Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.
21. Born. Benny Hill, English comedian and singer (d. 1992)
21. Died. Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary, first Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1870)
22. Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
26. Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) is renamed Leningrad; it will revert to Saint Petersburg in 1991
Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.
December Quiz Questions: 17th Century England
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2022.
Again this year we’re beginning each month with five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. They’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers, so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as have a bit of fun.
December Quiz Questions: 17th Century England
Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.
Well then … Here we go with another collection of links to items you didn’t know you didn’t want to miss.
Science, Technology, Natural World
In the latest of the grand space projects, NASA has retrieved a couple of hundred grams of an asteroid and dropped it back to Earth.
Now we’re coming down to the top of a 22,000-foot volcano where Earth’s highest-dwelling vertebrates have been found
Japan has a new island thanks to an underwater volcanic eruption.
Still on the fiery nature of Earth, there’s been a swarm of earthquakes happening in Iceland, which likely precedes a volcanic eruption.
Still on earthquakes, a researcher, at the Vatican Library, has found a 500-year-old Hebrew note which reveals an unknown earthquake swarm in Italy.
Now to the natural world …
Serotine bats (above) have surprised scientists by being the first known mammal to have procreative sex without penetration.
Staying with rodents … experiments suggest that rats may have the power of imagination.
In the Amazon there’s a somewhat horrifying parasitic wasp (below) with a huge head, and it is just one of over 100 newly discovered species.
This is somewhat bizarre … it seems that starfish are just a large, flattened head, with no body. [££££]
Health, Medicine
Scientists seem to have worked out why some people get headaches from drinking red wine.
And now we have three items for the female population …
In the first, OB/GYN Dr Jen Gunter tries to once and for all explode the myth of menstrual synchronization.
Dr Gunter then looks at the sense in poking garlic up your vagina.
Finally academic sex researcher Dr Kate Lister tests oral probiotics for vaginal health. [££££]
Sexuality
And now on to actual sexuality … in which Dr Emily Nagoski looks at some approaches to sex for the disabled.
Expert sex therapists suggest the usual 20 ways to revive your flagging libido.
Environment
On the interaction between wild pigs and golf courses.
Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics
Why is there this assumption British voters become more Conservative with age – and is it true?
Let’s obscure the players’ genders and then see how men’s and women’s soccer compare.
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Archaeological finds are revealing that art is much older than our species. [LONG READ] [££££]
There’s a boom in people taking up life drawing.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Near China’s “Terracotta Army” archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a 2000-year-old sheep-drawn chariot.
Moving west, a large number of clay stamps used to seal Roman documents (above) have been discovered in Turkey.
Meanwhile off the coast of Sardinia divers have discovered around 50,000 Roman coins.
A cartographer has created a London Underground style map of Britain’s Roman Roads.
Excavations around Sutton Hoo in Suffolk continue to turn up suprises. One latest find is the remains of what might be an early 7th-century temple.
Coming gradually up to date … A hoard of medieval pennies dating from the reign of King Stephen has been found in Norfolk.
In Germany they’ve found a centuries old grave containing a skeleton with four prosthetic fingers.
Dr Eleanor Janega takes reveals the real story behind the killing of Joan of Arc.
Forensic research proves that the Ancient Ram Inn in Wotton-under-Edge (above) is old, but not as old as is made out. [LONG READ]
London
Here’s a look at the life of Wenceslaus Hollar who is best known for his panoramic views of 17th-century London (below).
Food, Drink
The convoluted story of the sandwich called Gua Bao. [LONG READ]
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
Mathematician Kit Yates looks at whether the time has come to stop changing the clocks twice a year.
Cheese-rolling, straw bears and weird rituals: one man has made it his life’s work to record the whole of British folklore, and he now has a massive collection.
There’s a collection of walks around the UK’s strange and sacred sites.
Returning to sex researcher Dr Kate Lister, she’s written about growing out her pubic hair for the first time in 20 years. [££££]
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
And finally, in a surprise revelation it has been discovered that a supposed Yeti hair actually belonged to a horse.
Our monthly look at what happened 100 years ago.
This day, 11 November 1923 saw …
Royal Mail have released this year’s Christmas stamps, and yet again we’ve managed to create a perfectly horrible, ever more nauseatingly religious, set of designs – which isn’t helped by this ubiquitous barcode.
Royal Mail had (at least until recently) a policy of alternating religious and secular themes year-by-year. This seems to have gone by the board as the last five years’ designs have all been religious.
Yes, I know Christmas is supposed to be a religious festival, and this is a nominally Christian country. However it would be really good to (a) have some stamps celebrating the pagan Yule – or Roman Saturnalia which provided much of the Christian festivity – and (b) some decent, simple designs.
We’ve had special Christmas stamps every year since 1966 (thanks to the then Postmaster General, Tony Benn, whose idea it was). But to my mind there have been few really good designs. From all the years, perhaps the one I like best – for their clean simplicity – are the ones from 1980.
With 1969, 1973 and 1993 following on (not necessarily in that order).
As for the rest, they span the range from merely OK to abominably awful.
Not that other countries’ stamps are necessarily any better, although many are.
Welcome to this month’s well packed selection of links to items you may have missed.
Science, Technology, Natural World
An evolutionary biologist explains what we already know: cats are perfect. [££££]
Nevertheless we’re still trying to fully understand how cats purr.
A Pacific Footballfish (yes, really; they’re a type of anglerfish) has washed up on the Californian coast; only about 30 known specimens have ever been collected.
And now for something completely different … how many tectonic plates does Earth have?
Scientists are saying the Moon is 40 million years older than we thought. Well unless there’s a lot we’re not being told, I don’t find it totally convincing.
Meanwhile way, way out in space the two 50-year-old Voyager probes, now out beyond the solar system, are being given code updates to prolong their mission even more.
So you think quantum physics is weird? Well it isn’t; its weirder! [££££]
Health, Medicine
They’ve tested it, and it turns out the ancient honey-and-vinegar mix is a really effective wound treatment. But then so is superglue. [££££]
It’s long been received wisdom, but does chicken soup really help when you’re sick?
On which note, how many microbes does it take to make you ill? [LONG READ]
Another piece of long-held wisdom is that young, health adults were more vulnerable to the 1918 flu virus. Examination of some skeletons suggests this wasn’t so.
It may sound morbid or traumatising, but researchers are still trying to understand what really happens during a near-death experience. [LONG READ]
Environment
Many of the UK’s big wine retailers have joined forces on the Bottle Weight Accord aimed at globally reducing the weight of glass bottles.
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Aboriginal Australian languages have finally helped linguistics researchers show that a language’s grammar affects how the speaker sees. [££££] [LONG READ]
Many people have assumed the worst, but it is doubtful Lewis Carroll was actually a paedophile?
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
There’s this theory that men evolved to hunt and women evolved to gather (wrapped around childcare etc.). But the thing is, it’s wrong. [££££] [LONG READ]
There are some footprints in New Mexico which if correctly dated mean humans were in the Americas much earlier than thought. It also seems that the first American settlers weren’t who we thought [LONG READ] they were.
In Spain archaeologists have discovered 9500-year-old baskets and 6200-year-old shoes in a bat cave.
Did Stone Age peoples have toilets? It looks like at least some did. [LONG READ]
There’s one small glimmer of light amongst the climate change which is melting all the ice … some interesting ancient artefacts are coming to the surface from their alpine deep freeze. [LONG READ]
At the other end of the scale, scientists in Israel are having some success growing date palms from 2000-year-old seeds found at sites in the Jordanian desert.
Staying in Europe … in Italy a 2200-year-old tomb has been discovered – and it’s decorated with a mythical hellhound and sea-centaurs.
Declassified satellite images of Syria and Iraq from 1960s and 70s are revealing a large number of Roman forts in the area; far more than were expected.
Never let it be said that Romans didn’t have all mod cons, because it appears that at least some had their own wine fridge.
Also dating from the Roman period, an 1800-year-old sarcophagus, which held a woman of “special status” has been unearthed in NE France.
Let’s skip quickly over to the Americas again … the Mayan reservoirs relied on aquatic plants to help provide clean water.
And we’re back in Europe and with that melting ice … a rare, well preserved and possibly Viking, horse bridle has emerged from melting ice in Norway.
It seems that the Vikings had windows as fragments of Viking-Age window glass have been found in Denmark and Sweden.
Our favourite medievalist has written a short explication of the Holy Roman Empire. [LONG READ]
Medieval manors were actually important employers; here’s a look at some of the jobs.
Meanwhile medieval people got murdered, and some academics have put together murder maps for three cities.
Agrippa’s De occulta philosophia (1533), a manual of learned magic, explicated the ways in which magicians systematically understood and manipulated the cosmos. [LONG READ]
Now coming almost up to date … 19th-century Britain had this aversion to allowing women to practice medicine.
Food, Drink
Researchers have finally revealed the true origins of grapes and wine. [££££] [LONG READ]
So just why are 1 in 7 of us addicted to ultra-processed foods? [LONG READ]
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
It that time of year, but Katherine May suggests ways in which the can lighten these dark months.
Here are ten questions to help start an important conversation with a teenager (well anyone really).
A professional architectural photographer talks about the magic of photographing the Romney Marsh Churches. [LONG READ]
Still down in Kent, my friend Katy Wheatley got to see round the late Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage which is in one of my favourite places, the desolation of Dungeness.
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
Finally … the heroic and amazing exploits of animals working for us including ferret electricians and land-mine clearing rats. [LONG READ]
Our monthly look at what happened 100 years ago.
On this day, 16 October 1923 …
Here we go again with this month’s collection of links to items which interested me and which you maybe didn’t want to miss.
Science, Technology, Natural World
On the colours of the stars. [££££]
There are some small “earthquakes” on the moon, and the cause is somewhat surprising.
They’re still hunting for the missing flight MH370, and now there is hope of finding it using divination by barnacles.
Scientists have found a huge, remote, Fijian cave, and it’s full of tiny endangered bats. [££££]
Scientists are looking at dreaming and REM sleep across the animal kingdom.
So just how old is the oldest aquarium fish? We know koi carp can live to 80, but Methuselah is even older.
Health, Medicine
Explaining both the neuroscience and physiology of fear and anxiety.
More screening for cancers sounds like it could be good for many of us, but there are serious questions over whether the NHS could cope with it.
Girls, your vagina has it’s own microbiome (just as our guts and skin do), so here are a few pointers on how to look after it.
Yes, it turns out the so-called “male menopause” is a thing for at least some men. [££££]
So is pee sterile?
The medicinal leech has a long history, and is still used today.
Most of us suffer from delusions of some form, however mildly. Here are the five most common.
We all have childhood memories – some of us more than others – but how reliable are they?
It seems that some people whose brains flatline but survive can recall lucid “experiences of death“.
Sexuality
Just what were the rules around masturbation in Ancient Greece? As if one can put rules round such a thing! [££££]
Here are some things most of us don’t know, but probably should, about emergency contraception.
Environment
A recent report says that Britain’s ocean fish populations are in a quite some trouble.
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Seemingly the speed at which someone talks has no relationship to intelligence.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Researchers have calculated that the species which were to become Homo sapiens suffered a population bottleneck, and could have gone extinct, almost a million years ago.
Meanwhile researchers in southern Africa have discovered some ½million year old timbers which appear to have been woodworked.
5000-7000 years ago there was a culture in what’s now Eastern Europe which burned its houses down every couple of generations – but we don’t know why.
On the age of, and reasons for, the Egyptian pyramids.
Along with Greek rules around masturbation (see above) the ancient world had various rules about with female beauty. [££££]
Two rare Roman cavalry swords from around 200AD have been found in the Cotswolds.
On a similar note, an early medieval warrior buried with his weapons has been found in Germany.
In around 900AD there was a very powerful woman who ruled over that Papacy.
On the involvement of the Templars in the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170.
A bit further on … a 14th-century cannon has been found off Swedish coast.
Cannibalism in human history has rarely been just about eating to survive.
An Ode to the Rag-and-Bone Man.
Food, Drink
Notable Sandwiches #68: Francesinha e Francesinha Poveira.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
Do opposites attract? Apparently not as research is suggesting that couples are more likely to be similar than different.
Another for the girls … Attractive though it may be, in more ways than one, apparently going braless does come at a cost. However if you’re going to wear a bra, then find your correct size, ‘cos it probably isn’t what you think.
So what is it about school nicknames? Harry Mount suggests that while they can be fantastically rude, the ruder they are, the more affectionate.
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
Finally, this year’s Ig Nobel Prize winners have been revealed.
Our monthly look at what happened 100 years ago.
On this day, 1 September 1923 saw …
