Cutting Condensation

Each morning, pull back bed covers to allow moisture to escape. Open a window to allow moisture to escape from the room.

Open curtains and blinds during the day to allow air to circulate around all parts of the room and prevent moisture from being trapped around windows.

Use your bathroom / kitchen extractor fan when bathing or cooking. Clean the bathroom extractor with a damp cloth, removing fluff that might reduce efficiency. Clean the kitchen extractor by removing the cover and washing in a solution of washing-up liquid.

If you dry wet clothes indoors, place them on a clothes horse (not a radiator) near an open window or in a room with an extractor fan.

Dehumidifiers reduce humidity levels by sucking in air from the room, removing moisture, then blowing it back out, adding warmth in the process. Portable humidifier can be deployed where needed.

Source: Item in Good Housekeeping, April 2019

Its Up to Us to Save the Planet

Experts say we all have to act now to push back climate change. Sarah Rodrigues has put together a list of how we can help in a typical day.

Note: I've added in some of my comments as well. And I'm lucky as my town of Bradford-on-Avon (which is now focusing on being plastic free) has Christine's Sustainable Supermarket where I can take along my own containers to get dry goods (muesli, oats, rice, red lentils, seeds, nuts and dried fruits) and liquids (washing up detergent, hand wash, shampoo and conditioner, laundry detergent, toilet cleaner). Buy eggs and they'll be in a re-used egg box, bread goes into a paper bag (one elderly male customer uses the same bag for a month). How is your town doing?

6.30am: Wake up with a wind-up alarm clock.

7.00am: Use packaging-free bars and soap (e.g. Lush) or get refills (e.g. Faith in Nature) or choose products in glass bottles (e.g. Neal's Yard Remedies and Tata Harper). Take a short shower with a low-flow head. Don't run the tap while cleaning teeth. Use recycled toilet paper.

7.30am. Coffee time? Nespresso has a recycling scheme for its pods, while better still others offer compostable pods (Eden Project and Dualit).

8.00am: Avoid fast fashion - shop your wardrobe, swap items with friends, use charity shops and shop local. Some stores have recycling schemes (M&S and H&M).

8.30am: Public transport, car-pooling, running, walking and cycling are the way to get to work. For short distances electric cars are good and there are more charging points around.

11.00am: Keep your mobile phone for longer before upgrading, and when you do recycle the old one (council run sites often now have special containers for electrical items), as they contribute to landfill from incorrect disposal.

1.00pm: Take your own lunch using leftovers, putting items into reusable containers and using washable wax-impregnated cotton squares (e.g. BeeBee Wraps).

4.00pm: Peak time for internet searching, so use search engine Ecosia, which donates at least 80% of its profits to tree-planting projects.

6.00pm: Run, walk and swim instead of using gym machines that use electricity. Wear eco-friendly kit made from bamboo (e.g. BAM Active and Asquith).

7.00pm: Home-cooked is best - cuts out delivery and packaging. Cut back on meat - we don't need large amounts and eggs, beans, lentils, soya are all useful sources of protein. Check your fridge before shopping; use up what's left in soups, casseroles, etc.); don't over-buy; don' throw away items  just because they are out of date - use your eyes and nose to check as they'll often be still good to eat.

9.00pm: Consider the options: staycation in UK rather than going abroad; train travel for some overseas trips. One long-haul trip is better than several short-haul ones (most emissions are at take-off and landing) and the carbon footprint of a business class seat can be three times that of an economy one.

10.00pm: Reading in bed? Use your local library and second-hand shop.

From October, Good Housekeeping subscribers will get their copy in a paper envelope; issues with supplements at news-stands will have a paper 'belly-band'; issues with heavy supplements will move to a recyclable plastic wrapper.

Source: Your daily guide to saving the planet by Sarah Rodrigues in Good Housekeeping, September 2019

RIP Great Britain and United Kingdom

The results of the 2019 General Election DO NOT properly reflect the mood of the country.

The Conservatives won because of the first-past-the-post voting system. In a transferable vote presidency,  Johnson's 43% of the poll would have lost.

In fact if national voting figures are used, the combined anti-Brexit parties (53%) got more votes, with the Tories and the Brexit party together getting a decisive lower vote (47%). If this was a 'second referendum', it was not in favour of Brexit and won by a larger margin for Remain.

There was no great Tory swing: they increased their party's vote share by just 1.2% over Theresa May's election two years ago. (While they lost votes in some areas, they gained more in other areas.)  Labour lost votes in all regions, mostly with people tactically voting Conservative. In contrast, the Liberal Democrats increased their share of the vote nationally but failed to translate this into seats.

It might have been possible for the Conservatives to be defeated if Labour and Lib Dems had done constituency deals, so not splitting the anti-Tory vote across the country. But even with this, while both Johnson and Corbyn were widely disliked and mistrusted throughout the country, it came down to who was disliked the least, which was Corbyn, who sat on the fence too many times and was seen to be ineffective in dealing with issues within his party.

The five things that helped Johnson. 1. Repeating again and again that he'd get Brexit done. 2. Focusing on a small number of promises (Labour was far more wide-ranging.) 3. Safety first in their pledges - nothing controversial (e.g. no mention of fox hunting). 4. Traditional Labour voters seem to have either stayed at home, or voted for the Brexit party. 5. Despite being unpopular, Johnson was the stronger campaigner.

Can the Tories deliver any of their manifesto promises - most based on wishful thinking and sleight of hand - who knows? No-one - least of all Johnson.

The Electoral Commission has now published how much was donated to political parties during the election campaign. (Parties are required by law to declare how much is donated.) The combined total was £30,721,998!!! (My verdict: that is serious money that would have been better donated to the NHS, social services and the prison, probation & police services.)

There were some sizeable donations of over £7,500 in the final two days of campaigning.

• Conservatives: £1.4m (including £500,000 from John Caudwell and £375,000 from Sir Ehud Shelag)
• Brexit Party: £50,000 (2 gifts of £25,000 from former Tory Christopher Harborne, who had already donated more than £3m since the summer) 
• SNP: £14,929

The remaining parties did not get any individual donations over £7,500 in the final two days. (My thoughts: Why are the rich donating such large amounts to achieve Brexit? Because they stand to gain financially. It won't be better for the country as a whole.

However, over the entire period, the union Unite gave the largest non-individual donation of £3.2m.

Interesting fact: There are more female MPs in this Parliament than ever, at 220 out of 650 (34%). The Liberal Democrats actually have more female than male MPs (7 out of 11 at 67%), Labour are next with 104 out of 202, so just slightly over 50%), then SNP with around 30% female MPs and not surprisingly the Conservatives trail with just under 25% out of 365 MPs (so less than a quarter).

Sources: various including BBC Election results analysis and General election 2019: Surge in Tory donations before polling day.

Hidden Cause of Disease?

Despite decades of research, scientists still haven't worked out what causes many diseases: they include heart disease, Alzheimer's, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Worldwide 70% of all deaths are attributed to these conditions: in the UK it is 90%.

These conditions usually start showing symptoms later in life, and more of us get them as we live longer. What they have in common is (A) inflammation, the method our immune system uses to kill invading cells and (B) they are not communicable to other people.

New evidence indicates that bacteria are covertly involved, invading organs, co-opting our own immune systems to boost their own survival and causing our illnesses. They tend to work very slowly, stay dormant for long periods or hide inside our cells. This makes them hard to grow in lab cultures. Now DNA sequencing has found bacteria in places they were not supposed to be, manipulating inflammation.

The worst culprits seem to be those that cause gum disease, which seem to play a role in a wide range of illnesses. Incidence of gum disease is: US 42% of those over 30 and 60% of those over 65, and in Germany 88% has been recorded. Many of the diseases of ageing - from rheumatoid arthritis to Parkinson's - are more likely, and more severe, in people with gum disease. There is evidence that treating treating gum disease goes with a lower incidence of heart attacks, diabetes, strokes and cancer.

Your mouth hosts more than 1,000 species of bacteria, in a stable community with the potentially bad ones kept in check by others. Elsewhere in the body, communities of bacteria live on a continuous sheet of cells, where the outermost layer is constantly shed, getting rid of invasive bacteria. But your teeth can't shed a layer like that, so bacteria live on a hard surface that actually pierces through the protective outer sheet of cells. The bacteria live in the plaque that builds up on your teeth. When plaque builds up enough to harden and spread under the gum, it triggers inflammation: immune cells flood in and destroy both microbes and our own infected cells. Untreated an oxygen poor pocket develops between gum and tooth. A few bacteria take advantage of this and multiply. In particular on of them, Porphyromonas gingivalis, disrupts the stable bacterial community and prolongs inflammation.

Most pathogens try to block or avoid inflammation, which normally kills them. But P. gingivalis perpetuates inflammation in a weakened form, which never quite destroys the bacteria but keeps trying - and killing your own cells in the process; the resulting debris is eaten by P. g, which unlike other bacteria feeds on protein. The process also liberates iron which the bacteria need, and which the body normally keeps locked up. The bacteria is able to escape into the bloodstream before the infected tooth falls out.

Once in the blood, the immune system makes antibodies, but these are more an indicator of its presence than protection, as P. g changes its surface proteins so it can hide in the white blood cells of the immune system. It also enters the cells lining arteries, but remains dormant; though it continues to activate or block different immune signals and may change a blood cell's gene expression to make it migrate to other sites of inflammation to feed on debris. The bacteria have been detected in inflamed tissue in the brain, aorta, heart, spleen, liver, kidneys, joints and pancreas in mice and, in many cases, in humans.

More than two thirds of all dementia is Alzheimer's, which is now the largest cause of death worldwide. A recent study found that gingipain, a protein digesting enzyme produced only by P.g, was found in 99% of brain samples from people who died with Alzheimer's, at levels corresponding with their condition. P.g was also found in the spinal fluid samples. Giving mice P.g caused symptoms of Alzheimer's, and blocking the gingipain reversed the damage. Half the samples from people who died without Alzheimer's also had gingipain but at lower levels. This was expected as damage can accumulate for 20 years before people show symptoms. Researchers in Sweden found that people with the highest genetic risk produce a specific form of an immune protein called ApoE that is destroyed in the disease, and that gingipains are better at destroying that ApoE than other forms.

Researchers have found P.g in the fatty deposits that line arterial walls and cause blood clots, causing heart attacks and strokes. P.g affects arteries much like high-fat diets and triggers atherosclerosis. Treating gum disease improves hardened arteries but doesn't reduce heart attacks or strokes because it doesn't get rid of the the P.g already in blood vessels.

There is also a link to type 2 diabetes, where sensitivity to insulin is lost. Diabetes worsens gum disease, but gum disease also worsens diabetes and treating it helps as much as adding a second drug to the treatment. Other evidence shows P.g acting directly in the liver and pancreas to cut insulin sensitivity.

People who drink more alcohol tend to have more P.g and are more susceptible to gum disease. Tobacco helps P.g to invade gum cells. Exercise, the only known way to lower your risk of Alzheimer's, improves gum disease by damping inflammation and ending P.g's feast of dead cells. One researcher believes that diet is also a factor; if our blood contains many dormant bacteria, they can be activated with free iron. A diet rich in red meat and sugar, or with too little fruit and vegetable, both increase the amount of free iron in the blood.

How can we stop P.g? It dodges our defences, hiding inside cells where antibodies can't reach it, and lying dormant making it invisible to antibiotics. Many of us already host P.g and routine gum abrasion, through eating and brushing your teeth, can release the microbes into your bloodstream, so spread it through your body. People with gum disease already make antibodies, but these seem to do little to stop it, so vaccines are unlikely to help. In studies on mice, it rapidly became resistant to antibiotics. Trying to block inflammation could leave us unprotected against other pathogens and conditions. It may be better to concentrate on blocking its ability to cause disease, perhaps by blocking gingipains. Pharmaceutical companies are working on drugs that block only specific inflammatory signals, but this is complex and will be a difficult challenge.

Source: The hidden cause of disease by Deborah MacKenzie in New Scientist, pp.42-46.

Recycling on the High Street

Some brands are now making it easier to recycle things.

Apple
Return your old Apple device and, if it's still serviceable and can be refurbished, you could receive an Apple Store Gift card (value depending on device) to put towards a newer model. If the item cannot be refurbished, Apple will recycle it and recover some of the materials.

Currys PC World
Run a similar scheme for old phones, tablets, laptops, smart watches and electricals such as toasters and kettles.

Levi's
Drop off clean, unwanted garments or shoes at branches and receive a voucher for 10% off full-priced clothing in store.

Lush
Return five of the little black pots that some products come in to any store and receive a free face mask. The pots are ground down and turned into new packaging.

Tesco
Earn Tesco Clubcard points by returning empty inkjet cartridges (via Freepost) to The Recycling Factory (therecyclingfactory.com/Tesco/)or use the scheme to donate to Tesco Charity Partners. Only certain cartridges are eligible for Clubcard points, but all are accepted for recycling.

Boots Opticians
If you wear disposable contact lenses, return the blister pack and foil cover as well as the used lenses themselves. Drop off at any Boots Opticians stores and some independent opticians across the UK (terracycle.co.uk/en-GB/brigades/acuvue)

Walkers crisps
Has its own crisp packet recycling scheme. It accepts crisp packets from any brand, which can be dropped off at a collection point (find them at walkers.co.uk/recycle). Or start a workplace collection and have them picked up by courier once you've collected 400 packets or more. After shredding, the packets are use to make products such as outdoor furniture, trays and flooring.

Coffee chains
The plastic lining on'paper' cups requires specialist recycling. Most cafes are happy to make your drink in your own reusable mug and some offer a discount when you do.

Source: Good Housekeeping, June 2019

How Religion has Influenced the Rise of Civilisation

Has Religion been good or bad for humanity? by Harvey Whitehouse

The debate over whether religion makes us better people or brings out our basest instincts has gone on for a long time. In order to try and establish which it is, in 2010 Pieter Francois, Peter Turchin and Harvey Whitehouse began building a history databank. The project was named after the Egyptian goddess of record-keeping, Seshat. The databank currently contains information on more than 400 societies that have existed around the world over the past 10,000 years.

It seems that religions always promoted social cohesion, but how this was achieved depended on the size and nature of human groups. Modern eyes see good and bad religions, but what happened was that in the past people have changed their ideas about what constituted good cooperative behaviours.

For most of pre-history, humans lived in small groups, often on the move, whose members all knew each other. Today such small societies tend to favour infrequent but traumatic rituals that promote social cohesion, for example initiation rites that include scarification.

As people began farming, groups got larger and individuals did not always know everyone else. They did not need to risk everything for one another, so the level of social cohesion needed was lower. They did still feel the need for a group ethos, with a moral code and system of governance, especially when groups merged through military conquest. New kinds of rituals developed; these were usually painless practices like prayer and meeting in holy places.These overcame the free-rider problem and ensured compliance with government. (e.g. Egypt.)

In turn this made them vulnerable to power-hungry rulers. The despotic god-kings raised militias and priesthoods, using practices such as human sacrifice and slavery. However, these states rarely grew beyond 100,000 people, as they in turn became unstable, and more liable to invasion.

Around the middle of the first millennium BC, novel notions of equality altered the relationship between rulers and ruled, stabilising societies and allowing them to grow in size and complexity. A handful of important prophets and spiritual leaders emerged - Buddha, Confucius and Zoraster (Zarathrustra).

Societies that grew to a million or more found a new way to build cooperation, with Big Gods. They demoted their rulers to the status of ordinary people, began to develop democracy and the rule of law, and a more equal distribution of rights and obligations. They began valuing social justice above deference to authority. (e.g. Judaism, Christianity and Islam.)

Today many societies have transferred religions community-building and surveillance roles to secular institutions. Some of the wealthiest and most peaceful have atheist majorities. But these societies also face big problems in absorbing migrants, and containing social tensions and xenophobia. Studying how the different elements of religion have changed our view of civilisation could help us find a way to deal with these issues.

Source: article in New Scientist, 6 April 2019

Made In Britain

Made in Britain by Evan Davis. (Little, Brown, 2011) [ED is an economics reporter.)

A thought provoking read about how all economies change over time, but does not consider ethics or fairness, nor availability of raw materials to sustain our lifestyle in other countries.

ED uses Sunderland as an illustration of how the UK economy has changed over time. At one time, Sunderland was a great manufacturing centre, the biggest ship building city in the world. Then ship-building went off-shore for lower labour costs and by the 1980's it had gone. And the local glass industry and coal mines, both around for hundreds of years, shrank and then closed. Then the very painful transition between old industries dying, followed by a gap before new industries arrive.
The result was a chain reaction of economic and social decline. Crime rose, housing estates fell into disrepair and decent people tried to escape. family life often broke down. The city lost its sense of identity and civic pride, and local morale came to depend on the performance of the local football team.

Then in 1986, Nissan opened a new car factory at nearby Washington, the biggest in Britain. New service industries also started up: call/contact centres (email as well as phones). City developers built a business park. City centre rejuvenated, university a huge presence. Attached to university is the National Glass Centre (though this struggles to get visitor numbers it needs). New football stadium 1997. But things are still a struggle. People don't feel city can survive on services alone. Service sector jobs lower wages than previous mining and manufacturing jobs.

Countries buy and sell manufactured goods, intellectual property and services, and need all three to flourish. Not everyone is suited to service work, nor able to work very productively in knowledge sectors. An efficient manufacturing sector could employ about 20% of the working population. Good manufacturing is built on intellectual property foundations, which usually requires some physical aspect. A strong service economy needs flourishing companies trading internationally.

UK has 1% of world's population (or 5% of developed world's population) but has 2 out of top 10 largest pharmaceutical companies, 9% share of global defence market, 17% share of global aerospace market and renowned banking and insurance industries.

Strikes (1970s) and banking crises and recession (2000) had long term effects. In 2011, still a need to re-balance economy away from dependence on financial services and to export more. There is a link between business activity and national identity; a focus for trade fairs.

Treasury and Bank of England fiscal and monetary policies can have enormous effect on employment levels and incomes, but they can only really entice us to save more and borrow less if spending is too high. The short term story seems more newsworthy but the long term view shows enduring trends.

END

Cleaning Off Marks from Sticky Labels

If you've bought something with a sticky label on, you may find a it leaves a tacky residue when you peel it off. Likewise sticking plasters can also leave a residue when you take them off.

Use baby oil to remove these tacky marks.

Still a problem? Try De-Solv-It Sticky Stuff Remover.

Source: Item in Good Housekeeping, May 2019

Why We Get the Wrong Politicians

Why we get the wrong politicians by Isabel Hardman (Atlantic Books, 2019)

The House of Commons does not work either structurally or culturally (most MPs agree there are problems). Our political class has grown used to dodging important decisions (e.g. Brexit) and the crises within social care, health and other areas have grown. Politicians, researchers, think tanks and journalists inhabit the Westminster Bubble. MP's are the least trusted group - below estate agents, bankers and journalists, but while sexual indiscretions and other misconduct are most often in the press, many MPs are decent human beings.

2017 Parliament.
MPs do not reflect the UK population. While 7% of the general population went to private schools, 29% of UK-educated MPs did so (and 1 in 10 of these went to Eton). Half the population are female, but only 32% of MPs are women. 7.8% of MPs are from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, from a general population of 14% and whereas 18% of the general population have long-term health conditions or disabilities, just 1% of MPs do so.

2019. The MPs in Boris Johnson's first cabinet, of whom two/thirds were privately educated (7% general population), four were Old Etonians (though this does include one black MP) and almost half attended Oxford or Cambridge universities. Source: Guardian, 28 July 2019.

2019. For comparison, BAME groups are under or over represented in other areas: from a general population of 14%, just 7% are UK high court judges, but 25% of UK prison population and 41% of those in the youth justice system. Source: Radio Times feature, 20-26 July 2019.

Many MPs are career politicians (backgrounds in local politics, political organisers and researchers). Many have dysfunctional, even if comfortably placed, upbringings. Most have university degrees (86%), as do most political researchers.

We need to open up Parliament to people who would be good MPs, not merely those who can afford to be one.

Political Parties
In 2017, 51% of party members were university graduates, 80% were in the top (ABC1) social class, and 61% were male. These are the people who select constituency candidates, and the party leader. There is no legal requirement to publish membership figures. [Some 160,000 Conservative party members will get to choose who replaces Theresa May as PM.] Party youth wings are prone to having personality cults.

Candidates
Experience in local government gives insight into issues and realistic spending, but councillors are 67.3% male and 96% white, the average age is 60.2, with 46.6% retired and only 19.2% in full time work. Council work is part-time, but takes place in normal working hours and meeting times are not family friendly.

Parties look for experience and commitment to the cause. Candidates have to raise funds for their campaign and spend time promoting themselves. At selection days, party MPs and senior party figures agree an approved list of candidates; constituency associations pick from these lists. Party members are increasingly drawn from narrow sections of society, and may have unconscious bias against LGBT, ethnic backgrounds and women with families. Parties use candidates list as a source of free labour across the country.

Parties raise money for your campaign once selected, but not accommodation or travel for being visible in the constituency; thus some candidates run into debt. Likely loss of earnings from usual employment during election campaign. (Party members often think candidates are being paid to stand.) Candidates can get hate mail, and possible impact on families. If not elected, candidates often have debts to pay and new jobs to find, and the local party may not support them in any way.

New MPs
Need to find London accommodation and decide where family lives, set up offices and hire staff. Whips allocate offices and new MPs end up in temporary offices in committee rooms. No job description, no advice on what to do each day. But in contrast to 2010, new MPs now get talks, daily meetings and briefings about votes, committees and speeches, and a buddy system in the first few weeks.

House of Commons
MPs listen to debates, meet constituents, ministers and journalists, attend receptions and campaign launches, sit on committees, table parliamentary questions, write articles for local or national press, or plot with colleagues to either influence party policy or cause internal political trouble. Parliament sits on Mon. afternoons, Tue. and Wed. 11.30am to 7.30pm, Thurs. 9.30am to afternoon, plus 13 Fridays per year. MPs can choose which which policy issues they focus on.

An MP is a legislator, making and reviewing laws and government policy, and an advocate for the constituency (as a whole or for on individual). Some are ministers or chair committees or act as party spokesperson,  campaign coordinator or policy advisor. There is no formal amount of time for each task and no formal appraisal. They have no training as legislators.

Pay
In 2005 it was revealed that MPs compensated for comparatively low salaries (far higher than national average but lower than many with similar education and punishing hours) through the expenses system. The inquiry cost £1.16m; MPs had to repay £1.1m. Should they be paid as public sector workers or as a vocation?

END

Tablet Screen Display Timing

If using a tablet to view a reference photo for painting, you may need to adjust the length of time that the display will stay active.

iPad: Settings ; Display and Brightness ; Autolock ; choose from the times listed.

Times available are 2 mins, 5 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins (also Never, but best not to use this option in case your tablet is stolen).

Other tablets should have similar options in their settings menu.

END

All Day Long: a Portrait of Britain at Work

All Day Long: a portrait of Britain at work by Joanna Biggs
[Serpent's Tail, 2016    978 1 78125 188 1 ]

A fascinating and eye-opening read.

What do people do all day and how does this affect our lives?

Joanna Biggs has interviewed people from Westminster to the Outer Hebrides, and from Liverpool to Lincoln, in a wide range of jobs. Along with what the work entails, she finds out about working conditions and practices, hours of work, pay and perceived status of the different occupations. The final section looks at interns, apprentices and unemployment schemes.

END

Time Restricted Eating

More people now tend to eat soon after getting up in the morning, snack through the day and on into the evening, so the eating 'window' is often 14 hours or longer. Researchers say that this way of eating, even if you are a healthy weight, disrupts the body's 24 hour body clock (circadian rhythm). The body clock governs the sleep/wake pattern, the digestive system and every cell in the body.

The gut is better at digesting and absorbing food during the day, because at night it is primed to repair itself, so the production of saliva and digestive enzymes slows down and food moves more slowly through the digestive tract. If you eat food late at night, food sits there. All this puts us at bigger risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Time restricted eating means consuming food within a daily period of 12 hours or less. This effectively extends the time you are 'fasting' or not eating (i.e. while asleep). So you could choose to eat between 7am and 7pm, or 8am and 8pm, or go for a shorter eating window (say 7am to 5pm, so 10 hours). If this is not possible, just aim to finish eating at least 3 hours before going to bed, or by 7pm or 8pm.

Because you are not required to change what you eat, only when you eat, it can be done whatever your lifestyle or food preferences. However, this is not a licence to eat whatever you want; focus on fruit, vegetables, beans, wholegrains, lentils, fish, olive oil and nuts.

While not a weight loss diet, many people find they do reduce their calorie intake and lose some weight, either because they feel less hungry, or have fewer opportunities to eat. people also report feeling less hungry, more energetic and sleeping better.

Your body switches from digestion to focusing on repair. Killing off old cells and regenerating new ones, allows the cells of your liver, pancreas and gut  cope better with the food you ingest. You are then less likely to have blood sugar spikes and cholesterol imbalances.

Is this ok for everyone? The feature noted 'avoid the plan if pregnant or breast-feeding' and advised consulting a doctor before you begin if you have a medical condition (e.g. heart disease or diabetes) or a history of eating disorders.

Source: feature in Good Housekeeping, July 2019.

The Truth About Food Allergies

The number of food allergies in the UK is increasing, with hospital admissions for allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock in England having risen by a third in the past five years. Latest estimates indicate around 1 to 2% of UK adults and 5 to 8% of children (roughly 2 children per classroom) living with a diagnosed food allergy. While the reason is not known, there are a number of theories that may explain the rise.

The lack of early childhood exposure to certain micro-organisms in the natural environment results in a less diverse microbiome (the population of microbes that live on and in our bodies) and a weaker immune system, which makes us more susceptible to allergies. Modern lifestyles mean we live large amounts of time indoors in clean environments, including home, school and work and less time outdoors, so our exposure to a diverse range of good and bad bugs is lower.

Delaying the introduction of allergenic foods for the first years of life may actually increase the risk of allergy rather than reduce it, as was previously thought. Those who started eating peanuts before they were 1 year old were less likely to have an allergy by age 5 than those who avoided peanuts.

The NHS currently advises introducing cow's milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, wheat, nuts (not whole) and seeds before the age of one, adding them in small amounts to babies diets one at a time after the age of six months.

There is also a strong link between childhood eczema and food allergy risk. The earlier the onset and more severe the symptoms, the more likely a child is to develop a food allergy. It is thought that sensitization to food can occur through the skin, and having dry skin may increase the risk. To reduce the risk it is recommended to apply emollients to protect the skin's barrier.

Another theory links food allergy to reduced exposure to sunlight, an important source of vitamin D. Babies with vitamin D deficiency are three times more likely to have an egg allergy and eleven times more likely to have a peanut allergy.

Source: feature in Good Housekeeping, March 2019

The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being

The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us by Alice Roberts.
Heron Books, 2014 (ISBN: 978 1 84866 477 7)

A fascinating look about how a human develops from embryo to birth, and how this fits in with current evolutionary theory. If you get a chance to watch one of Alice Robert's documentaries (shown on the BBC TV channel) then do; she combines a passion for her subject with clear explanations.

Each of us begins as a single cell and ends up as a complex organism. Our bodies work, but have both flaws and successful parts. They also show our history as we still retain traces of very ancient ancestors in the way embryos develop. "No organism is 'designed' by evolution from scratch. It's all about tweaking and tinkering with what's already there." Alice Roberts.

Here are some fascinating things I learnt.

Our DNA contains a set of instructions for building an embryo; when particular genes are switched on, cells produce signalling proteins which tell other cells what to do next, and this is different for each species. New genes usually appear as duplicates of existing ones, and occur due to mistakes in copying DNA. Early organisms had one cluster of pattern generating Hox genes, while mammals have four clusters. Multiple genes may (a) be surplus to requirements and degenerate or disappear or (b) one fulfils its old function and the duplicate can be used for something else. Some genes have multiple functions and are switched on and off at different times doing a different job each time. Your body is not exclusively determined by your DNA, but is also a product of how you use your body.

The early embryo divides into three layers: the ectoderm will become skin and nerves, the mesoderm forms bones, muscles and blood vessels, and the endoderm lines the gut, lungs and bladder. The ectoderm initially forms the neural tube; if this fails to fuse together at the 'head' end, the embryo will have no brain and die at or soon after birth. If the neural tube fails to fuse properly lower down, the baby will be born with spina bifida, a condition which ranges in severity.

At birth a baby will have most of its neurones (brain cells) and far too many connections. Superfluous connections are pruned back as the brain develops, based on experiences; this continues lifelong. Mirror neurones enable us to imitate and learn  from others. Most mammals have more than 1,000 genes for olfactory sensors (3% of the genome), but humans have less than 400 active smell genes (most primates have 300 to 400 active smell genes). Complex eyes and colour vision has evolved and disappeared in different species over time. It is easy to see where a human is looking due to the large amount of 'white' of the eye (the sclera) and contrast between this and the iris. We are born with attention to eye gaze.

Brains are very energy-hungry, consuming around  20% of our entire daily energy requirements while only making up 2% of our body mass. A 2011 study found that mammals rely either on being smart or having good energy stores (fat). Humans are unusual with big brains and only relatively fat. Our guts, while small for our body size, are standard for fruit/omnivore eaters, meaning we can be very flexible in our diets.

Our tongues are important for intelligible speech and different to other mammals, including primates. They are rounded and highly mobile, not long and flat like most other mammals. The human larynx is fairly standard for mammals, but the human voice-box is very low in the neck, giving a long vocal tract between vocal cords and lips. The larynx may have moved downward due to a flatter face and so as not to be squashed between tongue and spine, which has an S shape due to our habitual bipedalism.

The human skeleton is evidence of habitual bipedalism: our basin-shaped pelvis, relatively large hip and knee joints, inward angle at knee, shape of ankle joints, springy feet, short toes and big toe in line with other toes. We went from walking in the trees to walking on the ground. For larger bodied mammals it is better to hang from a branch or stand up on it and use arms to steady ourselves and reach for fruit. The human chest is barrel shaped, with the bottom of the ribcage curving inwards. The chest is wide, shoulder blades lower and further apart than other primates; this allows us swing our arms as a counter-balance while walking. We have a lumbar spinal curve and lower pelvis which is better for balancing upright and walking. Our long legs and short toes make us good at distance running.

Our arms and hands are exceptionally mobile. Our shoulder blade is only anchored by muscles allowing large range of movement. Our low and wide shoulders enable us to throw things (e.g. spears to catch animals). Forearm bones can move, so we can turn hand palm upwards. Muscles in thumbs specific to humans allow us to apply force with a tool gripped in the hand. We can also extend thumb to the side.

Most primate babies are highly developed at birth, while human babies are very helpless. Chimp brain at birth is 40% of adult one, human brain 30% of adult size. Can't move around or hang on to mother, and need to be carried for first year. This guarantees intensive contact between baby and parents/care givers.

Human gestation is more than a month longer than expected for a primate our size, but our babies still have a lot of growing to do. Miscarriages act as a natural screening programme; without this loss it is estimated that 12% of babies would be born with defects (the actual rate is just 2%). Labour starts when a woman's metabolic rate rises to 2.1 times the normal rate. At this point the energy demands of the foetus exceed the maternal capacity for supply. The female pelvis is only just wide enough for baby's head and broad shoulders, and three rotations of emerging baby are needed during birth. Fossil evidence shows female human pelvis has increased in width over time.

While other primates seek seclusion for birth, human mothers seek assistance. Even so, obstructed labour (rare in archaeological record) is still a problem in many human populations ( 3 to 6 per 100 births). It is higher in contemporary agricultural communities where childhood malnutrition affects the growth of girls (shorter women and smaller pelves). In countries with poorer obstetric care it is possible that natural selection may be acting now to favour (a) women with wide pelves despite malnutrition, or (b) smaller babies. In richer countries natural selection is side-stepped by caesarean births and midwife assistance.

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Which Sort of Learner Are You?

Did you know that there are different ways of learning? So which suits you best?

29% of people are visual learners: they learn by looking.
34% of people are auditory learners: they learn by listening.
37% of people are kinesthetic learners: they learn by doing.

Visual learners

• Times table: cover over it and picture it.
• Spelling a word: imagine what it looks like.
• Learning a foreign language: looking at a picture next to the word.
• Learning a history fact: watch a video.
• Learning how something works: look at a diagram or a picture.
• Learning a story: imagine the story.
• Learning a new sport: watch a demonstration.
• Learning how to make a cake: look at instructions on the packet or recipe.
• Learning to count in a foreign language: look at cards/posters.
• Learning how the eye works: look at a diagram of the eye.
• Learning how to use a new tool: watch someone else use it.

Auditory learners

• Times table: say it out loud.
• Spelling a word: say each letter out loud.
• Learning a foreign language: repeating it out loud to yourself.
• Learning a history fact: listen to a person on the radio explaining what happened.
• Learning how something works: listen to someone telling you how it works.
• Learning a story: tell someone else the story.
• Learning a new sport: repeat back instructions to the coach.
• Learning how to make a cake: listen to a tape about what to do.
• Learning to count in a foreign language: sing the words.
• Learning how the eye works: listen to someone telling you.
• Learning how to use a new tool: listen to someone telling you.

Kinesthetic learners

• Times table: adding on fingers.
• Spelling a word: write it down.
• Learning a foreign language: writing it out over and over again.
• Learning a history fact: role play - act out what happened.
• Learning how something works: take the object apart and try to put it back together.
• Learning a story: draw pictures/cartoons to tell the story.
• Learning a new sport: do it.
• Learning how to make a cake: try to make it.
• Learning to count in a foreign language: play French bingo.
• Learning how the eye works: make a model.
• Learning how to use a new tool: teach someone else how to use it.

'On task' times

• Adults: 20 to 25 mins with 2 to 5 min breaks between.
• 10 years: 12 mins focus time, then 2 to 5 mins review or play in between.
• 6 years: 6 mins focus time, then 2 to 3 mins review or play in between.

END

Good Buys to Avoid Waste

In 2018, two sisters challenged each other to see which of them could reduce their waste the most. Here are the ways they found useful.

• Mesh grocery bags for fruit and veg (but berries are usually in plastic containers).
• Swap hand wash and shower gel in bottles for soap bars.
• Stainless steel straws.
• Ditch clingfilm and use re-usable beeswax wrap (made from cotton coated in beeswax and oil) to cover leftovers.
• Switch to loose leaf tea (most tea bags contain a plastic called polypropylene). 
• Instead of using detergent, buy an Ecoegg, a hollow 'egg' filled with natural cleaning pellets, that you put in the drum with your clothes.
• Or try Splosh powder sachets that dissolve in water to make detergent.
• For toilet paper, Who Gives a C***, delivers recycled, paper-wrapped rolls to the door.
• Morrisons online supermarket recycles bags (the driver takes them back) and offer a 'wonky veg box' containing seasonal produce.
• Aldi's own brand dishwasher tablets are plastic free.
• It's worth taking a Tupperware container to the butcher's counter in supermarkets - ask nicely and they will put your purchases in the container.
• Try bubble bath lolly sticks from Lush, which are packaged in water-soluble starch chips.
• A British company Wyatt and Jack recycles broken paddling pools and beach inflatables into beautiful bags.
• Conkers can be turned into washing detergent by chopping and soaking them in water. It works.
• New baby? Try washable cloth nappies or Naty nappies made of soft, plant-based material. And use re-usable baby wipes (one brand is Cheeky Wipes).
• Tesco, M&S and Oxfam sell Christmas cards in boxes instead of plastic wraps.
• Crisps - British brand Two Farmers uses compostable packaging.
• Bamboo coffee cups.
• It is possible to make bin liners from old newspapers - look for online videos.

Source: Sisters who went to war on plastic, Daily Mail, 4 Feb. 2019

How Society Overlooks Women

How society overlooks women

Points raised in Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias In A World Designed For Men by Caroline Criado Perez, published by Chatto and Windus, 2019.

*****

Everyday women struggle to use products, software and spaces that have been designed by men, for men. They fail to take into account women’s typically smaller size and different needs. While not generally malicious or even deliberate, this can even be fatal in a car crash or medical treatment. This comes from assuming that a male viewpoint is the ‘default’, while half the global population (women) are a niche interest.

It all starts with education.

“A study of US school history textbooks from 1960 to 1990 found only 9 per cent of names were female. A 2017 analysis of political science textbooks found only 10.8 per cent of pages referenced women. And in language example sentences, men outnumber women three to one, according to 30 years of Western studies.”

The result? Girls starting primary school aged five are as likely to think women can be ‘really, really smart’ but by age six they no longer think this is true. And a 2016 study found male students consistently ranked fellow men as more intelligent than better-performing women.

One size fits all …men.

Product design focuses on men. Smartphone screens are typically around 5.5 in, so the average man can use it one handed – but the average woman can’t. (But women are more likely to buy a smartphone.) [Blogger note: smartphone design for women tends to focus on looks (colour of case) than function.]

The first emojis were intended to be gender neutral, but looked like men. When women complained, they designed a separate set: male runner and female runner.

Most pianos are made with a standard keyboard octave of 7.4 in. The average male handspan of 8.9 in but the average of women is 7.9 in when fully stretched. In addition, this results in a 50% higher risk of pain and injury for women pianists. A smaller piano does exist, and numerous studies confirm it’s better for players’ health and musical ability, but there remains a real reluctance in the music world to adapt.

Whose safety comes first?

Women are 47% more likely to be seriously injured in a car crash than men, and 17% more likely to die. Why? Women are usually shorter, so tend to sit further forward when driving in order to reach the pedals and see out. Car makers say this increases the risk of internal injury as it is not the ‘standard seating position’ – which is determined by the fact that crash test dummies are typically 1.77m tall and 76 kg, with male muscle mass and a male spinal column (women’s vertebrae are spaced differently, among other things). While there is now a single European regulatory test that uses a ‘female’ dummy — but it’s only tested in the passenger seat and is really just a scaled-down male dummy.

Right tools for the job

A 2017 study of emergency workers found that 95 per cent of women said their protective gear interfered with their work, as the gear is largely designed for men. Stab vests ride up leaving the abdomen unprotected, and body armour is removed in order to use equipment; this leaves women more vulnerable to injury and death.

While serious injuries at work have long been decreasing for men, there is evidence that they have been increasing among women, but we know little about effects on women. Dust disease in miners is well researched, but exposures in ‘women’s’ work is not. Toxins affect women differently to men: women tend to be smaller, with thinner skin, lowering the levels with which they can safely cope, and also have more body fat in which chemicals can accumulate. Women are often left out of studies in industries where men and women work together, as including both might muddle the data. And in most female-dominated industries (such as nail salons, where workers use a toxic cocktail of chemicals with known links to cancer, miscarriage and lung disease), an incredibly small number of studies have ever been done.

Why drugs don’t work

For millennia, medicine has assumed that male bodies are the default [Blogger: actually the female is biologically the default human.] so there is a huge data gap with regard to women’s health. Women are very often excluded from clinical trials, and medical students learn about women’s bodies and health as an ‘extra’, not the norm.

There are big differences between male and female physiology. Using male mice for one study, and female mice for another on the same topic gave the opposite result. Which is why, from blood pressure pills to aspirin, many drugs just don’t work as well for women. U.S. data on ‘adverse drug reactions’ from 2004 to 2013 shows women suffered 2 million bad reactions, compared to 1.3 million for men. The second most common ‘adverse reaction’ for women, after nausea, was that the drug simply didn’t work at all.

Although some groups of women are now more likely than men to have a heart attack, they often have different symptoms — only one in eight women experience chest pain, for example. A US study found that the ‘risk prediction strategies’ used in many hospitals are based on two-thirds male patients, meaning women’s ‘atypical’ heart attacks are often missed.

Of around 50 drugs for heart failure, some just aren’t safe for half the population. One, used to break up blood clots, can cause ‘significant bleeding problems in women’.

And we may be missing drugs which would work for women. Period pain affects up to 90 per cent of women, but there is little available to help. While a 2013 study appeared to have found a cure, it ran out of funding before it could prove its primary hypothesis, which suggested that sildenafil citrate could give four hours of ‘total pain relief’ without apparent side-effects. No further funding has been forthcoming.

Yet sildenafil citrate is no new drug — it’s the medical name for Viagra. Tested in the Nineties, it didn’t work as a heart medication, but the all-male study participants reported an increase in erections, and so it was rushed to market for erectile dysfunction. A happy ending for men. But what if that first trial included women? Might we have had an effective drug for period pain for decades?

Staying (too) cool in the office

Modern workplaces often have doors too heavy for women to open easily, and glass stairs and lobby floors mean anyone can see up your skirt.

The standard office temperature was determined in the Sixties based on the metabolic resting rate of the average 40-year-old, 70kg man. But a recent study found that ‘the metabolic rate of young adult females performing light office work is significantly lower’ than men’s. The standard formula may overestimate female metabolic rate by as much as 35 per cent, meaning current offices are on average five degrees too cold for women.

Falling on deaf ears

Virtual reality headsets fall off the average woman’s head, and augmented reality glasses have lenses too far apart for a woman to focus on the image. Apple’s much-hyped health tracker app failed to build in the most basic of female needs — a monthly period tracker.

Female business owners receive less than half the investment of their male counterparts, but generate twice as much revenue.

Voice-recognition software is often hopelessly male-biased. One study found Google’s was 70 per cent more likely to recognise male speech. Some helpful experts have suggested women have ‘lengthy training’ to fix the ‘many issues’ with their voices!! The problem is that speech recognition technology is trained on large databases of voice recordings — which appear dominated by men (the data used is confidential, but the results speak for themselves).

When women are under or misrepresented in data, it can play havoc with modern technology. Programs which are trained to associate images and terms with qualities can end up with gender bias. So a male programmer’s website could be judged more relevant than that of a female programmer, potentially meaning the woman would not be considered for a job.

Sources: 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6805511/The-proof-live-mans-world.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47725946

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What Do We Know About Cancer?

Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells.

Human lifespan has increased substantially over time. Infectious diseases kept life expectancy very low for a long time. While we are now able to treat many diseases, and prevent others through immunisation, cancer remains a problem. Early diagnosis can help, but finding effective treatments has been difficult.

1775 A London surgeon, Percival Potts had noticed a sharp rise in open, festering scrotal sores in chimney boys, which he attributed to soot; the first documentation of an external agent causing cancer.

1855  Rudolf Virchow was the first to link the origin of cancer with otherwise normal cells.

1870s Walther Fleming uses a blue dye to stain cells, which shows up the internal structure of cells. This revealed the threadlike objects he named chromosomes.

1890s David Paul von Hansemann tried the dye on cancer cells. He noted that the chromosomes of cancer cells were bent, broken and duplicated.

1910 Peyton Rous proved that solid tumours can be caused by a virus.

1924 Otto Warburg saw that while most diseases are specific (tuberculosis is a respiratory disease, cancer has multiple causes, and could arise in any body tissue. He observed that cancer cells generate energy in a different way to healthy cells.

Animal (including humans) cells contain several structures, such as nucleus, chromosomes and mitochondria, Typically each cell has 1,000 to 2,000 mitochondria, which generate energy which allows a body to function. Early forms of life came into existence in an atmosphere with no oxygen, so used a fermentation pathway (anaerobic respiration) to generate energy. It still exists in living things from bacteria to animals, birds and humans, but this pathway is very inefficient taking 18 times more glucose to extract the same amount than from aerobic respiration. As life forms evolved, aerobic respiration took over. A normal human cell typically obtains almost 90% of its energy through aerobic respiration, and the rest through an anaerobic pathway. Certain cells (e.g. muscle cells) can create energy without oxygen by generating lactic acid, but only briefly, when oxygen is absent or muscles demand great amounts of energy. Once oxygen becomes available or the activity stops, cells resume using aerobic respiration.

Damaged mitochondria can no longer use aerobic respiration, even in the presence of oxygen, so signal to the nucleus, which then switches on the anaerobic pathway known as fermentation. This then changes the cell behaviour leading to uncontrolled proliferation, genetic mutations and evasion of cell death. Warburg also noted that normal, healthy cells deprived of oxygen for brief periods of time (hours) turned cancerous and could not revert to aerobic respiration in the presence of oxygen.

1953 James Watson and Francis Crick published a paper on the structure of DNA. The results were based partly on fundamental studies by Rosalind Franklin, Raymond Gosling and Maurice Wilkins. Research then focused on genetic abnormalities as the likely cause of cancer.

1970s Harold Varmous and Michael Bishop isolated the src gene in a known cancer causing virus (Rous sarcoma virus). They then found the src gene in each animal they tested (fish, rabbits, mice, cows, sheep and humans. The viral, cancer causing gene was only a subtly different from the normal version, and in fact a distorted copy of a gene common to all species and part of our inherited DNA. research then focused on what altered the gene.

1943-1946 Nitrogen mustard was found to significantly reduce the size of lymphoid tumours in mice, and then in humans. While the remissions proved to be brief and incomplete, this line of research led to the discovery of other chemotherapy drugs. However, the treatments attacked their immune systems and caused debilitating nausea, and cancers would often return.

1970s Pete Pederson (following Warburg's lead)  found that cancer cells had a reduced ability to respire, and they showed various structural abnormalities. In 1977 Pederson and Ernesto Bustamante found a single molecular alteration in the cell that is responsible for the increased fermentation.

1980s Research into identifying cancer causing genes (many have been found but also that some cancer cells had no mutations) and further drugs to combat cancer.

1988 A small reduction in cancer rates was due to (a) anti-smoking campaigns and (b) improved early detection.

2000 onward. Further interest in mitochondrial function but the scientific community is divided. Thomas Seyfried found that reducing calorie intake in mice with tumours began to slow the tumour growth and then tied this up with research on mitochondria.

Currently treatment is still often ineffective, especially in advanced metastatic cancer and brain cancer. Also current therapies may increase survival on average for just a few months, and at the same time promote tumour agressiveness and spread in some cancers.

DNA. The double helix of DNA is made up from four molecules: adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine (AGTC). The operations of a cell are carried out by proteins, which act as gateways and facilitate chemical reactions that generate energy and power and receive signals from hormones or nutrients. In some sections, DNA directs proteins to "stay away" allowing specific sections to be expressed or hidden. This varies with the type of cell: in a hair follicle the gene encoding for hair protein is exposed but in a liver cell is is wrapped up.

The brain consumes 20 per cent of the energy we consume at any given time.While other tissues can transition to burning fatty acids, brain cells can only burn glucose. When food is scarce brain cells can use ketone bodies for fuel. More than any other mammal, humans are efficient at survival. Ketone bodies allow a normal weight human to go from two to three weeks without food to about two months. Some scientists think that humans evolved to exist in ketosis from time to time.

Reference
Tripping over the Truth by Travis Christofferson. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017

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Please Download the What3Words app

What3words: the app that can save your life

Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has already saved several lives.

What3words essentially points to a very specific location. Its developers divided the world into 57 trillion squares, each measuring 3m by 3m (10ft by 10ft) and each having a unique, randomly assigned three-word address. It turned out that 40,000 words was enough to map the whole world.

Why do we need such specific locations? Postcodes sometimes cover large areas in very rural locations - ambulances, fire services and delivery services and trades people may have difficulty finding you. Your sat-nav can quickly go out-of-date if you are moving onto a new housing estate. You may be walking or hiking or climbing in a remote area and get into difficulty.

35 Welsh and English emergency services have signed up for its service and they'd like more people to get the app.

If people do not have the app, the emergency services can send a text message containing a web link to their phones. But this requires a signal (85% of the country is said to have a4G connection). The app does not need a phone signal to tell someone their location, however.

Mongolia has adopted what3words for its postal service, while Lonely Planet's guide for the country gives three-word addresses for its points of interest. Mercedes Benz has included the system in its cars and what3words is now being used in 35 languages.

Some examples are the door of 10 Downing Street (slurs.this.shark), while the area across the road where the press congregate has its own address (stage.pushy.nuns)

Source: BBC News website, What3words: the app that can save your life, 15 Aug. 2019 ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49319760 )

Babies Brains

A fascinating documentary study on babies from birth to two years old.

• Babies are born with 50 trillion nerve connections in their brains. Over time, some little used connections will be pruned and extra connections made through activity.
• At 1 week old, babies respond to faces much more than objects. Activity is found in part of our 'social brain'.
• From 4 months to 1 year, babies love and need one-to-one attention. Long-term social deprivation is harmful.
• At 12 months or even at 7 months, babies will choose the good 'helpful' puppet.

• Parents respond quickly to babies' cries. The sound pattern arouses the parent's amygdala.
• Bonding through laughter decreases stress and boosts immune system. Peekaboo was more likely to cause laughter, followed by stuffing mouth with flannel, ripping up paper, cup on head and last, animals making strange noises. Laughing helps social connection. Babies laugh more with older siblings and find dogs twice as funny as cats.

• Babies temperament shows early - whether they are excitable, calm, cautious.
• Personal preferences about people. Race is easy for babies to distinguish, and who they see around them gives familiarity. They recognise and look for fairness in a person's behaviour, but will prefer to play with someone of the same race. Good therefore to expose them to wide range of people and environments.
• In the 1990s, young children chose gender specific roles (male and female dolls and a range of activities, e.g., washing, housework, rocking the baby, washing the car). In contrast in 2018, toddlers around 2 yrs old chose both genders for all activities apart from washing the car.
• Once babies are walking and more stable physically (around 19 months), they display preferences for specific activities - dancing, lego and building, football, drawing, phones.
• Around 75% of babies use mobile phones daily. Studies show a possible negative impact on sleep and attention, but a positive impact on fine motor control (phone users are better at building a tower from blocks).

• Talking - when do babies learn rules of conversation? Five babies 12 to 14 months watched robot/person demonstration of alternate babbling. Babies then copied 'answering' when the robot 'talked' to them.
• Using 'parentese' helps babies learn speech, as it heightens pitch, lengthens words and stresses rhythm. Babies brains synchronise with the rhythm of speech.
• Where there are multiple languages spoken at home, babies easily learn all they hear. They can detect all possible phonemes (individual sounds that make up words) even when these are very close in sound, where adults cannot, unless they know the sounds in the language(s) they use. However this ability only lasts a short while (between 6 and 8 months) and is gone by the age of twelve months, as brain connections are reinforced or deactivated.
• At 18 months they are communicating verbally with carers as they are more important. At this stage also there is an explosion of words, which speeds up between 18 and 24 months.
• They start to use social words (hiya, thank you). Regional differences in frequency of words in use (thank you, sorry).
• Hearing lots of words means better language ability later and bigger vocabulary later, and so do better at school.

• Babies gain a sense of self at around 21 months when they recognise themselves in a mirror.
• Understanding that other people can feel differently from oneself. Presented with broccoli and crisps, babies typically chose crisps. Shown an adult obviously preferring the broccoli, from about 18 months will give the adults preference to the adult.
• Empathy is thought to develop in stages. First awareness of distress, later wanting to help. Thought this did not occur until 2 years. A 17 month old instant awareness of distress but doesn't know what to do. At 18 months goes to mum 'asking for help'. At 2 years tries to comfort crying baby doll with bottle.
• Self control skills predict better concentration at school, and better at exams.

• Crawling is a baby's first taste of independence. However they have no depth perception and new crawlers will go straight across a clear plastic bridge over a sheer drop. But within a few weeks they have learnt about the risk and will not cross even to reach mother.
• When infants begin to walk their perception of the world changes from the restricted vision of the floor to seeing much more around them, especially people. They also start to carry things and become more independent.
• By age 2 they are wanting to do things themselves and often start nursery at this age. Since parents are not there to help, they must learn to play and co-operate with others. In an experiment where 2 children must each pull a lever at the same time to release a toy after a single demonstration by an adult, they can do this at 2 years. 

• Memory. Shown an interesting toy, and then cover it. Young babies lose interest, but by 10 months will pull off the cloth to find the toy. This follows the 8th month growth spurt in the frontal lobes. This ability is also the cause of separation anxiety.
• At 2 years start to keep memory of what is seen and adding information given by adult. Shown a furry rabbit toy named Lucy, then taken to another activity. The adult then tells them the rabbit has got wet and shows them a dry rabbit and a wet one, otherwise identical. Asked to say which is Lucy, one child selected the wet rabbit at 19 months, and 3 out of 5 did so at age 2.
• Tantrums are caused by frustration and best ended by distraction. Babies eventually learn to distract themselves.

Source: Babies Brains 3-part documentary on BBC2, 2018

The Story of Immigration to Britain

Bloody foreigners: the story of immigration to Britain by Robert Winder. Abacus, 2005.

Immigrants tend to be entrepreneurial risk-takers and rule-flouters, with a keen sense of individual liberty. Migration can also be forced, either directly (war, famine, political) or indirectly (poverty).

The first settlers of the UK, some 25,000 years ago, probably came from the south. Later waves of settlement followed from the Rhine basin; from southern Europe (dark colouring); and the Celts (fair skin and red hair) from east of the Alps. (Those with dark 'Celtic' colouring are actually likely to be Mediterranean in origin). The Romans forced the local tribes (including the Brythonic, from which we get the term Britons) to the edges of the country in Cornwall (and overseas to Brittany), Scotland and Wales. The Roman army had few Italians; the majority of the troops were Gauls, Hungarians, Germans and some North Africans.

The next invasions were from Northern Germanic tribes - Jutes from northern Denmark, Angles from central Denmark and Saxons from northern Germany, and Vikings. The Celtic language all but vanished and Latin was little used. The Norman (themselves Danish in origin) invasion formed the basis of the English aristocracy. Since this time there have been many migrants over the centuries.

In the 12th century came Dutch textile workers; also Jewish money lenders, though tensions eventually led to their expulsion in 1290. In the 13th century the migrants were Italian financiers, German, Dutch, Italian and French traders and craftsmen. The first gypsies were recorded in c. 1480.

The next centuries saw religion influencing migration. The French Huguenots fled persecution, especially from 1685; the French textile and allied trades suffered from the loss of skills. Then Dutch and Germans brought printing and paper making and artists. At the Restoration of the Monarchy, German and Prussian scholars were joined by Jews fleeing persecution in Europe. When Willam III took the throne, Dutch migrants followed.

In 1709, the Poor Palatines (farmers) came from Germany, fleeing persecution from the new (Catholic) Elector; some intended to go further and try their luck in America. The Hanoverian period saw the arrival of Germans, Dutch, Italians and some Jews from north and eastern Europe. The formation of the East India Company resulted in small numbers of Indians being brought back as servants and seamen, as did the slave trade with African servants. The Acts of Emancipation took down the barriers to immigration (1829 Roman Catholics and 1853 Jews).

In Europe, Britain had a reputation for being a good (if grudging) friend to the displaced. The 19th century saw 'clever' refugees from the failed continental revolutions of 1848: Italy, France, Hungary, Poland and Russia. Victoria's marriage to Albert saw further German migration. Italians first came as street urchins (organised by gang-masters), builders and allied trades; later Italian migrants sold ice-cream and fish and chips. The Irish came as seasonal workers and manual labourers, especially at the time of the Potato famine in the 1840's (Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1707 to 1922).

The 20th century saw a Jewish exodus from Poland, Russia, the Baltic and Eastern Europe. There was a drift of Chinese seamen and African and Caribbean students, plus doctors, lawyers, scholars and entrepreneurs from India. More Jews came in the 1930's as the Nazi party gained power; some went on the the USA. After WW2, some Poles stayed on, while West Indians came for better prospects (and to fill labour shortages). Indians, especially Anglo-Indians, arrived after the India/Pakistan partition in 1948. Hungarians fled the Soviet takeover (1956) and Cypriots fled the Greek/Turkish partition. Other groups were actually or virtually expelled from their home countries: Asians from Kenya (1967) and Uganda (1971), Chinese via Hong Kong (1960's) and Vietnam (1970's). More recent immigrants have been refugees from war-torn areas and economic migrants from Eastern Europe.

Germany and Italy are both federations of once competing sovereignties, while the US is a mix of recent immigrants; Europe is currently promoting the federal model not separate nations. In contrast, in other places ethnic pride has been at the forefront and resulted in enmity: India v Pakistan; Isreal v Palestine; Cyprus; Sri Lanka; Hutu v Tutsi in Rwanda. This should raise warning signs over the current separatist feelings in Scotland and Wales.

Children of migrants are more outgoing than their parents but the next generation occasionally revive rather than abandon the convictions of their grandparents. It seems that the original immigrants need to die before their descendants can accept themselves (or be accepted) as British. Most earlier migrants were keen to blend in, but some recent migrants are not so keen: examples are fundamentalist Muslims who wish to retain Islamic culture and laws, and the northern Punjab Muslims who are reluctant to sever ties with their homeland and family-based culture.

The 2001 Census showed that 7.9% of the population had an ethnic origin, but of these more than half were born in the UK. Immigrants do tend to cluster in certain areas, such as large cities, but are often uncommon in more rural communities. The Census also showed that the population of Scotland had declined by 2% as people moved to London. Headlines on immigration issues rarely note that nearly as many people emigrate each year.

Policies to govern immigration often backfire. Restrictions on short-term economic migrants and human rights acceptance of re-uniting families led to more young men settling and then bringing in wives and children. Since there is a clear correlation in recent British history that when unemployment rises, immigration falls, there could be an argument for self-regulation. Migrants do tend to have larger families; 'British' families remain at an average of 2.4 children. There has been more acceptance of, and actual rates of, 'cross-breeding' in the UK than in other cultures.

RW noted that Irish Aran jumperes were a marketing invention by a German entrepreneur in the 1930's. He chose Aran as the name of a new knitwear range after seeing a documentary on the island. When Irish wool proved unsuccessful, they were made in the Scottish Hebrides.

My note: Kilts were originally loose-fitting, full body and short-skirted garments, similar to Roman togas, that can be traced back to ancient times. Worn exclusively by male warriors in the Scottish highlands, they were made of a checked wool fabric that came to be known as tartan. (Tartan is an old Spanish word that originally described a type of cloth, irrespective of whether it was patterned.) At this time, clans or tribes did not claim specific patterns or colours as their own. However, in 1739, the British military began to organize Highlanders into regiments that wore specific tartans as part of their uniforms. Soon after Sir Walter Scott's novel Waverley (pub. 1814) became famous, a commission in London created an official register of clan tartans. Many clan leaders sent samples of whatever they had in the attic. Other tartans came from fabric manufacturers such as Wilson & Son of Bannockburn, who more or less invented designs for customers. Most of today's clan tartans were invented by weavers and revisionist authors using fabricated 'historic' sources in the early 19th century.

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Best Time to Take Vitamins and Supplements

While people often take vitamins and supplements at a time that is convenient to them, it may not be when and how the nutrients work best with your body. So here is a quick checklist.

Anytime

• Fish oils: best taken with a meal to aid absorption.
• Vitamin K: best taken with vitamin D, calcium and vitamin C.
• Vitamin C: best taken in split doses throughout the day. Start in the morning and take the remainder later in the day.

Morning

• B vitamins: take them with breakfast for a boost and to start the day well.
• Co-enzyme Q10: ideally taken with breakfast or lunch and avoid taking before you go to bed.
• Iron: best taken in the morning after breakfast. Avoid taking with tea or coffee.

Midday

• Iodine: cannot be stored in the body, so a regular intake is needed. Best taken at midday.

Afternoon

• Zinc: take in the afternoon with food as it can cause nausea if taken on an empty stomach.
• Vitamin D: best taken with a meal. Some studies show a negative effect on sleep, so take earlier in the afternoon.

Evening / Night

• Calcium: many suggest taking calcium in the evening because it is best used at night.
• Magnesium: Studies have shown that magnesium is a relaxant so take in the evening before you go to bed.

Source: Healthspan.

The Village Effect

The Village Effect: why face-to-face contact matters by Susan Pinker

Atlantic Books, London, 2015      978-1-84887-8-594

Ch.1 Swimming through the school of hard knocks. Increasing evidence that a rich network of face-to-face relationships helps us fight disease. Good social contact (not hostility) instructs the body to secrete more endogenous opiates, which act as painkillers, and fewer hormones such as adrenaline, noradrenaline and corticosteroids, which can have a bad effect on our tissues and our physical resilience.

How social contact helps: Access to timely information valuable to you (people you know who refer you to the best medical care, clinical trials and experimental drugs). Material assistance (transport to appointments / treatments, baby-sitting and child care, meal preparation. Mood and health boosting effect of having loved ones nearby.

Studies show that: Socially isolated women have an elevated risk of dying of cancer. Socially isolated men who already had cancer were more likely to die prematurely. Socially isolated female lab rats developed 84 times as many breast (and bigger) tumours as female rats living in groups.

Social isolation alters the expression of genes in every cell of the body, and confuses the body’s usual reactions to disease and stress. However, individuals vary in the amount and type of social contact they need to avoid feeling lonely. Support from female friends releases oxytocin, which has both analgesic and euphoric effects.

There is no connection between mood (being positive) and breast cancer outcomes. Studies that ask people to identify stressful events that could be linked to the onset of cancer are affected by the fact that human memory is highly selective; someone with a cancer diagnosis is more likely to remember stressful events.

Ch. 2 It takes a village to raise a centenarian. Almost everywhere in the world men die on average of 5 to 7 years before women do, and there are 6 female centenarians to every male centenarian. But in one area of Sardinia (and in other ‘Blue Zone’ mountainous regions), 10 times as many men live past the age of 100 as men living elsewhere. Although belonging to community is a key factor, extreme longevity runs in families in the area. Geographic and genetic isolation may select for social cohesion – most people will be family to some degree. The genetic component appears to be transmitted via the maternal line.

The global phenomenon of widowed people dying soon after their spouses is lessened when someone who is grieving is surrounded by lots of other widowed people, especially if they are women.

Some supposed long-lived areas are false – claims about family members are exaggerated, records often don’t exist or are unreliable. In Japan, men who moved to cities for work in the boom years died alone, but families assumed they were still alive.

However, in tightly knit villages, the powerful sense of cohesion is counterbalanced by an equally powerful distrust of outsiders (including residents of neighbouring towns.

Oxytocin and vasopressin, which are secreted into the bloodstream when we form and maintain meaningful relationships, help wound healing and damp down stress.

Health and longevity is promoted by conscientiousness and hard work, combined with a large, active network of family, friends and community ties. It seems to be important to be part of a community through several activities and relationships, not just one.

Ch. 3 A thousand invisible threads. Most psychologists agree that the protective effects of religion are primarily social. Acts of altruism – mutual aid. Coordinated social rituals (praying, chanting, singing, swaying) all together in the same room feels good.

Mirror neurones are motor cells that fire when someone else moves. They don’t help you imagine what someone else feels, they take you through the action. This is why we flinch when we someone is about to be smacked, and why yawning, scratching and coughing are contagious. We also unconsciously mirror the actions of someone we are talking to.

Fertility is contagious between siblings – starting with a sister’s pregnancy, siblings follow suit (the birth of a child to a brother has no effect). The strongest effect is on siblings who live close to each other.

Ch. 4 Who’s coming to dinner? Socialising with friends can help you fight of loneliness and chronic illness, but can also (especially with certain people) trash your self-control and make you fatter. While not the only factor in weight gain, if your best friend or sister was overweight, you’d be more likely to put on weight too. Obesity contagion can move from person to person but peters out after three social links; it is most likely with face-to-face contact with someone you have a tight emotional bond. We match our eating to what our friends are consuming (women more likely to do this); we eat more when face-to-face with people in our circle and less when eating alone or with strangers.

The only effective commercial weight loss approach is Weight Watchers – keeping track of food intake, attending weekly meetings, praise for any loss – the social support is crucial, as it is with groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous. How much you drink is also influenced by your social group.

Many societies use social ostracism to punish; this effectively disables some aspects of cognitive functioning; younger people are more affected than older people.

Improved skills in reading, writing, arithmetic, academic level, etc, are linked to eating family dinners. The more meals you eat with your child, the larger their vocabulary and the higher their grades. Boys with a gene variant that predicts violent behaviour seem protected from displaying aggression by sitting down to eat with their families. Discussion of a child’s experiences links family meals to later better achievement. Shared meals help children to pick up subtleties of language and social interaction.

12 year old girls who regularly eat with their families at the beginning of middle school had half the odds of other kids their age of drinking, smoking or using marijuana at 17, and were less likely to develop eating disorders. Those who don’t eat regularly with their family were almost twice as likely to attempt suicide.

Ch. 5 Body chemistry. Scholars have linked breast feeding (especially the first 6 months) to reduced rates of diarrhoea, meningitis, urinary infections, sudden infant death syndrome, necrotizing enterocolitis, ear infections and respiratory tract infections. It is also associated with boosted intelligence, fewer behavioural problems in childhood and eventually upward social mobility.

Breast feeding seems to make most babies healthier and smarter, regardless of social class. While feeding, you talk to the baby face-to-face, smile at them, sing to them. Babies brains are designed to interact with people. New evidence indicates that indifferent or abusive parenting, or a screen substituted for social contact, can alter the young child’s brain circuitry and lead to school failure or heart disease. Kangaroo care (where the baby has skin to skin contact): babies feel less pain with medical procedures if they have skin-to-skin care afterwards. Holding babies reduced signs of post-partum depression in new mothers. Maternal TLC (tender, loving care) increases a baby’s resilience.

Interacting with a new baby substantially increases the grey matter in a woman’s pre-frontal cortex, parietal lobes and the mid-brain, including areas linked to memory, emotion, reward and coordinated movement. The mother’s sense of smell is rewired during pregnancy; she becomes attuned to the smell of her infant and other aromas may smell awful (it may be this that drives pregnancy food cravings and aversions). We are biologically prepared to react with tender feelings to the large heads, eyes and ears of infants. This also improves certain abilities – seeing something ‘cute’ helps people focus.

The Dutch Hunger Winter (Nov. 1944 to May 1945) adversely affected babies in the womb in that period, and this affect seems to be transmitted to their children and grandchildren.

Ch. 6 Digital natives. Parents in a US program (where they were given children’s books) read to their children 10 times as often as other parents, and boosted their children’s languages skills (understanding and speaking). Children who are heavy media users get lower grades. The children of British teenagers are far less educated and twice as likely to be poor as the children of older mothers. The teenage mothers interact less with their babies and toddlers.

In lower class homes there tends to be a much starker boundary between the adult world and the children’s world; children are left to organize their own playtime, and spending less time with adults and more with screens. Babies born to poor families ‘watch’ up to 3½ hrs of TV a day before the age of two – this level of viewing seems to be associated with a higher rate of language delay in toddlers.

For children, social cues highlight what and when to learn. Even young infants are pre-disposed to people watch and are motivated to copy the actions they see others do. Watching TV displaces face-t-face interaction, which is a requirement of early language development.

Online networks are fantasy worlds of idealised digital personae, selfies and status updates which make public conflicts and social exclusions. Girls who use social media a lot are more likely to feel excluded an unhappy. Part of the brain that registers pain also becomes activated when people feel socially excluded. We all give off subtle signals that allow us to ‘read’ someone else’s mind; these are primarily non-verbal and are missing from digital personae. Children whose mothers discussed other people’s feelings and intentions grew up to be more empathic that their peers.

Ch. 7. Teens and screens. Developing and grooming a loyal circle of friends is a major adolescent milestone. Mobile phones have replaced phone calls and face-to-face contact as the process though texting gives instant access but no social clues.

The pre-frontal cortex of the brain is where planning, problem-solving and decision making take place, but develops later than other cortical areas of the brain. Development of the visual cortex peaks at 6 months and winds down by age 5, but the pre-frontal cortex development goes on till late adolescence or early adulthood.

Online harassment (cyber bullying) is increasingly common, especially during transitions (e.g. changing school) and girls and gays are the most frequent targets. Throughout evolutionary history, large groups were risky for women and something to be avoided. In polygynous marriages, the odds of premature death for children are 7 to 11 times higher than in monogamous marriages as women will favour their own children, not cooperate as a whole group. Females prefer smaller social groups than males.

Relying on social media for important news updates can be chancy; a message about someone’s death can get lost in all the other messages, or not seen in time if you only check newsfeeds ever few days. Teenagers who already feel lonely communicate with strangers online but then feel lonelier than before.

Kids’ self-esteem seems to rise when they own a laptop but there is no sign that their reading or writing skills improve. Computers displace other activities such as homework and face-to-face social contact. They are used to surf the net, play video games and download films, music and porn rather than homework aids.

Face-to-face contact with a skilled teacher, even for 1 year in a child’s life, has more impact than any laptop program, predicting a smaller likelihood of a girl getting pregnant as a teenager, boosting the odds of attending college, earning more than other students, living in a better neighbourhood and saving more for retirement.

Ch. 8 Going to the chapel. Nearly 3/4 of all couples in the industrialized world meet through social encounters.

Compared to co-habiting, married people enjoy stronger, more stable relationships and better physical and physiological health, and are far less likely to be alcoholics or depressed, and live happier, longer lives. Couples who live together are happier than people who are single or divorced. If a couple plan on marriage when they move in together, cohabitation presents no risks to the relationship and therefore their happiness, but if cohabiting ‘just happens’, couples are more likely to split than married couples.

Spouses in good marriages damp down each other’s stress levels. Unmarried women are more likely to die young than if married; single or divorced men are 250% more likely to die prematurely than married men at any age. Being married significantly reduces your chances of being hospitalized, needing surgery, dying in hospital after surgery or within 15 yrs of a coronary bypass procedure; developing pneumonia, rheumatoid arthritis, gum disease, a viral infection, dementia, clinical depression, a serious cardiac event, a serious cardiac event or a variety of cancers; going to jail, being murdered, dying in a car accident, or taking your own life. A 2008 study showed happily married adults had lower night time blood pressure, so a lower risk of a catastrophic cardiac event. Another study showed happily married women had fewer sleep problems.

Unhappy relationships give rise to physiological issues. Women experience this in their vascular and immune systems, and emotional memory later on can activate the same damaging neural networks as experiencing the conflict did in the first place. Men keep their problems to themselves instead of being able to confide in their wives.

On the death of their wives, men are at a heightened risk of sudden death or suicide because of extreme loneliness. Women, who have more social support, are not.

Religion brings like-minded people together, binding them with songs, prayers, stories and acts of kindness that make them feel good about themselves and the people around them. Religious rituals lean heavily on the ‘honest’ signals that establish mutual trust. Religious practice also works at group level, helping people to stick together and solve internal conflicts.

Online dating: four out of five people misrepresent themselves on dating sites. We are not good at describing what attracts us – when you meet someone you’re attracted to you don’t have the insight to describe it. The ability to face adversity together, and to have fun as intimate friends, is more important in the long run than being matched on the personality qualities on dating sites. Perceiving yourselves as sharing common values and traits is what matters in a relationship.

Ch. 9 When money really talks. Some fraudsters use their social skills to build relationships with those they defraud. Fraud is sometimes planned ahead, but sometimes arises through opportunity. Initial investors innocently recommend schemes to friends. We are more vulnerable to in-group scammers we meet in person than to faceless Nigerian princes who want our bank details.

Beauty pays; a slightly feminine, baby-faced appearance, with arched inner eyebrows, prominent cheekbones, and cheerful behaviour increases the impression of trustworthiness. A more dominant, masculine-looking face, with lower inner eyebrows and cheekbones engenders fear and the impulse to keep one’s distance.

After we’ve made a snap judgement, we don’t usually change our minds but selectively pay attention to whatever confirms what we’ve already decided.

Pyramid schemes run into problems once 150 people are involved. Dunbar’s number (150) is the limit to many examples of human communities. Sharing a coffee break with other workers makes people more productive and boosts employee satisfaction.

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