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.

quotes

Quotes

So here is our regular monthly round-up of quotes …
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best, from those that are learned.
[Roger Bacon (1561-1626), essay Of Studies]
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
[Roger Bacon (1561-1626), essay Of Studies]
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not.
[Roger Bacon (1561-1626), essay Of Studies]
We spend most of our adulthoods trying to grasp the meanings of our parents’ lives; and how we shape and answer these questions largely turns us into who we are.
[Phillip Lopate, writer and biographer]
I plan to confuse future archaeologists by being buried in a crouching position in a stone-lined cist [an ancient coffin], with some handmade glass beads and a little coil pot.
[Prof. Alice Roberts]
The reason our sentient, percipient, & thinking ego is met nowhere within our scientific world picture can be easily indicated in 7 words: because it is itself that world picture. It is identical with the whole & cannot be contained in it as part of it.
[Irwin Schrodinger]
We should be able to talk about the vagina and vulva in the way we talk about the elbow and the knee. It’s just a body part.
[Dr Jen Gunter at http://coveteur.com/2018/02/05/jen-gunter-obgyn-reproductive-health-internet/]
The streams of the tawny bee, mixed with the clotted river of bleating she-goats, placed upon a flat receptacle of the virgin daughter of Zeus, delighting in ten thousand delicate veils – or shall I simply say cake?
[Athenaeus, The Deipnosophistae quoted at https://quartzy.qz.com/1202864/2018-winter-olympics-the-perfect-recipe-for-ancient-greek-olympic-cheesecake/]
If you talk to a thoughtful Christian, Catholic or Anglican, you often find yourself laughed at for being so ignorant as to suppose that anyone ever took the doctrines of the Church literally. [Man] is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.
[George Orwell]
During my second year of nursing school our professor gave us a quiz. I breezed through the questions until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?” Surely this was a joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our grade. “Absolutely,” the professor said. “In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello.” I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.
[JoAnn C Jones, Guideposts, January 1996]

beliefs, personal, sexuality, thoughts

How to Be a Better Spouse

For Valentine’s Day, yesterday, Scientific American posted an article entitled How to Be a Better Spouse. You can read the detail in the article, but the four headline tips are:

  1. Be nice as often as you can
  2. Think about what your partner needs, even when fighting
  3. Just notice them
  4. Ignore the bad, praise the good

Yes, well, they’re sort of obvious really. But do we do this? Well, not as much as we probably should – I certainly don’t despite 38 years married (eeeekk!!!!), although I must be doing something not too wrong.
But then do these all not amount to the old adage: Communicate, communicate, communicate?
And think on this too … Are these ideas not things we should be doing to everyone, and not just our partners? Do they not all fall under the umbrella of Treat others as you would wish them to treat you? Reductio ad adsurdum.
On the other hand we do have to have these things pointed out to us occasionally so we don’t forget them.

amusements, natural history, ramblings

You Never Know What You've Got …

Yes, indeed, you never know what you’ve got until you look.
We have the decorator man in to give the hall/stairs/landing a lick of paint before we have new carpet put down.
On day 1 (yesterday) most of the time was taken removing the old carpet. And on the turn of the stairs we were awestruck at finding treasure …
Nestled in the angle of the tread and riser, between two strips of carpet gripper, underneath the carpet were found two tiny and entire mummified mice.
The poor little things had obviously, years ago, crawled in round the edge of the carpet to escape a feline kidnapper, and been unable to get their way out (or died from injuries).
Treasure trove indeed.

current affairs, freedom of speech, science

Trickery from PC Plod

There was a sneakily released Home Office press release in the early hours of last Saturday:

Police trial new Home Office mobile fingerprint technology
New mobile fingerprinting technology will allow frontline officers across the country to use their smartphones to identify people in less than a minute …

Needless to say Liberty are up in arms as there is no parliamentary oversight nor any proper public consultation.
Anyone who is stopped and fingerprinted on the street (and anyone could be at the whim of PC Plod) will have no opportunity to seek legal advice beforehand, there does not seem to be any discussion of consent, nor is there any indication of whether the information obtained will be retained and if so for how long or for what.
PC Plod is all too good at being ham-fisted and over-zealous with such initiatives, which is why it is important there should be oversight and consultation.
I find this especially disturbing as there is no scientific basis for the certainty with which fingerprints are used for identification. See, for example, this October 2017 article from Science Daily which reports this scientific examination.
As Liberty’s blog post says:

If you have been affected by these new measures, please tell Liberty about it and get legal advice quickly.

beliefs

Principles for Adult Behaviour

A few days ago I cam across these “principles of Adult Behaviour” from John Perry Barlow, sometime poet, essayist and lyricist for Grateful Dead. who dies this week.
Although these principles do, I believe, net down to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, they do spell things out rather clearly.

John Perry Barlow’s Principles of Adult Behaviour

  1. Be patient. No matter what.
  2. Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, never blame.
    Say nothing behind another’s back you’d be unwilling to say, in exactly the same tone and language, to his face.
  3. Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to you.
  4. Expand your sense of the possible.
  5. Don’t trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change.
  6. Expect no more of anyone than you yourself can deliver.
  7. Tolerate ambiguity.
  8. Laugh at yourself frequently.
  9. Concern yourself with what is right rather than whom is right.
  10. Never forget that, no matter how certain, you might be wrong.
  11. Give up blood sports.
  12. Remember that your life belongs to others as well. Do not endanger it frivolously. And never endanger the life of another.
  13. Never lie to anyone for any reason.
  14. Learn the needs of those around you and respect them.
  15. Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that.
  16. Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun.
  17. Praise at least as often as you disparage.
  18. Never let your errors pass without admission.
  19. Become less suspicious of joy.
  20. Understand humility.
  21. Forgive.
  22. Foster dignity.
  23. Live memorably.
  24. Love yourself.
  25. Endure.

Barlow goes on to say:

I don’t expect the perfect attainment of these principles. However, I post them as a standard for my conduct as an adult. Should any of my friends or colleagues catch me violating any one of them, bust me.

Which seems eminently reasonable to me, if not always easy.

amusements, topographical

Ten Things

This month Ten Things brings you …
Ten (Almost) Unbelievable Real Places in the UK:

  1. Brass Knocker Hill, near Bath
  2. Brown Willy, Cornwall
  3. Cocking, Sussex
  4. Dull, Scotland
  5. Fishpond Bottom, Dorset
  6. Limpley Stoke, near Bath
  7. Long Load, Somerset
  8. Lusty Glaze, Cornwall
  9. Twatt, Orkney (pictured)
  10. Ugley, Essex

And yes, you really can find all of these on the map!