Stream
Some other stuff ...
What I’ve watched
I keep a little log.
Exercise really is a funny thing. I’ve tried various forms over the years, some of them more fun and longer lasting than others. For a while I was very taken with the Canadian Air Force’s 5BX plan. It seemed to have just the right amount of fiddliness to appeal to my inner nerd. That fell away, and then, just over a year ago I started doing the 7-minute stuff, high-intensity interval training. Slowly, slowly, even at my advanced age, it became easier to get through one cycle. Then two. Then the full workout, three cycles in total.
The Internet Archive recently sent out an email warning that “between 2000-2019, more than 176 open access journals have literally disappeared,” with many more at risk. My first thought was to hope that many of the vanished were titles from predatory publishers scamming academics, gone bust or moved...
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...
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.