One of the things I have just not got to do over the last few weeks is to keep everyone updated with interesting snippets. But I have continued to collect items for your delectation. So here is our occasional round-up of links to things you may have missed.
First of all let’s return to an old subject: Fukushima … There was a scare story a few weeks back that babies in the Pacific NW USA are dying due to radioactivity from the Fukushima disaster. Except that it was just that: scaremongering. If the data is analysed correctly there is no problem at all.
However Fukushima does have a problem with radioactive water which is leaking from the storage tanks. As usual the whole think appears to be being badly handled and badly communicated.

While on pollution … Lime trees are often accused of dropping gunk onto cars. Well at least the aphids feeding on non-native species do. But here’s something on the English lime tree (above), which is at the northern edge of its range but is doing well because of the exceptionally warm summer.
Over in Colombia and Ecuador they’ve discovered a new mammal species, the Olinguito, a type of raccoon. It has been hiding in plain sight as a museum specimen, but is still alive and well in the wild.
Back in the USA, scientists in California recently had the opportunity to necropsy a freshly dead fin whale. Here’s a photo-essay on how you do it (and no, it isn’t that gory).
As the whale was still alive when found, it’s a shame the scientists couldn’t take their EEG machines along. Apparently scientists have discovered signs of heightened consciousness in the brain just after physiological death — in rats.

So from the scary to the scary … Men in Sweden were warned to keep their bathing trunks on in the sea after a testicle-eating pacu fish (above) was found in the strait between Sweden and Denmark. Except, of course, that it was all bollocks. First off pacu (cousins of piranha) are South American tropical freshwater fish so wouldn’t survive long in a cold northern sea. Secondly they are fruit and seed eaters, not human nut eaters. And anyway the testicle-eating comment from the scientist was a joke which was, as usual, misinterpreted. Pacu do get big and scary though and a large specimen would certainly be capable of giving you a very nasty nip.
But here’s what you do if you do get bitten/stung by something in the sea. And, no, peeing on it doesn’t work!
And here’s something you girls shouldn’t do … According to a lady American economist most of what you’re told to eat/not eat during pregnancy is myth with little if any scientific basis.
Meanwhile there is a growing swell of opinion that atheist extraordinaire Richard Dawkins is as much a bigot as any believer and is actually doing a great disservice to atheism. Must say I have long thought this.
And now let’s turn to the historic …

Archaeologists in Poole, Dorset are recovering a mid-17th century shipwreck just off the coast and trying to find out about the ship involved. They have some amazingly well preserved finds, including an enormous moustachioed head (above).
Near our own time, who remembers Lamson Tubes? Pneumatic tubes to send stuff like mail (below) around was all the rage at one time especially in America, but also in the UK. They even sent a bewildered cat through the mail in one as a test. We shouldn’t be surprised because such a system was once seriously suggested as a propulsion system for the London underground!

Back in the far distant past we learnt to cook by trial and error. But it seems that haute cuisine is earlier than we thought as archaeologists have now found the remains of a spicy herb in 6000 year old pots from northern Germany and Denmark.
Now right up to date … What’s the biggest threat to London? Yep: flooding. Diamond Geezer takes an interesting look at London’s contingency planning.
Meanwhile some guy has spent 49 years working out whet each every London Underground station tastes like. The poor chap has lexical-gustatory synaesthesia, where words trigger tastes in his brain. The tastes range from the rather nice (cauliflower cheese) through the bizarre (fuzzy felt & ketchup, anyone?) to the frankly nauseating (putrid meat). I can’t work out whether I was better off living at Diced Swede or Soft Black Wine Gum and Potato!
And so from the tasty to the (perhaps) tasteless …
It seems we British are more open about having it off, as long as we aren’t cheating.
And it seems that science nerdy girls want sex with stimulating and interesting partners (who may also be science nerds).
And finally two items on having hair. Whether you’re male or female there’s nothing wrong with having hairy bits, nor with shaving them, as long as the latter doesn’t give you shaving rash. Ouchy!