“Queueing has become a symbol of Britain’s civilised, fair, quiet way of doing things. But is it all it is cracked up to be? The person at the front of the soup kitchen line gets fed first even if the one at the end is hungriest. The youth at boarding gate five gets to sit …
Part of an interview conducted by Sarah Lyall with David Cornwell ( John Le Carre) and Ben Macintyre, writers on the theme of spying: Sarah Lyall: Is there something about the British psyche that makes spying, or at least duplicity, an enticing prospect? Ben Macintyre: We Brits are particularly susceptible to the double life, aren’t …
Last Saturday I discussed the the unhappiness of teenagers. I would now like to pursue the subject Why has their unhappiness reached such huge proportions? Many reasons have been put forward: a rise in the divorce rate, a shift away from intrinsic to extrinsic goals, which can lead to a sense of not being able to …
Something is undermining young people’s mental health, especially that of girls. A study conducted by Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, looked at four studies covering 7 million people, ranging from teens to adults in the US. Among her findings: high school students in the 2010s were twice as likely to …
Why do we find rejection so upsetting? After all, it’s almost never life-threatening to be rejected. The reason lies in our interdependence. Human beings need one another in order to thrive, particularly at the beginning of our lives. During that period of development the baby will die if there is no one there to look …
From Tomgram: Though the U.S. regularly espouses and pretends to practice the rule of law, successive administrations have chosen to forswear important international agreements, largely for military reasons. Among those not even signed are the 1969 Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, the 1997 Ottawa Mine Ban …
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” James Baldwin, writer.
Accenture Consulting is an example of how big companies are shedding national identities and becoming unaccountable. Originally, Anderson Consulting, Acenture is now domiciled in Ireland (low tax), and has a series of loosely connected regional hubs, such as Prague and Dubai that also have low tax rates. To avoid residency problems for its 373,000 employees …
Continue reading ‘How big international companies escape public scrutiny’ »
The next time you reach for your phone, remember that it induces slouching, and slouching changes your mood, your memory and even your behaviour. The average head weighs about 10 to 12 pounds. When we bend our necks forward 60 degrees, as we do to use our cellphones, the effective stress on our neck increases …
Continue reading ‘Are cellphones damaging our collective posture?’ »
Kosovo has become a hotbed of Islamist extremism. The tiny Balkan country, whose population is largely comprised of Muslim ethnic Albanians, is studded with mosques that preach the Salafist strain of militant Islam, shared by al-Qa’eda and Isis. Hundreds of Kosovars have gone to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups. Yet Kosovars also admire …
Continue reading ‘When will we stop kow-towing to the abominable Saudi regime?’ »
This from the New Scientist: “Why does our species, especially the religious section of the species, seem to ignore scientific warnings about Earth’s future? “I think primarily it’s our tribal structure. All the ideologies and religions have their own answers for the big questions, but these are usually bound as a dogma to some kind …
Continue reading ‘E. O. Wilson: Religious faith is tribal and is dragging us down’ »
These days we communicate as much as possible through email and text. We justify this on the basis of efficiency. The idea seems to be that, since we can edit our messages, we can be more “ourselves” and make sure we say things “just right.” We now interact in the same manner face-to-face: we say something, …
From Iain Climie, Whitchurch, Hampshire, UK The simplest retort to climate change sceptics is that many actions that are vital if global warming is occurring make sense anyway (24 June, p 28). Restoring fish stocks, habitat conservation with careful exploitation, and alternatives to fossil fuels make sense regardless of the extent, nature and origin of …
Continue reading ‘Things we can agree on about climate change’ »
This morning’s post was depressing, so I am reporting something sort-of funny: Opposite our flat there is a huge building site which is to have too levels of parking space below it. Because our own building is old and a bit vulnerable we had a detailed survey done of it as a precaution in case …
One in three nursing homes has failed its official inspection in results described by the care watchdog as worrying and by the government’s care minister as “completely unacceptable”. The Care Quality Commission said that of 4,000 nursing homes, which care for the most vulnerable people at the end of their lives, 32% have been rated …
