environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

OK, so here we go with this month’s link to items you may have missed …

Science, Technology, Natural World

I don’t understand why it is that many people are afraid of spiders, because they’re much smarter than we realise.

Do you know what a wasp smells like? No, nor me. But scientists are now beginning to work it out. Oh and Vespula germanica used in tis study is one of the two common wasp specie in the UK.

While on Hymenoptera, apparently the old undisturbed woodland at Blenheim in Oxfordshire has colonies of heirs of the long lost British Honeybee. At first I found this so unlikely I had to check it wasn’t 1 April.

Researchers are now beginning to eavesdrop on embryonic/foetal animals to understand how they respond to sound. We’d known for some time that there was communication between between adults and embryos, but mostly not what it meant.

Health, Medicine

Apparently the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has cut the rate of cervical cancer by around 87%.

In other research, medics are now trying to understand “immune amnesia”, where a disease (usually a virus) turns off or supresses the immune system even after recovery. Measles is especially good at this, and it could go some way to explaining why some recover especially slowly from some diseases (Covid and glandular fever come to mind). [LONG READ]

Sexuality

So here’s yet another look at ways to achieve great sex. Doesn’t it all come down to what works for you?

Environment

A new way of looking at climate change has been developed: a map showing where carbon needs to stay in nature.

As Jane Dunford in the Guardian finds out, beavers are having a significant impact on the environment where they’ve been reintroduced. Oh and just get their names!

Apparently Europe has lost almost 250 million House Sparrows in the last 40 years – that’s roughly the current UK population of sparrows every year for 40 years. Many other species are doing this badly as well, although some birds of prey are doing well.

Art, Literature, Language

The origins of “Transeurasian” languages appears to have been traced to traced to Neolithic millet farmers in NE China.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Glass is an everyday substance for us, but there’s still a puzzle over where it was first discovered.

As well as having high class glass, Ancient Egypt had sacred baboons although they are not indigenous to the area. Where and how were they acquired? [£££] [LONG READ]

There are a lot of large pits near Stonehenge, and it turns out they’re Neolithic and man-made, rather than natural.

Las Vegas is nothing new: the ancient Romans had a party town all their own but it is now submerged in the sea

Nearer at home Roman Britain is still producing a stream of archaeological discoveries.

The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold coins to be found in England has been declared treasure at an inquest.

Meanwhile historians are revealing the secrets of the tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral

When an antiques dealer bought a dirty wooden bird little did he realise to has and important artefact from the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

Still with the Tudors, some unsuspected, and almost pristine wall paintings have been uncovered at Calverley Old Hall in Yorkshire.

So just why is it that the Gunpowder Plot has continued to be remembered and celebrated for over 400 years?

You think we (in the UK) have a corrupt government? It has nothing on the parliaments of the 18th century. [£££]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Why is body hair still a no-no, especially in the world of dance?

And now three items on modern witchcraft. First from a Scottish hedge-witch. Second on the myth of the Halloween Hag. Lastly on the witch as a modern feminist icon.

And stay right there as we’ll end on the esoteric … The sentimental celluloid fairy is essentially a product of Disney as fairies were originally rather malevolent.

Have a good Christmas everyone; the Fates permitting we’ll be back with the next edition to enliven those dreary days between Christmas and New Year.

quotes

Monthly Quotes

And it’s that time of the month again already for our selection of quotes interested or amused me. Here goes …

Nobody ever knows what to do. There’s a kind of an illusion that some people know what to do at every moment and there are people who are extremely confident and act like they know what to do but they don’t know what to do any better then you do. So not knowing what to do is sometimes a perfectly fine situation. I don’t know what to do so I’m just going to do something. And if your action is sincere and not motivated by some kind of greed or anger or some other negative quality or emotion then what you do will be right. It may not be perfect. It’ll never be perfect. It can’t be perfect. But it won’t be the wrong thing to do. You just do something that’s not motivated by greed or anger or ego, for want of a better word.
[Brad Warner at http://hardcorezen.info/the-beer-oclock-interview-2005/7805]

I always felt that what Buddhism showed me was how stupid I was and by extension how stupid everybody was. And all I’m trying to say in my books is, “Look, we’re all stupid, so just live with it. Just deal with it.” … once you realize that you are stupid you have total freedom because the other aspect of your stupidity is that you’re … also the sum total of the universe. You’re also the centre of the universe and the centre of the universe is stupidity itself. And to understand this is to be completely free from ever having to try to live up to some kind of fantasy you’ve created for yourself, and just be where you are.
[Brad Warner at http://hardcorezen.info/the-beer-oclock-interview-2005/7805]

Institutions of learning should be devoted to the cultivation of curiosity, and the less they are deflected by considerations of immediacy and application, the more likely they are to contribute not only to human welfare but to the equally important satisfaction of intellectual interest which may indeed be said to have become the ruling passion of intellectual life in modern times.
[Abraham Flexner]

In any case, we overslept. When we woke up, the whole ocean was full of broken ice. Unbelievable tabernacles floated by, driven by a mild south-west breeze, statuesque, glittering, as big as trolleys, cathedrals, primeval caverns, everything imaginable! And they changed colour whenever they felt like it – ice blue, green and, in the evenings, orange. Early in the morning they could be pink. It started to blow and the floes piled into each other, rearing up, thrusting down (as if having an orgy, as Brunström might have put it).
[Tove Jansson; Notes from an Island]

Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft are written by men.
[Terry Pratchett, Good Omens]

We ring the Quick to Church, the dead to Grave,
Good is our use, such usage let us have.
Who here therefore doth Damn, or Curse or Swear,
Or strike in Quarrel tho no Blood appear.

Who wears a Hat or Spur or turns a Bell
Or by unskilful handing ruins a Pail,
Shall Sixpense pay for every single Crime
‘Twill make him careful ‘gainst another time.

Let all in Love and Friendship hither come,
Whilst the shrill Treble calls to Thundering Tom,
And since bells are our modest Recreation,
Let’s Rise and Ring and Fall to Admiration.

[Ringers’ Rhyme Board at St Kew, Cornwall]

I have always been used to nudity since I was born. The non-judgment of the body of the other and the absence of social difference due to the clothes. Collective nudity is beautiful and not sexual. I like collective nudity of all genders and ages so that everyone is on the same level. Nudity does not mean sexuality. I admire the beauty of the female body … I find it beautiful and admirable.
[Pleasure Portraits on Instagram]

Graham Roper shares a 2001 article from Electronics Times, about a new British oscilloscope, “the first instrument of its kind to be calibrated directly in practical units of measure”. With a screen area of 3¹⁄₈ micro-acres, power consumption of 2052 British thermal units per hour and a maximum deflection of 21¹⁄₁₁ milli-fathoms, its timebase had 24 calibrated sweep rates from 4¹⁄₈ micro-fortnights/furlong to 208¹⁄₄ fortnights/furlong. We aren’t sure, but the 1 April dateline may indicate humorous intent.
[Feedback; New Scientist; 30/10/2021]

A first step was the introduction of two beavers last summer – Sigourney Beaver and Jean Claude Van-Dam (who now have two kits, Beavie Wonder and Beavie Nicks)
[Jane Dunford; Guardian; 16 November 2021]

[C]ircadian rhythm and cellular timekeeping … [come] down to cycles of protein synthesis and degradation, spooling and unspooling with … the ribosomes and the proteasomes as the ultimate timekeepers. It’s as if we have little medieval water clocks constantly running inside us.
[Derek Lowe at https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/proteins-aging-not-so-gracefully]

amusements, memes

Ten Things: November

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 Strange Ancient Jobs

  1. Nob Thatcher
  2. Bum Bailiff
  3. Fear-Naught Maker
  4. Fish Fag
  5. Gerund Grinder
  6. Gong Farmer
  7. Philosophical Instrument Maker (right)
  8. Prick Louise
  9. Rack Maiden
  10. Vaginarius
amusements

Auction Amusements (Part 2 of 2)

In this part of the latest amusements from our local auction house we return to the more usual eccentricities of strange objects for sale, things you wouldn’t want to share a house with (and a few you would), and peculiar juxtapositions to make a lot.

An interesting lot including a pair of cut-throat razors in original leather-covered case stamped Fielder & Son, Southsea, a boxwood and brass-folding rule by L.H. Turtle Ltd., Toolmakers, Croydon, an old fishing reel by A. Carter & Co., South Molton, a table lighter fashioned as a world globe and a small embossed brass sign advising poachers that they shall be shot on sight and if practicable questioned afterwards, and a Bakelite ashtray and playing card box.

A set of sugar nips styled as a spur, a silver stamp box, Birmingham 1874, the lid incorporating a One Penny Magenta stamp and a silver caddy spoon, Glasgow 1930, embossed with Old Mother Hubbard.

A collection of martial art show display weaponry including axes, a pair chrome Sai’s, fantasy display weaponry, a papier mache wall face mask etc.

A metal statue of Lenin, a Wedgwood Peter Rabbit child’s breakfast bowl and wooden auctioneers gavel

A square tile by Gofer Israel and a smaller rectangular tile by the same artist

A promotional plastic life-size model of a London telephone box

A Victorian skeleton mantel timepiece in brass, with passing strike on a bell, ebonised base, 15 in high overall

An old roe deer head with impressive antlers

A bronze after Edwin Scharff, of a man on a swordfish, numbered 561/600, weathered dark brown patination, on wood base, 9.5 in high

Contemporary art: a Murano glass sculpture by Berengo, as a block of clear glass enclosing a gold leaf face, 32 cm high

A Steiff white label mohair teddy bear ‘Black Jack’, 26 cm, with box

amusements

Auction Amusements (Part 1 of 2)

Well what can one say? There’s a simply incredible sale this week at our local auction house. The star attarctions (spread over 7 lots) seem to be …

The stock from a retired hardware dealer including …

… large quantities of National Abrasives steel wool, Mykal Pet Clean 3-in-1, Mangers Humidifier Replacement Wicks, National Abrasives yellow oxide, Mirka Sanding Discs, Orbital Sanding sheets, minirolls for hand and power sanding, ultra-tape, Thread seal tape, Rustin’s steel wool, Everbuild’s Forever White Mould Shield, Stixall Extreme Power paste, wood fillers, MP Woodfiller Light Lights, dual purpose metal sealing discs for Kilner jars, Mammoth tapes including electrical tapes and plumbing tapes, etc., Everflex external frame sealants, Everbuild Coving and joint fillers, and One-Hour chalk whites.

… large quantities of unused Prostar Impact Masonry Drill, HSS Jobber drill parts, a laminate cutter, ground spreaders, locks and door fittings, garden hook set, watch straps, screw-drivers, tile files, plug sockets, bradawls, hammers, Stanley knives, brush ends, cutters, goggles, tape measures, clamps, floorboard chisels, chisels, spanners, hacksaw blades, monkey wrenches, wire brushes, trowels, hasp and staples, plasterer’s hawks, silicone dispensers.

… three Hyatt Money Note Checkers, a Jumbo Calculator, roller cleaners, wood working planes, a nine-piece German style knife set, Beat a burst The Plumber in the Toolbox tool, a box of Pop Rivet tool CK2, wood bits, chair webbing, smoke alarm, some die cast models of days gone by, etc.

… a quantity of balls of strings, stockinette polishing and wiping cloth, brackets, hard hats, sponges, roller frames, paint brushes, window locks, Rapid epoxy syringes, Timber OBO timber connectors, barrel bolts, staples, fasteners, blades, Westco mini oil canisters, waste plugs, rod sockets, scissors, line pin sets, etc.

… Bright Power pocket torches, Basta ‘The neat bright lights’, door numbers, hinges, cupboard catches, Legg cylinder night latch and other door locks, Regalead self adhesive window lead, Homelux adhesive bonder, electric Wolf switches, wooden doorknobs, gardening gloves, working gloves, steel wool, masking tape, builder’s polythene sheeting, letterbox, draft excluders, etc.

… spare shelf locator packs, self-adhesive lead strip by Decra-Led, Regalead self-adhesive window lead, Mammoth Powerful double sided tape, Ultratape waterproof tape, Mr Cozy self-stick draft excluder, Quick Grip draft excluder, weather strips, Sylglas Aluminium waterproofing tape, 502 Wood adhesive, Everbuild: Mitre Fast, PVC Cream cleaner, Multispray, Instant nails, Wonder wipes, Moss & Mould remover, Extreme frame sealant, Sugar soap powder, Paint and Varnish stripper, Blackjack waterproof protection everlasting tape, All-Purpose Powder filler; gas tape, HG window cleaner, Forever White mould protector, Holt’s De-Icer, Rustin’s Linseed oil, Everflex 125 one-hour Caulk, 151 Wallpaper stripper, Mammoth gaffer tape, silicone fusing repair tape, One Strike filler, tile-edge trim, drawer draft excluders, brass door stops, etc.

… 7 mm drill screws, cantilever shelf brackets, keys, door hooks, light fittings, rechargeable batteries, bulbs, cable locks, masking tape, Everbuild: Wood adhesive, Roof and Gutter sealant, Silicon spray, Instant Nails, Damp & Mould Remover, Sugar Soap Liquid Spray, Premium Excellerator & Frost Proofer; Rustin’s Strypit, graffiti remover, all-weather tape, Rustin’s Danish oil, Pink grip by Everbuild, Polycell polyfiller, 502 Wood adhesive, English Abrasive Supersander, brown plugs, lots of different paints including Dulux Trade Undercoat, Norver Exterior Masonry Paint and Rustin’s Step & Tile Paint, Dulux Trade Satinwood, Dulux Trade Eggshell finish, tile adhesives by Everbuild and Homecare, Rustin’s Brilliant White Gloss.

And there’s more in Part 2 >>>>>>>>

personal

Unblogged October

Fri 1 Every week, by Friday teatime, I’m convinced it’s Saturday. Every week!
Sat 2 Writing a monthly update for my GP’s patient group usually takes under 2 hours. But today … it took me over 4 hours because there was just so much healthcare news to be included.
Sun 3 We had a 3 or 4 large radish plants still growing scruffily. I pulled them out today and one was a decent sized mooli. The others had some pretty little pink flowers but no radishes.
Mon 4 Especially for N on her (big) birthday, we went to the dentist for a check-up. She has to go back in 6 weeks time for some work; I got away with being nagged.
Tue 5 Somehow this was just a non-day. Been on zombie auto-pilot all day. Nothing happened. And I don’t feel I achieved anything. This is not good for the depression.
Wed 6 Somehow we seem to have spent very little money in the last month – at least as far as discretionary spend goes. So we’re solvent again this month!
Thu 7 Spent too much of the day playing around with photo carousels and sliders for websites. And writing blog posts. Oh, and it’s Thursday not Friday!
Fri 8 Draconid Meteor Shower tonight. Not a chance. Yet again complete cloud cover. It’s all a piece with the day.
Sat 9 While photographing the tree outside our house a lady came along and stopped to talk, saying how lovely the tree was.

What a breath of fresh light – we saw, we appreciated, and we shared some joy. So whoever you were, lady, thank you!
Sun 10 Our resident wood pigeon is making short work of all the rose hips at the top of the silver birch. Soon there won’t be any left to feed the goldfinches over the winter.
Mon 11 Nothing achieved, except too much chocolate eaten. Cadbury’s new DarkMilk is good, as is their Bournville Chocotoff.
Tue 12 My mother would have been 106 today. Sad that she got to only 99. Still very much missed.
Wed 13 Invited today for my Covid Booster jab – 6 months to the day after my second jab.
Thu 14 Why is it that people can’t understand why GPs’ surgeries work the way they do? Doctors are employers who have a legal health & safety responsibility for their staff, as well as their patients and themselves. And the receptionists are not there to be obstructive, nosey dragons, but to help.
Fri 15 Gave up on the day in early evening. I’d had enough of being bombarded on all sides by demands for things outside my control. Remember: Don’t shoot the messenger!
Sat 16 We both to the local pharmacy for Covid booster jabs this morning. Although a minority, sad at the number in the pharmacy not (properly) wearing masks.
Sun 17 N spotted another clump of huge fungi growing down near the pond and sent me to look. They’re each 20cm across and look like bracket fungi but aren’t: they’re growing in the ground and have gills. White to milk-chocolate brown wth darker brown gills. No idea what they are.
Mon 18 I’ve had a batch of 16th to 18th century wills transcribed and spent a couple of hours looking at the family history info therein. Nothing exciting but they have confirmed much of what I already knew – which is always useful.
Tue 19 I wake at 08:00. The next thing I know it’s 11:00. What happened there?
Wed 20 A joyful morning herding cats. Find all three; one by one round them up and catch them; stuff them in their carriers … and take them to the V.E.T for their overdue annual check-ups and jabs. Return with a large hole in the credit card balance.
Thu 21 Interesting London Historians talk (on Zoom) on the way the nations art treasures were protected during WWII.
Fri 22 Awoke early to a lovely (just past full) silvery moonlit morning, followed by pastel peach-coloured sunrise.
Sat 23 Auditing the wine stock, discovered we gad a bottle of gin which had somehow (I honestly know not how) got out of the store without having its security tag removed. No it wasn’t shoplifted! But how to get the tag off?
Sun 24 At lunchtime a red kite gliding effortlessly around, not taking too much notice of the crow mobbing it.
Mon 25 Oh dear, what has the world come to? Slumming it with fishfingers, chips and beans for tea!
Tue 26 Doing the supermarket order today it feels as if overall prices have risen at least 20% since March 2020. However a quick check back suggests this probably isn’t so and the rises are no more than 5%.
Wed 27 Lots done today, partly as I was up betimes and my morning meeting got moved to next week. Also took delivery of a pre-Christmas top-up for the wine cellar; just need more Champagne now!
Thu 28 Got up this morning to find a pair of geezers digging a hole right outside our front gate. Then remembered the water company are going round installing meters. By midday the hole was covered with a temporary coloured (plastic?) plate; I wonder how long before the hole is filled properly?
Fri 29 01:15hrs. Why does next door’s security light come on? Oh, good evening Mr Reynard, trotting gaily down the street.
Sat 30 Chaired the Anthony Powell Society AGM over Zoom to allow the officers to concentrate on the business rather than the technology. Glad to say it went well. Moral: Perfect Planning Prevents Pathetic Performance.
Sun 31 Finally managed to break into the security tag on that gin bottle (see above) – at least enough to be able to decant the contents. But it required the attentions of my Dremel “mini-angle-grinder”!
environment, science

Grasslands

There’s an interesting comment piece in the current issue of New Scientist, which highlights the importance of grasslands as an important contributor to combating global warming. This is something I’d not fully considered before.

As usual the TL;DR summary quotes (especially as New Scientist is paywalled).

Permanent grasslands hold about a third of Earth’s terrestrial carbon … More grasslands, and especially more biodiverse ones, means more natural carbon storage.
. . .
The past 100 years has seen this terrain destroyed on a terrifying scale. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the UK alone has lost at least 97 per cent of its meadows. Tall grass prairie in the US once covered 170 million acres, less than 4 per cent of which survives.
. . .
Grasslands are seen as empty spaces. They are there to be ploughed and sown and built on. T heir destruction isn’t met with the same angst as deforestation.
. . .
While we are all familiar with the idea of forests as Earth’s “lungs”, reforestation isn’t the sole or simple solution to the problems we face
. . .
Even small mown and grazed meadows contain a greater diversity of flora and fauna than equivalent areas of forest … At either extreme of grassland management – mown short or left long – there are species that thrive.
. . .
Grasslands can provide an ideal environment for us to enjoy as places to eat, work and play in nature, while also providing the essential functions of carbon sequestration and oxygen-releasing photosynthesis.

Think on …

environment, history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

Welcome to another action packed edition of our monthly collection of links to items you may have missed the first time around.

Science, Technology, Natural World

On the uselessness of useful knowledge – or how AI is developing.

Do you have an inner voice that chatters away to you? Most people do in some form, but some don’t and some have bizarre inner voices.

So just why is 42 the answer to everything? [£££] [LONG]

And why is it that some organisms throw away large amounts of DNA during early development? [LONG]

It appears that our modern domestic horses originated in southwest Russia.

Recent years have produced a deluge of dinosaur fossils in China, and they’re totally changing the dinosaur history. Like T. rex with feathers?! [£££]

If that worried you, then go hide now. Because jumping spiders’ remarkable senses capture a world beyond our perception.

Health, Medicine

MessangerRNA is behind some of the very successful Covid-19 vaccines, but it is also now beginning to transform the way we treat many illnesses. [£££]

Sexuality

Yet more on the forbidden erotica of ancient Pompeii. [VIDEO]

And now for three items on the (hopefully normalisation and) liberation of female genitalia …
Labia liberation!, the movement to end vulva anxiety. [LONG]
Viva la vulva, ignorance about the basic biology is shockingly high. [LONG]
An interview with Jamie McCartney, creator of The Great Wall of Vagina.

Environment

We’re running out of fish shit, and it matters. [£££]

We’re also running out of species, as apparently almost half Britain’s biodiversity has gone in the last couple of hundred years.

Forty Hall in north London has been chosen as a site for a beaver release project.

Meanwhile it is important we learn to live with, if not love, our house guests.

It seems that volcanic ash and lava enriches the oceans far faster than it does land.

The Campaign for Better Transport has called for a ban on domestic flights and subsidy for rail travel.

One photographer has made it her mission to photograph the plastic in our seas.

Art, Literature, Language

On the origins and setting of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Some Chileans are living on top of a hoard of some of the earliest known mummies.

Archaeologists have uncovered a remarkably rare, painted Roman amphitheatre at Richborough in Kent.

It s now well established that the Vikings got to America almost 500 years before Columbus, with their Newfoundland site now firmly dated to 1021AD.

On the development of the medieval Westminster Abbey. [LONG]

Staying with ecclesiastical sites, archaeologists have discovered the unexpected site of the tannery at Fountains Abbey.

On menstruation and how men developed a horror for it in the middle ages.

And so, coming up to Halloween, three items on witchcraft …
First a look at how the historic witches are beginning to receive justice.
Secondly a Twitter thread about witch bottles.
And thirdly on the long and underappreciated history of male witches

London

London’s Underground system had a very early spiral escalator; unfortunately it seems never to have fully commissioned and working.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Here’s a recently released, but old, interview with our favourite Zen Master, Brad Warner.

The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan cares for its happiness more than for its GDP.