Monitoring tweets

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”If you thought “the thought police” existed only in Orwellian fiction, then you haven’t been following a case in the U.K High Court.  Douglas Murray Miller, a former constable, had posted a few ribald tweets on the subject of transgender self-identification. (Sample: “I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Don’t mis-species me”.)

“Not long after, he got a visit from a Humberside  police officer warning him that his tweets had been recorded as “a hate incident” and that his social media account would now be monitored. “I’m here to check your thinking,” was how the officer put it, Miller told the court. Miller rightly claims this breached his right to free expression, yet Humberside police still insist they did nothing wrong in assuming the power to decide what can and can’t be said in our society. The scary thing is it’s part of a trend: the police are increasingly invoking the notion of hate crime to stifle debate. Those challenging reigning orthodoxy have always had to brave the wrath of the rabidly orthodox. Now they also have to contend with the police at their door.” (Douglas Murray,  Daily Telegraph).

My comment:  I read Mr. Miller’s message as a tongue-in-cheek joke, albeit not at all funny to some.  One of the characteristics of the modern era is the self- importance and lack of sense of humour of so many people in positions of authority.  Yes, it’s fair enough for those who feel, for instance, that they are women trapped in a man’s body to be asked to be treated with respect.  But now we have a veritable minefield of gender identification in schools and universities (she, her, hers; he, him his to name two), and society has to get used to it .  It takes time.  We need lightness of touch.  The way to deal with those who can’t see the point is to gently educate them and persuade them, not to accuse them of spewing “hate”.  This is an over-reaction that arguably begs a conservative comment from a very conservative publication.

Moderation, please, the Epicurean way.

Being old

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Paul Theroux has announced that he is moving to Mexico.  He feels the elderly in the US are “in superfluity”.  They are slighted, ignored, and treated as deck cargo, not worth a thought, and occupying nice houses that could be occupied by the deserving young.

“I think of myself in the Mexican way”, commentedTheroux, “not as an old man but as most Mexicans regard a senior, an hombre de juicio, a man of judgment; not ruco, worn out, beneath notice, someone to be patronised, but owed the respect traditionally accorded to an elder, someone (in the Mexican euphemism) of La Tercera Edad, the Third Age, who might be called Don Pablo or tío (uncle) in deference.”

“Mexican youths are required by custom to surrender their seat to anyone older. They know the saying: Más sabe el diablo por viejo, que por diablo – The devil is wise because he’s old, not because he’s the devil. But “Stand aside, old man, and make way for the young” is the American way.”

The curious thing is that, until recently, many young British people  ignored the old people standing on a Tube train.  On the contrary, American servicemen in  London were always scrupulously polite, leaping up to give my wife a seat. Now we are both  a certain age we are offered seats almost every time we use the Tube;  so young people have not lost their manners (or we look older!).

But on the general point, I don’t find that young people in America treat me as a piece of second hand furniture at all.  Make them laugh and the years melt away. Epicureans should be attentive and respectful to people of all ages.  It’s usually, although not always, reciprocated.

 

SUVs

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Europe has acquired a noxious American habit : the Sports Utility Vehicle. A third of new cars sold in Europe are now SUVs. The parents of school kids in my street in east London all seem to have a Nissan Qashqai or BMW X5 parked outside their house. Once, when small cars filled our roads, we Europeans enjoyed a sense of ethical superiority over Americans, with their heavy postwar gas guzzlers. Indeed, in the mid-1970s they decided to copy us and downsize.

But with the dawn of the SUV, US cars piled on the pounds again, and in two decades CO2 emissions from US vehicles rose by 11%. Now the same is occurring here: thanks to the SUV, average vehicle CO2 emissions in Europe rose by 2% last year. Indeed, the International Energy Agency says the world’s 200 million SUVs (China has gone big on them too) are among the largest contributors to a rise in global emissions. With their high seats and greater sense of security, it’s easy to see the lure of SUVs. Carmakers love them too: they sell at wider margins than small cars. But for the planet’s sake, they are a habit we must shake.  (John Gapper,  Financial Times. & The Week, 15 Nov 2019)

My comment:  I live in a spot where parking can be difficult.  Visitors arrive here,  stay sometimes all day in a 2 hour parking zone  and are seldom fined for over- staying their allotted time.  We therefore have one of the smaller  cars ( a Honda FIT) available.  I wish I could say that we were thinking of the environment when we bought it; alas, we were thinking of the parking and the tiny spaces left to us.  I feel a bit better about it because my wife and I walk everywhere possible, and that’s partly for fear of losing a parking spot.  Silly, one’s priorities, aren’t they?

 

The Robert Harris prediction

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We may think we’ll be here forever – but Robert Harris reckons our civilisation is probably doomed. “The Roman Republic, Cicero, those people were just as clever,” says the novelist, 62. “The things that their society produced – its oratory, its philosophy, its painting – were as sophisticated as anything we do. But still the system collapsed… Mayan civilisation collapsed in about nine years, and nobody knows why. The same could happen to us.”

Our problem today, he told Tim Shipman in The Sunday Times, is that we have been overtaken by technology. “My father could strip down a car engine and put it back together again. He wasn’t an engineer, he was a printer, but he could do that… There are huge areas of the modern world that none of us know how they work, and if the plug was to be pulled, we would be quite incapable.” And when we go, the sadness is that there won’t even be any great ruins to commemorate our civilisation – because our buildings aren’t designed to last. “We have reached a peak of civilisation, yet paradoxically we will leave nothing behind us except plastic dross: iPhone casings, plastic bags, nappies, cotton buds. That will be our memorial.” The Week,  14 September 2019).

If you have never read a Robert Harris novel you have missed a treat.  He is a wonderful and creative writer.  The above comment is the theme in his latest novel, “The Second Sleep”, where the action takes place many years after the collapse of our fragile “civilization” in an apocalyptic event.  (I gave the book to my wife for Christmas, haven’t read it yet, but know what his theme is).

Apostrophes and how to use them

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John Richards, who is 96 and founded the Apostrophe Protection Society in 2001, is now terminating the Society.  He is quoted as saying, “Fewer organisations and  individuals are now caring about the correct use of the apostrophe in the English language”.  So I thought a brief run- down on the rules would be a good idea.  We should be on top of our language.

It’s vs. Its

“it’s”:  should be used as a contraction of “it is”, while its is only used to show possession.

      –    It’s (it is) your responsibility to be a grammar queen.

       –   If you can say “it is” in its place, then you DO need the apostrophe. If its is showing something has possession or ownership of something, then you do NOT need an apostrophe.

       –   The dog was chewing its bone. (possessive because the bone is in the possession of the dog.)

Who’s vs. Whose

    .  Who’s (who is) going to love me if I can’t get my apostrophes right?

  • Whose apostrophe is this?

If you can use “who is” instead of who’s in the sentence the apostrophe stays. If there’s an E on the end of “whose” do NOT use an apostrophe.

Your vs. you’re

Just in case we didn’t drive the contraction thing home yet, let’s look at one more common error that makes every editor, professor, and book aficionado cringe.

  • Your apostrophe usage is spectacular.
  • You’re (you are) not demonstrating a spectacular handle on comma usage.

If you can say “you are” in its place, then keep the apostrophe hanging. If it is showing possession (your dog, your usage), you do NOT want to use an apostrophe.

There vs. Their vs. They’re

Remembering that apostrophes mainly like to hang out with contractions, there’s only one time an apostrophe enters into the ”there, their, they’re” family of homophones:

  • There is an apostrophe in the contraction “they’re.”
  • They’re (they are) not playing well with apostrophes.
  • Their apostrophe usage is not their strongest point.

If you’re talking about something in a certain place (there) or something that belongs to people (their) you do NOT need to use an apostrophe.

1930s vs. 1930’s vs. ’30s

Is it a contraction? Is it indicating something missing? Is it showing possession? 

  • You could say that 1930’s music and dance scene set the stage for many great composers. (Possession)
  • The ’30s were great years for jazz and swing music. (Omission)
  • The 1930s were a great time for music and dance. (Plural)

In this case, the only time you would NOT use an apostrophe is when the date is plural.

Plural

Store signs have been notorious over the years for grammar errors. What’s wrong with these signs?

Bob’s Cheesesteak’s and Cubano’s

Smith’s Greengrocer’s: The Best in Town

If it’s a contraction or a possession, only then are apostrophes on the guest list. So, the signs above should read:

Bob’s Cheesesteaks and Cubanos

Smith’s Greengrocers: The Best in Town

If, however, a plural noun needs to show possession, then it’s time for the apostrophe to Be included.  An apostrophe showing the possessive on a plural needs to go after the S that is making the word plural. So it would be acceptable to say:

Bob’s secret is in his cheesesteaks’ sauce.

Or, it could reference a singular cheesesteak and say:

Bob’s secret is in his cheesesteak’s sauce.

The point is: no possession, no apostrophe.

So, there are only two occasions when you have to use apostrophes: contractions and noun possessions.

Measles has made a shocking return to the US

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The World Health Organisation recommends that 95 per cent of people need to be vaccinated against measles to achieve herd immunity, which stops the infection spreading through populations.)  An estimated 169 million children worldwide have missed out on getting the first dose of a measles vaccine, according to Unicef. This includes nearly 2.6 million children in the US, 608,000 children in France, and more than half a million children in the UK.

The study analysed global data from 2010 to 2017, and found that an average of 21.2 million children are missing their first dose of vaccine every year.   Children need two doses of the MMR vaccine for protection. An estimated 110,000 people – most of them children – are thought to have died from measles in 2017, a 22 per cent increase on the previous year.  In the first three months of 2019, more than 110,000 measles cases were reported worldwide, up almost 300 per cent on the same period the year before.

“The measles virus will always find un-vaccinated children,” says Henrietta Fore, of Unicef. “If we are serious about averting the spread of this dangerous but preventable disease, we need to vaccinate every child, in rich and poor countries alike.”  (Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

The five characteristics of science denialism:

1.  Conspiracies:  Arguing that scientific consensus is the result of a complex and secretive conspiracy.

2.   Fake experts:  Using fake experts as authorities combined with denigration of established experts.

3.    Selectivity:  Referring to isolated papers that challenge scientific consensus.

4.  Impossible expectations:  Expecting 100% certain results or health treatments with no possible side-effects.

5   Misrepresentation and false logic, jumping to conclusions, using false analogies etc

If you find yourself confronted with avaccine denier, you  should remember that the most substantial arguments are on your side. Having a vast body of evidence agreed by the majority of scientists to back up your position makes you well-prepared from a scientific perspective. The scientific consensus that you are representing can serve as an initial “gateway” through which to influence your audience’s key beliefs and increase their support for public policy in support of immunization. Emphasizing the existing scientific agreement on vaccine safety and efficiency can strongly influence people’s attitudes towards vaccinations. You should emphasize how overwhelmingly the evidence supports vaccine safety and efficacy – not just one or two studies – and that the vast majority of scientists and clinicians in the field agree with this.

Golden passports for a corrupt elite

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For years people have been complaining about Cyprus’s “golden passport” scheme.  Launched in 2013, it offers citizenship to anyone investing €2m in Cypriot property, giving 4,000 members of the global mega-rich residency, voting rights and a back door into Europe.

Earlier this year, President Nicos Anastasiades reacted angrily to claims Cyprus was abusing the practice by handing out passports to corrupt individuals. Far from being a money-laundering paradise, he thundered, Cyprus has the “most stringent” vetting criteria in the EU. How hollow that claim sounds now. After Reuters revealed the identities of dubious recipients, the government has had to take back passports from 26 individuals, including Cambodians suspected of corruption and a Malaysian wanted for fraud. Few took Anastasiades’s protestations seriously, given that his family’s law firm facilitates passport sales. Now, alas, suspicions that Cyprus is a place of “corruption and intrigue” have been amply confirmed.  (Philenews, Nicosia)

My personal comment:  I was, years ago, stationed in the British military in Cyprus. At the time I had a sneaking sympathy for the Greek Cypriot call for enosis (self- determination).  Cyprus was treated by the Brits at the time as a mixture of backwater and aircraft carrier (military and listening base), but corrupt it was not. Is the above what the “freedom fighters” were fighting for?  Blatant corruption? And why are so many former colonies now ruled by crooks, authoritarians and people on the make.  They were at least left with parliaments, elections and rational laws, however imperfect? But these institutions turned out to have shallow roots.  The moral seems to be, “perfect your own garden before you try to tell others how to govern themselves”.

Cooking

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Only 11% of British adults cook the majority of their meals from scratch, says the remaining 89% mainly rely on takeaways or ready meals. In the past 12 months, one in ten Britons admit to not having cooked at all, and to having relied entirely on takeaways or pre-prepared food. Men are less likely to cook than women: 16% haven’t cooked at all, compared with 5% of women.

These are truly amazing statistics.  No wonder so many people are over-weight.  Unless you buy ready-cooked meals from an upscale restaurant (expensive) you don’t know how much salt and other additives there are in them. Aside from this I assume that, while buying in saves time, it is more expensive to buy in ready- cooked food, if you costed it out.

Epicurus, contrary to the fake news put out by the Christian church in the centuries after his death, is supposed to have regarded bread and water as a feast.  His diet was simple, to say the least.  The writer cannot emulate Epicurus, but then he has a wife who is a stellar cook and only cooks fresh food at every meal, unless we go out to eat.   Guess I am very lucky.

Messing up the trade war

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Dictatorships are un-Epicurean.  Period.  Thus, standing up to China, which already  by some measures is economically ahead to the US (dear, oh, dear) is to be applauded.  While I agree that politics should not be discussed on this forum, resisting dictators and would-be dictators intent on world domination seems to be a no-brainer.

It appears that, after all the fuss about the US-China trade agreement, all that has been achieved is to get an undertaking from China to “buy more American farm goods”.  That is all. Left untouched are all the handouts and subsidies given by China to companies operating overseas, something everyone in the West agreed should be reduced or eliminated during the negotiations in the cause of a level playing field.  The US objective was to close the trade deficit with China.  Instead, it has risen from $544 billion in 2016 to $691 billion in the 12 months ending in October.  Meanwhile US tariffs are affecting US consumers and companies, and Chinese retaliation on US farm exports is hitting American farmers badly – the farm bailout has already cost more than twice the bailout of the auto industry under Obama.  According to diplomatic sources, Chinese officials are “jubilant and even incredulous” – out-negotiating the US was easy, so they claim.

Few in the US understand or seem to care, except for some in academia and the civil service.  But who listens to them anymore?

(Paul Krugman commented on this issue in the New York Times, 17 Dec 2019.  The opinions are  my own)

The Good Husband Guide for 2020

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Care of the Husband’s Person

On 8 April 2010 the London Review of Books reviewed a 14th Century Parisian book of household management called The Good Wife’s Guide: A Medieval Household Book.   This is a compendium of medieval lore which aimed to instruct young wives how to be good, efficient, and obedient.  The following is an excerpt from a section entitled Care of the Husband’s Person.  (It’s fun, so I am repeating it ten years later):

“Therefore love your husband’s person carefully.  I entreat you to see that he has clean linen, for that is your domain, while the concerns and troubles of men are those outside affairs that they must handle, amidst coming and going, running here and there, in rain, wind, snow and hail, sometimes drenched, sometimes dry, now sweating, now shivering, ill-fed, ill-lodged, ill-shod and poorly rested.  Yet nothing represents a hardship for him, because the thought of his wife’s good care for him on his return comforts him immensely.  The ease, joys and pleasures he knows she will provide for him herself, or have done for him in his presence, cheer him:  removing his shoes in front of a good fire, washing his feet, offering clean shoes, and socks, serving plenteous food and drink …. she puts him to sleep in white sheets  and his nightcap, covered with good furs, and satisfies him with other joys and amusements, intimacies, loves and secrets about which I remain silent.”

 With the above in mind let us now fast forward seven hundred years, noting the changed roles of husband and wife.  This is the 2020 version:

Care of the Wife’s Person (2020)

“Therefore love your wife’s person carefully.  I entreat you, before you sit down to watch sport on television all day with a can of beer in hand, to see that she has clean underclothes, for the washing machine is your domain, as is the washing up and the making of the bed in the morning.  The concerns and troubles of women are those outside affairs that they must handle, amidst taking the children to school, getting the car serviced, running here and there in rain, wind, snow and hail, sometimes drenched, sometimes dry, now sweating, now shivering, dealing with the bank, the mortgage and an unsympathetic boss, buying new shoes for the children and taking them to football practice, violin lessons and ballet; getting her facial, haircut and manicure and answering all the emails during her half hour lunch break. 

“Despite eating on the run, arranging all the social commitments and the visits of plumbers and electricians, nothing represents a hardship for her, because the thought of her husband’s good care for her on her return home comforts her immensely.  The ease, joys and pleasures she knows he will provide for her cheer her:  removing her shoes in front of a good fire, washing her feet, offering clean shoes, and socks, cooking plenteous food and pouring copious drink …. he puts her to sleep in white sheets, and, after he brings her a nice hot drink of cocoa and she has taken her anti-depressants, he tries to satisfies her with other joys and amusements, intimacies, loves and secrets, before she falls asleep exhausted.  As to his feelings about this I remain silent.”

——————————————-

The Good Wife’s Guide: A Medieval Household Book was translated by Gina Greco and Christine Rose and published by Cornell, £16.95, March 2009, ISBN 978-0-8014-7474-3.

Management of tax and the deficit

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The six big US tech firms. Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft are accused of avoiding tax by shifting revenue and profits through tax havens or low-tax countries, like Ireland.  They are also accused of deliberately delaying payment of what tax they do end up paying.  Fair Tax Mark accuses Amazon of being the worst culprit.  Over the last decade its revenues have been $960.5 billion and its profits were $26.8 billion.  During this period it has actually paid $3.4 billion in US tax, an effective rate of 12.7%, instead of the 35% nominal tax.  Amazon, in reply, say that in fact they paid 24% between the years 2010 and 2018, or roughly the same period. We don’t know the truth.

Meanwhile, the US budget deficit is exploding and you can’t let that go on indefinitely.  It Is both stupid and short-sighted.  The signs point towards another financial crisis; the only thing we don’t know is when that will happen, not if. We know big tech, like the healthcare industry, gets special treatment.  The problem is that the poor and the middle class are the sufferers.

Why is this a matter for followers of Epicurus? Because you cannot have peace of mind when you don’t know when the house of cards will collapse yet again. For those with money they have nowhere else to put it, so are stuck with the stock market which continues to rise , for the time being.  For those without money and With maxed out credit cards, auto loans etc, the disaster, when it comes, will be as bad, or worse, than 2008.
I have done a post on being positive – it helps you live longer.  Getting tough, being positive!  Probably the answer is to ignore the dissonance, but then you are not being a responsible, well- informed citizen.  Any ideas?

Micro-plastics

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Microplastics can’t be seen, can’t be smelled, can’t be heard – and can’t be stopped.

As a result of our 50-year addiction to plastics, microplastics are now ubiquitous in the environment. These tiny fragments, formed as plastic breaks apart into ever-smaller pieces, are found in soil, water and air. They rain down on us 24/7 and have entered the food chain and water supply. There is little or no prospect of cleaning them up, and the load will inevitably get worse as the approximately 8 billion tonnes of plastic we have manufactured over the past century or so breaks up but doesn’t biodegrade.

Concern about microplastics has so far largely focused on wildlife and the environment, and there is evidence of harms to both. But now attention is turning to us. What, if anything, do these particles do to the human body?

At this point, there are more questions than answers. To put our ignorance into perspective, we don’t even know for sure that the very smallest fragments, called nanoplastics, actually exist – even though they are hypothesised to be the most harmful to our health.

The good news is that researchers are waking up to the potential threat and scrambling to find some answers. The bad news is that it will take years to properly evaluate the problem. As yet, funding is paltry: just a few million euros.

It may turn out to be a false alarm. If microplastics posed a specific threat to human health, perhaps we would have seen it by now. If that feels like clutching at (plastic) straws, that is because it is. Even if we get lucky this time, the natural world will be paying the price of our so-called ingenuity for decades to come.  ( New Scientist 21 Dec 2019)

Plastic manufacturers, who profited in the first place, should be encouraged (fined?)  to pay for research into micro-plastics and the ever-increasing amounts of waste being created every day.  Of course, we are talking about the oil industry, with the powerful ( well- oiled) lobbying machine that protects it. How are we to call industry to account for what they they doing, free of financial risk, to our environment?

Hourly husbands

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Our local news website circulated the following message yesterday:

Hourly Husbands

”I just had Jose come round and take care of my list of things todo!!  Never used them before, but Jose was great!!  Prompt, polite and cleaned up after himself.  Very grateful to get all those pesky little chores done!!!  Thank you Jose – will definitely use them again!!“

My comment: As you probably guess Jose, and the company concerned, undertakes odd jobs around the home.

But I did reflect on the fact that, if they catch on, hourly husbands could prove extraordinarily popular with women of all ages.  Think about it!

 

Optimism boosts longevity

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People with optimistic outlooks tend to live longer than their more negative peers, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine have found. The study drew on data from two long-running studies of Americans aged over 60: one of 1,500 male war veterans, and one of 70,000 female nurses.

At the start of both, the participants had completed questionnaires to gauge how optimistic they were, and had also been asked about other factors likely to influence their longevity, including diet, health and exercise. Analysis of the data, adjusted to take account of these “confounders”, revealed that most optimistic participants lived 10% to 15% longer on average than the least optimistic ones, and that they were significantly more likely to live to the age of 85.

“Healthier behaviours and lower levels of depression only partially explained our findings,” said lead researcher Dr Lewina Lee. “Initial evidence from other studies suggests that more optimistic people tend to have goals and the confidence to reach them, are more effective in problem-solving, and they may be better at regulating their emotions during stressful situations.” The exciting possibility raised by the findings, she added, is that we may be able to “promote healthy and resilient ageing by cultivating psycho-social assets such as optimism” in people.   (The Week, 7 September 2019)

This is all good stuff, but I think Epicurus had a more practical idea: seek ataraxia (peace of mind).  This requires you not to get wound up in the bad news and dreadful partisanship of ……well, almost anywhere in the world you live.  If you cannot ignore the debilitating effect of party politics, then try to let it go over your head. I read the local paper every day but try not to allow the political bits to rouse me (not invariably successfully!).  Instead, I concentrate on the good things I have in life, my marriage being the best.  This isn’t quite eternal optimism , but it is thankfulness for the blessings I have.

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Thanks, but no thanks for Menorah: Another intrusion of religion

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“My mother-in-law is a right-wing evangelical Christian who voted for Donald Trump and thinks the Earth is 6,000 years old. She is also, frankly, not very insightful.

“She just gave my family a menorah. We belong to a Jewish Humanist congregation, which pretty much sums up my beliefs—proud of my Jewish heritage but agnostic. My atheist husband (her son) belongs, too. She buys into the “love Israel” Kool-Aid that evangelicals are drinking these days.

“The menorah she gave us is from one of those horrible messianic organizations that’s in the business of converting Jews. They want to bring Jews to Israel because that’s a prerequisite for the return of Jesus.

“I would like to calmly and politely return this to her and tell her that I am opposed to the principles of this organization. I certainly don’t want this “messianorah” in my home. My husband initially said to drop the matter, but he’s warming up to the idea of a polite email.

“Your thoughts? I suppose I could be passive-aggressive and send her something from an organization she hates (like a lovely wall hanging from Planned Parenthood), but in addition to this being mean, I doubt she would understand the point.”

Dear Thought,

“I know what you mean about the fundamentalists who just love Israel and Jews. I was mystified by a genuinely lovely family of born-again Christians who seemed to be enamored by my family and Jews in general, and then I learned about all this end-of-days stuff. Meanwhile, they invited us to spend a week with them in an RV visiting the Ark Park (oy vey!), and they send us cards on Jewish holidays with New Testament verses inserted.

“I also share your passive-aggressive impulses, as when relatives kept sending our young children “gifts” of donations to their own synagogue in Florida. So I returned the favor by dedicating a contribution for daffodils in Central Park in their honor.

“I think it’s fine to return the offending “messianorah” (I love that—did you coin it yourself?) either in person or by mail with a brief but clear explanation of why you don’t want a symbol of a distasteful organization in your home. An email explanation would also suffice without returning the menorah, unless your mother-in-law says she would like to get it back. But then let it go, whether she takes your wishes to heart or persists. Any future unwanted gifts can simply be given away or trashed. Hopefully she won’t send you a crucifix next”.  (Comment by Joan Reisman-Brill for the Humanist Society)