“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito”*…
Deep into the Dog Days of Summer, readers are likely struggling to beat the heat… and thinking defensively about those predatory pests-of-the-season, mosquitoes (or as Bill Gate’s calls the species, “the deadliest animal in the world“). The little-bitty buzzers just keep on coming… And perhaps most frustratingly, they seem to bother some of us much more than others.
Smithsonian runs down the surprisingly long list of reasons in “Why Do Mosquitoes Bite Some People More Than Others?” (Spoiler alert: while 85% of them are genetic, beer makes one a more attractive morsel to the little bloodsuckers.) Happily, there is a prospect of some relief.
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As we splash on the DEET, we might recall that it was on this date in 1254 that the first known court case involving chess and violence was heard in Essex, England. It dealt with a chess player who stabbed his opponent to death after losing. But while this was the of relatively few such incidents to make it into the criminal justice system, chess violence was apparently pretty wide-spread– common enough to move French King Louis IX to ban chess. And indeed, such violence continues to this day.
“The King is dead”