Getting education wrong, and right.

Attention to the school curriculum in the UK has produced recommendations for changing the system. Change is good, but it appears that the proposals may eliminate important aspects of formal education and fail to provide life skills as well as fail to give factual knowledge. Two articles from the Economist outline the problems: In praise …
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Optimistic? Pestimistic? No. Realistic

You’re right to try to be optimistic. Or at least positive. A positive outlook helps keep spirits up, helps avoid despondency. despondency can be the worst because then you just stop doing anything and sink in to a mire of desperation. But optimism about the outlook could be even more dangerous. It could result in …
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Ignorance is not bliss when eating out

A report by the Uk Food Commission shows that information about ingredients and nutrition in restaurants, especially fast food, is woefully lacking. The report Ignorance is not bliss when eating out is here.  (Don’t get the munchies while you read it.)  It is interesting to see that simply having easy access to the calorie information, …
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Babies – to make them or not to make them?

The problems of the world are underpinned by an excesisve population of humans.  The exponential growth in human population has been driven by the oil age which has fuelled food and healthcare.  The consequence is that the footprint of humanity is too great for the biosphere.  The carrying capacity of the earth has been exceeded.  …
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A new view of the early earth

Evidence from analysis of rocks in Australia have repainted our picture of the early earth.  Until recently it was taken for granted that the earth, from birth 4.5 billion years ago for about 700 million years, was a hellish place of heat and flames.  Geologists now almost universally agree that by 4.2 billion years ago, …
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Finally! The US has owned up to a recession.

It has been a long time coming but it looks as though the US is finally owning up to an economic recession.  According to the US National Bureau of Economic Research the US entered a recession in December 2007.   It does not forecast the length of the recession, however, data suggest that the slowdown is …
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World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009

The United Nations released part of their World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009 today. The chapter Global Outlook is available here (pdf) and the slide show summarising the Outlook is available here (pdf). I strongly recommend reading the slide show which should take about 5 minutes, and then continue to the chapter if you like. …
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Nutritional Medicine

I recently finished reading Nutritional Medicine by Stephen Davies and Alan Stewart. I had found it on a shelf in the house and flicked it open one day. It looks a bit academic – it’s a guide with some medical terms – but interesting. It must have been read by Mum last century(!) – its …
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Morals and the Meltdown

A good perspective from Robert Skidelsky.  He writes well.  His language is a bit religious for me, but the analysis is all too accurate.  Here’s the link to his website and the article is copied below.  In our view, we are now confronting the limit to the growth of humanity he concludes with. Morals and …
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