Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right.
Quote: Morality
Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right.
All posts by Keith
Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right.
Oddity of the Week: Neutrinos
Look at the nail on your pinky finger: Every second, about 65 billion neutrinos pass through it. Almost all were produced inside the giant nuclear reactor in our sun’s belly.
From: “Strange Effects: The Mystifying History of Neutrino Experiments” at www.wired.com/2012/03/strange-neutrinos-experiments/.
Your Interesting Links
Another selection of links to items you may have missed …
As seems to be becoming tradition, let’s start with Fukushima. Scientific American recently carried an article on a UN report that the meltdown is unlikely to lead to large number of cancers.
According to the Guardian some researchers are saying the Black Death was not transmitted by rat fleas. Excellent demolition job by by the Brooke Borel.
Going back a few centuries, Alasdair Wilkins asks “Was Robert Hooke really the greatest asshole in the history of science?” Answer, yes he probably was, but he was still a great scientist.
Some amusing illustrations of the Gluteal Crease. Yes, that’s where the butt crack begins.
OMG, scientists cannot leave the (alleged) mystery of female orgasm alone! Now they’re trying to shed light using ultrasound and wet tampons. Duh!
Next up two absurd creatures; and both are fish. First the tripod fish. Second the oarfish which like a lizard can shed it’s tail to escape.
And here’s another rather pretty oddity: MRI scans of fruit.
Moving away from science, apparently Islamic law to be enshrined in British law as solicitors get guidelines on ‘Sharia compliant’ wills. This is wrong on so many levels.
The Atlas of Prejudice has 20 interesting ways to view Europe.
Now to an interesting perspective on the depiction of nudity and naturism.
Asp milk or ass milk? No not that kind of ass milk!
A couple of scientists have compared every major diet and found that they’re all more-or-less bunkum. But the winner was … real food! Well who would’ve guessed?
Meanwhile some other researchers reckon that the bergamot in Earl Grey Tea is actually protective against heart disease. That shouldn’t be a surprise as it is known to block statins (which is why anyone taking statins is told not to eat grapefruit) because it binds to the same receptors. Duh! Again!
And here’s something else which is actually good for you … hops. Yes, that staple of brewers, Humulus lupulus.
And now to things historic … Here’s part 4 in the series by a London cabbie on Waterloo Station: the London Necropolis Railway.
Going east, here’s an article on the normality of the sacred and sensuous in Indian art.
I find it slightly astonishing (though I guess I shouldn’t) that the Tibetans have long has a pattern book for drawing and sculpting representations of the Buddha.
Returning to Europe, here’s another medieval manuscript containing cat paw prints.
And finally, few of us have time to read all of Shakespeare’s plays. Now there’s a “get out of jail free” card: every Shakespeare play reduced to just three panels. Brilliant!
Weekly Photograph
Nothing very exciting by way of photograph this week, just a patch of Common Liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha which I found several years ago growing among the street paving in Pinner. It was around 150mm across so had clearly been there for quite some while. It is showing a good crop of gemmae cups (which can release new offshoots when hit by raindrops) and just an odd sexual body (top right but you’ll need the full sized image to spot it), which from its shape suggests this is probably a male plant.
Common Liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha
Pinner, September 2010
Word: Griffonage
Griffonage
Scribble. Illegible handwriting.
This is an affliction with which I have, according to my father, been blessed from the earliest age — my handwriting always did look like an arthritic spider had crawled out of the inkpot and it is still getting worse!
The derivation is from the French griffonage, griffonner, to write badly or scrawl. The OED records the first documented usage as 1832.
Something for the Weekend
Oddity of the Week: Penis Shaving
At the end of 2009 … researchers at the University of California published a paper describing a method of shaving fruit-fly penises with a laser. Not only could they shave off the bristles, but they could even perform the task with such accuracy that only the top third of each bristle was trimmed.
From: William Hartston, The Things that Nobody Knows: 501 Mysteries of Life, the Universe and Everything
Laptop to Go
I may have spent a chunk of my working life project managing logistics projects, but global logistics still boggle my mind.
Recently I bought a new laptop. For various reasons, one being I wanted a slightly non-standard hardware configuration, I ordered direct from the manufacturer. In doing so I knew that the machine would be shipped direct to me from China, because like most things these days that’s where they’re manufactured.
When it was eventually despatched it was trusted to the care of UPS, and slightly to my astonishment (especially given the relative lack of protective packaging) it actually arrived in one piece. Thanks to the wonders of trackable packages I was able to watch the somewhat byzantine route the laptop took to get to me. It went like this (all times are local time):
| Thursday (day 1); late evening | Ready for collection from Hefei, China |
| Wednesday; evening | Collected by UPS (And they call this is expedited delivery!) |
| Thursday (day 8); very early morning | Leaves Shanghai on route to … |
| Thursday; early morning | Arrival at Incheon, South Korea (Oh, its going east so will come via LA or JFK. Not a bit of it.) |
| Thursday midday | Leave Incheon bound for … |
| Thursday, early morning | I don’t believe it! … Almaty, Kazakhstan, where it eventually clears customs in mid afternoon |
| Thursday; early evening | Departs Almay on its way to … |
| Thursday early evening | Warsaw, Poland |
| Thursday; mid-evening | And we’re away from Warsaw on the next leg to … |
| Thursday; late evening | Cologne, Germany |
| Friday; not much after midnight | Leaving Cologne bound for … |
| Friday; before dawn | Stansted (At last we’ve arrived in the UK, but, phew, we need a little rest now!) |
| Monday; before dawn | Leaving Stansted going to … |
| Monday; 17 minutes after leaving Stansted | Feltham, near Heathrow (How in 17 minutes unless it’s on a helicopter?) |
| Monday; within minutes of arrival | Leaving Feltham on the final leg to me |
| Monday; midday | Finally delivered to my door! |
That’s 12 elapsed days and countless thousands of miles in eight hops through some very unlikely places.
At each step along the way I was having a little guess as to where it would go next, and it’s safe to say I got every one wrong except the last stop in Feltham — and that only because I know it’s where my local UPS depot is!
I’m disappointed they didn’t manage to work in Kuala Lumpur, Osaka and Barcelona along the way!
Weekly Photograph
This week’s photograph was taken some years ago at Lyme Regis. All along the seafront promenade there are these delightful lamp standards based on ammonites in recognition of the Jurassic Coast. They are unusual, well designed and a rather nice touch. Oh and they are almost always adorned with seagulls.
Lamp 2 (with Seagull)
Lyme Regis; July 2006
Quotes
Another in our series of interesting, thought-provoking or humorous quotes recently encountered.
Look in the mirror and don’t be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival.
Stephen Jay Gould
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
Cecil Beaton
In a democracy it is necessary that people should learn to endure having their sentiments outraged.
Bertrand Russell in a letter to the Times, 1940
Selecting your foie gras is much easier if it has already been removed from its original owner.
Elisabeth Luard, The Old World Kitchen
So, Madonna has armpits. She also has products to sell. Let’s just get this out of the way. Even if that armpit picture was timed to coincide with the release of her new advert, even if that was the case — that is besides the point. The point is, why is it, that still, in 2014, despite woman’s hour and twitter and feminist pop songs, a woman with body hair will get so much attention? Whether that attention comes in the form of a snigger on the street or axe-grinders like me writing articles about it. Why does it remain one of the unshakable truths of the universe, that if a woman makes the choice not to shave what her mama gave her, the human race, capable of designing video games, and building really tall buildings, and writing love letters, starts hyperventilating and cursing and spitting at the sight of any hair below the eyebrows of a woman. What the hell is wrong with people?
Aisha Mirza; “We should celebrate Madonna’s hairy armpit selfie”; Independent; 21 March 2014
There are quite a lot of people who don’t wear make up. Mostly they’re called men.
Aisha Mirza; “We should celebrate Madonna’s hairy armpit selfie”; Independent; 21 March 2014
Do not be afraid to speak openly and confidently about naturism. Most people, even if surprised, settle down and are surprisingly OPEN. If you are confident, and represent naturism as the healthy normal and fun activity it is, they will resonate with the same openness. If you are tentative, shy, fearful, or appear embarrassed they will not accept naturism. It’s funny, because as a farmer and horse owner, I can tell you it is the same with your livestock. If you ride your horse with fear the horse is fearful and spooky. If you ride with confidence the horse learns to trust you and is confident in response to your cues.
youngnaturistsamerica.com/naked-advertising-northeast-naturist-festival/
Sometimes I’m terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants. The way it stops and starts.
Edgar Allan Poe
You have to define a pigeon before you can pigeon-hole it.
Prof Alice Roberts
The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
Jean-Paul Sartre
It is a common observation that creative people are often disrespectful of authority, unconventional and politically radical. That is because they are strategic and impertinent enough to think things out for themselves. They are independent thinkers.
Geoffrey Petty
The human body can remain nude and uncovered and preserve its splendour and its beauty.
Pope John Paul II
When the batteries in my vibrator die, I take the ones from our remote and put my dead ones in the remote.
From Postsecret
Remember that testicles, earlobes, labia, and eyelids are delicate. If you’re going to yank, bite, pull, or abuse any of these body parts with a fork, proceed with caution and talk about it first.
Stoya; “10 Mind Blowing Sex Tips” at thenewinquiry.com/features/10-mind-blowing-sex-tips/