Life, medicine and stuff

2nd July flew to Faro for a villa holiday at Olhos de Agua, just outside Albufeira. Went with Gailey family, Jess & Davy plus Mark's mum, Janet. Hired 2 black Megane estates with keyless ignition and built in sunshades, woo hoo! Villa Vale do Martins (the latter is a name you see on shops and…

Is 21st century youth space – where they hang out, where they become socialised into peer groups. Instead of being shocked by what we see there and worrying about the technology, we should look more closely at what is behind this narcissism. Danah Boyd blames an educational culture of over-praise, combined with a lack of…

The phenomenon whereby we unconsciously overestimate our contributions or skills relative to other peoplex92s. Not difficult to understand, because of course wex92re far more aware of what we do than what other people do. According to Jonathan Haidtx92s The Happiness Hypothesis, x93when husbands and wives estimate the percentage of housework each does, their estimates total…

From Scottish Review of Books: I'm interested in people's vulnerability and what they do with it. Some people can turn it into a weapon; some use it as a survival tool. Ultimate vulnerability, the fact of approaching death, can make some people's clarity, their vision or purpose, rise to be more than they ever imagined…

The Scottish budget nearly failed to get through parliament, until last minute wrangling achieved sufficient consensus. The block was apparently the Greens, who had wanted £100 million for a free home insurance scheme. They had already accepted some very un-Green measures, eg the M74 extension, and had decided that enough was enough. In the end,…

Reuben_bear

ie Jews of non-European origin. Make up about half the Israeli population, used to be more until the last Eastern European influx. According to Thinking Allowed, Israeli society is divided between the professional, political class of Ashkenazi Jews and the working class, often right wing (!) Mizrahi Jews – state sponsorship of the arts, for…

The bank of Zimbabwe has started issuing 10 Trillion dollar notes. Inflation is so high to now lack any real meaning – nobody wants this country's money. Except coin collectors, maybe.

250th Anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns. He has many champions, but his reputation is also tainted by associations with drink and womanizing. The truth is hard to come by – there isn't even an accepted collective works, let alone an accepted biography. What is clear is that he died in poverty, aged just…

From In Our Time (Radio 4). The Qing dynasty was failing. The emperor was busy playing diplomacy games with foreign powers, negotiating trade treaties and the like, meanwhile corruption in the hinterland meant that essential flood prevention dykes were no longer being maintained properly. A flood followed by a famine led to mass hunger and…