Hogging the skies
QUESTION If pigs could fly, what would be their wingspan?
YOUR average market pig weighs about 300 lb (135 kg), while others might grow to as much as 900lb (410kg). This brings them into the range of the largest-known flying animal, a dinosaur called Quetzalcoatlus northropi.
This is believed to have weighed from 300 lb to 500 lb (135 kg to 225 kg). It had an estimated wingspan of 30ft to 35ft (9m to 10.5 m). However, Q. northropi was physically different from a pig. It was hollow-boned, stood a little shorter than a giraffe, and acted like a giant heron.
Perhaps a better bet would be to compare our pig to a light aircraft. In the late 1960s, US aircraft designer Jim Bede created the Bede BD-5, a small, single-seat home-built aircraft. This had a weight, when occupied by a pilot, of 500 lb to 600 lb (225 kg to 275 kg), so in the large pig range. It had a wingspan of 21ft 6in (6.55m). We can safely say that a large pig would require a wingspan of 20ft to 30ft (6m to 10m) to fly, creating a very strange animal indeed.
Simon Wright, Bristol.
QUESTION Who was the very first ‘whistleblower’?
WHISTLEBLOWERS are informers who expose criminal acts, corruption, bullying and harassment. Some point to the actions of US politician Benjamin Franklin when, in 1773, he exposed confidential letters showing that the British-endorsed governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, had intentionally misled parliament to promote a military build-up in the Colonies.
There is some ambiguity about that case, so a better bet might be the acts of US seamen Richard Marven and Samuel Shaw of the Continental Navy, during the American War of Independence. In 1777, they provided evidence that their commander-in-chief, Esek Hopkins, was torturing British prisoners.
The term ‘whistleblower’ emerged in the 19th century and meant ‘one who blows a whistle’, a piper or a figure of authority such as policeman or referee.
It wasn’t until 1974 that the term was defined by the US consumer advocate Ralph Nader as ‘an act of a man or woman who, believing that the public interest overrides the interest of the organisation he serves, blows the whistle that the organisation is [engaged] in corrupt, illegal, fraudulent or harmful activity’.
Christine Bowes, London.
QUESTION Why do people scratch their heads when encountering a problem they find difficult to solve?
PSYCHOLOGISTS believe that head-scratching is a form of displacement activity.
When an animal experiences conflicting emotions or motivations, it will perform some unrelated behaviour. This can relieve stress or act as a warning. Examples include head scratching, grooming, pacing, fidgeting and procrastination. Comfort eating, comfort shopping, excessive cleaning or exercise and scrolling through a mobile phone may also work in the same way.
Such behaviours may act as a warning to keep clear. A 2017 study at Portsmouth University found that macaques scratch their heads when stressed, and this behaviour makes other macaques less likely to approach or harass them.
Tim Prees, Reading, Berkshire
QUESTION Are any towns and cities named after plants?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, in London alone there are many. Working west to east, north of the river we have Ruislip — from an Anglo-Saxon name meaning ‘where the rushes grow’ on the River Pinn, Northwood is a wood to the north of Ruislip, Cricklewood means ‘wood with an uneven edge’ and St John’s Wood was a forest owned by the Knights of St John.
Royal Oak was named after a pub which in turn was named after the great oak at Boscobel House in Shropshire that sheltered Charles II. Shepherd’s Bush was a resting place for sheep farmers on the way to Smithfield market, Muswell Hill means ‘Mossy well’ and Gospel Oak is named after a boundary oak.
Primrose Hill is obvious as is Covent Garden — the garden of a convent. Wood Green was part of Tottenham Wood, the Arnold family owned Arnos Grove and the Seven Sisters were an ancient tuft of elm trees. Epping Forest is an ancient woodland that still covers much of the area, Forest Gate is its southern entrance.
Fairlop was a famous oak tree called the ‘Fair lop’. An 18th-century description explains: ‘About a yard from the ground, where its rough fluted stem is thirty-six feet in circumference, it divides into eleven vast arms; yet not in the horizontal manner of an oak, but rather in that of a beech.
‘Beneath its shade, which overspreads an area of three hundred feet in circuit, an annual fair has long been held, on the 2nd of July; and no booth is suffered to be erected beyond the extent.’
The tree in fell into disrepair and was destroyed in 1820.
South of the river we have Collier’s Wood, a wood used by charcoal-burners, and Dulwich which is Anglo-Saxon for ‘dill meadow. Penge is a Celtic word meaning ‘edge of the wood’. Bromley is Anglo Saxon, meaning ‘a clearing where broom trees grow’.
Is there a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Irish Daily Mail, DMG Media, Two Haddington Buildings, 20-38 Haddington Road, Dublin 4, D04 HE94. You can also fax them to 0044 1952 510906 or you can email them to charles. legge@dailymail.ie. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.