arts, history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

In keeping with everything springing back to life and growing we have a blossoming collection of links to items you may have missed this month.

Science, Technology, Natural World

First off, here’s a Twitter thread from astrophysicist and science communicator Katie Mack assessing future technology.

Looking the other way, at the consequences of the universe’s origins, there appear to be four possible types of multiverse.

Weirdly it seems that the majority of planets in the Galaxy are in orbit around stars we cannot see. [££££]

And to “homemade” stars … the first atomic bomb (the Trinity Test) created a “forbidden” quasicrystal.

Meanwhile some evolutionary innovations wait millions of years for their chance to shine. [LONG READ]

Wasps complicated social lives can illuminate the evolution of animal societies.

Palaeontologists have recently found the oldest bat skeleton on record.

At the other end of the accessible world scientists have spotted an unknown fish at a record depth of 8300 meters off Japan.

Talking of unknown life in unexpected places … oceanographers have found a massive river and cavern beneath a West Antarctic glacier which is teeming with life. [LONG READ]

Finally in this section of the unexpected, scientists are reporting that plants emit rapid bursts of ultra-sound when stressed – although it isn’t clear if this is an artefact of their structure or a “deliberate” act.

Health, Medicine

Here’s a review of Kate Clancy’s new book Period, which aims to change we understand menstruation.

Sexuality

According to a recent survey Britain is a lot sexier than thought.

In an unsurprising finding it seems sexual wellness and talking about sex helps us flourish.

All of which makes sense when you consider that someone, somewhere, thinks we all need to learn the dos and don’ts of kissing.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

So are coincidences real, or are they merely us spotting patterns which should be expected? [LONG READ]

Art, Literature, Language, Music

Researchers have looked at the science underlying why some Renaissance artists used egg in their oil paints.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Let’s start this long section of history with the Ancient Egyptians … They seem to have been creating automata 4000 years ago.

Also in Ancient Egypt, archaeologists have found a collection of severed hands and suspect it is evidence of trophy-taking.

Across the globe in Mexico archaeologists have found what they believe is a scoreboard for the ancient Mayan ball game pelota (above).

Iceni Queen Boudicca who led a revolt against the Romans is enjoying a resurgence as a symbol of rebellion and a feminist icon.

New dendrochronology shows the Vikings really did live in Newfoundland around 1021, but we don’t know how long for.

A building archaeologist asks “what is a castle?“. [LONG READ]

In a surprise twist Pink Floyd have inspired research into medieval monks and volcanology.

Going Medieval takes a look at nobility, courtship, moral justification, and sexy tapestries. [LONG READ]

In another round of medieval myth-busting our building archaeologist looks at why the historic records may not tell you the date of your house. [LONG READ]

Etchings of the Coronation of Charles II in 1661 by Wenceslaus Hollar have been found hidden in the back of a cupboard.

Temple Bar was once an historic boundary to the City of London – and the site still is. [LONG READ]

They’re digging underneath the Palace of Westminster, and one recent discovery is an 18th-century fish token gaming counter.

London

Over 300 old London street signs are up for auction next month (18 May).

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

In a break with tradition, King Charles will use a new coach for the Coronation procession to Westminster Abbey – and it has electric windows and air con.

Some people absolutely cannot abide being in the same room as some of their hated foods.

People

And finally, the 40-year mystery of three abandoned children and two missing parents.

quotes

Monthly Quotes

So here we go with this month’s assemblage of quotes which have caught my eye recently. And it’s lots of soundbites in this collection.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
[Khalil Gibran]

Money can’t buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.
[Spike Milligan]

[Death is] not a beginning, it’s the real end, there will be nothing afterwards, nothing. I feel you must look truth right in the eyes … To deny death and its power is useless. Deny it or not, you’ll die anyway … It’s stupid to protest against death as such, but you can and must protest against violent death. It’s bad when people die before their time from disease or poverty, but it’s worse when a man is killed by another man.
[Dmitri Shostakovich]

Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
[Eleanor Roosevelt]

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so uneducated people won’t be offended.
[unknown]

We’ll go down in history as the first society that wouldn’t save itself because it wasn’t cost-effective.
[Kurt Vonnegut, American writer and novelist (1922-2007)]

Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer; art is everything else.
[Donald E Knuth]

Our society, in which reigns an eager desire for riches and luxury, does not understand the value of science. It does not realize that science is a most precious part of its moral patrimony. Nor does it take sufficient cognizance of the fact that science is at the base of all the progress that lightens the burden of life and lessens its suffering.
[Marie Skłodowska-Curie]

The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. We are so insignificant that I can’t believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. That would be like saying that you would disappear if I closed my eyes.
[Stephen Hawking]

The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.
[BF Skinner]

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
[Eric Hoffer, The Temper of Our Time]

However much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing.
[George Orwell]

There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.
[Isaac Asimov]

Don’t worry about siding for or against the majority. Worry about taking up any of their irrational beliefs.
[Marcus Aurelius]

Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
[Douglas Adams]

Never confuse education with intelligence. You can have a PhD and still be an idiot.
[Richard Feynman]

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
[Sigmund Freud]

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.
[Margaret Mead]

Open-minded people do not care to be right, they care to understand. There is never a right or wrong answer. Everything is about understanding.
[unknown]

What man does not understand, he fears; and what he fears, he tends to destroy.
[WB Yeats]

Those who will not reason, are bigots; those who cannot, are fools; and those who dare not, are slaves.
[Lord Byron]

God is a mathematician of a very high order. He used advanced mathematics in constructing the universe.
[Paul Dirac; theoretical physicist; 1902-1984]

Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
[Benjamin Franklin]

I don’t believe the universe contains supernatural forces, but I feel it might. This is because the human mind has fundamentally irrational elements. I’d go so far as to say that magical thinking forms the basis of selfhood.
[Paul Broks, “Are Coincidences Real?”, at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/13/are-coincidences-real]

amusements, history

April Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

April Quiz Questions: American History

  1. During the Salem witch trials, how many of the accused were burned alive? None; most were hanged, some died in jail.
  2. Who first got off the ground using controlled motor power in 1903? Wright Brothers
  3. For what is Button Gwinnet renowned? Signing the Declaration of Independence
  4. How and when did Alaska become a part of the United States? In 1867 it was sold to the Americans by Russia
  5. Which was the last state to move its state capital? Oklahoma; in 1910 the state capital moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2022.

amusements, personal, photography

Self-Portrait, April

So here’s this month’s self-portrait. I took this using a pinhole “lens” I made for my Canon dSLR. I actually made three pinholes, which came out slightly different sizes – it’s quite hard to get a really tiny hole. This is the best of them as it is the smallest aperture. This was a 30 second exposure with a fairly slow film speed setting of ISO 200.

Pinhole Mugshot
Pinhole Mugshot
[Click the image for a larger view]

Anyone who wants to try making their own pinhole, I followed this article on wikiHow. It isn’t difficult; if my ten left thumbs can do it then anyone can!

food+drink

Culinary Adventures #98: Pork Pie

It seems to be tradition in this house to make a huge terrine at Easter, see inter alia my post from 2014. However this year we decided to be different and do a large home-made pork pie instead – and yes, do it properly with hot water pastry.

I’ve not done hot water pastry before, but N has and so did my mother occasionally, so I knew the basic idea. This is the traditional pastry for pork pie. It isn’t difficult and is actually quite forgiving. To be absolutely traditional it is made with lard; while that produces a good flavour it isn’t wonderfully healthy. It turns out that butter (which is just a bit healthier) works OK too, although it does make a slightly softer pastry.

Our large pork pie, cooled and ready for the table

Anyway this is what I did …

Ingredients for the Pastry [1]

  • 500g plain flour
  • 220ml water
  • 190g butter [2]
  • an egg, beaten, for glazing
 Ingredients for the Filling [3]

  • 450g Pork Fillet [4]
  • 500g Pork Mince
  • 400g Good Pork Sausages
  • 250g Smoked Back (or Streaky) Bacon [2]
  • large bunch fresh sage (if available) or a generous tbsp dried mixed herbs
  • Black Pepper & Ground Nutmeg

What to do …

  1. Make the filling first!
  2. Cut the bacon into 5mm squares (do not remove the fat) and add to a large mixing bowl.
  3. Similarly cut the pork fillet into roughly 5mm dice and add to the bacon.
  4. Skin the sausages and add them with the mince to the pork.
  5. Add the herbs, a good grind of black pepper, and then another, and the same with nutmeg.
  6. Get in there with your hands and mix it all well. Set aside.
  7. Heat the oven to 205°C. While it heats up make the pastry.
  8. Grease well, and/or line with parchment, an 8″ cake tin.
  9. Put the flour in another large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.
  10. Gently melt the butter and water together in a saucepan.
  11. When the butter is all melted add this to the well in the flour and mix it together with a wooden spoon – it will be hot!
  12. When it is almost mixed, and has cooled a little, finish mixing the pastry with your hands. You should have a soft dough.
  13. Reserve about a third of the pastry to make the pie lid.
  14. Roll out the larger portion and line the cake tin; let the excess pastry flap over the edge.
  15. If the pastry splits, don’t panic; just use a few of the extra bits from the edges to patch the holes – it’s fine; this is how hot water pastry is so forgiving.
  16. Add the filling to the pie case and pack it down well.
  17. Roll out the lid; dampen the edges of the pastry case with beaten egg; put on the lid and press firmly onto the case using your fingers to make a pretty scalloped edge.
  18. Trim the edges and use the offcuts to make decorations for the lid.
  19. Don’t forget to cut a hole in the centre of the lid, in case you want to fill the cooked pie with jelly. [5]
  20. Glaze with beaten egg. Place the tin on a baking sheet.
  21. Cook for 30 minutes at 205°C, then turn the oven down to 165°C and cook for a further 1½-2 hours until the juices run clear on application of a skewer. (If you’re a meat thermometer fan then you need to get the centre to at least 70°C.)
  22. Leave the pie to cool, preferably overnight in the fridge, before removing from the tin.
The pie, sliced

Notes
[1] This should make plenty of pastry for a round 8″ (20cm) cake tin (preferably one with a removable base).
[2] Note the omission of salt as we used salted butter; add a tiny amount if you’re using unsalted butter. Similarly with the filling, the bacon may well be salt enough.
[3] No this is not too much for an 8″ cake tin; it packs down surprisingly well, which you want.
[4] Or any other good, flavoursome, pork meat like shoulder.
[5] If you wish to fill the pie with the traditional jelly, you need to do it as soon as it comes out of the oven. Use a funnel to carefully pour hot jelly into the hole in the pie lid. I didn’t bother, so I’ll leave you to work out how to make a suitable pork jelly.
[6] Having done all of that I felt that the filling needed a bit more seasoning. I note that Jane Grigson in Good Things adds teaspoon quantities of spice (cinnamon, allspice) to her filling in addition to the nutmeg. Or you might want to add a little salt. Or perhaps some garlic paste. Or a layer of sharp apple (like Bramley) in the centre of the filling.

memes, science

Ten Things: April

This year our Ten Things column each month is concentrating on science and scientists.

Where a group is described as “great” or “important” this is not intended to imply these necessarily the greatest or most important, but only that they are up there amongst the top flight.

Earth Science Discoveries

  1. Internal structure of Earth
  2. Continental Drift
  3. Seafloor Spreading
  4. Plate Tectonics
  5. Troposphere and Stratosphere
  6. Magnetic Field Reversal
  7. Dating using radioactivity
  8. Seismology
  9. Super volcanos
  10. The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary marking the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs
amusements, history

April Quiz Questions

Again this year we’re beginning each month with five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. They’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers, so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as have a bit of fun.

April Quiz Questions: American History

  1. During the Salem witch trials, how many of the accused were burned alive?
  2. Who first got off the ground using controlled motor power in 1903?
  3. For what is Button Gwinnet renowned?
  4. How and when did Alaska become a part of the United States?
  5. Which was the last state to move its state capital?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

amusements, memes, personal

Unblogged March

Some stuff what I didn’t blog about this last month.

Wed 1 Why are there days like today, when everything conspires to be at least an irritant, if not downright obstructive. Neither of us slept well, or enough; I was awoken at 06:30 by Queen Cat trampling on my stomach, a 10lb weight in each of her hobnail boots. It was all downhill from there; nothing was straightforward; everything fought back. And to top it all it was bloody cold. Anyone would have thought it was Monday 13th!
Thu 2 The gardener cometh. Ah, no, the gardener cometh not. Silly bugger has a stomach upset. When shall we see him again? Well the next two weeks look cold and wet, maybe even snow, so little prospect of sensible gardening for a while.
Fri 3 It’s Saturday again. Oh, no! It’s only Friday. Why does my brain always do this? Every week! Yesterday it was Friday; today is Saturday; tomorrow will probably be Sunday; and oh God, then we get Sunday again! Why? It does my head in.
Sat 4 Yes, as predicted today was Sunday – at least according to my addled brain. It’s all very confusing and disorientating. Worse when you have a sinus infection and would rather be hiding under the duvet than having to attack a weekend of work which has to be done.
Sun 5 This one should be N’s really as she saw it. In the bucket for the compost heap which lives outside the back door, there was some discarded damaged avocados. Early this morning N saw the squirrel sitting on the fence panels, by the house, munching away at one, and dropping the pieces of skin everywhere. Apparently when a cat appeared the squirrel was quite unable to carry away its booty. Luckily N got a photo.squirrel with avocado
Mon 6 So now we know how things get moved around the garden. Last night N put out some bits for the fox on a lightweight orange plastic plate on the upper lawn. Lunchtime today along come our pair of magpies, prospecting. Swiftly followed by one of the local crows – the one with a few white feathers. Said crow went prospecting around the plate, poked its beak underneath, lifted it up at a 30deg angle, and then picked it up in its beak. I thought it was going to make off with the plate, but in the event it moved the plate only a few inches. By this time crow had arrived and the magpies left. Two crows proceeded to spend 15-20 minutes ferreting around, obviously finding tasty morsels, and drinking from the birdbath.
Tue 7 Oh how the critters amuse one. We’ve a new, young, ginger cat on the block. At lunchtime he was in our garden and was seen dashing full speed across the garden in pursuit of a squirrel. Needless to say the squirrel was too fast and was 8 feet and more up the oak tree in a trice. But cat was going so fast and couldn’t stop before he too ended up 4 feet up the truck of the tree, clinging on for dear life with all four feet splayed, but still wondering how to get up the tree after said squirrel. Real life cartoon stuff!
Wed 8 Snow. It must have snowed gently somewhere between about 04:00 and 08:00, and it was still trying when I woke up. Mind, there wasn’t much, not really even a proper covering. However the cats were not impressed and more than one declined to go out. It tried more snow on and off all morning before giving in to light but steady rain; by the lunchtime all the snow had disappeared. I can’ find the records online (they must be there) but snow in London in March must be fairly unusual.
Thu 9 Most of the afternoon spent reading the papers for the CRP meeting next week. And how refreshing to look at something which isn’t a collection of massive high-rise blocks. Almost anything which is residential in London, let alone this borough, is predicated on building as high as you can get away with. The problem is that if the borough doesn’t approve the plans, an appeal to the Mayor of London will just overturn the decision. It’s madness: high rise is an environmental disaster; the higher you build the proportionally more environmentally damaging materials you have to use and the more energy you use pumping water etc. to the top of the building. And that’s before you even think about safety, the fact that people don’t like tower blocks, and that many are scared to live in them. But we can’t get developers to see that.
Fri 10 So the UK economy grew 0.3% in January. Well guys I hate to tell you this but 0.3% of naff all is still naff all.
Sat 11 The weather for most of the day was not inclement. So after lunch I actually got to sow (indoors) all the seeds I’d been putting off: hot lemon chillies, endive, coleus and some mystery mix of flowering cacti. I also cut back (fairly hard) the existing chilli plants – I can’t remember if this will be their third or fourth year but it’ll be interesting to see what they produce.
Sun 12 Americans drive me up the wall at times. Yesterday I sent out subscription reminders for the literary society. Within hours I had payments, via our online shop, from 8 American members; all paying for “5 years for the price of 4”. 50% of them got it wrong and paid the UK rate rather than the Overseas subscription rate – and that’s a significant difference. Gah!
Mon 13 Following up on yesterday’s Americans, and to be fair to them, once I pointed out the error of their ways they all paid up like lambs within 12 hours. After which it was time for a haircut. Oh the excitement!
Tue 14 Why is it that developers presenting to a meeting have to waste half their presenting time with a sales pitch, so they then don’t have time to explain properly what they’re trying to do. And why can they not explain things simply: A,B, C; and not waffle for 5 minutes and confuse people. It’s bad presenting and unprofessional. Tailor your presentation to your audience! They could have got a lot more out of that meeting.
Wed 15 A five star night. Awake at 03:30 and looking out of the bedroom window I can see five stars. That’s unusual because of the disgusting light pollution from the urbanopolis. The normal is two.
Thu 16 Hospital trip again today. Now if all senior consultants were like this one, the world would be a much better place. Head man of the area specialist vascular centre: an urbane, considerate and thoughtful Swede. I was treated to a very polite and measured version of “I don’t know what they’re all worrying about; there’s no real problem, but do come back if it recurs”. The NHS needs more such.
Fri 17 Yes! Early English asparagus is in the shops. I spotted that the supermarket were offering it. So of course I put three bunches on this week’s order, and much to my surprise it appeared. It is very early; it must be polytunnel grown as the season doesn’t really start until St George’s Day and then lasts only 6-8 weeks. Anyway I cooked the first bunch with tonight’s prawns & pasta. What a delight! We shall make the most of English asparagus while it’s available as I won’t buy the imported stuff year round. (You can’t totally avoid buying stuff that’s shipped round the globe, but we do try to avoid it where possible; hence not buying non-European wine.)
Sat 18 I’m getting into my stride now with Postcrossing. It’s quite interesting. In the last 6 weeks I’ve sent 7 cards, of which 4 have arrived. And the one to Vladivostok has arrived faster than the one to the US mid-west (which is still somewhere in the postal system). So 7 sent (Germany twice, USA, Russia, Czech Republic, Spain, Finland) of which 3 are still travelling; and 3 received (from USA, Germany, France). It’s random, but I’m still slightly surprised not to have been allocated one to SE Asia or South America yet — but who knows what’s up next.
Sun 19 You take a trip round the garden after lunch and take a handful of photos of the small daffodils near the pond. Not one is in focus as they’re waving about so much in the breeze. But the sturdy hellebore is rock solid, and rather pretty.rainbow
Mon 20 We used to have a lot of feral pigeons, but they seem to have disappeared over the winter. Instead we now seem to have more woodpigeons. There is a pair who always nest in one of the Christmas trees at the bottom of the garden. And this year there’s another pair at the front. The latter came along this morning prospecting our pittosporum tree for a nest (predecessors have nested there before); but they were quickly followed by a third. There then ensued a squabble about who was going to have it off with who. Exeunt omnes.
Tue 21 Bastards! Had to ditch my diabetic eye screening appointment at the last minute – because I couldn’t get here. Why? Because the taxi company were being inept and untruthful; and the car was over 25 minutes late, leaving me right up the Khyber. Luckily the screening appointments people are efficient and understanding and we’ve rearranged for 3 weeks time. As a result I got a free afternoon in which to do bugger all; so I started on the weekly supermarket order.
Wed 22 So inflation went up to an annual 10.4% in February after falling for 3 months. How do I not find this surprising? Everything is getting more expensive by the month. And food inflation is said to be 18.2%. From my perspective this is very conservative; I’d say food inflation is more like 30-40% judging by the way our weekly supermarket shop has jumped in price – and that’s when the commodities you want (eg. salad) are available. Two examples: in under two years Vinegar has gone up from £1 to £1.45; and Ginger Nut biscuits from £1 to £1.50.
Thu 23 Despite the rain, Spring is here. We’re past the equinox. The forsythia is in flower; as is the delicate small cherry in the front garden. Next door’s ash tree is just beginning to open its flower buds. And the apple trees are just beginning to move. There’s lots to be done in the garden, but it is so wet and we’re promised rain every day until at least the end of the month. Mind you we need the rain for the water supply.
Fri 24 It’s been raining most of the afternoon, but with little bits of sun. Towards sundown we had a decent rainbow – actually a double, but the second was very faint – followed by some strange peachy coloured light. Rainbows are so hard to photograph well.rainbow
Sat 25 Another really good lunchtime literary society social call with almost 20 of us from New England (where it was 8AM), through us here in London (at 12 noon) to Japan (where it was 9PM). We talked for about 90 minutes covering a range of topics from biographies to society events and conferences. These calls are always good because it gives members from across the globe a chance to meet and chat which they would otherwise not have, and for new members to get to know us and find that we really aren’t a scary bunch who know it all and shoot newbies down in flames.
Sun 26 Tilly, aka. Queen Cat, has been walking back and forth across my desk most of the day, as if on elastic. She jumps up to my left walks straight across – albeit taking care to avoid my keyboard. She sits, or stands, to my right wanting a small amount of attention. She’ll then walk back across to my left and just lie down, regardless of what’s there.rainbowIt’s lovely to have her presence, but it does get a bit wearing: the continual back and forth; lying on what you’re trying to work on; generally hampering; and not to mention the occasional wet muddy paws. But if you stop her, or remove her, she mutters plaintively at you.
Mon 27 Spent the day tearing my hair out over literary society stuff. Trying to reconcile my part of the accounts and get our money out of PayPal took almost all morning, instead of the 5 minutes it should take. Why? Because of PayPal’s Byzantine and thieving system.
Then mailing out a new publication: the Chairman has just given away (literally) almost 20% of the print run, which he didn’t allow for when he set the RRP. Every time I looked at my email he wanted another sent out. Oh, and he managed to give me at least one non-existent address. God save me from bankers and lawyers!
Tue 28 We finally bit the bullet and changed the cats’ insurance. I looked at it last year and N didn’t want to change, but this year we both agree. PetPlan have been good over the years, but they are ever more expensive. Tilly is now almost 10, so one expects her cover to be going up steeply. But Boy Cat is even more expensive to insure, as although only five he’s male; even (though neutered) male cats still carry this expectation of being reckless thugs and wanderers. Moving the insurance to John Lewis has literally halved our monthly premium for what looks to be essentially the same cover. And yes, we wouldn’t be without the insurance; it doesn’t get used a lot (touch wood, our cats have always been pretty healthy) but veterinary care is so expensive – on a par with private human healthcare.
Wed 29 So what happened today? Not a lot really. I seem to have spent the day fiddling about to no great effect. Despite sleeping well for the last couple of nights – and having some odd dreams – I blame the depression which seems worse this week.
Thu 30 Arrggghhhh! What day is it? What week is it? Does it even exist? Or is it all a really tedious dream?
Fri 31 So a pretty dismal end to a pretty dismal month. According to the Weather People (they’re a slightly saner version of Village People, aren’t they?) we (in London) have had the wettest March since 1981, with around twice the average March rainfall. Consequently we’ve had half the average March sunshine, although it seems temperatures have been around average. There are still a few hours of the month left and as I write this it’s still raining, so we’ll have to see what the final figures are when they’re released next week. Don’t hold your breath, but it looks as if we might get a few nice days next week – and we could do with some warm sunshine! As they say in these parts: “Onward and buggeration!”