Jasmine Boatner (no affiliation provided) published in IZA Journal of Labor Policy Volume 9 Issue 1 (2019)
Abstract
Background
Although unemployment rates are at historical lows, there is still a persistent gap between unemployment rates in black and white population. Some have proposed that part of the gap for men can be explained by the higher rate of criminal records in the black population.
Methods
This analysis aims to use negative binomial regressions and the detailed crime data available from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 survey to determine if black men with criminal records appear to be the driving force behind the gap.
Results
The author finds that there are significant deviations in labor market outcomes depending on race and ethnicity, even when controlling for a criminal record and premarket skills.
Conclusions
Lowering the disproportionate rate at which black men are incarcerated will not in itself eliminate the unemployment gap between white and black men.
JEL Classification: J01, J64, J71
Full text (PDF 13pp; HTML)
Wednesday, 31 July 2019
Increase in time spent on social media is associated with modest increase in depression, conduct problems, and episodic heavy drinking
an article by Geir Scott Brunborg and Jasmina Burdzovic Andreas (Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway) -ublished in Journal of Adolescence Volume 74 (July 2019)
Abstract
Introduction
Adolescent use of social media has been linked to a range of negative outcomes, but it is still unclear whether the associations are spurious. To address this issue, we examined if within-individual change in time spent on social media was associated with within-individual changes in depression, conduct problems, and episodic heavy drinking in a sample of adolescents using first-differencing models (FD-models).
Methods
A sample of 763 Norwegian adolescents (45.1% boys; mean age 15.22 years, standard deviation 1.44) completed two questionnaires 6-months apart. The associations between changes in time spent on social media and symptoms of depression, conduct problems, and frequency of episodic heavy drinking were estimated using FD-models, a statistical technique that effectively controls for all time-invariant individual factors. We also accounted for three time-variant putative confounders: frequency of sports practice, frequency of unsupervised leisure activities, and peer relationship problems.
Results
Increases in time spent on social media were associated with increases in symptoms of depression (b = 0.13 [95% CI: 0.01, 0.24], p = 0.038), increases in conduct problems (b = 0.07 [95% CI: 0.02, 0.10], p = 0.007), and increases in episodic heavy drinking (b = 0.10 [95% CI: 0.06, 0.15], p < 0.001), after adjusting for changes in the three hypothesized confounders. The effect-sizes for these relationships were, however, quite modest.
Conclusion
Increased time spent on social media was modestly related to increases in depression, conduct problems, as well as frequency of episodic heavy drinking among adolescents.
Hazel’s comment
Looking at a specific adult in my family circle I notice exactly what these authors are talking about. And the effects are not “quite modest”.
Abstract
Introduction
Adolescent use of social media has been linked to a range of negative outcomes, but it is still unclear whether the associations are spurious. To address this issue, we examined if within-individual change in time spent on social media was associated with within-individual changes in depression, conduct problems, and episodic heavy drinking in a sample of adolescents using first-differencing models (FD-models).
Methods
A sample of 763 Norwegian adolescents (45.1% boys; mean age 15.22 years, standard deviation 1.44) completed two questionnaires 6-months apart. The associations between changes in time spent on social media and symptoms of depression, conduct problems, and frequency of episodic heavy drinking were estimated using FD-models, a statistical technique that effectively controls for all time-invariant individual factors. We also accounted for three time-variant putative confounders: frequency of sports practice, frequency of unsupervised leisure activities, and peer relationship problems.
Results
Increases in time spent on social media were associated with increases in symptoms of depression (b = 0.13 [95% CI: 0.01, 0.24], p = 0.038), increases in conduct problems (b = 0.07 [95% CI: 0.02, 0.10], p = 0.007), and increases in episodic heavy drinking (b = 0.10 [95% CI: 0.06, 0.15], p < 0.001), after adjusting for changes in the three hypothesized confounders. The effect-sizes for these relationships were, however, quite modest.
Conclusion
Increased time spent on social media was modestly related to increases in depression, conduct problems, as well as frequency of episodic heavy drinking among adolescents.
Hazel’s comment
Looking at a specific adult in my family circle I notice exactly what these authors are talking about. And the effects are not “quite modest”.
Earmarked paternity leave and relative income within couples
a column by Jeppe Drudahl, Mette Ejrnæs and Thomas H. Jørgensen for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
The European Parliament recently proposed a requirement that each parent have the right to two months of non-transferable or ‘earmarked’ paid leave.
This column analyses the effects of earmarking parental leave for fathers on the relative income of women within couples. The findings suggest that such reforms have the potential to transform not only household norms but gender inequality more broadly.
Continue reading
The European Parliament recently proposed a requirement that each parent have the right to two months of non-transferable or ‘earmarked’ paid leave.
This column analyses the effects of earmarking parental leave for fathers on the relative income of women within couples. The findings suggest that such reforms have the potential to transform not only household norms but gender inequality more broadly.
Continue reading
We are strong and we are resilient: Career experiences of women engineers
an article by Shaista E. Khilji and Kelly Harper Pumroy (The George Washington University, USA) published in Gender, Work & Organization Volume 6 Issue 7 (July 2019)
Abstract
With the purpose of breaking down socially derived, implicit assumptions regarding women and highlighting their resilience and strength within organizations, this study focused upon career experiences of women engineers.
Findings indicated women constantly navigated gendered social and organizational norms to develop their careers. We found them to employ three distinct coping strategies, conforming to play by the rules, negotiating to play around the rules and defying to establish own rules. The ways in which participants arrived at and enacted on these coping strategies is illustrative of their strength, forethought and self‐directedness. All participants demonstrated high self‐concept and the ability to learn and adapt.
The study allowed us to acknowledge prevalence of gendered norms and expectations, while also highlighting women's strength in navigating their careers.
We hope that the study is able to illuminate persistence of male perspective in the literature and promote a perspective of women as strong and resilient professionals.
Abstract
With the purpose of breaking down socially derived, implicit assumptions regarding women and highlighting their resilience and strength within organizations, this study focused upon career experiences of women engineers.
Findings indicated women constantly navigated gendered social and organizational norms to develop their careers. We found them to employ three distinct coping strategies, conforming to play by the rules, negotiating to play around the rules and defying to establish own rules. The ways in which participants arrived at and enacted on these coping strategies is illustrative of their strength, forethought and self‐directedness. All participants demonstrated high self‐concept and the ability to learn and adapt.
The study allowed us to acknowledge prevalence of gendered norms and expectations, while also highlighting women's strength in navigating their careers.
We hope that the study is able to illuminate persistence of male perspective in the literature and promote a perspective of women as strong and resilient professionals.
The Lived Experience Of Race And Class
Kenan Malik in Pandaemonium [via S. Abbas Raza in 3 Quarks Daily]
Officials eyeing you with contempt. Police treating you as scum. A sense of being constantly watched and judged by professionals. Living in fear of benefit sanctions. A lack of community facilities.
Such is likely to be your experience if you are working class. Such is also likely to be your experience if you are of black or minority ethnic origin.
But here’s the odd thing: people from the working class and minorities are rarely seen as facing the same kinds of issues. Instead, in political debates from Brexit to welfare benefits, minorities and the working class are seen as having conflicting interests and often set against each other. We are Ghosts: Race, Class and Institutional Prejudice, (PDF 56pp) a report published last week by the thinktanks Class and the Runnymede Trust, attempts to address this this issue of common experiences yet conflicting perceived interests. Based on interviews and focus groups, almost entirely in London, the sample may not be statistically valid but the subjective experiences of the interviewees are revealing.
Continue reading
Officials eyeing you with contempt. Police treating you as scum. A sense of being constantly watched and judged by professionals. Living in fear of benefit sanctions. A lack of community facilities.
Such is likely to be your experience if you are working class. Such is also likely to be your experience if you are of black or minority ethnic origin.
But here’s the odd thing: people from the working class and minorities are rarely seen as facing the same kinds of issues. Instead, in political debates from Brexit to welfare benefits, minorities and the working class are seen as having conflicting interests and often set against each other. We are Ghosts: Race, Class and Institutional Prejudice, (PDF 56pp) a report published last week by the thinktanks Class and the Runnymede Trust, attempts to address this this issue of common experiences yet conflicting perceived interests. Based on interviews and focus groups, almost entirely in London, the sample may not be statistically valid but the subjective experiences of the interviewees are revealing.
Continue reading
A Separate Kind Of Intelligence: A Talk By Alison Gopnik
posted by S. Abbas Raza in 3 Quarks Daily
Alison Gopnik at Edge
Everyone knows that Turing talked about the imitation game as a way of trying to figure out whether a system is intelligent or not, but what people often don’t appreciate is that in the very same paper, about three paragraphs after the part that everybody quotes, he said, wait a minute, maybe this is the completely wrong track. In fact, what he said was, “Instead of trying to produce a program to simulate the adult mind, why not rather try to produce one which simulates the child?” Then he gives a bunch of examples of how that could be done.
For several years I’ve been pointing to that quote because everybody stops reading after the first section. I was searching at lunch to make sure that I got the quote right, and I discovered that when you Google this, you now come up with a whole bunch of examples of people saying that this is the thing you should be quoting from Turing. There’s a reason for that, which is that the explosion of machine learning as a basis for the new AI has made people appreciate the fact that if you’re interested in systems that are going to learn about the external world, the system that we know of that does that better than anything else is a human child.
Continue reading and do, please, make time to listen to the talk (41 minutes).
Alison Gopnik at Edge
Everyone knows that Turing talked about the imitation game as a way of trying to figure out whether a system is intelligent or not, but what people often don’t appreciate is that in the very same paper, about three paragraphs after the part that everybody quotes, he said, wait a minute, maybe this is the completely wrong track. In fact, what he said was, “Instead of trying to produce a program to simulate the adult mind, why not rather try to produce one which simulates the child?” Then he gives a bunch of examples of how that could be done.
For several years I’ve been pointing to that quote because everybody stops reading after the first section. I was searching at lunch to make sure that I got the quote right, and I discovered that when you Google this, you now come up with a whole bunch of examples of people saying that this is the thing you should be quoting from Turing. There’s a reason for that, which is that the explosion of machine learning as a basis for the new AI has made people appreciate the fact that if you’re interested in systems that are going to learn about the external world, the system that we know of that does that better than anything else is a human child.
Continue reading and do, please, make time to listen to the talk (41 minutes).
A Study of the Effect of Vipassana Meditation Practices on Employees' Satisfaction with Life
an article by Seema Pradhan (Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India; Fortis Hospitals, Bangalore, India) and Vadakki Veetil Ajithkumar (Skyline University College, University City of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE) published in International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management Volume 3 Number 3/4 (2019)
Abstract
Life satisfaction is an individual's perception about how well their life is progressing. It is an accepted fact that spirituality makes us better human beings.
In this empirical study an attempt has been made to study the effect of Vipassana meditation, an ancient meditation technique on the life satisfaction of employees. We have used satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) developed by Diener et al. (1985) to collect data.
In total 240 samples were collected from each group of employees namely non-meditator and meditators.
Detailed statistical analysis was done using SPSS ver. 20.0. Group differences were tested by t-test and univariate analysis.
Results indicate that satisfaction with life scores is higher in case of meditator employees and the scores are independent of demographic factors. Also, the effect of meditation variables on SWLS scores is discussed. The results validate use of Vipassana meditation as an intervention in an organisational setup.
Abstract
Life satisfaction is an individual's perception about how well their life is progressing. It is an accepted fact that spirituality makes us better human beings.
In this empirical study an attempt has been made to study the effect of Vipassana meditation, an ancient meditation technique on the life satisfaction of employees. We have used satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) developed by Diener et al. (1985) to collect data.
In total 240 samples were collected from each group of employees namely non-meditator and meditators.
Detailed statistical analysis was done using SPSS ver. 20.0. Group differences were tested by t-test and univariate analysis.
Results indicate that satisfaction with life scores is higher in case of meditator employees and the scores are independent of demographic factors. Also, the effect of meditation variables on SWLS scores is discussed. The results validate use of Vipassana meditation as an intervention in an organisational setup.
Tuesday, 30 July 2019
The Causes of Schizophrenia: It's Probably Not Genetics
a post by John M. Grohol for the World of Psychology blog
For more than a century, researchers have had a deeply-held belief that schizophrenia is one form of mental illness that has its basis in genetics. In the intervening years, hundreds of millions of person-hours and billions of dollars have been funneled pursuing the genetic theory of schizophrenia.
Despite all of this enormous effort, researchers are starting to understand that perhaps the genetic component of schizophrenia has been overemphasized. And, in fact, the heritability estimates are not the 80-85 percent that some researchers claimed, but instead are far less.
Continue reading
For more than a century, researchers have had a deeply-held belief that schizophrenia is one form of mental illness that has its basis in genetics. In the intervening years, hundreds of millions of person-hours and billions of dollars have been funneled pursuing the genetic theory of schizophrenia.
Despite all of this enormous effort, researchers are starting to understand that perhaps the genetic component of schizophrenia has been overemphasized. And, in fact, the heritability estimates are not the 80-85 percent that some researchers claimed, but instead are far less.
Continue reading
What Happens When Trusting Your Gut Causes Anxiety?
a post by Julie Peters for the World of Psychology blog
Trust your gut.
This advice gets thrown around a lot—that we should be able to listen to a little voice inside that tells us that something isn’t right, or we need something different than what we’re getting. And yes—listening to our intuition is incredibly valuable. But what is our intuition, exactly? And what happens when our intuition lets us down?
Intuition is often spoken about as a deep inner “knowing,” some wisdom that has some mysterious access, somehow, to the truth about the world. Our bodies can, indeed, pick up signals from the world around us that our minds may not have rationally worked out, so it’s important to pay attention not only to what we think about a situation, but also how we feel about it.
The tricky thing about following our feelings, however, is that we might feel scared about something new, or attracted to someone who might be bad for us, or safe with someone who is manipulating us, or oblivious to danger in the environment.
Continue reading
Trust your gut.
This advice gets thrown around a lot—that we should be able to listen to a little voice inside that tells us that something isn’t right, or we need something different than what we’re getting. And yes—listening to our intuition is incredibly valuable. But what is our intuition, exactly? And what happens when our intuition lets us down?
Intuition is often spoken about as a deep inner “knowing,” some wisdom that has some mysterious access, somehow, to the truth about the world. Our bodies can, indeed, pick up signals from the world around us that our minds may not have rationally worked out, so it’s important to pay attention not only to what we think about a situation, but also how we feel about it.
The tricky thing about following our feelings, however, is that we might feel scared about something new, or attracted to someone who might be bad for us, or safe with someone who is manipulating us, or oblivious to danger in the environment.
Continue reading
Firm size, productivity and pay in today’s service economy
CentrePiece Summer 2019
The evidence that bigger firms pay higher wages and have higher productivity is based mainlyon manufacturing, which is only a small share of today’s economy. Giuseppe Berlingieri, Sara Calligaris and Chiara Criscuolo reveal that while the size premia for both wages and productivity are significantly weaker in market services than in manufacturing, the link between wages and productivity is stronger.
Full text (PDF 4pp)
This article summarises ‘The ProductivityWage Premium: Does Size Still Matter in a Service Economy?’ by Giuseppe Berlingieri, Sara Calligaris and Chiara Criscuolo, CEP Discussion Paper No. 1557 , a shorter version of which is published in AEA Papers and Proceedings 108: 328-33.
JEL Classification: E2, D2, J3
The evidence that bigger firms pay higher wages and have higher productivity is based mainlyon manufacturing, which is only a small share of today’s economy. Giuseppe Berlingieri, Sara Calligaris and Chiara Criscuolo reveal that while the size premia for both wages and productivity are significantly weaker in market services than in manufacturing, the link between wages and productivity is stronger.
Full text (PDF 4pp)
This article summarises ‘The ProductivityWage Premium: Does Size Still Matter in a Service Economy?’ by Giuseppe Berlingieri, Sara Calligaris and Chiara Criscuolo, CEP Discussion Paper No. 1557 , a shorter version of which is published in AEA Papers and Proceedings 108: 328-33.
JEL Classification: E2, D2, J3
What money cannot buy
Esprit 7-8/2019
Eurozine Review
Esprit's summer issue, edited by Camille Riquier, considers the idea that capitalism has replaced God with money. Because the thirst for wealth ignores the blood of the poor, the community of money is based on a breach of trust. Do new currencies make a difference? Can we make money visible again, and hence master it?
Continue reading
Eurozine Review
Esprit's summer issue, edited by Camille Riquier, considers the idea that capitalism has replaced God with money. Because the thirst for wealth ignores the blood of the poor, the community of money is based on a breach of trust. Do new currencies make a difference? Can we make money visible again, and hence master it?
Continue reading
Anorexia not just a psychiatric problem, scientists find
an article by Ian Semple, Science editor, in the Guardian
Discovery of metabolic causes opens door to new treatments for dangerous eating disorder
The study revealed eight genes that linked anorexia to anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, all of which was expected. Photograph: Lane Erickson/Alamy Stock Photo
Scientists have found that the devastating eating disorder anorexia nervosa is not purely a psychiatric condition but is also driven by problems with metabolism.
The finding may help to explain doctors’ poor record in treating the illness and pave the way for radical new approaches to predict and treat those who are most at risk.
Researchers made the discovery after comparing the DNA of nearly 17,000 people with anorexia and more than 55,000 healthy controls. Those with anorexia submitted their DNA through the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative or the eating disorders working group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium.
Continue reading
And yet another “it’s all in your head” illness is found to be, at least partly, in other parts of the body as well.
Discovery of metabolic causes opens door to new treatments for dangerous eating disorder
The study revealed eight genes that linked anorexia to anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, all of which was expected. Photograph: Lane Erickson/Alamy Stock Photo
Scientists have found that the devastating eating disorder anorexia nervosa is not purely a psychiatric condition but is also driven by problems with metabolism.
The finding may help to explain doctors’ poor record in treating the illness and pave the way for radical new approaches to predict and treat those who are most at risk.
Researchers made the discovery after comparing the DNA of nearly 17,000 people with anorexia and more than 55,000 healthy controls. Those with anorexia submitted their DNA through the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative or the eating disorders working group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium.
Continue reading
And yet another “it’s all in your head” illness is found to be, at least partly, in other parts of the body as well.
Parents with an Unemployed Adult Child: Consumption, Income, and Savings Effects
an article by Kathryn Anne Edwards and Jeffrey B. Wenger (Rand Corporation) published in IZA Journal of Labor Economics Volume 8 Issue 1 (July 2019)
Abstract
The risk of labor market, health, and asset-value shocks comprise profound retirement savings challenges for older workers. Parents, however, may experience added risk if their children experience adverse labor market shocks.
Prior research has shown that parents support their children financially through an unemployment spell. In this paper, we also provide evidence of financial support from parents and investigate if this financial support is accompanied by adjustments to parental consumption, income, or savings behavior.
With longitudinal data on mothers and children from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we use within-mother variation in behavior to identify the effect of a child’s labor market shock on parent outcomes. We find evidence of a decline in consumption, an increase in labor supply, and a decrease retirement savings, though the results are heterogenous among mothers.
Our results point to aggregate inefficiencies and inequities that may result from family risk sharing.
JEL Classification: D64, J6, J20, D15
Full text (PDF 44pp) downloads rather than linking directly
Abstract
The risk of labor market, health, and asset-value shocks comprise profound retirement savings challenges for older workers. Parents, however, may experience added risk if their children experience adverse labor market shocks.
Prior research has shown that parents support their children financially through an unemployment spell. In this paper, we also provide evidence of financial support from parents and investigate if this financial support is accompanied by adjustments to parental consumption, income, or savings behavior.
With longitudinal data on mothers and children from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we use within-mother variation in behavior to identify the effect of a child’s labor market shock on parent outcomes. We find evidence of a decline in consumption, an increase in labor supply, and a decrease retirement savings, though the results are heterogenous among mothers.
Our results point to aggregate inefficiencies and inequities that may result from family risk sharing.
JEL Classification: D64, J6, J20, D15
Full text (PDF 44pp) downloads rather than linking directly
Classifying industries into types of relative concentration
an article by Ludwig von Auer and Andranik Stepanyan (Universität Trier, Germany) and Mark Trede (Universität Münster, Germany) published in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Statistics in Society Series A Volume 182 Issue 3 (June 2019)
Summary
Existing measures of relative concentration rank industries according to their degree of concentration. However, two equally strongly concentrated industries can have completely different types of concentration.
Therefore, the paper proposes a new statistical approach that classifies each industry into one of six different geographical patterns, five of which represent different types of concentration, ranging from urban concentration to strongly rural concentration.
The statistical identification of each industry's geographical pattern is based on two Goodman–Kruskal rank correlation coefficients. The power of this new approach is illustrated by using German employment data on 613 different industries in 412 regions.
Summary
Existing measures of relative concentration rank industries according to their degree of concentration. However, two equally strongly concentrated industries can have completely different types of concentration.
Therefore, the paper proposes a new statistical approach that classifies each industry into one of six different geographical patterns, five of which represent different types of concentration, ranging from urban concentration to strongly rural concentration.
The statistical identification of each industry's geographical pattern is based on two Goodman–Kruskal rank correlation coefficients. The power of this new approach is illustrated by using German employment data on 613 different industries in 412 regions.
Monday, 29 July 2019
Creating feminism in the shadow of male heroes: That other story of 1989
an article by Zsófia Lóránd published in Eurozine
Tamás Király, Red star dress, 1987. Photo by Jonathan Csaba Almási. via Faktografia.com
The widespread fear from the label of radical feminism has blurred the interpretation of pre-1989 women’s movements. A generational clash further complicates the process of remembrance. The superficiality of post-feminism and gender mainstreaming threatens to erase the struggles of yet another feminist generation.
Full text (PDF 7pp)
Tamás Király, Red star dress, 1987. Photo by Jonathan Csaba Almási. via Faktografia.com
The widespread fear from the label of radical feminism has blurred the interpretation of pre-1989 women’s movements. A generational clash further complicates the process of remembrance. The superficiality of post-feminism and gender mainstreaming threatens to erase the struggles of yet another feminist generation.
Full text (PDF 7pp)
The problem of Mindfulness
an article by Sahanika Ratnayake, a graduate student in philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD project concerns the history and philosophy of contemporary psychotherapy. Published in AEON [via Arts & Letters Daily]
Mindfulness promotes itself as value-neutral but it is loaded with (troubling) assumptions about the self and the cosmos
Three years ago, when I was studying for a Masters in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, mindfulness was very much in the air. The Department of Psychiatry had launched a large-scale study on the effects of mindfulness in collaboration with the university’s counselling service. Everyone I knew seemed to be involved in some way: either they were attending regular mindfulness classes and dutifully filling out surveys or, like me, they were part of a control group who didn’t attend classes, but found themselves caught up in the craze even so. We gathered in strangers’ houses to meditate at odd hours, and avidly discussed our meditative experiences. It was a strange time.
Raised as a Buddhist in New Zealand and Sri Lanka, I have a long history with meditation – although, like many ‘cultural Catholics’, my involvement was often superficial. I was crushingly bored whenever my parents dragged me to the temple as a child. At university, however, I turned to psychotherapy to cope with the stress of the academic environment. Unsurprisingly, I found myself drawn to schools or approaches marked by the influence of Buddhist philosophy and meditation, one of which was mindfulness. Over the years, before and during the Cambridge trial, therapists have taught me an arsenal of mindfulness techniques. I have been instructed to observe my breath, to scan my body and note the range of its sensations, and to observe the play of thoughts and emotions in my mind. This last exercise often involves visual imagery, where a person is asked to consider thoughts and feelings in terms of clouds in the sky or leaves drifting in a river. A popular activity (though I’ve never tried it myself) even involves eating a raisin mindfully, where you carefully observe the sensory experience from start to finish, including changes in texture and the different tastes and smells.
Continue reading
Mindfulness promotes itself as value-neutral but it is loaded with (troubling) assumptions about the self and the cosmos
Three years ago, when I was studying for a Masters in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, mindfulness was very much in the air. The Department of Psychiatry had launched a large-scale study on the effects of mindfulness in collaboration with the university’s counselling service. Everyone I knew seemed to be involved in some way: either they were attending regular mindfulness classes and dutifully filling out surveys or, like me, they were part of a control group who didn’t attend classes, but found themselves caught up in the craze even so. We gathered in strangers’ houses to meditate at odd hours, and avidly discussed our meditative experiences. It was a strange time.
Raised as a Buddhist in New Zealand and Sri Lanka, I have a long history with meditation – although, like many ‘cultural Catholics’, my involvement was often superficial. I was crushingly bored whenever my parents dragged me to the temple as a child. At university, however, I turned to psychotherapy to cope with the stress of the academic environment. Unsurprisingly, I found myself drawn to schools or approaches marked by the influence of Buddhist philosophy and meditation, one of which was mindfulness. Over the years, before and during the Cambridge trial, therapists have taught me an arsenal of mindfulness techniques. I have been instructed to observe my breath, to scan my body and note the range of its sensations, and to observe the play of thoughts and emotions in my mind. This last exercise often involves visual imagery, where a person is asked to consider thoughts and feelings in terms of clouds in the sky or leaves drifting in a river. A popular activity (though I’ve never tried it myself) even involves eating a raisin mindfully, where you carefully observe the sensory experience from start to finish, including changes in texture and the different tastes and smells.
Continue reading
Social protection for the self-employed in the UK: the disappearing contributions increase
an article by Fran Bennett (University of Oxford, UK) published in Journal of Poverty and Social Justice Volume 27 Number 2 (June 2019)
Abstract
A recent government proposal to increase national insurance contributions for the self-employed in the UK, in return for improved pensions and potentially also parental benefits, was immediately reversed.
This article analyses the reasons behind this about-turn, linking them to tensions between the goals of thwarting ‘bogus’ self-employment and increasing tax revenues versus commitment to a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare economy.
The analysis is set in the context of the singularity of the UK system in relation to much social protection in continental Europe, and wider debates about the roles of individual, state and labour market in providing security.
Abstract
A recent government proposal to increase national insurance contributions for the self-employed in the UK, in return for improved pensions and potentially also parental benefits, was immediately reversed.
This article analyses the reasons behind this about-turn, linking them to tensions between the goals of thwarting ‘bogus’ self-employment and increasing tax revenues versus commitment to a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare economy.
The analysis is set in the context of the singularity of the UK system in relation to much social protection in continental Europe, and wider debates about the roles of individual, state and labour market in providing security.
Rationality in a fatalistic world: explaining revolutionary apathy in pre-Soviet peasants
an article by Jessica Howell1, Flagler College and Nikolai G. Wenzel (Fayetteville State University, USA) published in Mind & Society Volume 18 Issue 1 (June 2019)
Abstract
This paper studies the attempts (and failure) of Russian revolutionaries to mobilize the peasantry in the decade leading to the Soviet revolution of 1917.
Peasants, who had been emancipated from serfdom only four decades earlier, in 1861, were still largely propertyless and poor. This would, at first glance, make them a ripe target for revolutionary activity. But peasants were largely refractory.
We explain this lack of revolutionary spirit through two models.
First, despite their lack of education and political awareness, the peasants were rational in their refusal to participate in revolutionary activity; they engaged in a cost–benefit calculus which pushed them away from revolt and political organization.
Second, based on the Wildavsky–Thompson cultural types, Russian peasants were largely fatalist: they believed they had no influence on the world, so it was not worth attempting to change it.
This paper sheds light on some aspects of the Russian revolution, but also encourages further research in history and economic sociology on the interaction between culture and incentives.
Abstract
This paper studies the attempts (and failure) of Russian revolutionaries to mobilize the peasantry in the decade leading to the Soviet revolution of 1917.
Peasants, who had been emancipated from serfdom only four decades earlier, in 1861, were still largely propertyless and poor. This would, at first glance, make them a ripe target for revolutionary activity. But peasants were largely refractory.
We explain this lack of revolutionary spirit through two models.
First, despite their lack of education and political awareness, the peasants were rational in their refusal to participate in revolutionary activity; they engaged in a cost–benefit calculus which pushed them away from revolt and political organization.
Second, based on the Wildavsky–Thompson cultural types, Russian peasants were largely fatalist: they believed they had no influence on the world, so it was not worth attempting to change it.
This paper sheds light on some aspects of the Russian revolution, but also encourages further research in history and economic sociology on the interaction between culture and incentives.
Join the queue: Including women’s toilet needs in public space
an article by Clara Greed (University of West of England, UK) published in The Sociological Review Volume 67 Issue 4 (July 2019)
Abstract
The trend towards desegregated women’s and men’s toilets, including installing Gender Neutral Toilets (GNTs), and the implications of revisions to the Gender Recognition Act for women-only spaces, have brought into focus the pre-existing lack of female toilet provision in the UK.
Looking at the problem from a town planning perspective, I argue that austerity-driven cuts are coming together with GNT provision to reshape the public toilet landscape in ways that continue to be detrimental to women. Typically women are only provided with half as many facilities as men, resulting in queues for the Ladies, and GNT provision based on relabelling rather than redesigned or additional provision can, in fact, increase competition for the cubicles in the Ladies.
The historical, legislative and cultural reasons for this inequality are explored, along with the different types of public toilet and the different requirements of male and female users.
The article draws on previous research project findings, many of which foreshadow the problems currently coming to the fore as a result of toilet desegregation.
In conclusion, recommendations are made as to how to deal with the conundrum of providing adequate facilities for all women and men, whilst providing all sorts of individuals with choice and privacy to create inclusive, accessible cities for all.
Abstract
The trend towards desegregated women’s and men’s toilets, including installing Gender Neutral Toilets (GNTs), and the implications of revisions to the Gender Recognition Act for women-only spaces, have brought into focus the pre-existing lack of female toilet provision in the UK.
Looking at the problem from a town planning perspective, I argue that austerity-driven cuts are coming together with GNT provision to reshape the public toilet landscape in ways that continue to be detrimental to women. Typically women are only provided with half as many facilities as men, resulting in queues for the Ladies, and GNT provision based on relabelling rather than redesigned or additional provision can, in fact, increase competition for the cubicles in the Ladies.
The historical, legislative and cultural reasons for this inequality are explored, along with the different types of public toilet and the different requirements of male and female users.
The article draws on previous research project findings, many of which foreshadow the problems currently coming to the fore as a result of toilet desegregation.
In conclusion, recommendations are made as to how to deal with the conundrum of providing adequate facilities for all women and men, whilst providing all sorts of individuals with choice and privacy to create inclusive, accessible cities for all.
Meta-regulation meets Deliberation: Situating the Governor within NHS Foundation Trust Hospitals
an article by Ross Millar and Russell Mannion (University of Birmingham, UK), Tim Freeman (Middlesex University Business School, London, UK) and Huw T.O. Davies (University of St Andrews Fife, UK) pubslihed in Journal of Social Policy Volume 48 Issue 3 (July 2019)
Abstract
NHS Foundation Trust (FT) hospitals in England have complex internal governance arrangements. They may be considered to exhibit meta-regulatory characteristics to the extent that governors are able to promote deliberative values and steer internal governance processes towards wider regulatory goals. Yet, while recent studies of NHS FT hospital governance have explored FT governors and examined FT hospital boards to consider executive oversight, there is currently no detailed investigation of interactions between these two groups.
Drawing on observational and interview data from four case-study sites, we trace interactions between the actors involved; explore their understandings of events; and consider the extent to which the proposed benefits of meta-regulation were realised in practice.
Findings show that while governors provided both a conscience and contribution to internal and external governance arrangements, the meta-regulatory role was largely symbolic and limited to compliance and legitimation of executive actions.
Thus while the meta-regulatory ‘architecture’ for governor involvement may be considered effective, the soft intelligence gleaned and operationalised may be obscured by ‘hard’ performance metrics which dominate resource-allocation processes and priority-setting. Governors were involved in practices that symbolised deliberative involvement but resulted in further opportunities for legitimising executive decisions.
No free access to the article but knowing that several of my friends will have aninterest in this item I here provide a link to the references.
Maybe you can read the full article through the hospital library.
Abstract
NHS Foundation Trust (FT) hospitals in England have complex internal governance arrangements. They may be considered to exhibit meta-regulatory characteristics to the extent that governors are able to promote deliberative values and steer internal governance processes towards wider regulatory goals. Yet, while recent studies of NHS FT hospital governance have explored FT governors and examined FT hospital boards to consider executive oversight, there is currently no detailed investigation of interactions between these two groups.
Drawing on observational and interview data from four case-study sites, we trace interactions between the actors involved; explore their understandings of events; and consider the extent to which the proposed benefits of meta-regulation were realised in practice.
Findings show that while governors provided both a conscience and contribution to internal and external governance arrangements, the meta-regulatory role was largely symbolic and limited to compliance and legitimation of executive actions.
Thus while the meta-regulatory ‘architecture’ for governor involvement may be considered effective, the soft intelligence gleaned and operationalised may be obscured by ‘hard’ performance metrics which dominate resource-allocation processes and priority-setting. Governors were involved in practices that symbolised deliberative involvement but resulted in further opportunities for legitimising executive decisions.
No free access to the article but knowing that several of my friends will have aninterest in this item I here provide a link to the references.
Maybe you can read the full article through the hospital library.
When Did Nature Become Moral?
an article by Hillary Angelo in Public Books via 3 Quarks Daily with thanks to S. Abbas Raza
When did nature become a good for cities? When did city dwellers start imagining nature to be something they were missing? Today, urbanites’ moral associations with nature are so obvious and widely shared that a recent New Yorker cartoon of a couple at the dinner table was captioned: “Is this from the community garden? It tastes sanctimonious.” For better or worse, most of us are so steeped in this view of nature that it is hard to imagine how it could be otherwise. But it once was.
Many believe that nature became an ethical force in city life—a process Justin Farrell calls the “moralization of nature” for urban inhabitants—on account of 19th-century industrial cities. The lack of access to clean air, water, sunshine, and green space in crowded, polluted urban environments—in contrast to a real nature “out there”—transformed nature from a material into a moral good. These unnatural cities, the argument goes, forced people to see nature as not just something good, but something good for you: spiritually, emotionally, even physically.
Continue reading
I found this extremely interesting. H
When did nature become a good for cities? When did city dwellers start imagining nature to be something they were missing? Today, urbanites’ moral associations with nature are so obvious and widely shared that a recent New Yorker cartoon of a couple at the dinner table was captioned: “Is this from the community garden? It tastes sanctimonious.” For better or worse, most of us are so steeped in this view of nature that it is hard to imagine how it could be otherwise. But it once was.
Many believe that nature became an ethical force in city life—a process Justin Farrell calls the “moralization of nature” for urban inhabitants—on account of 19th-century industrial cities. The lack of access to clean air, water, sunshine, and green space in crowded, polluted urban environments—in contrast to a real nature “out there”—transformed nature from a material into a moral good. These unnatural cities, the argument goes, forced people to see nature as not just something good, but something good for you: spiritually, emotionally, even physically.
Continue reading
I found this extremely interesting. H
Saturday, 27 July 2019
10 for today starts with a good story about rats and then wanders around things I found interesting to end up with a psychedelic Paul McCartney
'We're winning': how a Canadian province the size of France stays rat-free
via the Guardian by Ashifa Kassam in Langdon, Alberta
Many Albertans have never actually seen a rat. Photograph: blickwinkel / Alamy/Alamy
Alberta is one of the world’s only places without a breeding population of rats – thanks to skilled pest controllers and a take-no-prisoners approach.
Continue reading
==============================
Oscar Wilde's lecture tour of the US
via the OUP blog by MICHÈLE MENDELSSOHN
Oscar Wilde, photographic print on card mount, circa 1882, by Napoleon Sarony. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
After Oscar Wilde graduated from Oxford, he moved to London and fell into unemployment and although he tried his hand at different jobs he couldn’t find any stable source of income. However, he did become friends with some of the celebrities of the day and attracted the attention of the caricaturist of Punch magazine, which eventually brought him to the attention of theatre promoter Richard D’Oyly Carte.
In 1881, D’Oyly Carte offered Wilde the opportunity to travel to the US as the advertisement of the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta Patience or Bunthorne’s Bride, which was the sensation of the day. This proved to be a pact with the devil as the operetta made fun of Wilde and people who cared about art. Nevertheless, on Christmas Eve 1881, a 27-year-old Oscar Wilde wrapped himself in a fur cloak, boarded the SS Arizona at Liverpool, and set off to the US for his 50 date lecture tour across the country.
Continue reading
==============================
The Colonial Italian Empire
via About History
The colonies of Italy are a combination of European and overseas territories of Italy in relation to Italy, which in the 19th and 20th centuries were colonially dependent on this metropolis and sometimes called the Italian colonial empire.
Continue reading
==============================
The First Abstract Painter Was a Woman
via ARts & Letters Daily: Nana Asfour in the PARIS REVIEW
HILMA AF KLINT, GROUP IX/SUW, THE SWAN, NO. 17, 1915
In 1905, the Swedish female artist Hilma af Klint began cleansing herself, in preparation for a series of artworks that would be executed at the directives of someone named Amaliel. More than a century later, those paintings would force a rewriting of the history of abstraction. According to the notebooks the artist left behind, Amaliel was one of several guiding spirits who spoke to her from above (and within), instructing her and even leading her hand. During her lifetime, at the behest of the spirits, af Klint produced more than one thousand works, but they remained largely within the confines of her studio. Even though she toiled as a commercial artist, painting portraits and landscapes, she exhibited only a few of the abstract paintings and drawings she created. She worried that the world wasn’t ready to see them, and when she died in a tram accident, in 1944, at the age of eighty-one, her will ordained that they not be shown for at least another twenty years.
Continue reading
==============================
Making taffy is an absolutely fascinating process
via Boing Boing by Seamus Bellamy
Discovering how Salty Road makes their freaking delicious taffy has weakened my resolve to stick to my diet. The only thing saving me is that I'm currently in Canada, putting the company's confections well out of reach.
==============================
Scientist's accidental discovery makes coral grow 40x faster
via Big Think by Evan Fleischer
==============================
The Screenwriting Mystic Who Wanted to Be the American Führer
William Dudley Pelley and his Silver Shirts were just one of many Nazi-sympathizers operating in the United States in the 1930s
via Arts & Letters Daily: Jason Daly in Smithsonian.com
:focal(472x229:473x230)/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/92/f9/92f96a02-b505-4fcb-8583-d6abe2b8d2f9/gettyimages-515136988-web.jpg)
William Dudley Pelley, Silver Shirt leader, pictured as he appeared before Congress. (Bettmann)
When Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, an American named William Dudley Pelley believed the Führer’s rise was the fulfillment of a prophecy revealed to him by the spirit world in 1929. It was a sign, he thought, ushering in his own ascent to power, and he announced the creation of the Silver Legion, a Christian militia dedicated to the spiritual and political renewal of the United States. Jesus, Pelley reported, even dropped a line to say he approved of the plan.
Continue reading
==============================
Drinking Amontillado sherry in Andalusia, my mind turns to Queen Isabella of Castile
via the New Statesman by Nina Caplan
Would a few sips have made her a more tolerant ruler?
KEVIN MALLETT/GALLERY S
In Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Andalusia, high above the Atlantic coast, a pale stone castle shines in almost perpetual sunlight. En route from one cool, dark sherry bodega to another, my imagination was caught by a sign declaring it the place where Queen Isabella of Castile (1451–1504) first saw the sea.
Continue reading
==============================
A Short Analysis of Katherine Philips’ ‘To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship’
via Interesting Literature
‘To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship’ is one of the best-known poems written by the mid-seventeenth-century poet Katherine Philips (1631/2-1664). Philips lived through the English Civil War (and wrote a poem about the execution of King Charles I), and was married at the age of 16 to a man some 38 (yes, thirty-eight) years her senior. ‘To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship’ is addressed to Anne Owen, one of Philips’ closest female friends.
Continue reading
==============================
The time Paul McCartney “saw God“
via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
Yep, the Beatle was tripping balls. Specifically, he had just taken a hit of DMT with famed 1960s art dealer Robert "Groovy Bob" Fraser.
Continue reading
via the Guardian by Ashifa Kassam in Langdon, Alberta
Many Albertans have never actually seen a rat. Photograph: blickwinkel / Alamy/Alamy
Alberta is one of the world’s only places without a breeding population of rats – thanks to skilled pest controllers and a take-no-prisoners approach.
Continue reading
==============================
via the OUP blog by MICHÈLE MENDELSSOHN
Oscar Wilde, photographic print on card mount, circa 1882, by Napoleon Sarony. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
After Oscar Wilde graduated from Oxford, he moved to London and fell into unemployment and although he tried his hand at different jobs he couldn’t find any stable source of income. However, he did become friends with some of the celebrities of the day and attracted the attention of the caricaturist of Punch magazine, which eventually brought him to the attention of theatre promoter Richard D’Oyly Carte.
In 1881, D’Oyly Carte offered Wilde the opportunity to travel to the US as the advertisement of the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta Patience or Bunthorne’s Bride, which was the sensation of the day. This proved to be a pact with the devil as the operetta made fun of Wilde and people who cared about art. Nevertheless, on Christmas Eve 1881, a 27-year-old Oscar Wilde wrapped himself in a fur cloak, boarded the SS Arizona at Liverpool, and set off to the US for his 50 date lecture tour across the country.
Continue reading
==============================
via About History
The colonies of Italy are a combination of European and overseas territories of Italy in relation to Italy, which in the 19th and 20th centuries were colonially dependent on this metropolis and sometimes called the Italian colonial empire.
Continue reading
==============================
via ARts & Letters Daily: Nana Asfour in the PARIS REVIEW
HILMA AF KLINT, GROUP IX/SUW, THE SWAN, NO. 17, 1915
In 1905, the Swedish female artist Hilma af Klint began cleansing herself, in preparation for a series of artworks that would be executed at the directives of someone named Amaliel. More than a century later, those paintings would force a rewriting of the history of abstraction. According to the notebooks the artist left behind, Amaliel was one of several guiding spirits who spoke to her from above (and within), instructing her and even leading her hand. During her lifetime, at the behest of the spirits, af Klint produced more than one thousand works, but they remained largely within the confines of her studio. Even though she toiled as a commercial artist, painting portraits and landscapes, she exhibited only a few of the abstract paintings and drawings she created. She worried that the world wasn’t ready to see them, and when she died in a tram accident, in 1944, at the age of eighty-one, her will ordained that they not be shown for at least another twenty years.
Continue reading
==============================
via Boing Boing by Seamus Bellamy
Discovering how Salty Road makes their freaking delicious taffy has weakened my resolve to stick to my diet. The only thing saving me is that I'm currently in Canada, putting the company's confections well out of reach.
==============================
via Big Think by Evan Fleischer
- There might be hope for our oceans, thanks to one clumsy moment in a coral tank.
- David Vaughan at the Mote Laboratory is growing coral 40 times faster than in the wild.
- It typically takes coral 25 to 75 years to reach sexual maturity. With a new coral fragmentation method, it takes just 3.
- Scientists and conservationists plan to plant 100,000 pieces of coral around the Florida Reef Tract by 2019 and millions more around the world in the years to come.
==============================
William Dudley Pelley and his Silver Shirts were just one of many Nazi-sympathizers operating in the United States in the 1930s
via Arts & Letters Daily: Jason Daly in Smithsonian.com
William Dudley Pelley, Silver Shirt leader, pictured as he appeared before Congress. (Bettmann)
When Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, an American named William Dudley Pelley believed the Führer’s rise was the fulfillment of a prophecy revealed to him by the spirit world in 1929. It was a sign, he thought, ushering in his own ascent to power, and he announced the creation of the Silver Legion, a Christian militia dedicated to the spiritual and political renewal of the United States. Jesus, Pelley reported, even dropped a line to say he approved of the plan.
Continue reading
==============================
via the New Statesman by Nina Caplan
Would a few sips have made her a more tolerant ruler?
KEVIN MALLETT/GALLERY S
In Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Andalusia, high above the Atlantic coast, a pale stone castle shines in almost perpetual sunlight. En route from one cool, dark sherry bodega to another, my imagination was caught by a sign declaring it the place where Queen Isabella of Castile (1451–1504) first saw the sea.
Continue reading
==============================
via Interesting Literature
‘To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship’ is one of the best-known poems written by the mid-seventeenth-century poet Katherine Philips (1631/2-1664). Philips lived through the English Civil War (and wrote a poem about the execution of King Charles I), and was married at the age of 16 to a man some 38 (yes, thirty-eight) years her senior. ‘To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship’ is addressed to Anne Owen, one of Philips’ closest female friends.
Continue reading
==============================
via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
Yep, the Beatle was tripping balls. Specifically, he had just taken a hit of DMT with famed 1960s art dealer Robert "Groovy Bob" Fraser.
Continue reading
Friday, 26 July 2019
The future is ours: Women, automation and equality in the digital age
a new IPPR publication
Following the Commission on Economic Justice's work on automation, IPPR has examined the impact automation could have on women. Our new report The Future is Ours: Women, automation and equality in the digital age shows that working women are more than twice as likely as working men to hold jobs with high potential for automation. But when workers are cheaper than machines, there is little incentive to invest in automating technologies.
The report argues that without intervention gender inequality could deepen as women are stuck in low-pay roles and less able to access new roles in the economy. It is imperative that government ensures that the increasing use of robots, cognitive technologies and artificial intelligence don't widen existing gender pay and wealth gaps.
Managed correctly, automation could increase productivity. These gains could be used to increase low incomes and to transform how we value key job roles that have historically been characterised by feminised work performed primarily by women, for low wages. Increased productivity could also allow us to produce the same amount with less work: we could choose to reduce working time, potentially relieving the 'double shift' of paid and unpaid work faced by many women and facilitating a more equal balance of unpaid work between genders.
Technology is not destiny. Now is our chance to accelerate automation to create a more just economy. To realise these benefits will require automation to be led by those it affects, and that must include women.
Summary report (PDF 2pp)
Full text (PDF 56pp)
Following the Commission on Economic Justice's work on automation, IPPR has examined the impact automation could have on women. Our new report The Future is Ours: Women, automation and equality in the digital age shows that working women are more than twice as likely as working men to hold jobs with high potential for automation. But when workers are cheaper than machines, there is little incentive to invest in automating technologies.
The report argues that without intervention gender inequality could deepen as women are stuck in low-pay roles and less able to access new roles in the economy. It is imperative that government ensures that the increasing use of robots, cognitive technologies and artificial intelligence don't widen existing gender pay and wealth gaps.
Managed correctly, automation could increase productivity. These gains could be used to increase low incomes and to transform how we value key job roles that have historically been characterised by feminised work performed primarily by women, for low wages. Increased productivity could also allow us to produce the same amount with less work: we could choose to reduce working time, potentially relieving the 'double shift' of paid and unpaid work faced by many women and facilitating a more equal balance of unpaid work between genders.
Technology is not destiny. Now is our chance to accelerate automation to create a more just economy. To realise these benefits will require automation to be led by those it affects, and that must include women.
Summary report (PDF 2pp)
Full text (PDF 56pp)
Overview of national qualifications framework developments in Europe 2019
Cedefop's concise guide to national qualifications framework developments in 39 European countries (28 EU Member States as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Kosovo, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey) in 2019.
PDF 10pp in English
This type of publication used to be the bread-and-butter stuff of my work. Now it's so peripheral to the blogging that I do in retirement that I almost didn’t copy it across!
PDF 10pp in English
This type of publication used to be the bread-and-butter stuff of my work. Now it's so peripheral to the blogging that I do in retirement that I almost didn’t copy it across!
Lessons from testing decades of forgotten rape kits: serial rapists are common, they don't follow a pattern, they're not very bright, and they're often the same men who commit acquaintance rape
a post by Cory Doctorow for the Boing Boing blog
Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit, Victim, Safariland
America has an epidemic of untested rape kits, thanks to the institutional misogyny of police departments and prosecutors, especially when it comes to rapes committed against poor and racialized women.
An Obama-era subsidy for clearing rape kit backlogs, combined with DNA testing, has completely upended the conventional wisdom on rapists and how they commit their crimes.
The first insight is that serial rapists are very common and very prolific. Police departments had assumed that rapes with different types of victims and different techniques were committed by different men, but it turns out that serial rapists aren't meticulous and careful repeaters of patterns: they're chaotic and impatient and even if they're looking for a specific kind of woman to attack, if they can't find someone who matches their desires, they'll just attack any handy woman.
So rapists also aren't very smart about their crimes: their poor impulse control leaves behind plenty of physical evidence that can be used to convict them (Former Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty: "These are not the Napoleons of crime. They’re morons. We were letting morons beat us"). They get away with it because the cops don't investigate rapes.
Continue reading
Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit, Victim, Safariland
America has an epidemic of untested rape kits, thanks to the institutional misogyny of police departments and prosecutors, especially when it comes to rapes committed against poor and racialized women.
An Obama-era subsidy for clearing rape kit backlogs, combined with DNA testing, has completely upended the conventional wisdom on rapists and how they commit their crimes.
The first insight is that serial rapists are very common and very prolific. Police departments had assumed that rapes with different types of victims and different techniques were committed by different men, but it turns out that serial rapists aren't meticulous and careful repeaters of patterns: they're chaotic and impatient and even if they're looking for a specific kind of woman to attack, if they can't find someone who matches their desires, they'll just attack any handy woman.
So rapists also aren't very smart about their crimes: their poor impulse control leaves behind plenty of physical evidence that can be used to convict them (Former Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty: "These are not the Napoleons of crime. They’re morons. We were letting morons beat us"). They get away with it because the cops don't investigate rapes.
Continue reading
Differences in how macaques monitor others: Does serotonin play a central role?
an article by Hannah Weinberg‐Wolf and Steve W.C . Chang (Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA) published in WIREs Cognitive Science Volume 10 Issue 4 (July/August 2019)
Abstract
Primates must balance the need to monitor other conspecifics to gain social information while not losing other resource opportunities.
We consolidate evidence across the fields of primatology, psychology, and neuroscience to examine individual, population, and species differences in how primates, particularly macaques, monitor conspecifics.
We particularly consider the role of serotonin in mediating social competency via social attention, aggression, and dominance behaviors
Finally, we consider how the evolution of variation in social tolerance, aggression, and social monitoring might be explained by differences in serotonergic function in macaques.
Abstract
Primates must balance the need to monitor other conspecifics to gain social information while not losing other resource opportunities.
We consolidate evidence across the fields of primatology, psychology, and neuroscience to examine individual, population, and species differences in how primates, particularly macaques, monitor conspecifics.
We particularly consider the role of serotonin in mediating social competency via social attention, aggression, and dominance behaviors
Finally, we consider how the evolution of variation in social tolerance, aggression, and social monitoring might be explained by differences in serotonergic function in macaques.
Digital hoarding behaviours: Measurement and evaluation
an article by Nick Neave, Pam Briggs, Kerry McKellar and Elizabeth Sillence (Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) published in Computers in Human Behavior Volume 96 (July 2019)
Highlights
Abstract
The social and psychological characteristics of individuals who hoard physical items are quite well understood, however very little is known about the psychological characteristics of those who hoard digital items and the kinds of material they hoard.
In this study, we designed a new questionnaire (Digital Behaviours Questionnaire: DBQ) comprising 2 sections: the Digital Hoarding Questionnaire (DHQ) assessing two key components of physical hoarding (accumulation and difficulty discarding); and the second measuring the extent of digital hoarding in the workplace (Digital Behaviours in the Workplace Questionnaire: DBWQ).
In an initial study comprising 424 adults we established the psychometric properties of the questionnaires. In a second study, we presented revised versions of the questionnaires to a new sample of 203 adults, and confirmed their validity and reliability. Both samples revealed that digital hoarding was common (with emails being the most commonly hoarded items) and that hoarding behaviours at work could be predicted by the 10 item DHQ.
Digital hoarding was significantly higher in employees who identified as having ‘data protection responsibilities’, suggesting that the problem may be influenced by working practices. In sum, we have validated a new psychometric measure to assess digital hoarding, documented some of its psychological characteristics, and shown that it can predict digital hoarding in the workplace.
Highlights
- We designed a new questionnaire to measure digital hoarding behaviours.
- In two large samples we validated the questionnaire.
- Digital hoarding is common and partly reflects the job demands associated with data protection.
- Digital hoarding is associated with characteristics of physical hoarding.
Abstract
The social and psychological characteristics of individuals who hoard physical items are quite well understood, however very little is known about the psychological characteristics of those who hoard digital items and the kinds of material they hoard.
In this study, we designed a new questionnaire (Digital Behaviours Questionnaire: DBQ) comprising 2 sections: the Digital Hoarding Questionnaire (DHQ) assessing two key components of physical hoarding (accumulation and difficulty discarding); and the second measuring the extent of digital hoarding in the workplace (Digital Behaviours in the Workplace Questionnaire: DBWQ).
In an initial study comprising 424 adults we established the psychometric properties of the questionnaires. In a second study, we presented revised versions of the questionnaires to a new sample of 203 adults, and confirmed their validity and reliability. Both samples revealed that digital hoarding was common (with emails being the most commonly hoarded items) and that hoarding behaviours at work could be predicted by the 10 item DHQ.
Digital hoarding was significantly higher in employees who identified as having ‘data protection responsibilities’, suggesting that the problem may be influenced by working practices. In sum, we have validated a new psychometric measure to assess digital hoarding, documented some of its psychological characteristics, and shown that it can predict digital hoarding in the workplace.
The Public Animateur: mission-led innovation and the “smart state” in Europe
an article by Kevin Morgan (Cardiff University, Wales, UK) and Pedro Marques (Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain) published in Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Volume 12 Issue 2 (July 2019)
Abstract
The primary aim of this article is to reprise the debate about the role and competence of the state in innovation and development, building on the contributions of new industrial policy.
It then examines the experience of one of the most ambitious mission-led innovation programmes ever launched in Europe, the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) programme, which has been influenced by industrial policy ideas.
The article also identifies a number of challenges facing the S3 programme, particularly in the less-developed regions of the European Union, where these challenges are most pronounced.
JEL Classification: R11, P48, O38, L52
Abstract
The primary aim of this article is to reprise the debate about the role and competence of the state in innovation and development, building on the contributions of new industrial policy.
It then examines the experience of one of the most ambitious mission-led innovation programmes ever launched in Europe, the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) programme, which has been influenced by industrial policy ideas.
The article also identifies a number of challenges facing the S3 programme, particularly in the less-developed regions of the European Union, where these challenges are most pronounced.
JEL Classification: R11, P48, O38, L52
Thursday, 25 July 2019
Mind the gaps: Universal Credit and self-employment in the United Kingdom
an article by Kevin Caraher and Enrico Reuter (University of York, UK) published in Journal of Poverty and Social Justice Volume 27 Number 2 (June 2019)
Abstract
Self-employment in the United Kingdom rose steadily until 2017, as part of wider changes in labour markets towards more flexible and potentially more vulnerable forms of employment. At the same time, welfare reform has continued under the current and previous governments, with a further expansion of conditionality with respect to benefit recipients.
The incremental introduction of Universal Credit is likely to intensify the subjection of vulnerable categories of the self-employed to welfare conditionalities and to thus accentuate the ambivalent nature of self-employment.
This article analyses the impact of Universal Credit on the self-employed by first discussing elements of precarity faced by the self-employed, and, second, by exploring the consequences of the roll-out of Universal Credit for those self-employed people who are reliant on the social protection system.
Abstract
Self-employment in the United Kingdom rose steadily until 2017, as part of wider changes in labour markets towards more flexible and potentially more vulnerable forms of employment. At the same time, welfare reform has continued under the current and previous governments, with a further expansion of conditionality with respect to benefit recipients.
The incremental introduction of Universal Credit is likely to intensify the subjection of vulnerable categories of the self-employed to welfare conditionalities and to thus accentuate the ambivalent nature of self-employment.
This article analyses the impact of Universal Credit on the self-employed by first discussing elements of precarity faced by the self-employed, and, second, by exploring the consequences of the roll-out of Universal Credit for those self-employed people who are reliant on the social protection system.
Understanding Retirement Requires Getting Inside People’s Stories: A Call for More Qualitative Research
an article by Teresa M Amabile (Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA) published in Work, Aging and Retirement Volume 5 Issue 3 (July 2019)
Abstract
Quantitative research, using surveys and archival data, has contributed much to the field’s understanding of the retirement transition, the factors influencing it, and its consequences.
In this commentary, I argue that, in order to move to a deeper understanding of retirement decisions, retirement processes, and retirement experiences, researchers must add rigorous qualitative studies to their portfolios. Only by asking open-ended questions of people approaching, moving through, or living in retirement can we illuminate deeper psychological issues such as identity maintenance and change, the reconstruction of life narratives and structures, the reciprocal influence of relationships on individual decisions and experiences, and the confrontation of existential questions about the meaning of one’s life
Abstract
Quantitative research, using surveys and archival data, has contributed much to the field’s understanding of the retirement transition, the factors influencing it, and its consequences.
In this commentary, I argue that, in order to move to a deeper understanding of retirement decisions, retirement processes, and retirement experiences, researchers must add rigorous qualitative studies to their portfolios. Only by asking open-ended questions of people approaching, moving through, or living in retirement can we illuminate deeper psychological issues such as identity maintenance and change, the reconstruction of life narratives and structures, the reciprocal influence of relationships on individual decisions and experiences, and the confrontation of existential questions about the meaning of one’s life
Learning to Laze Posted by: Eric Weiner by Eric J. Weiner From Saint Pélagie Prison in 1883, Paul Lafargue wrote The Right to Be Lazy, an anti-capitalist polemic that challenged the hegemony of the "right to work" discourse. The focus of his outrage was the liberal elite as well as the proletarians. His central argument is summed up in this quote: Capitalist... Continue reading... ____
a post by Jen Piccici for the Tiny Buddha blog
“When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.” ~Fred Rogers
I was immediately uncomfortable when the older gentleman rode up on his bike and loudly told us that our kids shouldn’t be riding their bikes on the velodrome; it was against the rules.
If it had been just me and my daughter, I would have said no problem and left the area, maybe even apologized. But I wasn’t alone, I was with my friend and her son, and my friend doesn’t back down from confrontation like I do.
Instead of saying okay to him, she pressed him to explain himself. Where was the sign that said the kids couldn’t be riding their bikes (as this man was)? What was the issue?
As I stood by uncomfortably, the two of them hashed things out. She turned to her son, age five, and told him that if he continued to ride on the tilted area of the track, this man might accidentally run into him, and asked if he understood that. Her son nodded his head.
Suddenly, in the midst of the conversation, the man softened. He said he was just worried about hurting the kids, he wasn’t really mad, and soon he started coming up with suggestions for how the kids could stay safe. He said he’d call out before he got to where they were on the track, and then pointed out a blue line where, were they to stay below it, they would be safe, as he’d ride above it.
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“When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.” ~Fred Rogers
I was immediately uncomfortable when the older gentleman rode up on his bike and loudly told us that our kids shouldn’t be riding their bikes on the velodrome; it was against the rules.
If it had been just me and my daughter, I would have said no problem and left the area, maybe even apologized. But I wasn’t alone, I was with my friend and her son, and my friend doesn’t back down from confrontation like I do.
Instead of saying okay to him, she pressed him to explain himself. Where was the sign that said the kids couldn’t be riding their bikes (as this man was)? What was the issue?
As I stood by uncomfortably, the two of them hashed things out. She turned to her son, age five, and told him that if he continued to ride on the tilted area of the track, this man might accidentally run into him, and asked if he understood that. Her son nodded his head.
Suddenly, in the midst of the conversation, the man softened. He said he was just worried about hurting the kids, he wasn’t really mad, and soon he started coming up with suggestions for how the kids could stay safe. He said he’d call out before he got to where they were on the track, and then pointed out a blue line where, were they to stay below it, they would be safe, as he’d ride above it.
Continue reading
Is irrational thinking associated with lower earnings and happiness?
an article by Shoko Yamane (Osaka University, Toyonaka, Japan), Hiroyasu Yoneda (Keiai University, Chiba-shi, Japan) and Yoshiro Tsutsui (Konan University, Kobe, Japan) published in Mind & Society Volume 18 Issue 1 (June 2019)
Abstract
This study investigates the individual outcomes of irrational thinking, including belief in the paranormal and non-scientific thinking. These modes of thinking are identified through factor analysis of eleven questions asked in a large-scale survey conducted in Japan in 2008. Income and happiness are used as measures of individual performance. We propose two hypotheses.
Previous studies in finance lead us to consider
We employ the Mincer-type wage function as the income equation. Income, sex, and age are controlled in the happiness equation. Analysis supports both hypotheses, which highlights the complex features of irrationality.
Although irrationality results in diminishing financial profitability, the component of belief in the paranormal improves the psychological state.
JEL Classification: D03
Abstract
This study investigates the individual outcomes of irrational thinking, including belief in the paranormal and non-scientific thinking. These modes of thinking are identified through factor analysis of eleven questions asked in a large-scale survey conducted in Japan in 2008. Income and happiness are used as measures of individual performance. We propose two hypotheses.
Previous studies in finance lead us to consider
- Hypothesis 1 that both higher belief in the paranormal and non-scientific thinking are associated with lower income.
- Literature on the association between religion, the paranormal, and happiness suggest Hypothesis 2 that higher belief in the paranormal is associated with greater happiness, while higher non-scientific thinking is associated with greater unhappiness.
We employ the Mincer-type wage function as the income equation. Income, sex, and age are controlled in the happiness equation. Analysis supports both hypotheses, which highlights the complex features of irrationality.
Although irrationality results in diminishing financial profitability, the component of belief in the paranormal improves the psychological state.
JEL Classification: D03
Trump's trade war cost the world $2t, wiping 6% off the global one percent's books
a post by Cory Doctorow for the Boing Boing blog
Trump's trade war has reduced the world's net worth by $2 trillion ($1.5 trillion of which came off the balance sheets of the 1%), with losses most deeply felt in China and Europe; North and South Americans took smaller losses, while the Middle East actually made gains: the richest Saudis have grown 7% richer during the trade war, while the richest Kuwaitis are 8% richer.
All in all, the global 1% saw a 6% decline in their wealth.
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Trump's trade war has reduced the world's net worth by $2 trillion ($1.5 trillion of which came off the balance sheets of the 1%), with losses most deeply felt in China and Europe; North and South Americans took smaller losses, while the Middle East actually made gains: the richest Saudis have grown 7% richer during the trade war, while the richest Kuwaitis are 8% richer.
All in all, the global 1% saw a 6% decline in their wealth.
Continue reading
The ‘Other Britain’
a post by Heidi Allen MP (Member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee) for the CPAG (Child Poverty ACtion Group[ blog
A little over a century ago, the cry among social reformers concerned about the plight of the poor was for a safety net to be stitched together by the state, to catch any of our fellow citizens who were falling into the clutches of destitution.
Had those same reformers witnessed what we have picked up during the past six months – from visits to food banks in Poplar, Waterloo, Leicester, Morecambe, Chester, and Glasgow – they would be appalled by the extent of hunger, homelessness, and insecurity afflicting so many families and vulnerable individuals in our country.
Here we are introduced to an ‘Other Britain’ where entire communities are not only bypassed by economic growth but are also being pushed through gaping holes in the safety net. One support worker in Chester, for example, told us that, “I don’t meet a single person now who isn’t cold and hungry.”
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Read the whole report: The ‘Other Britain’ and the failure of the welfare state
A little over a century ago, the cry among social reformers concerned about the plight of the poor was for a safety net to be stitched together by the state, to catch any of our fellow citizens who were falling into the clutches of destitution.
Had those same reformers witnessed what we have picked up during the past six months – from visits to food banks in Poplar, Waterloo, Leicester, Morecambe, Chester, and Glasgow – they would be appalled by the extent of hunger, homelessness, and insecurity afflicting so many families and vulnerable individuals in our country.
Here we are introduced to an ‘Other Britain’ where entire communities are not only bypassed by economic growth but are also being pushed through gaping holes in the safety net. One support worker in Chester, for example, told us that, “I don’t meet a single person now who isn’t cold and hungry.”
Continue reading
Read the whole report: The ‘Other Britain’ and the failure of the welfare state
The demand for advice at the European Union level: policy advice politicization in the European Commission
an article by Anastasia Rogacheva (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore) published in Policy Studies Volume 40 Issue 3-4 (2019)
Abstract
The study focuses on the role of policy advice brokers – political advisors – pertaining to the issue of politicization in the European Commission (EC). The study conceptualizes politicization as increased use of political advisors – known as “cabinets” in the EC context – by the Commissioners to ensure political direction over the work of the civil service.
Commissioners’ private cabinets fulfil several functions, one of which is political steering of the policy work in the departments.
The study argues that as a result of the NPM-style reform and strengthening of the civil service accountability to the political level, the political steering function of the cabinet advisors grew in importance.
To examine whether the political steering function of cabinets became more important after the reform, the study analyzed the lists of cabinets’ responsibilities available online from the Prodi to the Junker Commissions. The content of the lists of responsibilities was first coded and then statistically analyzed testing for the effect of the reform on the structure of cabinets’ responsibilities.
Abstract
The study focuses on the role of policy advice brokers – political advisors – pertaining to the issue of politicization in the European Commission (EC). The study conceptualizes politicization as increased use of political advisors – known as “cabinets” in the EC context – by the Commissioners to ensure political direction over the work of the civil service.
Commissioners’ private cabinets fulfil several functions, one of which is political steering of the policy work in the departments.
The study argues that as a result of the NPM-style reform and strengthening of the civil service accountability to the political level, the political steering function of the cabinet advisors grew in importance.
To examine whether the political steering function of cabinets became more important after the reform, the study analyzed the lists of cabinets’ responsibilities available online from the Prodi to the Junker Commissions. The content of the lists of responsibilities was first coded and then statistically analyzed testing for the effect of the reform on the structure of cabinets’ responsibilities.
Wednesday, 24 July 2019
10 Insanely Popular Ways to Weaken Your Self-Confidence
a post by Marc Chernoff for the marc & angel HACKLIFE blog [via World of Psychology]
You can have all the knowledge in the world, but it means nothing without building up the confidence to do something with it.
Two decades ago, when the bullies at our high school called her a nerd for being a virgin and a straight-A student, my best friend Sara smiled and confidently said, “Thank you. I’m really proud of it.” She honestly was. What those bullies said never bothered her one bit. And this is just one tiny example of Sara’s incredible self-confidence.
I was reminded of Sara this morning when I received an email from a long-time blog subscriber (subscribe here) named Lane who is struggling with a similar bullying issue at a small community college where he’s taking classes. After describing his predicament in detail, he ended his email with this:
“I love your books and blog. Both have helped me get through a very low point in my life. But even though I’ve made progress, I often struggle with my self-confidence. These bullies really get the best of me. And I know my shattered confidence is really taking a toll on me. Therefore, what I need now more than ever is to learn how to walk in a more confident person’s footsteps, by changing the behaviors that kill my confidence.”
So, pulling from over a decade of experience as a life coach, in an effort to help Lane walk more closely Sara’s footsteps, here are some insanely popular confidence-killing behaviors to avoid:
Continue reading and be reminded of what you already knew but together in one place in accessible language.
You can have all the knowledge in the world, but it means nothing without building up the confidence to do something with it.
Two decades ago, when the bullies at our high school called her a nerd for being a virgin and a straight-A student, my best friend Sara smiled and confidently said, “Thank you. I’m really proud of it.” She honestly was. What those bullies said never bothered her one bit. And this is just one tiny example of Sara’s incredible self-confidence.
I was reminded of Sara this morning when I received an email from a long-time blog subscriber (subscribe here) named Lane who is struggling with a similar bullying issue at a small community college where he’s taking classes. After describing his predicament in detail, he ended his email with this:
“I love your books and blog. Both have helped me get through a very low point in my life. But even though I’ve made progress, I often struggle with my self-confidence. These bullies really get the best of me. And I know my shattered confidence is really taking a toll on me. Therefore, what I need now more than ever is to learn how to walk in a more confident person’s footsteps, by changing the behaviors that kill my confidence.”
So, pulling from over a decade of experience as a life coach, in an effort to help Lane walk more closely Sara’s footsteps, here are some insanely popular confidence-killing behaviors to avoid:
Continue reading and be reminded of what you already knew but together in one place in accessible language.
Schizophrenia here is different than schizophrenia there — why?
a post by Matt Davis for the Big Think blog
Most diseases don't differ depending on where you're from. Schizophrenia, however, is heavily dependent on your culture.
I wish the image would copy to here but you will have to link through to see it.
Whether you're in North America, China, or the Antarctic, if you're diagnosed with diabetes, it's the same kind of diabetes. If you get lung cancer, it's not going to be a different kind of lung cancer just because you live in India. But schizophrenia can take wildly different forms depending on whether you're from Europe, Japan, Pakistan, or any other place on Earth.
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Most diseases don't differ depending on where you're from. Schizophrenia, however, is heavily dependent on your culture.
I wish the image would copy to here but you will have to link through to see it.
- Since schizophrenia is a disease of the mind, the cultural context it occurs in can have a serious impact on how it manifests.
- Cultures in which the family is more important will have delusions centered around their family, cultures in which religion is important often have religious delusions, and so on.
- This growing understanding of the cultural sensitivity of schizophrenia highlights how much our identities are dependent on the cultures we grow up in.
Whether you're in North America, China, or the Antarctic, if you're diagnosed with diabetes, it's the same kind of diabetes. If you get lung cancer, it's not going to be a different kind of lung cancer just because you live in India. But schizophrenia can take wildly different forms depending on whether you're from Europe, Japan, Pakistan, or any other place on Earth.
Continue reading
A Reminder That 'Fake News' Is An Information Literacy Problem - Not A Technology Problem
an article by Kalev Leetasru for Forbes [with grateful thanks to Stephen Abrams]
Beneath the spread of all “fake news,” misinformation, disinformation, digital falsehoods and foreign influence lies society’s failure to teach its citizenry information literacy: how to think critically about the deluge of information that confronts them in our modern digital age. Instead, society has prioritized speed over accuracy, sharing over reading, commenting over understanding. Children are taught to regurgitate what others tell them and to rely on digital assistants to curate the world rather than learn to navigate the informational landscape on their own. Schools no longer teach source triangulation, conflict arbitration, separating fact from opinion, citation chaining, conducting research or even the basic concept of verification and validation. In short, we’ve stopped teaching society how to think about information, leaving our citizenry adrift in the digital wilderness increasingly saturated with falsehoods without so much as a compass or map to help them find their way to safety. The solution is to teach the world's citizenry the basics of information literacy.
It is the accepted truth of Silicon Valley that every problem has a technological solution.
Most importantly, in the eyes of the Valley, every problem can be solved exclusively through technology without requiring society to do anything on its own. A few algorithmic tweaks, a few extra lines of code and all the world’s problems can be simply coded out of existence.
Sadly for the Valley’s technological determinists, this is far from the truth.
Unfortunately, this mindset has survived to drive today’s “fake news” efforts.
Continue reading
Beneath the spread of all “fake news,” misinformation, disinformation, digital falsehoods and foreign influence lies society’s failure to teach its citizenry information literacy: how to think critically about the deluge of information that confronts them in our modern digital age. Instead, society has prioritized speed over accuracy, sharing over reading, commenting over understanding. Children are taught to regurgitate what others tell them and to rely on digital assistants to curate the world rather than learn to navigate the informational landscape on their own. Schools no longer teach source triangulation, conflict arbitration, separating fact from opinion, citation chaining, conducting research or even the basic concept of verification and validation. In short, we’ve stopped teaching society how to think about information, leaving our citizenry adrift in the digital wilderness increasingly saturated with falsehoods without so much as a compass or map to help them find their way to safety. The solution is to teach the world's citizenry the basics of information literacy.
It is the accepted truth of Silicon Valley that every problem has a technological solution.
Most importantly, in the eyes of the Valley, every problem can be solved exclusively through technology without requiring society to do anything on its own. A few algorithmic tweaks, a few extra lines of code and all the world’s problems can be simply coded out of existence.
Sadly for the Valley’s technological determinists, this is far from the truth.
Unfortunately, this mindset has survived to drive today’s “fake news” efforts.
Continue reading
Refugee skills and labour market needs: How matching can support lawful adult refugee mobility
Information about a cedefop project
Most refugees live in developing countries of asylum, struggling to prove themselves in economies which are unable to absorb and make full use of their labour market potential. As a result, their skills often remain unused and become obsolete over time. Key challenges for Europe include sharing the global responsibility for refugees fairly with major countries of asylum and meeting existing and future skill gaps and labour market needs.
The project seeks to contribute to these challenges by identifying and piloting a skills-based complementary pathway that allows lawful and safe pathways to protection of adult refugees by drawing on their human capital potential and labour market needs. The central element of this pathway is matching refugees’ skills and qualifications to the labour market needs of a potential host country; this will allow refugees to move from a major country of asylum to a new destination country based.
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Refugee skills and labour market needs
Most refugees live in developing countries of asylum, struggling to prove themselves in economies which are unable to absorb and make full use of their labour market potential. As a result, their skills often remain unused and become obsolete over time. Key challenges for Europe include sharing the global responsibility for refugees fairly with major countries of asylum and meeting existing and future skill gaps and labour market needs.
The project seeks to contribute to these challenges by identifying and piloting a skills-based complementary pathway that allows lawful and safe pathways to protection of adult refugees by drawing on their human capital potential and labour market needs. The central element of this pathway is matching refugees’ skills and qualifications to the labour market needs of a potential host country; this will allow refugees to move from a major country of asylum to a new destination country based.
Downloads
Refugee skills and labour market needs
To do it now or later: The cognitive mechanisms and neural substrates underlying procrastination
an article by Shunmin Zhang (Southwest University, Chongqing, China), Peiwei Liu (University of Florida, Gainesville, USA) and Tingyong Fen (Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China) published in WIRES Cognitive Science Volume 10 Issue 4 (July/August 2019)
Abstract
Procrastination, the voluntary and irrational delay of an intended course of action, has troubled individuals and society extensively. Various studies have been conducted to explain why people procrastinate and to explore the neural substrates of procrastination.
First, research has identified many contributing factors to procrastination. Specifically, task aversiveness, future incentives, and time delay of these incentives have been confirmed as three prominent task characteristics that affect procrastination. On the other hand, self‐control and impulsivity have been identified as two most predictive traits of procrastination.
After identifying contributing factors, two important theories proposed to explain procrastination by integrating these factors are reviewed.
Specifically, an emotion‐regulation perspective regards procrastination as a form of self‐regulation failure that reflects giving priority to short‐term mood repair over achieving long‐term goals. However, temporal motivation theory explains why people's motivation to act increases when time approaches a deadline with time discounting effect.
To further specify the cognitive mechanism underlying procrastination, this study proposes a novel theoretical model which clarifies how the motivation to act and the motivation to avoid vary differently when delaying a task, explaining why people decide not to act now but are willing to act in the future.
Of note, few recent studies have investigated neural correlates of procrastination. Specifically, it was revealed that individual differences in procrastination are correlated with structural abnormalities and altered spontaneous metabolism in the parahippocampal cortex and the prefrontal cortex, which might contribute to procrastination through episodic future thinking or memory and emotion regulation, respectively.
Abstract
Procrastination, the voluntary and irrational delay of an intended course of action, has troubled individuals and society extensively. Various studies have been conducted to explain why people procrastinate and to explore the neural substrates of procrastination.
First, research has identified many contributing factors to procrastination. Specifically, task aversiveness, future incentives, and time delay of these incentives have been confirmed as three prominent task characteristics that affect procrastination. On the other hand, self‐control and impulsivity have been identified as two most predictive traits of procrastination.
After identifying contributing factors, two important theories proposed to explain procrastination by integrating these factors are reviewed.
Specifically, an emotion‐regulation perspective regards procrastination as a form of self‐regulation failure that reflects giving priority to short‐term mood repair over achieving long‐term goals. However, temporal motivation theory explains why people's motivation to act increases when time approaches a deadline with time discounting effect.
To further specify the cognitive mechanism underlying procrastination, this study proposes a novel theoretical model which clarifies how the motivation to act and the motivation to avoid vary differently when delaying a task, explaining why people decide not to act now but are willing to act in the future.
Of note, few recent studies have investigated neural correlates of procrastination. Specifically, it was revealed that individual differences in procrastination are correlated with structural abnormalities and altered spontaneous metabolism in the parahippocampal cortex and the prefrontal cortex, which might contribute to procrastination through episodic future thinking or memory and emotion regulation, respectively.
Waste, dirt and desire: Fashioning narratives of material regeneration
an article by Lucy Norris (Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin, Germany) published in The Sociological Review Volume 67 Issue 4 (July 2019)
Abstract
The consumption of clothing fashioned from recycled textile fibre waste poses a challenge for buyers not simply due to fears of a loss of quality, but also to fears of ‘dirt’ and contagion. These concerns appear to reside in cast-off clothing’s intimate links with unknown bodies, and cultural perceptions of the recycling system’s ability to properly ‘clean’ these materials and transform them back again into textile fibres that can be worn again on the body.
The fashion industry currently recycles less than 1% of its own cast-offs back into clothing, despite mainstream economists’ claims that keeping fibres in circulation for longer is not only environmentally sustainable but also economically advantageous: closed-loop business models secure resources in an increasingly competitive market still focused upon growth. Here it is argued that the drive towards a more circular fashion system in Europe brings competing frameworks of purity into the same field, where cultural values ascribed to clothing hygiene and cleanliness are confronted with the goals of sustainability and resource effectiveness.
In their attempts to re-make post-consumer clothing fibres back into desirable fashion, manufacturers and retailers are trying to negotiate these complex value systems, with variable results.
This article explores three, very different, contexts where manufacturers and retailers experiment with adding value to fashion made from mechanically-recycled wool:
The examples reveal the current precarity of the symbolic re-ordering of recycled textile materials as ‘clean and green’ rather than ‘old and dirty’, and how corporate actors struggle to re-shape their narratives of material sustainability at this increasingly visible frontier.
Abstract
The consumption of clothing fashioned from recycled textile fibre waste poses a challenge for buyers not simply due to fears of a loss of quality, but also to fears of ‘dirt’ and contagion. These concerns appear to reside in cast-off clothing’s intimate links with unknown bodies, and cultural perceptions of the recycling system’s ability to properly ‘clean’ these materials and transform them back again into textile fibres that can be worn again on the body.
The fashion industry currently recycles less than 1% of its own cast-offs back into clothing, despite mainstream economists’ claims that keeping fibres in circulation for longer is not only environmentally sustainable but also economically advantageous: closed-loop business models secure resources in an increasingly competitive market still focused upon growth. Here it is argued that the drive towards a more circular fashion system in Europe brings competing frameworks of purity into the same field, where cultural values ascribed to clothing hygiene and cleanliness are confronted with the goals of sustainability and resource effectiveness.
In their attempts to re-make post-consumer clothing fibres back into desirable fashion, manufacturers and retailers are trying to negotiate these complex value systems, with variable results.
This article explores three, very different, contexts where manufacturers and retailers experiment with adding value to fashion made from mechanically-recycled wool:
- an ethical fashion trade fair in Berlin,
- textile specialists working with a British high street retailer, and
- a yarn wholesaler in Prato, Italy.
The examples reveal the current precarity of the symbolic re-ordering of recycled textile materials as ‘clean and green’ rather than ‘old and dirty’, and how corporate actors struggle to re-shape their narratives of material sustainability at this increasingly visible frontier.
Victims of their own (definition of) success: Urban discourse and expert knowledge production in the Liveable City
an article by Jenny McArthur and Enora Robin (University College London, UK) published in Urban Studies Volume 56 Issue 9 (July 2019)
Abstract
The notion of ‘liveability’ has endured for over 50 years within policy discourses, shaping urban strategy and planning across the world. This Debates paper examines the current state of liveability discourse. Liveability is unpacked to consider the rhetorical work that it does to frame urban problems, select and order concepts and build narratives that shape policy action.
Liveability discourse has a dual role: it defines normative goals for a city and also reifies and demands particular forms of expert knowledge to justify and maintain its discursive power. This power is created by connecting the vague rhetoric of the ‘liveable city’ to expertise represented in liveability rankings and indicators. The experiences of apparently ‘liveable’ cities show how liveability discourse creates a representation of the city that is in contrast to the experience of many residents.
The use of aggregate metrics and reliance on indices generated from undisclosed data sources and ‘expert judgement’ obscures the differentiated quality of life and everyday experience for urban populations. Therefore, liveability discourse has exerted and maintained stronger discursive power to undermine urban livelihoods than to improve them, due to the phenomena and qualities that it conceals.
Liveability’s distinct type of discursive power must be recognised and mobilised to support a counter-narrative that reconnects urban policy with everyday urban life.
Abstract
The notion of ‘liveability’ has endured for over 50 years within policy discourses, shaping urban strategy and planning across the world. This Debates paper examines the current state of liveability discourse. Liveability is unpacked to consider the rhetorical work that it does to frame urban problems, select and order concepts and build narratives that shape policy action.
Liveability discourse has a dual role: it defines normative goals for a city and also reifies and demands particular forms of expert knowledge to justify and maintain its discursive power. This power is created by connecting the vague rhetoric of the ‘liveable city’ to expertise represented in liveability rankings and indicators. The experiences of apparently ‘liveable’ cities show how liveability discourse creates a representation of the city that is in contrast to the experience of many residents.
The use of aggregate metrics and reliance on indices generated from undisclosed data sources and ‘expert judgement’ obscures the differentiated quality of life and everyday experience for urban populations. Therefore, liveability discourse has exerted and maintained stronger discursive power to undermine urban livelihoods than to improve them, due to the phenomena and qualities that it conceals.
Liveability’s distinct type of discursive power must be recognised and mobilised to support a counter-narrative that reconnects urban policy with everyday urban life.
Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Industrial policy: new technologies and transformative innovation policies?
Editorial by David Bailey (Birmingham Business School, UK), Amy Glasmeier (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA), Philip R. Tomlinson (University of Bath, UK; Birmingham Business School, UK) and Peter Tylerd (Department of Land Economy, Cambridge, UK) published in Cambriudge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Volume 12 Issue 2 (July 2019)
Industrial Policy and industrial strategy
Deep history
In many parts of the world, stagnant economies, rising inequality and sluggish regional growth have renewed interest in and experimentation with industrial policy. This reflects a longstanding trend in economic history, where economic downturns have invariably led to follow-on attempts of some form of state-led economic revival and subsequent policy cycles, usually accompanied with regime change to contain some type of shock (Williams, 2012). Examples abound.
In the late 18th century, in the USA, the first evidence of industrial policy—largely through the efforts of Alexander Hamilton (the First US Treasury secretary) and his 1791 Report on the Subject of Manufactures—accompanied the nation’s hard-fought economic independence which energised the nation’s elite to emulate features of European industrialisation in pursuit of modernisation; policy instruments included closed borders and import substitution, frequently aided by piracy and industrial espionage (see Irwin, 2004). These ideas were strongly supported by the German–American economist Frederick List (1841), who provided one of the first theoretical treatises for industrial policy by arguing that policymakers should take a long-term view of economic development and intervene accordingly, especially to promote domestic manufacture and commerce (see Chang, 2002).
Full text (PDF 9pp)
Hazel’s comment:
And finally I read something that makes sense to a lay person with an interest in global economics, namely me.
Industrial Policy and industrial strategy
Deep history
In many parts of the world, stagnant economies, rising inequality and sluggish regional growth have renewed interest in and experimentation with industrial policy. This reflects a longstanding trend in economic history, where economic downturns have invariably led to follow-on attempts of some form of state-led economic revival and subsequent policy cycles, usually accompanied with regime change to contain some type of shock (Williams, 2012). Examples abound.
In the late 18th century, in the USA, the first evidence of industrial policy—largely through the efforts of Alexander Hamilton (the First US Treasury secretary) and his 1791 Report on the Subject of Manufactures—accompanied the nation’s hard-fought economic independence which energised the nation’s elite to emulate features of European industrialisation in pursuit of modernisation; policy instruments included closed borders and import substitution, frequently aided by piracy and industrial espionage (see Irwin, 2004). These ideas were strongly supported by the German–American economist Frederick List (1841), who provided one of the first theoretical treatises for industrial policy by arguing that policymakers should take a long-term view of economic development and intervene accordingly, especially to promote domestic manufacture and commerce (see Chang, 2002).
Full text (PDF 9pp)
Hazel’s comment:
And finally I read something that makes sense to a lay person with an interest in global economics, namely me.
Artificial intelligence in the UK: Prospects and Challenges
New Report from McKinsey GI [with grateful thanks to the South West Skills Newsletter for this item]
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are pushing the frontier of what machines are capable of doing in the private, public, and social sectors. These technologies have already diffused into many businesses and sectors, and they have the potential to transform operations and business models, eventually powering higher productivity and growth across economies.
No other country comes close to the United States and China, the world’s powers in the deploymentof AI, but the United Kingdom is one of Europe’s leaders.
In this briefing note, we build on previous research on AI globally and in Europe. We explore the prospective benefits to the economy and companies that could result from scaling up AI,and we outline the priorities for businesses in the United Kingdom that seek to reap those benefits.
Full text (PDF 12pp)
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are pushing the frontier of what machines are capable of doing in the private, public, and social sectors. These technologies have already diffused into many businesses and sectors, and they have the potential to transform operations and business models, eventually powering higher productivity and growth across economies.
No other country comes close to the United States and China, the world’s powers in the deploymentof AI, but the United Kingdom is one of Europe’s leaders.
In this briefing note, we build on previous research on AI globally and in Europe. We explore the prospective benefits to the economy and companies that could result from scaling up AI,and we outline the priorities for businesses in the United Kingdom that seek to reap those benefits.
Full text (PDF 12pp)
How to Make Time for the Things You Really Want to Do
a post by Margarita Tartakovsky for the World of Psychology blog
Between work, chores, and errands (like laundry, grocery shopping, and sweeping the floors), many of us feel like we have very little time for the things we really want to do. We think we have very little time for attending a yoga class, going on a dinner date or two, relaxing on the couch, or taking on a creative project.
That is, by the time we’ve checked the necessities off our lists, we’re dragging ourselves to bed because it’s late. Way too late.
So, if we barely have enough time to do the things we really need to do, how the heck will we have time for the things we really want to do?
Below are eight tips to answer that very question.
Continue reading
Between work, chores, and errands (like laundry, grocery shopping, and sweeping the floors), many of us feel like we have very little time for the things we really want to do. We think we have very little time for attending a yoga class, going on a dinner date or two, relaxing on the couch, or taking on a creative project.
That is, by the time we’ve checked the necessities off our lists, we’re dragging ourselves to bed because it’s late. Way too late.
So, if we barely have enough time to do the things we really need to do, how the heck will we have time for the things we really want to do?
Below are eight tips to answer that very question.
Continue reading
Monday, 22 July 2019
Harness the Power of Calm
a post by Emma Sepala for the Big Think blog
Tap into the "Rest and Digest" System to Achieve Your Goals
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Tap into the "Rest and Digest" System to Achieve Your Goals
- In the fast-paced workplaces and productivity-focused societies many of us inhabit today, it is easy to burnout.
- Emma Seppälä, a Stanford researcher on human happiness, recommends tapping into the parasympathetic nervous system instead—"rest and digest"rather than "fight or flight."
- Aiming for energy management rather than time management will give you the resilience you need to excel at the things that really matter in your life and career, rather than living "mostly off" by attempting to seem "always on."
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Religion, Gender, and Social Welfare: Considerations Regarding Inclusion
an article by Susan Crawford Sullivan (Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross, USA) published in Social Inclusion Volume 7 Issue 2 (2019)
Abstract
There is increased interest in faith-based social service provision in recent years, both in the United States and across Europe.
While faith-based organizations provide welcome and needed services, there are several potential problems of social inclusion which involve gender, including decreased availability of social services when faith-based organizations are expected to compensate for cuts in government spending, potential for religious discrimination in employment, and potential for religious discrimination against recipients.
Full text (PDF 4pp)
Abstract
There is increased interest in faith-based social service provision in recent years, both in the United States and across Europe.
While faith-based organizations provide welcome and needed services, there are several potential problems of social inclusion which involve gender, including decreased availability of social services when faith-based organizations are expected to compensate for cuts in government spending, potential for religious discrimination in employment, and potential for religious discrimination against recipients.
Full text (PDF 4pp)
Good Value for Money? Public Investment in ‘Replacement Care’ for Working Carers in England
an article by Linda Pickard (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK) published in Social Policy and Society Volume 18 Issue 3 (July 2019)
Abstract
In the context of increasing need for long-term care, the reconciliation of employment and caring is an important social issue. In England, the annual public expenditure costs of unpaid carers leaving employment are approximately £2.9 billion.
Previous research shows that provision of paid services to people cared for by working carers, sometimes known as ‘replacement care’, is effective in helping unpaid carers to remain in employment.
This study makes an estimate of the public expenditure costs of ‘replacement care’ for working carers in England.
sing data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and 2015–16 costs data, the study finds that the public expenditure costs of ‘replacement care’ for working carers are approximately £2.5 billion a year, which is considerably lower than the costs of carers leaving employment. The study concludes that greater public investment in ‘replacement care’ to support working carers in England would represent good value for money.
Out of order’: The double burden of menstrual etiquette and the subtle exclusion of women from public space in Scotland
an article by Natalie Moffat and Lucy Pickering (University of Glasgow, UK) [ublished in The Sociological Review Volume 67 Issue 4 (July 2019)
Abstract
This article examines the double burden of ‘menstrual etiquette’ and the implications for women’s inclusion in public spaces in Scotland today.
Beginning from Laws’ work on ‘menstrual etiquette’, we explore how menstrual etiquette is characterised primarily by the burden of rendering menstruation invisible, both discursively and practically. However, women not only work to ensure that others remain unaware that they are menstruating; they depend on technologies, such as menstrual product dispensers and bins, to facilitate this process of rendering menstruation invisible.
When these technologies are absent or poorly maintained, women experience a double burden: not only must they maintain the social invisibility of menstruation but do so without social or infrastructural support or drawing attention to this absence (for fear of breaching the discursive silence demanded of menstrual etiquette).
We locate poor maintenance of facilities within the very same ‘civilising process’ that has pushed women’s bodily management to the furthest reaches of the private sphere. Socially invisible, these infrastructural supports are granted low status and poorly maintained. The pressure to maintain conceptual silence around menstruation limits women’s capacity to contest this neglect and, in turn, perpetuates their exclusion from public space.
This article, then, exposes the nature and the compounding temporal and affective burden of menstrual etiquette and advocates for breaking discursive silences to facilitate much needed social change.
Abstract
This article examines the double burden of ‘menstrual etiquette’ and the implications for women’s inclusion in public spaces in Scotland today.
Beginning from Laws’ work on ‘menstrual etiquette’, we explore how menstrual etiquette is characterised primarily by the burden of rendering menstruation invisible, both discursively and practically. However, women not only work to ensure that others remain unaware that they are menstruating; they depend on technologies, such as menstrual product dispensers and bins, to facilitate this process of rendering menstruation invisible.
When these technologies are absent or poorly maintained, women experience a double burden: not only must they maintain the social invisibility of menstruation but do so without social or infrastructural support or drawing attention to this absence (for fear of breaching the discursive silence demanded of menstrual etiquette).
We locate poor maintenance of facilities within the very same ‘civilising process’ that has pushed women’s bodily management to the furthest reaches of the private sphere. Socially invisible, these infrastructural supports are granted low status and poorly maintained. The pressure to maintain conceptual silence around menstruation limits women’s capacity to contest this neglect and, in turn, perpetuates their exclusion from public space.
This article, then, exposes the nature and the compounding temporal and affective burden of menstrual etiquette and advocates for breaking discursive silences to facilitate much needed social change.
Adverse childhood experiences, and instability in Children's care and Parents' work
an article by Shannon T. Lipscomb, Emiko Goka-Dubose, and Rachel Eun Hye Hur (Oregon State University-Cascades, USA) and Adrienne Henry (Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA) published in Children and Youth Services Review Volume 102 (July 2019)
Highlights
Abstract
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as abuse, neglect, exposure to violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse are linked with a host of negative life outcomes. To support young children facing ACEs through Early Care and Education (ECE), challenges such as instability must be understood and addressed.
This study examines associations between ACEs during early childhood and instability related to ECE among 2, 466 children attending ECE in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Parents reported instability in children's ECE and disruptions in their work or school stemming from instability in children's ECE.
Parents also reported indicators of ACEs when children were three years of age. Over half of the children had at least one ACE; 12% had three or more. Children's ACEs predicted more instability, in both children's ECE, and in disruptions in parents' work/school due to problems arranging and keeping ECE.
Highlights
- This study examined data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.
- By age three, 55% of children had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE).
- Children's number and types of ACEs predicted instability in their ECE.
- Children's ACEs also predicted ECE-related disruptions in parents' work/school.
Abstract
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as abuse, neglect, exposure to violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse are linked with a host of negative life outcomes. To support young children facing ACEs through Early Care and Education (ECE), challenges such as instability must be understood and addressed.
This study examines associations between ACEs during early childhood and instability related to ECE among 2, 466 children attending ECE in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Parents reported instability in children's ECE and disruptions in their work or school stemming from instability in children's ECE.
Parents also reported indicators of ACEs when children were three years of age. Over half of the children had at least one ACE; 12% had three or more. Children's ACEs predicted more instability, in both children's ECE, and in disruptions in parents' work/school due to problems arranging and keeping ECE.
5 Mindfulness Techniques to Reduce Stress and Anxiety
a post by Ingrid Helanderfor YourTango.com [via World of Psychology blog]
Do your nerves overwhelm you sometimes?
Do you frequently find yourself burdened with anxiety or stress? Anxiety attacks and symptoms of stress can be overwhelming and terrible. You don’t like how you feel, but you don’t understand it, and you don’t feel like there’s any was you can possibly find out how to deal with anxiety when it strikes you.
Anxiety symptoms can be severe and stress management is hard when your own body doesn’t know how to deal with stress or how to control anxiety when you’re just reacting to signs of stress and don’t see a way out.
But with a little bit of stress management, you can actually learn to control this reaction and begin to trust your body again to deal with anxiety on its own.
Continue reading
Do your nerves overwhelm you sometimes?
Do you frequently find yourself burdened with anxiety or stress? Anxiety attacks and symptoms of stress can be overwhelming and terrible. You don’t like how you feel, but you don’t understand it, and you don’t feel like there’s any was you can possibly find out how to deal with anxiety when it strikes you.
Anxiety symptoms can be severe and stress management is hard when your own body doesn’t know how to deal with stress or how to control anxiety when you’re just reacting to signs of stress and don’t see a way out.
But with a little bit of stress management, you can actually learn to control this reaction and begin to trust your body again to deal with anxiety on its own.
Continue reading
Comparing shipping costs and industrial production as measures of world economic activity
a column by James Hamilton for VOXK CEPR’s Policy Portal
Shipping costs offer a potentially attractive measure of world real economic activity. However, the popular approach of removing a deterministic trend is not consistent with the observed behaviour of shipping costs and results in an unrealistic measure in data since 2015.
This column compares alternative monthly measures based on shipping costs with direct estimates of world industrial production in terms of coherence with world GDP and usefulness for forecasting commodity prices, and concludes that industrial production is a much better measure.
If shipping costs are to be used, the cyclical component should not be calculated using residuals from a linear trend.
Continue reading
Shipping costs offer a potentially attractive measure of world real economic activity. However, the popular approach of removing a deterministic trend is not consistent with the observed behaviour of shipping costs and results in an unrealistic measure in data since 2015.
This column compares alternative monthly measures based on shipping costs with direct estimates of world industrial production in terms of coherence with world GDP and usefulness for forecasting commodity prices, and concludes that industrial production is a much better measure.
If shipping costs are to be used, the cyclical component should not be calculated using residuals from a linear trend.
Continue reading
Saturday, 20 July 2019
10 for today starts with a rabbit, a rather nice looking rabbit, then there's some poetry and some science and maybe history. All of which I found interesting.
Animal of the month: 8 facts about rabbits
via the OUP blog
“Rabbit Hare Animal” by 12019. CC0 via Pixabay.
Popular as pets, considered lucky by some, and widely recognised as agricultural nuisances, rabbits are commonplace all over the world. Their cute, fluffy exterior hides the more ingenious characteristics of this burrowing herbivore, including specially-adapted hind legs, extra incisors, and prolific breeding capabilities. Whilst rabbits thrive in most areas, certain species face the common struggle of their specialist habitats being destroyed, and myxomatosis has devastated rabbit populations in the past, at one point destroying 99% of the rabbit population of the United Kingdom. Luckily, rabbits have been able to recover from this, and several species of rabbits have lately been able to recover from the brink of extinction. Learn more about what makes rabbits so fascinating with our factsheet.
Continue reading
==============================
A Short Analysis of Tennyson’s ‘The Flower’
via Interesting LIterature
‘The Flower’ is a little gem of a poem from Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92), who remains the longest-serving UK Poet Laureate (from 1850 until his death in 1892). During the six decades of his career as a poet, Tennyson had to endure criticism as well as enjoy praise and awards, and ‘The Flower’ seems to address the less pleasing side of being a public poet.
Continue reading
==============================
Kenya burial site shows community spirit of herders 5,000 years ago
Large-scale cemetery in Africa points to shared workload without social hierarchy
via the Guardian by ason Burke, Africa correspondent
Stone pendants and earrings from the communal cemetery of Lothagam North, Kenya, built by eastern Africa’s earliest herders up to 5,000 years ago. Photograph: Image courtesy of Carla Klehm
Herders in east Africa 5,000 years ago lived in peaceful communities that shunned social hierarchies, communicated intensively and worked together to build massive cemeteries, new research by archaeologists has revealed.
Work by a team of US-based experts on a remote site near Lake Turkana in Kenya contradicts longstanding beliefs about the origins of the first civilisations. It suggests that early communities did not inevitably develop powerful elites or compete violently for scarce resources, but may have worked together to overcome challenges instead.
Continue reading
==============================
The fabulous illustrated history of the pocket calculator
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
In the 1970s, there was a boom in pocket calculators, driven by the plummeting costs of their electronic components, and an industry that had once prided itself on its high-end offerings for serious business users found itself rethinking the nature of the calculator, producing "ladies' calculators," calculators for kids (accompanied by bestselling books of "calculator games") and all manner of weird form-factors.
Continue reading
==============================
Look up. Patterns overhead show tree intelligence at work.
Trees may avoid touching each other in the forest canopy creating giant, backlit jigsaw puzzles from a light-sharing phenomenon called 'crown shyness'.
via the Big Think blog by Robby Berman
Walking under a forest canopy can be a magical experience. It's not quite normal light under there, more a sort of dreamworld—one would be forgiven for never bothering to look up. But if you do, and you're in a tropical rainforest or beneath lodge-pole pines of the American West Coast, you might notice something really odd. When the tree canopy is flat enough, you may see lines of sunlight between the trees, looking for all the world like a map of their boundaries. And that is basically what you're seeing. Certain species of trees avoid touching each other, creating these fantastic patterns overhead. They exhibit what's called 'crown shyness'.
Continue reading
==============================
A Trip to Tolstoy Farm
Even if one of the last surviving Tolstoyan communes has fallen short of Leo Tolstoy’s ideals, it’s still turned into something meaningful. It’s a place for people who don’t want to be found.
via Arts & Letters Daily: Jordan Michael Smith in Longreads 29 minutes!
“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.”
— Leo Tolstoy, Family Happiness
Continue reading
==============================
Ten facts about dentistry
via the OUP blog by Amy Cluett
“Woman dentist with gloves showing on a jaw model how to clean the teeth with tooth brush properly and right” by Vadim Martynenko. Used under license from Shutterstock.com.
You use it every day; it’s a facial feature that everybody sees; and one that enables almost all animals to survive. We’re talking, of course, about the mouth. Our mouths truly are amazing, and enable us to eat, breathe, and form words. Unfortunately, our mouths can cause us problems too, leaving many people with intense fears of “the dentist.” Nevertheless, dentistry is a truly fascinating subject, and covers an enormous range of topics. This list of ten facts will open your eyes to some of the lesser-known facts about dentistry, including where the myth of the tooth fairy comes from, how braces work, and what Aristotle had to say about the art of dentistry.
Continue reading
==============================
Graffiti has been a part of military life for at least 5,000 years
via Boing Boing by Seamus Bellamy
War is a thing of terror, traditions, heartache and often, boredom. Passing the time between patrols, and the banality that comes from life in the field, is a constant challenge. Some people read. Most exercise. Everyone complains about the food. Soldiers write, train and call home--if there's someone there that'll pick up the phone. Video games? Totally a thing, in some instances. If you have a Sharpie, or a knife, there's a good chance that you might wind up doodling, scratching or scrawling something, at one point or another, to prove that you were there, where ever ‘there’ might be.
Continue reading
==============================
Literary Leeds: The Poetry of John Riley
via Interesting Literature
One night in late October 1978, the poet John Riley was tragically murdered by muggers in Leeds, a horrific crime recently investigated in Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts’ Deaths of the Poets. Riley’s Collected Works were published two years later by Grosseteste Press, the publishing house he’d helped to set up, but copies of this hardcover volume remain few and far between (I am currently reading the copy from my university library; the stamps on the flyleaf tell me it’s been borrowed three times previously, in 1983, 1995, and 2000). For 15 years, Riley’s poems lay largely forgotten except by a few devotees. Then, in 1995, it looked as though John Riley’s posthumous reputation would be given a leg up, courtesy of an edition of his selected poems, brought out by the poetry publisher Carcanet. But barely a year later, in the summer of 1996, the Carcanet offices in Manchester were damaged in an IRA bomb explosion, and virtually all copies of John Riley’s Selected Poems were lost. At the time of writing, a single copy is available for sale on Amazon. It will set you back just £10,000. I cannot find any other copies available for sale online.
Continue reading
==============================
Explaining Jupiter's wild appearance
via the Big Think blog by Robby Berman
New research spots a remarkable meeting of Jupiter’s jet streams and its magnetic field and proposes that it may contain the explanation for the planets’ striking cloud patterns.
It’s a planet whose unanswered mysteries are as baffling as its appearance is captivating. Pretty much any image one sees of the gas giant can stop you in your tracks to stare in awe at the ever-shifting bands of colors and swirls and wonder “What is going on here?” You’re not alone in feeling that way. The more scientists learn — much of it from NASA’s Juno probe, which arrived at Jupiter in July 2016 and will continue orbiting it until 2022 — the more out of their depth they’re likely to feel. As Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton tells BBC, “We're getting the first really close up and personal look at Jupiter and we're seeing that a lot of our ideas were incorrect and maybe naive.” We do know Jupiter has a massive, uneven magnetic field, and a new study asserts that it’s behind — or beneath — the planet's peculiar cloud formations.
Continue reading
via the OUP blog
Popular as pets, considered lucky by some, and widely recognised as agricultural nuisances, rabbits are commonplace all over the world. Their cute, fluffy exterior hides the more ingenious characteristics of this burrowing herbivore, including specially-adapted hind legs, extra incisors, and prolific breeding capabilities. Whilst rabbits thrive in most areas, certain species face the common struggle of their specialist habitats being destroyed, and myxomatosis has devastated rabbit populations in the past, at one point destroying 99% of the rabbit population of the United Kingdom. Luckily, rabbits have been able to recover from this, and several species of rabbits have lately been able to recover from the brink of extinction. Learn more about what makes rabbits so fascinating with our factsheet.
Continue reading
==============================
via Interesting LIterature
‘The Flower’ is a little gem of a poem from Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92), who remains the longest-serving UK Poet Laureate (from 1850 until his death in 1892). During the six decades of his career as a poet, Tennyson had to endure criticism as well as enjoy praise and awards, and ‘The Flower’ seems to address the less pleasing side of being a public poet.
Continue reading
==============================
Large-scale cemetery in Africa points to shared workload without social hierarchy
via the Guardian by ason Burke, Africa correspondent
Stone pendants and earrings from the communal cemetery of Lothagam North, Kenya, built by eastern Africa’s earliest herders up to 5,000 years ago. Photograph: Image courtesy of Carla Klehm
Herders in east Africa 5,000 years ago lived in peaceful communities that shunned social hierarchies, communicated intensively and worked together to build massive cemeteries, new research by archaeologists has revealed.
Work by a team of US-based experts on a remote site near Lake Turkana in Kenya contradicts longstanding beliefs about the origins of the first civilisations. It suggests that early communities did not inevitably develop powerful elites or compete violently for scarce resources, but may have worked together to overcome challenges instead.
Continue reading
==============================
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
In the 1970s, there was a boom in pocket calculators, driven by the plummeting costs of their electronic components, and an industry that had once prided itself on its high-end offerings for serious business users found itself rethinking the nature of the calculator, producing "ladies' calculators," calculators for kids (accompanied by bestselling books of "calculator games") and all manner of weird form-factors.
Continue reading
==============================
Trees may avoid touching each other in the forest canopy creating giant, backlit jigsaw puzzles from a light-sharing phenomenon called 'crown shyness'.
via the Big Think blog by Robby Berman
Walking under a forest canopy can be a magical experience. It's not quite normal light under there, more a sort of dreamworld—one would be forgiven for never bothering to look up. But if you do, and you're in a tropical rainforest or beneath lodge-pole pines of the American West Coast, you might notice something really odd. When the tree canopy is flat enough, you may see lines of sunlight between the trees, looking for all the world like a map of their boundaries. And that is basically what you're seeing. Certain species of trees avoid touching each other, creating these fantastic patterns overhead. They exhibit what's called 'crown shyness'.
Continue reading
==============================
Even if one of the last surviving Tolstoyan communes has fallen short of Leo Tolstoy’s ideals, it’s still turned into something meaningful. It’s a place for people who don’t want to be found.
via Arts & Letters Daily: Jordan Michael Smith in Longreads 29 minutes!
“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.”
— Leo Tolstoy, Family Happiness
Continue reading
==============================
via the OUP blog by Amy Cluett
“Woman dentist with gloves showing on a jaw model how to clean the teeth with tooth brush properly and right” by Vadim Martynenko. Used under license from Shutterstock.com.
You use it every day; it’s a facial feature that everybody sees; and one that enables almost all animals to survive. We’re talking, of course, about the mouth. Our mouths truly are amazing, and enable us to eat, breathe, and form words. Unfortunately, our mouths can cause us problems too, leaving many people with intense fears of “the dentist.” Nevertheless, dentistry is a truly fascinating subject, and covers an enormous range of topics. This list of ten facts will open your eyes to some of the lesser-known facts about dentistry, including where the myth of the tooth fairy comes from, how braces work, and what Aristotle had to say about the art of dentistry.
Continue reading
==============================
via Boing Boing by Seamus Bellamy
War is a thing of terror, traditions, heartache and often, boredom. Passing the time between patrols, and the banality that comes from life in the field, is a constant challenge. Some people read. Most exercise. Everyone complains about the food. Soldiers write, train and call home--if there's someone there that'll pick up the phone. Video games? Totally a thing, in some instances. If you have a Sharpie, or a knife, there's a good chance that you might wind up doodling, scratching or scrawling something, at one point or another, to prove that you were there, where ever ‘there’ might be.
Continue reading
==============================
via Interesting Literature
One night in late October 1978, the poet John Riley was tragically murdered by muggers in Leeds, a horrific crime recently investigated in Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts’ Deaths of the Poets. Riley’s Collected Works were published two years later by Grosseteste Press, the publishing house he’d helped to set up, but copies of this hardcover volume remain few and far between (I am currently reading the copy from my university library; the stamps on the flyleaf tell me it’s been borrowed three times previously, in 1983, 1995, and 2000). For 15 years, Riley’s poems lay largely forgotten except by a few devotees. Then, in 1995, it looked as though John Riley’s posthumous reputation would be given a leg up, courtesy of an edition of his selected poems, brought out by the poetry publisher Carcanet. But barely a year later, in the summer of 1996, the Carcanet offices in Manchester were damaged in an IRA bomb explosion, and virtually all copies of John Riley’s Selected Poems were lost. At the time of writing, a single copy is available for sale on Amazon. It will set you back just £10,000. I cannot find any other copies available for sale online.
Continue reading
==============================
via the Big Think blog by Robby Berman
New research spots a remarkable meeting of Jupiter’s jet streams and its magnetic field and proposes that it may contain the explanation for the planets’ striking cloud patterns.
It’s a planet whose unanswered mysteries are as baffling as its appearance is captivating. Pretty much any image one sees of the gas giant can stop you in your tracks to stare in awe at the ever-shifting bands of colors and swirls and wonder “What is going on here?” You’re not alone in feeling that way. The more scientists learn — much of it from NASA’s Juno probe, which arrived at Jupiter in July 2016 and will continue orbiting it until 2022 — the more out of their depth they’re likely to feel. As Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton tells BBC, “We're getting the first really close up and personal look at Jupiter and we're seeing that a lot of our ideas were incorrect and maybe naive.” We do know Jupiter has a massive, uneven magnetic field, and a new study asserts that it’s behind — or beneath — the planet's peculiar cloud formations.
Continue reading
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