#zenmischief — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #zenmischief, aggregated by home.social.
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My monthly collection of links to items you may have missed is now up on my blog.
https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/mays-monthly-links/
#biology #blog #links #medicine #physics #science #sexuality #zenmischief
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My monthly collection of links to items you may have missed is now up on my blog.
https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/mays-monthly-links/
#biology #blog #links #medicine #physics #science #sexuality #zenmischief
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My monthly collection of links to items you may have missed is now up on my blog.
https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/mays-monthly-links/
#biology #blog #links #medicine #physics #science #sexuality #zenmischief
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My monthly collection of links to items you may have missed is now up on my blog.
https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/mays-monthly-links/
#biology #blog #links #medicine #physics #science #sexuality #zenmischief
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May’s Monthly Links
So now we bring you this month’s selection of links to items you wish you hadn’t missed. And it’s a well packed edition …
Science, Technology, Natural World
Apart from traumatic, what it would have been like to experience the dinosaur‑killing asteroid? [LONG READ]
There’s a huge amount of “space junk” above our heads: almost half of what’s in earth orbit is junk – and that’s only what we know about. [££££]
And while we’re talking of things going round … Astronomers have just found over ten thousand new exoplanet candidates.
Meanwhile there are some pieces of the cosmos being ignored by astronomers. [££££]
It seems that the universe could be any one of 18 possible shapes. [££££]
Let’s come back down to Earth … Researchers are beginning to understand how Egypt’s Great Pyramid has withstood earthquakes etc. for over 4500 years. [££££]
There are new insights into whether plants can hear.
[Illustrations NSFW] “Slow Blink” communication with your cat.
Scientists are developing tiny robots that can learn to navigate like honeybees. [££££]
On birds’ eyes and why their visual perception is almost second to none. [LONG READ]
At the other end of life on earth scientists have found a tiny fish that looks like Mr Snuffleupagus (below). [££££]
And finally in this section New Scientist had a piece on the renowned mathematician who doesn’t exist. [££££]
Health, Medicine
An interview with two scientists who have been working flat out to develop a test for hantavirus. [££££]
An American look at what the response to the hantavirus “scare” has brought to the surface – and a brilliant example of how to do public health leadership. [LONG READ]
So did the Ancient Egyptians invent the pregnancy test?
Along with that women have been using cannabis medicinally for thousands of years.
Twins. Born within minutes of each other. But they have different fathers!
Sexuality & Relationships
Sexual health after 60: aging, hormones & intimacy.
Sex after 35: apparently the female body was not designed for the sex most women are having. [LONG READ]
So what really does happen to a woman’s body during orgasm?
One man’s experience of vasectomy leads him to wonder why the procedure isn’t more common.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Were the Neanderthals the first dentists? One article from Scientific American, and a second from The Guardian.
A research team have published a new, online, map of Roman roads across their empire.
It’s long been supposed that after the Romans left Britain the Anglo-Saxons took over and totally replace the indigenous population. But DNA analysis tells us otherwise. [LONG READ]
It seems strange, but early medieval Ireland had laws protecting bees.
So who invented the corridor? [LONG READ]
There are tunnels under Bloxham, Oxfordshire. But what are they for? [LONG READ]
There’s a forgotten cock pit under Whitehall. [Now, now. That’s enough of that!]
London
And finally … Matt Brown has released the latest coloured section of John Rocque’s 1746 map of London. This time it’s Limehouse and Rotherhithe.
#biology #blog #links #medicine #physics #science #sexuality #zenmischief -
From my blog: this month's "Something to Think About" ...
"If anything is possible, then is it possible that nothing is possible?"
https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/something-to-think-about-this-month-17/
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There's another mini-rant on my blog this morning: "On the Sexing of Toilets".
https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/on-the-sexing-of-toilets/
#currentaffairs #law #morals #privacy #thoughts #blog #zenmischief
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On the Sexing of Toilets
Unisex toilets? I’m not sure that shouldn’t be uni-gender toilets!
The powers in this country are getting their collective knickers well tangled over the Equality & Human rights Commission (EHRC) guidance on the use of single sex toilets, changing areas, hospital wards etc. which is now before Parliament. This follows on from the April 2025 ruling by the UK Supreme Court that sex in the Equality Act means only biological sex (as defined at birth). This means ipso facto that single-sex toilets etc. end up excluding transgender people. (That in itself seems daft in the extreme, but that’s the law as presently laid down.)
I’m not going to spell out the details, partly because it looks a mess largely created by conflicting self-interest groups. If you want more background then there are countless media reports including from The Guardian and BBC News.
FFS guys, get a life! And grasp the nettle! There’s a very simple solution which I’ve been advocating for years, and which we know works. (See for example the last paragraph of my post from February 2013 and this longer post from May 2018.) What is this solution? …
Make every facility unisex. Yes, toilets, changing rooms, student accommodation etc. At the end of the day, as I’ve said before, where’s the problem: we all know what’s under each other’s t-shirt and jeans. But no, it doesn’t have to be quite that open – and yes, I do understand why some people feel the need for privacy.
My local swimming pool has had one single sex changing room for over 15 years to my knowledge. It is a single space used by men, women and children. For privacy there are lockable cubicles (of varying sizes to accommodate single people, parents with kids etc.) to change in, and lockers (in the open area) for your belongings. That way no-one should be blocking a cubicle for more than a few minutes while changing. So anyone can arrive dressed, choose any free cubicle, get changed and put their stuff in a locker; on return pick any free cubicle etc. etc. There are more lockers than cubicles, and cubicles can’t be locked from the outside, so you can’t block the cubicles.
It works. No-one in my experience even considers walking around the open area clad in anything less than a towel or swimsuit. There’s a choice of showers, either “open” or in cubicles – but all cubicles would be easy. And toilets can be easily arranged with just cubicles. Everything can have floor to ceiling partitioning if felt necessary.
Oh, and by the way, most accessible toilets are already unisex. So you can do it!
The one place it might be difficult is hospital wards; but then there’s a question of medical privacy to consider as well. A mix of alcoves with two to four beds and single rooms would seem doable – and if properly designed probably no less space efficient.
So, guys (of all sexes and genders), stop having conniptions and get a life. The solution is easy and it could/should have been universal decades ago.
#blog #currentAffairs #law #morals #privacy #thoughts #zenmischief -
HS2
I’m deeply sick of the vanity project called HS2. And today Simon Jenkins has a piece in The Guardian also decrying the project.
I’ve been saying this, or something like it, since the outset. This money could have been (and still could be) much better spent on upgrading the existing rail infrastructure across the whole country and likely at half the cost. Instead we have a Tory party (from recollection it was George Osborne) vanity project, which has conned every successive government, and for which IMO there was never a business case. It’s not too late to pull the plug and avoid an even greater waste of money and environmental destruction for something we don’t need.
Moreover we must be the laughing stock of the world when it takes us 30+ years to build a railway line.
I despair of this country!
#blog #currentAffairs #HS2 #railways #thoughts #zenmischief -
HS2
I’m deeply sick of the vanity project called HS2. And today Simon Jenkins has a piece in The Guardian also decrying the project.
I’ve been saying this, or something like it, since the outset. This money could have been (and still could be) much better spent on upgrading the existing rail infrastructure across the whole country and likely at half the cost. Instead we have a Tory party (from recollection it was George Osborne) vanity project, which has conned every successive government, and for which IMO there was never a business case. It’s not too late to pull the plug and avoid an even greater waste of money and environmental destruction for something we don’t need.
Moreover we must be the laughing stock of the world when it takes us 30+ years to build a railway line.
I despair of this country!
#blog #currentAffairs #HS2 #railways #thoughts #zenmischief -
HS2
I’m deeply sick of the vanity project called HS2. And today Simon Jenkins has a piece in The Guardian also decrying the project.
I’ve been saying this, or something like it, since the outset. This money could have been (and still could be) much better spent on upgrading the existing rail infrastructure across the whole country and likely at half the cost. Instead we have a Tory party (from recollection it was George Osborne) vanity project, which has conned every successive government, and for which IMO there was never a business case. It’s not too late to pull the plug and avoid an even greater waste of money and environmental destruction for something we don’t need.
Moreover we must be the laughing stock of the world when it takes us 30+ years to build a railway line.
I despair of this country!
#blog #currentAffairs #HS2 #railways #thoughts #zenmischief -
HS2
I’m deeply sick of the vanity project called HS2. And today Simon Jenkins has a piece in The Guardian also decrying the project.
I’ve been saying this, or something like it, since the outset. This money could have been (and still could be) much better spent on upgrading the existing rail infrastructure across the whole country and likely at half the cost. Instead we have a Tory party (from recollection it was George Osborne) vanity project, which has conned every successive government, and for which IMO there was never a business case. It’s not too late to pull the plug and avoid an even greater waste of money and environmental destruction for something we don’t need.
Moreover we must be the laughing stock of the world when it takes us 30+ years to build a railway line.
I despair of this country!
#blog #currentAffairs #HS2 #railways #thoughts #zenmischief -
HS2
I’m deeply sick of the vanity project called HS2. And today Simon Jenkins has a piece in The Guardian also decrying the project.
I’ve been saying this, or something like it, since the outset. This money could have been (and still could be) much better spent on upgrading the existing rail infrastructure across the whole country and likely at half the cost. Instead we have a Tory party (from recollection it was George Osborne) vanity project, which has conned every successive government, and for which IMO there was never a business case. It’s not too late to pull the plug and avoid an even greater waste of money and environmental destruction for something we don’t need.
Moreover we must be the laughing stock of the world when it takes us 30+ years to build a railway line.
I despair of this country!
#blog #currentAffairs #HS2 #railways #thoughts #zenmischief -
"Quotes in May", my collection of recently encountered quotes, now on my blog ...
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The answers to my May Quiz Questions on "People" are now on my blog ...
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May Quiz Answers
Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.
People
- Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize? Marie Curie
- Who is often credited with creating the world’s first car? Karl Benz
- The name of which British prince is often used to describe a pierced manhood? Albert
- Who was married to John F Kenedy and was first lady from 1961 until 1963? Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- Name the author: He was born in Dublin in 1854, and died in Paris in 1900. Oscar Wilde
- Although more well-known for his fiction and character creations, what famous author was also an ophthalmologist? He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the 1870s, was a determined supporter of compulsory vaccination, and partially based his most famous character on a former university teacher. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2025.
#blog #May #people #quiz #zenmischief -
Today on my blog, this month's poem:
"Song on a May Morning" by John Milton
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Today on my blog, this month's poem:
"Song on a May Morning" by John Milton
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Today on my blog, this month's poem:
"Song on a May Morning" by John Milton
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Today on my blog, this month's poem:
"Song on a May Morning" by John Milton
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Today on my blog, this month's poem:
"Song on a May Morning" by John Milton
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Today on my Zen Mischief blog, this month's Self-Portrait: "Fat Boy and His Shadow" ...
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Today on my Zen Mischief blog, this month's Self-Portrait: "Fat Boy and His Shadow" ...
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This day on my blog, my list of Ten Things for May. This year we're presenting a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month we have Words Ending in -tude.
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This day on my blog, my list of Ten Things for May. This year we're presenting a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month we have Words Ending in -tude.
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This day on my blog, my list of Ten Things for May. This year we're presenting a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month we have Words Ending in -tude.
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This day on my blog, my list of Ten Things for May. This year we're presenting a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month we have Words Ending in -tude.
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This day on my blog, my list of Ten Things for May. This year we're presenting a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month we have Words Ending in -tude.
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Ten Things
This year our Ten Things column will present a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month …
Words Ending in -tude
- desuetude
- etude
- verisimilitude
- decrepitude
- pulchritude
- vicissitude
- latitude
- ineptitude
- amplitude
- magnitude
So how many of those words did you know? And how many do you use?
#blog #language #tenthings #words #zenmischief -
Ten Things
This year our Ten Things column will present a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month …
Words Ending in -tude
- desuetude
- etude
- verisimilitude
- decrepitude
- pulchritude
- vicissitude
- latitude
- ineptitude
- amplitude
- magnitude
So how many of those words did you know? And how many do you use?
#blog #language #tenthings #words #zenmischief -
Ten Things
This year our Ten Things column will present a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month …
Words Ending in -tude
- desuetude
- etude
- verisimilitude
- decrepitude
- pulchritude
- vicissitude
- latitude
- ineptitude
- amplitude
- magnitude
So how many of those words did you know? And how many do you use?
#blog #language #tenthings #words #zenmischief -
Ten Things
This year our Ten Things column will present a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month …
Words Ending in -tude
- desuetude
- etude
- verisimilitude
- decrepitude
- pulchritude
- vicissitude
- latitude
- ineptitude
- amplitude
- magnitude
So how many of those words did you know? And how many do you use?
#blog #language #tenthings #words #zenmischief -
Ten Things
This year our Ten Things column will present a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month …
Words Ending in -tude
- desuetude
- etude
- verisimilitude
- decrepitude
- pulchritude
- vicissitude
- latitude
- ineptitude
- amplitude
- magnitude
So how many of those words did you know? And how many do you use?
#blog #language #tenthings #words #zenmischief -
This month's quote is now on my blog;
"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument."
[William Gibbs McAdoo] -
This Month’s Quote
It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
William Gibbs McAdoo
#blog #quotes #zenmischief -
This month's quiz questions on my blog are on People.
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May Quiz Questions
Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month.
As always, they’re designed to be tricky but not impossible, so it’s unlikely everyone will know all the answers – just have a bit of fun.People
- Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
- Who is often credited with creating the world’s first car?
- The name of which British prince is often used to describe a pierced manhood?
- Who was married to John F Kennedy and was first lady from 1961 until 1963?
- Name the author: He was born in Dublin in 1854, and died in Paris in 1900.
- Although more well-known for his fiction and character creations, what famous author was also an ophthalmologist? He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the 1870s, was a determined supporter of compulsory vaccination, and partially based his most famous character on a former university teacher.
Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.
#blog #May #people #quiz #zenmischief -
Today on my blog, notes of a few things that happened in this month 100 years ago.
https://zenmischief.com/2026/05/may-1926/
#1926 #otd #May #blog #zenmischief
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May 1926
Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.
4. The United Kingdom general strike begins at midnight, in support of a strike by coal miners.
8. Birth. Sir David Attenborough, British broadcaster, naturalist, and producer
9. Explorer Richard E Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett claim to be the first to fly over the North Pole in the Josephine Ford monoplane, taking off from Spitsbergen, Norway and returning 15 hours and 44 minutes later. Both men are immediately hailed as national heroes, though some experts have since been skeptical of the claim, believing the plane was unlikely to have covered the entire distance and back in such a short time. Byrd’s diary, discovered in 1996, suggests the plane actually turned back 150 miles short of the North Pole, due to an oil leak.
9. Death. JM Dent, British publisher (b.1849)
12. Roald Amundsen and his crew fly over the North Pole, in the airship Norge.
12. The United Kingdom general strike is called off by the trade unions, although miners remain on strike.
14. Birth. Eric Morecambe, English comedian, author (d.1984)
#1926 #blog #May #otd #zenmischief -
This evening on my blog: Unblogged April, being notes on a few things from the month I didn't otherwise write about.
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Unblogged April
A few notes on things this month I didn’t otherwise write about.
Wednesday 1
Spotted at least four April Fool news items today.Thursday 2
So we’re due a wine delivery. You tell them not to deliver before 14:00. So what do they do, deliver around 12:30 when we’re both out and leave it with an elderly neighbour. It’s called customer service! Gah!Saturday 4
Banks! Well actually Building Societies in this case. Yes, you can open an online joint account, but you have to get the second person to complete a printed form and post it to us. Two different variants of this today. So no guys, either it is online or it isn’t. The third Building Society: yes, it is all online and we will send you the final setup details, if possible by email. Guess who gets the business!Sunday 5
Oh happy Easter day, spent beating our brains out over draft wills and the like documents which should be going back to the solicitor ASAP.Tuesday 7
What a gorgeous afternoon to be sitting outside the hospital (waiting for my taxi).Thursday 9
And suddenly the garden is ablaze with bright pink blossom on our columnar crab apple. I must photograph it! (It’s too dark now.)
Later …And this afternoon I looked out at 16 green parakeets sitting neatly arranged in a row on two branches of the oak tree, one above the other. Of course by the time I’d counted them and could get a camera they’d all shuffled untidily about.Saturday 11
So Artemis II is back on Earth. Now can we go back to something that passes for normality and forget about wasting obscene amounts of money on shooting people and things into space for nothing much more than willy-waving. Think of the waste of money and resources; the environmental damage; how much good that money could do. And no, I don’t just mean America, but the whole world.Monday 13
Another glorious Spring day, except for a quick light shower at lunchtime. The garden is full of blossom and birds.Tuesday 14
Why are hospitals so exhausting? This is why … Today I had a 14:15 appointment about my back. I left home about 13:20 and found where I needed to be by 13:50. I was seen at 14:30 (so late) and to be fair then had 45 minutes with the clinician. Having phoned for a cab before 15:30, I got home at 16:20, with not a lot to show for it. Oh and the hospital was boiling hot; but people were still going around in heavy woollen coats and puffer jackets. At one point a fit-looking coloured woman sat down beside me; after 5 minutes she says “It’s really hot in here” and removed her puffer jacket revealing a thick sweater over … well who knows! No wonder she was hot – I was wearing just t-shirt and jeans and was too hot!Thursday 16
Why, for no obvious reason, does one sometimes have a truly bad night and feel wrecked the next day?Friday 17
Got my Spring Covid jab today. The pharmacy I go to is a couple of miles away, but I go there because they are just so efficient. Left home at 13:45, back home by 14:25 – and at the pharmacy for 10 minutes! OK they weren’t busy – two in front of me and only one lady doing injections – but they’re set up for this and have I think five stations for injections. It is a well oiled, very efficient system. If only everywhere was as efficient!Saturday 18
Awake just before six this morning. Looking out of the window at the trees, the air was absolutely still; not a leaf moving. Very very unusual. There was a little breeze by mid-morning, but then it was almost dead calm again by teatime.Wednesday 22
So relaxed today that my blood pressure was getting low.Thursday 23
So what happened to St George’s Day? Scarcely a mention of it online and in the media. Yet St Patrick’s Day (especially) is always wall-to-wall coverage. And that’s just in London!Friday 24
Sitting in the sun outside the hospital this afternoon, there’s a jumbo jet flying over out of Heathrow. And up there too a bird against the clear blue sky; looking as if about to collide with the plane. It looked tiny and was drifting in the breeze, but clearly well below the plane. No it isn’t a red kite, that’s one of the local peregrines drifting slowly around looking for some hapless pigeon for tea.
Other than that, very much a reprise of Tuesday, ten days ago.Saturday 25
Now the daffodils have finished, we’ve recently been getting some really gorgeous tulips from the supermarket. OK, they aren’t dirt cheap (unlike the daffs; how can they do a bunch for £1?) but they’ve been lasting well, and been really pretty and joyful.Sunday 26
Today, the first rose of summer. As we would expect on the Lady Hillingdon.Sorry not a brilliant photo as it was taken looking into the light.Monday 27
Spent the morning cat-wangling, in order to take them to the vet for their annual check-up and jabs. We’ve changed vet to a practice in the same group but which is closer to us, because the senior vet at our old practice has retired. Saw a very nice young lady vet (appears to be at least half Chinese, likely Hong Kong) who had been recommended by the lady from whom we got the Rosie cat. We had some lovely conversation about the cats. All three felines were incredibly well behaved – they didn’t even swear at any of the dogs! – and got a clean bill of health. Tilly was said to be in wonderful condition for a 13-year-old cat, with no sign of dental problems at all and has put on a little weight since last year; Boy has a grazed ear, likely from scrapping with the cat next door; and as we knew Rosie could do with losing a bit of weight. Otherwise they did really well. Although my credit card hurt afterwards!Wednesday 29
#April #blog #unblogged #zenmischief
Now that’s what I call service. I spent the morning at the dentist, when I had expected most of the day! He needed to replace one of my crowns. I arrive for a 09:45 appointment about 09:15 and I’m seen within 10 minutes. Old crown removed and tidied up. He then waves a little scanner wand around my mouth, and uses the scans to design the crown on his system (basically a CAD system) while I watch on the screen. As I’ve said before they now have a very clever (but noisy) machine which sculpts the crown from a ceramic blank to the design it is sent. That’ll take about an hour and a half, says dentist; we’ll ring you when we want you back here; so we may be done before lunch (I was expecting the sometime in the afternoon and having hours to kill). Noreen had come with me and gone off to the local charity shops. So about 10:00 I’m ringing her, and we meet at the café for a really excellent, and large, full English breakfast. We wander back to the dentist about 11:30. Again he sees me within about 10 minutes. Crown adjusted and glued on; I’ve paid (very ouch, again!) and we’re on our way home by 12:15. So I get a free afternoon! Definite result! -
This month's collection of links to items you may have missed is now on my blog.
https://zenmischief.com/2026/04/monthly-links-for-april-2/
#biology #history #links #london #medicine #physics #science #sexuality #April #blog #zenmischief
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This month's collection of links to items you may have missed is now on my blog.
https://zenmischief.com/2026/04/monthly-links-for-april-2/
#biology #history #links #london #medicine #physics #science #sexuality #April #blog #zenmischief
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Monthly Links for April
As usual in this month’s collection of links, we’ll start with the hardest stuff …
Science, Technology, Natural World
Quite a lot of years ago, mathematicians worked out why waiting for a lift (elevator, for those in America) always takes forever. [££££]
How likely are you to be killed by a primordial black hole? [££££]
Whether you believe in astrology or not, your star sign is likely wrong, but you can find the correct one. [££££]
The Chernobyl exclusion zone has become a most unusual ecological experiments on Earth, leading to some unexpected results. [LONG READ]
So why do cats get the Zoomies, especially late at night?
Health, Medicine
If you had cardiac arrest in public, would a stranger give you CPR?
Most men have two balls, but are three balls better?
Sexuality & Relationships
The Kamasutra is more than a sex manual, with consent as an underlying principle.
A 300+ year old sex manual that got pretty much all of it wrong.
Well who would have guessed? Human sperm get lost in space. [££££]
As if boob jobs weren’t enough, labiaplasty is a growing fashion. Why? Just why? [LONG READ]
Environment & Ecology
Jaguar (below) are becoming increasingly rare, so researchers were pleased to see one in a wildlife corridor in the Honduran mountains. [££££]
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Archaeologists have discovered a variety of 12,000‑year‑old dice, and they illuminate ancient play.
The oldest known recipe for toothpaste comes from … Ancient Egypt.
So how many of the purported priest holes are actually what they’re said to be? [LONG READ]
Samuel Pepys was, in many ways, a very naughty man – even to the extent of concealing letters about being offered an enslaved boy as a bribe.
London
Matt Brown of Londonist has taken a look at the origins of some of the City of London’s street names.
Matt Brown is also creating a coloured version of John Rocque’s 1746 map of London. Here’s the latest section covering Chelsea and the King’s Road (above).
Meanwhile a researcher has been able to unravel the mysterious location of Shakespeare’s house in Blackfriars.
London Historians visits Benjamin Franklin’s London house.
Food, Drink
Here’s a quick look at some of the factors which produce the myriad types of tea.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
Humans have been documenting their appreciation of the nude body for thousands of years, and photography has made it much easier and more accessible.
The New Testament letters of Paul are not what they seem; many weren’t even written by him. [LONG READ]
Shock, Horror, Ha ha ha!
Finally, New Scientist considers the size of a “shedload“. [££££]
#32 #April #biology #blog #history #links #london #medicine #physics #science #sexuality #zenmischief -
Monthly Links for April
As usual in this month’s collection of links, we’ll start with the hardest stuff …
Science, Technology, Natural World
Quite a lot of years ago, mathematicians worked out why waiting for a lift (elevator, for those in America) always takes forever. [££££]
How likely are you to be killed by a primordial black hole? [££££]
Whether you believe in astrology or not, your star sign is likely wrong, but you can find the correct one. [££££]
The Chernobyl exclusion zone has become a most unusual ecological experiments on Earth, leading to some unexpected results. [LONG READ]
So why do cats get the Zoomies, especially late at night?
Health, Medicine
If you had cardiac arrest in public, would a stranger give you CPR?
Most men have two balls, but are three balls better?
Sexuality & Relationships
The Kamasutra is more than a sex manual, with consent as an underlying principle.
A 300+ year old sex manual that got pretty much all of it wrong.
Well who would have guessed? Human sperm get lost in space. [££££]
As if boob jobs weren’t enough, labiaplasty is a growing fashion. Why? Just why? [LONG READ]
Environment & Ecology
Jaguar (below) are becoming increasingly rare, so researchers were pleased to see one in a wildlife corridor in the Honduran mountains. [££££]
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Archaeologists have discovered a variety of 12,000‑year‑old dice, and they illuminate ancient play.
The oldest known recipe for toothpaste comes from … Ancient Egypt.
So how many of the purported priest holes are actually what they’re said to be? [LONG READ]
Samuel Pepys was, in many ways, a very naughty man – even to the extent of concealing letters about being offered an enslaved boy as a bribe.
London
Matt Brown of Londonist has taken a look at the origins of some of the City of London’s street names.
Matt Brown is also creating a coloured version of John Rocque’s 1746 map of London. Here’s the latest section covering Chelsea and the King’s Road (above).
Meanwhile a researcher has been able to unravel the mysterious location of Shakespeare’s house in Blackfriars.
London Historians visits Benjamin Franklin’s London house.
Food, Drink
Here’s a quick look at some of the factors which produce the myriad types of tea.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
Humans have been documenting their appreciation of the nude body for thousands of years, and photography has made it much easier and more accessible.
The New Testament letters of Paul are not what they seem; many weren’t even written by him. [LONG READ]
Shock, Horror, Ha ha ha!
Finally, New Scientist considers the size of a “shedload“. [££££]
#32 #April #biology #blog #history #links #london #medicine #physics #science #sexuality #zenmischief -
Now on my blog, this month's something to think about ...
"Does thought require language?"
https://zenmischief.com/2026/04/something-to-think-about-this-month-16/
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Something to Think About this Month
Each month I offer you something to think about to get the brain working. This month …
Does thought require language?
#blog #logic #thoughts #zenmischief -
This month's collection of quotes is now up on my blog ...
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Monthly Quotes for April
Welcome to this month’s collection of recently encountered quotes!
Understand this, you can sound confident & have anxiety. You can look healthy but feel bad. You can look happy & be miserable. You can be good looking & feel ugly. So be kind because every person is fighting a battle you know nothing about.
[unknown]Women who orgasm from penetration alone carry an older blueprint – a leftover from a time when the body needed the feedback loop of penetration to trigger ovulation.
[Sarah Ward; https://substack.com/home/post/p-190982511]There is nothing like early promiscuous sex for dispelling life’s bright mysterious expectations.
[Iris Murdoch]When all seems lost and there is no hope left, remember that this time will pass and, you will look back and see how it made you stronger.
[unknown]Do not put your work off till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin.
[Hesiod]Where do bad rainbows go?
To prism. It’s a light sentence, but it gives them time to reflect.
[unknown]Forgetting is not a flaw. It is a function. It allows movement. It allows redefinition.
[Kamila Murkowska]Man’s a kind of missing link, fondly thinking he can think.
[Piet Hein]Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
[Robert Hanlon]The Shepherds Delight. Both by Day and by Night. Describing the Shepherds simplicity; And their Felicity: their birth, and their mirth: their lives, and their wives: their health and their wealth: their ways, and their plays: their diet, and quiet. And how with their Dam’sels they laugh and lye down, And to each pretty Virgin, they give a green gown.
#blog #quotes #zenmischief
[English 17th-century Broadside Ballad found in Samuel Pepys Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge] -
Answers to this month's quiz questions on Physical Science & Mathematics are now on the blog.