… “holds that people make rational decisions by assessing facts. All that has to be done to persuade people is to lay out the data: they will then use it to decide which options best support their interests and desires. “But a host of psychological experiments have shown that it simply doesn’t work like this.…

We forgive behaviours related to brain tumours because we can understand that a person may not be reponsible for their actions; but what if there are people with other, more subtle, perhaps developmental, structural abnormalities that affect behaviour? Martin Luther, when he resisted church orthodoxy, said he could not do differently – the strength of…

[Lionel Tiger] Now that for the first time in history one sex controls the fertility of species, the changes in the roles and status of men and women are not surprising. Income in urban young females now exceeds that of men. Female graduates outnumber male. It will be interesting to see how these successful professional…

Tutankhamun had iron dagger! Meteoritic iron, easier to work than normal iron. Copper & tin for making bronze are both rare, found only in a few select areas, hence complex trade/exchange routes evolved (as already existed for handaxes). Iron by contrast is relatively common. No new techniques needed to extract and work it, but somehow…

… was over 200% of the average. As anyone who has been here knows, the average is already pretty wet. Surprisingly, the temperatures and sunshine were not much different from usual, so I must retract some of my gloomy opinions. Watch this space though, the temperature during the day this last week has been 8…

I get to vote in Scottish elections, although disappointingly, I wasn’t allowed to vote in the AV referendum. Was really hoping for a change in the system, at least a small one, along the lines of Dan Plesch’s Beauty Queen’s Guide to World Peace. My work colleague who said a few weeks ago that she…

2011 is the 100th anniversary of the first paper describing the use of extracts to treat allergy. It was in the Lancet, and the allergy was hay fever. And still we can only offer it for a few special cases (and in my case, I can’t offer it at all). The author was Leonard Noon.

MORE than 1500 children per year had to be treated by paramedics as a result of alcohol-related incidents in the past two years. Either from taking alcohol themselves or because they came to harm as a result of action/inaction by someone else who had been drinking. The Scots total equates to an average of four…

Victorian social reformer, supported in her early years by John Ruskin as her own family was bankrupt. By working closely with slum dwellers in London, like a prototype social worker, she improved housing conditions for 3000 families. Insisted on strict rental agreements and a commitment to self improvement, hated “alms giving”. Creating green spaces was…

According to Brian Belton, researcher in Gypsy culture, this Channel 4 series has set back public attitudes to Gypsy culture by 40 years… Yes, it was very entertaining, and eye opening, but it was not representative of what Gypsy life is like in the UK. Most Gypsy families live in houses, not caravans. Literacy is…