@Stephie did I pick the wrong episode? I listened to the latest one, and it was basically an advert for two snack startups

@Cerberus My knee-jerk reaction is to think it did. It's a "feature" baked into the immune system, and our immune system is quite conserved not just from prehistoric times, but even across species.

But it would be a nice question for biology.se, if you want a real answer.

@Stephie scratch that! My podcast client seems to have found something entirely else. I finally managed to subscribe through the real podcast (after looking into the source of an OPML file provided on the blog of a BBC engineer. Grumble).

and I'm sorry to hear about your allergy :( Bodies sometimes do weird stuff.

@rumtscho It just seems so very dangerous, in the wild!

@rumtscho I might do that!

@rumtscho phew. I was a bit worried. Lest my perception of the podcast was way off.

It’s a mild summer evening and I’m sitting on my garden sofa. Unfortunately not because I want to, but because the whole ground floor is inhabitable. It’s filled with the rest of acrid smoke. Minor 2 (who was on a school trip and decided to skip sleep last night) boiled a pot of pasta - and fell asleep. We came home to black smoke wafting around the house. The pot was perhaps ten, fifteen minutes from flames.

And of course after a few windy days, we now have absolutely no wind. Go figure.

@Stephie Ohh no, that is horrible.