This is a map from the Chief Medical Officer’s forthcoming annual report (which I’m editing), currently on display at the British Library as part of their excellent Beautiful Science exhibition. There’s also a copy of the last annual report beneath the map, ready to be exchanged for the new one when it is published. The exhibition opens tomorrow (though I was lucky enough to get to see it a day early), and runs until 26th May.

This notice is carved into St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey, an Anglican church in London. The name of the Rector dates it to the 1860s or thereabouts (though it did strike me as somewhat short-sighted to carve the name of the Rector into the very fabric of the building… surely they knew he wouldn’t be around forever? It’s been out of date for well over a century now!)

This sign intrigued me; I’m not embarrassed to confess that my ecclesiastical knowledge didn’t extend to understanding the word “churchings”. It turns out that a “churching” was a Church of England service for women who had recently given birth, thanking God for “the safe deliverance and preservation from the great dangers of childbirth”. It is no longer practised – presumably, people prefer to thank hygiene and medicine rather than God nowadays.

In the late 1800s, childbirth was a dangerous business in England: about 1 in 200 births ended in the mother’s death. These days, the figure is many, many times smaller: about 1 in 10,000. Yet, unbelievably, there are some countries, like Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan, and Sierra Leone, where mothers giving birth today face a higher risk of death than those in England in the late 1800s. I wonder if they still practice “churchings”.

House of Cards is the best thing on TV since The Killing, and series 2 – at least judging from the nine episodes I’ve seen so far – is even better than series 1.

It’s so simple, Sainsbury’s needs a whole other leaflet to list the terms and conditions…!

Wendy bought me these toasty new slippers for Valentine’s Day!

Earlier today, I wrote about the debates Wendy and I had when merging our book collection, and mentioned that Wendy likes to keep copies of different editions of the same book, and – in some cases – duplicates of the same edition of the same book. This picture sort of illustrates the point… though I know we have at least two other editions of the Oxford Handbook (5th and 8th) and more BNFs around the place than I could lay my hands on for this photo…!

I think it was Mark Twain who described golf as a good walk spoiled (I think an English writer would have said “spoilt”, but I know I’ll disappear down the internet mine shaft of interesting facts for the rest of the evening should I try to look that up). Either way, this golf course is near home, and I don’t play golf so have never ventured upon it.

I’m spending so many hours a day staring at this at the moment that I think I’m in danger of getting square eyes!

We’ve had just a light dusting of snow here in Newcastle this evening. This winter (so far!) has been considerably lighter on snow than the last few, which has been a relief!

I don’t very often eat crisps, but these are really quite delicious… as an occasional feature in a well-balanced diet, of course.