When is a ‘moo’ not a ‘moo’?

We are about to go away on holiday and in the silly season frame of mind, this report caught both our eyes during the week: ‘Cows have regional accents‘. There is a similar article here. As bird song differs according to environment, I see no reason why cows, especially if they are well cared for, should not have a distinctive accent.

For some nice pictures of cows go here. Enjoy!

Psalms in a bog!

This recent archaeological discovery caught my eye. In a land better known for its bog bodies, a psalter has recently been found in a bog in Ireland. This is an incredibly rare find and the people at the National Museum of Ireland are understandably very excited. The psalter’s discovery has not been widely reported in the British media; I could only find this brief report in the Guardian.

Do we need scientists?

Tomorrow is A-level results day. For those not in the UK, that means that thousands of 18 year olds will find out if their exams were good enough to let them go to the university of their choice to do the course of their choice. As I’ve said before, the traditional howls of “exams are getting easier” are appearing everywhere. But this year there is more: apparently the main problem is that there aren’t enough scientists. As usual, the Tories have a plan…

Domesday Book online

Domesday Book is now online! I’ve been a bit slow blogging about this due to research trips in exciting libraries far away from my computer, but it really should be given a heads up. The news was reported by both the BBC and the Guardian. The site itself may be found here.

When were the middle ages? Or why do we have them in the first place?

In a comment on my post about the library, Courgettelawn brought up the subject of periodisation in history. Periodisation, that is to say the division of chronological time into separate periods-classical, medieval, early modern and so on-is a handy way of dividing history into discrete sections often separated by significant events or movements, for example the sack of Rome or the renaissance

Or is it?