Social whirl of a life? Thank your amygdala

I guess this is something we already knew or at least suspected. If your social life is a full of friends and family, you might want to thank an almond-shaped clump of nerves at the base of your brain.

Researchers have found that part of the brain called the amygdala, a word derived from the Greek for almond, is larger in more sociable people than in those who lead less gregarious lives. The finding, which held for men and women of all ages, is the first to show a link between the size of a specific brain region and the number and complexity of a person's relationships.

The team of researchers, led by psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett, found that participants with larger amygdalas typically had more people in their social lives and maintained more complex relationships.

According to the theory, those with the smallest amygdalas listed fewer than five to 15 people as regular contacts, while those with the largest amygdalas counted up to 50 acquaintances in their social lives. Older volunteers tended to have smaller amygdalas and fewer people in their social group.

This research also corresponds with that done on primates who tend to have a bigger amygdala when they live in large social groups. However, we should be aware that a word of caution should be observed. As Lisa Feldman Barrett states,

"It's not that someone with a larger amygdala can do things that someone with a smaller amygdala cannot do. People differ in how well they remember people's names and faces and the situation in which they met them. Someone with a larger amygdala might simply be better at remembering those details," Barrett added.

What a sad day for journalism - two famous journalistic faces gone from public life - RIP

What a sad day for journalism - two famous journalistic faces gone from public life...makes you feel old...

...Brian Hanrahan -"I counted them all out and I counted them all back..." http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/20/brian-hanrahan-bbc-foreign-correspondent-dies



...and Anthony Howard with his unmistakable voice..."http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12035026"



RIP

Why can planes take off from Canada but not land in London?

Why can planes take off from Canada but not land in London? Given the temperatures are close to -20 C in parts of Canada, you have to wonder at the level of ineptness of the British authorities, the BAA, who don't seem to have the wherewithal to organise safe take off and landing procedures during this period of inclement weather. Hundreds more flights were cancelled on Monday morning as criticism of BAA's response to the recent bad weather intensified.

According to David Millward, Martin Evans and Stephen Adams of The Daily Telegraph, "Anger towards BAA – which operates Heathrow Airport – increased as the Christmas travel plans of half a million air passengers continued to be ruined."

Surely it can't be that hard to de-ice the planes' wings and the runways as countries that deal with perpetually bad weather patterns are used to dealing with such scenarios every winter?

One million passengers were due to pass through Heathrow alone this week and with warnings of further bad weather in the next few days, some travellers whose flights have been cancelled were told they faced waits of up to five days. As passengers were forced to sleep in terminal buildings for a third night, there was mounting criticism of BAA, the airport operator.

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, rang Colin Matthews, the chief executive of BAA, to demand answers over why the airport had failed to cope. “I stressed the huge economic importance of Heathrow. I also expressed my hope that they would pull out all the stops to ensure that the planes get moving again. Most people realise that it has not snowed at Heathrow for some time so it is vital everything is done to get the aircraft and passengers moving again.”

BAA, which is controlled by Spain’s Ferrovial, claimed it had spent an extra £6 million on equipment to deal with snow and ice compared with last year. But with pre-tax profits expected to near £1 billion this year, the operator has been accused of failing to invest properly in equipment to cope with the extreme cold.

This reminds me of another well-known institution in Britain, Barclays Bank which, before the Credit Crunch, was making pre-tax profits of between 3-4 billion pounds per quarter. You don't have to be a genius to see that profits as usual have been put over and above the needs and indeed comfort of the customers.

Is a rose a rose by any other name? Or a sandwich?

Is a rose a rose by any other name? Or a sandwich? Well, not when it refers to a human being it seems. In fact, you have to marvel at how the media and sociologists love to come up with catchy names that we'll all remember. I guess this is because we have such short attention spans these days that we get this kind of thing. The latest is what have been called the "sandwich" and "club sandwich generations". Who sits down and thinks these things up?

"The newly identified group is being described as the “club sandwich” generation, as they will be called upon to support three layers of their family, one more than today’s so-called “sandwich generation” who put their children through school and university while also caring for their parents in retirement."

Don't know about you, but if I was nearing retirement and had a lifetime of service to others, and had raised a family too, I'd be unhappy at being referred to as a "club sandwich" kind of person!! Perhaps I'm just being too sensitive but it invites parallels with expressions like "a sandwich short of a picnic" if you know what I mean!

"This generation, the club sandwich generation, are taking on quite a lot, providing the care both to children and to older people that would otherwise have to be provided by the state."

Given that these people are the backbone of any society, shouldn't we be just a little bit more respectful?

Why Michael Moore's posting bail money for Julian Assange is a noble act worthy of our attention

It's refreshing and noteworthy to see that many people from the world of the arts and elsewhere have come out in support of Julian Assange. It comes as no small surprise that free speech is now under attack after the Bush years. If you look around you, there are rarely ever any instances any more of whistle blowing from large corporations or even governments. Why have so many capable journalists been muzzled and the so-called Guardian of the Fourth Estate, the Media, been so silent when so many civil rights' abuses seem to be everywhere from China and Tibet, to Burma and Thailand, and from the USA and the UK sending soldiers to their deaths in the thousands which, as we all know, was based on a lie e.g. that Saddam Hussain had chemical and/or nuclear weapons.

It seems too that the venom with which US politicians have gone after Mr. Assange is quite shocking and the way large mostly US corporations have been cowed into dropping his Wikileaks accounts: Mastercard, PayPal, Amazon.com but to name a few. Why too have none of the other news organisations not been attacked? They too published the documents but appear to have done so with complete impunity. Isn't there a double standard being applied here?

Thank goodness then that Michael Moore has done something noble by offering to post bail for the entrenched whistle blower and also to provide website space to continue to enable Wikileaks to post the other documents:

"Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars."

He is not alone in offering help. Ken Loach, the noted film director has also lent his financial support along with Jemima Khan and John Pilger. Many others too have helped such as the new cyber-bandits known as "Hacktivists', who have attacked and in some cases, brought down the likes of Visa and PayPal.

It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out as Assange clearly has a lot of grassroots support, and I am for one count myself among them. I think it's about time someone stood up to these demons of the world who spout rhetoric about free speech but then plant hollow rape charges against you and then try to get you locked up! I predict that this is the start of an new era in cyber-terrorism as the Internet has been policed far too rigidly and suppressed free speech. Watch this space as they say.

What have Captain Jack Sparrow and Keith Richards got in common?

Actor Johnny Depp has said that his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean was not liked by Disney bosses. In an interview with Vanity Fair, the actor says former chief executive Michael Eisner "couldn't stand" the way he interpreted the role. Depp went on to earn an Oscar nomination for his performance.

Depp now says it was Michael Eisner, the head of Disney at the time, who declared,'he's ruining the movie'," The actor now also reveals that Mr Eisner had questioned whether he was "some kind of simpleton" or even drunk when acting in the movie.

The reason is actually quite simple: the role of Captain Jack Sparrow was modelled on the Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards! For me, it means that while the movie was about piracy, there was nothing fake about Depp's performance. Ok, so now we know.

Let sex offenders adopt and work with children, says report

This has to rank as the most stupid idea I've ever heard! It's like asking bees not to produce honey or asking elephants not to strip the bark from trees. A report by a family law expert argues that some sex offenders should be allowed to adopt or foster children and claims that the current blanket ban is discriminatory.

"Sex offenders shouldn't all be tarred with the same brush," said Helen Reece at the London School of Economics, who wrote the report. "People need to be carefully screened for adoption and fostering, but each case should be taken on its merits."

Er...excuse me, but if a person has been charged with sex offenses, especially where they relate to pedophilia, they should not be allowed within the same town let alone house where children are seen. The idea that such offenders should be allowed to adopt and care for children is completely abhorrent. Has the world gone mad? Or is it just some wolly-headed academic's idea which does not match the landscape of fact? Like those old fart judges who sentence a pickpocket to 5 years and give a rapist only a fine, a suspended sentence, or a non-custodial sentence?

She goes on: "There shouldn't be blanket rules. What somebody has done before is not necessarily what he or she will do again. When someone has served a sentence, as far as you can, you should treat them the same as anyone else."

This is exactly the wolly-headed ideas I'm talking about. The idea that you should follow some egalitarian principle while leaving your child with a human being who has already proved that he or she cannot be trusted with the safety and care of another human being.

Her arguments seem a little odd however: "If we believe that blanket bans are an effective and legitimate means to protect children, then we should no more allow cohabiting couples to adopt or foster than convicted sex offenders," said Reece.

Whoa, am I missing something here? How can she compare with a convicted sex offender, two people presumably in love, with stable jobs and no convictions, and who want to give a home to a child who has no parents? As was said in the report claims that cohabiting couples can present more of a risk to children than sex offenders are likely to provoke anger among groups concerned with child protection.

How about a nice pair of second hand knickers then?

As the saying goes, "one man's muck is another man's brass". Given this saying, some people will go to great lengths to display thrift and get a bargain.

In fact, if any proof was needed that people are pulling in their purse strings and making savings wherever they can, folks in Ghana have been buying second hand knickers, yes I repeat, "second hand knickers" in order to make ends meet (all puns intended!).

However, now it appears market traders in Ghana will be banned from selling second-hand underwear from next February. According to the Ghana Standards Board, used pants - and other second-hand goods like handkerchiefs and mattresses - are unhygienic and could pose a health hazard. No kidding? Really? I had no idea!

Cynthia, a market trader, defended the business saying "Second-hand underwear and other clothes we sell here at Kantamanto Market and are better quality than new undies in the stores".

It's interesting though as to what the local words are for such items:

Apparently second-hand clothing is often referred to as "obroni wewu", which literally translates as "white man's deads". Yes, indeed!

Mecca makeover: how the hajj has become big business for Saudi Arabia

For those who thought that Saudia Arabia was only for those interested in performing their Islamic duties in the form of the Hajj, they might be surprised to find out that this has become big business these days. An estimated 2.5 million Muslims now begin the annual hajj pilgrimage, but the total number of tourists to Mecca and Medina, home to the prophet Muhammad, is expected to rise from about 12 million to almost 17 million by 2025.

In terms of tourism in the kingdom, scuba divers tend to flock to places on the Red Sea like Jeddah, but tourism isn't really that well developed other than religious torusism sector which is seeing a huge boom. Hotels have been springing up to cater for this increase in demand.

"The level of pampering offered by some of the hotels – Asprey toiletries, 24-hour butler service, $270 chocolate selections – may jar with the ethos of sacrifice, simplicity and humility of hajj but it is not a contradiction felt by the customers snapping up royal suites at $5,880 a night, eating gelato or milling around hangar-like lobbies of polished marble in their Hajj clothing of bedsheets, towels or burqas. Raffles is reporting 100% occupancy for it 211 rooms."

I guess we all need to pamper ourselves from time to time!

Fathers are happier when doing more housework, says study

Fathers are less stressed when sharing childcare and domestic chores, new research shows. This has to be something that most women around the world will be happy about. The fact that men are happy when they are home will also deal a blow to the feminist movement which has always asserted that men have little or no interest in staying at home, rearing children, and helping the woman with housework. Or maybe it’s a sign of the times and the fact that, finally, Feminists can claim their teachings have at last helped change the dynamics of home life to the benefit of the female.

“It will be music to the ears of working mothers everywhere: fathers are happier when they do more of the housework themselves, spend longer with their children and have working partners who are in the office just as long as they are, a major new study has found. The best way to de-stress a father is for his partner to share the weight of domestic burdens with him, rather than ironing his socks, making his breakfast and taking the lion's share of responsibility for the kids.”

Evidence was also found that social attitudes towards childcare are in a period of profound change: fewer fathers than mothers, for example, believe that it is a mother's job to look after children. "The problem is that although families are changing, this is – largely – being completely ignored by employers," added Gatrell.

As usual, companies are a huge step behind what society both wants and expects from its employers. Too often nowadays, employers have complete control over their workforce to the detriment of the family. Interestingly, this is less so in extended families or in countries where extended families thrive e.g. sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.

Electric current to the brain 'boosts maths ability'

This all sounds a bit wacky to me. That you can stimulate some part of the brain and produce a particular response is something I talked about in an earlier blog, so I have no doubt about that but to say that it can improve a skill in a tangible way like say an improvement in math score is frankly a little hard to swallow.

"Applying a tiny electrical current to the brain could make you better at learning maths, according to Oxford University scientists. They found that targeting a part of the brain called the parietal lobe improved the ability of volunteers to solve numerical problems."

What's more interesting is that even six months later when tested again, the respondents still seemed to have retained some of the ability which is even more remarkable as it suggests that the effect is somewhat long lasting. However, the scientists have a word of caution - an academic caveat emptor:

"Dr Cohen Kadosh, who led the study, said: "We are not advising people to go around giving themselves electric shocks, but we are extremely excited by the potential of our findings and are now looking into the underlying brain changes."

Another scientist, Dr Christopher Chambers, from the School of Psychology at Cardiff University, said that the results were "intriguing", and offered the prospect not just of improving numerical skills, but having an impact on a wider range of conditions.

"The ability to tweak activity in parts of the brain, turning it slightly 'up' or 'down' at will, opens the door to treating a range of psychiatric and neurological problems, like compulsive gambling or visual impairments following stroke."

You have to agree that it's intriguing but equally, if there really exists a possibility to tweak parts of the brain to perform specific functions, in the wrong hands, like a Kim Jong-il or a Pol Pot, that could open up a Pandora's box of unmentionables to have to deal with as the Natzis discovered with their Eugenics programs in the early part of the last century!! It is also reminiscent of Frankenstein and the literature of the early to mid nineteenth century.

Now that's an amazing story...

They say it takes several negative things to happen simultaneously to bring down an airliner which means it's still one of the safest ways to fly these days.

How about this one? How lucky can you be? This week, a 15-month-old baby girl survived a fall from a seventh-floor apartment in Paris almost unscathed after bouncing off a cafe awning and into the arms of a passer-by, police said on Tuesday.

Now that's amazingly lucky to (1) have a passer-by notice that you're in potential trouble or at least in a precarious position, (2) that the shop owner decided that day not to haul in the awning, "I usually close it to stop it catching fire as people tend to throw their cigarette butts onto it," he told the television station i-tele, and (3) the passer-by who saw what was about to happen must have played rugby for years to have developed reflexes like that and had the nerve and skill to catch the baby after it bounced off the awning!!

One wonders what the almighty has in store for this baby!!

George Soros donates $1 million to campaign to legalise cannabis

George Soros is known for his sometimes wacky crusades to offer moral guidance to the world through his own peculiar prism or moral compass. However, this is a strange news story. Why would a billionaire financier like George Soros fund a campaign to legalise or at least decriminalise cannabis? I mean, what's in it for him personally?

"Billionaire George Soros donated $1 million (£630,000) on Tuesday to a campaign to legalise marijuana in California through an initiative placed on ballots in the November 2 election."

I guess he does feel there's something in it for him personally? But what exactly?

Legalising the recreational use and small-scale cultivation of marijuana and regulating and taxing its sale "would represent a major step forward, and its deficiencies can be corrected on the basis of experience," Mr Soros wrote.

Somehow, I can't get past the idea that a man who is a central pillar in world economics as well as geo-politics is concerning himself with this. There has to be an ulterior motive for nobody as greedy as this man does something like this and not expect something out of it?! Either this is a case of misplaced philantrophy or he knows something we don't.

Neuroscience, free will and determinism: 'I'm just a machine'

This is an interesting new idea. If we can be affected by forces outside of us for example by magnetism, does that have a bearing on whether we should be held responsible for all of our actions?

In the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, in Queen Square in London, the nerve centre – if you will – of British brain research, Prof Haggard is demonstrating "transcranial magnetic stimulation", a technique that uses magnetic coils to affect one's brain, and then to control the body. One of his research assistants, Christina Fuentes, is holding a loop-shaped paddle next to his head, moving it fractionally. "If we get it right, it might cause something." She presses a switch, and the coil activates with a click. Prof Haggard's hand twitches. "It's not me doing that," he assures me, "it's her."

The point here of course is not simply to perform a simple parlour trick - a rather dull experiment to affect the involuntary movement of someone's fingers, but to illustrate the larger question of how our world, the surrounding atmosphere in which we inhere every day, actually has a profound effect on us and in ways we cannot often imagine. And what happens when some of us are hot-wired differently from others? Doesn't that also mean that we are affected by nature in lots of different ways as well? Both negatively as well as positively? And if this is true, what happens when some people do odd things, for example, murder another human being? Can we really hold them to account in the way we always have?

As Prof Haggard says,

"What happens if someone commits a crime, and it turns out that there's a lesion in that brain area? Is that person responsible? Is the damage to the machine sufficient for us to exempt them from that very basic human idea that we are responsible for our actions? I don't know." He refers to a major project in America, where "lawyers, neuroscientists, philosophers and psychiatrists are all trying to work out what impact brain science has on our socio-legal sense of responsibility".

It seems we may have to re-evaluate what truly constitutes our notion of true free will.

Uk university tuition costs to hit £36,000

As if it wasn't bad enough that there are proposals to reduce UK degrees from 3 to 2 years, that there is a shortfall of government funding to the tune of more than 30% over the current government's term in office, and that the quality of education is suffering with large intakes of foreign, mostly Chinese, students with the concomitant drop in standards.

Now we find that the costs of UK degrees are set to spiral out of control to the tune of £36,000 for a typical three-year degree course!!

"Virtually all taxpayer funding will be removed from the majority of degrees and students will have to borrow tens of thousands of pounds to cover the doubled cost of courses. Universities will have to charge at least £7,000 a year to cover the loss of central government funding and some elite degrees are expected to cost up to £12,000 a year."

These are understood to be the key findings from a long-awaited review of university funding conducted by Lord Browne, the former head of BP. But you have to ask yourself why anyone would send their kids to a uni in the UK any more when there are far more attractive options elsewhere in the European union?

I predict a mass exodus of undergraduates spreading their money around the European union and it will hurt the UK economy even more at a time when every pound is need domestically to be spent at home! Again this is just another example where the UK government is displaying remarkable shortsightedness(a recurrent theme on this blog if you wish to read more on this topic).

Mouse found baked into loaf of bread

Britain's biggest food producer has been fined nearly £17,000 after a father making sandwiches for his children found a mouse baked into a loaf of bread.

Computers show how wind could have parted Red Sea

Computer simulations show how the movement of wind could have parted the waters of the Red Sea New computer simulations have shown how the parting of the Red Sea, as described in the Bible, could have been a phenomenon caused by strong winds. The account in the Book of Exodus describes how the waters of the sea parted, allowing the Israelites to flee their Egyptian pursuers.

Simulations by US scientists show how the movement of wind could have opened up a land bridge at one location. This would have enabled people to walk across exposed mud flats to safety.

The results are published in the open-access journal Plos One.

An article that gets at the heart of what's wrong with Thailand

I had to reprint this article in full for it perfectly illustrates all that's fundamentally wrong with Thailand as a nation. When even poor countries like Vietnam and Laos have 3G phone capabilities, it's unbelievable that Thailand hasn't and is unlikely to have for at least anther 6 months to a year. Why? Because the government, the regulators, and some smaller interest groups are squabbling over the spoils and unable to decide who will get the biggest slice of the cake when the licenses are eventually awarded. They seem to care not a jot about the consumer who they are supposed to be serving and seem unable to realise that most other countries are now on 4G phones. This is a classic case of a lack of leadership by the government, selfishness by the operators themselves, and corruption by the regulators.

Here's the article in full as it's written by a Thai and so spot on about the inability of Thais to get even the simplest legislation passed.

We don't trust each other to do even the simplest thing - by Tulsathit Taptim (Originally published in The Nation)

"I just want a faster Internet, for crying out loud. Is that too much to ask? From the way things are going, it most likely is. But I still don't get it anyway. We could understand it when, 15 years or so ago, people said Bangkok could not have a subway system because the soil was too soft. That the presumption turned out to be untrue I can live with. That Bangkok wasted years on the land subsidence fear is forgivable.

Not this time. Thailand is missing the 3G bandwagon not because of national security concerns, or lack of expertise, or lack of money. We have become an international laughing stock simply because having 3G at a particular time would benefit some people and make others lose out. Technological advancement in our country has been too intertwined with politics, and only our politics says how, where and when we should proceed. And I'm mad.

This has become a bad soap opera featuring greed, selfishness, jealousy and cheap tricks. And the next time I hear the term "public interest" in the debate, I may consider committing a massacre. The unionists are just worried about themselves, the executives about how the political winds will blow, and the politicians about who gets what. The judges look like a befuddled referee in a dirty and cunning football game.

Mind you, telecom liberalisation was a stipulation in the 1997 Constitution. I'm fairly confident that if you had visited Laos or Vietnam in that year carrying a low-end mobile phone, you would have been treated like a demi-god. If you visit either country today, just pretend you're from Taiwan or Hong Kong. That's the best advice I can give.

Thirteen bloody years later and we are still arguing over who has the authority. Every time we took a little step forward, we took two huge steps backward. Two great national traits have held everything hostage - blind selfishness and blind envy. When it came to the subject of a "regulatory body", three things would happen: First, one group would try to block its establishment, and if that failed, this group and other groups would try to put their men on the board and seize control, leaving those who missed the boat to behave like a jealous female villain in a TV drama.

Unlike the subway debate, nobody has even tried to make the 3G impasse sound remotely scientific. Even ethical arguments smack of nasty self-interest. Consumers are the last thing on the minds of the people who can dictate the future course of the Thai telecom industry. Politicians are afraid to lose power to the regulatory body. Mobile phone companies will go for the cheapest investment (which is fair enough) and whatever system will continue to allow them to bleed customers dry. Government enterprises have been harping on about the public interest while in fact standing in the way of faster and better digital services for Thai people.

How did our Southeast Asian neighbours manage to leave us in their dust when it comes to 3G? Simple: because it is simple. This is not a nuclear or space programme that has to navigate different public sentiments, international politics, or funding or human resource difficulties. The technology is there, and so is the public consensus. The question is so basic: How can we do it transparently while making it fair to both investors and consumers?

It has taken us 13 years to get to nowhere. A simple agenda has been bogged down by the corrupt nature of our country. Instead of being able to use technology to innovate, create and thus decentralise wealth, 3G has become a name associated with everything counter-productive, including what has come to characterise the nation - double plays.

Ordinary people just want better phone signals, faster downloads and cheaper Internet access. 3G can give us that and much more, and we know who stands between us and what we want. If it had really been about doing it the right way, we would have known. If the government had been sincere, we would have felt it. If the labour unions had really cared about consumers, why are we angry at them?

Some people talk about the will of the Constitution. Don't get me started. The NBTC requirement is just the charter writers' way of saying why we should liberalise the telecom sector for consumers' benefits, and how we should do it. It's certainly not their will to have Thais drooling over what neighbouring countries have while the same old vested interest groups here keep on fighting and fighting and fighting."

Exam system 'diseased', claims former education adviser

I have already blogged here about the perilous state of the UK's education sector which can be found in my Blog Archives. Please see - Thursday, 12 August 2010 "What is happening to the UK education system?"; Saturday, 23 January 2010 "Worthless qualifications' give false hope to state pupils, says Harrow head"; Monday, 23 February 200 "If it looks like a duck…"; "Monday, 2 November 2009 "You are where you live"

It comes as no surprise to me that, with the exception of the Arts in general (which is always the first to have its funding slashed), education is always one of the areas where budgets are being cut across the world after a major economic disaster such as the Credit Crunch crisis of the last 2-3 years. There has been a clear and seismic shift from this global shortfall of money away from projects that inform or instruct and/or serve the soul of the ordinary citizen.

We saw this in America after Hurricane Catrina where new forms of schools, Charter schools, were created which in effect were privately funded schools. The government no longer had to pump money into them as they had effectively been privatised. I fear the same thing is on the cards for the UK. The present government is neither able to pay to maintain the present standards of education in the country nor seems to have the wherewithal to provide an adequate solution to the problem. Because of this, the UK is fast going to lose its pre-eminent status as one of the leading lights of the educational world which it has enjoyed for many years. Here are the top five reasons why this is so:

1. The reduction of the UK educational budget (from central government) by 35% over 5 years.

It's difficult to imagine the results of cutting an educational budget by 35% over 5 years. It is an un-imaginable idea, impossible to get your head around (like Descartes idea that you can imagine in your head a square (4-sided), a triangle (3-sided), a hexagon (6-sided), but there is a limit to how many sides we can adequately conceive of in our minds so that a shape with say 13 sides or 1,000 sides would be impossible).

That said, we have to try for the all too obvious reasons that to not do so would be to accept that the next generation of students, be they young children going through primary or secondary education, or young undergraduates hoping to polish off their formal educational experience in a UK university, won't get as much of an opportunity of a good education as others had in the past.

2. The reduction of a typical degree time period from 3 years to 2 years.

This in itself is a catastrophic acceptance that somehow UK degrees can't be all that valuable so "lets cut them down by 33%". In an era where most if not everyone agrees that knowledge economies are the way forward, why would a government reduce its education budget? Is there a contradiction at the heart of most relationships between elected officials and the people they are supposed to be representing? A certain dumbing down or "what they don't know can't hurt them" approach to education? This is a tactic used by many governments and since I have lived for a number of years in Thailand, I can tell you that it definitely goes on here, too.

3. The emphasis on an approach to education that promotes a "teach-for-the-test" method of teaching & learning

This has been going on for some time. As a teacher, I accept that it also goes on in many other areas as well, but in the UK, it needs to be stamped out and a focus on the creative potential of the students themselves supplanting it. Anyone who has read Sir Ken Robinson's amazing book, "The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything" will know what I mean here. UK children are categorised from an early age which stigmatises the most creative and scars them for life. It prepares them for tests that does nbot test their real abilities and which few teachers truly care about. Life is more than about answering questions to satisfy an examiner; it requires a truer grasp of the mysteries of the universe around us.

4. The acceptance of foreign students, mostly from Asia, onto UK courses primarily to rake in money at the expense of quality control

I have seen this first hand while teaching at two UK universities - the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Birmingham. Mostly, the students come to attend initially on CLIL(Content & Language Integrated Learning) based language and business related subjects through what are known as in-sessional and pre-sessional courses. There are also foundation courses and pre-masters courses.

What happens though is that these students, mostly from China, Taiwan, and other parts of S E Asia, pay up to 8 times more than a local student, on top of the astronomical fees they have to pay the Home Office for education visas to remain in the country and in return are allowed to get through teh courses with only minimal fail rates. In some cases, 100% of the students pass. I saw this at UEA and to a lesser degree at UoB although I'm willing to bet that these universities are nothing compared to other practices going on elsewhere in UK universities..

5. The running of education like a corrupt business as we've seen in Mick Water's interview in "Reinventing Schools, Reforming Teaching".

After all the negative data coming out about about the sector, we now hear from Mick Waters in an interview in a book called "Reinventing Schools, Reforming Teaching" that there is clear collusion between ofqul and the exam boards, organisations like Edexcel responsible for standards in UK schools.

"In it Mick Waters, formerly a director at the Qualifications and Curriculum Agency, accuses exam boards of being "almost corrupt" and claims they make profits by publishing textbooks that practically tell teachers what questions will appear in the exams the boards set. He says exam boards boast that their tests are the easiest to convince teachers to pick their syllabus, and they tell schools that their students will pass as long as they buy and follow the textbooks."

Waters also accuses the official exams regulator, Ofqual of being cowardly in not challenging the exam boards particularly where and how and by who exams questions are framed and posed.

"I fully support having a regulator who can ask awkward questions. So, what I'd now want to see is a regulator asking the questions ... I don't think they've got the nerve. They should immediately look up whether the chief examiner should be allowed to write the textbook with regards to pupils' questions. That's insider dealing. You shouldn't be allowed to do that."

The are pretty strong words from what most would deem a former UK education insider. Whatever happens within the term of the present government, assuming of course that it lasts 4 years, is for it or any successor to do something to stem the tide and improve the overall standards of UK education.

Missing sailor found inside shark off Jaws beach

Now there's a way to go out in style...well...sort of! Yuk though, being eaten by a shark and all that saliva over you as you descend into its guts! Ok, on second thoughts...

Upon opening up a tiger shark, the remains of a sailor who disappeared off Jaws beach in the Bahamas, where the final film in the Jaws franchise was filmed, have been found inside. Fingerprints were used by authorities to identify Judson Newton, who was last seen on 29 August swimming for shore after his boat's engine stalled. It was his body body found inside the 3.6 metre (12ft) fish's belly.

"An investment banker on a deep-sea fishing trip caught the shark on 4 September. He said a left leg came out of its mouth as it was hauled on to his boat. When police sliced the belly open they found a right leg, two arms and a torso."

I can just see that Type A personality banker now - out hunting for tuna or marlins and finding something that defies all explanation. Try finding adjectives to describe that catch.

It's definitely one of them there sea shanty tales to tell your grandchildren like Uncle Albert used to in Only Fools and Horses. "Well, I was on a boat and I hauled in this great monster shark, as big as the moon, and then just as he pops on deck, a sailor falls out of his mouth!"

If you told that story, nobody would believe you!

Grandmother goes to bed with migraine... and wakes up speaking with a French accent

What would you do if you went to bed and woke up speaking another, completely foreign, language? Or rather, speaking the same language but with a foreign accent? It's hard to think that such things happen, but that they most certainly do!

A grandmother who went to bed suffering from a migraine was amazed to wake up speaking with a French accent. Kay Russell, 49, is now left with a voice that is unrecognisable to family and friends. Doctors say she has Foreign Accent Syndrome, a condition which damages the part of the brain that controls speech and word formation.

Can you imagine how many of your work colleagues and family would be bullshitting you for days because they simply refused to believe you?

"Oh God, Kay, not still speaking French again are we? You know we're not falling for that one right? Give it over, honestly!"

They must have been mortified when they realised that she wasn't putting it on as a stunt or anything, like the people who make jokes about handicapped people and find one right in front of them. (This actually happened to the Scottish comedian, Frankie Boyle, at a show in London. He was taking the piss out of handicapped people and there were two handicapped people right in front of him in the front row who started crying.)

Oh...er...um...is that the time, must be off!

The internet: is it changing the way we think?

According to the American writer Nicholas Carr, the internet is not only shaping our lives but physically altering our brains. This topic has sparked a lively and ongoing debate among denizens of the web and the more well-read literati.

"Over the past few years," Carr writes, "I've had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn't going – so far as I can tell – but it's changing. I'm not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I'm reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument and I'd spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That's rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I'm always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."

I'm sure we are all to some extent aware of this situation. I too remember times when I would have to unpick dense, complex words on a page but can't remember the last time I did that. So what is happening?

According to the writer of the article "The internet: is it changing the way we think?" - "The title of the essay is misleading, because Carr's target was not really the world's leading search engine, but the impact that ubiquitous, always-on networking is having on our cognitive processes. His argument was that our deepening dependence on networking technology is indeed changing not only the way we think, but also the structure of our brains."

Carr's article touched a nerve and has provoked a lively, ongoing debate on the net and in print (he has now expanded it into a book, "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains"). This is partly because he's an engaging writer who has vividly articulated the unease that many adults feel about the way their modi operandi have changed in response to ubiquitous networking. Who bothers to write down or memorise detailed information any more, for example, when they know that Google will always retrieve it if it's needed again? The web has become, in a way, a global prosthesis for our collective memory.

You can't help but agree and and surmise that maybe it is a form of brain drain. Put it this way, if it were coming from a medical doctor, the prognosis wouldn't be good. We are not only reading less but we are reading material that has already been processed much of the time into bite sized digestible chunks leaving our brains free to do other less challenging tasks. This means our brains are being asked to do less and less, or does it? Couldn't it just mean we are seeing another leap in evolutionary terms? A kind of quantum leap with technology aiding us in rewiring or maybe hot wiring our brains to think and respond in different new and novel ways?

Could it be yet another example of the "use it or lose it" dynamic? Sarah Churchwell, academic and critic says - "...what I can attest to is that the internet is changing our habits of thinking, which isn't the same thing as changing our brains. The brain is like any other muscle – if you don't stretch it, it gets both stiff and flabby. But if you exercise it regularly, and cross-train, your brain will be flexible, quick, strong and versatile."

Overall, we have to decide whether it is a good thing or just just a symptom of our sanitised pop culture world? You be the judge...

What is happening to the UK education system?

This is going to make the UK education system a laughing stock around the world. According to the headline (click on the title to read the article) the UK education system is in freefall - "Universities face 'biggest cuts since Great Depression."

Vice-chancellors have been warned that funding may be slashed by 35 per cent over the next five years, it has emerged. The warning – delivered in a series of meetings between Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, and university bosses – would represent the biggest cut in resources since the 1930s, it is claimed. It would be equivalent to the current £5,441 annual Government subsidy for each student being reduced to just £3,537.

Universities said the reduction would have devastating consequences for higher education in England – jeapordising the sector’s world class status. Many universities will seek to make savings by axing loss-making courses, closing libraries, cramming more students into lectures and failing to repair crumbling buildings. It is also likely to lead to an increase in the number of foreign students who can be charged much higher fees than British undergraduates.

How can a country as well developed and with a thriving education sector known throughout the world as "world class" be so shortsighted as to reduce the funding for higher education by a whopping 35%? The repercussions will be devastating and further erode the economic status of the UK which is already close to seeing a double dip recession.

This is on top of the reports that many 3-year degrees will be reduced to a 2-year program. You have to wonder where this is all leading - a surveillance state with more cameras than anywhere else in the world and with an education system that is going to the dogs!!

This is a very sad day for anyone coming through the educational system in the UK and who will be looking to get a good education. Not since the Great Depression has there been such widespread cuts in public funding.

When is rape actually rape?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Stephen Hawking: mankind must move to outer space within a century

The human race must look to outer space within the next century or it will become extinct, Professor Stephen Hawking has warned. The renowned astrophysicist said he fears mankind is in great danger and its future "must be in space" if it is to survive.

In an interview he said threats to the existence of the human race such as war, resource depletion and overpopulation meant it was at its greater risk ever. Although a long advocate of colonising space in order to continue man's reign, this is his direst warning to date.

"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million," he told the website Big Think. "Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space. We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space. That is why I'm in favour of manned, or should I say 'personed', space flight."

My question is whether we will again make a mess of any future planets or stars that we invade and colonise? Or should that be more like "how long" will it take before me mess up our existence elsewhere? We may be a special species when compared to the other animals on planet earth, but we are also the only species that can't seem to co-exist with other species. We have become so greedy we destroy the very fabric of our natural surroundings so that we can no longer inhabit it as well as the other species which have probably been there a heck of a lot longer.

Taken in this light, is there any point in space exploration at all and wouldn't it be better to work on the problem that caused this need to migrate in the first place? Human greed?

Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins dies, aged 61

What a sad loss to snooker. Alex Higgins is dead aged 61 and for me was a snooker genius and the best of his generation - so exciting to watch and always unpredictable he was compulsive viewing for me as a teen and probably, along with Jimmy White, one of the reasons I started playing snooker myself.

In May, the ailing champion former world number one had found the strength to attend a charity event in his honour, where friends and former players hoped to raise money to pay for further treatment. Once described by fellow snooker professional Steve Davis as “the one true genius snooker has produced”, Higgins was considered by many the greatest player ever seen but fought a battle with alcohol.

With so many demons to dispel, now you can finally rest in peace.

Swiss bank to lift lid on hidden Kafka works

It's an interesting question to ponder whether an author has any rights after his death as Franz Kafka clearly didn't.

Franz Kafka was one of the most enigmatic authors of the 20th Century. He died of tuberculosis in 1924 aged only 40 and, if his own last wishes had been followed, novels such as The Trial and The Castle would never have seen the light of day.

Kafka asked his friend and fellow writer, Max Brod, to burn his manuscripts after his death. Brod refused, publishing the novels and taking letters and other writings to Israel where he left them to his secretary Esther Hoffe - who then bequeathed them to her two daughters.

It seems there is very little honour not only in publishing but anywhere these days!

Gunshot survivor gets prosthetic face

You have to marvel at the miracle of science these days! This woman got shot full in the face and which left a gaping hole. Not only did she survive it, but now she's had corrective surgery (was there ever such an understatement?) and has her very own "new" face.

Chrissy Steltz, 27, from Milwaukie, Oregon, was shot accidentally at close range by a friend at a party in March 1999. The shot blew a huge hole in her face where her eyes and nose used to be. Mrs Steltz went into a coma and spent six weeks in hospital. Doctors said it was a miracle that she was not killed but the blast left her badly disfigured. She was also blinded and lost part of her hearing. Mrs Steltz, who married last year and has a one-year-old child, wore a sleeping mask to cover the hole but has now been given a prosthetic replacement 11 years later.

This is an amazing testament to the courage of the human spirit. How many people even if they had survived physically, would have curled up and died inside? how many people would have gone into a deep depression from which they would never have come out again, certainly not intact or in one piece?

I hear a talk show coming along..."Ok, Oprah be right with you in a minute!"

Sucker for soccer: octopus predicts World Cup finalist

You couldn't make this up and has to rank as a crazy story - a British born octopus in Germany called Paul has correctly predicted the results of a number of the World Cup games?

Spain's victory over Germany in the World Cup last night will come as no surprise to those following one of the competition's most successful pundits – for the result had already been foretold by Paul the Octopus, a creature that has achieved celebrity status with the accuracy of its predictions.

Dubbed the psychic octopus, the English-born Paul (hatched at the Sea Life Park in Weymouth) has correctly predicted all of Germany's World Cup results including the 1-0 defeat last night. He predicted Germany's wins against England and Argentina, and even Serbia's defeat of Germany in the group stage.

Such is the popularity of his selections that, on the eve of last night's game, the German news channel n-tv broadcast Paul's prediction live.

What will we have next? A chimpanzeee who can plat chess and beat Grand Masters? A one-legged gerbil that can perform keyhole surgery? A cat that can tell when rabbits are lying?

What is the world coming to eh?

Ageing - New genetic test can predict your chances of living to 100, claim scientists

Just as we always knew- you can drink like a fish, copulate like a rabbit, smoke like a chimney, but what really determines how long you live is how good your genes are - or so says a report into the correlation between length of life and your genes.

"A genetic test that can predict whether a person is likely to live long enough to see their 100th birthday has been developed by scientists. Researchers at Boston University claim the test can identify those who can look forward to an exceptionally long life with 77% accuracy. They designed the test after a major study into the genetic makeup of centenarians highlighted a host of DNA variants that boost a person's chances of reaching a ripe old age."

So that old geezer you used to see down the pub every night knocking back the Guinness and smoking like ciggies were about to be banned wasn't such an idiot after all. he was just lucky - he had good genes. His brothers and sisters also probably enjoyed the same predisposition to be able to avoid regular illness and chronic ailments related to old age, too.

"Many of the genetic markers the scientists found stave off common, and often lethal, age-related diseases, such as heart disease, dementia and high blood pressure. The US researchers investigated the genetic secrets of a longer life after studies showed that living beyond 100 often runs in families."

Ok, gotta go now. Off to the pub and to buy a pack of Marlboro on the way!

The World's Richest Self-made Women

Only 14 of the world's 1,000 billionaires are self-made women, and only seven of them had no help from relatives, a new list has found. Also interesting is the fact that of those 14, 6 of them are Chinese which no doubt reflects the rise of China as a new super power in terms of economics as well as in other areas.

Here is the list:

The World's Richest Self-made Women (Name, nationality, industry, net worth in dollars)

1. Wu Yajun, Chinese, Property development, 3.9 billion

2. Rosalie Mera, Spanish, Clothing, 3.5 billion

3. Elena Baturina, Russian, Construction, 2.9 billion

4. Doris Fisher, American, Clothing, 2.4 billion

5. Xiu Li Hawken, UK citizen, property development, 2.4 billion

6. Oprah Winfrey, American, Media, 2.4 billion

7. Giulana Benetton, Italian, Clothing, 2.1 billion

8. Chu Lam Yiu, Chinese, Flavourings and fragrances, 2.1 billion

9. Zhang Xin, Chinese, property development, 2 billion

10. Yan Cheung, Chinese, Waste paper, 1.7 billion

11. Meg Whitman, American, Internet commerce, 1.3 billion

12. Chan Laiwa, Chinese, property development, 1.1 billion

13. Lei Jufang, Chinese, Medicines, 1.1 billion

14. J.K. Rowling, British, Books, 1 billion

Every picture tells a story...

Tallest German surrenders to short soldier in Second World War picture



This is an unusual picture to see of a diminutive Englishman. Corporal Bob Roberts was overseeing the surrender of dozens of enemy soldiers during the Battle of Normandy when the 7ft 6ins German loomed into his view. Cpl Roberts, who stood two feet below him at 5ft 6ins, had the daunting job of frisking the German lance corporal for weapons before taking him prisoner.

What this picture doesn't tell you is that only a short time earlier, the same Englishman had just shot dead another German who had pulled out a pistol. For just a few minutes before the picture was taken, Cpl Roberts faced a life-or-death duel with another German soldier who pulled out a pistol as he pretended to surrender. Luckily, he raised his gun in the nick of time and shot the enemy soldier dead.

Cpl Roberts, who was 21 at the time, was a member of the North Shore New Brunswick Regiment of the Canadian army and stormed Juno Beach on D-Day in June 1944. "I didn't take a lot of notice of this guy at the time because I was so focused on what the Germans were doing after what had happened to me.

"I just passed the prisoners on one after the other after searching them. But my mates who were watching the rest of the men saw this giant of a guy approach me and I was aware they and the Germans were having a good laugh. The Germans were saying that he was the tallest man in the German army, he was 7ft 6ins tall."

Sometimes, there is a funny side to war as this photo suggests.

What did I tell you? Swine flu - another scam!

What many of us already knew. Swine flu - another scam! This article criticises the way certain drug companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Roche, paid so-called experts to scare the bejesus out of us and forcing our governments to stockpile Tamiflu which turned out to be a waste of money as a full scale pandemic never happened. (Click on the title link to read the article.)

"City analysts say that pharmaceutical companies banked more than $7bn (£4.8bn) as governments stockpiled drugs. The issue of transparency has risen to the forefront of public health debate after dramatic predictions last year about a swine flu pandemic did not come true."

This is the age we live in where the manipulation of ordinary people has reached new heights. Where once we thought somewhat naively that knowledge would set us free, knowledge about human behaviour patterns has instead been used to control us and make money from us in much more pernicious and secretive ways.

And drug companies will soon be seen as the absolute poison in our midst:

"The tentacles of drug company influence are in all levels in the decision-making process," said Paul Flynn, the Labour MP who sits on the council's health committee. "It must be right that the WHO is transparent because there has been distortion of priorities of public health services all over Europe, waste of huge sums of public money and provocation of unjustified fear."

What have we learned throughout all of this? Fear sells! It is now a commodity like oil and gold when used by secretive and unscrupulous people.

Just a shaggy dog story?

(Click on the title link to read the whole story.)

This is one of those stories that defy logic but have a happy ending all the same.Apparently this dog travelled 15 miles home across motorway and moorland after a marathon 31-hour trek that took the mongrel across the M1, four major A roads and miles of treacherous moorland. Only then was he reunited with its ecstatic owners and their kids.

In a story reminiscent of 1940s film Lassie Come Home, a family who had given up their whippet-terrier cross Jack for dead looked outside to find him asleep on their doorstep. The mongrel dog – exhausted and sore-pawed, but very much alive – had walked 15 miles along an unfamiliar route, apparently untroubled by obstacles including a four-lane bypass and one of the country's busiest motorways.

Even more surprising was the dog's bravery is given the fact that he suffers from a fear of traffic, and walks with a limp, after being knocked down by a lorry five years ago. Jack's address is not printed on his collar so there is no chance that a well-wisher could have found him at the side of the road and dropped him at the house, Mr Cooper, the dog's owner, added.

Jack is now recuperating with the help of Coopers' two sons Adam and Rob. Mr Cooper said: "We bandaged his legs but he's out walking again now, although he is staying a little closer."

I guess it just shows you how attached pets get to the their owners as we always talk about it the other way round e.g. how pet owners get so attached to their pets. It seems that at times the love is reciprocal.

More photos of the carnage in Bangkok 2010

Click on the title link to see the pics.

Heart attack survivors 'fear sex'

Heart attack survivors are highly likely to avoid sex, fearing it could kill them, US researchers say. The team told an American Heart Association meeting that those whose doctors failed to talk to them about sex were most likely to avoid it.

In terms of sexual activity, the study of 1,184 men and 576 women who had experienced heart attacks were asked about their sexual activity prior to and after having a heart attack. They were assessed one month after their heart attacks, and then again after a year. The men were more likely to be sexually active prior to the heart attack.

What this tells you is that life needn't end just because you have a dodgy ticker. In fact, most studies will tell you that having an active sex life is extremely healthy, and those who reduce this or don't have a sex life after major heart surgery (or simply a heart attack) that doesn't require major treatment are in fact putting themselves back in danger by changing their sexual habits and proclivities.

So what's the moral of the story? More sex please we aren't British!

More great pics of Bangkok - Siam Square and MBK

Click on the title link to see the pics.

List of buildings attacked so far...

BMA: Rioters set fire to 34 places

A total of 34 places were set ablaze during Wednesday's riot, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said on Thursday morning.

They are;

1. Siam Square’s Siam Theatre
2. Centara hotel in Ratchaprasong
3. SET building
4. Mahathun Plaza Building
5. Maleenont Building
6. Bangkok Bank (BBL) Asoke branch
7. BBL Din Daeng branch
8. BBL Rama IV branch
9. BBL Victory Monument branch
10. BBL Sukhumvit 83 branch
11. BBL Sathupradit branch
12. BBL Thanon Chan branch
13. BBL Saphan Luang branch
14. BBL Klong Toey branch
15. BBL Hua Lampong branch
16. Klong Toey office of the MEA
17. Krung Thai Bank (KTB) Asoke branch
18. KTB Sala Daeng branch
19. KTB Sukhumvit branch
20. GSB Din Daeng branch
21. Office of Narcotics Control Board building in Din Daeng
22. Central World
23. Kasikornbank Ngam Duplee branch
24. Kasikornbank Victory monument branch
25. Siam City Bank (SCIB) Din Daeng branch
26. SCIB Penang branch
27. Center One shopping centre
28. Noodle shop at Victory Monument
29. Gold shop at Victory Monument
30. 7-Eleven in Din Daeng
31. Lotus Express Rama IV
32. Dok Ya Book store at Victory Monument
33. Watson shopping mall at Victory Monument
34. Police booth on Rama III road

Remnants of Central World - RIP

Central World burning down

End of an era! A place I have bought items I still use. To view the pics, click on the title link.

Great pics of the violence of the last month or so in Bangkok.

Cick on the title link to see the rest of the pics.

University of York offers degree course on The Wire

Laughable though it sounds, The Wire, a cult US television series about the fight against crime in Baltimore, has become the subject of a British university course. The American police show will be studied at the University of York from this autumn as part of its sociology degree.

The 10-week module, thought to be the first of its kind in the Britain, will be offered to all final year students. Titled The Wire as Social Science Fiction?, it will use the HBO series to look at topics including class, race, political process and the city.

The lecturer behind the course, Professor Roger Burrows, head of sociology at the university, believes the popular show could challenge traditional methods of teaching and presenting social science.

"We spend an enormous amount of our time trying to craft books and articles that are read by so few people and it could challenge how we represent the work that we do in the academe. I find it odd that we're still using 19th and 20th century forms as a way of disseminating what we do."

Can't but agree as most sociology courses these days are based on antique texts like those of Margaret Mead and similar old crusties, so anything that makes use of modern technology and ideas has to be a welcome addition to the sociology canon.

One wonders what will be next on the list of new degree courses? How about a degree in The BBC six O' clock news!! Survivor? The Apprentice? Or my favorite - The TeleTubbies? Who said the world is increasingly dumbing down to the populace nowadays? Never! I can just see Detective McNulty now putting in a request for a transfer!

Why are British women's breasts getting bigger?

This is a funny look at a strange phenomenon e.g. that British women's breasts are getting increasingly bigger every year. It seems that recently, the average British bra size has jumped from 34B to 36D, which means that while women's backs have grown one size, breasts have jumped up two.

Many department stores have increased the range of cup sizes on offer to meet the ballooning, er...humongous demand. In 2007 Marks & Spencer introduced the J cup. Earlier this year, Selfridges began stocking a K cup range, and its sales of D to G cups have risen by 50% year-on-year since 2005. Last week, Debenhams started stocking KK bras, which were previously only available in specialist stores.

In Britain where obesity is fast becoming the norm, you'd think there was a simple, fat-related reason for this, but it doesn't explain the jump in cup size, nor the biggest growth area in bra sales: smaller back size and bigger cup size. Judging by recent underwear figures, there are more slimmer women with larger boobs than ever before. Women are happy about this. Men are happy about this. But no one seems happy to explain why this is happening.

Perhaps it's nature's way of showing the supply and demand dynamic. If men want bigger boobs, then that's what they get. Or have I made a boob here?!

Mother's phone call as comforting as a hug, says oxytocin study

Hearing your mother's voice on the telephone has the same stress-busting effect as a cuddle, say US scientists. Children know that mum's got the words when life seems to be getting too much.

Now it seems her voice on the phone can work the same soothing magic as when she is there to give her offspring a comforting cuddle. US scientists believe hearing mother down the line produces the same stress-busting effect on her daughter as physical contact such as a hug or a loving arm round the shoulder.

In a study that will send phone companies into their own comfort zone, researchers found mothers' calls released similar levels of the social bonding hormone oxytocin in girls as when they were in close proximity.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the scientists report how they deliberately raised the stress levels of 61 girls aged seven to 12. The children had to make an impromptu speech and solve maths problems in front of strangers. This sent their hearts racing and levels of stress hormone cortisol higher.

This is probably what all mothers instinctively know anyway and Freud no doubt understood this at a psychological level: that there are many unseen bonds that exist beyond the level of psychology e.g. what are often classified as the Oedipus and the Electra complexes.

We all know that the words that come from mum are soothing in ways we can't understand but which we feel as doing us the power of good when we are sick, or angry, stressed, or just simply in need of conversation and communication.

This is always comforting to know.