Women are having fewer children than at any time on record. What are the implications? The U.S.’s total fertility rate, or the number of babies each woman is expected to have during her lifetime, reached a record low of 1.705 births per woman (that’s 1 point 705!)in 2019, the latest year for which data is …
University tutors are being told not to mark down work for spelling mistakes because insisting on correct English could be seen as “homogenous north European, white, male, elite”. The Times says several institutions are adopting “inclusive assessments” and Hull University says it will “challenge the status quo” by dropping the requirement for a high level …
A man has accused his former employer of being “childish” after he received his final payment of $915 in pennies. Andreas Flaten discovered the 90,000 coins at the bottom of his driveway, along with a final payslip and a parting message from the car workshop where he worked. The coins were covered in a greasy …
Twenty years of jail time! This is what one Black man endured for stealing two (yes, 2) shirts! My comment: Epicurus is known, among other things, for advocating moderation. He would be speechless with disbelief if told of such a sentence in his own day. In the US the legal system is broken and is …
A Russian academic has said that humans will one day be able to live forever and bring the dead back to life. “Death seems to be a permanent event, but there is no actual proof of its irreversibility,” said “transhumanist” Alexey Turchin. He added that there are four different paths to indefinite life so that …
John Ratcliffe, Donald Trump’s former intelligence director, recently said: “There are a lot more sightings of UFOs than have been made public.” He continued that in some of the cases “we don’t have good explanations” about what the UFOs might have been, adding: “I actually wanted to get this information out and declassify it before …
More than 12,000 Americans have been killed by guns this year alone. As a long-ago foreigner I have never understood how so many people interpret the Constitution so strangely. Arming citizens (it is clear to me anyway) was in the context of membership of citizen militias, defending against foreign interference. Yes, the wording is careless, …
Continue reading ‘The disgusting situation with gun deaths’ »
You may have a roommate you have never met. And even worse, they are nosy. They track what you watch on TV, they track when you leave the lights on in the living room, and they even track whenever you use a key fob to enter the house. This is the reality of living in …
Dog walkers in a England have taken to wearing body cameras while taking their pets out for exercise amid growing fears over thefts. There has been a rise in dog snatching as demand for different breeds of dog skyrocketed during lockdown. Amanda Knight, who runs a website for dog owners, told The Telegraph that she …
The coronavirus pandemic has fuelled an “unprecedented exodus” of migrant workers that has caused the UK population to plummet and may result in “profound” damage to London’s economy, according to a new study. The Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence says that analysis of estimated labour figures suggests more than half a million non-UK-born people left …
Around the world, one in every 33 people will need humanitarian aid, an increase of 40% from last year, according to the UN. More than half of countries who need international support to cope with coronavirus are already dealing with other crises. But despite this extreme need, aid budgets have been declining. In 2020, the UN …
Britain’s high Covid-19 death rate is partly the result of obesity, according to a report described by the World Health Organization as a “wake-up call”. The World Obesity Federation’s report found that thousands of deaths in Britain could have been avoided if “negligent” governments had acted on the nation’s weight. In Britain 64% of adults …
Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based on the teachings of Epicurus, founded around 307 B.C. It teaches that the greatest good is to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquillity, freedom from fear (“ataraxia”) and absence from bodily pain (“aponia”). This combination of states is held to constitute happiness in …
Continue reading ‘Basics of Epicureanism. ( Periodic re- stating of the principles)’ »
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted in The Sunday Telegraph
“The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us”. (Bill Watterson) My reaction: Why would any intelligent being from outer space want to visit this riven planet? I write this after seeing the news about the white supremacists and other violent crazies, armed to …
