General knowledge

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12% of 16- to 24-year-olds think honey is produced by farmers squeezing bees. A fifth think fish fingers are made from the fingers of fish. 15% don’t know that lamb comes from sheep. 9% think potatoes grow on trees. ( Rowse/Daily Mirror)

Could this possibly be true? I would like to think these young people are having the survey-takers on, teasing them.  No one who has paid attention in school, read any books or who has even a minimal thirst for knowledge could really believe this rubbish.  Or could they?

No, it must be a spoof.

 

Some good news

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Since 1998 the proportion of girls becoming pregnant between the ages of 15 and 17 in England and Wales fell to less than 2.% in 2014, a drop of almost a half.  Pregnancies at this age are generally unplanned and unwanted, and about half end in abortion.  The answer has been more sex education and more user-friendly contraceptive services.  Those who reported learning about sexual matters at school are more likely to start having sex later and less likely to have unsafe sex.  All  the same, nearly half of all boys and nearly half of all girls still get most of their education from”unreliable sources”.  (Office of National Statistics, quoted in Prospect Magazine, October 2015)

While I’m sure some teenagers are good, caring parents, having a baby in your teens is hardly the right way to start adult life, both for the baby and the mother.  It can close the door to further education and job opportunities.  It can mean no social life and possibly poverty.  I am old enough to also believe that having a father around is also good for the child, and often this doesn’t happen.  Even if it does the relationship can dissolve.  No, teenage motherhood is not a good idea.  So it’s good to see that sex education has had a good effect.  It has been fiercely opposed in conservative circles.

Eight Epicurean Counsels

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Epicureanism was never meant to be a dry academic philosophy.  In fact, it is best kept away from academia, where, as usual with philosophy, long words render it dull, if not incomprehensible. Rather, it is a vital way of living which seeks to free men and women from a life of unhappiness, fear and anxiety.  It is a missionary philosophy for the practical-minded with common sense.  While Epicureans have written scholarly works, they have always been most interested in explaining Epicureanism in a manner simple enough for anyone to understand and remember.

The following eight counsels are a basic guide to Epicurean living.
1) Don’t fear God.
2) Don’t worry about death.
3) Don’t fear pain.
4) Live simply.
5) Pursue pleasure wisely.
6) Make friends and be a good friend.
7) Be honest in your business and private life.
8) Avoid fame and political ambition.

I would add: think of others; be polite and considerate;  try to see the other point of view; meet others half way, if possible.  Take the smooth and pleasant road, as free from stress and conflict as possible. But don’t be put upon!

“Spectre”, the weird comedy

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“I was surprised that the latest Bond film, Spectre, is officially categorised as containing only ‘moderate violence’. Since it involves exploding buildings (with people inside them), several shootings, fisticuffs every few minutes, eye-gouging and torture, I shudder to think what would be labelled ‘immoderate’. People who join Isis and other Islamist groups are accused of an obsession with violence. But the proverbial Martian, coming across a Bond film and its box office success, might conclude that such an obsession is not primarily a Muslim problem. And yes, I know there’s eye-gouging in King Lear, but at least you get great poetry with it.”  (Peter Wilby in The Spectator)

Mr. Wilby, this whole thing is a giant spoof. It is a tongue-cin-cheek take-off of a lot of much more pornographic, violent movies that have been made in recent years, most of them out of Hollywood and most of them taking themselves very seriously.  I have to say that it’s so preposterous that I personally erupted into giggles all the way through.  The acting, the sets, the special effects are brilliant, but no one can take it seriously for a minute.

Well , except maybe for the proverbial Martian and Mr Wilby. Are we losing our sense of humour?

Passwords

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You can do nothing on the web without filling in your email address and password.  It gets time- consuming and boring, especially if you have a number of passwords (for security reasons) and you can’t remember which one to use.

So why is it obligatory to do this?  If you are contacting a bank or the Defense Department, that is another matter.  But just to get onto this blog for instance? Your check-in details are of no interest to me – I never look at them and couldn’t use them if I wanted to.  The use of addresses and passwords won’t stop the troll or the crazy person.  But no one has ever explained why we have to spend so much of our time getting access to harmless websites and general information. If you added up all the time taken every day of the year, by every web user in the world, filling in addresses and passwords it would amount to the productive labour/GDP of a medium- sized country.

Is it fair to assume that it is required so that companies can harvest your email for commercial purposes and pester you at length?  Under Epicurean world government (hah!) this practice would be banned, except for justifiable transactions, such as accessing your bank account.  The time saved would be used dining with friends and having intelligent conversations.  What do you think?  Am I missing something?