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Glasgow by open top bus
Great tour under a blue sky with Catherine and Marissa braving the bitter wind . The woman who first set up a barrow at the Barras bought the land to enlarge the market – now a millionairess. Fountain at the People's Palace – Royal Doulton Marble staircase at the City Chambers – the only one…
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Love… a hypothesis
“…Based on these data, the hypothesis “Love is never having to say you’re sorry” appears to be true. “Love does not require apology. Marriage, on the other hand, requires apology, punctuality, sobriety, fidelity, fiscal responsibility, and possibly additional, as yet unidentified, qualities.” from Science Creative Quarterly
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Intercountry Adoption prep group
3 intense days in a board room over. But it feels like our life has just changed gear.We first talked to Lesley, who volunteered in an orphanage in Peru a few years ago and now wants to adopt a child from there although she has no partner of her own. Later we met fellow Queen's…
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Honour
…is basically maintaining the respect of your social circle. I instinctively feel a longing for its nostalgic Britishness, the idea of acting beyond one's own interests. It still is an important force in the Middle East, and the Far East ("face"). But actually, it's very closely related to machismo – think of the synonym, Virtue…
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Is Scotland a fair country?
Racist hate crimes are treated more seriously than homophobic ones The Scottish Executive set up a Working Group on Hate Crime in 2004 to consider the most appropriate response to crime based on hatred of social groups. However the Executive then rejected the Working Group's clear recommendation to extend the definition of hate crimes to…
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Cathy – our Social Worker
So Cathy came to visit yesterday. Pauline dusted the house and baked scones. Apparently this is normal behaviour before someone comes to judge whether you are good potential parents or not. We had warned Cathy that we had a dog. Was that a problem, I had asked on the phone? "No. Most people wanting to…
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What about if you can't go home?
I overhear a conversation in the office. The man who has just come in is looking for some advice. He is originally from Palestine but was a refugee in Iraq for a time. He claimed asylum in Britain and was refused so he went for voluntary return (whereby people are offered £3,000 to leave the…
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Life long computer skills
I know I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I would want my children to know about: Search strategies Writing for the internet as opposed to print Presentation skills Coping with information overload (?not sure how to do this myself – basically, by being focussed and putting the important information up front cf Hi! emails)…
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Crowd behaviour revisited
Research into the 30 million strong Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival in Allahabad, Northern India on the banks of the Ganges has overturned many old beliefs about crowd behaviour. Even though people at the festival came from different castes and social backgrounds, there was a strong sense of common identity. They said this positive outlook…
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iPod manners
Podsigns_wo2 I see that in New York they are considering making it illegal to cross the street while wearing earphones. Not only is it potentially dangerous being deaf and distracted, it also means that I regularly get a fright that someone is looming behind me.I know I shouldn't be in thrall to my iPod, but…