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Monthly Archives: September 2004

Half of young lovers are cheats [Evening Standard]

“They say the path of true love never runs smoothly but nearly half of young people have cheated on a partner, it seems.
Forty-seven per cent of Britons aged between 25 and 34 have been unfaithful and a fifth of those have cheated on their current partners, a new study suggests.
A quarter of people [...]

Little Herculese [Freak Show]

There was a documentary on Channel 5 last night that horrified my collegues. It was about 8 year old Richard Sandrak aka Little Herculese, an 8 year old body-builder and marshal arts expert.
The kid not only looks like a freak, but I am certain there are serious health implications from the possible steroid abuse [...]

Down with 21st century philistinism [Spiked]

Brendan O’Neill reviews Frank Furedi’s new book “Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?”
‘Dumbing down’ is often seen as being about the rise of reality TV and other dumb culture. In fact, says Frank Furedi, the problem is much bigger than Big Brother.
‘Cultural institutions like universities and galleries no longer challenge us or encourage us to [...]

Urban legends at work in Iraq

Electrical Armor and X-Ray Vision in Iraq
There are many urban legends and myths about the coalition forces in Iraq, including: The vehicles have electrical armour which defeats RPGs (countered by putting insulating tape on your RPG rockets) and that soldiers sunglasses allow them to see through clothes (no defence).

Abelard.org just keeps getting better

The site has recently added a Tech section, has some beautiful photos, keeps putting out superb position documents, briefings, primers and news analysis. Here are two recent samples:
Selections from Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi’s speech to Congress and President Bush’s speech recent speech the UN.
and this from the excellent Behaviour section of the site
The size of [...]

10 Truths About Trade [Reason]

Hard facts about offshoring, imports, and jobs from Reason Magazine.

Babies prefer to gaze upon beautiful faces [New Scientist]

“Newborn babies prefer to look at attractive faces, says a UK researcher, suggesting that face recognition is hardwired at birth, rather than learned.!

The London Noise Map [NoiseMap]

“The London Noise Map Web Viewer contains maps that show calculated levels of road traffic noise across the Greater London area. The maps do not include the effects of any other sources of noise, such as railways, aircraft, industrial or neighbour noise. One set of maps show noise from All Roads, and another set show [...]

Live in luxury whilst away…

Check out International Villas, specialising in luxury villas in Ibiza, Cape Town and St Tropez. Reading about those magnificent Cape villas makes me very homesick.
You might also like greatsmallhotels.com, an excellent resource on high quality small hotels all over the world.

Talking to your dying child [Science Blog]

Very sad topic, but worth noting:
For the first time a major study is now being presented in which parents of children who died of cancer were given the opportunity to talk about their experiences. The findings are being published in several acclaimed articles and a doctoral dissertation at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. All parents of [...]