Another interesting article on the impact of the disaster on wildlife.
I’ve just watched a documentary (on PBS America) about the Chernobyl disaster and it covered the re-wilding of the evacuated areas. Apparently radiation has no lasting effects on the thriving wildlife.
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Maybe? I think it does some species - they talk of blue tits being affected - but the larger mammals seem to be doing fine. Also, the sheer absence of humans seems to have a beneficial effect (why is that no surprise?) I remember in the depths of COVID when we all had to fill in forms if we wanted to walk the dog a kilometre from home (and there was no hunting and everywhere was so quiet) how quickly the deer took over our land and were quite unconcerned at being seen.
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It certainly does, see the morphological asymmetry watercolours of [Cornelia Hesse-Honegger] (HETEROPTERA by Cornelia Hesse-Honegger: A Carlow Visualise exhibition curated by Cathy Fitzgerald, 2005 – The Hollywood Forest Story : An EcoSocial Art Practice | Co. Carlow Ireland).
I first came across her in the early Nineties in Abitare, a very beautiful Italian design mag. At that time she was a a scientific illustrator, who worked with a microscope rather than a camera because with the latter, one couldn’t get sufficient depth of field to produce highly detailed photos of very tiny insects.
I got some friends who were contemporary art curators interested in her work and with her expo and first book, The Future’s Mirror, she began a parallel career as an artist, which was a very effective way of circulating her scientific findings to the general public.
I really enjoyed this in The Times (especially the soft velvet nose 
)
Kate Reardon
Editor-in-chief, Times Luxury
There are moments in life that remain stubbornly soul-sucking, no matter how naturally sunny your disposition:
• Getting into bed and realising you’ve left the bathroom light on
• Contemplating a relentlessly unripe avocado
• Giving your future self the stone-cold certainty of blisters from new shoes but being unable to tolerate your outfit with any other pair, so wearing them anyway
• Scheduling meetings
• Listening to your children argue in the back of the car at the start of the journey home on a bank holiday Monday, when you’re already running slightly late
• The weird embarrassment of sunburn
• Opening an obvious rewrap on your birthday
• The words “rail replacement bus service”
• After two years on Mounjaro, big bottoms coming back into fashion
• Filling your car with petrol in heavy rain
On the other hand, these are my current favourite micro-joys to focus on (aka, state management, or joymaxxing):
• The velvety bit on the end of a horse’s nose
• Being not as late as you think you are
• Maya Angelou
• The start-to-finish satisfaction of sharpening a pencil
• Waking up naturally one minute before the alarm to realise that you’ve slept the whole way through the night without waking up once to pee or worry about all the things you didn’t have time to worry about during the day
• Doughnuts
• Your siblings being in trouble
• Having a fully stocked fridge
• Birdsong
• Cleaning your whole house before you leave on a trip so it’s perfect when you get back
• The combination of fresh sheets and freshly shaved legs and luging into bed with glee
• When the family dog runs to you first — the more people they ignore, the better it feels
• When you’re given a crying baby and it stops crying
• Turning left
Kate Reardon
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Art is great when it inspires thought
Yay Banksy, showing us who we are. It may be only one man’s opinion but kudos to the man who dares to call out
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Dunno about hyperwhatever, but I have lived with Phantosmia for many years. This is a horrible thing to have to put up with, and not a lot is known about it. With this affliction, life STINKS!
I disagree. It was not Banks who put it there, but the advance party of an Alien invasion. Watch this space!
Same here. It started quite suddenly in my early 30’s. It happens infrequently but when it does it can be overwhelming. Petrol and burning rubber are the main things for me.
I had it for a couple of years as a result of my first COVID infection in March 2020, then my sense of smell pretty much went altogether and hasn’t come back.
I feel for you Bear. I cannot describe what smell mine is. Nothing on this Earth I reckon. There are one or two different ones, all with a chemical background. Perhaps it’s what the smell inside an alien spaceship smells like?! I read in Dr. Internet that it could be good old Alzheimers a comin’ around the bend, ta git me, but I am 82 now and my mind is as sharp as a tack. I can even remember all my grandkids’ and great grandkids’ names!
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In case anyone is wondering, the comparable figures for the US are 3.3, and 0.37 per 100,000 workers for the UK.
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Marina Hyde is always an excellent read. I have no idea who these two people are but agree with the heading
“To wit: never litigate. Unless there genuinely is absolutely no alternative, avoid litigation at almost all costs. Seriously, DO NOT LITIGATE. Unless a criminal trial demands your participation – in which case, my commiserations/condemnations – then do not, under any circumstances, think that “your day in court” is anything other than a toxic energy-suck that will dominate your every waking moment, probably for years, or that Lady Justice is anything other than a gold-digger with whom you regrettably do not want to get involved.“
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Marina’s on form with this one, isn’t she? I like the line about ‘…a case even Pyrrhus would have settled 12 months ago.’
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Who’d have thought that hippos are cuddly? Sheldrick is the elephant orphanage, IIRC. The keepers are used to living with baby elephants and keeping them company at night.
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Tenuous African link to the above, but it explains something that I sometimes think seems only apparent to those who’ve flown the length of that continent:-