amusements, science

Oddity of the Week: Red Paint

Seeing red
It seems that the paint on red cars fades more quickly than any other car colour. Is there a reason why? (Continued)
I noted the comments on fading red paint in The Last Word (7 June). I came across an amusing instance of this in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, where the Pichi Richi Pass is a spectacular feature on the road from Port Augusta to Quorn. For many years a sign naming the pass stood at its entrance. It was written in black text, except that the initial letters of each word were in red. That part of the world enjoys a lot of bright sunlight and clear skies, and the red paint faded over time to be almost invisible. This left behind a rather amusing sign.
From: “The Last Word”; New Scientist; 12 July 2014

links

Your Interesting Links

Time for another selection of links to articles you may have missed.
As usual let’s start with the real nerdy science stuff and descend into banality.
For those of a mathematical bent, and to celebrate the 400th anniversary this year of logarithms, here are ten top mathematical innovations.
We now know that our bodies are home to many microbes, both good and bad. But are we using them, or is our microbiome using us?
We all use pharmaceuticals of some form at least sometimes. What is surprising is how little we absorb and how much is excreted. So what happens to all those drugs we flush down the toilet?
Scary stuff for all those mothers and would-be-mothers out there. There’s actually a war going on in the womb.
So much of what we think we know is actually urban legend. Here’s an interesting long read on how such academic urban legends arise.


After many years scientists have finally sequenced the genome of the domestic cat. What’s interesting is the high degree to which their genome has been conserved over the years.
While on felines, none of the cats can taste sweet. This and other differences between us and other species.
Do you allow your dog to sleep in the bedroom? Or your cat to sleep on the bed? Or should you banish your pets from the bedroom?
OK, so now let’s move on to food …
So why wouldn’t we eat blue chicken? What is it about blue food that doesn’t appeal?
Next up, five things we should all know about washing food. We probably all do know them, but how many of us actually bother?
Walk on … does pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually do anything?
Most of us have to write stuff, at least occasionally. But why is it so hard to find your own typos?
OK here are some more of the things we think we know, but actually don’t … 33 well known “facts” that aren’t.
And so, at last, to history. I found this an interesting piece on London’s coffee houses, taverns, tea and chocolate.

Ah, yes, chocolate. It comes in many forms, but also now also as LEGO bricks.

And finally one to make you smirk. Some examples of phallic cartography.

photography

Weekly Photograph

This week’s photo was taken a few years ago at Avebury Stone Circle. This is just one of the stones and the two girls give you some idea of their size, although not all the stones are as enormous as this.

Click on the image for larger views on Fickr
Waiting for the Fairies
Waiting for the Fairies
Avebury; August 2006

current affairs, medical

Welsh Cannabis

Following on from the previous post about the liberalisation of prostitution, here’s another piece of unexpected sensible news.
The NHS in Wales will be the first in the UK to fund a cannabis-based medicine for people with multiple sclerosis. The drug in question is Sativex which has been on the market for some time.
Bravo for them as this is in line with current medical research, but directly contrary to the the recent draft NICE clinical guideline which rejected the drug for use on the NHS in Wales and England based, apparently, on a flawed assessment of its cost effectiveness.
You see, by chipping away, entrenched attitudes can be changed.
Wales 1, Blinkered Politicians 0

current affairs, sexuality

Internet Prostitution

There was a very interesting article in the Economist on 9 August under the headline “Prostitution: A Personal Choice”.
The first interesting thing is that such an august institution as the Economist does not support the UK government fetish of zero tolerance because the buying and selling of sex is dangerous, immoral etc. etc.
Instead the writer makes a number of points supported by recent research. First and foremost:

The internet is making the buying and selling of sex easier and safer. Governments should stop trying to ban it.

While they agree …

Some prostitutes do indeed suffer from trafficking, exploitation or violence; their abusers ought to end up in jail for their crimes. But for many, both male and female, sex work is just that: work.
This newspaper has never found it plausible that all prostitutes are victims … the commercial-sex trade [looks] more and more like a normal service industry.

They go on …

Moralisers will lament the shift online because it will cause the sex trade to grow strongly … But everyone else should cheer. Sex arranged online and sold from an apartment or hotel room is less bothersome for third parties than are brothels or red-light districts … the web will do more to make prostitution safer than any law has ever done. Pimps are less likely to be abusive if prostitutes have an alternative route to market. Specialist sites will enable buyers and sellers to assess risks more accurately. Apps and sites are springing up that will let them confirm each other’s identities and swap verified results from sexual-health tests. Schemes such as Britain’s Ugly Mugs allow prostitutes to circulate online details of clients to avoid.
Governments should seize the moment to rethink their policies. Prohibition, whether partial or total, has been a predictable dud. It has singularly failed to stamp out the sex trade.

Moreover …

The “Swedish model” [criminalising the purchase of sex instead of its sale] … is misguided, as a matter of both principle and practice. Banning the purchase of sex is as illiberal as banning its sale. Criminalisation of clients perpetuates the idea of all prostitutes as victims forced into the trade. Some certainly are — by violent partners, people-traffickers or drug addiction. But there are already harsh laws against assault and trafficking. Addicts need treatment, not a jail sentence …
Sweden’s avowed aim is to wipe out prostitution by eliminating demand. But the sex trade will always exist — and the new approach has done nothing to cut the harms associated with it.

And finally …

Prostitution is moving online whether governments like it or not. If they try to get in the way of the shift they will do harm … the unrealistic goal of ending the sex trade distracts the authorities from the genuine horrors of modern-day slavery … and child prostitution (better described as money changing hands to facilitate the rape of a child). Governments should focus on deterring and punishing such crimes — and leave consenting adults who wish to buy and sell sex to do so safely and privately online.

One day governments will start taking real notice of research findings and start understanding.

science

Oddity of the Week: Electric Bacteria

No, it really isn’t 1 April, nor is this something out of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett …
Stick an electrode in the ground, pump electrons down it, and they will come: living cells that eat electricity. We have known bacteria to survive on a variety of energy sources, but none as weird as this. Think of Frankenstein’s monster, brought to life by galvanic energy, except these “electric bacteria” are very real and are popping up all over the place.
Unlike any other living thing on Earth, electric bacteria use energy in its purest form — naked electricity in the shape of electrons harvested from rocks and metals … Experiments growing bacteria on battery electrodes demonstrate that these novel, mind-boggling forms of life are essentially eating and excreting electricity.
That should not come as a complete surprise … we know that life, when you boil it right down, is a flow of electrons …

wires

A few years ago, biologists discovered that some produce hair-like filaments that act as wires [see above], ferrying electrons back and forth between the cells and their wider environment … tens of thousands of electric bacteria can join together to form daisy chains that carry electrons over several centimetres … it means that bacteria living in, say, seabed mud where no oxygen penetrates, can access oxygen dissolved in the seawater simply by holding hands with their friends.
From: New Scientist; 19/07/2014. Read the full story (paywall).

photography

Weekly Photograph

The City of Westminster seems to have gone mad this year with their hanging baskets. Or maybe they are just especially splendid due to the warm, and slightly damp, summer. Whichever they are magnificent. This one was in Mount Street, Mayfair, but all are the same extravagant display.

hanging
Hanging
Mayfair, August 2014

personal

Ten Things #8

Ten things for August? Well the list was started because it’s holiday season, as you’ll see from number 1 on the list …
10 Smells I Love:

  1. The sea — which actually isn’t caused by ozone!
  2. Coffee — despite the fact that I hardly ever drink the stuff
  3. Elderflower
  4. Fresh bread
  5. Petrichor
  6. Roses
  7. Church incense
  8. Cinnamon — and Christmas
  9. Pine wood — that wonderful resiny smell
  10. Wood smoke — which takes me right back to my teenage years round the camp fire in the scouts

Small is so evocative, but different for all of us, with the power to instantly transport you somewhere else. I’m sure I could add another ten to that list quiet easily.