Further links to interesting (well to me, at least) articles you may have missed. Yet again let’s start with the scientific, which unusually(?!) seems to be the majority.
First off we have a piece from the New York Times which again highlights that the biggest public health worry from the Fukushima disaster is not the radiation and cancer but the psychological effects on those involved. This appeared the same day as a piece in Discover about the unexpectedly loose connection between radioactivity and cancer.

Oarfish are curious. They’re long, flat and snake-like. They inhabit the deep oceans and maybe gave rise to the myths about sea serpents. It is unusual therefore for two to be washed ashore in California with days of each other. Luckily scientists went about finding out more about these enigmatic fish. First there was a suggestion that two such sudden deaths may herald a large earthquake, which was soon consigned to the bin of unfounded speculation. Then after a chance to autopsy one of the fish, scientists discovered a range of parasites — not surprising in itself but something we just didn’t know.
While we’re putting you off your lunch, here’s a great piece of science teaching. This guy got his 9 year old pupils to dissect cow brains and used the whole thing as a super teaching tool. I don’t know how he managed to get them over the “Yeuuggghhhh!!” factor.
Still on nasties, you’ll be pleased to know that the scourge of ancient times, Plague, is still amongst us. Of course it’s much less prevalent now, with modern sanitation etc., and very easily treated with antibiotics. Nevertheless there are still a few cases a year in the western world.
And then, of course, there are some fearsome insect predators — maybe not fearsome to us, but they are if you’re another insect.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. One man who turned magic into what we now think of as ordinary was William C Lowe, pioneer of the IBM PC, who died recently. Without him life as we know it would be very different, and many of us owe him a huge debt.
I hate changing the clocks twice a year; it seems so pointless. But it could have been a whole lot worse.
Slang. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s here to stay. Except that it keeps changing and being reinvented.
What are members of Parliament not allowed to do? Yep, they can’t carry weapons or wear armour into Parliament itself. And at 700 years old this is one of the oldest pieces of legislation in the country which has never been repealed.
How happy would you say you are? Why are some people in some places way happier than in others? They aren’t; it’s all an artefact of magnified statistics. Diamond Geezer lifts the lid.

Finally, this will definitely make you much happier. Despite a recent report there is no global wine shortage. Felix Salmon at Reuters discovers that the report was a piece of dubious marketing. I’ll drink to that!