A long-read about maleness, masculinity and masculinised violence. Looking at how violence disproportionately affects, and is perpetrated by, men. My discussion on the psychological, sociological and anthropological implications and potential ideas of how we can help moving forward.
Monthly Archives: June 2021
Grown Up’s Guides: UK Fossil Hunting
A guide by an adult for adult so they can feel more comfortable going with friends, family or their children to enjoy a day out hunting for fossils. Why? Because it’s cool and there’s a lot to see and learn about like bones and teeth and dinosaurs and ammonites and ammonoids and bivalves and crinoids and trilobites and sharks teeth and all this wonderful stuff. Just get out and do it!
On the Origin of a Species: The Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens
A look at this taxonomically, physiologically, anatomically confusing but absolutely, undoubtedly cute little species, the red panda, Ailurus fulgens. Once thought related to raccoons, or the giant panda, it now stands in a family of its own proving, even to cynics like me, that taxonomy is not just useless bickering about arbitrary classifications.
We Lack Discipline Reads: The Bet – Chapter 1
We Lack Discipline analyses the first chapter of Vivienne Tuffnell’s excellent novel ‘The Bet’. A hard open, with lots of natural symbolism of death, decay, pain and suffering.
Caturday Special: The Leopard, Panthera pardus
With this study of the leopard we have written about every extant pantherine. There are no more big cat species of that genus left to cover. The leopard is a beautiful, generalist, opportunist species adapted for a wide variety of habitats, explaining it’s wide distribution. It is a cat also associated with the Greek God Dionysus, the God of wine.
My Life and Disappointment
A look at expectation and reality in the human mind and how they can lead to disappointment with the focus being on people who have low expectations and for whom the reality is even lower. People with bad luck who are being failed because society refuses to acknowledge the reality of how life works.
Is That a Wasp? A Simple Wasp Identification Guide
A short and simple guide, with lots of pictures, of how you can try and tell what’s a wasp from what isn’t. Also a simple description of how you will certainly fail!
Roman History in a Nutshell: The Pyrrhic Wars – The Battle of Heraclea, 280 BCE
Covering the build up to and cause of the Pyrrhic wars. With Roman influence spreading they were bound to bump up against the greater greek world, magna graecia, sooner or later. The city of Tarentum would be the trigger and they would ask King Pyrrhus of Epirus for help – putting Rome in conflict with the Hellenic Kingdoms for the first time. The Battle of Heraclea would be the first major battle, resulting in a loss for Rome, but significant casualties for Pyrrhus.
#WaspFlower – Walk 1 – A Gallery
The photographic results of my first major walk attempting to find wasps on flowers for the Big Wasp Survey. I found more than just wasps and so we have beautiful galleries of wasps, beetles, bees, flies, flowers and others!
Fresh as a Daisy: On Flowers
A look at the beautiful and enigmatic angiosperms – the flowering plants. Now dominant among our plant life it is hard to believe that they are, evolutionarily speaking, quite new on the block – being only around 120 million years old with larger trees being only around 60-70 million years old! Yet they dominate our plant landscape, provide us with the bulk of our food and have changed life itself.
We Lack Discipline 