Category Archives: history

history, memes

October Quiz Questions

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Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

Classical & Ancient World

  1. What is the name of the home of the Greek Gods?
  2. Which body of the water was called mare nostrum by the Romans?
  3. Ask and Embla are the Norse equivalent to the Christian what?
  4. What was the name of the Egyptian God of the Sun?
  5. In Roman mythology, who is the goddess of the sewers?
  6. Which word derives from the Latin for “sand” and originally denoted part of a Roman amphitheatre that was covered with sand to soak up the blood from combat?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history

October 1925

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Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

2. In London, John Logie Baird successfully transmits the first television pictures with a greyscale image.Early TV picture

3. Born. Gore Vidal, writer and public intellectual, in West Point, New York (d.2012)

5. The Locarno Conference began in Locarno, Switzerland between several European powers to negotiate a security pact.

13. Born. Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England (d.2013)

13. The Locarno conference ended with several agreements in place. German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann gave a closing speech in which he said the conference spelled a new era in European relationships, while French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand said it marked the beginning of a new epoch of cooperation and friendship.

16. Born. Angela Lansbury, actress and singer, in Regent’s Park, London (d.2022)

23. Born. Johnny Carson, American comedian and television host (d.2005)

24. Born. Luciano Berio, Italian composer (d.2003)

29. Born. Robert Hardy, actor, in Cheltenham, England (d.2017)

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

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Here’s this month’s action packed collection of links to items you may have missed.

Science, Technology, Natural World

It’s that time of year again, when the Ig Nobel Prize winners are announced.
Two articles:
Tipsy Bats and Perfect Pasta, from Scientific American. [££££]
Teflon diet, garlic milk and zebra cows from the Guardian.

And so to something else approaching reality … the oldest known ankylosaur fossil shows the creature was “bristling with spikes”.

I’m not sure this isn’t so obvious it qualifies for an Ig Nobel, but it seems that primates with longer thumbs tend to have bigger brains.

While on brains … apparently the brain’s body map is surprisingly stable even after you lose a limb. [££££]

Researchers have done an incredible amount of work to map out every nerve in a mouse. [££££]

And still with brains … here’s a look at what owning a cat does to your brain and theirs.

On top of which, like humans, cats can get dementia.

When is a dancing spider a different species of dancing spider?

One guy noticed that thousands of flies kept landing on an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea, and then leaving a few hours later.

How do you manage to track, find and record invasive Asian hornets in the UK?

Now a couple of items for the deep nerds out there … first, much of advanced maths and data analysis depends on Fourier transforms. But what is a Fourier transform?

Now here’s a look at conceptagion – the idea that an outbreak of “mass hysteria” can cause physical symptoms.

OK, so a shift of focus … there’s what appears to be a huge crater in the sediments at the bottom of the North Sea, which most scientists now think was caused by an asteroid impact.

So a robot lander may (or may not) have found signs of ancient life in Martian rocks – but we won’t know for certain at least until scientists get their hands on the samples.

Health, Medicine

The death of an American child shows just how measles can kill years after the initial infection. [££££]

Here’s some low-down on a virus almost everyone gets – HPV.

And here’s a short tutorial on immunology and the basics of vaccines …

… And a look at how hard it was for germ theory to become the prevailing understanding of infectious disease.

Environment & Ecology

A rare continental ladybird has been recorded for the first time in southern England.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Somewhat surprisingly there is a dearth of historical items this month …

First off, the story of human evolution is being radically changed by a Denisovan skull. [££££]

Here’s an introduction to a new(?) website of maps of some English cities showing the incidence of violence in 14th century.

Finally here … Ten things you maybe didn’t know about forks.

Food, Drink

The UK’s food system is based on keeping prices low, but recent droughts are showing up where and how this fails.

There are increasing concerns over the quality of our food, and here are some red flags on spotting chemical ingredients, kitchenware etc.

Which begs the question: do we actually know what we’re eating?

And how do we tell ultra-processed foods from minimally processed foods.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Ladies … here’s a theory of why your husband “forgets” everything you tell him.

Here’s a piece on the Māori and their tradition of nudity.

And finally for this month, one young lady asks why nudity is such a big deal.

history

What Happened in 1625

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Here’s our next instalment of things that happened in ..25 years of yore.

Some Notable Events in 1625

3 February. Francesca Caccini`s opera La liberaziune di Ruggiero has its premiere in Florence.

11 February. Dutch-Portuguese War: One of the largest naval battles ever fought in the Persian Gulf takes place in the Straits of Hormuz as fleets of the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company defend Persia against an attack by ships from the colony of Portuguese India.

7 March. Died. Johann Bayer, German lawyer and uranographer (b.1572).

21 March. James Ussher is appointed Archblshop of Armagh (Church of Ireland) and Primate of All Ireland.

27 March. Died. King James VI & I (b.1566). He is succeeded by Charles I.

18 April. Born. Sir John Baber, English physician to Charles II (d.1704).

9 May. Born. George Pitt, English politician (d.1694).

5 June. Died. Orlando Gibbons, English composer and organist (b.1583).Orlando Gibbons

13 June. King Charles I of England marries Catholic princess Henrietta Maria of France and Navarre, at Canterbury.

18 June. The English Parliament refuses to vote Charles I the right to collect customs duties for his entire reign, restricting him to one year instead.

23 June. Born. John Fell, English churchman and influential academic (d.1686).

July. The Barbary pirates attack south-western EngIand and in August they enslave about 60 people from Mount’s Bay in Cornwall.

27 July. Born. Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich (d.1672).

18 August. Died. Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, English diplomat (b.1556).

6 September. Died. Thomas Dempster, Scottish historian (b.1579).

8 September. The Treaty of Southampton makes an alliance between England and the Dutch Republic, against Spain.

2 October. Born. Vere Essex Cromwell, 4th Earl of Ardglass, English noble (d.1687).

1-7 November. Cádiz Expedition: English forces commanded by Admiral George Villiers are decisively defeated by the Spanish at Cádiz.

12 November. Born. Sir Edward Dering, 2nd Baronet, Irish politician (d.1684).

9 December. Thirty Years’ War: The Netherlands and England sign the Treaty of The Hague, a military peace treaty for providing economic aid to King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway, during his military campaigns in Germany.

Unknown Date. The Dutch settle Manhattan, founding the town of New Amsterdam. The town will transform into a piece of New York City.

Unknown Date. In England, a very high tide occurs, the highest ever known in the Thames, and the sea walls in Kent, Essex, and Lincolnshire are breached, causing great desolation.

current affairs, history, thoughts

I Blame Harold Wilson

This is an opinion piece (an op-ed if you will) which I’ve been thinking about for a long, long time.

Back in 2014 Roy Hattersley wrote in the Guardian …

[In 1964] Harold Wilson was elected prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Labour won because its leader caught the mood of the time. Wilson was the politician as technocrat, the man in the Gannex overcoat who complained that, in a world in which “even the MCC has abolished the distinction between amateurs and professionals, in science and industry we are content to remain a nation of Gentlemen in a world of Players”.

Maintaining the technocratic image helped him to keep a fractious party more or less intact. But nobody doubted that the pragmatism about which he boasted was, in truth, guided by a principle which he set out in the language of the time. “The Labour party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.”

Two or three weeks into the new parliament, he invited the dozen or so youngest Labour MPs to Downing Street. The most self-confident […] told him that the government had made a crucial mistake in not devaluing the pound. They were right …

Harold Wilson brought a paradigm shift to government in the UK, and to the functioning of society as it finally surfaced from the deprivations of WW2. Wilson took advantage of the changing mood of the times. As a consequence many attitudes in the UK, and thinking within government – not to say many of the current problems which afflict the country – have their roots in the actions of the Wilson administrations of 1960s and 1970s.

Think about the following …

Comprehensive Schools
Wilson said he wanted everyone to have his grammar school education and in an attempt to achieve this effectively all schools became comprehensive. But the law of unintended consequences meant what happened was that by mixing the bright with the dim, the brightest got dumbed down, given no incentive to work hard and be stretched, while the less bright gained nothing. Actually the less bright also lost out because the previous secondary modern schools had never been properly constituted (with good curricula) and consequently the change of focus meant there was no foundation to fall back on.

Expansion of the Universities
To be fair this was started under Harold Macmillan, but the expansion of the mid-60s was the first step on the slippery slope to the destruction of Technical Colleges, Polytechnics and apprenticeships. This has, in turn, led to a shortage of technical training for plumbers, bricklayers etc. – we didn’t need them: Wilson’s “white heat of technology” would do it all. But we do need them and so we have ended up importing them from places like Eastern Europe.

Another consequence is that we now have too many, low quality, universities running courses of little worth and awarding over-inflated degrees. Why? Because over time everyone has become entitled to a university education – and government wanted to keep the unemployment figures down. Not a direct result of Wilson, but built upon the foundations he laid.

Soundbite Government
Wilson was the first to blatantly use the media as a tool of government and to provide snappy soundbites. Remember “the pound in your pocket”, “the white heat of technology”, and “beer and sandwiches at No.10” to win over stroppy union leaders?

Media Freedom
It isn’t clear which is chicken and which is egg, but with soundbite government the media started to feel they had much more freedom and fewer constraints, and they became more available with the advent of regular TV news bulletins. News became more immediate; and the public started to see, and recognise, politicians when previously they had little inkling of the machinations of government, who those people were, and what they did. This inevitably (over time) led to the broadcasting of Parliament, with politicians being interviewed at every turn – and spinning every story for their benefit.

Government and Industry
The beginning of politicians and government obviously, openly and blatantly in cahoots with industry for their own benefit. Remember Wilson’s Gannex mac? This was doubtless nothing new, but it was now out in the open or at least much more easily probed.

Destruction of British Industry
Wilson’s watch saw the rise of unprecedented union power, which was allowed to cripple manufacturing (think cars, steel, shipbuilding) and which continued until Thatcher broke the miners in the 1980s. That’s not to say unions haven’t been a force for good in improving working conditions etc., but under Wilson they very much had the upper hand (which is now really evident only in the rail unions as most of the rest have been emasculated). This ultimately led to substantial wage rises, high inflation, wage restraint, and high unemployment.

British Rail & Utilities
The actions of Dr Beeching in massacring Britain’s rail network were, admittedly, started under Harold Macmillan, however the pressure was continued under Wilson with BR, and indeed many other public utilities, being subjected to unprecedented attention from government accountants – something which continues to this day – and threats of nationalisation. This was in large part undone by the privatisation policies of Margaret Thatcher’s administration which has left many of our utilities in a position where it would be almost impossible to fully renationalise them.

Financial Crisis
All of this led, inexorably, to a financial and economic crisis, a series of failed economic measures, and the consequent devaluation of the pound by 14% in November 1967. Arguably the economy and the country’s financial situation has never recovered from this.

Social Agenda
Under Wilson’s administration we saw the first Race Relations Act (1965), the Sexual Offences Act (1967) and the abolition of (almost all) capital punishment (1965); followed later by an expansion of the welfare state. Our current social policies (including welfare payments) are very much built upon these foundations and are, in my estimation, a large factor in the current entitlement of much of the population.

Corrupt Patronage
Patronage, and corrupt patronage, has always happened. But because of the greater freedom of the media and its availability to all, Wilson’s patronage of people like Marcia Falkender (his political secretary and alleged mistress) and Lord Kagan (of Gannex macs) became open knowledge, if not actually more blatant.

I’m not saying that all our current ills are directly attributable to Harold Wilson. Nor am I saying that Wilson didn’t do some good things (eg. the welfare state). But much of where the UK is now, at least internally, is built upon the foundations set by his administrations.

That, at least, is my assessment. YMMV.

There’s much, much more about Harold Wilson on Wikipedia.

history

September 1925

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Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

3. The Second International Conference on the Standardization of Medicine was held in Geneva, with the goal of standardizing drug formulae worldwide.

7. Born. Laura Ashley, Welsh designer (d.1985)

13. Born. Mel Tormé, jazz singer, in Chicago (d.1999)

16. Born. Charles Haughey, Taoiseach of Ireland; in Castlebar (d.2006)

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

Links for August

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Here’s our August collection of links to interesting items you may (or may not) have missed.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Good scientists update their theories and change their minds. What happens when the do? [££££]

Or to look at it another way, there is much weirdness, and the best we can do is to try to understand the underlying rules.

Because, for example, the Universe is static. No, it’s expanding. Or slowing? Or accelerating. Depending on who and when you are. [££££]

Meanwhile they’ve discovered a new moon orbiting Uranus – assuming you can call a piece of rock 10km in diameter a moon. [££££]

And it seems that Betelgeuse may have a small stellar companion.

After which we shouldn’t be surprised that Earth gets bombarded by meteorites from outside our solar system [££££], or that some manage to crash land here.

Continuing to look up, we’re still trying to understand what triggers lightning; and it seems to be all down to exploding stars!

From above our heads to under our feet … Earth’s core is leaking out.

Now lets turn to the animal kingdom … a small ancient whale with razor-sharp teeth an huge eyes has been unearthed in Australia.

Antarctic Leopard Seals sing to attract a mate, and their songs are very similar to nursery rhymes!

There’s a new theory that our primate ancestors evolved in colder regions and not in the tropics.

Research has confirmed that cats develop dementia in a very similar way to humans developing Alzheimer’s.

All hail the Rat King – maybe.

A new study has found that “sex reversal” is surprisingly common in birds.

They keep telling me that wasp numbers in UK have been unusually high this summer after a warm and dry Spring. All I can say is “Not here”; wasps are almost absent.

Now finally in this section, a complete change of subject … a sports scientist has looked at how strip colour impacts performance particularly in Premier League football.

Health, Medicine

Do we visualize dreams in colour or black and white?

While different diseases spread via different methods, there’s a scale of contagion.

Is it actually possible to break your penis? Spoiler: yes, and it needs emergency action.

On which note … why some penises are curved?

Environment & Ecology

Scientists have used existing air pollution monitors to assess environmental DNA (eDNA) to discover what lives nearby.

Natural England is reporting the recovery of 150 struggling species of plants and animals.

Southern Small White butterfly has been seen in the UK for first time.

A study is suggesting that reintroduced lynx could thrive in Northumberland.

Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics

We know that the Mercator projection used for most maps of the world distorts the relative sizes of continents, and now the African Union has joined calls for and end to the projection’s use.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

There’s a Christian principle of “hate the sin but not the sinner” which we seem to have totally lost – artist Eric Gill is, again, a current target – as it’s now a case of “hate the sin, and the sinner, and their works; and airbrush the whole from existence”.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

A previously unknown species of Australopithecus (our ancestors) has been identified from some teeth. [££££]

Still with teeth, an ancient cow’s tooth may help unlock some of the mysteries of Stonehenge.

Slowly coming up to date … a 2,500-year-old Siberian “ice mummy” had intricate tattoos

A new analysis reveals that the Vikings were addicted to silver and just how far they would travel to obtain it.

Archaeologists have happened upon the tomb of an ancient Mayan city’s first ruler.

Meanwhile all classes of ancient Incan used coded strings of hair for record keeping.

DNA analysis of some early medieval English skeletons has revealed some surprising West African ancestry. [££££]

On the return of the equestrian statue of Charles I to Charing Cross.

Still with the Restoration, their women were much more creative than has been perceived.

HMS Northumberland – built 1679 as part of Samuel Pepys’s modernisation of the Navy – sank in the Great Storm of 1703, but is only now revealing its secrets.

London

And finally for this month … Three articles on transport for London …
*  London’s First Bus
*  The colourful history of London’s Traffic Lights
*  An old Underground train breaks a world record.

history

What Happened in 1525

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Here’s our next instalment of things that happened in ..25 years of yore.

Some Notable Events in 1525

21 January. The Anabaptist Movement is Born.when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz’s mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich.

24 February. Died. Richard de la Pole, last Yorkist claimant to the English throne.

28 February. The last Aztec Emperor, Cuauhtémoc, is killed by Hernan Cortés.

20 March. In the German town of Memmingen, the pamphlet The Twelve Articles: The Just and Fundamental Articles of All the Peasantry and Tenants of Spiritual and Temporal Powers by Whom They Think Themselves Oppressed is published, the first human rights related document written in Europe.

25 March. Born. Richard Edwardes, English choral musician, playwright and poet (d.1566).

13 June. Martin Luther marries ex-nun Katharina von Bora. The painter Lucas Cranach the Elder is one of the witnesses.Cranach diptych of Luther & Katherina von Bora

18 June. Henry VIII of England appoints his six-year old illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy Duke of Richmond and Somerset.

29 July. Santa Marta, the first city in Colombia, is founded by Spanish conquistador Rodrigo de Bastidas.

30 August. The French ambassador to England and King Henry VIII sign the Treaty of the More at a castle, “The More”, in Hertfordshire.

14 September. In Switzerland, the burning of most of the book collection of the Stiftsbibliothek of the Grossmünster Abbey in Zurich begins, by order of Huldrych Zwingli, as part of the Swiss Reformation. After 20 days of destruction of a collection built over 250 years, only 470 volumes are left.

10 October. The Earl of Angus, Scotland’s Lord Warden of the March.s in charge of border security on the boundary with England, is able to work out a three-year peace treaty with the Kingdom of England and signs the initial agreement at the English border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

25 November. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor acting in his capacity as the King of Spain, issues an edict ordering the expulsion or conversion of the remaining Muslims in the Crown of Aragon, similar to that issued for the Crown of Castile by Queen Isabella in 1502. The order applies to the Kingdom of Valencia and the Principality of Catalonia.

8 December. A second edict is issued in Spain directing Spanish Muslims to show proof of baptism as Christians or to leave by the deadline of 31 December (for Valencia) or 26 January (for Aragon and Catalonia).

Unknown Date. Born. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Flemish painter (d.1569).

Unknown Date. European-brought diseases sweep through the Andes, killing thousands, including the Inca.

Unknown Date. Bubonic plague spreads in southern France.

Unknown Date. Printing of the first edition of William Tyndale’s New Testament Bible translation into English in Cologne is interrupted by anti-Lutheran forces and Tyndale flees to Worms (finished copies reach England in l526).

Unknown Date. Printing of Huldrych Zwingli’s New Testament “Zürich Bible” translation into German by Christoph Froschauer begins.

history, memes

August Quiz Answers

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Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

General History

  1. How long, in days, was the year 46BC? 445 days; the longest year in human history. It had three extra leap months inserted by Julius Caesar as preparation to make his new Julian Calendar match up with the seasonal year.
  2. According to the 1516 Bavarian Reinheitsgebot, what are the only ingredients allowed in beer? Water, barley & hops, although yeast was also used but not stated.
  3. Who was the first woman to die in an aviation-related incident? Sophie Blanchard (a balloonist who died in 1812)
  4. In what year was the Battle of Lepanto? 1571
  5. In 1800, the capital of the USA was transferred to Washington DC from which city? Philadelphia
  6. The War of Jenkins’ Ear (a term coined by British historian Thomas Carlyle), 1739-1748, between Britain and Spain, was fought where? Caribbean

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

history, memes

August Quiz Questions

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Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

General History

  1. How long, in days, was the year 46BC?
  2. According to the 1516 Bavarian Reinheitsgebot, what are the only ingredients allowed in beer?
  3. Who was the first woman to die in an aviation-related incident?
  4. In what year was the Battle of Lepanto?
  5. In 1800, the capital of the USA was transferred to Washington DC from which city?
  6. The War of Jenkins’ Ear (a term coined by British historian Thomas Carlyle), 1739-1748, between Britain and Spain, was fought where?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.