-
Aggression
Desperate vs Expert! Running out of options as trigger for desperate. Keep them talking as adrenaline rush doesn’t last long. Avoid shaming. Establish commonalities- ask questions that show interest. Expert as predatory – no signals, just gentle testing of boundaries eg inappropriate physical behaviour, comments, emotional engagement esp shame, guilt to get you in increasingly…
-
Highland clearances
Clan system not formalised, “protection” of chief in return for service esp military. Gaelic idea of duthchas (loyalty). Pressure was increased prices with Napoleonic wars and debts, due to elites trying to maintain lifestyle with minimal revenue. Against emigration recruitment initially (people as assets) instead Sheep introduced. given crofts with limited (inadequate) land and encouraged to fish…
-
Fires of Hell
Fires of hell – Calvin’s Institutes say these are figurative. How desolate to be cut off from fellowship with god. [Gilead]
-
Bird migration
About 50% of all bird species migrate. 2 main patterns – long lived, soaring types e.g. Geese, who go in groups (better aerodynamics), and who learn routes from elders. Else flapping songbird types, who go alone, with no prior knowledge of route. Enormous physiological changes, weight can almost double, reproductive organs atrophy, flight feathers may…
-
Kant's categorical imperative
What Kant calls a moral law that is universal. It was his attempt to develop moral philosophy on the basis of pure reason. He had already written “A critique of pure reason” in which he recognized that the existence of god and individual freedom were not able to be inferred from logic (despite efforts by Descartes,…
-
Mixed race
We were half-castes in the U.K. until 2001 (2001!), when the census officially deemed us “mixed.” In US, census allowed choice of only one race until 2000! Change only really began in the wake of Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 Supreme Court case that officially legalized interracial marriage. The Loving decision overturned a trial judge’s opinion, written in 1958, that “Almighty…
-
Hannah Arendt
Grew up ignorant of her Jewishness until she heard anti-semiticism on the street in Berlin. Studied philosophy, loved the ancient Greeks. Had an affair with Heidegger, starting from when she was his student, but he was more existential (and later a Nazi supporter) whereas she became politically active as the Nazis gained power. She also…
-
The Gin Craze
18th century, as London was exploding with population and wealth (some good harvests). Alcohol was already consumed regularly by all ages (incl children), social classes and by both men and women. William of Orange comes to power and passes a law that essentially allows unregulated production, as a way of undermining market for French wine…
-
The Ruislip Russian Spies I never heard of
At 45 Cranley Drive, Ruislip, in 1961, 2 Russian spies were arrested. According to their friends and neighbours, they were Peter and Helen Kroger, from New Zealand. And their passports were genuine. But their fingerprints revealed them to be Morris and Leontina Cohen, from the US originally, communists from poor Polish Jewish families. Morris had…
-
New planets
NASA’s Kepler space telescope increased its catalogue in 2016 by an additional 1,284 worlds — the greatest number of planets ever announced at a single time. It brings Kepler’s confirmed planetary haul to more than 2,000 exoplanets. The nearest is 4.2 light years away – in other words, around our nearest star, Proxima Centauri. Proxima…