In the spirit of self-experimentation (and perhaps a mid-life crisis), Jack Stilgoe bravely gets his eyes lasered. This post is a response to two questions: What do you do? and Why aren't you wearing your glasses? I'm a sociologist of science and technology. I'm interested in how scientists know what they know. I look at how successful technologies move from magical to mundane while failed ones are written out of history. I try to teach my students to think critically about new science and technology: to ask who wins, who loses and who should decide. As well as the scientific ...
How does a candidate with a policy position that is perceived to be much more extreme than the consensus within a party win a leadership election? Social identity theory – SIT(*) may have the answer. If the Labour leadership election had been held when the members(-) of the party (the ingroup in SIT terms) perceived the threat from the Conservatives ...
When the first Market Harborough Food and Drink Festival was announced I was excited and planned on spending some time there. So this afternoon, despite the rain, I went along, There was a good selection of stalls and two or three bars. On a warm summer afternoon it would have been great, but the weather meant there was something of grim determination about the crowd's enjoyment. Anyway, I hope the event will be run again next year and will enjoy a better day.
Yet again tipping in restaurants is in the news following criticism of various restaurants for either keeping the tips that customers leave or by keeping a share of them in administration charges before giving it to their staff. But the idea that we should rely on tips at all either for staff to earn an [...]
Non-fiction: 8 (YTD 35) 1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear, by James Shapiro Building Confidence in Peace, by Erol Kaymak, Alexandros Lordos and Nathalie Tocci Resolving the Cyprus Conflict: Negotiating History, by Michális Stavrou Michael A Visitor's Companion to Tudor England, by Suzannah Lipscomb Selected Essays, by Virginia Woolf Space Helmet for a Cow, by Paul Kirkley The Story of Kullervo, by J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Verlyn Flieger Letters to Tiptree, eds Alissa Krasnostein and Alexandra Pierce [IMG: 1606] [IMG: Building Confidence in Peace] [IMG: Resolving the Cyprus Conflict] [IMG: Visitors Guide to Tudor England] [IMG: Selected Essays] [IMG: ...
Well, I may not have quite recovered from the end of my summer holidays, but I am at least pleased to be blogging again, which I am starting again for the autumn herewith - and, since it is Bank Holiday Monday, it may be time for a re-think about bank holidays. I have a personal reason for doing so. The man who invented them, Sir John Lubbock, was my great-great-grandfather, and - partly because of that - I know that he had two motivations for coming up with the idea. The first was that, as Darwin's next door neighbour, his ...
A woman was in her parked car at the far end of the Cheadle Royal car park on Friday 28th August at around 7pm when an attacker dragged her out of the car and into bushes before raping her. Police describe the attacker as: an Asian man, approximately 40 years old, medium build, with black hair, heavily pock-marked and open-pored skin on his face, with a thick black mono-brow, wearing black jogging bottoms. If you have any information, or you've seen someone fitting that description hanging around the area, please let the police know. Anyone with any information is asked ...
The Liberal youth. What does that mean to you? To me it shows that the Liberal Democrats care about giving young people a voice within politics. I remember first hearing about the Liberal youth from my old MP and I thought "Hmmm, maybe I could sign up!". Since then I have never looked back. With [...]
As part of the consultation on the party's beliefs and values, the Federal Policy Committee (FPC) has published a set of essay from a range of people setting out their own thoughts. But this process isn't just restricted to the people FPC invited to take part. There is also an essay competition open to everyone, closing date 5 October. Download this document
The ECB and the England team have a long-standard in-joke that the rest of us mere mortals just don't understand. For years they've decided that Hampshire players are not deserving of playing for England and the only time they'll play one is in a really bad situation where they can fail a lot easier so they can quickly say that they've tried and the player failed. It is getting boring but they still find it funny. The rest of us don't. The latest example is James Vince. Look as those who know me will attest, James Vince has been frustrating ...
Lenine is a Brazilian musician who, were there any justice, would be as well known across the world as any American or British singer/songwriter. One of the best things about Lenine's music is the way it blends traditional Brazilian forms with Western alternative influences. If only Anglophones were more receptive to lyrics sung in other [...]
© Dani Kropivnik Amanda Taub says German Chancellor Angela Merkel did something really good this week: "Her country will now allow Syrian refugees, who normally would be deported back to wherever they first entered the European Union, to stay and apply for asylum. Thousands of Syrians who would have otherwise faced uncertainty in Europe can now begin the process of rebuilding their lives in Germany." Jeremy Corbyn misunderstands the situation in Ukraine, argues Halya Coynash. Rob Parsons asks if the number of graduates working in non-graduate jobs is a sign of overqualification or an underperforming economy. "The fight to save ...
I don't recall ever meeting Walter James, the last surviving candidate of any party who fought the 1950 General Election who has died aged 103, but I did hear my father Stanley Wood speak of him and I may have well have attended Liberal Party meetings at which James spoke. James, who gained 1st class honours in modern history at Keble College, Oxford, wrote for the Manchester Guardian, had a distinguished career and later became a member of the BBC Advisory Council. In 1945 James was Liberal candidate for the Bury division in Lancashire, narrowly won from Labour by Tory ...
The BBC's headline is 'Labour leadership: Corbyn under fire for Bin Laden comments'. So what are these dreadful comments that would cause such criticism? Well Jeremy says it was a "tragedy" that Osama Bin Laden was killed rather than being put on trial. What's wrong with that? It was a tragedy. I wrote about why Bin Laden should have been taken alive here and here. It made perfect sense at the time and still does. Change the world
A fascinating contemporary news reports on Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign, complete with reference to a shredder for destroying documents. As it turned out, perhaps that shredder did not get used enough... Watch out also for a rather young Karl Rove. Hat-tip: Hacking the Electorate: how campaigns perceive voters by Eitan D. Hersh
Friday 28th August. News came through of an horrific discovery in Austria. 71 refugees, including three children and one baby, were found dead in a lorry there. Adding to a very grim day, reports emerged that a boat packed with refugees had sunk off the coast of Libya, with 200 people feared dead. One would have thought that such a double humanitarian disaster would have softened the heart of the most hardened Fleet Street editor. Indeed, the Guardian's front page the following day was sympathetic to the plight of the refugees. An article by Kate Connolly in Passau, Germany, was ...
It is tempting to think that the UK housing system is uniquely dysfunctional. Policy over so many years has so manifestly failed to get the measure of the problem and failed to take sufficiently radical action that we might be tempted to consider those in charge uniquely inept. If it's a choice between cock up and conspiracy, go for cock up every time. Type of thing. We might, however, review the recent policy past in the light of a paper by Gurran and Phibbs entitled Are governments really interested in fixing the housing problem? (£), which has just appeared online ...
Fresh from the Edinburgh Festival, the Turkish novelist and erstwhile columnist for the liberal newspaper Taraf, Ahmet Altan, was in London last night, being interviewed by the international lawyer and academic Philippe Sands. The event was hosted by English PEN, on whose Writers in Prison Committee I sat for many years, at the Arcola Theatre [...]
After an evening of killing Ottomans, Chinese and Russians - I'm playing as the Portuguese at Civilisation III - I locked up the office and found Ros in the living room, watching "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" on the television. And, as it is a movie that has a happy ending (I do like a happy ending), I sat with her for the last section. But I was moved to wonder whether or not it is a model that might have some basis in credibility. After all, anyone over the age of fifty is likely to be wondering how they ...
[IMG: IMG] Click on the article above to enlarge it Another article from railwatch magazine (July '15 edition) here – see link above – and one I very much agree with. Pollution of our air is something that has been ignored for far too long yet it is killing us!
Today, I'm sending an email to local residents - including a link to my campaign video, where I take a hands-on to the increase in fly-tipping and poor rubbish collection in Wood Green. You can watch the video here: You can join over 400 local residents and sign the petition calling for fewer betting shops, more support for independent retailers, and better rubbish collection on and around our local high streets here.
Frankie Boyle in the Guardian – see link above – has an amusing take on Labour's internal election debacle. Funny but telling. Thanks to Jen Robertson for the lead to this story.
Devastating gruelling what a cruel night and so unexpected. Friends and colleagues dismissed so much expertise discarded as if on a whim. But new members signing up in thousands standing up for ideals of fairness and honesty in a society where fear and grievance is the norm. So moving forward with fresh commitment and confidence we come together with our skills and strengths to rebuild the party which cares about people and where the individual matters. A fairer society with equal opportunity for all * Sue Sherwood is a new member of the Liberal Democrats from North Norfolk.
[IMG: Duwayne.jpg] It's been another week out on the streets of Wood Green, listening to residents concerns about the area, and campaigning to make changes. It was great to be joined on the campaign trail by Duwayne Brooks - now the London's Deputy Mayor's Critical friend on Stop and Search - to discuss issues of crime and anti-social behaviour in Wood Green.
Mon 31st
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One of the sad truths about the human race is that we are constantly under and over-reacting to thin...
Homo sapiens are a funny old mammal: as a result of an evolutionary twist that is completely understandable, I think we have what I would constitute as a glitch. Our brains are adapted to view risk in pretty stark terms. Either the predator is there or it isn't. It's a binary equation to us poor, mostly hairless primates. If we judge that the threat is indeed there, we panic and run our arses off; or we get aggressive and stand our ground, with a view to protecting our loved ones. The alternate setting to either of those is this: the ...
The Western Mail reports that Carwyn Jones has been urged to order an independent investigation into how his top adviser was asked by a senior civil servant to approve a response sent to someone who complained about her conduct. The paper says that a member of the public who does not wish to be identified claimed the First Minister's Special Advisor, Jos Kiernan had breached the special advisers' code of conduct when she attended a Labour Party fundraising event addressed by Ed Balls, the then Shadow Chancellor at the Bayside Brasserie restaurant in Cardiff Bay in April. Special advisers are ...
Sheena Wellington Wednesday 2nd September, Lunchtime Recital - 1.15pm - 1.45pm Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library. Sheena Wellington, Scots song. Sheena entertains with her mix of beautiful singing and Dundonian humour! Admission free (donations for The Sir Jimmy Shand Connection welcome)
The South Wales Evening Post have picked up on my post last week about the policy of restaurant chains towards tips for their staff. Meanwhile the Independent reports that this issue has interested UK Government ministers. They say that the Business Secretary, Sajid Javid, has announced a new investigation into how restaurants use the tips left by customers and whether a new code of practice is required: "When a diner leaves a tip, they rightly expect it to go to staff. In full," Mr Javid said. "I'm concerned about recent reports suggesting some restaurants pocket tips for themselves. That's just ...
The four Shropshire councillors for Ludlow and Clee have launched a community survey to find out just what matters to people who live in Ludlow and the surrounding area. The survey is online at: teamludlow.uk Vivienne Parry, Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow South said: "A lot of people have contacted me about streetlights. They say they [...]
I have highlighted in past years the superb job the City Council made of Seabraes planting each year. 2015 is no exception - see below - a real credit to the Environment Department:
Johan Wets: 'De toekomst brengt meer migratie of nog meer migratie. Of een politiestaat.' My friend Johan speaks out. (In Dutch.) (tags: eu migration dutch ) BBC Two announces The City And The City, an adaptation of China Miéville's novel Hooray! (tags: sf ) A 21st-Century Migrant's Essentials: Food, Shelter, Smartphone New solutions for a very old problem. (tags: migration technology internet facebook )
Goths, depression and self-harm - reflections on Bowes et al's study This is why those gleefully predicting the end of the labour party are wrong - at least for the foreseeable future People just will not abandon them, no matter how abused and outright rejected they are as supporters Mo Farah stops for a drink, wins 5,000m at World Championships anyway Diet and inequality in the United States - worth reading despite massive overuse of meaningless word "neoliberal" [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
