Easter is coming for all of us, whatever we believe. As long time students of JG Frazer’s immortal The Golden Bough, we suspect that a major spring festival predates things like Easter and Passover by millennia. You know, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, returning vegetation, and all that stuff. And festivals imply a busy social, culinary and business calendar, especially for those of us on the writing and creative teams at LSS. Which means no more blogs for a while.
All the more reason to thank all of you- readers, followers, those who have helped with ideas or other contributions and wish all a most happy spring festival. And see you all after this happy and most welcome break
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
JG Frazer The Golden Bough 1913- 15, 1922 various editions
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Empires rise, and nations fall, largely by the quality of the people which they deploy to solve their problems. Even right wingers as impeccable as Corelli Barnett knew that.[1] The economic and social system of Victorian Britain created a stunted, diseased proletariat and an etiolated ruling class, both utterly unequal to the challenges of the twentieth century. The mighty British Empire collapsed, and the implosion of British power continues to this day, What do we do about it? (overseas readers, there are lessons for you in the UK Laboratory too, you know)
A nation’s basic resource is its human capital. It helps to have mineral resources like oil, or proximity to a large nearby market. But nothing in the end works like a healthy, well trained workforce. Which is why we believe that Beverly Barnett-Jones (we assume she’s no relation to Corelli) has an intriguing answer to the problem:invest in our children. Do it big. Do it now. She makes her case in the Guardian[2]. And we’ve backed her up with some further thoughts for those as might be interested, from the Child Poverty Action Group [3] Healthy contented children make better learners and pay a long term dividend. As every parent knows.
But where does the money have to come from? It’s a question which touches on every major problem from social issues to defence and climate change, It’s one we’ll always listen to. Well, Beverly has an answer, at least for her manor: Check this out
………the cost of not investing in early childhood is £16.13bn a year in England. This is the price of the remedial steps we take to address issues – from children in care, to short- and long-term mental and physical health issues – that might have been avoided through action in early childhood
Patriotism is claimed by many as their virtue. For some it consists in fat old men waving flags around glasses of beer and belching loyalties like gassy catechisms. For others it lies in creating healthy human societies where all members have the best chance of living prosperous fulfilling lives, and thus making their countries truly strong. We know which we choose.
thanks to Mr P Seymour
[1] Corelli Barnett The Audit of War Macmillan 1986
Identity is the central driver of politics. Which is why the agonising passions unleashed by high levels of immigration are so destructive. The attempt to preserve identities, and their attendant hierarchies, runs like wild floods through the body politic, tearing down all rationality and all hopeful reason. Closing off any roads to dealing with things like climate change, health and education. The solutions to which would allow all of us to lead happier, more fulfilling lives.
Some months ago this blog ran a series on immigration, its causes and possible solutions. But we admit-we are one tiny little blog. Our voice is small, our reach miniscule-although our thanks to our valued readers is without limits. That’s why it’s so important when someone much bigger comes along and visits our arguments with the statistics and clear writing that only a fully employed professional can bring. That someone is Larry Elliott of the Guardian. We’ve sampled him before here a lot. But if you want a level headed, rational analysis of why population migrations occur, this is it.
And we must try to understand, gentle readers for without understanding we shall do nothing effective about it. And if this problem goes unsolved, our lives will be bleak indeed. At best we shall come to live in ethnic silo states, like the Boers, Ulster Protestants and similar groups in history. Ever defensive, ever on guard, bereft of reason and true learning. Or die in wars like those in Lebanon, Israel and parts of Africa, where bloody ethnic war is the raison d’etre of those already doomed societies.
You have a busy day ahead, with many no doubt pressing assignments. But please take time out to read this. And think.
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stories of more than passing significance from this week’s feeds
Ocean Current Scene One of the scariest bits from John Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes is the bit when the baddy aliens melt the polar ice caps, wrecking the world’s weather and nearly destroying humanity. But hey, who needs aliens? Read this from Nature Briefings
Live Fast, Die Young, US-style Amazing how, with all those advances in medicine and science, people are starting to die younger and younger. At least in the United States. And it may surprise you to learn it’s not all down to the gun lobby. Nature Briefings, so good we ran it twice
Ten years after a landmark study on life expectancy in the United States, the news is grim: the number of years a person can expect to live has dropped for the second year in a row, down to 76 years. Maternal mortality and child mortality are rising. And many of the myriad causes of shortened life expectancy are more likely to affect younger people: death from guns, cars and opioids, for example. One thing that might help, say public-health researchers, is for people to open their minds to what works in other countries. “You look at these healthier countries, they’re free countries — England, France, Italy — they’re not banning delicious foods. They’re not chaining people to treadmills,” notes Ravi Sawhney, a co-author of the landmark report.NPR | 11 min read Reference: US Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health report (from 2013)
Banks for the memory Two weeks ago the media were full of the SVB debacle and its consequences Think the whole thing’s gone away? Your troubles are just beginning according to The Conversation
He saw it coming The Guardian long read can be just that, so normally we wouldn’t recommend it to busy people. But Professor Timothy Snyder saw Putin coming, long ago That’s prescience indeed:
He saw it coming too Real Climate scientists do real original work. And have been doing it for decades. The so called skeptics just cherry pick bits of data, bluster and try to cast doubt, and rarely do original research of their own. Claude Lorius belonged to the former group, and right back in 1965 he may already have started to save your childrens’ lives
Music for former Presidents Recently, we came across a web site called 20 Classic Songs about Prison and Spending Time in the Slammer Tracks include
JAILHOUSE ROCK Elvis Presley JAILBREAK Thin Lizzy LOCKED UP IN JAIL John Lee Hooker
CHAIN GANG Sam Cooke……and lots, lots more more Why do we think a certain rather orange coloured former President of the United States might find it appropriate?
If you went back in a time machine to 2003, you would find yourself in very strange place. Quite different from our current one. Imagine if you had stepped out of your time machine and said “I wonder if Saddam really has nuclear weapons?”People would have looked at you very strangely. If you had then said “This here economic boom, guvnor-I wonder if it will last?” they would have looked at you even more strangely. And if you had said “I’d like a glass of Prosecco, please” they might have carted you off to an institution. Because no one had ever heard of the stuff. Yet fast forward to 2009, and the modern world had been born in all its ghastly familiarity. American policy in the Middle East had collapsed in sanguinary catastrophe. The economy had crashed, and has never really recovered. And the yellow bubbly stuff is all around us, from hen nights to summer cocktail parties, as ubiquitous as i-phones, and much easier to use. So how did a humble, obscure wine from a corner of Italy go to world domination on an almost googlish scale? It’s an interesting question, because it raises all sorts of questions about marketing, advertising, money and fashions. We can’t answer it. But once again we bring you the opinions of people who know quite a lot about the matter.
For Per and Britt Karlsonn of Forbes it was all about deft name changes which supercharged the DOC, while at the same time shutting out the competition What’s in a name? Everything, say they:
Olivia Blair of The Independent put it down to Gap analysis. Champagne was just too dear, and Cava and other sparklers of the 1980s were looking just, well, a little tired by 2010.
It’s a woman thing Like all generalisations this needs to be treated with caution: but our subjective impression is that one’s introduction to the marque tended to come from a female companion, be it wife, colleague, sister or lover. Clearly they couldn’t be all at once, we hasten to add! Bell Italia takes on this theme in their analysis of the phenomenon
We think the intellectual problems of everyday life-marketing, brand acceptance, fashion, and so on-are every bit as intriguing as the recondite discoveries of people like quantum physicists or genetics folk. Certainly they need just as much brain power, and a lot more emotional intelligence. So as you relax tonight with your glass of prosecco, or prosecco cocktail, please pause. And look at at it before you knock it back. Because you are holding something very interesting indeed.
It’s not often we’d use a Bank communication as a basis for this blog. We all need banks, bless ’em. But like all other giant corporate institutions, their prose can seem a little dull. However worthy their intentions, we would rarely recommend their documents as reading for anyone other than the most inveterate sufferers of insomnia. But they do know what they’re talking about. And we want to protect you, gentle readers, from the activities of the loathsome tribe of fraudsters, con artists and scammers, who will be more active than ever at this turning time of the financial year.
So, at the risk of all creative and street credibility, here is an edited version of a missive from NatWest Bank. they may be a UK based outfit, but their principles apply across all nations and jurisdictions. So this is what they say, with our glossae added
In the first half of 2022, more than £61m was lost to fake investments in the UK. These scams are really convincing. That’s why we’ve put together some key watch-outs for you
Always use the FCA Register to check if the firm is authorised to provide investments- and to verify their contact details. If they’re not on there, it’s probably a scam. (LSS notes: your country should have some equivalent of this, unless your President’s little friends have taken it over)
Don’t just take the word of an online ad or something you’ve seen on social media, some scams use fake celebrity endorsements. (LSS Notes: and other fake “experts”, in our experience. Beware the ones who look and sound most like you)
Even if you’ve made good investments in the past, make sure you still do your research as there’s no guarantee you won’t be scammed. (LSS notes: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is)
Before making any investment, tell a family member or trusted friend what you’re planning to do. Real investment companies will give you time to think about your options. (LSS notes: most errors are made by people on their own. This is why romance scams work as well. For God’s sake-tell someone what you plan to do)
Contact a company directly with trusted contact details that you have researched yourself to make sure you’re not speaking to a cloned company.(LSS notes: Some of these fake websites are incredibly good these days. We always ring/e mail a company these days, to check it really is them, and we’ve flushed out fakes, twice!)
Following this advice could be the difference between a safe investment or losing your savings.. (LSS notes and we have heard some terrible, heartbreaking cases of lives utterly destroyed by conpersons. The basic principle they work on is “there’s always another sucker born every minute”. Don’t be one!)
scam #con #fraud #investment #financial year #NatWest #warning
Everyone thinks they know what Romans looked like. From Quo Vadis all the way through to Gladiator, there’s a specific style-clothes, army uniforms, buildings, what have you. A Fashion Statement taken up in the less grandiloquent world of TV, books and computer games until it becomes a standard reference point. Like westerns, Vietnam movies, and 1970s dramas, with all that big hair, lapels and Ford Cortinas.
Except it wasn’t like that, as this amusing video from The Archaeologist makes clear. People make shows about characters like Atilla or Hypatia wearing clothes from the age of Augustus. It would be like putting Donald Trump in the costume of Phillip II of Spain. Go on, it only lasts 12 minutes; you’ll learn something.[1]
Interesting but harmless? It doesn’t really matter, about the Romans’ underwear, except perhaps to specialists. But there’s a deeper worry. People get fixed ideas about more important things. Vaccines. Pollution. Economics. After which, diseases of the human mind like Confirmation Bias and Directed Reasoning set in. Case in point: the reason that producers always dress Romans as if they lived in 1 AD is because it’s the only way modern audiences can register them as “Roman”. So if you’ve been trained to think every scientist who talks about vaccination is part of a conspiracy, you’ll dismiss any facts before they are proffered. And that, more than any other single thing, is the real problem of out times.
“How did you get cancer?” “Two ways-gradually, then suddenly.” Yes, we’re paraphrasing Ernest Hemingway, but his words apply equally. At a gut level.
Because we all start out, or should start out with a healthy gut microbiome, that diverse interior ecology which lives in our guts and does so much to keep us healthy. But enter the blessings of a free market economy-stress, pollution, junk food,&tc, &tc.- and that normal microbiome is knocked off course. Slowly inflammations develop, which lead to cancer. And that is where the sudden bit starts. You become vulnerable to infections, so they flood you with antibiotics, especially before surgery and treatment. The result? Your gut fills with antibiotic resistant bacteria, making you even more vulnerable in the long run. And the downward spiral continues, with one very predictable end.
But the cycle could be broken, as Rachel Ellis of the Mail reports. [1] Using a soup made from the bacteria of healthy people, the patients’ gut can be “re-seeded” to create a healthy biome, massively increasing the chances of prolonging survival. It’s a really nice piece of science journalism, with some good pictures, so we urge you to read it. And we think it shines a light on something else. It’s called “Chinese Soup” because they’ve been doing it since the 4th Century, according to Rachel.
Alright, so a free market economy is probably better than one based on Communism or Religion, on balance. The reason we get snarky is the way it encourages runaway hypermarketing. The food industry has been doing this since at least 1945, and the results on our health have not been as the more fundamental disciples of Mises and Hayek might have predicted. Is it just possible that a few higher taxes, spent on cancer research, might have had a more beneficial societal outcome? We leave you to judge.
The Tallahassee Taliban is right. We agree with them. The world is drenched in sex, as any religious fundamentalist, or thirteen year old boy, will know. And it’s wrong! People shouldn’t do it. Or be thinking about it endlessly all the time. All the time. Everywhere you look That’s why any image that might suggest the existence of you know, down there, should be banned. And that’s why it’s wrong, just plain wrong to teach children about things like Michelangelo and the Renaissance. Because it’s got nude men in it. And women. And what might they make you think about ? You can see – No! Let such thoughts pass. Please. Instead, let us give you the background, as outlined in the Independent [1] and try not to think about-you know what- as you read on.
There exists a school on Tallahassee, Florida called the Tallahassee Classical School. Its remit includes the teaching of classical art to its pupils. Recently a teacher called Hope Carrasquila taught such a lesson, including Michaelangelo’s David. Understandably, the sky fell in. Parents complained and School board Chair Barney Bishop,a fine ecclesiastical name, informed Ms Carrasquila that she either resigned, or she would be fired. She resigned. And a jolly good thing too. Stop the rot here, we say. In fact we will go further and suggest some other works which ought to be banned , shut away and destroyed, lest they cause the stirrings of impure desire.
Piero Della FrancescaThe Baptism of Christ More Nude men. And one of them is Jesus, goddammit! We’ll leave out the bathhouse connotations, because this isn’t that sort of website, but there’s women looking at them. If that isn’t depravity, we don’t know what is
Pieter de Hooch Patio of a house in Delft It clearly depicts a woman with a child. Meaning some pesky kid is going to ask “where do babies come from?” right in the middle of the National Gallery when you’re trying to keep your thoughts on higher things and stop thinking about sex all the time. Hell, it’s not easy to be a religious fundamentalist, is it?
Johannes VermeerWoman playing the virginal Look at the way she’s looking at you. Pretty obvious what she wants really, isn’t it? If this isn’t depraved pornography, we don’t know what is.
George StubbsWhistlejacket Here the danger is bestiality, that most heinous of sins, pure and simple. Of course, you’ll have to be pretty fast and strong, but………
The time has come to ban all art, all images, for all are filth. Pornography. Just as bad as anything kids can access on their phones via the internet. Parents will never be able to stop that of course, because they don’t understand how they work. But, hey, Authority can make a start by closing down all art galleries, all courses in fine art and anything that refers to the Renaissance in any form whatsoever. Just like the Taliban, in fact. About time, too.
Guess who’s coming to dinner Its funny when a purely intellectual problem suddenly has real world urgent relevance. But this piece from Nature Briefings Best answer to 100 year old Party Problem, does just that
How many people do you have to invite to a party to ensure that any given number of them are all friends, or all strangers? The best upper limit for this surprisingly hard problem, which has plagued mathematicians for almost 100 years, is (3.9995)k, with k being the size of the group of either all friends or all strangers. Until now, the best answer had been ‘at most 4k’, calculated in 1935. Even lowering the upper limit by this tiny amount is “a stunning success”, says combinatorialist David Conlon. The result is important for studying networks that have an element of randomness, which can crop up in real-world scenarios ranging from epidemiology to optimization and scheduling problems.Nature | 5 min read Reference: arXiv preprint (not peer reviewed)
Getting Nightmares-and Dementia We all get nightmares from time to time, but could they be the sign of something more sinister? Medscape reviews the latest literature Thanks to G Herbert
Get Back to where they once belonged? With General Elections you can change your mind every few years or so. But a referendum is for life. So, while it’s interesting to see the changes of mood in this piece, we strongly doubt they will lead tom any consequences. thanks to P Seymour
Guru goes public Is AI about to replace us. or are we looking at the whole thing from the wrong way around? Top Tech guru Jaron Larnier has his own thoughts for the Guardian Thanks to L Charlton
Glimpse of stocking You’ll always find someone who’ll tell you how much worse things have got in the last fifty years. They said exactly the same thing fifty years ago. And fifty before that. Cole Porter has one of the wittiest takes on Nostalgia Pessimism Syndrome in Anything Goes, handled here by the talented Ella Fitzgerald
Learning, Science and Society 