and wrist manacle in leather and steel
Exactly what you need for your dungeon.
6 old irons, one possibly Tudor period, others 19th century ready for the coal to be added
I’m not very convinced the Tudors had smoothing irons!
A quantity of new sinks including a large kitchen sink, shower tray and bathroom sink
I think my brain hurts!
Five Questions, Series 7 #4
At last we come to finding an answer to Question 4 of my Five Questions. I have delayed a little, well procrastinated really, because I am a bit at a loss as to how to answer the question. It’s difficult!
Question 4: Does thought require language?
This is my, fairly unrefined, thinking on the question. I have no idea if scientists and philosophers agree with me or not; that isn’t the point.
Let us assume first that we humans have language and are capable of thought, by which I mean contemplating something which is outside out immediate senses — say a sunny beach while we’re commuting on the London Underground — or something abstract — say a question like “Does thought require language?”
Now it is certainly true that we do think in language. So the main question is, can we think without the use of language?
It is also true that how we think and perceive the world depends on our language and vice versa. For instance many hunter-gatherer languages have no concept of numbers greater than two — their counting system, if they even have one, goes “One, Two, Many” — they have just never needed to count as they don’t engage in commerce.
So our world view, our language system, and hence one would think our thought processes are intimately entwined. But again the question is can (could) we think without using language?
Next we need to ask “What is language?”. Does language include visual representation (pictures in the mind’s eye)? Or juxtapositions of coloured shapes which have word meanings, as a synesthete might have? Does language include the chirrups my cat uses to (try to) communicate with me? Or even musical ideas heard in the brain, as I suspect many composers have?
Do composers think in sound sequences? Do artists think is colour swatches? Can chefs think in tastes? And if so, do these constitute language? Perhaps they do. Maybe language isn’t just words.
And how do babies think, before they have learnt to speak; before they have acqured language? They aren’t just dumb automata, as any parent will tell you!
All pet owners will know that cats and dogs also give the impression of thinking, of working things out. As do squirrels when presented by a challenge to get at some nutritious nuts. Do they do this contemplation in meows, barks and squeaks? Or maybe in images? Or smell? Or maybe they too have some sort of synaesthesia to help them?
It seems to me unlikely that a squirrel can plot a path to its nuts without some form of “visualisation”, even if that is looking at the tree branches and considering whether it can jump a particular gap. It may not do this consciously, but in some way it would appear to be using some, at least rudimentary, method of mental discovery and abstract conceptualisation. And this could, very loosely, be called language. But of course we may never be able to understand exactly what the squirrel’s processes are. Or those of our cats and dogs. Or indeed those of our pre-linguistic babies.
To me it seems intuitive that thought cannot happen unless there is some “medium” to convey it. Whether that is words, pictures, musical sequences, dog barks or dolphin squeaks doesn’t really matter. In a sense they are all language. And while many animals will react instinctively to some stimuli (male moths blindly following the pheromones to a female which turns out to be an insect trap) it would appear logical that animals are incapable of abstract, constructive, thought without their particular language.
So ultimately I think, yes, thought does require language of some form.
Something for the Weekend
I can identify with that …
Quote: Different
Your Interesting Links
There is a huge selection of links in this issue, because basically this is month’s worth rather than the usual 2-or-so weeks. So let’s get going with the tough stuff first, as usual …
For those who aren’t scientists, here’s a rough guide on how scientists grade evidence to decide the robustness of their discoveries. [PDF]
This animated GIF shows, diagrammatically, the gestation of a human baby from conception to birth.
Allegedly old people smell different — not necessarily bad, just different. And yes, this does seem to be a thing because scientists have worked out the probably chemical cause.
Janet Vaughan, who changed our relationship with blood was “a very naughty little girl” at least according to the misogynist opinion of the day. [Long read]
From humans, now, to animals … Tardigrades are so tough it defies belief. [Long read]
Here’s a menagerie of medically useful, but venomous creatures. I can count use of one of these drugs. Can anyone beat that?
Mice. They’re much more common than we think, but here are seven things you didn’t know about Britain’s most common native rodent, the wood mouse.
And while on things we didn’t know, let’s bust a few of the myths about one of our most common crows, the magpie.
Meanwhile other avian predators are interrupting our mobile phone signals. Peregrine falcons are nesting on mobile phone masts, thus preventing maintenance etc. as it is illegal to disturb them. Peregrines 1, Vodafone 0.
Bridging towards history now … a major new study has found that people from specific regions of Britain have tell-tale genetic signatures which show the history of the country. And it isn’t everything you might think!
Here’s the story of London’s dreaded Millbank Penitentiary, which once stood on the site of Tate Britain. [Long read]
And another piece of lost London, the Pneumatic Railway: the world’s second oldest underground. [Long read]
Apparently the name of London, our capital, changed a few weeks ago — and no-one knew.
So to history of our lost colony of America, whose revolution was allegedly fuelled by rum.
Of course talk of the Americas reminds us of the Puritans who founded many of the colonies there. Puritans with bizarre names like What-God-Will Berry and Praise-God Barebone (who gave his name to the Cromwellian “Barebones Parliament”).
Do you ever feel that everything is awful, you’re not OK and you want to give up? If you’re depressive the answer is probably “Yes”. Well here are some questions you should ask before giving up.
Which leads naturally to comfort food … Veronique Greenwood looks at the science behind the perfect chip.
Remaining with food for a moment, here are six things you likely didn’t know about chopsticks.
Our penultimate item is, as seems traditional, on sex. Here are seven reasons why scientists suggest you should have sex daily.
And finally one for the engineers amongst you … this humongous 28.5-litre Fiat S76 has been rebuilt and the engine starts for the first time in 100 years. And here it is actually running. Just see the smoke and the flames!