| Forum Thread | The Asian tiger mosquito is now established in 13 European countries at 10:22 25 Apr 2024
A possibly little considered effect of climate change and the warming of Europe is the introduction of mosquito borne disease into regions where historically it wasn't an issue. As it stands it looks like the Asian Tiger mosquito which is a carrier of Dengue Fever is now established in many regions of Europe: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/25/mosquito-borne-diseases-spre "Dengue used to be primarily found in tropical and subtropical regions, as freezing overnight temperatures kill the insect’s larvae and eggs. Longer hot seasons and less frequent frosts have meant it has become the fastest-spreading mosquito-borne viral disease in the world, and it is taking hold in Europe. The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), carries dengue fever and has become established in 13 European countries as of 2023: Italy, France, Spain, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Greece and Portugal." Given the changing climate in Europe these migrations of insects from traditionally warmer climates is only likely to increase along with the risk of mosquito borne diseases becoming commonplace in Europe. SB |
| Forum Thread | Pens awarded by club at 09:54 25 Feb 2024
Whilst reading the Leicester forum linked in another post and hidden amongst the whinging about us scoring late goals I noticed one poster had said that Ipswich must be equally annoyed about the amount of penalties Leicester get as they were about our late goals/deflections. He said they had 11 pens in the last 28 games which seem quite a high amount so thought I would compare it against the rest of the division: -------------------------------------------------------- 1 Leicester City - 11 2 Leeds United - 7 3 Sunderland AFC - 5 4 Middlesbrough FC - 4 5 Hull City - 4 6 Southampton FC - 4 7 Stoke City - 3 8 Birmingham City - 3 9 Norwich City - 3 10 Swansea City - 3 11 Bristol City - 3 12 Coventry City - 2 13 Millwall FC - 2 14 West Bromwich Albion - 2 15 Preston North End - 2 16 Cardiff City - 2 17 Ipswich Town - 2 18 Blackburn Rovers - 1 19 Huddersfield Town - 1 20 Rotherham United - 1 21 Plymouth Argyle - 1 22 Queens Park Rangers - 1 23 Watford FC - 1 -------------------------------------------------------- Looking at it, Ipswich seem to be around the norm for the number of pens we've had although in reality we will be in the opposition box a lot more than some of the teams in that bracket and thus statistically you'd expect us to have had more pens as there is simply more opportunity for fouls. That might also explain why Leicester and Leeds have the most (they are often in the opposition box) but given our stats for that our similar, Leicester really shouldn't have had 5 times as many penalties as us. Perhaps their is unconscious bias in the refereeing but just from the top of my head I can remember at least 3 penalties which were stonewalls on Hirst and haven't been given and that's just one player. SB |
| Forum Thread | Random statistical point at 17:03 3 Feb 2024
Doesn't really mean anything but in the last two matches we've conceded 5 shots on target and conceded 5 goals. That's clearly a tail event and won't continue so hopefully upwards from here. SB |
| Forum Thread | Rise in measles cases coupled with a downturn in MMR vaccinations at 11:48 24 Jan 2024
Unfortunately measles is seeing huge increase across the EU and UK, in 2017 the UK was declared measles free as it had seen no indigenous cases for 3 years. Now we have rising cases amongst the young across the country and the EU has reported 30,000 cases in 10 months last year up from just 900 the previous year. In order to keep measles at bay through herd-immunity 95% of children need to be vaccinated and we are now just below 85% in the UK. There are a few reasons, low doctors surgery attendance and thus vaccinations during the pandemic, lingering doubts around MMR (even though they have been discredited) and kids being outside the age range when it's usually given. Measles is a nasty virus and much more contagious than even the Omicron variants of covid (r0 of between 12 and 18) so it will spread quickly through those with no immunity. The general message is it's not too late to get the MMR, even if kids are outside the usual ages when it's given that's not a problem. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/24/this-is-urgent-the-uk-is-scrambl SB |
| Forum Thread | Genetic study on the origins of MS at 09:06 11 Jan 2024
Quite an interesting genetic study has been published on the origins of multiple sclerosis and why it has a higher prevalence in northern European countries (double that of southern European countries). It seems that a migration from the East brought with it genetic traits which were beneficial in preventing diseases jumping from livestock to herders, a huge risk at the time. As sanitary conditions improved and this risk reduced the same genetic traits increased the chances of MS. It looks like they also increase the chance of Alzheimer's. Essentially a trait that evolved and was beneficial under the environmental conditions at the time is detrimental under the environmental conditions we now live under. Given the speed of evolution this is probably something that has happened many times. https://www.reuters.com/science/dna-ancient-europeans-reveals-surprising-multipl https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/multiple-sclerosis-cause-research-uk-b SB [Post edited 11 Jan 9:27]
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| Forum Thread | New class of antibiotic discoved at 22:44 4 Jan 2024
For the first time in 50 years a new chemical antibiotic has been discovered. It basically stops the the LPS in a bacteria from forming a hardened outer shell making it much more vulnerable to attack. It's been tested against the CRAB bacteria in mice and the lab with very promising results. CRAB is totally drug resistant and tends to be found in large numbers in hospitals where it can find weakened immune systems (it's often referred to as a superbug). It has a mortality rate of up to 50%. The new treatments were able to eradicate CRAB in the tests. It's also been tested on other conditions such as pneumonia. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/03/scientists-new-class-antibiotic- Paper in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06873-0 SB |
| Forum Thread | Best two starts in Championship history at 17:15 28 Oct 2023
According to the Second Tier podcast, Leicester and Town are now the two best starts in Championship history [*]. Might not have been at our best today but that is an incredible achievement. SB [*]. I'm taking their word for this so if it's incorrect then that's unfortunate. |
| Forum Thread | Jackson has been good at 15:56 26 Aug 2023
Gets a hard time from a section of the fanbase but he's run his socks off that half and caused Leeds real problems. Town have been pretty decent, I think the better side on the ball and in terms of possession (stats backing this up) but Leeds have some real quality up front. Definitely all to play for in the second half. SB |
| Forum Thread | Luna-25 crashes into the moon at 10:52 20 Aug 2023
Russia haven't attempted to land on the moon since 1976 when it managed it with no issues. Didn't do so well this time: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russias-moon-mission-falters- Shows the real decline in Russian space development, landing on the moon isn't particularly hard, certainly nothing like the difficulty of landing on Mars. I do like this quote in the statement they put out: "The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon" SB |
| Forum Thread | Seems Chequers was the place to be for a first lockdown party at 20:08 23 May 2023
So it seems Boris hosted "family and friends" at Chequers during the first, strict, lockdown. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/23/boris-johnson-referred-to-polic "A source told the Guardian the documents revealed “fairly clear evidence of criminality” given strict lockdown rules in force at the time. While those at parties in No 10 were government employees, leading Johnson to claim he was following an exemption for gathering for the purposes of work, the same could not be said of all those invited to Chequers, it was claimed." Seems it came to light when the lawyers he requested that the government paid for came across entries in the Chequers diary. SB |
| Forum Thread | New supernova detected at 09:26 23 May 2023
One for anyone interested in space, the closest supernova for 5 years (although close is relative) was spotted over the weekend in M101 (the Pinwheel galaxy). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinwheel_Galaxy Unfortunately it's not visible to the naked eye (unlike something like Betelgeuse which would cast shadows when it finally explodes) but it can be seen with a good enough telescope setup. I managed to get a picture of it over the weekend, not a patch on the NASA image of course but reasonable for light polluted London. The supernova is shown in the red box. SB |
| Forum Thread | Plastic digesting microbes at 09:11 11 May 2023
This has been something that has been researched quite extensively over recent years, however the microbes previously found only worked at high temperatures. This meant that in order to digest the plastic we would need to create emissions bceause we would need to generating heat. New research has found a number of microbes which seem to work at lower temperatures eliminating the need to heat to be generated: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/10/microbes-digest-plastics-low-tem Could eventually be a real solution to a lot of the plastics littering the world. SB |
| Forum Thread | Another two assists for Burns at 16:39 1 Apr 2023
He's really stepped up when we have needed him to. Right up there with the assists now. SB |
| Forum Thread | UK internal flights at 09:29 12 Mar 2023
Whilst France has banned all internal flights which can't be replaced with a train journey of less than 2.5 hours [*] the UK has actively sought to increase UK domestic flights by making them cheaper: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/12/revealed-uk-airline-industrys-pu "A controversial new cut in air passenger tax due next month was passed after the airline industry told the government it would lead to a new era of “ultra low” prices for domestic flights in the UK, with one airline predicting a 31% rise in passengers, industry documents reveal" Really not a good look. If they focused more on improving the trains then nobody should really need to take domestic flights within the UK with a few exceptions. Just seems a needless increase in emissions rather than dealing with the underlying issues. SB [*] https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/12/02/is-france-banning-private-jets-everyth |
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