The earliest reported human flight in Britain happened, if it happened, long. long ago. Alison Hudson reports, in the British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts blog: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a… Monk? …did you know that the first recorded pioneer of man-powered flight in the British Isles was an Anglo-Saxon monk from Malmesbury Abbey called Eilmer (or […]
Tag: Britain
A song for the peoples of Britain, in their hour of dismay
This song, called “Harmonious Misunderstanding”, is the thrilling conclusion to “The Jargon Opera“. The mini-opera premiered as part of the 2002 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, at Harvard University. That first performance starred singers Margot Button, Jane Tankersley, and Michelle French, and pianist Greg Neil — accompanied gamely by Nobel Laureates Richard Roberts, William Lipscomb, and Dudley Herschbach, and David […]
Buttock and breast ogling: Britain vs. Argentina
Sex clearly drives Britain and Argentina as they vie to dominate islands of interest. The two great nations are rivals in producing academic studies of whether and how people stare at women’s breasts or buttocks. Britain fired the first shot in this war. In 2007, Adrian Furnham [pictured here] and Viren Swami of University College London published […]
“Why are British women’s breasts getting bigger?”
This week’s Headline of a Past Week honor goes to a May 16, 2010 headline in The Observer (Thanks to investigator Scott Langill for bringing this to our attention.): Why are British women’s breasts getting bigger? Alice Fisher wrote the article, waxing most analytical in this passage: Do you know how to work out a […]
The evolution of the billion
David Bradley explains a dramatic, historic passage in the evolution of the meaning of “billion”: …In the issue of Nature dated 2nd July 1992, the journal stated: “…from now on, the English word “billion” will be understood as meaning 10^9 rather than 10^12. It is earnestly hoped that readers will not mistake this upheaval in editorial practice […]
The molecatchers’ perspective
The British Traditional Molecatchers Register offers this as its official perspective on modern molecatching in Britain: With the withdrawal of Strychnine for mole control the demand for the Traditional Molecatcher has risen and will rise in the future. Many of the pest control companies are abandoning mole control work because trapping is too time consuming […]
The cult of Prince Philip
The SBS Dateline television program investigates the cult of Britain’s Prince Philip. Their video report comes with this printed introduction: As far as most of the world is concerned, Prince Philip was born in Greece and went on to become Queen Elizabeth’s husband, but to the people of Tanna in the South Pacific nation of […]
‘Millionaire’ Query: Ostrich Bonk Preference
On the Italian edition of the show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”, a contestant recently spent eight minutes wrestling with a question raised in an Ig Nobel Prize-winning study: Who do ostriches prefer as sex partners? Watch this taut dramatic incident: The study being discussed here garnered the 2002 Ig Nobel biology prize for […]
Brit adapts S African auto flamethrower
A British gentleman has built upon the pioneering research of 1999 Ig Nobel Peace Prize winners Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong of Johannesburg, South Africa (who were honored for inventing an automobile burglar alarm consisting of a detection circuit and a flamethrower). The Daily Telegraph reports: Flame-thrower scooter owner arrested Colin Furze, a plumber [and […]