OK, so here’s another round of links to items which may be of passing interest and which caught my eye (and brain). Hopefully they might interest you too …

Journalist Carole Cadwalladr reports on the somewhat unexpected side-effects of having her whole genome sequenced and finding out some of what it means.

What happens when you research TB? Australian Journalist Jo Chandler finds out the hard way and gets very lucky.

Unearthing the secrets of the Crusaders: how a castle toilet still holds evidence of their parasites.

We know that a large percentage of drug trial results are never published, usually because they don’t agree with what the trial wanted to find. Now some experts are having another go at finding a way to force publication.

Seems that plants have body clocks and that your cabbage lives on in your fridge. I suppose this shouldn’t be too surprising although it is slightly scary and seriously weird! As Elizabeth Berry said Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables. They probably get jet-lagged, just like people.

Talking of food, there are many wacky notions that ingredients added to our food are poisoning us. Pharmaceutical chemist Derek Lowe does a hatchet job on some of the claims.

Man plays at being God and fails. Prepare to be surprised at some of the world’s ten most invasive fish species.

So just why are scientific names so important?

Are you a native English speaker? And interested in the language? Then you can contribute to the understanding of English dialects by taking part in the Cambridge Online Survey of World Englishes.

Here’s a piece from British Naturism on how the proposed Anti-Social Behaviour Bill is a threat to everyone’s lifestyle. Needless to say BN are most concerned about naturism, but it goes much, much wider than that because of the poor wording.

A short but thoughtful piece from ICUK (who are my ISP) on the challenges of internet filtering.

Oh dear, the Chief Rabbi is lamenting the decline in the intellectual quality of atheists. The Heresy Corner isn’t impressed with the intellectual qualities of the Chief Rabbi and takes him apart limb by limb.

Now this is seriously and brilliantly insane: armour for your guinea pig!

And finally, did you ever wonder what else you could use that penis cake mould for? Wonder no more!

Enjoy your cake!

A further instalment in our irregular series bringing you links to interesting items you may have missed.

First up … Two articles on the pathetic way in which most men think, and (try to) interact with women. KMA Sullivan reports the notion that Women are Bitches. Meanwhile xenoglossy @ literary reference asks why men think all girls are girlfriends rather than accepting simple friendship. If that’s the best men’s intelligence can do then gawd ‘elp us!

What can we learn from children’s writing? Basically not a lot we couldn’t have guessed!

Two articles on the amazing find of a clutch of eight Bronze Age dugout canoes found in a Cambridgeshire fen. The first from the Independent; the second from the Guardian.

While on the historical, Diamond Geezer has visited Headstone Manor (above), apparently the oldest timber-framed building in Middlesex. It isn’t far from me, so looks like a must visit. It should be interesting, especially if they actually finish restoring it.

And now for several items for the scientifically curious amongst you. Desmids are microscopic plants with strange beauty and behaviour.

A rather scary story about people who have fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva which gradually grows extra bone and freezes the body.

We know that our bodies contain billions of bacteria, which are necessary for life as we know it, but we also contain trillions of symbiotic viruses. Carl Zimmer has the low-down.

Scientists reckon they’re well on the way to a workable vaccine against Delhi Belly.

A UN report says there will be no rise in cancer rates after Fukushima disaster. That seems simplistic to me, although the increase is likely to be very low and as has been reported may times over the last couple of years the psychological effects are likely to be far more damaging.

How do our bodies know where to grow our asymetrically placed organs? Why are hearts (almost) always on the left? And what happens when this mechanism breaks down? It’s a long article (over two pages) but well worth a read.

And finally something on evolution: ten evolutionary wonders of fish. Cod and chips will never be the same again!

Another in our series of selected links to items you may have missed. As usual in no special order …

You wouldn’t think anyone could forget they had an apartment in Paris, would you? But here are some intriguing photographs of such an apartment which was shut up at the outbreak of WWII and not touched for 70 years!

Do you really know what’s in your food? Here are a few less than savoury ingredients.

If you don’t know, how do you estimate when someone died? Insect infestations are one way, but now scientists have discovered that they can use the genes in brain cells to read the body clock — unless the person was clinically depressed.

Talking of insects, like all museums the Wallace Collection are on a bug hunt.

And so we come to talk of finding things. Archaeologists have investigated an intact Roman sewer and it’s turning out to be a bit of a gold mine.

Oh, and that takes us nicely to the bacteria in our guts. Apparently researchers have now fund that there is one specific bacterium the absence of which appears to be linked to (some instances of) obesity. Nature just gets weirder and weirder!

Who invented clothes? Such a good question that children often ask. An archaeologist approaches an answer for children to an unanswerable question.

Here’s an interesting piece on learning to accept your body and live with it from a girl who is a “plus size” model (well at a UK size 16 she’s “plus size” for the fashion industry).

And here’s another interesting post on body acceptance, this time from the land of the free. (Possibly NSFW.)

Now for some interesting photographs of the wackier parts of the English ritual year. This is not at all new, there was a book of the same some years back, but they’re nice photos.

Plants are strange. Mosses are especially strange because they make two different plants from the same set of genes just by switching one special gene.

Rob Dunn, who’s always worth reading, on how our current approach to teaching through dissections is falling into a medieval trap.

Here’s one for all you Londoners … Diamond Geezer visits Nunhead Cemetery, one of London’s “big seven”. Sounds like an interesting trip, especially on an “open day”.

Now for an interesting ethical conundrum … By definition they have no choice so should we send unborn (even unconceived) children on long space exploration journeys?

Law and Lawyers has a rant about the removal of Legal Aid in civil cases.

Finally an story of the English invading France. The BBC have gathered a few (often amusing) examples for Englishisms in modern French. Allez les rosbifs!

Another selection of links to stories you may have missed, in no order at all …

It all starts with Walter de la Mare and becomes a discussion of how the strange and weird become memorable; how ghosts are more real than reality.

Apparently there is nothing which will actually convince you to change your lifestyle, so don’t bother telling me!

Report on a visit to the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival.

How high can a human throw something? Would it be possible to throw a golf ball into space? What If? investigates.

Sex educator Emily Nagoski on how to be a sex educator for beginners. We all need to know this — parents especially.

In which Diamond Geezer reworks and updates the English class system. I’m not sure it’s quite right, but the general drift is good.

The Guardian seems to think they can tell us all what rules of grammar we need to know. Kettle — pot — black?

Are boobs better without bras? From a male perspective, definitely. Anatomically, well it seems it’s a possible maybe.

Archaeologists have been working on mapping the medieval Suffolk town of Dunwich which was lost to the North Sea. I thought we knew most of the map, but I guess it’s about seeing what is still there.

Birds are descended from dinosaurs, right? Well actually they probably are dinosaurs. XKCD shows how a T. rex is closer to your average sparrow than it is to a Stegosaurus.
Chicken in a basket takes on a whole new complexion!

Now here’s another interesting take on Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy. They’re 60 or so years old, but can maybe serve as an allegory for the modern world.

We’re all descended from Charlemagne. Well all Europeans are. At least statistically. Allegedly. Carl Zimmer investigates.

Finally it seems those brutish Neanderthals were somewhat more advanced than most of us realise. And of course Europeans are all around 4% Neanderthal. So just be careful who you insult!

Our not-very-regular round-up of items I spotted and you may have missed. As usual in no special order, except we’ll start with the historical …

Henry VIII’s warship the Mary Rose sank in The Solent in 1545 and was recovered some 30 years ago. Ever since then archaeologists have been discovering more and more about the wreck. Now they are suggesting that the Mary Rose may have had armour-piercing cannonballs, some three-centuries earlier than they were thought to have been invented.

Archaeologists have also uncovered a 4400-year-old female skeleton near Windsor. What’s unusual is the large number of high-class, including gold, artefacts suggesting that Windsor may have been a royal hideout for 3000 years longer than we thought.

Meanwhile in Egypt archaeologists are working to uncover the sunken remains of the ancient lost city of Heracleion, near the head of the Nile Delta. They’ve been at it for some years already but reckon they may have 200 years work yet to do!

Back at home and much nearer our time, zoologists have been investigating the (stuffed) remains of a lynx shot dead in England in about 1903. Yes, there have been (maybe still are) large wild cats loose in the UK as it seems this one is a Canadian Lynx which had lived for around 10 years in captivity before escaping and being shot soon afterwards.

Many people erroneously believe that Oliver Cromwell made it illegal to eat Mince Pies on Christmas Day. This is one of many myths about what ancient laws allow or forbid in England. Recently the Law Commission published a list of some of these.

Brad Warner is an American zen teacher and punk rocker who generally talks sense. Here he muses on the recent Boston bombings and his reaction to them.

In a similar vein here’s a thoughtful op-ed piece from the Daily Telegraph on the rights of the state to snoop on its citizens.

Apparently some female in Australia is getting hot under the collar because she keeps having her pussy shaved.

Boys, are you worried about your declining sperm count? If so, wear a skirt. Apparently kilts, especially worn Scots-style (ie. with nothing underneath) are good for the balls, because they’re then kept at the temperature Nature intended. (And there are lots of other benefits too!) Even easier: just wear nothing.

On the other side of the sex divide, Prof. Alice Roberts is being rightfully indignant about the commercialisation of NHS maternity services and wards.

And the BBC has reported about medics who are trying to get a better understanding the details of how the womb and childbirth work. I must say it all sounds like trying to medicalise something which is better left to Nature — but then what do I know?

Finally a disturbing report about how the 18th and 19th centuries thought about the dangers of masturbation for women. Lads if you think the Victorians had a downer on your habits, it’s nothing to what they thought about their girlies prospects! It makes cross-dressing look positively tame!

Our irregular round-up of links to interesting (well to me, anyway) items you may have missed. In no special order …

First up an oldish item from Physicist Sean Carroll on what is science, what is not science, how we can tell, and how we examine he world about us.

“Bring us a shrubbery”. Researchers have found that the greener (plant-wise) an area the lower the crime rate.

Now here’s a puzzle. How does Polynesian DNA mysteriously show up in a Brazilian tribe on the wrong side of South America? Even the researchers find their conclusions unsatisfactory.

OK, so does penis size really matter? Men always think it does. Women tell us it doesn’t. Turns out both are right — just.

Your time machine should be delivered this week. So ready for your trip back to Tudor times researchers have written the Good Pub Guide for the 16th century.

Sheep. Real sheep. Artificial sheep. On roundabouts!? Well why not?

There are a lot more cat species than we usually realise. Here’s a list of the six most endangered feline species. They could easily have made that a list of a dozen.

Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum is the British Museum’s latest blockbuster exhibition which is getting rave reviews. I’m hoping to get to it this week.

Travelling on business? Finding you’re lonely in your hotel? Why not hire a goldfish?

Dig a hole almost anywhere in central London and you’ll find something historically interesting. There’s a huge construction site at Bank where the archaeologists are recovering literally thousands of pieces of Roman London from building timbers to shoes.

Finally one for the ladies. A French researcher has come to the conclusion that girls may as well throw away their bras because they don’t actually do any good, regardless of the size or shape of what you put in them. Maybe that’d be good for use men too? ☺

Another in our series of links to articles you may have missed and will wish you hadn’t. In no special order …

Do you, like me, suffer from earworms? Scientists think they’ve found some ways to get rid of them. Which is good ‘cos I’ve had Caravan in my head since before Christmas!

Someone has just discovered that breast milk is amazing stuff, and actually rather important. Well who would have guessed!

Now just how weird is the natural world? Very; especially when you find that fruit bats menstruate like women and have oral sex. A few years back researchers discovered that Australian fruit bats indulged in fellatio. Now apparently they have cunnilingus too. How cool is that?!

What would scientists do without big hospital scanners? They’re now using CT and MRI scans to look at diseases in ancient human remains. Here’s a summary of the findings on eight mummies.

Just to confirm even further that scientists are a strange bunch, here’s the low-down on a few experiments they’ve been running for a lifetime or more.

Did you see al those reports of the huge DDoS war on the internet? Yep, so did I. But was my internet affected? Nope. And neither probably was yours. Turns out that the whole thing was much over-hyped and largely a marketing con trick.

Why do people get upset by technical neologisms? We invent new things, so we have to invent new ways to be able to talk about them. And unlike the French we don’t regulate the language.

First it was the horsemeat scandal/fraud. Now it appears that the fish supply chain is fraudulent too — it appears too widespread to be accidental.

Once in a while you really do get something for nothing. Many of the big names in English Folk Music are coming together to create a single archive and making it available free online.

After around 400 years we have cranes nesting in England again.

So this week the BBC touted some researchers’ new British class calculator which was, I suppose, passingly amusing if only for it’s apparent erroneousness. The Heresy Corner does the demolition job.

Brad Warner, American zen teacher and punk rocker (who generally talks sense) has some brief comments on burqas, hijabs, niqabs and nudity. He admits it’s a bit unstructured so hopefully he’ll develop his ideas.

And finally, you can generally agree Scicurious is going to come up with something interesting. On Friday there was a dissertation on the conformation of male (human) balls and how this was reflected in the sculpture of the ancients. But no-one knows why the anatomy is the way it is, or why some of us don’t conform to the norm.

Another round-up of links to items you may have missed.

Apparently there is now evidence for what we’ve always been told: meditating (or anything like it) for at least 8 weeks is good for you — both the brain and the body.

Just as I always suspected: the horrible Myers-Briggs personality test is at best totally without foundation and at worst a complete con.

More confirmation of our suspicions. Bikini line waxing and shaving increases the risk of infection. One piece from the BBC and another from the Telegraph — same piece of news, slightly different slants.

So just what is my cat thinking? And how might we ever be able to find out?

Scientists have confirmed that there really is only one species of Kraken — that giant squid which is found all around the globe. Yes, this was unexpected and they don’t know why it is so.

Records have been analysed (don’t you love these navel-gazing scientists!) which show that the sound of the March 2011 Fukushima earthquake was detected out in space. Actually that’s quite awesome when you think about it.

Our civilisation is built on a network of networks, so a failure almost anywhere can bring the whole lot tumbling down. Luckily mathematicians are now starting to work out how to design the networks so this doesn’t happen. Sounds like it ain’t too easy though.

Think you’ve got a tough job? Pity the poor bugger who has to project manage building Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. Even as a project manager it makes my brain hurt just reading about it!

Well yes, if you go digging holes anywhere in central London you’re almost bound to dig up bones! Archaeologists working with the Crossrail contract have found what they believe to be a Black Death Plague burial site at Charterhouse Square. Only one?!

Divers have been back to the wreck which produced the Antikythera machine. It looks interesting if there’s the money to excavate it properly.

OK so Catholic priests being arraigned for alleged sexual assault isn’t new. But it is when the said priest admits he’s married. I wonder how many more there are?

Just for all the history geeks out there, here’s a list of some of the (Latin) names the Romans gave their horses.

Finally, I leave you with a WARNING … Wash that salad well, boys and girls, because it seems it is more likely to make you ill than the much-reviled beefburger. Especially beware of the pre-washed, bagged and ready-to-eat stuff the supermarkets peddle.

Our regular round-up of link to stories you may have missed, and will probably be glad you had. 🙂

Now just what are they doing beneath the streets of London? Oh, yes, doing a marathon dig to create the tunnels for Crossrail. Here are some mind-boggling photographs.

Worried recently about getting hit by a meteor? You’re not the only one, ‘cos the little green men need to start worrying too. Apparently next year Mars may take a hit from a comet, or more likely its tail.

In other astronomical news, here’s a piece on how other objects dance around Earth in our orbit round the sun.

Closer to home, apparently British couples argue twice a week about the mess they live in.

Well who would have guessed? Dieting makes you feel guilty not thinner.

And while we’re all feeling aggrieved, here’s a rant about the lack of) science behind the idea of trying to determine someone’s ancestral origins from a simple DNA test, as many direct-to-consumer ancestry companies do.

And here’s one for the thinkers out there. Physicist Sean Carroll considers the relationship between science and morality, with diversions into what science and philosophy actually are and how they aren’t mutually exclusive.

After which we probably need to settle into bed with a good erotic story — if we can find one. Rowan Pelling, former editrice of the Erotic Review, reckons really good sex scenes are hard to find.

Never mind, here’s a story about a visit to Iceland’s infamous Penis Museum. It doesn’t sound all that entertaining really.

Continuing one of our recurrent themes, here’s one girl’s thoughts about whether to shave her pubic garden or not.

Finally we bring you an interactive map of (some of) the vaguely rude place-names of the world.