At https://phys.org/news/2024-11-scotland-plague-reveals-humanity-black.html … a University of Aberdeen study has been looking at the last outbreak of bubonic plague in Scotland, during the 1640s. It coincided with civil war and the Covenanters. The surprising finding is that, in spite of all this and the downturn in climate in the mid 1640s, there was compassion for the victims. Many of them were buried in graves in the local cemetery, for example, although there is a mention of plague pits discovered in coastal sand dunes – but these may go back to earlier outbreaks. It was a time of strong Christianity as a result of Presbyterian inroads, although Catholicism was still very much the rule of thumb in some parts of Scotland. It is thought it was brought back by soldiers who may have caught it at the seige of Newcastle in England. It then spread through the Borders region and central Scotland as far north as Perthshire and Angus, reaching Aberdeen in 1647.
At https://phys.org/news/2024-11-egyptians-drank-hallucinogenic-cocktails-ancient.html … evidence of hallucinogenic drug use has been found on an analysis of drinking vessels. It was expected as Egyptology has predicted it as a result of written descriptions of ritual.
At https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/earth-from-space-giant-phantom-lake-dotted-with-stripy-gold-islands-shimmers-in-australian-outback …. a satellite image dating from 2010 shows dozen of golden coloured islands carved with strange parallel lkines shining among the shallow waters of a massive, half full, ephemeral lake in Australia’s Great Sandy Dersert. The lake was a temporary affair. It periodically comes and goes. Basically, a salt lake that appears after heavy rain and flooding.