Dawn Chorus: The future of life on Earth, a Surrey house that's 'like being in the Highlands', accidentally unplugging Steven Hawking and the Quiz of the Day

Welcome to The Dawn Chorus, Country Life's daily round-up of news, comment, things to make you smile, and things you might have missed. 

‘What happens in the next five years will determine the future of life on Earth’

It’s Monday morning, and we know that can be hard enough without some grim news to report. But when the news is important, we have to report it anyway: today, the WWF have released a major report, ‘Living Planet’, in which they take a hard look at the state of play for nature around the world. Their worrying findings show that wildlife populations across out planet have declined by 73% in the last 50 years. ‘It is no exaggeration to say that what happens in the next five years will determine the future of life on Earth,’ the report concludes, based on the fact that we ‘are fast approaching dangerous irreversible tipping points including the potential collapse of the Amazon rainforest and the rapid melting of polar ice, both of which help regulate the planet’s climate and sustain a wide range of life.’

No week seems to go by without another startling wake-up call about what we’re doing with the planet, but few are as meticulous and troubling as this. You can read the full report here (PDF link).

Quiz of the Day

1) Who was the original drummer for The Beatles?

2) What does a toxophilist practise?

3) The alligator pear is more commonly known as what?

4) In which city would you have found Checkpoint Charlie?

5) In which year did Torvill and Dean win Olympic gold?

Answers down below

Swanning around

The 'season of mists' has rarely looked better.

The man who almost unplugged Stephen Hawking

Google’s stranglehold on modern life — and in particular the search for information — is usually something we put up with when their search results are helpful. It’s something that annoys us when they’re not. And it’s something which makes us chuckle when a completely random but very amusing result appears in the list of search results, as happened to us at the weekend when this six-year-old BBC news article by science correspondent Pallab Ghosh somehow floated to the front page. 'The camera operator I was with wanted to make a last minute adjustment to his lighting and so he asked Prof Hawking's staff if he could pull out one of the plugs in the office so that he could use the socket for his equipment,' writes Ghosh.

'Without waiting for a response he pulled the plug and the room was filled with a deafening siren. Prof Hawking then slouched forward and I feared that my colleague had inadvertently unplugged a vital piece of life-support equipment.'

Thankfully, the cameraman had merely unplugged a power supply rather than the late scientist's life support system — and Hawking himself 'was slouched forward with mirth at our incompetence.'

The oldest bike sets the newest world record (or does it)

Before going to press (i.e. clicking ‘schedule’) on this story, we were awaiting the outcome of an effort to break the Guinness World Record for a series of Penny Farthing-related feats, which took place this weekend at the Olympic Velodrome in Stratford. Among those taking part are Neil Laughton, the incredible fund-raising adventurer who rode across Ukraine on a Penny Farthing recently.

Did they set a record it? Head to the sponsor’s Instagram page and you’ll find out.

Still on the market

'It's more like being in the Scottish Highlands than the commuter belt,' we wrote of this house at Blackdown, just outside Haslemere, which first came up for sale in the Spring. Good news if you missed it back then: not only is it still in search of a new owner, the price has been trimmed by £2 million. Yes, that's trimmed by £2m, rather than trimmed to £2m.

And finally... the weirdest press release of the year so far

An appliance expert called Arun Shah has weighed in with his advice about boiling eggs in the kettle.

To which, all we can say is 'what?!?!'

Apparently this insanity is a 'TikTok hack' that's been doing the rounds for a while. And rather than pour cold water on this madness, a press release refers to this 'genius electric kettle hack' which Arun, who apparently works for an Australian company called Kogan, calls 'a great way to utilise your electric kettle to its full potential other than for boiling water for coffee or tea.'

We really have heard it all now. And for avoidance of doubt — never, ever boil eggs in your kettle.

That's it for today — we're back tomorrow

Quiz answers

1) Pete Best

2) Archery

3) Avocado

4) Berlin

5) 1984

Credit: Strutt and Parker

Best country houses for sale this week

An irresistible West Country cottage and a magnificent Cumbrian country house make our pick of the finest country houses for