La mayoría

–¡Qué gracioso que la mayoría de los guiris decís “avellanas” en vez de “havaianas“! –¿Eh? No me suena, y ¿qué quieres decir con “la mayoría”, { 50% + 1 } o { casi todos } ? –Bueno, la hermana de X lo dice… Al DRAE le falta el primer matiz, el segundo quizá puede esperar.

The secret language of doctors

Why and how the 17th century Portuguese tropical medicine specialist, Aleixo de Abreu, tried to prevent proles from reading his cure for scurvy.

Scorbutic gums, CC from <a href='http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scorbutic_gums.jpg'>Wikimedia Commons</a>

A West Cornish Barbary pirate and ghost-ship

“Discontented devil of a blackamoor, why canst thou not be satisfied to live here?” “Avast there; all our gold and diamonds can’t procure us here the bright sunshine and joyous people, nor the rich fruits and wine, of my native clime.”

Porthcurno, once Cornwall's greatest port?

Viaje a México

Our itinerary, and that of Polo Polo on his Viaje a España.

Star Trek, the origins

Kalebeul’s investigation into Vosk and the Na’kuhl temporal conduit yields some surprising results.

Testing redesign

Visit the site with caution for the next few days until I get round to sorting out all the crap.

Spanish traditional theme park architecture

More traditional building for Colin Davies: Real stone is expensive and makes it hard to plug holes and to plaster, so in Spain@Disney you stick (pre)machined chunks or carpet tile-type stuff onto the concrete prefab with glue. Chorus: Cladding imitates but also improves on reality.

How singing can save your life

César-Javier Palacios reports on the cyclist, shot dead by a hunter who mistook him for a boar. When in death’s dark vale loud singing usually suffices to drive off hell’s hunters. Hunters know this too. In his romance, Count Arnaldos, hungry hawk in hand, falls prey to a sailor (love, glory or death, true or…