A very sobering website detailing research done into climate driven agricultural decline. The future is looking very bleak for certain parts of the world if their predictions come to pass, with India being the worst affected, and with an expanding population.
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Yep, my dog looks at the Postie like that!
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A rabbit hole we are currently diving into is that I discovered yesterday talking to one of the adjoints that the section of the hill we live on used to be called Hangman’s Hill - Coté du Bourreau. But it transpires this is more about hanging pigs than people in a bizarre 14th C ritual described here:
Our house dates from 17thC, but we do have a pig slaughtering room in basement so who knows whether there was a previous house on the site that the hangman lived in.
Lots to explore in the archives one rainy day!
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Stuart and I always say ‘ we’ll do that (particular job) on a rainy day’. Fat chance of that happening at the moment. So maybe it’ll be several months before you can do any exploring Jane 
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Thought this short piece might be of interest, though you probably know much of the history already, but there’s also design auction links at the bottom of the article that might interest others too, eg @MikeyPotts
Inside the Modernist Vision of the Isokon
Auctionet no-reply@auctionet.com
Bauhaus masters, Soviet spies and Agatha Christie all intersect at the Isokon building in Hampstead.
Inside the
Modernist Vision
of the Isokon
Opened in 1934 as the Lawn Road Flats in Hampstead, the Isokon was Britain’s first apartment block built entirely in reinforced concrete in the International Modern style.
‘When I moved in here, the only thing people knew was that Agatha Christie had lived here,’ Englund says. ‘Then I started doing research and realised the story was much, much bigger.’ That story begins with the Pritchards, an upper-middle-class, intellectually restless couple shaped by the aftermath of the First World War. Jack worked for Estonian plywood giant Venesta; Molly trained as a doctor before specialising in child psychology. ‘They wanted everything to be modern,’ Englund says. ‘Modern architecture, modern art, modern food and modern relationships.’
By Linda Iliste
Photos Åke Eson Lindman, Pritchard Papers/UEA, Tom de Gay/Isokon Gallery
Today, it is Grade I-listed – one of only two in the country.
With architect Wells Coates they imagined compact, serviced flats for
modern professional Londoners. The smallest measured only 25 square metres and made up 22 of the original 32 flats. ‘Molly followed this German idea of Existenzminimum, the absolute minimum space needed for modern life,’ Englund says. ‘There were built-in wardrobes, fold-up beds, sliding tables, even a combined unit that worked as a heater, bookshelf, radio and drinks cabinet all at once.’
Today it is Grade I listed, one of only two apartment blocks in the country to hold this designation. ‘The building is unique for two reasons,’ Englund says. ‘It was the first building of its kind in Britain. Second, almost everyone who lived here in the 1930s and 1940s became very famous.’ Magnus Englund runs the Isokon Gallery, housed in the building’s former garage, and spent almost six years living in the penthouse apartment originally created for the building’s founders, Jack and Molly Pritchard.
A Marcel Breuer-designed Isokon Long Chair sold via Auctionet in 2025 for £12,500.
In 1937, Breuer redesigned part of the building’s staff quarters into the Isobar, a restaurant and bar. ‘It was basically Jack Pritchard’s version of a private members’ club,’ Englund says. Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson were regulars. Philip Harben, later recognised as Britain’s first television chef, ran the kitchen.
CATEGORIES INSPIRED BY THE ARTICLE
(Ongoing auctions)
Bauhaus
Functionalism
1930s
Plywood
More reading? Pick up the new Auctionet Magazine at your local partner auction house or visit Auctionet.com/magazine.
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Auction Network Sweden AB
Org.nr: 556859-5150
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Immortality anyone,
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Paywalled
Well that would kill you I would have thought. 
But you are right, I have given up on Guardian links.
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Non paywalled immortality,
https://www.the-scientist.com/an-immortal-jellyfish-offers-clues-into-biological-aging-73346
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Oh shit, Trump is a jellyfish.
These sexually mature adult jellyfish could return to the juvenile state if stressed,
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Découvrez ce podcast: Is ‘Gentle Parenting’ Ruining French Children? https://fr.player.fm/1CHDLqs
The New York Times podcast looks into the controversy surrounding positive parenting in France..
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! The parenting we saw when we came here we felt had much to be admired. We loved the large family gatherings in restaurants, night markets and the like where the children went round to everyone from great granny downwards, bisous and formal greetings. Seemed to us the familial cross-generational bonding was (is?) very strong and led to excellent behaviour.
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And wine in moderation from an early age? I approved that so much that we introduced it at the Sunday dinner table early on. I have never seen one of my children drunk, they are both around 50 now, the same for the 3 step children who are even older.
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A Roman shipwreck has been found off the coast of Sicily. Archeologists expect to learn more about trade 2100 years ago.
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