Fake News

With an increasing amount of fake news being produced, how do we tell what is fake and alert others?

Fake news example. 1ndependent Newspaper (www.1independent.co.uk) is trying to fool people into believing this is the Independent newspaper by replacing the letter 'I' with the figure '1'. The site itself is not very convincing - but Phil Bradley got the link via Facebook.

Google has just started adding a link to its news service called 'Fact Check'. But there are other ways to check information.

Verification Junkie (http://verificationjunkie.com/) has an excellent collection of tools for you to use, plus a free download 'Verification Handbook'.

First Draft News (https://firstdraftnews.com) provides information, news quizzes, an excellent selection of resources and some fun and enjoyable training tools.

Full Fact (https://fullfact.org) for UK based news.

Poynter website (www.poynter.org/category/fact-checking/)

Hoax Slayer (www.hoax-slayer.com/)

If any doubt, use your favourite search engine and put in some basic details on the story you are concerned about and add 'hoax' or 'spoof' as additional search terms. You'll probably end up at the Snopes website (www.snopes.com) which has a huge collection of stories with detailed information on the truth or otherwise of the story.

Just for fun - there is a site Factitious at http://factitiousgame.com that displays news stories, and you have to guess if the news is real or fake by swiping to the right or left. if you are uncertain, you can click to see the source of the story before deciding. Fun and informative.

Source: Phil Bradley in CILIP Update, November 2016, March 2017 and September 2017

Farmers, EU and Brexit

Brexit will impact heavily on farming.

• Changes to the amount of goods allowed to enter this country with low trade taxes (tariff rate quotas) could adversely affect many farmers. The 86 agricultural product quotas might have to be renegotiated individually.
• Fruit and vegetable growers rely on EU labour. After the referendum, migrant farm labour fell by 30%. Without free movement, many producers will go under.
• Farmers depend on European subsidies, which over all provide over half of farming income. The government is very unlikely to continue subsidies in their current form.

Every year €50bn (£43bn) is paid by European taxpayers of all income levels, and paid out disproportionately to the very rich. With money paid by the hectare, the more land you own, the more cash you get. In England, the government does not limit the money a landowner can receive. These funds are not reserved for farming; claims have been made for land used to breed racehorses and shoot grouse.

For most farm subsidies, land must be kept bare, effectively clearing wildlife habitats. Sheep grazing on infertile land strip away most edible plants and much of the soil from the land. In the UK, while at a rough estimate sheep occupy roughly the same amount of land as used to grow all the cereals, oilseeds, potatoes, fruit, vegetables and other crops, lamb and mutton provide just 1.2% of our diet, while imports and exports of sheep meat are almost exactly the same.

Once this spending appears in our national accounts, it will become politically unsustainable. However we should not follow New Zealand's example: in 1984, subsidies were suddenly stopped, small and medium-sized farms went under, and the government protected the remaining producers by scrapping environmental laws. Instead we should continue to provide public money for public benefit – restoring ecosystems, preventing flooding downstream, and bringing children and adults back into contact with the living world. Rules should be strong enough to ensure that farmers can no longer pollute rivers, strip soil from the land, wipe out pollinators and other wildlife, and destroy the features of the countryside with impunity.

In return, if farmers have to meet market forces, the market should be fair. We need to limit the power of chain stores (even, when needed, breaking them up): currently farmers get only 9% of the value of their produce sold in supermarkets.
 
Read in full: Of course farmers fear Brexit, but it could save the British countryside by George Monbiot in The Guardian, 11 January 2016

UK in 2030

In December 2016, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a centre-left think tank, published a report giving its predictions on how the UK would change in the coming years. The analysis draws on data from the OECD, the ONS and numerous economists and researchers. IPPR took a neutral position during the run-up to the EU referendum; this highlights how Brexit would exacerbate challenges around inequality and low productivity that the UK is already facing.

## Two-thirds of current jobs - 15 million - were at risk from new technologies such as artificial intelligence systems. This would make jobs less secure and more freelance.

## Income inequality will become more entrenched, as will the wealth gap between London and the rest of the country. By 2030 households will on average be £1,700 worse off per year than they would have been if Britain had stayed in the EU, with a persistently falling currency driving up prices and hitting the living standards of poorer people the hardest.

## There will be a population boom, with a 30% increase in the number of over-65s in the population by 2030, and a doubling of the number of over-85s. This would cause the state funding gap for adult social care to hit £13bn by 2030-31. The non-white proportion of the population is predicted to climb to more than one in five within 12 years.

## The UK is likely to remain trapped in a low growth, low interest rate decade driven by demographic shifts, productivity trends, weak investment, weak labour power, high levels of debt, and a slowing global economy. "Without reform, our political and social system will struggle to build a more democratic, healthy society in the decades ahead, even as Brexit accelerates us towards a radically different institutional landscape."

Read the IPPR report: http://www.ippr.org/publications/future-proof-britain-in-the-2020s

BBC News website 29 dec. 2016: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38459135
The Guardian 29 Dec. 2016: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/dec/29/uk-in-2030-older-more-unequal-and-blighted-by-brexit-report-predicts

Storing Out of Season Clothes

Wardrobe space can be limited, so you may wish to store out of season clothing elsewhere. Here's how to do it.

• Always store clothes in plastic boxes - wood, cardboard and paper can damage fabrics. However, do remember that natural fibres (such as silk) need to be able to breathe.
• Always wash and dry clothes thoroughly before storing. Place cedar balls, moth-repellent crystals or lavender sachets in between the layers.
• Never iron or starch anything you are storing for longer than a few weeks. Both can weaken the fibres and make them prone to tearing along the creases.

Source: Good Housekeeping, October 2016

Protect Yourself Against Cold Calling Fraud

The government has announced it will ban cold calls selling investments or pensions (but not personal injury claims?) as many of these are from criminals, but the change won't happen immediately, and it will still be impossible to stop calls from abroad or determined fraudsters. Here's how to protect yourself.

# If someone you don't know phones, texts or emails offering any sort of financial deal: put down the phone, forward the text to your network operator (see below) then delete it, or delete the email.

# Report cold calls or spam texts to the Information Commissioner's Office https://ico.org.uk/concerns/marketing/spam-texts-and-nuisance-calls - they will not investigate every case but reporting helps build up evidence for future use.

# Forward spam texts to your network operator on 7726: you may need to put 8 (for Vodafone) or 3 (Three) before the number.

# If you suspect an attempted fraud, tell actionfraud.police.uk or call 0300 123 2040; they may or may not take action. 

# Registering your landline and mobile with the Telephone Preference Service tpsonline.org.uk will stop legitimate cold calls. It is free and easy to do but you will need an email address. No email address? Call 0345 070 0707 (standard call rates). Firms calling once you are on the register are breaking the law, so if cold calls continue, always report them.

# A call or text may ask you to call back on a number that will cost you a lot. Do not respond. Report it to the Phone-paid Services Authority http://psauthority.org.uk - which also has a useful number checker for unidentified numbers on your phone bill.

# Unexpected call from a firm (e.g. insurer, bank) you have dealt with in the past? Hang up, wait for a few minutes, then call on a number on your own paperwork from that company. Alternatively, ask the caller to write to you but don't give your address!

Paul Lewis, in Radio Times 10-16 Dec. 2016.

Curvy Figure Brands

It can be a challenge to find clothes that fit a curvy figure, so here are some labels that do.

Elvi: Digital prints, tailored trousers and accessories. Sizes 14-26.

Violeta at Mango: Fashionable staples and classic tailoring. Sizes 14-26.

Studio 8: The curvier line of Phase 8. Good range of dresses for all occasions. Sizes 12-26.

Hope: An online label with a unique sizing system from super-slim to super-curvy. Relaxed, elegant styles for all body shapes. Sizes dual slim (8-14) to dual curvy (16-20).

Feature in Good Housekeeping, August 2016

Gluten, Lactose and Sugar Free Products

One of my daughters cannot digest cows milk and one son-in-law has coeliac disease, so must avoid gluten. While it is now much easier to find basic foods such as dairy-free spreads, and gluten-free breads, it can be difficult to find other products (though it is improving) so these are items I've found which are useful but I may only buy occasionally. I'm also on the lookout for low sugar options.

DAIRY FREE

# Puddings: Sorbets should be dairy-free, but dairy free ice-creams are rare. Dairy free ice cream: Booja-Booja organic ice creams. [2016 availability: Holland & Barrett, Ocado and Waitrose, £5.99 for 500ml.]

GLUTEN FREE

#

NO SUGAR or LOW SUGAR

# Oppo ice cream is made with fresh milk, coconut oil and stevia leaf. Three flavours: salted caramel, Mint choc swirl and Vanilla. [2017 availabile nationwide, £4.99 for 500ml.]

END

Moving Files From Phone to Computer

Q: Can you suggest a way to quickly move files from my phone to my computer? Emailing them to myself works but is a bit long-winded.

Try a tool called Ssavr which you can find at www.ssavr.com; this allows you to swap files with other machines that are on the same network as you. The tool is free to use.

To copy pictures from your phone to your computer, make sure both devices are on the same wifi network, then using your phone's browser, go to the Ssavr address. Click on the upload button and choose your photographs.

Then on your computer, open up the same page and click the download button, and you'll see a list of all the photographs that you can then copy/download.

You can do this with files and plain text as well, so it is useful to share something quickly with colleagues.

Internet Q&A by Phil Bradley, in CILIP Update, October 2016

Women's Health 2016

Women's health has improved a great deal since the 1950s.

• Heart attacks in women halved between 2002 and 2010, with the greatest decline in women aged 65-74, due mainly to smoking less, cleaner air, eating better and the use of statins.
• Dementia incidence has fallen 20% in the last two decades; probably due to better heart health.
• Breast cancer survival has risen, with twice as many women (nearly eight out of 10) surviving  for 10 years or more compared with the 1970s.
• The incidence of stomach cancer has fallen by 62% in forty years; probably due to better food.
• Ovarian cancer has also declined; in over-60s it has fallen by nearly a quarter; a contributing factor is the use of the contraceptive pill.
• Cervical cancer incidence has fallen by 81% in women aged 50-64 due to screening.

Vivien Parry in Good Housekeeping, September 2016

Wealth Distribution in UK 2016

A few facts and figures on how wealth is distributed in the UK in 2016.

• The richest 10% of households hold 45% of the nation's wealth.
• The poorest 50% hold just 8.7% 
• A household in the south east of the UK has twice the wealth of one in the north east.
• 50 billionaires live in the UK (29 in 2010), most of them in London.

• The highest level of GDP per capita in the EU in 2013 was recorded in central London, where the rate was five times higher than in West Wales and the Valleys.
• Within the EU, the wealth gap is greatest in the UK, at nearly double that in Belgium, France and Germany and around six times as big as the gap in Bulgaria, Portugal and Slovenia.

• Over 50s control 79% of the UK's disposable wealth.
• By 2020, over 50s will account for half the population.

Sources: Good Housekeeping, June 2015 and pop-up newspaper The New European 15-21 July 2016

Cooking Vegetables

To get the best results, boil root and leaf & stem vegetables as follows: 

• For root vegetables, put in cold water and bring to boil. This cooks them more evenly and shortens the cooking time.

• For other vegetables, bring water to boil then add the vegetables. This preserves their texture.

Sources: Various

Composts, Manures and Supplements

Composted Garden Waste: If you do not have a compost heap in your garden, this is often produced by local councils from domestic kitchen and garden waste.

Composted Stable Manure: This usually contains a proportion of composted straw and/or other bedding materials as well as the horse manure.

Seaweed: Available in powdered form or a (more expensive) liquid form. Good for supplying trace elements. Especially good for raspberries.

Mushroom Compost: Usually available as 'spent mushroom compost' left over from mushroom farming. A useful soil conditioner and mulch. Alkaline in nature so avoid using around acid-loving (ericaceous) plants.

END

The Good Life

The Good Life: the moral individual in an antimoral world by Cheryl Mendelson. Bloomsbury 2012.

An interesting work tracing the development of Western morality and how it is breaking down. Lots to think about.

Dictionary definitions. Morality: the judgement of goodness or badness of human action and behaviour. Amoral: (a) not admitting moral distinctions or judgements or (b) lacking moral judgement, unable to distinguish between right and wrong. Immoral: contrary to established morality, especially in sexual matters.

CM also uses: Premoral: older value systems, still present in some societies. Antimoral: (a) anomic - demands freedom from restraint on actions and behaviour; (b) authoritarian - rules must be obeyed literally. She argues that morality develops from premoral systems, most commonly in the West, where it shaped government structure, civil society and social custom. It does not guaratee wisdom or virtue - people can still be ignorant, misguided, weak or perverse - and moral ideas can be subverted (equality in China). She notes that moral striving can lead to false pride and self-righteousness.

Moral people tend to be sober, strong-minded, rational, tell the truth, keep promises, dutiful, compassionate and self-critical. In moral cultures, government power tends to be reliably subject to law; businesses and administrative and civil services tolerably efficient, fair and honest; civil order, peace and safety is maintained with maximum freedom and minimum oppression and tyranny; high levels of sexual and racial equality; broad egalitarian distribution of wealth. Abolish polygamy, servitude and privileges of caste and class. Needs constant reinforcement and renewal to avoid becoming a less moral society.

All are born with mental capacity to feel with and for others, to be fair, and exercise some restraint over greed, fear, anger, egoism and sexual appetites. [My note: but not autistics and psychopaths?] Each civilization shapes these into its own code of right and wrong.

Morality is learnt. At a very young age, behaviour is controlled by external authority (parents). Preschoolers begin to internalize abstract values (stealing, causing pain) and feel guilt. Primary age show strict moralism about morals they understand (cheating in games). Teenagers develop strongly held, deeply personal convictions about moral ideals. Adult moral sense grows more flexible and subtle, less black-and-white and increased ability to hold to one's own values despite lack of social support, or even powerful opposition.

In premoral societies right and wrong depend on a person's place in society; specific vices and virtues are attributed to specific classes, trades and social positions; inferiors obey superiors, who in turn take care of inferiors; shame and dishonour follow violations of duties and virtues. Dominated by narcissistic goals (wealth, power, fame, status) and governed by shame and avoidance of losing face. Feel that failure and inferiority are desesrved.

The West is seeing a decline in the dominance of the moral mind and an increase in narcissism. Compassion is seen as weakness, mercy as injustice, wealth, power and success are good. More people disregard truth and science and some are attracted to Scientology, UFO theories, astrology and the like. Displacement > people feel helpless, unimportant and mistreated > can become fanatic about issues (stem cells, abortion, animal rights) or politics (facism, anarachism, totalitarianism). Morality rejects vengeance, arousing anger in pre-moral minds who then favour retaliation. Revenge is partly shoring up wounded pride, status or standing. Less able to invest in other people and activities for the activity itself. Charismatic people often suffer from narcissitic character disorders, fear ageing and death, temd to feel empty, lonely and bored, unable to love due to feeling worthless or unimportant. Narcississtic parents tend to raise narcissistic children; either cruel or overbearing or treat child as way of feeding own inadequacies (pushy parents?).

Moral, extra-moral and pre-moral goods co-exist: beauty, strength, courage, honour, status, pleasure. Moral people once condemned sexual pleasure; they were misled and mistaken. Some are still ultra-abstemious disapprovers.

Anti-moralism arises from need to be superior. The anomic (norm-less) type demands freedom from restraint of any kind, covets status and admiration, lies, cheats and betrays and is politically indiscriminate (liberalism, anarchism, bohemianism, revolutionary movements and rightwing), favour social engineering. The authoritarian type insists on obedience, respect for authority and rules,defends tradition, rank and power, politically (without exception) right wing, conservative or right wing liberal), sect leaders, fundamentalists, rules obeyed mechanically and legalistically, literal interpretations. With inadequate self-control they veer between dominance and submission, rely on punishment, revenge and retribution, want cultural dominance in film and fiction endings, are violent, cruel and greedy for food, sex and money. Have no guilt about injustices, project their fears and self-hatred onto others. Oppose 'emasculating' laws (gun control, taxation). Avow family values but have affairs and divorces - marriage and fidelity threatens their masculinity. Polygyny undermines morality, leads to moral collapse (sexual abuse of children, abuses of power, greed, dishonesty, cruelty and diminshed rationality). Shame is a matter of life and death; guilt is comparatively weak method of self-control.

Contracting role of the family. Very young children need a strong, loving connection with parental figures to develop normally. Eventually internalize demands, ideals and values of both parents, then wider family and friends,then respected adults. In social systems where women are segregated with the children, and older boys move into men's quarters, morality is unlikely to develop. Today fathers frequently absent from home (long hours, travel) or totally (divorce, prison) > deprives child of learning from him and his values > harder for boys to learn to be a man. Frequent place moves break connections between families, friends and neighbours > children more likely to be adults with loose ties. On average, for children under three, more time in parental care means a better outcome for the child. Finland: since 1984, child care allowance tos mothers who choose to stay at home with children up until youngest child turns three, every child guaranteed a place in public day care with high standards of staff education and high rates to staff to children.

Currently the US far right is dominated by premoral thinking, even amoral (discussion of torture and abortion). The US has the highest rate of imprisonment in the entire world, both in absolute terms (2.3m in 2008) and by percentage (c.1% of all adults); prisons are brutal, harsh and merciless. The legal system does not work as it should. Relatives of victims demand revenge. Police beahviour has deteriorated - use of tasers. 

'Cool' is now a nearly meaningless term of general approval - but is stifling and hard to destroy. Originating in a child's 'I don't care', it is a way of turning bad into good, failure into success by redefining disadvantage as a kind of superiority. Preserves distance from others, often traced back to to attitudes adoped by blacks to help them survive slavery, taken up by beatniks and hippies. Likely to forgive and justify what ordinary morality condemns; cruelty, oppression, self-seeking, greed, duplicity, cowardice, hypocrisy and betrayal. Their views on politics are amoral and self-interested. Cool has a natural synthesis with fanaticism.

END

DuckDuckGo, Passwords and More

Need a nice strong password? DuckDuckGo will create one for you.

Use the syntax    <x>strong   where x = the number of letters you want.

You can then check it against a password checker site www.passwordmeter.com/ to see how it rates.

More help from DuckDuckGo

• Can't connect to a site and not sure if the porblem is their end or yours? In DDG just type in 'is facebook down'.
• DDG will expand shortened URLs: if you want to know where http://bit.ly/2c7UK7Y will take you to, type in   expand http://bit.ly/2c7UK7Y    and DDG will tell you. It is a useful way of checking that the link you are about to click on takes you to the place you expect.
• DDG can create QR codes: type in 'qr' and then the URL you want a code for and DDG will create one.

Internet Q&A by Phil Bradley in CILIP Update, October 2016