Most animals appear to be either basically diurnal, like humans, horses, dogs etc, or basically nocturnal, like owls and bats. Cats don't seem to care either way; are they unique in this?
Cats are crepuscular, liking dawn and dusk for hunting and most activities, and sleeping in the middle of the day and night. Of course, domestic cats have the possibility of being different, but even so, many owners find their cats wake them shortly before dawn by exiting noisily through the catflap, especially on fine summer mornings. Many animals follow this crepuscular pattern, especially stealth hunters, as prey is easier to catch when it can't see you as well – most crepuscular animals have good sight in dim light.
Alexandria
Our male cat sleeps all day and goes out either around dawn or dusk, but also in the middle of the night (I was awoken at 4.30am recently, and when I looked out of my window to see why the security light was on, it was illuminating him killing some poor rodent in the middle of our drive). His sister has a much less clearly defined pattern and I suspect is in much more at night and out much more in the day.
Andreamaisie
Bats are not nocturnal – they are crepuscular. Like many other animals they have two periods of activity per 24-hour cycle, interspersed with one period of sleep and one period of generally hanging out.
GentDirly
My cat sleeps for 23 hours a day, the other hour being spent asking for food and eating it, so I don't think it has any concept of day or night.
LittleJack
Given that the term "middle ages" is a relative concept, when were they so named? What are they the middle of?
The middle ages I suspect you are thinking of are a very western European concept. They are the thousand or so years between the fall of the first great empire most western European nations consider part of their heritage (the western/Latin half of the Greco-Roman empire) and the late Renaissance/early age of colonialism where western European powers would begin to dominate much of the world.
This notion of the middle ages coincides with the era of an empire whose achievements largely eclipsed the contemporary efforts of western Europe: Byzantium, successor to the eastern/Hellenic Greco-Roman empire, to which western European nations have relatively little claim of heritage, and so pay it little attention in their history books.
Porthos
The transition between the ages cannot be fixed to a given year; antiquity begins to end 375 (with the first migration of Germanic peoples) and is definitely over by 800 (Charlemagne's Christian reconstruction of the Roman empire). The end of the middle ages can be as early as 1336 (Petrarch climbing Mont Ventoux) or as late as Luther's theses of 1517. Indeed, transitions of this kind are not a Big Bang-like thing, although lots of "little" things changed in a (historically) relatively short period.
suebian
Who would the modern three wise men or women be and what gifts would they bring for the good of life on earth?
I propose the wise and urbane Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Iraqi-born physicist and newly-elected president of the British Humanist Association, and also the great-great-great-grandson of an ayatollah, if I'm not mistaken: a very wise man from the east! I would like Jim to introduce to us, and to each other, Ghada Karmi, the Jerusalem-born Palestinian doctor author and academic, and Amos Oz, the Jerusalem-born Jewish author and academic. I believe that Al-Khalili, Oz and Karmi – AOK! – would, jointly, have wisdom enough to create the prospect of peace with justice in the land of the birth of the Prince of Peace.
(Fr) Alec Mitchell, Manchester
What did Jesus and/or his parents do with the gold, frankincense and myrrh?
David Clow, Brussels, Belgium
Any answers?
What is the most critically acclaimed film that was a box-office disaster on release?
Ricardo King, Brighton
Many classic novels were first published in serial form in magazines. Does this ever happen now, and if not, why?
Helen Bennett, Stratford-upon-Avon
If Cinderella's slipper was such a perfect fit, how did it slip off as soon as she broke into a trot?
Joe Glass, London SE20
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