The Book Of General Ignorance Part 19

The story was that, as the most influential art critic of his day, his knowledge of the naked female form derived entirely from the 'p.u.b.es-free' marble of cla.s.sical sculpture and painting.

There is no evidence for this theory, which was first advanced in Mary Lutyens's biography of the Ruskins in 1965, and it is clear from a frank correspondence he had with his mother that he was not ignorant in the way suggested. The notion of extreme prudery amongst the Victorians is, at least to some degree, an invention of the mid-twentieth century.

What is true is that Ruskin did not consummate the marriage. This situation continued for six years until, on a painting expedition, Ruskin left Effie alone in a rustic cabin with his friend, the painter John Everett Millais (182996). Millais knew what to do, and Effie enjoyed it so much she filed for divorce. The marriage was annulled on the grounds of Ruskin's 'incurable impotency'.

Effie married Millais and had a large family with him. The whole business caused a scandal and meant that Effie was no longer asked to any party at which the Queen would be present.

Ruskin's underlying problem was that he had a penchant for young girls. In spite of this (or maybe because of it), Ruskin was a huge influence on Victorian art and architecture, an early promoter of Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, a founding father of the Trades Unions and the man behind the Arts and Crafts movement and the National Trust.

He wrote 250 books and taught art to Oscar Wilde. He paid the Friends of the Guild of St George to sweep the steps in front of the British Museum. He resigned as Slade Professor of Art when vivisection was allowed in the medical school, and in later life went mad, believing that his cook was really Queen Victoria. Gandhi cited him as the single greatest influence in his life.

Another possible example of pubic hair being blamed for dysfunction concerns the alleged affair of D. H. Lawrence and the painter Dorothy Brett in 1926. Lawrence apparently left the naked Brett in bed having made the excuse for his incapacity: 'your p.u.b.es are wrong'.

Most of Lawrence's biographers believe this was fantasy on Brett's part, not least because she first told the story months before her death in 1976.

How long do your fingernails and hair grow after death?

'For three days after death, hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off' was one of the late, great Johnny Carson's best lines.

But hair and fingernails don't grow at all after death. This is a complete myth. When we die, our bodies dehydrate and our skin tightens creating an illusion of hair and nail growth.

The idea owes a great deal to Erich Maria Remarque's cla.s.sic novel All Quiet on the Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front, in which the narrator, Paul Baumer, reflects on the death of his friend Kemmerich: 'It strikes me that these nails will continue to grow like lean fantastic cellar-plants long after Kemmerich breathes no more. I see the picture before me. They twist themselves into corkscrews and grow and grow, and with them the hair on the decaying skull, just like gra.s.s in a good soil, just like gra.s.s ...'

Despite this, there is plenty of action after death: your body will positively thrive with life. Bacteria, beetles, mites and worms will enjoy a feeding frenzy, contributing enormously to the decomposition process.

One of your body's most enthusiastic customers is the humpbacked phorid phorid or 'coffin fly'. The fly, also known as the 'scuttle fly' because of its awkward flight, is able to live its entire life underground in a corpse. or 'coffin fly'. The fly, also known as the 'scuttle fly' because of its awkward flight, is able to live its entire life underground in a corpse.

Scuttle flies are particularly greedy when it comes to human flesh, and it's not uncommon for them to dig nearly a metre (3 feet) down through the soil to reach a buried coffin.

One type of phorid, from the genus Apocephalus Apocephalus, has recently been deployed in an attempt to control the rampant fire ant populations in the American south-east which were introduced via a Brazilian cargo ship in the 1930s. The flies lay their eggs in the head of the ant. The larvae feed on the contents of the fire ant's head and emerge several days later.

CLIVE I'm just ... I'm fascinated to know that your hair grows after you die, 'cause I'm looking forward to that. I'm just ... I'm fascinated to know that your hair grows after you die, 'cause I'm looking forward to that.

What did Atlas carry on his shoulders?

Not the world but the heavens.

Atlas was condemned to support the sky by Zeus after the t.i.tans revolted against the Olympians. However, he is often shown holding up something that looks like the globe, most famously on the cover of a collection of maps by the Flemish geographer Mercator.

Closer inspection reveals that this globe was, in fact, the heavens, not the Earth. Furthermore, Mercator had actually named his volume, not after the t.i.tan, but the mythical philosopher King Atlas of Mauretania (after whom the mountains are named) who was supposed to have produced the first such 'celestial' (as opposed to 'terrestrial') globe.

The volume became known as Mercator's Atlas Mercator's Atlas and the name was applied to any collection of maps thereafter. and the name was applied to any collection of maps thereafter.

Gerard Mercator, the son of a cobbler, was born Gerard Kremer, in 1512. His surname meant 'market' in Flemish, so he latinised this to Mercator, meaning 'marketeer'.

Mercator was the father of modern cartography and arguably the most influential Belgian of all time.

His famous projection of 1569 the first attempt to portray the world accurately with straight lines of lat.i.tude and longitude remains the most persuasive vision of 'the world' for most people. More importantly it enabled accurate navigation for the first time, giving the Age of Discovery its scientific basis.

Because of its distortions, Mercator's projection is now rarely used in maps and atlases: in 1989 the leading US cartographic a.s.sociations asked for it to be eliminated altogether.

Oddly, that hasn't stopped NASA using it to map Mars.

ALAN I've always seen pictures of him with the Earth. I've always seen pictures of him with the Earth.

STEPHEN On atlases. On atlases.

ALAN As child I thought, 'Where are his hands on the Earth?' You could go and find his hands! As child I thought, 'Where are his hands on the Earth?' You could go and find his hands!

How high is Cloud Nine?

According to the International Cloud Atlas scale, Cloud 0 is the highest type of cloud, known as cirrus, the wispy streaks that can be as high as 12,000 metres (nearly 40,000 feet).

Cloud Nine is the c.u.mulonimbus, the ma.s.sive, brooding thunder cloud. It's at the bottom of the scale because a single cloud can cover the whole range from as low as a few hundred feet to the very edge of the stratosphere (15,000 metres or nearly 50,00 feet).

As with the origins of most phrases, it's unlikely that 'cloud nine' can be tied to one specific source. Clouds seven, eight, seven and thirty-nine have all been recorded, so it seems likely that people settled on nine because it's regarded as a lucky number ('dressed up to the nines' and 'the whole nine yards' have equally obscure origins). And the idea of being carried along on a big billowy cloud is undeniably attractive.

The International Cloud Atlas was published in 1896, as a result of the International Meteorological Conference establishing a Cloud Committee to agree an international system for the naming and identification of clouds.

The ten categories were themselves based on the pioneering work of Luke Howard (17721864), an English chemist, who published his Essay on the Modification of Clouds Essay on the Modification of Clouds in 1802. in 1802.

Howard's work was influenced by his experience of freak weather conditions as a child, when volcanic eruptions in j.a.pan and Iceland in 1783 created a 'Great Fogg' which covered much of Europe.

His work inspired the landscape paintings of John Constable, J. M. W. Turner and Caspar David Friedrich. Goethe wrote four poems in Howard's honour and considered this modest English Quaker to be the 'G.o.dfather of Clouds'.

Clouds are collections of tiny water droplets or ice crystals held in suspension in the atmosphere. The droplets or crystals are formed by the condensation of water vapour around even smaller particles of things like smoke or salt. These are called condensation nuclei.

Cirrus clouds are the only clouds in the sky made entirely of ice. They are much more common in the atmosphere than was once thought and help to regulate the Earth's temperature. They are often triggered by the condensation trails of high-flying jets.

When air traffic was stopped after 11 September 2001, daily temperature variation across the USA grew by up to 3 C over the following forty-eight hours as the cirrus protection shrank: letting more heat out by night and more sunlight in by day.

What makes champagne fizz?

It's not carbon dioxide, it's dirt.

In a perfectly smooth, clean gla.s.s, carbon dioxide molecules would evaporate invisibly, so for a long time it was a.s.sumed that it was slight imperfections in the gla.s.s which enabled the bubbles to form.

However, new photographic techniques have shown that these nicks and grooves are much too small for bubbles to latch on to: it's the microscopic particles of dust and bits of fluff in the gla.s.s that enable them to form.

Technically speaking, the dirt/dust/lint in the gla.s.s act as condensation nuclei for the dissolved carbon dioxide.

According to Moet et Chandon, there are 250 million bubbles in the average bottle of champagne.

Chekhov's last words were 'I haven't had champagne for a long time.'

German medical etiquette of the time demanded that when there was no hope, the doctor would offer the patient a gla.s.s of champagne.

What shape is a raindrop?

Raindrops are spherical, not teardrop-shaped.

Ball-bearing and lead-shot makers exploit this property of falling liquids in their manufacturing process: molten lead is dropped through a sieve from a great height into a cooling liquid, and comes out spherical.

Shot-drop towers used to be built for the purpose until the Festival of Britain in 1951 there was one next to Waterloo Bridge in London.

At just over 71 m (234 feet) Phoenix Shot Tower in Baltimore (still standing) was the tallest building in America until the Washington Monument surpa.s.sed it after the Civil War.

What produces most of the earth's oxygen?

Algae.

They release oxygen as a waste-product of photosynthesis. Their net oxygen output is higher than that produced by all the trees and other land-based plants put together.

Ancient algae are also the main const.i.tuent of oil and gas.

Blue-green algae or cyan.o.bacteria (from Greek kyanos kyanos 'dark greeny blue') is Earth's earliest known life form, with fossils that date back 3.6 billion years. 'dark greeny blue') is Earth's earliest known life form, with fossils that date back 3.6 billion years.

While some algae are included with the plants in the Eukaryote domain (eu, 'true', and karyon karyon, 'nut', referring to their cells having true nuclei, which bacteria don't), the cyan.o.bacteria are now firmly in the Bacteria kingdom, with their own phylum.

One form of cyan.o.bacteria, spirulina, yields twenty times more protein per acre than soya beans. It consists of 70 per cent protein (compared with beef's 22 per cent), 5 per cent fat, no cholesterol and an impressive array of vitamins and minerals. Hence the increasing popularity of the spirulina smoothie.

It also boosts the immune system, particularly the production of protein interferons, the body's front-line defence against viruses and tumour cells.

The nutritional and health benefits of spirulina were recognised centuries ago by the Aztecs, sub-Saharan Africans and flamingos.

Its significance for the future may be that algae can be grown on land that isn't fertile, using (and recycling) brackish water. It's a crop that doesn't cause soil erosion, requires no fertilisers or pesticides and refreshes the atmosphere more than anything else that grows.

ALAN I've got it [algae] in my pond. I get rid of it. I've got it [algae] in my pond. I get rid of it.

STEPHEN Think how many people you'll kill by doing that. You might Think how many people you'll kill by doing that. You might just as well go around with a pillow and clamp them to old ladies' faces. just as well go around with a pillow and clamp them to old ladies' faces.

What were First World War German uniforms made from?

Nettles.

During the First World War, both Germany and Austria ran short on supplies of cotton.

In search of a suitable replacement, scientists chanced upon an ingenious solution: mixing very small quant.i.ties of cotton with nettles specifically, the hardy fibres of the stinging nettle (Urtica dioica).

Without any form of systematic production, the Germans cultivated 1.3 million kg of this material in 1915, and a further 2.7 million kg the following year.

After a brief struggle, the British captured two German overalls in 1917, and their construction was a.n.a.lysed with some surprise.

Nettles have many advantages over cotton for agriculture cotton needs a lot of watering, it only grows in a warm climate, and requires a lot of pesticide treatment if it is to be grown economically.

There's no danger of being stung by a 'full nettle jacket' either, as the stinging hairs little hypodermic syringes made of silica and filled with poison are not used in production. The long fibres in the stems are all that are useful.

The Germans were by no means the first to stumble across this plant's many uses. Archaeological remains from around Europe reveal that it's been used for tens of thousands of years for fishing nets, twine and cloth.

The Bottle Inn, a pub in Marshwood, Dorset, England, holds an annual World Stinging Nettle Eating Championship. Rules are strict: no gloves, no mouth-numbing drugs (other than beer) and no regurgitation.

The trick appears to be to fold the top of the nettle leaf towards you and push it past your lips before swigging it down with ale. A dry mouth, they say, is a sore mouth. The winner is the one who has the longest set of bare stalks at the end of an hour.

The current record is 14.6 m (48 feet) for men, and about 8 m (26 feet) for women.

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What sophisticated mechanism enabled the first successful landing on an aircraft carrier at sea?

The human hand: the crew of the carrier simply reached up and pulled the plane down out of the air.

The world's first landing by an aeroplane on to a ship under way at sea was made on 2 August 1917 by Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning, DSC DSC, RN RN, in a Sopwith Pup on to the hanger roof of the converted battlecruiser HMS Furious Furious.

Dunning worked out that by combining the 40-knot stalling speed of the plane, the 21-knot top speed of the ship and a 19-knot wind he could hover relative to the ship. So, while Furious Furious steamed into the wind, Dunning flew past it as close as possible, drifted round the bridge until he arrived over the roof of the hanger, side-slipped and pulled back on the throttle, allowing the plane to sink towards the deck. At this, a party of officers and men rushed out and grabbed the specially prepared ropes dangling from the plane and pulled it down on to the roof. steamed into the wind, Dunning flew past it as close as possible, drifted round the bridge until he arrived over the roof of the hanger, side-slipped and pulled back on the throttle, allowing the plane to sink towards the deck. At this, a party of officers and men rushed out and grabbed the specially prepared ropes dangling from the plane and pulled it down on to the roof.

Dunning completed a second landing in this way before deciding it was not a practical procedure. Five days later, he took off again, having given instructions that his plane was not to be touched until it had come to a complete standstill. But this time, when he arrived over the hanger, something went horribly wrong. Either he touched down and one of his tyres burst or he pulled back too hard on the throttle and the plane stalled. At any rate it swerved, the wind blew the aircraft over the side and the pilot was knocked unconscious and drowned.

HMS Furious Furious was one of a trio of battle cruisers built during World War I, the other two being the was one of a trio of battle cruisers built during World War I, the other two being the Courageous Courageous and the Glorious. Said to be the most ludicrous warships ever built for the Royal Navy, they were known throughout the Fleet as the and the Glorious. Said to be the most ludicrous warships ever built for the Royal Navy, they were known throughout the Fleet as the Spurious Spurious, the Outrageous Outrageous and the and the Uproarious Uproarious. Furious Furious was designed with two 46-cm (18-inch) gun turrets fore and aft. At the time, these were the largest guns in the world. was designed with two 46-cm (18-inch) gun turrets fore and aft. At the time, these were the largest guns in the world.

The reference to the human hand as a 'sophisticated mechanism' is not intended to be sarcastic. In How How The Mind Works The Mind Works, Stephen Pinker (noting that it was first pointed out by the Roman physician Galen 2,000 years ago) shows what an astonishing piece of engineering the human hand represents. Each one does the job of at least ten different tools. He names a hook grip (to lift a bucket); a scissor grip (to hold a cigarette); a five-jaw chuck (to lift a coaster); a three-jaw chuck (to hold a pencil); a two-jaw pad-to-pad chuck (to thread a needle); a two-jaw pad-to-side chuck (to turn a key); a squeeze grip (to hold a hammer); a disc grip (to open a jar); and a spherical grip (to hold a ball). Numerous other tools could be cited including a screwdriver, a weighing machine and a surface sensor.

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How many muscles do you have in your fingers?

Amazingly, the answer is none at all.

The muscles that control your fingers are all in your arm. Your fingers are moved like puppets on a string, the strings being the tendons controlled by the muscles of the forearm.

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