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Snails
My boys love snails So we looked them up on wikipedia. They have 2 sets of tentacles or horns, the first have eyes (and are called ommatophores), the second carry sense of smell. All are retractile. Snails have lungs, livers, and hearts. Don’t know why that surprises me, but there you go. Thought they were…
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Young people's attitudes to pornography, sex and relationships
Pornography and sexualised media were part of most participants’ everyday lives. Although pornography and sexualised media were seen as problematic by many participants, they were not understood as isolated issues but as part of a broader pattern of sexism and double standards around sex and relationships. Participants’ responses to sexualisation, pornography, relationships and sex were heavily impacted by…
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Chelyabinsk meteor
In Feb 2013 a meteor lit up the sky over Chelyabinsk in Russia brigher than the sun. It had not been anticipated, causing widespread panic. It measured about 20m across, weighed about 13 000 tons (about the weight of the Eiffel tower) and was travelling at over 40 000 mph (Mach 60). The energy released on impact…
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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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Batman's ethics
“This is what leads to the heart of Batman’s ethical failure: he doesn’t trust anyone but himself to take care of anything. His lack of faith in the justice system caused him to bring a gun to his parents’ killer’s hearing. That same lack of trust caused him to become Batman. His lack of faith in those…
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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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Chinese parenting in the UK
Although the influence of Confucian values has waned in recent years, certain values such as clearly defined gender roles, responsibilities and obligations of the individual, children’s deference to parental authority, as well as reverence and respect for fathers still exerted a considerable influence on contemporary British Chinese parenting beliefs. However in contrast to parents’ childhoods,…
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The Scramble for Africa
Berlin conference 1884 – European powers met to divide up Africa into different imperial territories. Gave Leopold of Belgium territory 70x his own state, essentially as his own private property (his claim was based on explorations by Stanley). He instituted serfdom, wiped out elephants for piano keys, billiard balls and false teeth (as in other…
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Ethnic minorities and Scottish nationalism
Aspirational pluralism in Scotland – all political parties see ethnic/racial minorities as essential to Scottish society. Minorities find it easy to feel Scottish, and are more likely to identify as such than minorities in England. This is in part because Scotland is smaller, also because language is not key to Scottish identity cf Catalunya, Quebec.…
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Michel Foucault
French intellectual, sometime communist, died of AIDS. Wrote about madness, sexuality and discipline. Sexuality in ancient times an appetite to be mastered, only became an identity as hierarchies of class and church began to unravel. Interested in how people are classified, how identities are processes rather than being fixed. Borrowed the concept of Bentham’s Panopticon…