Live while you are alive
Before the pandemic hit, about 3.7m evictions were filed in the US in an average year – seven evictions every minute. Most poor renting families spent at least half of their income on housing costs and about one in four of those families spent more than 70%. Most white families in the US own their …
Continue reading ‘The dire housing situation for so many people’ »
US Secretary of Education Betsy Devos is arguably the worst Secretary of Education in living memory, favoring private religious schools and appearing to disadvantage the victims of sexual harassment. Among other things. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—passed was by Congress in March. $13.5 billion was allocated to K-12 schools. Using a …
Continue reading ‘A wrecking ball ( a little long, but important).’ »
I walk in wonder through a wood Like some great temple, moist and still, Bid fair to meet some forest god Or spirit of the Spring’s new growth, Maybe just perched upon a bough, Or peeping round some mossy root. “Do you, good stranger, come in peace, Or will you jar our ageless calm?” In …
Old news, but people may be able to “cure” themselves of type-2 diabetes by going on a radical 800-calorie-a-day soup and shake diet. Previous research has indicated that the disease can be temporarily reversed in this way. Now a study has suggested that the recovery can be permanent – provided the weight loss is sufficiently …
There’s plenty of evidence that pilgrimages accelerate the spread of infectious diseases. The Kanwar pilgrimage in India, which attracts millions to the river Ganges, has led to some of the worst mass cholera outbreaks in history; the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca was blamed for a deadly outbreak of bacterial meningitis in 2000. So it was …
A survey by the Children’s Society in the UK has found that Britain has the least happy teenagers in Europe. The charity’s chief executive, Mark Russell, believes he knows the reason. It’s down to “the increase in child poverty”, he says. There are two big problems with this explanation. The first is that “there hasn’t …
“If the gods listened to the prayers of men, all humankind would quickly perish, since they constantly pray for many evils to befall one another”. (The Essential Epicurus”, by Eugene O’Connor, Great Books in Philosophy series).
“Politics is about shooting the crocodile nearest the boat.” (Norman Tebbit, British politician, quoted in The Times)
I sit gazing over the warm waters of Islamorada – The seabirds, the distant lighthouse, the wind-surfers, Kayakers, and jet-skiers skudding to and fro. Islamorada about relaxation, slowness, Extended time, warmth, sun and beauty. Rather than their busy-ness what intrigues me Is what seems to be a wreck, Marooned on the outer edges of the …
An astronaut, miles above the Earth in a spacecraft voted in the American election with an encrypted ballot. I thought that was wonderful. On the other hand ruthless gerrymandering has discouraged thousands of US citizens from getting to the polls in person. The President has spent huge amounts of time trying to discredit mail-in voting. …
Continue reading ‘Every qualified citizen should be allowed to vote’ »
The U.K. National Trust is the British organisation that looks after historic houses and gardens. (Up to now it has done a great job, a tourist’s must-see. (Ed.) But the Trust’s “Ten-year Vision” seeks to reposition it in a manner that provides a telling example of the relentless politicisation of areas of life that should …
Research now seems to indicate That hippos can communicate, Like dolphins or the great blue whale, With clicks. And thereby hangs a tale, For they can hear beneath the water Things on land they didn’t oughta, And from the bank can hear what’s said By colleagues on the river bed. Imagine you’re a great bull …
Continue reading ‘“The Rueful Hippopotamus” (to lighten the gloom)’ »
Nearly two-thirds of childless single British adults aged 20-34 have either never left the family home, or have moved back into it, according to new research into the “boomerang” generation. There are now an estimated 3.5 million young single adults living with their parents in the UK, a third more than a decade ago. (The …
“Lockdown was good for me,” says David Hockney. Holed up in his farmhouse in Normandy, with no visitors to distract him, the artist was able to devote himself entirely to his work. He has drawn the fires in his grate, pears ripening in orchards and even droplets of rain on his window. “I don’t think …
Across Europe, there is alarm not just about what happens on election day in the US, but about American democracy itself. Fewer than one in 10 think the US election will be free and fair. Yet large numbers of Europeans confess they don’t know whether Biden would be good for the world. Perhaps Trump’s legacy …
