Category Archives: history

history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

So here goes with this month’s outsized collection of links to items you may have missed.

Science, Technology & Natural World

Issus coleoptratusA few days ago I had a strange little bug in the house. It turned out to be the planthopper Issus coleoptratus. And I found out the nymphs of this insect are incredible as they have the only known mechanical gears ever found in nature. Here’s a piece about these gears.
[That’s my photo on the right.]

While we’re on strangenesses … What happens when octopus are give MDMA? Does it affect their distributed brain the same way it does ours? Well naturally scientists had to find out!

Many people don’t like termites (and for good reason) but they’re incredible insects which can actually teach us a lot. [VERY LONG READ]

Scientists have realised that they can mine twitter for observations of nature.

Fungi are another of the fascinating orders of nature.

Leaving the natural world behind, scientists have developed artificial genes which demonstrate that life does not have to be based on DNA. [£££££]

But then again, if there are dead civilisations out there in the cosmos, how are we going to conduct cosmic archaeology to search for them?

Health & Medicine

It seems that we dream even when under general anaesthetic. [£££££]

We all know that 98.6°F (37°C) is our normal body temperature. Except when it isn’t, of course.

So what is going on in our guts? And do probiotics actually make any difference?

The vagina is self-cleaning – so why does the ‘feminine hygiene’ industry exist?

100 years on from the Spanish flu and the disease still stalks us.

Many older people have been advised to take an aspirin a day, even if they don’t have symptoms of cardiovascular disease. Medics now think this is risky.

Men and women experience migraine attacks differently due to both physiology and sociology.

A new UK study of depression is recruiting 40,000 volunteers to find if there are genetic markers for the disease.

Sexuality

So what are the secrets to fulfilling sex in a long-term relationship? Seems like there’s no really special magic but lots of being.

Environment

Beavers are amazing creatures and it appears that they could have a role in combating climate change. (But you don’t ever want to have to sex one!)

How would you like a wolf living near you? Personally I’d rather like to have a wolf living in my area. How about you?

The National Trust in South Wales are experimenting with a return to medieval strip farming, and it sounds like an environmental win.

Finally someone has had the courage to call out what I’ve been suggesting for a long time: abandoning nuclear power could increase carbon emissions.

Art & Literature

Apparently the male nude is back in fashion in art circles.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Archaeologists were initially puzzled by the skeleton of a 3,000 year old ancient Greek female. But it turns out she was a master ceramicist.

A couple of years ago IanVisits went to Broughton Castle near Banbury. I went there recently during a conference in Oxford, and it is every bit as spectacular as IanVisits says.

In his late 17th century journal sailor Edward Barlow confessed to a rape. But he then covered it over and the evidence lay hidden until modern conservators got to work uncovering an intriguing tale.

Christopher Kissane in the Irish Times blows the lid on the historical nonsense which underpins UK’s Brexit floundering.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

From the annals of the unexpected … Many of us lack a degree of self-control, but researchers have shown that having a simple ritual can help.

We in Britain are losing our shared spaces (pubs, clubs, libraries, churches) and becoming more isolated and cliquey.

So how do you win friends and then keep them for years? Emma Beddington has some ideas.

Food & Drink

Britain’s Food Standards Agency has been testing meat products, and worrying they find 20% contain the DNA of animals they aren’t supposed to, and that it appears to be deliberate.

Shock, Horror, Humour

Finally this years Ig Nobel Prize winners were announced a week or so ago. DIY colonoscopy anyone? Or just the need to use a voodoo doll to get revenge on your boss?

books, history

Book Non-Review

Kate Bennett (Editor)
John Aubrey: Brief Lives with An Apparatus for the Lives of our English Mathematical Writers
(OUP; paperback, 2vv, £50, 2018; hardback, 1vv, £250, 2015)

I’ve been dipping into the paperback edition of this enormous work over the last few weeks. It is so massive – the two volumes are together almost 2000 pages! – that dip into it is all one realistically can do, hence my reluctance to write proper review.

No, almost 2000 pages is not an exaggeration. Amazon quotes the work as being 1968 pages. So no wonder OUP have split the paperback edition into two volumes.

Volume I is 900+ pages and contains John Aubrey’s Brief Lives, together with “The Apparatus …” and a 125-page extended introduction. The Brief Lives themselves are, for the first time ever, reprinted entire and complete with Aubrey’s marginalia (often heraldic drawings, but also notes). Volume II is over 1000 pages of scholarly notes and commentary on the content of Volume I plus 50 pages of index.

I really can’t do better than to quote a couple of the reviews (also quoted on Amazon) from two other Aubrey scholars:

It is not an exaggeration to claim that until Kate Bennett came along, no one properly understood what the Brief Lives are … [Her edition] marks a new beginning for Aubrey scholarship … It is fitting that such scholarly devotion, extending over two decades, should have given rise to an edition that is an innovation in its own right. Nothing like it has appeared before, and it will last, if not forever, for a very long time.
[Ruth Scurr, Times Literary Supplement]

This is an outstanding achievement and will undoubtedly be the standard edition of the Brief Lives for the foreseeable future … In its rich and varied content it is of interest … to anyone studying English learned culture in the seventeenth century, particularly historians of the Royal Society, of mathematics and of antiquarianism. Aubrey himself was acutely concerned that his works should be satisfactorily edited and made use of after his death; in this edition he is luckier than he could have hoped for.
[Kelsey Jackson Williams, History]

Having heard Kate Bennet speak at the 2016 Anthony Powell Conference in York, and been fortunate enough to sit next to her at the conference dinner, I can certainly vouch for her enthusiasm, insight and wide-ranging interests. And this is an amazing piece of work.

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

So here we are then with this month’s selection of links to items you may have missed the first time round. There’s a lot her again this month, and as usual we’ll start with the “harder” science-y stuff and slalom downhill from there.

Science, Technology & Natural World

So are we alone in the universe? Maybe or maybe not. Science doesn’t know. [£££]

The Earth’s tectonic activity might be essential for the evolution of life.

Most of us hate the sound of our own voices when we hear recordings. Here’s why.

A New Yorker article on the obsessive search for the Tasmanian Tiger (aka. Thylacine). [VERY LONG READ]

Balls! The males of all mammals have them, but not all are on display: some species don’t have descended testicles.

Who could have predicted that crows can work a vending machine – and make their own tokens.

That clean swimming pool smell … turns out it isn’t too good for you!

Health & Medicine

There’s this yeast; it’s a strange and deadly superbug.

So just how easy is it to catch germs from a toilet seat?

Women’s healthcare could be normalised by employers understanding the need for menstrual leave.

Low risk of breast cancer? Seems like skipping that mammogram isn’t such a bad idea.

Two items on fish oil and Omega-3 supplements. A study by the Cochrane Institute (who are the gold standard of medical reviews) concludes the supplements give no protection against heart disease and stroke. And what’s more the second article points out that such supplements are doing immense harm to the planet.

There’s a better medicine for the elderly than umpteen pills. It’s called social prescribing, where GPs can signpost people to activities and support – except most don’t know what is actually available.

Sexuality

Do lesbians have better sex than straight women? Seems like they probably do.

Environment

I remember my father talking about this 50+ years ago, so it’s been known for years (and ignored) that we need to look after and repair the soil to grow crops sustainably and with good yields.

Timber! So just how are tree trunks cut to make wood with a range of uses and appearances?

Social Sciences, Business, Law

Now I was suggesting this as a corporate strategy some 12 or more years ago, and it has taken this long for someone to catch on: accountancy giant PwC is making employees use mobile phones and cancelling landlines.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Archaeologists have unearthed an unknown Neolithic site near Woodbridge in Suffolk. Ritual is suspected.

IanVisits pays a visit to Avebury Stone circle (above).

Ireland is having a hot, dry summer which is good for revealing crop marks of ancient remains. In one a drone has spotted the outline of a previously unknown henge near Newgrange.

Slightly nearer home, soldiers have found the skeleton of a Saxon warrior on Salisbury Plain.

There’s an unexpected cockatoo in the margins of a 13th-century manuscript in the Vatican. And it’s forcing a rethink of the ancient trade routes.

Meanwhile on the north Kent coast a 16th-century shipwreck is being revealed by the sea, and it too is expected to reveal a lot about trade in Tudor England.

Still on watery archaeology, there is a massive metro construction project in Amsterdam which is necessitating the clearance of some stretches of canal. The astonishing range of finds, right back into pre-history, has been put online.

London

Kew Gardens station has a remarkable concrete bridge. IanVisits goes to see.

The Horniman Museum in south-east London has a new World Display as well as being all-round interesting.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Are things getting worse – or does it just feel that way?

And are women’s breasts getting bigger – or is it just bras? (Or is it just low levels of hormones in food?)

Some schools are banning girls from wearing skirts supposedly to protect the girls. But skirts aren’t the problem; the problem is boys who think girls are lesser creatures. No, just let girls and boys wear skirts, or trousers, as they please.

A parents’ guide to surviving children’s teen years.

So just why do people believe in superstition and the unbelievable?

People avoid adopting black cats because they’re supposed to be unlucky and because they are hard to photograph. Neither is actually true!

Ah yes, the cashless society. It’s another big con of the banking sector to boost its profits. As Sweden is beginning to realise, if you don’t have cash the whole of society is vulnerable to computer malfunction, attack and power failure. Just think about that for a minute.

Food & Drink

On the history of borscht.

Shock, Horror, Humour

And finally one from Norfolk Police, who stopped a motorist only to find he was driving while sitting on a bucket and steering with pliers!

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

There’s again a lot in this month’s round up of items you may have missed the first time. So here goes …

Science, Technology & Natural World

Maglev trains have been around for a surprisingly long time, so why aren’t they ubiquitous?

Inter-species hybrids were once looked on as just biological misfits, but science is now coming to appreciate their importance for evolution. [LONG READ]

Did you know that witches’ brooms grow on trees? You do now!

Tidal power is supposed to be able to provide a significant percentage of the world’s energy needs, but a close look suggests it won’t. [£££]

Health & Medicine

Here’s a little about how Moorfields Eye Hospital in London really has changed the world.

It’s only a matter of time before we get the next major pandemic. An American-centric look at our preparedness? [VERY LONG READ]

The medical profession prescribe a lot of opioid painkillers. But are they all they’re cracked up to be, and would we miss them if they weren’t there?

Restoring life using CPR is brutal and rarely works. So why do people have so much faith in it and demand resuscitation at all costs?

Against most specialists expectations there’s work going on to develop a single vaccination to prevent several common cancers. It’s about to start a major trial in dogs.

While we’re on cancer, the placenta may just give us insights into cancer treatment – it’s just one of nine ways the placenta is so amazing. [£££]

Scientific American recently asked “When Does Consciousness Arise in Human Babies?”

Did you know you have an “inverse piano” in your head? Well actually there are two and they’re in your ears.

Finally in this section, Fred Pearce in the Guardian, takes another look at the real fallout from the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster.

Sexuality

Why was it ever in doubt that women can have multiple orgasms?

Environment

Here are two articles on the length of time it takes garbage to decompose. The first is fairly general; the second gives us the following graphic looking at plastic and other rubbish in the sea.

And while we’re on plastic, Annie Leonard in the Guardian says that the “plastic crisis” is too big to be solved by recycling alone.

The Woodland Trust are understandably – and quite rightly – angry at Network Rail’s apparent plans to clear trees from railway embankments.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

History tells us that all cultures have their sell-by date, so has the West’s time come and are we on the brink of collapse?

Oxford and Cambridge Colleges own a bigger portfolio of property than Church of England.

The rail industry are running a public consultation on rail fare structure prior to submitting proposals to the government. Do have your say.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Aethelflaed: A Saxon warrior queen who was out to vanquish the Vikings.

London

Layers of London is a super resource which allows you to overlay a number of old maps on the current street plan of London. One of the best is the Tudor layout of 1520. IanVisits takes a look.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

So just why are Dutch teenagers among the happiest in the world? And couldn’t we learn something from their approach?

Here’s Zen Master and writer Brad Warner contemplating the problem of spirituality, religion, the ego and intellectual honesty. It is readable, and well worth a read.

Meanwhile the Guardian (again!) reports that UK homes vulnerable to a staggering level of corporate surveillance from smart TVs, smartphones, laptops, security cameras etc.

Shock, Horror, Humour

And finally, just because it isn’t 1st April … a prep school in Derbyshire has lost its Bakewell pudding in space. So very careless!

More next month!

arts, history, personal, pleasures

Waltham Abbey – 1

Monday of this week saw us on a special away-day to Waltham Abbey, but I’ll keep you in suspense about the specialness until part 2.

I was brought up in Waltham Cross, just a couple of miles as the crow flies across the Lea Valley and marshes from Waltham Abbey, and although we didn’t go there frequently, I remember the town from my childhood.

I’ve not been to Waltham Abbey since Valentine’s Day 1979 (a day with an inch of ice on every road!) when Noreen and I went out to an expensive restaurant there. And it’s even longer since I was there in daylight.

We didn’t have to be at our appointed place until midday, but having contracted a friend to drive us, we decided to leave early, at 8am, as we knew we had to negotiate the London suburbs to the M25 and then one of the most notorious sections of the motorway. After a slow start we were amazed to be parked up outside Waltham Abbey Church before 9.30. So we had time to spare.

The first requisite was breakfast, and The Gatehouse Café opposite the west door of the Abbey church was calling. Full English Breakfast all round as we didn’t know whether we would get lunch. I’d spotted the café had good ratings on TripAdvisor, and we weren’t disappointed.

Breakfast over, we still had plenty of time to investigate the Abbey church – which I had not been in since singing in a choir there 50 years ago! And let me tell you this is a church well worth a visit.

Waltham Abbey was re-founded by King Harold 1060, there having been a place of worship there since the 7th century. It is said that Harold’s battle cry at Hastings in 1066 was “For the Holy Cross of Waltham” – the Holy Cross being an early 11th century “relic” owned by the Abbey. And it is also reputed that Harold was buried in the Abbey church – there is today a memorial stone (the Harold Stone) some way outside the east end of the church, where the original high alter would have been – the church was originally at least twice the size of what you see today (indeed what you see today is only the nave of the original 12th century church).

The Abbey church itself is of Norman architecture, with decorated round arches in the nave, clerestory and triforium, and substantial round pillars some of which are decorated with spiral or zigzag cut stonework.

Waltham Abbey Tower

The abbey was re-founded (again!) as an Augustinian priory in 1177 by Henry II as part of his penance for the murder of Thomas Becket.

In 1290 the Abbey at Waltham was one of the resting places of Queen Eleanor’s body on its journey from Lincolnshire to burial at Westminster. On the orders of Edward I a cross was erected at each overnight stop, and the one at Waltham was placed at what is now Waltham Cross, being both the nearest solid ground to the Abbey and on the then road north out of London. Waltham Cross is one of only three of the original 12 crosses which survive; the others are at Geddington and Hardingstone. (The cross outside Charing Cross Station is a Victorian replica, and several hundred yards from the original site – but that’s a different story.)

Waltham was the last abbey in England to be dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540 – a mark of its importance – with the last Abbot and the cannons receiving handsome annuities or other payments. This included Thomas Tallis who had been a senior “singing-man” since 1538 and who went on to a post in the choir at Canterbury Cathedral. The Holy Cross also seems to have disappeared at this time. Since the Dissolution the Abbey church has been the local parish church, with the addition of a 16th century tower but demolition of the remaining Abbey buildings.

Waltham Abbey Denny Tomb
The Denny Tomb

The church still contains a couple of Tudor monuments; there is a section of painted wall and a Tudor window in the Lady Chapel; as well as some hideous Victorian additions. The 16th century tower is faced with some rather pretty flint-work and the church stands in a substantial, well-kept and treed churchyard. Much of the Abbey grounds are still preserved, although the only remains are a gateway and the remnants of a bridge.

All in all it is well worth a visit.

From here we went on to our to our midday appointment, which I’ll tell you about tomorrow in part 2.

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

Here’s this month’s collection of links to items you may have missed the first time round. As usual we start with the seriously scientific and end with … the not so seriously scientific.

Science, Technology & Natural World

London blogger Diamond Geezer visits the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington. I’ve never been there, but I really should because, although it will be much changed, my mother worked here as a draughtsman’s tracer during the WW2.

A guide to the spiritual world of Hawaii’s lava. Guess you need it if you insist on sitting atop a huge volcano!

We have this notion that all humans are descended from a small population in East Africa. However the current theories are that this is wrong and that our origins are much more diverse and colourful. [LONG READ] [£££]

Now you might think this is bit of an obvious thing to do, but scientists have finally unravelled the genetic secrets of roses.

So what sort of nutter spends his life being stung by insects? Justin O Schmidt is the answer.

Health & Medicine

Do you keep marine fish? If so do you know how deadly your aquarium might be?

It seems that migraine changes your brain and the way you experience the world – all the time, not just during an attack. [LONG READ] [£££]

Nothing is off limits at the Menopause Cafe – watch the video!

Sexuality

Oral sex has been around for a long, long time: here’s a brief history from ancient China to DJ Khaled.

Environment

So how are we really going to solve our waste problem? New Scientist takes a look. [£££]

This is why I don’t indulge in long-haul, safari holidays: it seems tourism’s carbon impact is three times larger than previously estimated.

Following which, the Guardian looks at the true cost of eating meat, only to find this is also even worse that we thought.

But then we can’t even manage the food we don’t eat: Sainsbury’s has dropped a pilot project to halve food waste.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

So here’s a 45-year-long American study on how to raise genius children. No it isn’t for parents to “hothouse” normal kids but to take the brightest and stretch them. Now explain to me why we shouldn’t have Grammar Schools! [LONG READ]

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

New evidence suggests that ancient humans settled the Philippines 700,000 years ago. That’s around 600,000 years before previously thought.

The Ancient British Queen Boudica was the scourge of the Roman’s in Britain. Or was she?

How about finding an 800-year-old label to date a shipwreck in the Java Sea – and thereby rewrite its history?

Wow! Just, WOW! An historian has created an incredibly detailed map (above) of the medieval trade routes across Europe, much of Africa and much of Asia. Absolutely stunning!

London

So just why has the number of Londoners using are tube recently fallen so dramatically?

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Scientific American reckons that we don’t understand ourselves as well as we think, and offers ten things you don’t know about yourself.

If you’re really curious, and not at all paranoid, you can get a clue as to how long you are going to live.

Every year there is a Boring Conference in London. Diamond Geezer reports on this year’s siesta fiesta.

Did you ever want to know everything Facebook and Google know about you? Here’s how. [LONG READ]

Shock, Horror, Humour

And to round off this month’s offerings, we have not one, but three amusements …

Ever wondered what to do with your old bras? Well you can always donate them to the cows.

Not to be beaten by the Boring Conference, the Flat Earth Conference suggests the Universe is an egg and the moon isn’t real. There’s another report here.

And finally … If you ever happen across a Tube Snake, do make sure you report its location as they are an endangered species in need of conservation.

Toodle-pip.

environment, history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Interesting Links

As regular readers will realise, I read a lot of articles in consumer science, consumer history and the more general media over the course of a month – articles which look as if they will interest me. (I don’t generally read politics, business etc.). What I post here are only those items which I think may be of more general interest to you, my readers, being mindful that the humanities people amongst you might want a bit of “soft” science; and the scientists a bit of humanities. So I do try to mostly avoid difficult science and academically dense Eng.Lit. or history – ‘cos you don’t all want to struggle with/be interested in that, though some may. And I obviously don’t expect everyone to read everything, but just to pick the items which interest you most; if you find one or two each month then that’s good.

So, having restated my aims for this series, let’s get down to business – because there is a lot to cover this month.

Science, Technology & Natural World

We start off with something which surprised me: the engineers building Crossrail had to take the curvature of the Earth into account, because of the length of the line and the precision with which some of the tunnels had to be threaded through between existing structures.

Staying on an engineering theme, scientists have developed a method of making wood as strong as steel, and thus potentially useable as a high strength building material.

Changing themes, what really is biodiversity and why is it so important?

The curious history of horses’ hooves, and how five digits became just one.

Following the attack on a pair of Russians in Salisbury, several of the scientific media have been asking what nerve agents are and how they work. This is Scientific American‘s view.

Health & Medicine

A strange, six inch long, “mummy” was found in Chile some years ago, and many people decided it was an alien – hardly surprising given its appearance. However, following DNA testing it has finally been confirmed that it was a very deformed, female, human infant.

Musician Taylor Muhl has a large birthmark on her torso, but it turns out that it isn’t a birthmark but that she’s a chimera, having absorbed a twin sister in utero in the very early days of gestation.

Influenza is relatively common, and benign, in may non-primate species which provide a natural reservoir for the virus. And there are many other such viruses out in the wild which are a concern as (like Ebola, Zika, SARS) they could mutate and jump to humans.

On a similar theme, researchers are coming to realise that there is a genetic component to our susceptibility to many diseases and that disease prevalence partly depends on the genetic mutations we carry.

Sexuality

From consent advice to sex toys and masturbation hacks, YouTube has taken over sex education.

Language

While on sex, the Whores of Yore website has a history of Cunt, the word.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Researchers have analysed a huge number of DNA samples to discover that Homo sapiens interbred with Denisovans on multiple occasions, as we did with the Neanderthals.

Why did Oxford and Cambridge have a monopoly on UK university education for several hundred years, when universities proliferated across the rest of Europe?

Long before the height of the slave trade and the British Empire, black Africans lived freely in Tudor England.

In 1600 Giordano Bruno burned at the stake as a heretic and it looks likely that this was for believing in the existence of planets outside our solar system.

The oldest message in a bottle has been found on a beach in Western Australia.

London

Mudlarking: the pursuit of archaeological treasures hiding in the mud of the River Thames foreshore. Warning: you need a licence!

John Joseph Merlin, a wizard in Georgian London.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Brad Warner, one of our two favourite Zen Masters, on waking up happy.

So just how many beak-ups does one have to have before one finds “the one”? Search me!

The exorcists are coming, and it doesn’t look good.

We’re living through a crisis of touch where lots of basic human contact like hugging is no longer acceptable – and it is having a serious effect on our mental health.

OK guys, this is for you: 100 easy ways to make women’s lives better. Basically: be considerate!

Finally, following on from the above two items, an article I found rather nauseating about the supposed crisis in modern masculinity. Gawdelpus all!

More next month! Meanwhile, be good!

beliefs, environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

Again there is a lot in this month’s edition of “Monthly Links”, so straight in …
Science, Technology & Natural World
If anyone thought that human evolution was straightforward and going to be easy to unravel, they need to think again! Hannah Devlin in the Guardian looks at the tangled web.
Sorry, guys, but the jury is still out whether human pheromones exist.
An interesting account of one journalist’s experience of putting everything in their house on the internet of things, and just how much information ends up in places you maybe wouldn’t want it.
Health & Medicine
A very useful article from Quanta showing how herd immunity from vaccination actually works and why immunisation rates are important (oh, and the – not too hard – maths behind it).
Giardia is a nasty little protozoan parasite which is prevalent in developing countries, but even in the developed world it can affect both us and our pets. Now, at last, scientists are beginning to understand how it works.
Sexuality
Our favourite OB/GYN, Dr Jen Gunther, discusses why some women find sex painful, and what they might do about it.


A banned Georgian sex manual reveals strange beliefs. And it’s up for auction next month.
Scientific American‘s Mind spin-off looks at how to be a better spouse.
Environment
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet says Earth is just a big spaceship with a crew and, like any craft, it needs to be maintained and looked after.
Giving up plastic, and really getting it out of our lives, is a surprisingly big challenge. Here’s how a few brave souls fared when trying.
But on another front there is some hope: that the UK might adopt the Norwegian bottle recycling system.
In the first of two articles this month from George Monbiot he looks at some of the ancient philosophy which is holding back our ability to embrace environmental change.
Our second Monbiot article he is mobilising us against a US trade deal, and especially US farming practices.
The answer it seems is wildflowers: strips of wildflowers through fields enable farmers to reduce pesticide spraying and help beneficial native species to flourish.
History, Archaeology & Anthropology
Some researchers are suggesting that our ancestor, Homo erectus, may have been able to sail and to speak.
Rather later on the journey to modern man, it seems the first Britons probably had dark skin, curly hair and blue eyes – at least the one buried in the Cheddar Caves did.
When do architects set up camp? When they’re building Stonehenge, of course.
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, some clever aerial imaging has discovered a huge Mayan city in the Guatemalan jungle.
Something special happened in 1504: a blood moon eclipse. nd without it the world might have been rather different.
Not long after Columbus and his blood moon eclipse, Henry VIII established the Royal College of Physicians to regulate the practice of medicine in and around London. And they’re still at it, and no longer just in London! And incidentally their museum is free and well worth visiting; and the interior (if not for everyone the exterior) of their Denis Lasdun building is a delight.
London
Which brings us nicely on to London …
An academic report says that the noise on parts of the London Underground is so loud that it could damage passengers and staff hearing.
However London Underground health & safety seem more keen on telling us how to use an escalator. But then most people are in need of this knowledge.
Lifestyle & Personal Development
The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, or Candlemas, is celebrated on 2nd February. It looks like another of those pagan winter light festivals reinvented by the church.
So what really is the secret of having a truly healthy city? Better go ask Copenhagen.

And now for something completely different: felines with official positions and cats with careers.
Food & Drink
Noreen and I have been taking about false food for years, now it seems that researchers have cottoned on to its pervasiveness.
Finally some real food: an ancient Greek recipe for a honey cheesecake. I must say, it’s not my taste though.

More at the end of March – which is Easter weekend.

history, people, personal

Where's Flo?

FloFor quite a few years I’ve puzzled over why I am unable to find my maternal grandmother, Florence Elizabeth Coker (pictured right in 1972, about a year before her death aged 88) on the 1911 census. At the time of the census she was 27 and still single (she married a couple of years later and my mother was born in 1915). She was known at that time to be living with her mother and three brothers in the East End of London where she worked in her mother’s tailoring business.
Her mother (my great-grandmother) is on the census with her three sons, one of whom completes and signs the census return. My great-grandfather is known to have left his wife and is on the 1911 census living about half a mile away with another woman, her two sons (by her husband) and a 6-month-old girl who appears to have bee sired by my great-grandfather. [That is a story for another day!]
But where is Flo? She isn’t with either of her parents. Indeed I have been totally unable to find any trace of her anywhere in the country. Was she abroad? I think that’s unlikely, although I can’t rule it out.
It so happens I’m a member of London Historians, and their latest newsletter (February 2018) has an article by Anne Carwardine, a specialist on suffragette history – well this is the centenary of the first round of female suffrage. In it I found the following paragraph:

Census Night
Despite Black Friday, the WSPU maintained a truce for much of 1910 and 1911, hopeful that legislation giving women the vote would soon be passed. In April 1911, the census provided them with an opportunity for peaceful protest. There were two main options – resist (by refusing to provide information) or evade (by staying away from home at midnight, so that you would not be counted). The largest organised evasion took place in central London. Late on the evening of April 1st, small groups of women walked through the streets and converged on Trafalgar Square. A crowd gathered to watch them, although on this occasion the atmosphere was friendly, with plenty of cheers and laughter. After Big Ben had struck twelve, many of the suffragettes headed eastwards, singing “Let’s All Go Down the Strand”. The Rinkeries, a roller skating rink on the Aldwych, was kept open all night for census protestors and several hundred women (together with a few men) skated through the night, accompanied by a band. There was also entertainment – Ethel Smyth conducted the March of the Women, WSPU leaders made speeches and well-known actresses read suffrage poems. Refreshments were available in the nearby Gardenia Restaurant, where suffragettes acted as waitresses for the night. Early the next morning, the skaters headed wearily home, having achieved the publicity they wanted.

Dutifully I have checked a number of other sources and this scenario appears to be correct – indeed it is much more complex than this one paragraph outlines.
This is something of which I was totally unaware!
Now I don’t remember ever hearing my grandmother (who died when I was a student), or my mother, speak about suffrage, votes for women or anything of the sort. Indeed before she died I had told my mother about the mystery of Flo missing from the census and she was as puzzled as I. But here we have a possible explanation. Could she have been one of the partying suffragettes who were deliberately not at home at midnight and hence could truthfully not be counted. Or was Flo one of those who refused to allow her name to be put on the census form (which would have been illegal), a wish which was accepted by her brother who completed the form.
I am never likely to know for certain. But, despite how little I knew my grandmother, I suspect this could well be the answer. It would not have been entirely out of character.
And we think we live in interesting times!

history, links, medical, science

Your Interesting Links

Here here we are with the first 2018 collection of links to articles you may have missed the first time.
Science & Natural World
Long, long ago one of Britain’s most eminent natural scientists (as they then were), Robert Boyle (1627-1691), wrote a wish list of scientific breakthroughs. The original document still survives in the Royal Society and Jason Kottke has recently taken a look at what happened to some of those aspirations.
So just why is it so hard to swat a fly? Spoiler: Time!
It’s known that around 10% of humans are naturally left-handed, but cats have paw preferences too though they appear to be gender dependent.
From cats to rats. Unlike the former, the latter do not have a good reputation. But is this really deserved? Should we look more kindly on the rat? I think we probably should.
I wasn’t sure whether to put this here, or at the end … Zoologists have decided that the Moustached Monkey is separate species. And yes, it really does have a handlebar moustache!


In another curious discovery, divers have found a previously unknown population of Red Handfish which walk on their fins rather than swimming!

For some years there has been debate over whether some curious and tiny structures in very very old rocks are signs of primordial life. Now the scientists involved are presenting new evidence which could challenge our current ideas about Earth’s early millennia. [LONG READ]
Health & Medicine
What is the next big global health threat? Zoologist Mackenzie Kwak in the Guardian makes the case that it isn’t an infectious disease but a disease vector: ticks.
And now for a strange piece of medicine: it seems that some people are able to smell illnesses. [LONG READ]
We, all of us, men included, need to find the courage to talk about cervical smears. Not being female I don’t know how uncomfortable and undignified they really are (and I doubt my imagination does it justice) but this is one screening test which really does save lives.
Now this really is weird! Medics have discovered that when you move your eyes from side-to-side your eardrums move as well. And no-one has a clue why that is! You may be able to demonstrate this for yourself (I think I can): sit quietly and move your eyes up and down and notice what it feels/sounds like in your ears; now try moving your eyes side to side and I think it feels ever so slightly different in the ears.
Environment
Respected scientist Prof. Sir John Beddington FRS is a former UK government chief scientific adviser. He puts forward the case that the EU’s renewable energy targets (specifically as related to bioenergy) could raise emissions rather than lower them.
Apparently no-one wants used clothes any more. Why? China!
Living without plastic. Is it even possible? Well here are a few hints & tips on how you might be able to.
Language
Harry Mount considers why, even in this digital age, Latin is an essential skill.
“As Black as Newgate’s Knocker” is a phrase I’d never encountered before. London Guide Peter Berthoud looks for its origins.
How did War Artists depict WWII London? [LONG READ]
Art & Literature

Swedish artist Carolina Falkholt is known for her giant, multi-coloured murals of vulvas. Now she has painted a giant penis on a New York apartment block – only to have it painted over within days. Really!, some people have no sense of fun!
History, Archaeology & Anthropology
Egyptian mummies were often placed in cases made from scraps of used papyrus. Now scientists have worked out a way to read these scraps without destroying the case – and it looks as if they’re going to throw some interesting light on everyday Ancient Egyptian life.
Like many cathedrals Westminster Abbey has attics and hidden corners, especially up in the triforium and above the vaulting. Archaeologists have discovered that they contains a treasure trove amongst the discarded waste including thousands of fragments of early stained glass. How much else have our great churches cleared away?
Early map-making was often somewhat fictitious, if not deliberately so, and many early maps contain islands which have never existed!
London
IanVisits looks back at historic London and some of the Crossrail-style projects which were never built.
Parliament is falling down, not just metaphorically but in reality – the Palace of Westminster is in really dire need of a major refurbishment but everyone is sitting on their hands. [LONG READ]

Lifestyle & Personal Development
Girl on the Net writes a considered piece about the difficult conversations we must all have in response to the the President’s Club revelations and . [LONG READ]
In the same vein here’s another piece which looks at the way everything is skewed in favour of male pleasure while ignoring and denying the concomitant female pain. [LONG READ]
Shock, Horror, Humour
Well, this one had to be our finale … In Saudi Arabia a dozen camels were disqualified from a camel beauty contest for using Botox! You just couldn’t make it up!
Toodle Pip!