MANKIND HEADS FOR SURVIVAL OF SPITTEST
We could evolve snake venom
HUMANS could evolve to have poisonous saliva, scientists reckon. They have uncovered the genetic ancestry of venom. And our saliva glands have the genetic foundation that would allow them to start making poison. Expert Agneesh Barua joked: “It definitely gives a whole new meaning to a toxic person.”
The PHD student at Okinawa Institute in Japan added: “What’s interesting about venom is it has arisen in so many different animals: jellyfish, spiders, scorpions, snakes, even mammals.
“This is the first real solid evidence for the theory that venom glands evolved from early salivary glands.”
He said the ease with which saliva glands could switch to produce venom was “startling”.
And although unlikely, in the right ecological conditions, humans could become venomous.
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anies in the world ional jukeboxes – d Sound Leisure is amily firm founded in 1978 by Alan Black, it continues today with sons Mike and Chris. Alan designed the intricate machinery inside each jukebox and has calibrated every machine that’s left the factory.
The jukeboxes are hand-built by a master craftsman, who starts by making the wooden cabinet. He then adds the hinged door and stains it for a vintage look. Next, the inside is constructed with internal electronics, lighting and bubble tubes, hand-made in York.
At the heart of the machine is Alan’s mechanism that plays the records, which he has been perfecting for 40 years. The jukeboxes sell for up to £9,000 and last a lifetime.
Chough Cornish pasties
Cornwall produces £300m pasties every year and the Chough Bakery, in Padstow, has been selling them for 40 years – each one made to owner Elaine Ead’s family recipe.
Chough produces almost 8,000 pasties a week, plus 60,000 in the winter to be frozen ready for the busy summer tourist season.
The bakery gets through 300kg of potatoes, 350kg of swede and 400kg of onion every week.
Baker Danny O’flynn says: “People are completely obsessed with pasties. Celebrities will ring up and say, ‘Can you make me a pasty and send it on?’ It’s crazy.”
Traditionally made of swede, potato, onion and skirt steak, women would prepare them for men who worked in the mines. Gripping the crimped edge avoided the main part of the pastie getting dirty.
The arrival of lunch was announced by the women shouting: “Oggy, oggy, oggy” – Cornish slang for pasty – and the miners replying: “Oi, oi, oi” before they were lowered down the mines in buckets.
Wilton Carpets
Carpets have been made in Wilton, Wilts, since the 18th century. And the Wilton carpet factory combines 100-year-old looms with state-ofthe-art robotics to produce both Wilton and Axminster varieties.
They are used to furnish swish buildings the world over, from the House of Commons and the United Nations building in New York to five-star hotels. They can also be spotted in upmarket cruise liners.
Made from the extrastrong fleeces of hardy sheep raised on the exposed hillsides of Cumbria and Yorkshire, they are extremely resilient.
But it still takes eagleeyed human staff to expertly hand-finish each carpet and mend any holes.