Important piece. The most effective (and compassionate) ways to prevent crime are to offer more services to children and teenagers, and better mental health services. Yet the political conversation is all about more cops and increased sentences.
>>><<<
"...were we to switch to a plant-based diet in Britain, we could feed all the people of this country on just 3m of our 18m hectares of farmland. Alternatively, we could use the land here to feed 200m people. In a world threatened by starvation and ecological collapse, it seems perverse to do otherwise." Monbiot
>>><<<
>>><<<
Now this is news!
>>><<<
A tiny reflection on the "crisis of masculinity"... The whole discussion is increasingly reminding me of "Downtown Abbey", where a lot of the characters (especially the older ones, though not only the actual toffs) continually express these great existential doubts about the decline of the aristocracy. What's great about that show is that it really allows us to emphathise with these characters, however privileged and outright objectionable they may be. Their lives have, until that point, being given meaning by their relationship to the institution of aristocracy, and yet it becomes increasingly clear over the course of that series just how nonviable (and indeed obsolete) that institution is becoming.
So maybe we are looking at a future without masculinity, except perhaps understood as a way of visually presenting oneself or behaving within highly stylised contexts. It's possible to have compassion for those of us whose lives have been given meaning in one way or another by this particular construct (including, you know, me) without necessarily mourning the loss in any deeper political or moral sense. At the end of Downtown, we're encouraged to cheer the younger aristocratic characters who realise "Hey, maybe I can still have a fulfilling life while leaving behind that part of my identity". Maybe we can equally manage or even embrace the decline of masculinity rather than expending our energy trying to think of ways to somehow rehabilitate or salvage it?
>>><<<
Huh. Any pharmacology experts able to explain why this is? Something to do with the way the substances are metabolised, as opposed to neurotransmitter binding?
"natural opioids seem to work differently in the body to synthetic opioids, such as oxycodone and fentanyl, which are commonly used for moderate to severe pain. While the body quickly becomes tolerant to synthetic opioids, meaning patients need more over time to get the same pain relief, that does not seem to happen with natural opioids."
>>><<<
Huh, interesting statistic - women in the UK have long tended to vote Conservative, with men tending to vote Labour; this trend only reversed in the 2015 and 2017 elections. In the US, by contrast, I believe women have been solidly Democratic for many years.
I imagine this has something to do with Labour's stronger roots in unions, which have historically been male-dominated, but I'm still trying to square it with the general claim that women are more left-leaning. I suppose third parties are stronger in the UK and this doesn't show the gender split in Lib Dem supporters, for instance...
"At its peak in the Maya classic period (approximately A.D. 250–900), the civilization covered an area about twice the size of medieval England, but it was far more densely populated." National Geographic
"The first modern Britons, who lived about 10,000 years ago, had “dark to black” skin... pale skin may have emerged later, possibly when the advent of farming meant people were obtaining less vitamin D though dietary sources like oily fish." Guardian
What a great interview, and what an amazing life
"You just mentioned the Clintons, who are friends of yours. Why is there still such visceral dislike of them? What are other people not seeing in Hillary, for example, that you see?
It’s because there’s a side of her — when you keep secrets, they backfire.
Like what secrets?
This is something else I shouldn’t be talking about.
You sure seem to know a lot.
I know too much, man."
... And Richard Pryor's widow confirms the goss re him and Marlon Brando!
"But is it really possible that wild, queer techno parties in anonymous lofts, or audiophile sound-systems in community halls, could form meaningful connections with the blokey, besuited hordes of the Labour Party?" Vice
This is pretty interesting, in light of the expansion of mindfulness techniques into therapy and mental health treatment more generally. I guess the question for any given person is how far along the path of ego-dissolution they really want to go...
"The practice of psychotherapy is ... dedicated to a method of healing that leaves the conventional structure of self-as-agent intact as the focal point of attention, whereas Buddhist spiritual practice engages in a sustained, methodical dismantling of our customary preoccupation with self-centered experience."
Maybe the Milgram experiment participants gave "deadly shocks"... because they correctly believed it was fake?
>>><<<
Hmmm... So a policy of stealing and destroying people's tents nearly leads to a person - who was sleeping in a tent - being killed in a trash compactor. What a surprise.
Note that the city hasn't agreed to, you know, STOP STEALING AND DESTROYING people's tents, only to be more careful when doing so.
If people sleeping in tents is really such a problem, why not provide them proper accommodation? Or at least provide municipal camping facilities where people can pitch without inconveniencing anyone.
>>><<<
A rough sleeper died yesterday in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament... What an indictment.
Meanwhile, local councils take ever-more-punitive action against rough sleepers rather than providing the needed services.
>>><<<
"[Away from work] the employees mainly chose “to watch TV, try to sleep, [and] in general vegetate, even though they [did] not enjoy doing these things”. US workers, the psychologists concluded, had an “inability to organise [their] psychic energy in unstructured free time”. To the post-workists, such findings are simply a sign of how unhealthy the work culture has become. Our ability to do anything else, only exercised in short bursts, is like a muscle that has atrophied." Guardian
>>><<<
"Under the Huffington Post article about the male/female vegetarian ratio [59% of vegetarians and 79% of vegans are women], a male commenter wrote, “Because women are emotionally irrational.” Another wrote, “So glad I was born a man. Enjoy your beans and salads, ladies.” And a third man chimed in with the most well-crafted and honest response: “Vegetarians scare me.” What’s scary, really, is the idea in the ether that compassion is effeminate and thereby un-American." Harper's Bazaar
No comments:
Post a Comment