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Wettest winter on record
So it’s the UK’s wettest winter on record (and February data has not even been completely collected yet). Poor Southern England (and Eastern Scotland) bore the brunt of it. Glasgow has only had about 30% more rain than the 20yr average, cf some areas which have had more than 100% more rain. So…
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Resilience, and how playing games helps you live longer
The top five regrets of the dying. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. I wish I had let myself be happier. I wish I’d had the courage to express my true self. I wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams,instead of what…
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Multilingual children and literacy
Findings support “the importance of environmental print for young children [eg] in shops, waiting for the tram, at the zoo and in the park. These included photos of signs, books, DVDs, maps, posters, brand names and graffiti.” “The amount of popular culture texts Lucy is using at home, such as magazines, toy catalogues, and…
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Allegri's Miserere
Sung at the Sistine chapel at the end of Holy week, traditionally after midnight with candles gradually being extinguished. It became forbidden to transcribe it, punishable by excommunication, and there is a great story of Mozart writing it out from memory, then being summoned by the Pope – only to be praised for his amazing…
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Spem in alium
Spem in alium, nunquam habui Praeter in te, Deus Israel Qui irasceris et propitius eris et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimitis Domine Deus Creator caeli et terrae respice humilitatem nostram So Tallis was already established as one of the best composers in the known world (in Tudor England) when he wrote this short choral work…
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Unfreedom
[Conspicuous consumption] involves attaching oneself to objects, making one’s continued happiness dependent on the continued consumption of these objects, thus promoting a condition of radical unfreedom, while at the same time encouraging us to define the very concept of ‘freedom’ as the ‘freedom to pick and choose objects with which to construct my identity’ rather than…
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Patient centred medicine vs e-Health
e-Health is great for providing statistics on process and performance, even if that is not its main aim. We have e-Health projects on electronic case records, patient appointment/admission management, digitial dictation etc. David Loxtercamp points out that the combination of performance targets and data will shape increasingly to what and to whom we listen. An…
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FGM – female genital mutilation
Some improvements globally, esp Kenya. But not obviously related to expenditure on public health campaigns – incidence was already falling in Kenya and did not speed up. Senegal has tried hard to reduce incidence, with no obvious improvement. Maternal education, sadly, does not help. In Somalia and the Sudan, rates are actually higher where mums…
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Learning from nature
Rowan, or mountain ash, is not an ash, although the leaves are similar. True ash (Fraxinus) has clusters of droopy long seeds, a bit like sycamore seeds. Rowan (Sorbus) has red berries. Ash trees line the path along the burn. Es in Dutch.
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Character vs Intellect
Martin Seligman and Paul Tough have written about how “success” is often as much a product of optimism, grit, curiosity, conscientiousness etc as it is of cognitive ability. Measures of self-control can be better predictors of grades than IQ. A short list includes zest, grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism and curiosity (Duckworth). Some schools have…