27 March 1897 | German Jew, Gerhard Brock, was born in Stettin (today Szczecin in Poland). An engineer. He lived in Berlin.

He was deported to Auschwitz from Berlin on 2 March 1943. He was murdered in a gas chamber after arrival selection.

Latest comic: What did we learn from Covid?

#covid #COVID19 #coronavirus #cartoon #health #healthcare #pandemic #comic

Looking at the incidence of relative poverty across different groups its clear that after decades of policies favouring pensioners, the UK has reduced their relative poverty...

So that was the good news, but child poverty has nearly doubled, as have relative poverty of those of working age.

Perhaps more notable the real deterioration took place under the Thatcher/Tory regime.... not so much under the current lot, who've caused other problems!

#poverty #inequality #pensioners #workers #Tories

In the last five years the UK's consumption of instant noodles has risen around 14%....

Certainly they are protein rich (and a cheap source of calories), but of course are also ultra-processed.

As Leo Lewis (FT) suggests, this is really a progressive 'down trading' of nutrition, caused by the cost of living crisis.

It may be convenient food but the rise in consumption tells us more abbot the fragility of households feeding plans than shifts in popular tase.

#food #inequality #health

20 January 1890 | A Pole, Romuald Mańko, was born. A locksmith.

He was deported to #Auschwitz on 14 June 1940 from Tarnów in the first transport of Poles to the camp.
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He perished in the camp on 9 November 1941.

#Auschwitz #Birkenau #ww2  #Poland #Nazis #Germany #NeverForget #education #history #histodons #Remember #otd #facts

Camembert is an endangered species! It relies on a mold that had lost the ability to reproduce sexually... and now, thanks to inbreeding, this mold has also lost the ability to reproduce using spores. Roquefort is also in trouble, but for Camembert it's worse:

"The world over, this other symbol of French gastronomy is inoculated exclusively with one single strain of Penicillium camemberti, a white mutant that was selected for Brie cheeses in 1898 and Camemberts in 1902.

The problem is that ever since then the strain has been replicated by vegetative propagation only. Until the 1950s, Camemberts still had grey, green or in some cases orange-tinged moulds on their surface. But the industry was not fond of these colours, considering them unappealing, and staked everything on the albino strain of P. camemberti, which is completely white and moreover has a silky texture. This is how Camembert acquired its now-characteristic pure white rind.

Year after year, generation after generation, the albino strain of P. camemberti, which was already incapable of sexual reproduction, lost its ability to produce asexual spores. As a result it is now very difficult for the entire industry to obtain enough P. camemberti spores to inoculate their production of the famous Norman cheese.

Worse still, while the Roquefort PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) standard retains a degree of microbial biodiversity, the PDO specifications for Camembert require farmers and other producers to use P. camemberti exclusively."

What to do about it? Switch to eating American cheese, or Velveeta? Read on....

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