All posts by Keith

I’m a controversialist and catalyst, quietly enabling others to develop by providing different ideas and views of the world. Born in London in the early 1950s and initially trained as a research chemist I retired as a senior project manager after 35 years in the IT industry. Retirement is about community give-back and finding some equilibrium. Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Anthony Powell Society. Chairman of my GP's patient group.
arts, environment, history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

Once more unto the monthly links round up, and we’ve got a goodly collection this month.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Breaking my rule not to blog about Covid-19, but it seems it is all too easy to fake lateral flow tests.

Let’s go into the weird world of the workings of smell receptors. [LONG READ]

While on smell, here’s an item which looks at normal personal body odour and it’s effects on relationships.

Cats are inscrutable and mysterious creatures, but what do they really get up to when we’re not looking.

Health, Medicine

Oh dear, here’s another item on Covid-19 that’s crept in under the radar: how were the Covid-19 vaccines made so quickly without cutting corners?

Scientists are now beginning to unlock the effects of our “gut microbiome” on our health. [LONG READ]

Also on a food theme, it seems that eating milk chocolate in the morning has a beneficial effect on fat metabolism, although it is no better for the waistline.

Medics are suggesting that much common treatment for endometriosis is actually making things worse.

And still on women’s health, here’s a look at the problems many women have with perimenopause and periods. [LONG READ]

Environment

Our predecessors got it right: trees among crops can help both farmers (with improved yields and diverse crops), the environment and thus the climate. [LONG READ]

Meanwhile we can all help the environment by turning those nice areas of mown grass into meadows, as quite a few councils are doing. [LONG READ]

There’s a new arrival on Exmoor: the first baby beaver born there in 400 years!

Art, Literature, Language

This piece contains a video of the amazing and skilled process of making a violin. [30 minute video]

At long last an academic has created an annotated version of Robert Burton’s 400 year old The Anatomy of Melancholy and seemingly unlocked many of its secrets. (Be warned before you buy this: it is a tome bigger than a house brick and totally impossible to read in bed.)

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Palaeontologists have uncovered a site containing thousands of fossilised marine organisms; it’s been likened to a “Jurassic Pompeii”!

Archaeologists are also gradually piecing together something of the lives of Neanderthal children, often from footprints which gives clues about their activity. [LONG READ]

Staying with the Neanderthals, one of them had the creativity and imagination to carve a geometric design in a piece bone.

Coming slightly closer to home, there is the suggestion that Stone Age Europeans may have worn make-up. [£££]

Scientists are also now making progress on understanding what ancient people ate by analysing clues embedded in, rather than on, their pottery. [LONG READ]

About the only good thig to come out of the HS2 project is the archaeology it has spawned. One of the latest finds is a hoard of 2200-year-old coins in Hillingdon.

Researchers have been able to extract and analyse DNA from a mummified 1600-year-old Iranian sheep and shown that it was genetically very similar to the breeds currently kept in that area.

There’s a cave in Derbyshire which is thought to be the early ninth-century home of the deposed and exiled Eardwulf, King of Northumbria.

A new analysis is confirming a previous suggestion that some of the stained glass in Canterbury Cathedral is amongst the world’s oldest, and predates the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170.

And talking of Thomas Becket, why were his bones moved only 50 years after his death?

The travel guide is far from being a modern invention, for instance we have the medieval travel guide of Cristoforo Buondelmonti.

What did it mean to be a “damsel” in medieval times? [LONG READ]

One of the mysteries of medieval buildings is why so many have obvious burn marks on the wood. It seems it isn’t quite what we thought! [LONG READ]

London

There’s a hidden tram station in central London, and it is going to be opened to the public for the first time in 70 years.

If you see a grille, vent or unlikely structure in London street, there’s a good chance it is a portal to the capital’s hidden underworld.

Over 100 years ago, London Underground’s Piccadilly Line had a revolutionary spiral escalator.

Food, Drink

What should we be eating in order to do our bit for climate change? Here are some of the most sustainable foods, from seaweed to venison.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

If you want to be a better gardener, James Wong says you should be breaking all those quirky Victorian rules about how to do it.

The art of really listening: “Be interested, be curious, hear what’s not said”.

Here’s a look at some of the taboos around body hair (mostly female). Basically it what you feel comfortable with.

Contrary to popular belief researchers have discovered that two-thirds of couples start out just as friends.

But on the other side of the coin, many friendships fade out, and that’s OK.

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally, we have a major problem with our serfs.

food+drink

Seafood Pasta

Last evening I did yet another variation on my quick pasta recipe. I keep tweaking this recipe (usually as the mood takes me) and it keeps getting better! This time I used some frozen mixed seafood.

Serves: 2 (if greedy/hungry) or 4 (as a normal main course)
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

You will want:

  • Pasta (variety of your choice, I used some dried shapes)
  • 400g mixed seafood (I used Waitrose frozen raw Fruits de Mer containing king prawns, squid, mussels and scallops)
  • 100g button mushrooms, halved
  • 12 cherry tomatoes
  • 1 or 2 medium red onions, not too finely chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic, chopped small or crushed
  • 12 olives, stoned and halved (optional)
  • Juice and zest of 2 limes (or 1 lemon)
  • a small chilli, chopped fine, seeds removed if very hot (optional)
  • a big bunch parsley, stems removed but not chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 tbsp thick double cream (optional)
  • Black pepper
  • Olive oil and/or butter

And this is what you do:

  1. Have everything prepared and ready, and get the pasta on to cook.
  2. While the pasta cooks, sauté the onion, garlic, olives & chilli in a tablespoon of olive oil and a good knob of butter until translucent (about 5 minutes).
  3. Add the seafood to the pan, put on a lid, and allow to cook for 10 minutes. (If you’re using ready cooked seafood, then start this only once the pasta is done, and cook for only 2-3 minutes.)
  4. Remove the lid and add the mushrooms, lime (or lemon), and a good grind of black pepper; cook for a further minute or two. (Don’t worry if this looks too wet; we want some sauce. If too dry add a splash of white wine or dry vermouth.)
  5. Now add the tomatoes, and keep cooking for another minute or two to get the tomatoes hot through but not disintegrating.
  6. Now add the parsley and tomato paste; adjust the amount of tomato paste to thicken the sauce to your preference.
  7. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream.
  8. Return to a very gentle heat and add the cooked and drained pasta. Coat the pasta in the sauce.
  9. Serve immediately in warmed pasta dishes. Garnish with a bit more parsley and/or grated parmesan if desired. And of course a glass of chilled white or rosé wine on the side.

Enjoy! We did!

quotes

Monthly Quotes

Here’s this months collection of recently encountered, miscellaneous quotes.

Facts alone are wanted in life. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else … nothing else will ever be of service to them.
[Charles Dickens, Hard Times]

The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.
[William Blake]

What is now proved was once only imagined.
[William Blake]

I give you the end of a golden string
Only wind it into a ball
It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate
Built in Jerusalem’s wall.
[William Blake]

Combining reason with empathy is a powerful force for good – it is both logical and morally right to see all humans as equal, regardless of sex, gender, race, religion or worldview.
[Prof. Alice Roberts]

the morning after i ‘lost my virginity’

i stared into the bathroom mirror, searching for the change
i counted all my freckles, everyone of them in place
i counted every hair, every eyelash, every brow
five knuckles on each hand still, thirty-one teeth in my mouth

I pulled apart my flesh, counted seven layers deep
for a minute, held my heart, counted eighty solid beats
lips still as red as blood, I spat into the sink
walked into the world again
i hadn’t lost a thing

[Holly McNish]

A fool who knows he is a fool has a little intelligence, but a fool that thinks he is intelligent is really a fool. [Sanskrit Proverb]

A fool is like all other men as long as he remains silent.
[Danish Proverb]

Don’t approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any side.
[Jewish Proverb]

The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.
[Mark Twain]

The really frightening thing about middle age is that you know you’ll grow out of it.
[Doris Day]

This is the garden
of being and not being,
of rocks and no rocks.
Here, when you enter and are,
is and is not are equal.
[a Zen waka]

This is a common problem for smart people, especially ones who are highly verbal. They use words as a smoke screen, and it’s all the more effective when their words are true. Less articulate people tend to vent through physicality. They yell, punch, kick, run, scream, sob, dance, jump for joy … I explain. And when I’m done explaining, everything I’ve explained is still stuck inside me, only now it has a label on it.
[Marcus Gedult at https://www.quora.com/When-does-intelligence-become-a-curse/answer/Marcus-Geduld]

Lady Mary was continually exasperated by the exploits of her son Edward, a chap so dissolute and useless that he eventually had no option but to become an MP.
[Caroline Rance at https://londonhistorians.wordpress.com/2021/07/09/the-pioneering-life-of-mary-wortley-montagu/]

My good lords, I must bring to your attention a grave issue that requires our utmost concern. You see, my fellow land-owning gentry, it seems that the invention of mechanized industry, the rise of “capitalism”, and the impact of the recent plague have brought upon us a wave of moral degradation and irredeemable sloth – specifically, nobody wants to be a serf anymore …
Not only do our current serfs refuse to labor, but the serfs we ejected from our fiefdoms when we feared the plague would harm our profits now don’t want to come back and replace the workers we kept who then subsequently died of the plague. Did they not know that we banished them with the expectation they’d come crawling back at our earliest convenience? What has the world come to when the whims of noblemen no longer control the lives of the masses?
[Andrew Singleton at https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/nobody-wants-to-be-a-serf-anymore]

amusements, memes

Ten Things: July

This year our Ten Things series – which surprisingly appears on the tenth of each month – continues concentrating on the amusing, both real and fictional. So this month we have …

Ten Silly Names of Real Companies
(I mean, if you didn’t know, how would you guess what they do?)

  1. 3663
  2. Amazon
  3. Apricot
  4. Conchango
  5. Solstice
  6. Goldfish
  7. Sodexo
  8. Virgin
  9. Yodel
  10. QinetiQ
personal, pleasures

Ancestral Byways

What did you do in the lockdown? I spent time with my ancestors!

There are always some unexpected places one gets taken by the ancestors and family history. This is one of those, and a connexion which I had never expected.

I have just acquired at auction a copy of A Display of Heraldrie by John Guillim; 4th edition from 1660; probably in its original binding (if not, it has been very carefully rebound).

John Guillim (c.1565–1621) was an antiquarian and officer of arms at the College of Arms. He was made Portsmouth Pursuivant Extraordinary in 1608, and Rouge Croix Pursuivant in 1618. Guillim’s A Display of Heraldry was first published in London in 1610, although there is some dispute about the original authorship. It was revised and reprinted a number of times up to 1724, with the fourth edition of 1660 generally considered to be the best of them. Samuel Pepys appears to have had a copy of the fifth edition in his library.

I’ve known this work for many years, having first seen a copy in Harrow School in the early 1980s (on a work visit!) – it was lying on a huge Cromwellian refectory table for anyone to browse. I’ve always coveted owning a copy. Somewhere around 20 years ago I acquired a fairly poor, rebound and damaged copy of the fourth edition, and have since been keeping my eyes open for a copy in good condition. At last I found one, and was very surprised to get it rather more cheaply than I expected.

And now we get to the family history bit, which I only discovered in the last couple of years!

As you’ll see on the title page the fourth edition is “Faithfully collected by FRANCIS NOWER Arms Painter (and Student in Heraldry) in Bartholomew Lane, London“.

There are two branches of the Nower (or Nowers) family. The senior branch is in Oxfordshire; the tomb of Sir George Nowers (died 1425), a companion of the Black Prince, is in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

The junior branch was centred around Pluckley, Kent, and it from them I am descended by way of a string of younger sons of younger sons. Francis Nower (1624-1670) was indeed a herald painter who died tragically with his two infant daughters in a house fire in Bartholomew Lane, London in 1670. He’s not a direct ancestor, but he is my first cousin 10 times removed – ie. the grandson of my 10x great-grandfather, Joshua Nower, Yeoman of Pluckley (c.1555-1618).

That was totally unexpected! I didn’t know I had Nower(s) ancestors until a handful of years ago, and only found out about Francis Nower during the first lockdown last year. Catherine Nowers (born 1820) married into my paternal grandmother’s line. Luckily the Pluckley Nower(s) are well documented at least back to the early 16th century. And to think that my Marshall line appears to be nothing more exciting than AgLabs all the way down.

And the moral is? It’s worth doing your family history, and following all the lines, not just your father’s father’s father’s line. And follow the lines as far back as you can. You never know what delights – or skeletons; we’ve all got some of them too! – you’ll find.

amusements, memes

Things to Think About: July

This year we’re beginning each month with a (potentially logical) oddity to think about, and to keep the brain cells active. This month:

Intentionally losing a game of rock, paper, scissors is just as hard as trying to win.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

arts, environment, history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Welcome to this month’s edition of my links to items you may have missed the first time around. We’ve got a lot to pack in this month so let’s get going …

Science, Technology, Natural World

An interesting philosophical look at science points out that it can’t supply absolute truths about the world – the scientific method is based on continual questioning and revision – but it brings us steadily closer. [£££]

Here’s one guy who studies UFOs, mostly debunks them and doesn’t buy into all the hype.

A group of volunteers spent 40 days in a cave with no natural light or clocks. The group’s organiser explains why, and apparently many want to go back. [LONG READ]

New research suggests that the ancient Coelacanth can live for 100 years, rather than the previously thought 20 years.

But that’s nothing compared with some Bdelloid rotifers which have apparently survived 24,000 years frozen in Siberia.

How can I move on without an item on wasps? Here’s a simple guide to what is, and isn’t a wasp. [LONG READ]

Health, Medicine

An increased number of people have struggled with mental health over the last 18 months. Here’s one person’s guide to actually asking for help.

Medical researchers at University of East Anglia (my alma mater) are having thousands of men trial a home testing kit for prostate cancer.

Meanwhile there’s a new blood test to detect 50 different cancers, often years before they’re obvious. The NHS is currently running an big trial to see how the test performs in the clinic.

[TRIGGER WARNING]
Here two women talk about their experience of female genital mutilation (FGM).

Sexuality

It’s worrying that a survey has found many Britons cannot name all parts of the vulva. What a sad indictment of our pathetically puritanical attitudes and sex education.

Nevertheless hot sex is back on this summer.

Environment

Britain’s largest grasshopper, the Large Marsh Grasshopper, is being bred in captivity and released into some of its former East Anglian habitats.

I’ve always said that renewable energy isn’t the environmental no-brainer it seems. Here’s one example of why: destructive lithium mining.

Art, Literature, Language

A new biography of William Blake offers a glimpse into the artist and poet’s visionary mind.

There’s also about to be a new edition of a 400-year-old self help book, Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy.

A random walk through the English Language can produce curious and intriguing results. [£££]

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Chinese archaeologists have unveiled some remains of a supposed new hominin, nicknamed “Dragon Man”. Could he be a mysterious Denisovan? Or (perhaps more likely) a hoax?

Meanwhile new clues appear to show that people reached the Americas around 30,000 years ago, rather earlier than previously thought.

Researchers are now suggesting Iron Age people were emotionally attached to their possessions. Well, surprise!

The Roman Empire was not such a good place: a shackled skeleton is thought to be rare evidence of slavery in Roman Britain.

Dr Eleanor Janega, of Going Medieval, has a new book out: a graphic look at medieval history, which debunks most of our misconceptions. Here’s a sneak preview.

It seems the medieval fashion for very pointy shoes created an explosion of bunions. The same team have shown that victims of the Black Death were often buried with considerable care, contrary to our usual expectations.

Dr Eleanor Janega, again, looks at sex work in medieval times, and where it was allowed to happen, with special reference to London.

London

More up to date here’s an article on some 18th-century grottoes which can still be found in and around London.

IanVisits asks whether the pantograph could make a return to London’s buses, if nly in a restricted way.

From sharks to seahorses: six species you probably didn’t know were swimming in the Thames.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

A new “pop-up” women’s urinal, the Peequal, could help reduce queues for the loo.

People

Magawa the mine-detecting rat has retired after 5 years hard work in Cambodia.

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally, we can’t end without a look at some of the bizarre entries in Cuprinol Shed of the Year.

quotes

Monthly Quotes

Welcome to this month’s collection of quotes gleaned from my delvings into obscure knowledge.

We are self-centred and selfish, but we need to be wisely selfish, not foolishly so. If we neglect others, we too lose. We have to support others. We can educate people to understand that the best way to fulfil their own interest is to be concerned about the welfare of others.
[Dalai Lama]

There are no ends in administration. Only loose ends. Administration is eternal.
[https://twitter.com/YesSirHumphrey/status/1394387572533743621?s=09]

England’s response to this public health crisis has been characterised by a lack of transparency – or, even worse, a deliberate suppression of material that is at odds with the Government’s narrative.
[Editorial in British Medical Journal; https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/05/28/the-uks-response-to-new-variants-a-story-of-obfuscation-and-chaos/]

Johnson is after all the most accomplished liar in public life – perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. Some of this may have been a natural talent – but a lifetime of practice and study has allowed him to uncover new possibilities which go well beyond all the classifications of dishonesty attempted by classical theorists like St Augustine. He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie.
[Rory Stewart, former Tory MP and minister]

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
[Terry Pratchett]

There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.
[William James, American philosopher]

Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
[Joseph Campbell]

Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.
[George Bernard Shaw]

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.
George Burns, American comedian]

Who also said …

Sex after 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope. Even putting my cigar in its holder is a thrill.

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.
[Mark Twain]

The Bible is the charter of women’s serfdom, and, as a consequence, of man’s degradation. It, like all superstitious God-books, is the outcome of ignorance ruled by selfishness.
[Lady Florence Dixie, 1855-1905]

Religion says this is the law of God; I say it is that of man. Superstition declares it to be a divine ordinance; I maintain it is a barbaric one. Superstition and barbaric law go hand in hand. It is the former which creates the latter.
[Lady Florence Dixie, 1855-1905]

current affairs, medical, personal, ramblings

Horrible Times 22: Lockdown 450

In this instalment … Today, Saturday 19 June 2021, is day 450 of lockdown for us.

And still not a lot has really changed since I last reported on Day 400

So why don’t we get the “bad” news over first?

  • In the last 50 days I’ve managed to get off the premises just twice. Once for part 2 of my annual diabetes check-up & shingles vaccination, and secondly for an optician’s appointment. That makes a grand total of just 9 “outings” in 450 days. Which is quite pathetic really, although rather understandable.
  • I managed to miss the partial eclipse of the sun on 10 June. I don’t remember when we last had clear skies, at a sensible time, for any astronomical phenomenon.
  • We’ve had two friends in hospital. One with heart problems, which have needed a pacemaker fitted; the other with a broken leg (luckily not a hip).
  • In other medical news I got a talking to by my diabetic nurse for letting my blood glucose control slip somewhat over the last year, and not losing any weight. Moral 1: must try harder. Moral 2: the medical profession need to understand quality of life.
  • And of course our pathetic government has delayed removing all Covid restrictions. I have to say I think this is the right decision, given the apparent extra transmissibility of the Covid delta variant. However it is entirely of the government’s own making: they could have nipped this in the bud by introducing travel restrictions to/from India in early April rather than waiting 3-4 weeks. But then this is entirely consistent with their whole approach.

In more positive news …

  • We’ve had a mini heatwave, which is rather a nice change from the cold wet weather which preceded it.
  • And the good weather has enabled us to get our runner beans planted, as well as a selection of salad leaf veggies. Nothing to harvest yet a while although I have harvested the first dozen chillies from last year’s plants (on the study windowsill) which I overwintered.
  • The good weather has also brought the roses into bloom. The garden is a riot of roses at the moment, including a dog rose flowering right at the top of our mature silver birch tree. Walking down the garden there is a heavy scent of roses.
  • Having found a very dead Rose Chafer on the patio table, I was finally impelled to buy a macro lens for my camera so I can take more/better close-ups. So far this has mostly meant flowers.
  • As well as splashing out money on a new lens I also bought two paintings by Adrian Daintrey at auction. For security reasons I’m obviously not going to post them here, but members of the Anthony Powell Society will find out more in due course (as Daintrey was a friend of Powell’s).
  • And finally, I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on my family history. I’ve especially been trying to unravel the Marshalls back in the late 17th and early 18th centuries around the Weald of Kent. I have a brick wall there in my father’s line; I’m sure there are connexions between all those I’ve found, but currently I’m unable to prove it – or satisfactorily work out exactly who is related to who. It doesn’t help that the men are all called Stephen, Thomas or William. The one guy with an easily identifiable name, Reynolds Marshall, seems to parachute in from nowhere in the late 17th century. It’s a tangled web which should be solvable, but for the fact that back then parish records were patchy and often haven’t survived. And along the way you get diverted down some (usually irrelevant) rabbit holes – so just who was the rather improbably named Samuel Drawbridge? Such are the joys of family history!

So what happens next? Well who knows. By the time of my next report at day 500 we’ll either have had all restrictions lifted and told we can go back to (some approximation to) normality, or we’ll be deep in another wave of Covid cases. Or, the pessimistic side of me suggests it might be both of those.

We’re not even in the lap of the gods, but the whim of our government. Gawdelpus!