Wed 2010-07-07 
A red-headed cardinal beetle, Pyrochroa serraticornis (Coleoptera: Pyrochroidae). Compare with the black-headed cardinal beetle, Pyrochroa coccinea that I photographed a few days earlier.
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-06-12.
Tue 2010-07-06 
A small chalcid wasp, probably not an Ormyrus sp. like the blue wasps I saw on oak leaves last year: the above wasp was on a thistle head (Cirsium sp), not oak, its abdomen was relatively smooth, not embossed, and its legs were mostly yellow, not black, so I feel fairly confident that this must be a different species.
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-06-29.
Mon 2010-07-05 
These small black capsid bugs are fairly common in the long grass at the moment. Probably Capsus ater (Hemiptera: Miridae). The swelling in the middle of the atennae is a characteristic of this species.
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-06-12.
Sun 2010-07-04 
From a month ago: a pair of Nemophora degeerella (Lepidoptera: Adelidae) mating. This summer whirling swarms of between 3 and about 20 of these moths have been quite common, usually in sheltered clearings between the trees. I was walking through one such swarm when these two suddenly dropped out of the swarm and fell into the long grass. The one with the longer antennae is the male.
Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-05-30.
Sat 2010-07-03 Markets misprice: fact.
Just look at the fact that some enormously overpaid footballers have been humiliated over the last couple of weeks by a succession of teams staffed by people who are paid less.
Congratulations to all England’s opponents for pointing this fact out so graphically.
Richard Murphy at Tax Research UK.
(Of course this assumes that the aim of football is to win games, and not just to make lots of money by franchises, sponsorship deals, advertising, TV rights, etc.)
