Category Archives: medical

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!

food+drink, medical

Eating and Diets

Here’s an interesting article, originally from New York Magazine, by a couple of specialists on nutrition which explodes many of the myths around diets etc. In their preamble they say:

It’s beyond strange that so many humans are clueless about how they should feed themselves. Every wild species on the planet knows how to do it; presumably ours did, too, before our oversized brains found new ways to complicate things. Now, we’re the only species that can be baffled about the “right” way to eat.

Really, we know how we should eat, but that understanding is continually undermined by hyperbolic headlines, internet echo chambers, and predatory profiteers all too happy to peddle purposefully addictive junk food and nutrition-limiting fad diets. Eating well remains difficult not because it’s complicated but because the choices are hard even when they’re clear.

With that in mind, we offered friends, readers, and anyone else we encountered one simple request: Ask us anything at all about diet and nutrition and we will give you an answer that is grounded in real scientific consensus, with no “healthy-ish” chit-chat, nary a mention of “wellness”, and no goal other than to cut through all the noise and help everyone see how simple it is to eat well.

The article itself is a long read, but very illuminating.

medical

Flusurvey

I now seem to be recovering from a heavyweight bout with this year’s flu; I’ve lost most of the last 10 days and still have a sore throat and cough, so I’m not yet out of the woods. This is despite having had my flu jab last autumn.

But we know that this year’s vaccine hasn’t been as effective as usual. That’s for two reasons, both (this year) relating mostly to the nasty A-H3N2 virus:
(a) The virus for the vaccine is picked some 9 months in advance because it takes that long to manufacture the vaccine. (So the stains for next winter’s flu jab have probably already been fixed and production started.) In the meantime the strain circulating in the wild may well have mutated, meaning the vaccine isn’t fully effective.
(b) Researchers have recently realised that the virus can also mutate during the production process, so even if what’s circulating in the wild remains fixed again the vaccine isn’t a perfect match.
That is bad news because not only does it look as if both are happening, but A-H3N2 is an especially nasty flu strain; in years where it is circulating there is always an up-tick in cases. H3N2 is the so-called Aussie flu as it is what was circulating in the Antipodes during their last winter (our summer).

Because of the way in which flu works, each year’s vaccine contains three or four different strains. Usually two Influenza-A strains (this year an H1N1 and H3N2) and one or two Influsenza-B strains (this year a B/Brisbane strain in the normal trivalent vaccine, with the quadrivalent vaccine adding a B/Phuket strain). B strains are generally less common and less virulent; A strains can be very nasty viruses, especially for the elderly and those with co-morbidities (like diabetes and COPD).

That’s a very simplified explanation of flu and what’s happening; there’s a very full explanation on Wikipedia. And it is really an aside. What I came here today to tell you about is Flusurvey.

Flusurvey is an online system for measuring influenza trends; it is owned by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Public Health England. The UK Flusurvey was launched in July 2009 during the swine flu epidemic and is part of a Europe-wide initiative to monitor influenza-like activity and understand how epidemics spread. Flusurvey collects data directly from the general public (rather than via hospitals or GPs) during the flu season (so roughly October to April). This is important because many people with flu don’t visit a doctor so wouldn’t otherwise feature in traditional flu surveillance.

Anyone who lives in the UK can register to take part. When you register you are asked to complete a short profile of general questions about yourself and your flu risk factors (eg. age, vaccination status). Then each week you’ll be asked to report any flu-like symptoms experienced since your last visit – and you’ll get to see a map of reported flu in your area (by postcode area – the first 3 or 4 characters of your postcode). Participation is entirely voluntary and information is collected for research purposes only; all analysis is carried out on anonymous datasets.

Of course, if you’re sad, like me, you can look at the map, and pages of graphs and statistics, at any time to see where the hotspots are: looking as I write this I see that my area of west London is currently quite warm as are Ilford, SE Wales and the Harrogate area of Yorkshire. I can also see that there was a massive spike in flu cases starting at Christmas and lasting about 4 weeks; so the worst now looks to be over at least taking the country as a whole.

Currently Flusurvey has over 4000 registered participants with about 2500 reporting in each week – which is heavily weighted towards London and the South-East.

I have been completing Flusurvey each week for a number of years and given that it normally takes 2 minutes a week it is a quick, painless and free way of contributing to ongoing research. So if you have half an ounce of altruism, or are just generally nosy about what’s going on, it is worth signing up. If you sign up now, then you will be included in the remainder of this year’s survey and will be in pole position when Flusurvey starts up again next autumn.

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, 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!

food+drink, history, links, medical, science

Your Monthly Links

Here’s the final round for 2017 of monthly links to articles you may have missed the first time around. Despite the holidays there’s a lot her, so let’s get straight in …
Science & Natural World
Scientists have managed to recover, from some amber, ticks from the era of the dinosaurs. Two reports, first from BBC and second from New York Times.
Zoologists have discovered six (yes, six) new species of tiny anteaters which had been hiding in plain sight in the forests of Brazil.
Health & Medicine


Here are a pair of items of flu vaccination. First, why you should get your flu shot every year. And second on why flu vaccine may not be as effective as it should be. And no, the second does not excuse you from the first!
Environment
We all have our own, differing, perceptions of the world even when seen from the same position. And each generation perceives the state of the world from its childhood as the norm. So over the generations we gradually normalise the degrading of the natural world. It’s an interesting idea.
Social Sciences, Business, Law
With fewer people needed to do real work, but more jobs, huge numbers are doing little except continually reworking and reworking business bullshit. [LONG READ]
Art & Literature
The original of the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom was due to be sold at auction but has been saved by the French government as a national treasure.
The Japanese have an interesting take on broken things, especially broken pots: they celebrate the breakage by repairing it with gold.
History, Archaeology & Anthropology
Amateur explorers have found a vast, partly flooded, underground passage beneath Montreal.
Still on a watery note, new underwater discoveries in Greece are revealing the wonders of ancient Roman engineering.
DNA mapping of the Irish has shown that they are, well, distinctively Irish – mostly.
Historians are getting increasingly inventive and adept at uncovering the lost texts on palimpsests. [LONG READ]
A number of Elizabethan letters have been donated to the British Library, amongst them one from Elizabeth I stating her suspicions to Mary, Queen of Scots.
Merton Priory in south London was destroyed during th dissolution of the monasteries, and has latterly been over-flown by a motorway. Now the remains are being uncovered and made accessible.
Why do renovations on old houses often find hidden shoes.

Postboxes. They date from the early 1850s, they weren’t always red, and there have been many designs over the last 160+ years. The Postal Museum has an extensive collection.
London
Industrial accidents in Silvertown (in London’s docklands) have been a relatively common occurrence. Here’s the story of one of the earlier and lesser known explosions.
So just how many London Underground stations are there? Diamond Geezer investigates.

Squawking, bright green and feathered … London is home to a huge number of non-native Ring-Necked Parakeets. Many people hate them, but we regularly have them in our garden and I love them both for their colourfulness and their cheeky antics.
Lifestyle & Personal Development
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have free will. We make fewer decisions than we think because politicians set out to make us feasrful so they can manipulate us for their own interest.
Life is not fair. And it is a parent’s job to ensure their children understand this other wise they’ll not cope with life as adults.
There’s generally a lack of trust in male touch (and that’s not new). This is why men keep demanding sex from their partners over and over.
Should we be surprised that in the wake of #MeToo women fear a backlash?
In an increasingly noisy world full of smartphones, conversation is dying. So how do we recover it? Shut up and listen!
Food & Drink
And finally … Just what fruit should be kept in the fridge, and what shouldn’t?

More next month. Meanwhile have a happy New Year!

history, links, medical, science

Your Interesting Links

Wow! What’s everyone been up to, cos there’s an enormous amount in this month’s issue!
Science & Natural World
We all know that a vast many parrots and parakeets are bright green. But how did they get this way when so few other creatures are so colourful? [Long read]


Talking of green … there’s a lot more to trees than meets the eye: they have a whole underground communications network. [Long read]
And still with green things … the whole world was changed by a glass terrarium that made it possible to successfully transport plants across the globe.
Which brings us to the seas, where a Portuguese trawler has netted a rare, and rather fearsome, “prehistoric shark”

Health & Medicine
Many major medical advances have their origins in the military, and especially on the battlefield. Here are six which made the move from battlefield to mainstream medicine.
It had to happen, indeed I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner: hospitals in Leicester are pioneering free post mortems using CT scanners.
Why isn’t the flu vaccine as effective as it should be? Because simple biology introduces errors during the manufacturing process.
Our body clocks are incredibly important; and the more researchers look the more important the clocks become. They even switch genes and biological processes on and off at various times of day and this can have important implications for medicine.
Our body clocks are related to sleep. And sleep is still a mystery to be untangled.
Do you suffer from exploding head syndrome? If so there’s a group of researchers who want to hear from you.
And finally for this section, unusual and long lost diseases are crawling out of the permafrost as the climate warms up. [Long read]
Social Sciences, Business, Law
Now here’s a novel way to fix the NHS’s funding problems: legalise cannabis! Like everything else, if you legalise it you can regulate and tax it!
Language
I know I swear quite a lot and now I know why: bad language is good for you.
We all know that turkeys don’t come from Turkey, so how is it that they acquired the name?
Art & Literature
John Donne (right), the early Stuart poet, left us a scurrilous manuscript, of which an original has now been discovered hidden in the archives of Westminster Abbey.
History, Archaeology & Anthropology
We’re a load of drunkards, and have been for a long time. Archaeologists analysing residues on pottery, found near Tbilisi in Georgia, have just pushed back the first known winemaking by around 1000 years to 6000BC.
Meanwhile in Egypt archaeologists have been using cosmic rays to image the guts of the Great Pyramid, and have found a hitherto unknown chamber. Two reports, the first from Scientific American and the second from the Guardian.
Exploring the topography of prehistoric Britain through early drawings.

England’s oldest statute law still in force isn’t Magna Carta (that wasn’t passed into statue law until 1297) but the Statute of Marlborough enacted by Henry III in 1267. Much of it has been repealed over the centuries but there are still extant sections on the recovery of debt and the laying waste of farmland.
A silver ring found in Buckinghamshire has been identified as belonging to the royal falconer, Robert Dormer, who died during the Civil War.
London
A Roman temple beneath the City of London has been restored and opened to give an idea of the apparently blood-curdling rites of the cult of Mithras. [Long read]
So why did the Victorians build a series of small green huts across London?
London has 270 extant Underground stations, and quite a number of disused ones. There are also a number of fictional Underground stations and IanVisits provides us with a list of those which have appeared in film or on TV
Lifestyle & Personal Development
Owen Jones in the Guardian makes a compelling case for why we should all be working a four-day week.
Why has UK life-expectancy plateaued in recent years? Danny Dorling investigates.
Finland is trialling the provision of a basic income for everyone, rather than benefits for some. And it appears to be working.
Here are seven things you should never say or do to disabled people.
Food & Drink
Delia Smith doesn’t like modern cookery, describing it as “poncey” and “chefy”. For once I agree with her.
We’re all supposed to eat two portions of oily fish a week. But many of us don’t. Time to rediscover mackerel, anchovies and the humble Cornish sardine.

Where should you keep your tomatoes? In the fridge or on the windowsill? The Chronicle Flask takes a look at some of the chemistry to come up with an answer.
And on that foodie note, I’ll wish everyone a very merry Christmas and I’ll hope to see you again soon afterwards.

history, links, medical, natural history, science, sexuality

Your Interesting Links

This month’s large collection of articles encountered which you maybe didn’t want to have missed.
Science & Natural World
First off we must pay our respects to this year’s IgNobel award winners amongst whose investigations were solid and liquid cats, didgeridoos and cheese disgust.
Budburst on many trees is temperature dependent and March temperatures seem to be the key for many. And they’re getting slowly warmer, so budburst is getting earlier.
[Disclosure: I’ve been submitting records to UK phenology research for many years; many more years that the 17 covered by this research. It takes little time and is valuable “citizen science”.]


Another curiosity of British wildlife is that some birds (notably Great Tits, above) are evolving longer beaks as this gives them an advantage at garden bird feeders. Here are two complementary reports, one from the Guardian, the other from the BBC.
Now to chemistry … A look at how poisoners could use clothing as a murder weapon.
The aliens are coming! Well maybe not quite, but there is a mysterious object speeding past the sun which could be visitor from another star system.
Health & Medicine
For those who want a little more of a challenge than normal (it contains some relatively simple maths), here’s a very good article on why vaccination is important in preventing epidemics.
Sepsis is a hidden killer, and one which most people know nothing about because it has so successfully continued flying under our radar.
There’s a small study which suggests that the psychoactive drugs in magic mushrooms “reset” the brains of depressed people. [Do NOT try this at home! The study used very controlled doses in a medical environment.]
And now to some curiosities … First off, and not for the squeamish, an historical report of a man with two penises and two bladders.
Synaesthesia is mind-boggling. The first of our two mentions this month is of a woman who lost her sight due to illness and in regaining it had some terrifying sounding synaesthetic effects.
And to boggle the mind even further, this young lady has a range of different types of synaesthesia (compared with the normal one). I just cannot imagine what this is like!
Sexuality
Two different aspects of a relationship without sex. First there are people who are genuinely asexual: they may have romantic partnerships but have no interest or desire to have sex.
At almost the other extreme there are couples who, while still happy together, just stop having sex.
Social Sciences, Business, Law
Forensic science is coming under increasing scrutiny. Not only has fingerprinting never been scientifically evaluated for its reliability, but DNA is accused of frequent flawed techniques, which can have devastating effects.
Language
Philip Pullman is under fire because his children’s book La Belle Sauvage is littered with swearwords. Emma Byrne in the Guardian suggests this is actually a good thing: most children already know the words and isn’t it better that they learn in a controlled way when they are and are not acceptable?
History, Archaeology & Anthropology
Uncovering the menus for Neolithic man’s feasts: pork and cheese.
The Incas were far better astronomers than previously thought.
The shipwreck which produced the Antikythera mechanism is still turning up interesting artefacts like the bronze arm which suggests there may be a haul of statues waiting to be found – and what may be another piece of the Antikythera mechanism itself.
Why do a number of Scandinavian Viking graves contain burial clothing embroidered with the work “Allah”
But worse is yet to come, for the Vikings may have brought leprosy to this country via their trade in red squirrels.
Coming much more up to date, both sides are now telling the story of the capture and boarding of the German U-boat U-559, which changed WWII by giving the Allies the Germans’ Enigma codes.
So how about a list of the ten best railway stations in Britain, at least according to Simon Jenkins in the Guardian.
London
IanVisits is writing an occasional series on “Unbuilt London”. In an old post he looks at the 1960s plan to replace buses with monorail network. I have a vague memory of this hare-brained scheme.
And here is a really fascinating and detailed map of the London Underground, Overground, DLR, Tramlink & National Rail (small section below). But why does this have to be published by a French company?

Lifestyle & Personal Development
Our favourite Soto Zen master, Brad Warner, reflects on “The Center of All That” the implications of being you, here.
We’re losing our skills. The skills to do everyday chores our parents took for granted, like washing up by hand, changing a mains fuse or sewing on a button.
A brief look at some of what happens behind the doors of a London crematorium.
I wasn’t sure whether to put this next item here or under medicine. According to sleep scientists we are chronically underslept and sleepwalking our way through life. That is a real threat to our health, and it isn’t fixed by a couple of good lie-ins. So what to do about it?
Apparently our culture says that emotional friendships are a female thing and that boys cannot have emotional friendships with their own sex and are discouraged from doing so by the time they hit puberty. And this is forcing a large number of men into loneliness despite the outward appearances. [OK, it’s American, but is UK culture so different?]
People

Back in August Geoff Marshall (no relation)and Vicki Pipe completed their challenge to visit all 2,563 National Rail stations in Great Britain. Here they talk about the experience for the National Railway Museum’s blog.
That’s all folks! Another instalment next month.

medical, personal

Final Knees Up

Hopefully this will be a final update on my left knee replacement …
On Wednesday of this week – exactly 6 weeks since surgery – I saw the surgeon of a check-up. It was, as I had hoped, a non-event. He is delighted with my recovery, healing (see photo), and the flex on the knee, and has cleared me for all normal activity. He doesn’t want to see me again unless I have problems and has discharged back into the care of my GP.
As I reported earlier my physio appointment 10 days ago was equally positive. I have another physio appointment next week as we agreed it would be sensible that we meet once we had the surgeon’s update. All being well I suspect will be the last appointment.
Both knees are fine except that they are very stiff and achy – but that’s just the muscles having to rebuild and get accustomed to normal activity again. So now I just need to get the knees walking more and build up the muscles.
I know I’ve had this work done privately (we’re lucky to be able to afford health insurance) but I have to say the care I’ve received has, overall, been absolutely outstanding. The whole hospital is cheerful, friendly and helpful from the consultants right down to the porters and cleaners – everyone has time and a friendly word.
It all looks very much like “job done” and very well done too!

medical, personal

More Knees Up

2 Comments

[Medical trigger warning]
As today is four weeks since surgery, I thought we should have a progress report on the rehab of my left knee.
Things are now definitely getting better physically; but I’m still feeling very low mentally. Most of the bruising has gone as has almost all the swelling – ice-packs several times a day have helped (the hospital provided a specially designed cuff cooler when I had the right knee done). For some days now I’ve been walking around the house without the aid of crutches or sticks – the exception being the stairs where I still don’t feel entirely safe. I’m still taking crutches if I go out, if only for safety.
When I saw my physiotherapist this time last week I had 110° of flex on the knee, and I know it will be even more by the time of my appointment next Monday. Needless to say the physio was very happy; the flex and function of the knee are good although still painful; he even had me on an exercise bike doing gentle to and fro motion (a full cycle is not yet possible, although I did try). I was given an extra set of exercises to do, which are all about strengthening the muscles as well as improving the range of movement; and the exercises are gradually getting easier and less painful. I’m still being subjected to the torture of the green anti-DVT stockings though.
As you can see from yesterday’s photo, the scar itself is healing well and looks as if it might eventually be even less obvious than the one on my right knee. (Incidentally I don’t know if the visible flaking is dead skin, surplus glue from closing the wound or some form of plastic skin which was applied to cover the wound. But the right knee was the same and it seems to be OK.)
The pain is very definitely subsiding. Yesterday was the first day since surgery that I’ve awoken at 6 or 7 AM and not immediately thought “Bloody hell I must have some painkillers”. In fact yesterday I didn’t need to take any painkillers from midnight to lunchtime – although by then the knee was very achy. So with luck I in the next week I can start thinking about tailing off the codeine, if not the paracetamol as well.
Meanwhile I managed to screw up my lower back last week; and yes, on the left side! This entailed two trips to the osteopath. The first on the Monday helped immediately but then the muscles were going into spasm every time I tried to move. This settled down overnight with a couple of small doses of Valium as a muscle relaxant. But by Friday the lower back was giving trouble again, so Saturday saw me back at the osteopath seeing a different guy who comes to osteopathy via a sports training background. I have to say he was brilliant – not just at releasing the back but also at explaining how this was all down to the muscles and joints readjusting to different ways of moving following the operation. His prescription was to walk (do what you can and build up slowly) to get the muscles etc. used to working properly again. I came away walking well and feeling much more at peace mentally. So far I’ve concentrated on walking around the house, but our long back garden is beckoning.
I’m still feeling anxious, depressed and panicky at times but that mostly isn’t the knee but everything else I have piled up getting me down. But with the pain receding, and a more positive outlook for the knee, I am at last managing to catch up on some of the stuff I’ve ignored over the last few weeks.
So the bottom line is: keep going; keep doing what you’re doing; it does get better (even if it doesn’t always feel that way hour-to-hour or day-to-day). Onwards and upwards.