How to Fold a Fitted Bedsheet

Having trouble folding a fitted bedsheet? Here's a simple way to do it.

• Open out sheet on a flat surface - a table or even the bed will do.
• Bring the bottom corners up and tuck into the top corners, flattening and neatening any folds.
• Fold the sheet in half. Bring the left hand corner to meet the right, turning it inside out and tucking it into the right hand corner.
• Neaten the sheet, then fold in half again, left to right.
• Flatten the sheet again, then fold into thirds.

Source: Feature in Good Housekeeping, January 2017. Read in full: http://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/lifestyle/declutter-your-home/how-to-fold-a-fitted-bed-sheet

And here's a link to an article about how to fold other tricky items like hoodies, t-shirts, towels (like they do in hotels), shirts, jeans, and jumpers.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7558605/Handy-folding-tips-reveal-correct-way-tackle-tricky-items-including-fitted-sheets-hoodies.html

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Us Versus Them

2016 has seen a sharp rise in 'populist politics'.

Most people are slow to change, and want security and certainty. Economic and social change causes uncertainty, fear and anxiety.

People feel they are not listened too. Dangerously there is a growing tide of misinformation (e.g. Boris Johnson's newspaper column that deliberately and falsely claimed that the EU banned curved bananas and cucumbers) that is taken as truth. There is a growing feeling of anti-elitism, especially against international elites. Fear and anger are channelled against scapegoats - bankers, migrants.

Populists claim that bringing back manufacturing and heavy industry to their countries is the answer. This ignores or does not realise that global changes mean this will not happen.

Us and Them leads to racism, the perception of 'too many' [of another nationality, migrants, another religion]  being the cause. Labelling them 'racist' can be counterproductive; the working class has been called 'racist' so often, they become desensitised to its condemnation and the word now has less impact. They also often state that they have good relations with specific individuals - e.g. neighbours - and they feel this means they are not racist.

We need a new form of liberalism that is more sensitive to feelings, especially as recent changes in culture (LGBT, gender rights, etc.) have been fast. These have provoked a backlash from the less-educated.

Current issues over identity, control over borders, and the economy, risk us going back to nationalism and the win/lose politics of the 1930s - the ugly populism.

Source: Radio 4 programme series New World - episode Us Versus Them broadcast Wed. 4th Jan. 2017. Listen now http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b086s60b or download podcast for later listening http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04m7t49, but not sure how long these will be available.

Axis of Power

For the past 25 years, the US has been the dominant world power. Now that we face a more assertive China and Russia, it is likely there will be more international tensions and the likelihood of military conflict is high. Chinese purchasing power now equals that of the US.

In 1900 Britian with its Empire was a dominant power. In 1940 the US and Russia battled for supremacy. In 2017, Asia and China are rising.

• However, the US has not noticed that their power is waning - Donald Trump and the Washington elite believe that the US must maintain military dominance.
• Trump believes that China has benefitted in trade over the US.
• Japan is taking an increasingly dark view of Chinese motivation to address old grievances (the two are old rivals). Other Asian countries are also concerned.
• Chinese island building policy - potential impact on international shipping.

Politically:

• People are increasingly favouring 'strong' leaders.
• Nationalism is on the rise in both China and Japan, especially among young people: this is worrying since what you believe at ages 15 to 25 is likely to stay your view life-long.
• North Korea is politically unstable. 
• China and Russia have similar attitudes on various issues, so there is an element of 'entente'.

Nuclear Issues

• Military might is crucial to Russian power, but there is a population decline. Tensions in the Crimea and Ukraine.
• Nuclear weapons are again an issue.
• Cyber warfare: Russian hacking may be a payback for Clinton's questioning of validity of recent Russian Duma elections.

Source: Source: Radio 4 programme series New World - episode Axis of Power broadcast Tue. 3rd Jan. 2017. Listen now http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b086tfbh or download podcast for later listening http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04m7sl5, but not sure how long these will be available.

Nothing But The Truth

Do the facts actually matter to voters or politicians? What does post-truth mean?

1. Organs of mass deception. Truth was spun and 'sexed up' in 2002 over Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction. An expectation of what was the truth was not supported by the facts. This illustrates the 'feelings first, rationalising afterwards' process. Emotions and feelings trump facts and resist correction. Confronted with views opposing their own, people will persuade themselves that things are not true. We are all vulnerable to this process.

A US experiment presented the same data as being either on skin cream effectiveness or on gun control issues. Numerate Republicans and Democrats agreed on the evidence-based conclusions for the skin cream scenario. However, equally numerate Republicans and Democrats came to different conclusions about the gun control scenario, with political tendencies over-riding actual correct conclusions.

2. When is a fact not a fact? We have gut feelings and can struggle with values versus facts. (a) Is the UK in the EU? An everyday truth. (b) How much does the EU cost? There are many answers, depending on which data is included. (c) Is it good for us to be in the EU? No one answer, as it depends on your values and circumstances.

People now feel they can decide things, and that facts don't carry weight. 'Trump echoes feelings'.

3. What has changed? The Internet has. Narcissus and Echo effects. Social media has changed how we get our news. Echo chambers - we only encounter facts and opinions that reflect our own. Social media algorithms feed you similar views to your own. Physical location and selective migration. People may move to areas with a majority of people of like mind (regions & cities in UK, states in US). Psychological geography research indicates that certain personality traits are more pronounced in certain areas: in the UK, openness in London and the West Country, traditional in Conservative-voting areas in the South and on the South Coast, neuroticism (anxiety, worry) in Labour areas in Wales and Central England. This means more likely to meet people of like minds.

Getting doubt into echo chambers may help balance views, but can easily backfire and reinforce beliefs.

4. An inside job. Climate change is well supported scientifically world-wide. In the US, politically split support regardless of facts. Not an information deficit, but a language deficit. The tribe of affinity. If US military had agreed there was a problem, rather than economists proposing taxes to make changes, Republicans would have been on board.

5. Tall tales. An experiment used a fictitious story about a jewellery theft. The wealthy owneres had family jewellery stolen, and police concluded it was an inside job. First the gardener was arrested. Then he was released without charge. Then the butler was arrested. If people were only told the story up to the gardener being released, for some people doubt remained as to his innocence. It was only when someone else was arrested that those people were convinced of the gardener's innocence.

Conclusions: There is a lack of trust if not exposed to other views. Get out of the echo chamber - ask the opinion of someone you dislike and don't interrupt them.

Source: Radio 4 programme series New World - episode Nothing But The Truth broadcast Mon. 2nd Jan. 2017. Listen now http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b086nzlg or download podcast for later listening http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04m7zrs, but not sure how long these will be available.

Opinion Poll Issues

Opinion polls in the UK 2015 General Election and 2016 EU Referendum failed to accurately predict the results, and in the US there is concern that they are nat accurately reflecting opinion in the 2016 Presidential election. Why might this be?

The British Election Survey conducted a poll of 3,000 adults after the 2015 Election accurately reported a seven per cent lead by the Conservatives over Labour, while pre-election polls predicted the two parties would get the same percentage.

The BES data was collected – at considerable cost – by going out and knocking on doors. It sheds valuable new light on who was undersampled in the pre-election polls.

The new thought is that opinion polls are not currently choosing representative samples.

• Online polling draws samples from large panels of volunteers. Not everyone puts themselves forward to take part, and those who do will not be representative.
• Landline polling is less useful as many households are increasingly reluctant to pick up their landline, and fewer households actually have a landline unless is it used for Internet access.
• Mobile phones are used by many people, and a growing proportion of young people in particular rely exclusively on them. There is no exhaustive database of mobile numbers to draw on, and there is no consensus among the pollsters on a comprehensive and cost-effective way to factor mobiles into the mix.
• The BES study identified the crucial missing group as non-voters, and particularly younger non-voters. It found 43% of the under 30s saying they didn’t vote, whereas among the less representative young people in the pre-election polls, 15% or fewer sometimes identified themselves as non-voters.
• Opinion pollsters are very good at making their samples reflect the general population. But the general population and the electorate are very different things, because around 40% of adults don’t vote. This means there are far too many young voters in polling samples, and not enough young non-voters. 

In the US there is concern among political reporters that the opinion polls on the Presidential election are similarly not representative. The polls still rely on landline phone polling - and as with the UK votes, younger voters increasingly use mobile phones.

• While poll modelling looks at people who might be under represented, who might not be picked up by telephone or online polling, many of the people who voted for Trump in the Republican primaries had been lost to the political process for years, so are probably not part of an opinion pollster's sampling group. 
• There is also the phenomenon of the 'shy' supporter, people who are unwilling to state a preference for controversial nominees.

Sources: The Guardian online, 13 Nov. 2015 and The Guardian online 10 July 2016 .