News items and articles that make you go EH????

[xoggoth]

In this typical Guardiany article on the white-ethnic attainment gap is this bit:

Dr Felix Maringe, a senior lecturer in education at the University of Southampton, says little time is invested in studying different cultural learning styles. Research shows that students from South Africa show "exceptional understanding of mathematical ideas based on the circle or spheres"

In this New Scientist item on variation in microbes that inhabit different parts of the human body:

Still, unusual similarities within the body did emerge. The composition of microbial communities that exist in our navels is the same as those on the backs of our knees.

[thunderlizard]

Research shows that students from South Africa show "exceptional understanding of mathematical ideas based on the circle or spheres"

Looks like our cricket team missed a learning opportunity there.

[pzz76077]

This article caught my eye: http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3...y-split-africa

An amazing amount of energy going to waste and probably a bit of an issue for travelers.

PZZ

[Numpty]

In this New Scientist item on variation in microbes that inhabit different parts of the human body:

This was discussed on a BBC World Service programme a few months ago. It was fascinating.

It is staggering how much biodiversity exists - not on the surface of the planet - but on the surface of our bodies. The point of the research was that different things live on different parts of the body and nowhere else. We are a walking habitat that is warm, cool, moist, dry, smooth, hairy, protected, exposed in every permutation. And each environment has its own funghi, bacteria and other stuff.

[Svalbaard]

This was discussed on a BBC World Service programme a few months ago. It was fascinating.

It is staggering how much biodiversity exists - not on the surface of the planet - but on the surface of our bodies. The point of the research was that different things live on different parts of the body and nowhere else. We are a walking habitat that is warm, cool, moist, dry, smooth, hairy, protected, exposed in every permutation. And each environment has its own funghi, bacteria and other stuff.

And every one of those microbes has a purpose to serve in the correct functioning of your body and is at odds with what the health and personal hygiene industry wants you to believe.

The only staggering thing here is that the biodiversity exists at all.

[xoggoth]

The 22 -year-old suffers from an unusual fear known as lachanophobia, which leaves her sweating and stricken with panic attacks at the merest sight of a sprout or a pea.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...#ixzz0WOUHpoQ0

[kaiser78]

29 million (yes million) chicken eggs are layed in the UK EVERY DAY. Eh ????

[RichardCranium]

29 million (yes million) chicken eggs are layed in the UK EVERY DAY. Eh ????

The chicken pie factory on Anglesey kills a million chickens a week.

[xoggoth]

Two news items on BBC site on same day. Well, fish are doubtless much less fussy up North!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/o...re/8357761.stm

Thousands of small fish have been found dead in a reservoir in Oxfordshire.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...re/8357301.stm

Eighteen fish have been discovered living in a tank at a sewage works in West Yorkshire.

[xoggoth]

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/n...into_lamppost/

...residents in the area claim it is only a matter of time until someone is seriously hurt as “killer foxes” maul the underside of cars.