current affairs, thoughts

On Spiteful Sniping

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I’m heartily sick of the media. The entire media. All they appear to do is to snipe spitefully (often without much apparent evidence) at those in power, with the aim only of getting them out of office. There is little or no regard for actual policies or what our leaders are genuinely and reasonably trying to do. Instead it is all about personal smears, and stirring up hatred, to undermine positions.

If the UK media manage to get Kier Starmer – or any member of the government – out of office it will be as a result of a spiteful, vitriolic smear campaign, and not because of the government’s policies and attempts at reform.

By all means criticise the government’s (or indeed anyone’s – it isn’t just government, but anyone with any power/influence) policies and attempts at reform. That’s how democracy should work. Then allow the electorate decide.

Yes, of course people make mistakes and errors of judgement. Find me someone who hasn’t. That is not something which warrants vitriolic, hateful, smear campaigns – nothing justifies such. We must allow people to acknowledge their errors, learn from them, and move on. Doing so will allow people to develop with compassion, and without trauma; we’ll stop wasting time and emotional energy; and we’ll make a lot more progress in a more peaceful, relaxed and thoughtful world.

So stop the spite and the vitriol.

Just shut the fuck up and let people get on with their jobs.

environment, natural history, ramblings

Parakeets

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These birds are ridiculous! This morning, about 09:15, we had a garden full of ring-neck parakeets (Psittacula krameri from Northern India): 26 of them sitting about the trees and on the almost empty feeders; in the rain. And that’s the ones I could see! And it wasn’t just parakeets, the full count was at least:

  • 26 Ring-neck Parakeets
  • 2 Magpies
  • 2 Woodpigeons
  • at least 1 Squirrel
  • and an uncountable number of various species of tit (blue tit, great tit and maybe some coal tit).

Here’s a quick photo of some of them (taken through a dirty window) to prove the point – I can count 22 in this photo! [Click the image for a larger view.]

lots of green parakeets sitting in a tree

I know many people don’t like these parakeets: they’re an alien invader, prolific, noisy, and supposedly keep the smaller birds off food supplies. However we love having them around. No, they’re not native. Yes, they’re noisy. But they are comically acrobatic. And judging by our garden observations they certainly don’t deter the smaller birds – if anything is guilty of that it’s the squirrels.

There’s lots more on these parakeets on the Natural History Museum website. Let’s celebrate them as a colourful and fun addition to our environment.

memes, science

February Quiz Questions

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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.

Biology

  1. What is the biggest cat species in the world?
  2. What is the world’s fastest bird?
  3. What is the process by which plants convert sunlight to energy?
  4. How many eyes does a bee have?
  5. How many bones does a shark have?
  6. What colours are flamingos born?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history

February 1926

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Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

1. Death. Theodosius of Skopje, Bulgaria Orthodox religious leader and saint (b.1846)

2. Birth. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, President of France (d.2020)

9. Birth. Garret FitzGerald, Irish lawyer, politician, and 7th Taoiseach of Ireland (d.2011)

10. Birth. Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer, football manager (d.1993)

11. Birth. Paul Bocuse, French chef (d.2018)

14. Death. John Jacob Bausch, German-born American optician, co-founder of Bausch & Lomb (b.1830)

16. Birth. John Schlesinger, British film director (d.2003)

22. Birth. Kenneth Williams, English actor (d.1988)

Kenneth Williams

25. Francisco Franco becomes General in Spain.

personal

Unblogged January

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Here begins this year’s series of “Unblogged” posts, being notes of things I didn’t otherwise write about.

Thursday 1
Why is there an empty Champagne bottle by the bed? And an empty crisp packet?
Was it just me or were London’s New Year fireworks particularly dull and uninspired this year? They’re usually much more varied and colourful.
Why is New Year’s Day always dull and grey, even if the previous day was bright sunshine?

Friday 2
Endless paperwork and admin, day 2. New Year is such a pain like this.

Saturday 3
Endless paperwork and admin, day 3.

Sunday 4
What a wonderful bright full moon in the western sky at 05:00, with Jupiter shining brightly below it. No sign of Quadrantid meteors though, but really needed to be looking NE rather than W.

Monday 5
Hi-ho! Hi-ho! It’s off to work you go. Not so fast. You can if you want to but this one’s not playing. If only because struggling for motivation.

Tuesday 6
Snee. Not a lot first thing in the morning and all gone by lunchtime. Then very wet overnight.

Wednesday 7
I don’t want to be here: depressed, anxious, stressed and panicking. Surprising? No, not with N in hospital.

Thursday 8
Despite everything I slept really well last night – right through from 00:30 to 07:00, then to 08:30 when the radio came on. A tot of Armagnac last thing certainly helped.

Sunday 11
Yes, it’s my birthday. But it is not a happy one with N in intensive care and the medics scratching their heads over the cause. Not conducive to jollity.

Monday 12
Better news today. N much improved though still in ICU. At least when visited she was awake and conversing, although not totally cogently. Medics still scratching their heads though.

Tuesday 13
It’s been raining here fairly solidly for days. Boy Cat has just come in and left a wonderful trail of muddy pawmarks across my desk. He now wants his tea, for which he’s two hours late.

Wednesday 14
N now on a general ward, and seems to be improving slowly.

Thursday 15
Another soaking wet day; really horrible. I still don’t understand cat feet. How can they come in, walk across the kitchen and hall, up the stairs, across the landing and bedroom (all carpeted except the kitchen) and still have wet muddy feet when they arrive on the bed?

Tuesday 20
After two weeks, N has been let out of hospital. S&Z very kindly went and picked her up at teatime. She’s obviously glad to be home, even if still feeling fragile. It’s been a tough couple of weeks (for both of us) and it isn’t over yet (if it ever will be). All our friends have been incredibly helpful and supportive in all sorts of ways. So thank you to you all (you know who you are!).

Wednesday 21
Biblical rain. All day. There’s a lake in the back garden large enough to float Noah’s Ark.

Thursday 22
Gorgeous crescent moon on it’s back in the western sky this evening – through gaps in the cloud.

Friday 23
We now have a handrail on the stairs, although a couple of sections to be completed.

Sunday 25
It’s a marsh.

Tuesday 27
That was an incredibly fast cash machine. Everything processed like lightning; three times the speed of most that I use.

Saturday 31
Well Spring must be here! Suddenly our lawn is a sea of pale mauve crocuses. Sorry no photo as I don’t fancy lying on the marsh masquerading as the lawn.

history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

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And they’re off … with the first collection for 2026 of monthly links to items you may have missed. This is a short edition (mainly due to the holidays) but it is full of curiosities. As always we start with the hardest stuff …

Science, Technology, Natural World

Let’s start with a really interesting curiosity. A woman who was murdered in China has been found to have varying proportions of male and female cells throughout her body, due to an exceedingly rare form of chimerism. [££££]

Still on curiosities, there’s a fungus (above) in China, and a few other places, which if eaten when not fully cooked causes people to hallucinate dozens of tiny humans – and reliably only this hallucination!

How many holes does the human body have? It’s really all a question of topology and how you define a hole.

Hallucigenia (below) was such an odd animal that we know very little about it, but researchers are beginning to understand what it ate. [££££]

OK, so now let’s think about the sex life of plants, because it is a lot more complicated than we imagine.

And now the land itself … Scientists have now managed to map, in detail, the landscape of Antarctica beneath the ice.

Health, Medicine

The Covid-19 pandemic has left a hidden toll of millions of undiagnosed chronic conditions.

Next up we have two pieces on the curiosity which is synaesthesia:
First a young lady with time-space synaesthesia on how it affects her experience of events like new year.
Secondly, a pair of twins talk about what it’s like to also have the same synaesthesia.

And in an attempt to cap that, here’s a brief piece on the wild history of the hymen.

Environment & Ecology

The iconic green rose-ringed parakeets (below) a have been spreading across the UK since their escape 50+ years ago; and they’re now causing concern in some quarters (although personally I like having them around).

There are naturally stingless bees in the Amazon, and they’ve now been granted legal rights in parts of Peru.

Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics

The interesting story of when the United Kingdom annexed an island in the North Atlantic.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

A look at the curious etymology of OK.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Archaeologists have made an absolutely stunning find of an iron age war trumpet (modern French reproduction carnyx below) and a boar’s head standard, with possible links to Boudicca.

In another major find, archaeologists have unearthed a hoard of Saxon coins which appear to have been buried on just before the Battle Hastings in 1066.

London

Not a lot of people know that there’s a medieval hall in Holborn.

Matt Brown investigates whether AI is any good at making maps of London. Spoiler: it isn’t.

But finally we don’t need AI as Matt Brown has released the latest panel in his project to colour John Rocque’s 1746 map of London: when Marylebone was all fields