Another instalment in our irregular series of items you may have missed. Let’s start, as usual, with the more nerdy stuff, but today with a cartoon …
An interesting cartoon form XKCD which shows the relative (angular) sizes of various celestial objects compared with ground-based ones.
Brooke Borel on all the possible uses for cadavers and why she wants her body cut up for science

Unlike our hunter-gatherer forebears we aren’t great insect eaters. Maybe we should be as they are surprisingly nutritious. Here are seven insects we may be eating in the future. I still think I want them cooked first.
So following on from faecal transplants, scientists are now beginning to make progress on putting a mix of faecal bacteria in a pill. I think I could swallow that.
Only slightly less worryingly, someone somewhere ate a dead shrew in the interests of science. Another curiosity from the IgNobel Awards.
The octopus is weird, surprisingly intelligent and mischievous. Wired investigates.
Another interesting piece, this from the New York Times, on why superstitions may make sense after all.
Christie Aschwanden writing in the Washington Post, looks at the problems with mammograms for all and why she has decided to opt out. Yep, this is the age-old problem with screening: it picks up far too many false positives and leads to over-treatment.
So why are pregnant women warned to stay clear of just about everything? Well there might be a risk, but we really don’t know.
Another Guardian piece this time suggesting that breastfeeding, and indeed the effects of motherhood on the normal (ie. any and every) female body, won’t be treated as normal until photographers and the media are much more open about showing photographs of the same. Yes, indeed, and the same goes for the rest of our bodies — male as well as female.
And let’s also be clear that motherhood is no rest cure. Here’s one guy who is upset that everyone thinks his stay-at-home-and-look-after-the-kids wife doesn’t do anything.
Now we’ll change track. The former railways minister Tom Harris (Labour, Glasgow South) wants the government to “invest in the daily hell of commuting, not HS2” which seems to make sense to me.

So from the ridiculous to the crazy … It’s a slightly old link but here’s a piece about the Codex Seraphinianus, a modern day Voynich Manuscript.
How and why do words become unusable and an investigation of auto-antonyms.
Have you ever wondered how cats see the world? Well scientists have been working it out. Here are some examples.
And finally bizarreness of the month. Fukushima Industries just made a very unfortunate branding choice. Surely has to be a candidate for a sporting mascot!? Enjoy!

Another of our irregular round-ups of things you might have missed. It’s been quite busy while I’ve not been concentrating over the last couple of weeks, so quite a long list today. As usual let’s start with the nerdy stuff.
A couple of week’s ago the 2013 IgNobel Prizes were announced. These are like the Nobel prizes only rather less serious. The IgNobels are awarded for research which makes one laugh and then stop to think, like the paper from Thai doctors on successes reattaching the human penis, unless it was eaten by a duck first. Scientific American has the full list of awards.
OK, enough of this jollity. Do you know how many mammalian viruses there are? No? Good, ‘cos neither do scientists, but they’re trying to work it out. Yes, this could be important for predicting future epidemics.
Another thing you didn’t know … Ten Trigonometry Functions Your Maths Teachers Never Taught You and why they used to be important.

Meanwhile NASA has confirmed that Voyager 1 (above) is boldly going where no probe has gone before. Yes, finally Voyager has left the Solar System and entered interstellar space. My mind boggles every time I think about it, especially as I remember the first Sputnik being launched — and watching it passing over like a fast-moving star.
Back down to earth with a bump … Something else Scientists are investigating is the microbes which live in our homes. And no, we really don’t have much of a clue about what’s where in our homes and there are some slight surprises.
Another piece of work being done by Rob Dunn’s amazing team is investigating the biodiversity of what lives in our belly buttons. Here Rob talks a bit about how they do it.
Meanwhile an American High School teacher is using Twitter as a teaching tool in the classroom.
Wow! It looks as if when we get right down to minute detail many people are real DNA mosaics: it turns out many more than was thought have two (or more) very different versions of DNA. Something else which isn’t fully understood, but is somewhat mind boggling.
Did you know that whales’ ears are sealed? As a result it turns out that their accumulations of earwax creates a complete record of their lives which (if you have a dead whale) can be read.
More usefully, here’s an interactive infographic detailing which so-called superfoods are proven to be useful and which are more likely to be snake oil.
From snake oil to … spiders. It seems the False Widow Spider is moving north as temperatures increase and is now spreading across southern England. Yes it has a nasty bite. No that is not a good reason to go round splatting every spider you see.

While we’re on stings and bites, here’s a guy who appears to enjoy being stung by all manner of insects and taking some amazing photographs (example above) of them in flagrante. Sooner him than me, tho’ I can, in a forensic way, see the fascination.
Oh no, not more insects! Question: Why is it so hard to swat a housefly? Answer: Because it sees you coming in slow motion. Here’s the story of how it is thought to work. More mind boggling science!
Squirrels. You either love ’em or hate ’em. I love ’em but then I don’t live somewhere where squirrels eat power lines.
As a cat lover I know that we have a surprisingly complex relationship with our feline friends. Science is catching up and uncovering the details.
So we’re gradually drifting away from the science now. Ever wondered why you prefer the music you listened to as a teenager? Seems we have a “reminiscence bump” during adolescence and early adulthood. Could also explain why we see our school and student days as so idyllic.
Moving on to the more political, here’s an piece which looks at both sides of twelve arguments for and against HS2, the proposed high-speed rail link from London to the North of England.
Trains to planes … David Pogue looks at some of the many mysteries of air travel.
Yet again scientists have confirmed what we all knew … open plan offices are the pits.
Here’s Dom Knight on why he keeps buying books — real books.
The Independent ran a piece which said what I have always maintained: that legalising cannabis could bring benefits. If you legalise a commodity you can regulate it and tax it. Same applies to prostitutes.
We’re always being told there are rules about what, and what colours, we must/must not wear. Are there really and rules about what to wear? No, I thought not!
And that even includes wearing the niqab. I don’t like them, and I don’t like anyone being forced to wear one. But if they freely choose to, then that surely is their freedom. Heresy Corner contributes to the debate.

Starting last week the British Museum is showing an exhibition of shunga, historic Japanese erotic prints. It looks like a “must see”. It is on until 5 January 2014. [Under 16s only if accompanied by paying adult; parental guidance advised.]
From old Japanese sex to new Swedish sex … A Swedish court has apparently ruled that masturbation in public is legal as long as the act is not targeted at a specific individual. I don’t have a problem with that, but it does take a bit of getting the head round.
Meanwhile here in the UK the CPS has issued some long-overdue and sensible guidance on the prosecution of public nudity. And it is actually readable!
After all of which are you ready for Crackanory? The brilliant Harry Enfield returns with a twisted (adult) spin on children’s classic storytelling show Jackanory.
That’s all folks!

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

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

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

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

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

Another selection of links to articles which interested me but which you may have missed …

How the Greeks won the world.

The government’s former “Drugs Tsar”, Prof. David Nutt sets out to demonstrate that in banning qat, the government may as well ban cats. This simple analogy shows how absurd the basis for the home secretary’s drug prohibition plan really is.

More on government madness … why shouldn’t we re-nationalise the railways?

A scientist documents what it’s like to travel to the bottom of the ocean. It’s a bit short on the “wow” factor though.

Scientists discover a new bird species, exactly where they didn’t expect it: in urban Phnom Penh.

Tarmac, berry fruits and old socks … Proof, if such were needed, that wine-tasting is junk science.

More junk science … Why the myth of Bigfoot is so persistent.

Doubtless all you girls know about HPV and cervical cancer, but what about the incidence of HPV in men?

Seems that sperm like all that girly perfume.

On Caecilius’ willy.

Sacks of nuts! Why all may not be what it seems in the scrotal regions.

Oh no! We’re descending into the nether regions of hell! Did you know that London once had a nude bus?

And finally … Why do we indulge in cunnilingus? Is there more to it than just having a good time? Scicurious lifts the kimono.

Another round-up of items I spotted which you may not have done …

According to the Met Office the UK’s current run of awful summers is set to continue for some years. Although they are also saying this month should be hot and sunny. Who you gonna believe?

Germ warfare, in the guise of antibiotics, may be changing the way we humans actually work.

At least one mother of my acquaintance would like words with the designer of the female reproductive equipment. Now Prof. Alice Roberts asks why childbirth is such hard labour and what science is telling us about it.

Trouble having an orgasm? Try your feet! WTF!!

On the more artistic side, the British Museum is to host an exhibition about sex in Japanese art in 2014. Excellent! We need sexuality normalised not marginalised or criminalised. Must see!

Following on from which, why are we so concerned about what might be “age inappropriate“. Surely what’s appropriate is whatever I feel like? So who cares what the neighbours or the kids think? Isn’t life there to be lived?

So modernity is nothing new; we’ve always been avant garde and there have always been old ‘uns who object to it. There was even social networking in the 17th century. Starbucks eat your heart out!

Boys… you ain’t having as much as you think you are!

So are we able to make ourselves happier? Seems we might be able to, at least up to a point.

Well we know that swearing is nothing new, it’s just that we change the swearwords occasionally. Now there’s a history of swearing.

Yes, it’s wonderful! But do we actually know what wonder is, how it works and how it contributed to civilisation? Researchers are trying to find out.

An angler reckons he’s caught a 200 year old fish off Alaska. If confirmed this will be a new record age for a fish. Just wow!