history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

Here are this month’s links to items you may have missed.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Baffled by black holes? Confused by quantum theory? You’re not alone, so here are some simple explanations of various mysteries of the universe. [LONG READ]

An ancient, giant insect has been rediscovered outside a Walmart store in Arkansas. And no, that isn’t a euphemism!

In another discovery, a new gecko species (above) has been discovered on a rugged Queensland island. And it does indeed look like a tiny, rather cute, dragon.

So just how do animals manage to follow their nose to find food or mates? [LONG READ]

We’re learning more and more about the microbes that live in and on us. Here scientists are uncovering what lives in our mouths. [LONG READ]

Meanwhile scientists are also looking at the strange microbes inhabiting an abandoned uranium mine.

And still at the microscopic level, scientists have discovered a completely new and unexpected group of aquatic and predatory microbes, which might be a whole new biological kingdom.

There are even more new discoveries: it has also been found that Japan’s most familiar wild orchid is actually two closely related species.

Health, Medicine

OK, so H5N1 bird flu which is causing the deaths of thousands of birds (especially seabirds) can jump to mammals. But how much do we need to worry about it? [LONG READ]

Here’s one for the “I never knew that” file … Lemon juice can combat kidney stones.

As those of us with depression are probably aware there has long been a debate about the involvement of serotonin as a causative agent. Here’s a layman’s summary of what we think we know about depression treatments. [LONG READ]

Sexuality

Men report reliably having far more orgasms during straight sex than do women. But we should be more open about what constitutes sex to find ways of closing the orgasm gap.

Environment

It is quite surprising what washes up on our beaches.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

A rare painting by Brueghel the Younger has been found behind a door in French house.

A Ming dynasty Buddha has been found in the sand near a north Australian beach, and it is being suggested this is evidence of Chinese visits to Australia much earlier than previously known. Hmmmm …

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Ancient cave paintings often feature hand impressions, and many appear to have mutilated fingers. This is now being suggested as deliberate concealment of fingers as part of a Stone Age sign language. [££££]

One day we’re going to realise that ancient peoples moved around quite a lot, and European prehistory is not what we thought. [££££]

I don’t understand why it is thought “startling” that Roman gladiators fought in Britain.

A supposed Roman altar has been found at Leicester Cathedral, supporting a long-held legend.

On the other side of the world on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) an apparently unfinished Moai statue has been found in a volcanic crater.

Coming back to home, researchers have finally managed to decipher a batch of Mary Queen of Scots’ letters from her incarceration.

Come forward another 100 years or so … renovation at a flat in the centre of York had revealed unknown 17th-century friezes.

London

London has about 40 pairs of peregrine falcons who feed largely on the feral pigeons and starlings. But what happened during lockdown when the pigeons dispersed along with the humans? They upped their predation on the Ring-Neck Parakeets – but subsequently returned to dining on pigeons.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Zen Master Brad Warner has offered a Buddhist perspective on transgenderism.

Teenagers are well known for being moody, but here are eight ways to nurture teenage minds.

And finally, a designer shares her love for the tiny things which enable the world.

personal, pleasures

Orchids

I like orchids, especially the Phalaenopsis and Dendrobium species, and over the years I’ve bought a fair few, including several for my mother (who’s been dead now for almost 8 years) although probably not far into double figures. Growers have bred a huge range of flower colours, and those flowers last for weeks – anything up to 8 weeks – so although the flowering plants sold in supermarkets etc. aren’t cheap, you do get value for money.

Striped Orchid
Striped Orchid
The flower is actually somewhat darker than in this image
[Click the image for a larger view]

But why does everyone think that these orchids are difficult to grow and have to be thrown out when they’ve finished flowering? If you follow a few simple rules they actually aren’t difficult. And they’ll come back into flower, usually once a year, although you’ll probably never get the magnificent flower spikes the growers can with specialised heating and lighting. I wrote about my rules for keeping orchids some years ago. (My rules say to stake the flower spike, but frankly I never bother these days, but allow them to arch gracefully as they will.)

Small Orchid
Small Orchid
[Click the image for a larger view]

You won’t manage to keep every orchid going and some will resist flowering again. However I still have four which have just come back into flower, and yesterday I took the opportunity to try photographing them – I don’t find them easy; they need a dark background to show well, and there’s always extra flowers your don’t want in the frame. These images are the result.

Pure White Orchid
Pure White Orchid
[Click the image for a larger view]

The small purple stripy orchid above is indeed a small cultivar. It is one I bought for my mother, so maybe 10 years ago, and every year it produces this lovely spray of half-size flowers. The others are “full size” with large flowers around 9cm across; they’re all some years old and mostly produce only a couple of flowers.

Purple Splotchy Orchidd
Purple Splotchy Orchid
[Click the image for a larger view]

These are all Phalaenopsis orchids. By contrast I’ve never managed to get my one Dendrobium back into flower; but I keep it going in the hope it might one day it might forget itself and put up a new flower spike.

amusements, memes, ramblings, topographical

Things What I Done in London

Last week London blogger Diamond Geezer posted a list of 100 Things I have Done in London. Given that he spends his life out and about in London it is naturally an eclectic and interesting list.

Despite being essentially a Londoner, I can’t compete with DG. However I thought it would be interesting to see what I have done within the bounds of Greater London. And there are some unusual things.

First of all I share just these five things with DG (I’m surprised it is quite so few):

  1. Voted for an MP who actually won
  2. Done jury service
  3. Been underground to watch Mail Rail while it was actually operational – and in my case long before it was branded Mail Rail
  4. Bought my first top shelf magazine
  5. Endured a pandemic

Then I can add:

  1. Been through the red channel at Heathrow
  2. Had lunch with a Herald, and paid the bill
  3. Had tea tête-à-tête with an Earl
  4. Been in A&E at Barts Hospital
  5. Had lunch at the Mermaid Theatre (aged 11) – and was served a whole trout as a starter
  6. Been aboard RRS Discovery (which carried Scott & Shackleton on their first journey to the Antarctic) and the Cutty Sark
  7. Travelled from Charing Cross to Greenwich and back by boat
  8. Travelled down the Thames (and back) from Tower Pier by paddle steamer
  9. Seen Shakespeare performed at the Globe Theatre
  10. Caught the last train home
  11. Caught the first train in from home
  12. Been to the old Billingsgate Market before dawn
  13. Been to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party
  14. Been to exhibition openings/private views at V&A and the V&A Museum of Childhood
  15. Been to an exhibition opening at the Wallace Collection with Simon Russell Beale
  16. Sung in a choir in St Pauls Cathedral
  17. Been to a play reading at the College of Arms
  18. Run conferences at the Wallace Collection and Naval & Military Club (the In & Out)
  19. Been on a tour of the Houses of Parliament
  20. Dined at five London clubs: Garrick, In & Out, Reform, Oxford & Cambridge, Travellers
  21. Had Sunday Lunch at the Ritz
  22. Eaten prunes & custard in a Lyons Corner House (aged about 4)
  23. Been part of a group who formed a literary society, which is now a registered charity
  24. Been to the Chelsea Flower Show (twice; first aged 8)
  25. Rescued several cats
  26. Caught a train to or from every major London rail terminus (of all the London termini I think I’m probably missing only Blackfriars and Cannon Street)
  27. Been “back stage” at Wallace Collection, V&A Museum of Childhood, College of Arms
  28. Been shown round the research labs at the Royal Institution by the then Director, Prof. Sir George (later Lord) Porter
  29. Had sex in a Bayswater hotel
  30. Been to a Christmas Lecture at the Royal Institution
  31. Travelled the old North London Line to/from Broad Street
  32. Had (and used) a BL Readers Ticket, when they were hard to get and gave admission to the iconic BM Reading Room
  33. Drunk a pint in the Pavilion at Lord’s
  34. Been to a Test Match at Lord’s – several times including the one when Bob Taylor was allowed out of retirement to keep wicket as 12th man against New Zealand on 25 July 1986
  35. Played cricket against the Bank of England
  36. Written computer code for Lloyds Register of Shipping, OCL and Thompson Travel
  37. Met Ian Rankin, having arranged for him to speak at a conference
  38. Got married
  39. Been the guide on a coach tour of London
  40. Been in the audience at a conference to hear Prince Charles speak

And I’ve no doubt N will be along and remind me of curiosities I’ve forgotten.

quotes

Monthly Quotes

1 Comment

It’s time, again, for this month’s collection of quotes both amusing and thought-provoking.

The most remarkable discovery in all of astronomy is that the stars are made of atoms of the same kind as those on the earth.
[Richard Feynman]

Go outside and let your breath be stolen away.
Find the forests, seek the seas,
meditate on the mountains, mist covered from morning.
We are nurtured by nature, born for the wild places;
we’ve no business in cities, in buildings taller than trees can grow.
Go outside and begin living again.
[Tyler Knott Gregson]

Consider soulmates to also be in the form of friends and animals, the wind, the tides, the plants, pieces of art, and the moon. Great love lives everywhere.
[Victoria Erickson, Edge of Wonder]

Nature is wiggly. Everything wiggles: the outlines of the hills, the shapes of the trees, the way the wind brushes the grass, the clouds, tracts of streams. It all wiggles. And for some reason or other, we find wiggly things very difficult to keep track of.
[Alan Watts]

If you’re going to be weird, he confident about it.
[unknown]

Why do humans need jobs? Why can’t I just sit on a beach with my tits out and stare into the ocean until I die?
[unknown]

I use a neuroparasitological framework to argue that a superficially enticing set of idea pathogens have parasitised countless people in the West leading us resolutely towards the abyss of infinite lunacy.
[Prof. Gad Saad, quoted in New Scientist, 25 February 2023]

Every living thing possesses its own instincts and intuition. Humans are the only ones who – willingly or unwillingly – ignore theirs.
[Econudist]

If it makes you happy it doesn’t have to make sense to others.
[Richard Feynman]

What you learn from a life in science is the vastness of our ignorance.
[David Eagleman]

Bodies are not inherently sexual but they CAN be sexual, and sex isn’t inherently immoral to show or talk about. Likewise, nudity is not pornography, but when created and depicted ethically, pornography is not inherently immoral either.
[Econudist]

You can lead a human to knowledge but you can’t make it think.
[unknown]

The universe is a circle whose circumference is nowhere and whose centre is everywhere.
[Paraphrase of Blaise Pascal]

The elephant is a pretty bird, it flits from bough to bough.
It makes its nest in a rhubarb tree, and whistles like a cow.
[unknown]

Yes, in fact everything in physics is made up to make the math work out.
[Katie Mack, @AstroKatie, Science Focus, 3 March 2023]

I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.
[Socrates]

Eating fruit is the most magical part of the earthbody experience. Things that taste delightful to our tongues just grow out of the dirt. They don’t have to taste good but they do. We don’t have to have taste but we do.
[Econudist]

When it comes down to it, the only knowledge that really matters is, how to purify water, how to grow your own food, how to cook, how to build, and how to love. And funnily enough, we’re not taught any of it in school.
[unknown]

food+drink

Culinary Adventures #97: Spiced Apple Pie

A quick post on today’s slightly experimental culinary exploit.

It’s an apple pie day! Yeah, OK, so what?

We had loads of spare eating apples (‘cos I always buy to much fruit) and a block of puff pastry.
Chop & pre-cook the apples (on the hob for maybe 15-20 minutes) with a teaspoon of mixed spice, tablespoon of sugar and a couple of tots of sweet white wine. Being eating apples they won’t fluff down like Bramleys do, but they will soften and release quite a bit of juice.
Use the pastry to line a 20cm square flan tin.
Fill the pastry case with drained apple, fold the pastry edges over – no harm if it looks a bit rustic – scatter over a tablespoon of chopped mixed peel, glaze the pastry, and bake for about 30 minutes at 200°C.
I had 4-5 tablespoons of spiced apple liquor left, so added 2 tablespoons of sugar and 10-15ml of brandy, and reduced it to make a very sticky syrup which was drizzled over the tart when it came out of the oven.
Devour warm with double cream.

It worked better than expected and was just nicely spiced, so as not to be boring apple pie.

beliefs, thoughts

Transgenderism

A few days ago Brad Warner, one of our favourite Zen Masters, wrote an interesting blog post titled Transgenderism: A Buddhist Perspective.

It is indeed just as the title says. Brad gives a reasoned view of his interpretation of Buddhist philosophy as applied to transgenderism. It may not accord with everyone’s view – indeed it may not be the view of all Buddhists – but he ends up saying pretty much what I have thought for a long time:

[W]hen I see people trying to solve their deep suffering by altering their bodies with chemicals and surgery, I wonder if they are making a mistake. And I wonder if we should be so quick to allow children to make permanent changes to their physical bodies that they may come to regret. It may be better to reserve that for adults who have had adequate time to consider the ramifications of such drastic alterations … I think that, rather than trying to alter one’s body to align it with one’s ideas about one’s “true self”, it would be better to learn to live as comfortably as possible with the mind and body that one’s past karma has manifested in this life.

I would go a little further … Many boys will wonder, and ask about, what it’s like to be a girl – and vice versa. That’s a natural part of childhood curiosity. But it seems to me likely that many well-meaning but misguided adults who are in a position of care and influence pick up on this and, knowingly or not, end up over-influencing the child to “act out” their inquisitiveness without any checks and balances. As Brad says, this should be left to mature consideration in adulthood, or perhaps better to learn to live with what you were given. But then none of that is easy.

amusements, history

March 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.

March Quiz Questions: British History

  1. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman in the UK to qualify and work as what? Doctor
  2. Which monastery in Canterbury was founded in 598? St Augustine’s Abbey
  3. In what year was British Rail nationalised? 1948
  4. Who was murdered on 29 December 1170? Thomas Becket
  5. Mary, Queen of Scots was executed on 7 February 1587. Where did this take Place? Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2022.

beliefs, current affairs

On Freedom of Speech

To paraphrase a comment I saw elsewhere …

A freelance sports commentator has been told by a company he works for how he may and may not make comments, unrelated to his work, on his social media; and he is not being contracted until he agrees. This appears to be an outrageous political stitch-up in which the spine-less company has kowtowed to an increasingly Fascist government in an attempt to suppress free speech.

I’m not going into the realms of who is involved (we all know the current brouhaha) nor who said what and to whom.

But we need to get one thing straight …

FREE SPEECH IS SACROSANCT

I am entitled to my opinion, and to express that opinion. If you dislike it, that’s your problem and reflects on you, not me. I am not, and cannot be, responsible for your beliefs, actions, emotions etc. We none of us can control the brains of another.

And vice versa … If you say something I dislike or disagree with, that’s my problem. I can choose to be publicly (or privately) annoyed or I can stop and think. Even if I fundamentally disagree with you, you are entitled to have and express your opinion. And, as I have said on may occasions, I will defend this right to the last.

If I believe, as I do, that the government are a bunch of pathetic, self-serving c*nts I have the right to say so. I don’t expect them to agree with me; that is their problem and their privilege; it does not entitle them (or any third party) to muzzle me.

How about we all just grow up!

memes, science

Ten Things: March

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.

Great Physicists

  1. Isaac Newton
  2. Richard Feynman
  3. Galileo Galilei
  4. Archimedes
  5. Johannes Kepler
  6. Werner Heisenberg
  7. Lise Meitner
  8. Louis de Broglie
  9. James Clark Maxwell
  10. Wolfgang Pauli