Epilepsy

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Sufferers of epilepsy suffer disgusting attacks.  Trolls are targeted people with epilepsy on Twitter with seizure-inducing videos, flashing and strobing Gifs and videos, according to the Epilepsy Foundation.

Legal advocacy director Allison Nichol said: “These attacks are no different than a person carrying a strobe light into a convention of people with epilepsy and seizures, with the intention of inducing seizures. 

About 20,000 people with epilepsy have photosensitive epilepsy, which makes them susceptible to flashing lights at certain intensities or certain visual patterns. It is most common among children and teenagers. Although smartphone displays, modern computer monitors and TV screens are somewhat less likely to trigger seizures than older equipment with a slower screen-refresh rate, a growing number of people are having seizures triggered by flashing images on Twitter and Facebook.

“When it comes to deliberately targeting people with epilepsy with the intention of causing a seizure, we need to call that behaviour what it is – a pre-meditated and pre-planned intention to assault,” said chief executive Clare Pelham said. (BBC News 18 Dec 2019)

My comment:  What sort of person gets up in the morning and decides to go to the trouble of persecuting a harmless group of (mostly young) people highly susceptible to flashing and strobing lights that bring on seizures?   I doubt the proportion of sick, cruel bullies in any population has increased, but as the overall population increases so does the proportion of the weirdos and the deliberately cruel, I suppose.  We should bring them to account and, preferably lock them up.

Young adults need a home of their own

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“Home ownership is in steep decline, but don’t let it bother you, declared The Economist recently: the British need to get over their property “fetish”. I beg to disagree, says Liam Halligan. The fact that well over half of 25- to 34-year-olds today are locked out of the property market should concern us deeply. Only 41% of those in this “crucial family-forming age” are property owners, compared to 67% in 1991. Even many professional couples in that age group, people who as children grew up in leafy suburbs, now find it impossible to get on the property ladder. And almost a third of 20- to 34-year-old men are still, amazingly, sleeping in their childhood bedrooms. “Such a sudden reversal in generational fortunes, on such a large scale, tears at the social fabric.”

“It’s not just that owning your own home is cheaper and more secure than renting it. It’s that it roots people in their local community; it gives them a stake in the economy through their ownership of capital. A society loses its cohesion when these benefits are concentrated in the hands of an ever more exclusive class of property owners.  (Liam Halligan, The Sunday Telegraph and The Week, 1 Feb 2020)

The same problem applies to the US.  Yes, in due course parents die and bequeath pleasant homes to their children.  But by that time the offspring are in their fifties.  The price of housing is a huge problem, and it is unacceptable that younger people should either have to live with their parents for years on end, or pay sky-high, ever-increasing rents on (often) insecure incomes that barely increase year on year.   The rich have contrived to inflate land and house prices for their own benefit.  Developers in England have been sitting on land formerly public ally owned, now zoned for housing for years, pushing up the value for their own benefit.  The government does nothing.  No wonder some young people feel their future has been stolen.

I am old myself and ashamed of the inequality and unfairness of a rigged system. No good will come of it.  This is a matter both of common sense and equity.

Follow Epicurus

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They peddle fear here:

They peddle fear of terrorists and sudden death,

They peddle fear of rapists and angry drivers,

They peddle fear of government and paying tax,

Of deer ticks, butter, sugar, fat, untested drugs;

Of unknown visitors and dark-skinned men,

Of invasion, war and sudden death,

Of gunmen holding up cashiers,

Of bombs in culverts, school kids murdered with guns.

They peddle inquietudes, nervousness, distrust,

And to the terrified, apprehensive, cowed,

They preach damnation, hellfire in the afterlife.

The more they frighten us the more it gains the vote.

 

And the opinion-makers drivel on in biased turpitude,

Yapping in support of party, church and power.

Command, empire, sway, rule, dominion, supremacy

All depend on mongering fear and bald mendacity.

 

But then there is Epicurus,

His character assassinated by the church,

Maligned, misrepresented, damned by rote.

He only sought a tranquil mind, a life of peace,

Fearing nothing.  For fear, he said, brings pain.

As for politics?  Striving, ambition, restlessness.

There are no active gods, said he, no afterlife,

No spirit out there, evil or benign,

Rewarding, punishing, damning you to hell,

No trumpets, choirs, or seats of the almighty.

Just atoms, molecules, and, in them, everlasting life.

No devils, angels, harps, or golden cities;

No god resembling, oh!, coincidence! a man!

No omniscient god who reads your thoughts,

Or manages the minutiae of your life.

Your life, indeed! Your life it is, subject to fortune,

Tribulations, ups and downs, but in the end just yours.

 

Try not to chafe and fret, but seek a mental peace.

Pursue the arts, activities you love.

Don’t worry over things you can’t affect.

Seek simple pleasures, food and friends.

Forsake consumerism, shops and malls,

Buying only what you really need.

Do no harm. Mend fences where required.

Cultivate  your garden and your peace,

Or get a dog.

All to be done in moderation and with joie de vivre,

For simple pleasures trump all wild excess.

Be fun, be smiling, for life is to be lived –  –

What follows lasts a long, long time,

Should some abuse you as an atheist,

Remember! it is a propaganda word, and just a word,

Spoken by people with their own agenda

 

Follow Epicurus! Till your garden, walk your dog,

Enjoy Nature while we have it still.

Reject all superstition, think for yourself

Believe not the religious memes of modern life.

Be gentle, thoughtful and and ask yourself…

Why do they peddle fear here?

(Written in January 2006 by Robert Hanrott)

The American preoccupation with bathrooms

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“Why does America have “so many damn bathrooms”? It’s a question many foreign visitors ask themselves, and with good reason. Over the past half century, the number of bathrooms per person in the US has doubled, to a 1:1 ratio, and these rooms are continuing to multiply. They’re getting bigger, too: the typical size of a bathroom in a new family home in the US has doubled since the 1970s, from 35sq ft to 70sq ft.

“The obsession with what used to be the smallest room in the house has reached particularly insane levels among the super-rich. Last year, it was reported that a $49.9m mansion in Bel Air, California had eight bedrooms – and 20 bathrooms. Across the nation, the share of houses with ten or more bathrooms has almost doubled in the past decade. This is partly down to America’s abundant space, but it’s also a matter of fashion. With their Jacuzzis, steam showers, rainfall heads and other “gizmos”, bathrooms have become status symbols, but they’ve also acquired a new role as sanctuaries where people, in today’s constantly connected world, can luxuriate in seclusion. The bath, originally conceived by the Romans as a space to “convene with the world, has become one of the last places where we can truly disappear from it”.  (Derek Thompson, The Atlantic)

Weird.  It must be mainly a Californian thing.  In twenty-five years I have never heard a single person talking about bathrooms or the number of them they have.  Maybe that’s because they think it is a bit silly and over-the-top?    Or maybe our neighbors are already extraordinarily clean and don’t need multiple bathrooms?

If some people have all this money to throw away, perhaps they might use it instead on donations to charity.  There are folk out there who could use the help.

As the U.K. shuffles out of the EU, a revealing letter

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To The Economist:

“So, three-and-a-half years after the Brexit referendum, Britain is leaving the European Union on 31 January. For millions of people, particularly in eastern Europe, the country we tend to call “Anglia” has been a benchmark of nobility, of spirit and excellence. Britain is deeply embedded in our cultural make-up. During the War, our grandparents listened to Winston Churchill on the wireless, grateful to know that there was a place in this world where the bad guys’ writ did not run. For our generation, literature from an early age consisted mostly of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Winnie-the-Pooh and The Wind in the Willows. Later, the explosion of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, the Kinks, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and the rest blew the cobwebs of communist propaganda out of our souls. The Beatles made us, as New Wave, New Metal and the New Romantics were to make our children.

”When the propagandists railed against the “Iron Lady of imperialism”, we would say to each other, “Iron Lady? Sounds promising”. As Margaret Thatcher defeated tin-pot dictators on the other side of the world, we were wishing she would do something about our lot over here. As she later did.

”In the 1990s, we were fully aware that France and Germany wanted no truck with us east Europeans, and it was Britain that ultimately engineered our entry into the EU. It is our EU membership that has kept us away both from the clutches of Russian imperialism and from the temptation to revive the ideology of provincial fascism we experienced before the War.

”Tens of millions of us are grateful that Britain has always been there for us. Which is why we watch Brexit with great sadness, feeling a wrenching sense of loss. Originally, we thought that the results of that wretched referendum were some kind of cosmic joke. Now we have become reconciled to the fact that the British are, indeed, leaving us, much as we would wish it otherwise.”

Evgenii Dainov, professor of politics, New Bulgarian University, Sofia

Well, it’s done now.  In a year’s time we will begin to see the full effects on the lives of millions of people, and the EU can no longer be blamed.  Current events have massively disturbed my own ataraxia, but then I won’t have to live with all these changes for a full lifetime, as will my younger family members, bless them.

Complaining about service when things get really bad (2). See yesterday’s posting

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Still no favorable resolution? Fortunately, there are third-party programs that can help.

If you paid with a credit card, the federal Fair Credit Billing Act and the policies of credit card issuers help you withhold payment for goods and services you think  are defective or not delivered as promised. If you cannot resolve the matter with the service provider, contact your credit card bank to dispute the charge (you usually can do this even if you’ve already paid the bill). Once you’ve requested this “chargeback,” your credit card bank will place a hold on the disputed charge and investigate. The service provider can protest the chargeback, but sellers rarely successfully reverse chargebacks if the customer has returned (or tried to return) the goods or can document the service defect.

Another option in the united States is to file a complaint with the local government consumer agency. These consumer protection offices have legal authority over many types of businesses, and should refer matters it can’t handle to a more appropriate state or a federal agency. The matter might be resolved via phone or email, but these offices may also perform inspections, gather evidence from third parties, do legal or technical research, or mediate the dispute. Staff might do more than resolve your complaint; they might get the supplier to agree to change it’s business practices or even force the business to pay penalties.

The Better Business Bureau can also  help, but government agencies have the force of law behind them. The government can conduct formal investigations and use law enforcement tools to obtain the facts that will help them negotiate a settlement on your behalf. even pursuing legal action if evidence shows the merchant has violated the law.  There are also private-sector mediators who can help you and the business come to a resolution, although such mediation may be of little value with businesses that have no incentive or desire to work out a settlement.

The last resort is to bring an action in small claims court. Most courts have legal advisers to help you prepare your case. But the Epicurean way is always to negotiate a resolution quietly and politely, if you can.  

Complaining about service (part 1)

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Although most of us gripe about service headaches to family and friends we seldom—studies show it’s as few as one out of four—complain to the company that dropped the ball. And many consumers who do complain to businesses do so ineffectively.

A lot of consumers remain silent because it seems like too much trouble to complain or they want to avoid a confrontation. Others don’t complain because they think it won’t help—the warranty expired a week ago so the store won’t do anything. But generally, telling a company—especially a reputable company—that things didn’t go well usually produces good results. The trick is to complain competently, and to diligently follow up.

I have always asked to speak to the company’s owner or manager, stating  the facts as I saw them and what the company could do make amends. One should be polite and reasonable. No one responds well to hostility.  (When I ran a company I made it a rule that all complaints had to come over my desk, and I dealt with them personally.  This is not a common habit, but it is very effective in gaining  good will).

If your phone call fails to yield results, put it in writing. Attach to your email, or enclose with your letter, copies of relevant documents such as contracts, invoices, receipts, and previous correspondence.

Another option is to post your complaint—and your desired resolution—on Facebook or Twitter and tag the company. This forces the company to decide whether it wants to gain good or bad publicity from your dispute. While it’s not too risky to ignore one customer’s complaint, many companies don’t ignore complaints that have been broadcast to hundreds of other potential customers. Many companies, particularly national ones, have staff who monitor social media websites to resolve complaints quickly and show that the company is responsive to its customers.

Tomorrow I will discuss what to do if the problem escalates.

Younger people today don’t have the IQ they used to have

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Our IQ levels are gradually falling compared with previous generations, if IQ tests are an accurate gauge of intelligence.

Scientists in Norway analysed scores achieved by 730,000 young men, born between 1962 and1991, who did IQ tests as part of their national service. They found that for many years the IQ levels of entrants rose by about 0.3 points a year on average. This is consistent with the Flynn effect: the steady rise of IQ scores, by about three points a decade, observed across the developed world in the 20th century, a phenomenon put down to massive improvements in education, diet and healthcare over that period.

However, IQ levels peaked among the cohort born in 1975, and then began to fall, at a rate equivalent to seven points per generation. The researchers speculate that changes to teaching methods and the shift to screen-based entertainment could be responsible for the change.

My non-scientificmore guesses about the reasons:

1.  Have a problem? Google it.  You don’t have to think, internalise it for more than minutes or reconcile it with other related things?  The correct information is only a finger-touch away.  The brain is not as exercised as it was years ago.

2.    Fewer actual conversations and exchange of information than used to be the case.

3.    Distractions, such as constant attention to cellphones and too much social media and movie streaming

4.   Lack of rigor in education (nowadays it seems as whole essays can be downloaded from the internet to fulfill an assignment or even during an exam – or is this a folk tale?).

It isn’t included in the ancient documents, but I believe Epicurus believed in constant striving for self-improvement and better understanding.  We may not be making that easy.  Kids like to be stretched.

 

The hypocrisy of the Amazon-using classes

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“Great abundance is heaped up as a result of brutalizing labor, but a miserable life is the result”. (The Essential Epicurus”, by Eugene O’Connor, Great Books in Philosophy series)

Well, that was prescient!  What immediately comes to mind is Amazon – huge numbers of people working long hours at pitiful wages so that we can get some not-very-important product we could otherwise walk half a mile to buy (and be fitter for it).
I say this while invariably hesitating before clicking on the “ buy now” button.  But I still press that button and order from Amazon, which, yes, makes me a hypocrite.

We need to pay more for the convenience of Amazon, and Amazon needs to pay its staff more.  And the boss needs to pay loads more tax, and stop trying to avoid what he does pay.  Paying tax for the benefit of the whole community is both Epicurean and, one would have thought, simply common sense. How those taxes are used apportioned is another matter altogether.

Lying to children about death

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The Winter edition of “Free Mind”, published by the American Humanist Association, carries an article headed, “No, we shouldn’t lie to our children about God and death”.   it quotes a Wall Street Journal article advising parents to tell their children that God and heaven are real, even if they don’t believe it.  The reason given  is that the idea of dying and turning to dust might work for adults, but belief in God and heaven helps children grapple with tremendous and incomprehensible loss.

This idea is very common and there are many people who blame the country’s growing secularity for moral decay, nihilism and despair. Attorney General William Barr has charged that “the campaign to destroy the traditional moral order has… brought with it immense suffering and misery.” He and those who think like him reject studies which show that religion per se has little to do with mental health and the way kids interact with other people.  It is the social aspects of organised religión that help children grow up living ethical and meaningful lives, not religious services or dogma as such.  Children need to grow up surrounded by like-minded people who care about them, show their love of them, and look out for them.

The article goes on to say that children are people and deserve respect. If you don’t want them to lie to you, you shouldn’t lie to them.  Tell them they will die – one day, far in the future ( reassuring!)  Tell them that being dead is not painful  (“Death is nothing to us”. Epicurus) and that people who die don’t get hungry or frightened, but live on through cherished memories, the continuation of projects they have  contributed to; and stories and anecdotes, preferably amusing, about their lives.  Meanwhile, get them to join clubs, sports teams, choirs, whatever so that they have plenty of socialization.  Fill their lives with love and learning.  There is no need to choose between theism and nihilism.

My comment: I was brought up with chapel every day and had a grounding in  christian thinking.  As a teenager I was religious ( which had more to do with loneliness than religion, looking back on it). But I haven’t needed the church and priests to remind me at all times to try to live life (I hope) with integrity, honesty,  politeness, kindness and consideration, telling the truth. It has been Epicureanism that has reinforced this, not  fairy stories about angelic choirs and heaven after death.

On the other hand I also think it fine for children to be exposed to the Sunday school bible stories and internalise their messages, if this is not a contradiction!  One needs choice. What do you think?

A joke to make your day. Or is it?

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CALLER:
Is this Gordon’s Pizza?

GOOGLE:
No sir, it’s Google Pizza.

CALLER:
I must have dialed a wrong number. Sorry.

GOOGLE:
No sir, Google bought Gordon’s Pizza last month.

CALLER:
OK. I would like to order a pizza.

GOOGLE:
Do you want your usual, sir?

CALLER:

My usual? You know me?

GOOGLE:

According to our caller ID data sheet, the last 12 times you called, you ordered an extra-large pizza with three cheeses, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and meatballs on a thick crust.

CALLER:

OK! That’s what I want …

GOOGLE:

May I suggest that this time you order a pizza with ricotta, arugula, sun-dried tomatoes and olives on a whole wheat gluten-free thin crust?

CALLER:
What? I detest vegetables!.

GOOGLE:
Your cholesterol is not good, sir.

CALLER:
How the hell do you know!

GOOGLE:

Well, we cross-referenced your home phone number with your medical records. We have the result of your blood tests for the last 7 years.

CALLER:

Okay, but I do not want your rotten vegetable pizza! I already take medication for my cholesterol.

GOOGLE:   Excuse me sir, but you have not taken your medication regularly. According to our database, you only purchased a box of 30 cholesterol tablets once, at Drug RX Network, 4 months ago.

CALLER:
I bought more from another drugstore.

GOOGLE:
That doesn’t show on your credit card statement.

CALLER:
I paid in cash.

GOOGLE:
But you did not withdraw enough cash according to your bank statement.

CALLER:
I have other sources of cash.

GOOGLE:   That doesn’t show on your last tax return unless you bought them using an undeclared income source, which is against the law.

CALLER:
WHAT THE HELL!!!

GOOGLE:
I’m sorry, sir, we use such information only with the sole intention of helping you.

CALLER:

Enough already! I’m sick to death of Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and all the others. I’m going to an island without internet, cable TV, where there is no cell phone service and no one to watch me or spy on me.

GOOGLE:
I understand sir, but you need to renew your passport first. It expired 6 weeks ago.

My comment:  Very funny, but I am sure Epicurus would be appalled at the lack of privacy, and to what amounts to the spying on us all.  Innocent enough at the moment, I suppose, and done, maybe, with good intentions. But in the hands of a dictator?  Or someone who believes he is above the law?

Loneliness in America

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More than three in five Americans are lonely, with more and more people feeling they are left out, poorly understood and lacking companionship, according to a survey led by the health insurer Cigna, which found a nearly 13% rise in loneliness since 2018, partly caused by workplace culture and conditions.

The report surveyed over 10,000 adult workers using a measure of loneliness called the UCLA Loneliness Scale, used as a standard within psychology research.

Pervasive loneliness is strongly linked to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.  Evidence shows that it doesn’t end with mental health. One’s relationships, closeness, connectedness , the conversations and bonds you have with people, affect physical health as well.

 Loneliness appears to be more common among men (The survey found 63% of men to be lonely, compared with 58% of women).  Among heavy social media users,  73% of them considered themselves lonely, as compared with 52% of light users.

The troublesome statistic is that young people, 18 to 22 years old,  had the highest average loneliness and isolation score on the 80-point scale (about 50).  Boomers, however, had the lowest (about 43), which is still a significant figure.

Conditions in the workplace are important. Those with good co-worker relationships were 10 points less lonely on the 80-point scale, and where colleagues felt they shared goals, average loneliness scores dropped almost eight points. Those with  a close friend at work were also less lonely.

Employers should be interested in this.  Lonely workers are more likely to miss work owing to illness or stress, and feel their work is not up to par.

One optimistic note: More than three-quarters of survey respondents had close relationships that bring them emotional security and well-being. And respondents without such relationships had a loneliness score of 57 out of 80, almost 15 points higher than those with them.  ( An edited, for length, version of a piece in NPR Health by Elena Renken, an NPR science desk intern.  24 Jan 2020).

Shutting down the internet

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Authoritarian governments all over the world have latched onto a great way of stopping unwelcome criticism and subversive thought – suspending data services, phone calls, texting and participation in social media.  As internet penetration has surged during the past decade, especially in the developing world, so have attempts to switch off the flow of information.  The internet freedom group, Access Now, recorded 75 internet outages  in 2016; in 2018 the figure was 196. During the last year the leader in this tactic was India, with 134 switch-offs, 68% of the world total. One of those lasted 137 days in Kashmir, which is majority Moslem and handed to India at partition only because Nehru was born there.

Countries like China, Russia and Iran are shutting off their internet systems from the rest of the world, offering only home-grown versions.  The People’s daily in China opined that shutting down the internet in an “emergency” should be “standard practice for sovereign countries.”

Some of this, however, is not only down to political plots and motivations (bad as they are).  In 2018  India struggled to contain malicious rumors of child kidnappers on the loose.  This raced whipped up mobs who lynched at least 30 people across the country.  Deadly riots against Moslems in Sri Lanka were sparked by hate speech on the internet

This is reminiscent of the 1930s, and I am not just talking about the developing world.  Why is it that human beings take a service designed to draw people together and then use it for selfish, cruel, even bestial purposes?

Why is it that some people want to control everyone, bully them and tell outrageous lies to bolster their power and control.  This is so foreign to those who follow Epicurus. We have to support open and honest government under the rule of law.

Drug pricing in the UK: a big bone of contention

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Britain’s medicine prices are among the lowest in the world, thanks to the NHS’s buying power, and the tough value-for-money tests imposed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. This is a major bone of contention. US prices are 2.5 times higher than ours, and Donald Trump thinks that Americans are “subsidising” low prices abroad, which is “unfair” and “ridiculous”. The US pharmaceutical industry wants to charge the NHS more, not just because the UK is a big market: NHS prices are used as benchmarks for 14 other nations.

Dr Andrew Hill of Liverpool University calculates that, in the worst-case scenario, the NHS drugs bill would rise from £13bn to £45bn – a massive extra expense. The Tory manifesto promises that neither the NHS nor drug prices will be “on the table”, but leaked documents noting preliminary talks show that the subject is certainly on the agenda: “competitive pricing” and extending patents for American drugs were both mentioned. US negotiators have driven hard bargains on drugs in recent deals with South Korea, Canada and Mexico. Britain would be a weaker partner in any deal and might find it hard to resist some concessions. (The Week 14 Dec 2019)

Meanwhile, polls show that British people overwhelmingly oppose privatization of the National Health Service. A 2017 YouGov survey found that 84% were against it., even as it has been, under the radar, significantly privatized already.  For right-wingers in power anything that doesn’t make a profit for themselves or their buddies is (horror!) socialism (several visits to a local private hospital last year suggest that the well-off are well- insured and use private doctors and hospitals already, so they are o.k, yes?).  The fact is that the private sector is now so embedded in the NHS that it cannot afford to sacrifice any of its capacity.  After France, Britain has had (past tense) the best health service in the world, until recently mostly free at point of delivery, even if expensive to the taxpayer. The NHS has offered peace of mind to the sick and the aged for seventy years; an Epicurean project.   Rest in peace?

Finding a partner on the internet

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”Tinder doesn’t seem to be as good at finding you a partner as you might think. An analysis of the match-making service, admittedly a small, one off survey, found that most people don’t meet up with others through the app and the chances of meeting someone interested in a long-term relationship are relatively low.

”Trond Viggo Grøntvedt at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and his colleagues surveyed 269 students in Norway who said they were current or former Tinder users. About 60 per cent of the students were women.

”People reported that on average they had been matched to more than 100 other people during their time using the app. But only about half of the participants said they had ever actually met one of their matches in person. The likelihood that a study participant would use Tinder to meet a potential partner was the same for men and women.

”Only about 25 per cent of study participants said they had used the app to meet someone interested in a long-term relationship.

”Grøntvedt’s team also discovered that roughly 20 per cent of people had used Tinder to meet a partner for a one-night stand – although the participants also reported to be just as likely to engage in a one-night stand with a partner they had met via other means.

Gareth Tyson at Queen Mary University of London is sceptical about the idea that Tinder has had much effect on dating. “Tinder may not be rewriting the fundamentals of modern dating: similar patterns continue, simply in a new arena,” he says. Tyson adds that there is value in the new study. “The paper challenges the stereotype that [Tinder] is purely a ‘sex app’, instead finding that this applies to only a small minority of users.”.     (Journal reference: Evolutionary Psychological Science, DOI: 10.1007/s40806-019-00222-z   Chris Stokel-Walker, New Scientist)

I don’t know how young people meet the right partners these days.  All I can say is there is nothing better, or Epicurean, than finding genuine love and the right person.