Just Links

As my wife says, rational people are not threatened by fantasy books about supernatural powers. They know how to separate fact from fiction. They use logic, reason and critical thinking as their tools. It is the people who believe in magical powers and the supernatural that are threatened. There’s no point in my addressing the [...]

[tag]Italy[/tag] is asking immigrant families to return a baby bonus. The problem started with a pre-election letter by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. It read: “Best wishes for your arrival, do you know that the budget has put aside 1,000 euros for you? Big Kiss. Silvio Berlusconi.” The letter was sent to all parents of [...]

Well duh. “Sleep is the new sex.” Gretchen has discovered that a good nap is … a good thing. But she does also say that well-rested children sleep better than sleep-deprived children. This is news to me, childless as I am, but seems sensible. Rather like the best mousers being well-fed cats. Technorati Tags: domestic

Sixteen different ways to tie a shoelace? That’s ridiculous. Who knew? Rebecca, that’s who.

Wheel, meet butterfly. Pal Neddie has done a bang-up job on The Da Vinci Code, including introducing someone to the word cackhanded, testimony to Ned’s own time in foreign fields. I have not, myself, picked up the aforementioned book, and would sooner suck out my own eyeballs than read it, so I cannot vouch for [...]

Sledgehammer, meet nuts.

I’m shocked. Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found. And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the [...]

From Rebecca, news of Geoffrey Chaucer’s blog. As she says, one can almost read this, and right fun it is too. If life weren’t quite so filled, I would linger longer, for sure. Technorati Tags: fun

BBC News is saying that a new UK report is calling for all new farming practices to be assessed for their environmental impact. At the moment, only genetic modification requires this sort of assessment. Reuters UK has a slightly different perspective. I haven’t read the report, obviously, but it seems to have emerged from one [...]

Today’s guest, left, is Rhytidodera bowringii, a beetle that has “decimated mango plantations”. A single live specimen was detained on its way in to Miami. The news was released on 10 March. Two days later, the New York Times publishes a swingeing attack on Florida mangoes. Coincidence? I think not. I look forward to a [...]

Er, would you mind signing this bit of paper here please? I’d hate anyone to think I was taking advantage of you. The aim of the campaign is really to stop young men taking advantage of drunken women and having sex with them Danny Shaw BBC News That Shaw boy surely has a way with [...]