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!!