This year we’re beginning each month with a (potentially logical) oddity to think about, and to keep the brain cells active. This month:
Many animals probably need glasses, but they don’t know it and neither do we.
Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
| Wed 1 | Another first today. During lunch, for just a few seconds, a Garden Warbler skulking through the shrubbery outside the Dining Room window. |
| Thu 2 | A very busy 2 days. Actually got done everything I needed to, but that’s not everything on my desk. |
| Fri 3 | Sitting waiting for the supermarket delivery this morning, saw the clock on the cooker say 11:11. I’m always fascinated by times like this which show a pattern, like 01:23, 23:45. |
| Sat 4 | Retrieved the two wasp traps that were put out last Saturday. Not a wasp to be counted – again! Very disappointing, but not a great surprise. |
| Sun 5 | Another day struggling with the depression: sleeping too much; not eating properly; having to resist an excess of gin. |
| Mon 6 | Payday; and time to do the monthly accounts. We’re solvent for another month – even after paying our outstanding income tax. Result! |
| Tue 7 | We bought some Granny Smith apples a few weeks ago, but never used them. Still in their supermarket wrapper they’ve kept well on the sideboard and ripened to a greenish yellow. To my surprise they were rather good: crisp, juicy and slightly sweet: unlike the green cannonballs we are normally sold. |
| Wed 8 | A lovely warm sunny day as it was 42 years ago when N and I were bound together at St Peter’s, Acton Green. |
| Thu 9 | If anything happened today, I didn’t notice. Too busy analysing survey data. |
| Fri 10 | It’s Saturday, so why is EastEnders on TV. Oh! Wait! It’s actually Friday! |
| Sat 11 | There’s a big group on Facebook about the new recipe Felix catfood making cats ill. I’ve been running a survey to try to gather evidence rather than anecdote. Today I finished analysing the 499 records. |
| Sun 12 | Just what are DPD doing delivering on a Sunday? They said the package would arrive Monday, but lo, here it is today. One does not expect this of any courier company. |
| Mon 13 | What did I do today? Apart from starting the production of some pate, I have no clue. |
| Tue 14 | So the hospital have finally decided to cancel my 2019/20 sleep study because of Covid. So glad they’ve finally caught up with reality. |
| Wed 15 | Hurry, hurry, hurry … we’ve just realised we need the website updated … today! |
| Thu 16 | Spent most of the day horizontal. Too dizzy in the head for vertical hold to engage properly. |
| Fri 17 | Vertical hold working intermittently today, which is an improvement. But still not good. |
| Sat 18 | What happened there? Awake-ish at 0600 with a purring, upside-down, cat for company. Next I know it’s 12 noon! But at least vertical hold is restored if not full functionality. |
| Sun 19 | Got some British apples in the supermarket delivery this week – and so I should think at this time of year! Suffolk Pink (a fairly new and unusual variety) and Worcester. The Worcester were good, quite sweet but not over juicy. The Suffolk Pink, although more tart were juicier and crunchier which I prefer. |
| Mon 20 | A day of fiddling about and catching up. Really fed up with the depression and inability to do anything. |
| Tue 21 | Picked almost 3kg runner beans. Sadly they’ve been rather neglected so many are over grown and very stringy. But 4x 200+gm packs frozen. The rest stripped for the beans inside which gave another 600-ish gm. |
| Wed 22 | Put some of the beans salvaged yesterday from our overgrown runners, in tonight’s casserole. And they were good. We Brits are apparently the only ones who eat the pods; everyone else grows them for the beans – and I quite see why! |
| Thu 23 | A voyage of discovery trying to understand how to create flipbooks for websites without having to pay for someone else’s cloud storage. |
| Fri 24 | Flu jabs are go! Invitation by text from GP. Booked in for next week. |
| Sat 25 | That’s another acquaintance gone: Lord Gowrie who was President of the Anthony Powell Society. Former Minister for the Arts. Erudite, knowledgeable, and always friendly. |
| Sun 26 | It could almost be Christmas: roast duck followed by biscuits and cheese (with red wine and port, of course). |
| Mon 27 | Awoke early to belting rain, half a gale and Stygian gloom. A lovely sunny day by lunchtime, if still breezy. |
| Tue 28 | Time to remove a bird’s nest amount of hair from my head. N doesn’t like it this short, but it’s a lot more comfortable and I can do it myself (with N’s assist). |
| Wed 29 | It’s flu jab day, today! Let’s see if it knocks me out this year – like it does most years for a day or so. |
| Thu 30 | Picked another 28 big red ripe chillies from the plants on the study windowsill. That’s 92 so far this summer, and there’s more to come; we should make well over 100. Almost all have gone in the freezer; they should keep us going for years!  Chillies on the bush a couple of days ago (left) and today’s harvest. |
Our usual round up of links to items you may have missed the first time.
Science, Technology, Natural World
Let’s start with a mind-boggling look at just how big solar flares can be. [LONG READ]
How and why have geologists have lost a billion years from their records. [LONG READ]
Kew Gardens is one of my favourite places and now they’re in the record books for having the largest plant collection at a single site.
Now this is weird. If you thought luminescent platypuses were odd, then how about wasps’ nests that glow green under ultraviolet light.
Ancient Egyptian mummified cats are helping to unravel the mysteries of ancient textile dyes.
On the problems of people who take aliens seriously.
An interesting item on the work of the detectives untangling fraud and counterfeiting in the global supply chains. [LONG READ]
Health, Medicine
Lingering post-illness symptoms like long Covid are likely to be much more common than we think. I certainly had symptoms which lingered for many years after I had glandular fever.
Environment
There’s a 30-year project planned to rewild a huge area of the Scottish Highlands.
This has to be a candidate for headline of the year: “Old Irish Goats return to County Dublin to protect hills from wildfires”. Who knew that Old Irish Goats were a thing?
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Researchers excavating a cave in Gibraltar have found a sealed chamber which may contain undisturbed relics of Neanderthals.
Work on dating some ancient footprints in New Mexico suggests they’re the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas.
Experts in southern France are doing a giant jigsaw puzzle to piece together the remains of a Roman fresco.
This is an old piece in which our favourite medievalist, Dr Eleanor Janega, points out that there is no such thing as the “Dark Ages”.
Eleanor Janega again examines ancient ideas on semen retention.
More genetic studies are revealing how humans island-hopped to settle remote Pacific, taking their statues styles with them.
London
“Downing Street was first built in 1680 by Sir George Downing: an unscrupulous, brutal, and miserly man – which is rather fitting, given that the street which bears his name has been the home to so many politicians.”
Historic London looks at the “menagerie” of Downing Street.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
A look at how nihilism (at its simplest, a declaration that life is meaningless) can help make you happier, even in these troubled times. Hmmm – Yeah – Maybe.
An interesting theory on what ancient money can tell us about the future of computers. [£££££]
It keeps being tried, and succeeding, but always ignores it. A look at the case for a shorter working week. [LONG READ]
Photographer Eric Kim looks at 12 lessons he learnt from the work of Japanese cult street-photographer Nobuyoshi Araki.
People
It’s surely very British that 30 after his death the lone figure of Alfred Wainwright is still a cult figure looming large over the Lake District. [LONG READ]
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
Finally, earlier this month it was time for the 2021 Ig Nobel awards, which included an award for the investigation which found sex can relieve nasal congestion.
Our September collection of recently encountered quotes.
Bulut et al. found that sex could indeed improve nasal congestion as effectively as nasal decongestant for up to 60 minutes, returning to baseline levels within three hours. Granted, a good 12-hour nasal spray would last much longer, but it’s less fun. And some people might experience adverse effects from nasal spray, so having a natural substitution method for congestion would be helpful. The authors hope that there will be further studies to investigate whether masturbation has a similar effect for singletons.
[2021 Ig Nobel Awards, as reported at https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/09/feline-acoustics-the-smell-of-fear-and-more-receive-2021-ig-nobel-prizes/
Downing Street was first built in 1680 by Sir George Downing: an unscrupulous, brutal, and miserly man – which is rather fitting, given that the street which bears his name has been the home to so many politicians.
[https://historiclondontours.com/tales-of-london/f/of-mice-men]
Photographs are diary entries … That’s all they can be. Photographs are just documentations of a day’s event. At the same time, they drag the past into the present and also continue into the future. A day’s occurrence evokes both the past and the future. That’s why I want to clearly date my pictures. It’s actually frustrating, that’s why I now photograph the future.
[Nobuyoshi Araki (Japanese cult street-photographer), 10 February 2012]
Photography is lying, and I am a liar by nature. Anything in front of you, except a real object, is fake. Photographers might consider how to express their love through photography, but those photographs are “fake love”.
[Nobuyoshi Araki (Japanese cult street-photographer)]
Photography, well, not so much photography but life itself, is nostalgia I realized, having seen these moments: in this day and age of digital media, in the centre of Tokyo you see these sticks, right, they take these sticks and chase around crayfish and carp. Boyhood memories and stuff, that sort of nostalgia is the most important thing in life.
[Nobuyoshi Araki (Japanese cult street-photographer), March 2011]
If you have some sort of illness, disability, or are crippled – use that to your benefit. You also might not live in the most interesting place in the world, you might not have the best camera, and you might not have much free time – but these are all “creative constraints” which you can use to your benefit. It is all about your attitude, mindset, and the way you see life.
[Eric Kim at https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2016/08/10/12-lessons-araki-has-taught-me-about-photography/]
As photographers in the West, we are trained to shoot with prejudice. We are told to only photograph interesting things. But in the East, they are a lot less discriminating. A lot of the Eastern philosophy sees everyday and ordinary life as interesting and meaningful.
[Eric Kim at https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2016/08/10/12-lessons-araki-has-taught-me-about-photography/]
It must be kami [god]. What makes a photographer take a picture? What makes an artist paint a picture? It can’t really be explained. It’s a kind of instinct or impulse.
[Nobuyoshi Araki (Japanese cult street-photographer)]
I’m trying to catch the soul of the person I’m shooting. The soul is everything. That’s why all women are beautiful to me, no matter what they look like or how their bodies have aged.
[Nobuyoshi Araki (Japanese cult street-photographer)]
The Scientific advancements of the seventeenth-century and beyond were not something that occurred because an apple fell on Newton’s head. They were a part of a long tradition of scientific thought and inquiry that people just haven’t bothered learning about because the history is too complex for smug think tank guys to wrap their heads around in five minutes between power lunches.
[Dr Eleanor Janega on Going Medieval blog]
Moreover, medieval Europeans were absolutely committed to maintaining communal health, whether through sensible (and at times perhaps too harsh) social distancing, as we can see in the medieval treatment of lepers … medieval people were acutely aware of the necessity for providing for people suffering from an illness and also of keeping the general population separated from them.
[Dr Eleanor Janega on Going Medieval blog]
Yet we are still seeing several hundred deaths every week. In effect, it is as if a jumbo jet was crashing every few days. This is a toll of suffering and misery that, we are told, we must simply live with. After all, we have lived for many years with large increases in deaths every winter. Why are we suddenly getting so concerned? Yet we ignore how some other European countries, especially Nordic ones, have maintained high building standards and ensured that large numbers of their older population are not living in poverty, thereby avoiding this seasonal toll. But maybe the politicians have a point. Where was the public clamour as life expectancy of older people in the United Kingdom stagnated or declined during the 2010s?
[Prof. Martin McKee writing in BMJ, 14 September 2021]
The government says that its first duty is to keep people safe. This is the rationale for spending money on defence. It can, of course, decide that it no longer wants to assume the responsibility for safeguarding us from threats to health. But if it does, it should at least be honest about it.
[Prof. Martin McKee writing in BMJ, 14 September 2021]
Be silent or let thy words be worth more than silence.
[Pythagoras]
This year our Ten Things series – which surprisingly appears on the tenth of each month – continues concentrating on the amusing, both real and fictional. So this month we have …
Ten Real Modern People I’ve Encountered Somewhere Along the Way
This year we’re beginning each month with a (potentially logical) oddity to think about, and to keep the brain cells active. This month:
If poison is past its expiry date, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
| Sun 1 | I don’t understand the guy next door to me. He doesn’t like the pigeons because they go “flappy flappy” flying away when he goes down his garden. And yet he persists in chucking old bread out on his garage roof for the birds – mostly pigeons, of course! |
| Mon 2 | A sad day. Returned from lunch to an email that my osteopath had died; he was only 72 although he did have failing kidneys. Over the years he’d become a friend as well as my osteopath. Because of lockdown I’d not seen him for 18 months. A true gentleman, remembered with great affection. |
| Tue 3 | Phew! Work of various sorts today from about 0930 to 2045, including two Zoom meetings. But I did achieve pretty much everything I set out to, and a lot else too. I’ll call that a result! |
| Wed 4 | Slept late, then had a day regrouping after yesterday, and clearing away some of the junk on my desk and in my in-box. |
| Thu 5 | Time to take in the wasp traps (see Thursday 29 July). Oh dear, I’ve caught nothing but a few very small flies. Fuller’s London Pride is obviously not to wasps’ taste. I’m not really surprised as I’ve seen hardly any wasps yet this summer, and the last week hasn’t been good flying weather. |
| Fri 6 | Managed to cock up defining a new website an installing WordPress. I hate having to get the hosting admins to fix it for me. |
| Sat 7 | Slept very late again; achieved little. |
| Sun 8 | Afternoon spent baking: rustic raspberry & blackberry tart; rustic tomato & onion tart; casseroled lamb shanks; stewed gooseberries; stewed blackcurrants. That should keep us fed for a bit. |
| Mon 9 | Spent a large part of the day tinkering around building a website. Why can you never get WordPress to do exactly what you want? |
| Tue 10 | When going out our cats are always told “Take care. See you later. No live prey please.” So what does Boy cat bring us in the middle of lunch? Live mouse. Which he then proceeds to lose in the study! |
| Wed 11 | Anyone who shares their home with a cat, knows they are perverse creatures. Ours, when offered chicken from your plate will tell you it’s their favourite food and ask for more. Today, when taking the meat off the chicken carcass I kept some scraps aside for the cats’ tea. Result: universal disdain from all three! |
| Thu 12 | Last night was supposed to be a peak for the Perseid meteor shower. Yet again, not a hope due to complete cloud cover. We never get to see these phenomena nowadays – just like we don’t get thunderstorms any more. |
| Fri 13 | Friday 13th is always an odd day. Luckily there’s only one this year, compared with 2 last year (March & November). And just one again next year (May). |
| Sat 14 | Last year’s 4 scotch bonnet chilli plants on the study windowsill were cut back in February. They’re being prolific. I’d already picked 15 fruit. Today I harvested 34 chillies, in sizes from “processed pea” to “large ping-pong ball”. They’ve been frozen whole, so small amounts of crushed chilli is easily available when needed. And there’s more to come! |
| Sun 15 | Whatever it was that was going to be done today, wasn’t. |
| Mon 16 | A lot of people are reporting their cats being ill after eating the new recipe Felix cat food; there’s a big group on Facebook, but it’s all anecdote and the manufacturers aren’t listening. So I spent some time drafting a survey to try to gather more reliable information which we can analyse. |
| Tue 17 | Awake and up really early, so I had almost the whole day working on my family history. Many years ago, my mother did a lot of her father’s line, but I think I’ve proven her mistaken about 250 years back. |
| Wed 18 | More work today on firming up yesterday’s family history work. And work on a website for the PPG, which is taking an age! |
| Thu 19 | Wide awake at 0530; shall I get up? Next I know it’s 0930; I’d better get up. Then the next I know it’s 1100; somehow I manage to get up. |
| Fri 20 | Sleep? What is this thing called sleep? Consequently feeling wrecked and the day went to Hell in a handcart. |
| Sat 21 | Was that a day? Up early again on too little sleep so felt out of it all day. Definitely out of it after wine with dinner. Hic! |
| Sun 22 | N picked 2 ice-cream tubs of blackberries from the front garden; it’s a really good, self-set and vigorous blackberry which almost always crops well. There’s also a big patch of large fungi by the wheelie bins; they’re not ordinary mushrooms and not deathcaps; trying to ID them. |
| Mon 23 | Another Monday – at least I’m told it was Monday. And another itching collection of gnat bites. |
| Tue 24 | Got a magnificent book on fungi [Roger Phillips, Mushrooms (2006)] to try to ID the fungi in the front garden. I think they’re probably The Prince, Agaricus augustus. If so they’re supposedly good eating (they’re the same family as commercially grown mushrooms) but I wouldn’t dare risk it. |
| Wed 25 | Why is depression such a vicious spiral of inability to get out of one’s chair? Even on a nice summer’s day. |
| Thu 26 | A hard day’s work organising two very different sets of announcement material for 1 September. |
| Fri 27 | Another of those days where you’re busy all day but seem to have nothing to show for it; except perhaps fish pie for dinner. |
| Sat 28 | Put up the 2 wasp traps for round 2 of Big Wasp Survey. At the same time noticed that the woodland floor between the old apple tree and the pond is prolific with small brown puffballs, probably Scaly Earthball (Scleroderma verrucosum).  Wasp Trap (left) and 3cm diameter Puff Ball |
| Sun 29 | Awake just after 0630 this morning and looking out of the bedroom window. Suddenly in the ash tree outside a small sparrow-sized bird; looks odd; it’s not a sparrow; yes, a first for me: a juvenile Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Nice, as they’re now relatively rare due to loss of elm trees. Have now seen 3 of 4 native woodpeckers (all in the garden here); only missing Wryneck (and that’s very unlikely). It just shows what is around even in suburbia. |
| Mon 30 | A grey, breezy, not very warm August Bank Holiday. Well at least it isn’t raining this year. |
| Tue 31 | Had a couple of new season English apples today. It’s that time of year already. Discovery, an early variety. My memory was they’re not up to much, and it was right: they’re dry and only moderately sweet. A bit like the apple equivalent of a ship’s biscuit. But they do have pretty blush pink streaked flesh. |
This month we have a well packed collection of links to items you may have missed the first time, so let’s get in …
Science, Technology, Natural World
You know those experiments physicists are always doing to spot invisible subatomic particles? Here’s an item on how they do it. [LONG READ]
One scientist looks at five reasons why sorting out evidence for UFOs is so scientifically challenging. [£££££]
The Gulf Stream is an important factor in controlling the Northern Hemisphere’s climate, but scientists have now seen warning signs that it is about to collapse.
They’re dastardly cunning and to cap it all it seems squirrels use parkour tricks when leaping from branch to branch.
The genomes of living animals are littered with DNA from long-extinct relatives, which is beginning to provide information on evolution, extinctions, and maybe even solutions to current agricultural problems. [LONG READ]
While we’re looking for clues, two studies have successfully detected DNA of wildlife in the air around us. This could become a valuable new way to detect rare wildlife in hostile environments.
Just what genetic tricks do the longest-lived animals need to drive their longevity? [LONG READ]
Health, Medicine
One young woman tells us about something most of us have never heard of: pelvic congestion syndrome. [LONG READ]
Sexuality
Our favourite medieval historian tells us about the power of pushing back against the marginalisation of sex workers – then and now.
Environment
Have you ever seen a ghost-pond? If not Norfolk apparently has loads of them, and they’re being restored to uncover a treasure trove of long-lost plants.
The UK government has given a rather (too?) cautious welcome to beavers and indicated they’ll receive legal protection.
Birds of prey are declining in the UK, but one farmer is trying to lure them back by laying out dinners of roadkill etc. on raised “sky tables”.
Oh dear! The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again. They may produce better light for us (compared with the old sodium lamps) but it seems that LED streetlights are causing significant declines in moth numbers in England.
So just how hard is it to recycle a jumbo jet?
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Long, long ago during the ice-ages, when sea level was much lower, the North Sea was an inhabitable oasis connecting the British Isles to mainland Europe. Despite being overwhelmed this so-called “Doggerland” is giving up its secrets due to fishing and dredging.
So how did the Mayans survive in the extreme monsoon climate of Meso-America? They had some really surprising technology!
Archaeologists in Finland have revealed the puzzling burial of an Iron Age leader. However the grave goods don’t entirely fit with the normal expectation of such leaders being male, and the suggestion is that this individual was in some way non-binary.
Why did Harold Godwinson lose the Battle of Hastings? Because his elder brother Swegen died some years earlier leaving the way open for Harold to seize the kingdom. [LONG READ]
700 years before McDonald’s, London’s first recorded takeaway was selling venison, pheasants and boiled meat.
Here we go again! The Voynich manuscript has resolutely refused to give up its secrets despite years of effort by researchers. Now another is hoping that the lock can be cracked using linguistic statistical methods.
Dr Eleanor Janega, our favourite medieval historian, reappears in her rightful place with two articles about medieval summers: “On Leisure in August” and “On Bad Summers“. [BOTH LONG READS]
Food, Drink
Anyone interested in beer, might be staggered to know that German chemists have identified over 7,700 different chemical formulas, each with as many as 25 different molecular structures, in a range of 400 beers.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
Well colour me black and blue! It turns out that getting a tattoo can be a powerful means of reclaiming your body and processing grief or trauma – Oh, and getting decorated. Of course it is; like piercing it is a rite of passage.
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
And finally I leave you with this thought:
My monthly round-up of quotes various I’ve recently encountered.
I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.
[Marcel Duchamp, artist (1887-1968)]
I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life”. I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
[Maya Angelou]
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
[Douglas Adams]
Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself; I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.
[Groucho Marx]
Your mind will serve you better than any trinket under the suns … It is a weapon … and like any weapon, you need practice to be any good at wielding it.
[Jay Kristoff, Nevernight]
Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labour when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.
[Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem]
The martin cat long shagged of courage good
Of weazle shape a dweller in the wood
With badger hair long shagged & darting eyes
And lower then the common cat in size
Small head & running on the stoop
Snuffing the ground & hind parts shouldered up
[John Clare ]