Another instalment of articles you may have missed the first time round. This edition isn’t too science-y!
‘Tis the season to be merry and it seems we’ve been consuming alcohol for a lot longer than we previously thought.
It is also the season of the Brussels sprout. I like them, but I know many don’t so here’s a piece on the chemistry of why Brussels sprouts taste bitter to many people.
What colour is an orange? Well, yes, orange. Except when it’s green of course.
Still on fruit and veg, Maryn McKenna writes a piece about chutney and its history.
No matter what you fondly believe you can’t detox your body — it’s a myth. So just forget all those fads and fancies you subject yourself to in January. OK?
Fart! Yes, we all do it, especially after those Christmas Brussels sprouts. Here are nine (possibly surprising) facts about flatulence.
There’s no wildlife in London is there? Oh yes there is, and a lot of it is non-native animals on the loose.
So from non-native animals to royalty. Scientists have done more DNA tests on the remains of Richard III. And guess what … there’s bastardy involved which might throw some doubt on the Queen’s ancestry. But that doesn’t matter really as the Queen’s more recent ancestors took the throne by force, which matters more.
So we also now know that the Vikings weren’t the violent thugs we thought. Which leads Julia Laite in the Guardian to expose five other historical myths.
Do the people really want HS2? — that massive rail project the government is intent on building from London to Birmingham. Tom Jeffreys investigates for the Independent.
Virgin birth. By men. It must be possible because the Council of Islamic Ideology has decreed that the very existence of women is un-Islamic. I wonder what they know that we don’t?
This week a shot I took back in May this year when we were having a day looking at the villages in Oxfordshire where some of my ancestors lived. These church flowers were at Great Rollright, which is a gem of a country church with some extant Norman carvings (of which some is seen here) and its original painted roof loft ceiling. There is an almost Byzantine, Orthodox, church feel to these flowers in from of a door in a plain white wall.
Social nudity (often called nudism or naturism) is poorly accepted by a large percentage of the people; something I explore on the On Nudity and Naturism page on my main website, as I have from time to time here.
This poor acceptance of social nudity seems to be because people do not understand social nudity, and curiously that seems to be a philosophical question; one that revolves around one’s mental imagery and state of mind. An interesting, but quite lengthy, article over at Naturist Philosopher looks at this question in detail.