Lifestyle topics
– They have a measure of actual education. – They believe in and keep up with advances in science. – They possess a measure of self-control and self-discipline. – They have empathy for the poor, the sick and the dispossessed – and actually give real money to charitable causes. – They are polite and considerate …
Over the last few months, I’ve come to believe there is a crisis facing young women. Of course, this is based only on my own knowledge and experience, which is primarily of British and university-educated women, but I think it applies more generally as well. The crisis is complex and multifaceted, but I believe it …
French children up to the age of 15 are to be banned by law from using mobile phones anywhere in school grounds – including at break times – from September. French children are already banned from using phones in the classroom under legislation passed in 2010. The new, more wide-ranging law – which was passed …
A Portland couple were discussing hardwood floors. Their Amazon Echo was listening, recording their discussion, then sending the recording randomly to someone in their contacts list, without the couple’s knowledge. The wife told Seattle TV station KIRO 7 that they learned something was amiss when they received a phone call from an employee of the …
Yet again, the British political class is arguing about grammar schools. This row will “never be resolved, because it’s about competing values: the Right prizes opportunity above equality, and the Left vice versa”. But this is the wrong argument to be having in any case. The real problem with our education system is not too …
Continue reading ‘British grammar schools vs. technical and vocational education.’ »
“Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories, in regret for the good old days, or sadness about friends who are dead. One’s thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which …
According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the overall suicide rate has increased by 25% in the US and by more than half in some states. It means that around 16 out of every 100,000 Americans will take their own life. Nearly 45,000 Americans of all ages, genders, races and and ethnic groups …
Many of us dread the monthly credit card statement and plan, maybe, for a leaner month. But for CEOs such as Persimmon’s Jeff Fairburn, who was recently awarded a bonus of almost £110m, “it will still feel like Christmas”. The same goes for lavishly rewarded university vice-chancellors and the handful of GPs identified as earning …
Continue reading ‘The more excessive salaries are publicized, the higher they go’ »
The founder of the Swiss physician-assisted suicide organisation Dignitas went on trial last Friday, on charges of profiteering and exploiting patients’ suffering for his own benefit. In Switzerland, providing assisted suicide services is legal as long as it is not done for “self-serving” motives. The case against Ludwig Minelli concerns the assisted suicide of an …
Twenty-six years of unimpeded growth and waves of immigration into Australia have created a diverse and prosperous nation that is completely focused on Asia. Its traditions may be western, but Australia is becoming emotionally detached from its former rulers. Too many members of the Conservative Party in Britain think Australia and the other Commonwealth nations …
Continue reading ‘Australia ain’t what it used to be. The great Brexit delusion.’ »
Republicans, unbelievably, are once again forcing trickle-down economics on the United States, despite the idea being almost unanimously derided by reputable economists and financiers. It’s almost as if Republicans are unaware that the latest experiment in trickle-down has practically bankrupted the state of Kansas and has done little or nothing for North Carolina. But they …
Opponents of smacking say that children who are smacked are more likely to misbehave, and to engage in delinquent, criminal or antisocial behaviour, and even develop mental illnesses. They say that research has found that physically punishing children can have disastrous consequences in later life, that parents who smack their children are less likely to …
Another day, another massacre of schoolchildren. The usual suspects, anxious to safeguard the NRA and gun manufacturing income, are telling us that the armed guards in the latest school horror, prevented the deaths being more numerous. They can’t prove that and in any case there should be no school shooting, anytime, anywhere. Period. The fact …
This seems a petty matter, but it puzzles me. I do the gardening at our house, as befits a born Brit. In the course of this, despite wearing gardening gloves, I get my hands and nails dirty. In the old days the local pharmacy (US)or chemist (UK) carried nail brushes along with toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap …
Here are BBC headlines on May 16th, available via the BBC app on my i-pad (truly!) “FatTax” row forces New Look price review Single, 30,and time to leave home Meghan’s father may not attend wedding Dealing with a child who won’t sleep Kristen Stewart goes barefoot at Cannes How to dress a royal groom Willow …
A woman wrote to the Washington Post on May 21,2017 complaining about a daughter-in-law who never thanked anyone for gifts, for meals, indeed, for anything. Carolyn Hax, who writes an agony column for the Post, replied in part that her lack of manners hurt the daughter-in-law more than it hurts the giver. “A glaring social …
In the US, it emerged that a billionaire philanthropist had made good on his promise to give away almost his entire fortune. Charles F. Feeney, 86, made his final grant – $7m to Cornell University – at the end of 2016, bringing his lifetime donations to $8bn, and leaving him with $2m. His largesse (kept …
“I did it all myself. For sure, I did it all myself. I never used networks or old college friends On whom the success of so many depends. I went out to work at the age of eighteen Thin as a rake, but determined and lean, And I laid rows of bricks and mixed tons …
Continue reading ‘The cry of the self- made man: I did it all myself (a poem)’ »
The proportion of university undergraduates studying the liberal arts in the US has fallen by almost 50% since 1970. Business studies is the favourite; up and coming are statistics and data science. The justification for studying the liberal arts – set out several times on this blog over the years – is that they teach …
Continue reading ‘Further education again: the decline of the liberal arts’ »
According to Jeff Bezos, billionaires have a hard time finding ways to spend their money. In an interview with Axel Springer CEO, Mathias Döpfner, the Amazon head and richest person in the world called space travel the only way he could imagine using his vast financial resources. But billionaires don’t need to go to space …
Continue reading ‘Thought for the day from Inequality.org’ »
