Liver is seat of emotions for modern Iraqis, too
You report that Mesopotamians felt happiness in their livers. For Iraqis like myself, the liver is indeed a seat for emotions. All in all, it seems that people’s feelings in Iraq nowadays are harmonious with how those in Mesopotamia felt, as a recent hit pop song in Iraq shows. The lyrics go something like: “The doctor was assessing my pulse rate. Leave my hand alone, sir, I say. The pain of love is in my liver, so let go of my hand, master(14/21 December 2024, p 11)!”
Time to start mass bird flu vaccination programme
You report that H5N1 bird flu may be adapting to become more infectious to humans. Considering the high death rate in people infected so far and the projections that even minor mutations could cause a virulent pandemic, mass production of an H5N1 vaccine and the inoculation of most of the population should be considered (7 December 2024, p 11).
Unfortunately, only wealthier countries could probably consider this pre-emptive strategy, but the best option for future pandemics may be to take some preventative action to avoid economically destructive lockdowns and save as many people as possible.
On climate, self-interest is still winning the day
The COP 29 climate summit was held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, whose economy is massively dependent on exploiting its huge fossil fuel resources. The nearby Caspian Sea is rapidly drying out as a result of hydrocarbon-propelled global warming. Yet this connection seems to have eluded stingy higher-income nations as they failed to cough up enough money to address the climate change repercussions faced by lower-income countries. I guess immediate self-interest trumps irony every time (30 November, p 9).
We can't ignore root cause of the food crisis
The climate-related food crisis is a consequence of overpopulation, causing the destruction of huge areas of natural environment by animal farming in particular and intensive chemical agriculture, both highly polluting (16 November 2024, p 44).
The constant quest to defeat nature with chemicals, intensive farming, genetic engineering etc. only offers stop-gap measures. Eventually, the house of cards will collapse. The maxim “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” is a reality being ignored.
Calories on menus may actually be of little help
Your article on calorie counts on menus says the UK guidelines require them to sit within a 20 per cent margin of error, yet the gap between your opening example of a chicken burger and fries (1597 kcal) and their plant-based alternative (1746 kcal) is within this margin. Presumably even those who want to make “healthy” choices might not be picking the lower-calorie option. Maybe the bigger problem is that it is so cheap and easy to buy a meal with 70 per cent of an adult’s daily recommended calorific intake (30 November 2024, p 14).
Earlier lessons for the myopia epidemic?
Further to the discussion of early-onset myopia, it occurs to me that some of the themes were explored in Aldous Huxley’s 1942 book The Art of Seeing and W. H. Bates’s 1920 book Perfect Sight Without Glasses, from which the former draws (Letters, 7 December 2024).
These were both condemned by eye health professionals, although neither seem to have been written with avarice or an agenda other than to suggest methods to exercise the eyes to minimise degenerative effects. Most notably, the books promote the idea of regularly spending more time outdoors without wearing optical aids to take advantage of brighter light and longer distances.
Guinea pig trumps a robot pet any day
The idea that robot pets would solve our carbon footprint issue seems a bit blinkered. The pet options aren’t just cat, dog or robot. Small herbivores have a far smaller carbon footprint, one that may be less than that of a dog-sized robot (12 October 2024, p 22).
What’s more, the suggestion that animal intelligence consists solely of the ability to follow our “simple commands” completely misses the point of a pet. Yes, some level of obedience is important for dogs, but this is a safety net, not their primary purpose. My guinea pigs fascinate me not because they ever do what I say, but because they never cease to surprise me with their varied personalities, and are a constant source of entertainment by learning and doing things completely unlike what would ever occur to a human. This, by definition, would be very difficult to put into an AI.
We've paved over paradise and made it hot as hell
Pertaining to the problem of urban heat, many suburban roads in the UK have effectively more than doubled in width, as front gardens have been largely or completely paved over. As well as a loss of wildlife habitat, this has significantly increased the heat island effect. In my street, less than 5 per cent of front gardens are at least half lawn or shrubs, while more than 90 per cent are completely paved (23 November 2024, p 36).
For the real story on what a dog wants, read on
It seems novelist Patrick Ness may have been correct when it comes to communing with dogs. His Chaos Walking trilogy starts with: “The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is dogs don’t got nothing much to say… ‘Need a poo, Todd (14/21 December 2024, p 66).'”
For the record
When we ran our story on bird flu (14/21 December 2024, p 20), not everyone affected was known to have recovered.
A temperature difference of 770掳C is equivalent to 1386掳F (7 December 2024, p 38).
Cameron Browne led the Digital Ludeme Project (14/21 December 2024, p 48).