SIDELINES...

SPORTING THRILL

The North University of China in Taiyuan, northern Shanxi province, livened up its sports day last May with hand grenade tossing. Students threw weighted replicas of a Type 23 projectile, a wood-handled grenade based on the German WWII Stiel handgranate, or stick grenade. We are reminded of a 1918 publication, Hand-Grenade Throwing as a College Sport, by Lewis Omer (Spalding, NY & Chicago). BBC News, 24 April 2018.

EMPEROR’S CLOTHES

‘Sorcery’, an artwork by Mark James, consists of 487 hovering invisible orbs, in clusters of four at 12 locations, each 2.4m (7ft 10in) in diameter, and composed of “pure space”. The ones at Tate Modern, called “Bubbles of Joy”, are floating in pairs in the large rooms on the first floor. Of course, you can’t actually see them… Oxford Times, 20 Feb 2018.

STING IN THE TAIL

RSPCA officers were called to investigate a “deadly looking” scorpion on the loose in Grantham, Lincolnshire. A concerned citizen had erected a makeshift cordon around the beast, but officials found it was a children’s rubber toy. Sun, 29 Mar 2018.

WINGED WARNING

Charles Darwin suggested that birds use their wings to communicate as well as to fly. 150 years later, scientists have now proved him correct. In a study of crested pigeons, it was found that a particular wing feather – which creates a high-pitched warning sound in flight – is only deployed when danger is sensed. D.Telegraph, 10 Nov 2018.