This week's update features 'penis captivus', tattoos and the 10 worst couples in literature.
* Was the tunnellers’ secret war the most barbaric of the First World War?
* Over the course of fifteen years, Andrew Carroll has collected letters by US soldiers from every war in America's history, but what does a collection of 100,000 American war letters teach us?
* The female codebreakers who operated the first electronic computer during the Second World War.
* A set of maps prepared by the Nazis for Adolf Hitler's planned invasion of Britain has sold at auction for £351. The maps are extremely detailed with both topography and cultural landmarks being mentioned.
* The Nazi murder law that is still in effect today: a surviving statute from 1941 means that women who kill their abusive husbands are more likely to be jailed for murder than husbands who beat their wives to death
* A wonderful medieval image that has being doing the rounds this week: the axe-wielding psychobunny of Medieval times ...
* A historical fiction round-up for February 2014 from History Today.
* 'Penis captivus' has long fascinated the public (there are reports from 1372 about a voluptuary named Pers Lenard and a woman whom God 'tyed hem faste togedre dat night' with the whole town seeing the couple still entwined 'fast like a dogge and biche togedre' the next day,) but can couples really get stuck together during sex?
* Hundreds of thousands of research journal articles are to be made available on computers in public libraries. It is hoped that this move will rejuvenate the library industry and encourage more people to use public libraries.
* Harry Shearer is best known for providing the voice of Mr Burns in The Simpsons, but his next role sees him take on former US president Richard Nixon in a series based on the disgraced politician behind closed doors.
* Art critic Waldemar Januszczak looks at the work of Goya, describing the Capriccios 'as a cycle of nightmarish etchings'.
* Has the world's oldest Roman temple been discovered in central Rome?
* 'Tattooing is on increase: habit not confined to seamen only,' proclaims one headline, while a second article declares: 'Tattoos are no longer the trophies of rockers, sailors, bikers'. The first appeared in the New York Times in 1908, the second appeared on this website years ago, but why hasn't the way people talk about tattoos changed?
* A 1985 essay on why we should study history...
* The 'animal Pompeii' which wiped out China's ancient creatures. The fossil beds of Liaoning province in north-east China, which date to 120-130 million years ago, have long baffled scientists but they now believe that the creatures from the lower Cretaceous era were instantly killed by volcanic eruptions similar to the violent blast that hit Pompeii in AD 79.
* El Dorado: a title and a myth.
* Dodo bones, snow goggles and the Muggletonian view of the world: just some of the things you can find in the University of Cambridge museums.
* Miss Chapter's Reviews: The Mitford Girls' Guide to Life.
* Earlier this week JK Rowling angered fans when she said that Herminone should have married Harry, not Ron as they were better suited, but who are the 10 worst couples in literature?
* 19 quirky conundrums only book lovers understand.
Which history and publishing stories have you enjoyed reading this week?