Stream
Some other stuff ...
What I’ve watched
I keep a little log.
Many people have recently shared The Worst Animal in the World, the story of how we unwittingly domesticated Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and helped them to take over the world. I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot but alas, not about the .
[T]he paras...
Last week we went out of town to meet friends from the UK for lunch, and I ate the most superb galletto alla diavolo I’ve had in a long time.
A book I am reading made passing reference to Oliver Cromwell’s refusal to take quinine for his malaria. The history of quinine is tangled and uncertain, but a few things are constant. Jesuit missionaries learned from Amerindians that the bark of the Cinchona tree could cure fever.1 It was taken up by Pope Urban VIII and spread through much of Europe as Jesuit’s bark or Jesuit’s powder.
Cromwell, of course was having none of that. He died in 1658, probably of malaria, convinced, like many of his countrymen, that the popish powder was a plot to undermine the Anglican church.
On a whim — a well-researched whim — I recently bought a new activity tracker, a Xiaomi Mi-band 5. It was intended to replace my Garmin Vivofit, which has served me more or less faithfully for six years. The original impetus for seeking a replacement was that I fancied keeping more of an eye on my heart rate, but only because since the lockdown I have actually been exercising more frequently and more intensely than before, and while that is its own reward, it would be nice to see some additional evidence that I am getting fitter.
Not a huge amount to report this month, mostly because we were on holiday for a little more than two weeks, and a glorious holiday it was too. We are very fortunate not to be in either of our home countries, so were able to enjoy travelling, for one thing, and great places to travel to, for another. And I promised myself I wouldn’t bang on about the tragic landscape of dead olive trees in Puglia, so I won’t.