Greenfinger
No finer monument graces central London鈥檚 skyline than the that houses Her Majesty鈥檚 Secret Intelligence Service. From that edifice emerges the news that, besides cat-stroking villains plotting world domination from their volcano lairs, the spooks of MI6 now have climate polluters in their sights.
Climate change is the 鈥渇oremost international foreign policy agenda item for this country and for the planet鈥�, the head of the UK spy agency, Richard Moore 鈥� known as 鈥淐鈥� to his friends 鈥� . This is why MI6 has started 鈥済reen spying鈥� on other nations to make sure they are playing fair and keeping to their climate change commitments.
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Not before time. The world is hot enough. Carbon is forever and we don鈥檛 want to fry another day. No time to divest if we are to avoid skyfall鈥� you get our drift.
Ugly ducklings
鈥淲hat makes a great bird photo?鈥�, ask Katja Th枚mmes at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and her colleague Gregor Hayn-Leichsenring in a new paper, 鈥�, answering their question almost immediately by collecting 23,818 photos from the social media platform, sorting them into 116 bird families and analysing their 鈥渓ikes鈥�.
It turns out that conventional ideas of beauty aren鈥檛 all they are cracked up to be. There is a distinct inclination for blue birds 鈥� mirroring a general human colour preference 鈥� but, on the whole, 鈥渋nterestingness, idiosyncrasy, and the situational context all play their part in the aesthetic appeal of bird photos to the human observer鈥�.
Toucans, cuckoos and flamingos arouse general indifference, while penguins seem positively scorned, although not so much as waders such as sandpipers and oystercatchers 鈥� perhaps, the researchers speculate, because they tend to get snapped in the act of guzzling lugworms.
Top, errrm, billed are in fact birds in the frogmouth group, so named because鈥� well, . With the once scorned as 鈥渢he world鈥檚 most unfortunate-looking bird鈥�, there鈥檚 hope for all of us yet.
Good hydrations
One colour humans really don鈥檛 like, we learn from psychometric insights in the above research, is dark yellow. While blue is linked to good things like a clear sky and clean water, yellow is associated with鈥�
An email plops into our inbox. 鈥淔or the first time, internationally renowned colour experts Pantone has joined forces with nutritionist Lily Soutter and water producer Highland Spring to reveal a new 鈥楶ee Healthy鈥� guide 鈥� matching urine colours with Pantone colours 鈥� to kickstart a UK-wide conversation amongst Brits to embrace our bodies鈥� natural health indicators on hydration, by checking the colour of our pee!鈥� it froths.
Feedback isn鈥檛 sure this is a conversation we need to start right now. Not least because we first need to work out where to hold the colour chart while in the act. But we don鈥檛 disagree with the basic message: drink water, not too little, not too much. Also available from a tap near you.
Dysfunctional shrooms
鈥溾��, The Guardian asks, reporting that billionaire German investor Christian Angermayer had first been persuaded to invest in cryptocurrency, and then the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, while on a trip to, and subsequently trip in, the Caribbean.
Whether it is the same functionality that reader Ros Hancock discovered in her Facebook feed with an ad for a mushroom coffee that 鈥減rovides just half the caffeine you鈥檇 find in a regular cup of coffee, along with powerful functional mushrooms to help prolong energy levels, improve alertness and concentration鈥� we couldn鈥檛 say without self-experimentation. If this column doesn鈥檛 appear next week, you will know we have woken up a bitcoin billionaire.
Jam today
鈥淕rieved though I always am to see human ingenuity wasted on the development of weapons,鈥� writes Rachel Cave from glorious County Donegal in Ireland, 鈥淚 was intrigued by the prospect of a jam-resistant radio鈥� (24 April, p16). 鈥淎ny household with a toddler in it would consider that a major breakthrough.鈥�
Mayday again
Of which, following our humble contrition (24 April) as we were corrected in our abominable use of 鈥渙ver and out鈥� to end a communication (3 April), John Woodgate writes to say that it was in fact standard procedure in the second world war and later when, in 鈥渟implex communication鈥�, you had to switch manually between 鈥渢ransmit鈥� and 鈥渞eceive鈥� modes. 鈥淚 suppose the 鈥極ver鈥� was to remind the operator to switch to receive after out-ing. Or it might have been short for 鈥榗ommunication over鈥�,鈥� he writes. 鈥淧robably someone else knows for sure (for a given value of 鈥榮ure鈥�)鈥�.
Thank you, John: we too are sure, for a possibly differing value. Humming The Dam Busters March while searching for our pot of radio jam, it鈥檚 out, over and, just in case, out again.
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