List of authors.
This very determined future earth & life scientist got what she wanted!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64231245
Continue readinghttps://www.itv.com/watch/harry-the-interview/10a3975
12 January update
Read this too: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/12/opinions/spare-prince-harry-review-masculinity-culture-wars-staples/index.html
I think Harry is doing the right thing and I think that what he is doing will have a much broader impact than he imagines (because he moves in a small segment of society, I figured, but later in the interview, I realized that he does see that broader context very well).
He is right. Some things really need to change, how paparazzi behave being one of them. I sometimes see left-wing media do the same things that the tabloids do, twist things totally out of proportion and turn them into horror stories that get picked up abroad but that never really happened (not the way they were presented in those media). There’s too much mud-slinging and ethics are often absent.
He’s also on a healing journey. He is going through what some people go through after a horrendously bad relationship after they finally break away. He is owning his truth, his life. He’s choosing a life of his own.
I am one of the many many people who still remember what they were doing when his mother died. I was meeting a half-French friend of mine, in Amstelveen. I took the bus. I may have been late because of the news. I think so. (I think I called her before I left. Those were the days before mobile phones.) Together, we watched French TV. I don’t think we did much else than that that day, besides eat.
I too, until now, had always thought that the tunnel was a long one, like under the Meuse River or under the IJ.
I also still remember when my mother died. I was 14. Harry was 12 when his died. Mine had been ill for years. Harry’s perished because of a car crash.
Dads never know what to say, Harry. Mine woke me up, asked how I had slept and then said that my mother was asleep too (had fallen asleep?), something along those lines. I remember thinking “okay, that’s alright, then”, something like that. Next, my dad said that she was not merely asleep. “Oh.” I thought. “Oh.”
I went to school, stopped by at the office of the head of the school or whatever the guy’s role was, because I had been told to do so, and told him very calmly in a matter-of-fact tone: “ik kom u even vertellen dat mijn moeder vannacht is overleden”, sort of similar to how you and your brother felt when you had to shake all those people’s hands, I suppose.
(I think the guy was a little shocked because of my calm tone.)
(As if throwing a teary-eyed tantrum would have brought her back. Besides, she had been in a lot of pain and now all that pain was gone.)
One girl in my class asked me “maar vind je het dan niet erg dat je moeder is overleden?” and I thought to myself “how can you ask such a stupid question?”. (Did she ask that because I wasn’t crying non-stop?) My mother had been ill for years, seriously ill, but even then, it takes you a while to absorb it. That she’s really gone. It’s still sudden. The idea that someone close to you suddenly no longer exists is really odd when you’re still young. People have no idea. One of my mother’s sisters, my aunt, had passed away pretty suddenly shortly earlier. But she wasn’t part of our household. That’s different.
I didn’t go see her after she had died. At the funeral home. My sisters did. They were younger. I wanted to remember my mother the way she had been when she was still alive (and not ill). My sisters didn’t have the luxury of my memories.
But Harry needs to move on now, for his own sake. I think he knows that.
There are lots of people with the same (similar) story and there are lots of people who, like the paparazzi, just don’t get it. That’s life.
Maybe he can help change some things in society. Because of the impact he has, as a British prince.
I hope so.
Does it matter that Rishi Sunak is the shortest male UK Prime Minister since Winston Churchill? Of course not. I made a two-part video in response to this item in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jan/06/is-it-really-better-to-be-tall-we-ask-an-expert
Besides what I say in the video about fashion effects, could it even be that the more westernized a society is, the more emphasis it places on height? White people tend to be taller. Chinese people and other Asians have not only been undergoing surgery to become taller but also to make their eyes look more western (Caucasian).
There is also a north-south height difference within continental Europe. The southern countries tended to be poorer. People in prosperous egalitarian countries tend to be taller. But what about the Masai? As Majid Ezzati states, genetic factors also play a role. I’ll come back to that.
If you put too much emphasis on the belief that tall people are more capable, then you start disadvantaging shorter people. That way, the belief turns into reality. This is how discrimination works. It’s why black people suffered more during the pandemic than whites, for example.
Besides, having a lot of tall people carries a high environmental burden as tall people take up more space in transport and require more resources (bigger furniture, more fabric for clothes, more food).
For the record, I’m Dutch and my dad was a milkman until I was 12 or 13 or so, so I grew up on lots and lots of dairy. So did my two younger sisters, though it likely applied more strongly to me. I am as tall as Rishi Sunak. For a long time, I was the youngest and the tallest in my classes because I had relatively long legs (fast runner). As of my teens, that changed and I was no longer the tallest at all. Both my sisters are taller than I am. They are Nordic/Germanic types, whereas I have more southern European looks. We have French and Nordic as well as Germanic heritage in the family.
I remember the Dutch school milk program that Majid Ezzati mentions in item in The Guardian from when I was a child. I don’t think it’s still running. The UK should introduce it. Make it creamy Chocomel or the like. Then kids will see it as a treat, while they get important nutrients at the same time. They can have it during their 10:30 break or at the start of their classes in the morning. You can fortify milk too, can’t you? This way you get big benefits at a doable cost and it’s simple to implement. Lactose-intolerant kids can have oat milk instead.
Links
“Why no adult stunting penalty or height premium? Estimates from native Amazonians in Bolivia” by
Ricardo Godoy, Oyunbileg Magvanjav, Colleen Nyberg, Dan T A Eisenberg, Thomas W McDade, William R Leonard, Victoria Reyes-García, Tomás Huanca, Susan Tanner, Clarence Gravlee (TAPS Bolivia Study Team)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19766067/
“Why are the Dutch so tall?” by BBC
https://youtu.be/q_lDTOIJ4xA
About height reduction surgery in the Netherlands:
“7 centimeter korter: lange kinderen laten groeischijf kapotmaken” by NOS Nieuws
https://nos.nl/artikel/2298678-7-centimeter-korter-lange-kinderen-laten-groeischijf-kapotmaken
“Reduction of excessive height in boys by bilateral percutaneous epiphysiodesis around the knee” by
Roelof J Odink,Willem Jan Gerver, Minne Heeg, Catrienus W Rouwé,Willie M Bakker van Waarde and Pieter J Sauer
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16249931/
“Would you have your legs broken to make yourself taller? The men who go through hell for a little extra height” by Simon Usborne
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/nov/09/would-you-have-your-legs-broken-to-make-yourself-taller-the-men-who-go-through-hell-for-a-little-extra-height
“New insight on height, arthritis” by Peter Reuell
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/07/new-insight-on-height-arthritis/
“Science says being tall could make you richer and more successful — here’s why” by Shana Lebowitz
https://www.businessinsider.com/tall-people-are-richer-and-successful-2015-9
“The Stature of the Self-Employed and its Premium” by Cornelius A. Rietveld, Jolanda Hessels and Peter van der Zwan
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2483038
“The Effect of Adolescent Experience on Labor Market Outcomes: The Case of Height” by Nicola Persico, Andrew Postlewaite and Dan Silverman
https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~apostlew/paper/pdf/short.pdf
“Stature and status: height, ability, and labor market outcomes” by Anne Case and Christina Paxson
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w12466/w12466.pdf
“The height premium in Indonesia” by Kitae Sohn
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24480546/
“Two by two, inch by inch: Height as an indicator of environmental conditions during childhood and its influence on earnings over the life cycle among twins” by Elisabeth Lång and Paul Nystedt
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1570677X17301715
“Long-term changes of socioeconomic differences in height among young adult men in Southern Sweden, 1818-1968” by Stefan Öberg
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25212182/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265128963_Long-term_changes_of_socioeconomic_differences_in_height_among_young_adult_men_in_Southern_Sweden_1818-1968
“Big and tall: Does a height premium dwarf an obesity penalty in the labor market?” by Wang-Sheng Lee
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29055650/
Could it be that tall people live shorter lives? Take a look at these five articles and decide for yourself.
“I Wish I Was a Little Bit Shorter. The research is clear: Being tall is hazardous to your health” by Brian Palmer
https://slate.com/technology/2013/07/height-and-longevity-the-research-is-clear-being-tall-is-hazardous-to-your-health.html
“Impact of height and weight on life span” by T T Samaras and L H Storms
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1600586/ (1992)
“Evidence That Short People Live Longer: What We Know” by Cory Whelan
https://www.healthline.com/health/do-short-people-live-longer#the-science
“Is height related to longevity?” by Thomas T Samaras, Harold Elrick and Lowell H Storms
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12586217/ (2003)
“Human growth, height, size: Reasons to be small” by Thomas Samaras
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20110315/Human-growth-height-size-Reasons-to-be-small.aspx
The Oprah Winfrey social experiment:
“The Daring Racism Experiment That People Still Talk About 20 Years Later” by Lisa Capretto
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jane-elliott-race-experiment-oprah-show_n_6396980
“Jane Elliott’s “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” Anti-Racism Experiment”
https://www.oprah.com/own-oprahshow/jane-elliotts-blue-eyesbrown-eyes-anti-racism-experiment
“Why Oprah’s secret racism experiment is more relevant than ever” by Maddison Leach
https://honey.nine.com.au/latest/oprah-winfrey-racism-experiment-1992/a199b24b-892e-4bd1-b1c4-dde619eebbcd
For comparison, to show that views can change:
“Tattoos No Longer A Kiss Of Death In The Workplace” by Rachel Hennessey
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelhennessey/2013/02/27/having-a-tattoo-and-a-job/#6e1f131616dc
“Remarks on human biological enhancement” by Henry T. Greely
https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/20018/05-Greely_Remarks_Final.pdf
Extra:
“The Drive for Perfect Children Gets a Little Scary” Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg, 2017
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-08-24/the-drive-for-perfect-children-gets-a-little-scary
Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
http://clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/masculinity/
Geert and Gert-Jan Hofstede’s website
https://geerthofstede.com/
https://geerthofstede.com/landing-page/
We still have a few dozen years to go, but we’ve already made a lot of headway.
Every four years, the American Meteorological Society assesses the situation, with support from the United Nations.
If the recovery continues at the same rate, then the thickness of most of this protective layer will be back at its 1980 values in 2040.
The Arctic and Antarctic will take longer, however. Over the Arctic, the ozone layer will take only five years longer to regain its former thickness, but the hole above Antarctica will take until 2066 to recover from our actions.
How did we damage the ozone layer? We used substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in air-conditioning units and refrigerators and also as propellant in aerosol containers, such as for hair spray and deodorant. After their use, they didn’t magically disappear and cease to exist. They rose up into the higher layers of the atmosphere.
More on this: https://www.epa.gov/ozone-layer-protection/basic-ozone-layer-science
This shows that where there is a will, there is a way.
This too is an aspect of anthropogenic (human-made) planetary change. It’s not just climate change that we’re causing.
Related is the news of the return of the ERBS:
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/09/world/nasa-erbs-satellite-return-scn/index.html
It was launched in the year that I started my earth science studies.
“Global pollinator losses causing 500,000 early deaths a year – study”
“Insect declines mean reduced yields of healthy foods like fruit and vegetables and increased disease in people”
I’ve just finally been able to activate that spare SIM card that I bought months ago.
The person I spoke – Iman – with sounded like the woman in the flat below me.
I am always buying new phones and other stuff and getting new SIM cards in an attempt to stay ahead of the relentless hacking.
Cash Converters used to think that I was constantly impulse-buying new stuff, such as that UPS before I discovered that my locks had already been getting picked for years. They had a bigger model, by the way, but it weighed too much for me.
Als je je stiefdochter jarenlang misbruikt, vanaf haar negende, en je ook nog kinderporno materiaal met haar erin maakt, en bovendien ARTS bent, moet je toch zeker voor 20 jaar de bak in!
https://nos.nl/artikel/2458093-ziekenhuisarts-helmond-cel-in-voor-seksueel-misbruik-stiefdochter
(Ik zit in de bieb even het nieuws in te halen.)
More vile filth:
Is this a solution? Not sure, but it may be that my hacker thinks that they are.
Or “one of my hackers”. What do I know?
https://www.frameryacoustics.com/en/products/
Everyone’s been found. Four injured, one severely. The latter one is in hospital. Six escaped successfully.
Also, the total number of people affected was lower than initially assumed on the basis of videos. Some people reported in to the police that they were safe and sound.
About 200 rescuers had been digging for any missing people.
I am posting this because it is news that I haven’t seen on the home pages of the BBC, CNN, and The Guardian. It’s not local news. Lots of foreigners go to Lech to ski.
There’ve also been three or more incidents involving guns in the Netherlands in recent days, but that is local news. One was a home robbery, involving three kids; money and goods were taken. At least one was a police shooting. In a shooting in Amsterdam, a 17-year-old got killed and a 16-year-old arrested. Sadly, there is a lot more major crime activity there these days than there used to be. One of the latest new trends there is the use of explosions rather than shootings in cases of retaliation and intimidation.
13:02: I just spotted the avalanche news on The Guardian’s home page.
Christmas 2022:
https://apnews.com/article/bulgaria-serbia-712a088db3b00886e556f53f687fe40d
March 2022:
Ammonia leak contaminates area in east Ukraine
The second link serves to put that incident in perspective. Concentrated ammonia is far from harmless.
The first link is to highlight news that I haven’t seen on the home pages of the sites of CNN, the BBC and The Guardian.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/24/uk/uk-ukraine-refugee-scheme-gbr-cmd-intl/index.html
Those who have no good command of English should still be able to work with their fellow Ukrainians in the UK in their professional capacities of psychologists etc.
Many do speak English and some speak several other languages. While their expertise may not translate directly into the British practice, someone who for example was a lawyer or business person in Ukraine, can still serve well in Britain too by making use of their professional background, their insights, their brains.
They don’t necessarily all need to work as retail and restaurant staff or meat factory workers.
There is no more place for neo-colonial thinking. Colonial thinking belongs in the 19th century.
Remember… in terms of prosperity, Poland and Slovenia are about to overtake Britain. Many other EU countries have a great deal more prosperity already. Hence, Ukraine may not at all be as “backward” as some of you may be telling yourselves either, right?
When I was adding something about NPD with psychopathy to the neurodiversity page. He calmed down when I added the bit at the end.
Why did he get angry? Or, anxious, rather? Because he can’t change himself. He wishes he could. He wants to be accepted the way he is. That is the overriding drive in his life. It overrides any concerns he may have for the well-being of others as well as for himself.
How can you counter that?
Like this, sometimes. Anything that soothes children (hence also distracts) will likely do.
(Spatzen = sparrows. Dom = Cathedral.)
https://www.itv.com/watch/litvinenko-the-mayfair-poisoning/10a1532
For healthcare pros: https://www.hsj.co.uk/dr-pat-troop-on-managing-the-polonium-210-outbreak/3701.article
Po-210 is an isotope of regular polonium; it’s a decay product of notably uranium-238.
How right-wing media in the US describe what’s been in the works for months:
Do they have a point? Yes, and no. Yes, because sure, Trump will play the martyr who’s the victim of a conspiracy again. Yes, because maybe he is best ignored. No, because it does not matter whether Trump will play the martyr. No, because the bigger picture is much more important.
But it will have an effect on his followers. Time will tell what exactly that is.
This headline was followed by this, by the way:
Told ya it’s funny…
It sounds like this bunch at least has fallen out of love with “ORANGE MAN”. Phew.
Open access:
Canseco, R., & Bellaubi, F. (2022). Application of geoethics to university education based on a mining geoethical dilemma case study in the Catalonian Potassic Basin (Spain). Journal of Geoethics and Social Geosciences, 1(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.13127/jgsg-24.
Free access to report:
The internet has brought us a lot of good but it has also led to the phenomenon that strangers can now easily become obsessed with us without us having an idea of that until it’s too late and it starts impacting out lives and livelihoods big time.
A great deal of this has to do with neurodiversity, with differences in communication style and brain structure, hence also empathy, as well as with otherization and anger. Particularly if you are a kind person, you can be like a warm blanket on which someone else starts to depend without you realizing it.
Such persons often have no idea of the impact their actions can have on others. Their reasoning can be “Getting flowers is nice, so if I send someone flowers every day, that’s a really nice thing to do.” If the person they send flowers to gets angry or afraid, it causes a lot of confusion. It can also lead to anger and resentment.
It’s really a failure of our society and of our health care systems. That’s not easy to correct. Fixing it will take time.
Of course, stranger-stalking isn’t always like this at all. You may for example also serve as someone to take revenge on in a form of displaced or redirected aggression.
There are lots of simple practical things that you can do to create a buffer around you, though. They can make a big difference.
There are lots of simple practical things that you can do to shield yourself a little, though. They can make a big difference.
I wrote a guide for how to do that, for to shield yourself if you’re your own boss.
Did you know, for example, that doorbells, toys, Apple Air tags and other lost item finders can also be used to spy on you? Did you know that there’s an app that you can use to check whether you’ve been “tagged”? A person who tags you may think he is merely watching out for you, looking after you. After all, the tag enables him to come to the rescue if, say, your car breaks down. You, however, may not see it that way at all.
Some of this was highlighted by The Guardian on 5 September 2022 (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/sep/05/i-didnt-want-it-anywhere-near-me-how-the-apple-airtag-became-a-gift-to-stalkers), but it regularly makes the news.
I’ve just updated the booklet that I wrote. You can download it from this site as a PDF file. Did you get it from Amazon? Did you import the earlier version of the PDF file into your Kindle? Check the title page in your Kindle and update the file if it still says “5 January 2022”.
If you don’t have it yet, then you can get the Kindle version on Amazon. It’s only $2.99 and it’s free if you have Kindle Unlimited.
Mathematics student Ginger Egberts is 26 when she’s just delivered her daughter, through a C-section. Her 2-year-old son is staying with her parents. Ten days after his sister’s arrival, he manages to pull a mug of hot soup off the kitchen counter and ends up with 11% burns on arms and chest.
Two years later, she finishes her Master’s, creates a LinkedIn profile and sees a PhD spot (which is properly paid full-time employment in the Netherlands) concerning the development of a mathematical model for the prediction of the healing of burns, leading to a decision-making tool for medical professionals. She applies and gets hired.
That was four years ago and she’s just wrapped up her PhD thesis. For her research, she’s cooperated with the surgeon who operates on her son.
She’s now put in a grant proposal to develop an app.
You can read the full story in the Dutch Financial Times: https://fd.nl/samenleving/1460812/tien-dagen-op-een-roze-wolk-en-dan-ineens-in-de-hel-lrl2caA3pTNZ
Practices like these – promising parents a boy or a girl – can cause parents to abandon their baby in the country where they sought to circumvent English regulations if the baby is not exactly what they wanted.
They then reject the kids as if they are a handbag or a pair of shoes of the wrong color.
Practices like these can also lead to difficulties when the child ends up with a different nationality and the parents can’t get the baby across the border.
I wrote about this in my book “We need to talk about this”.
Adopt, don’t shop.
Continue readinghttps://nos.nl/artikel/2456794-kylian-mbappe-is-rolmodel-in-de-banlieue-waar-hij-opgroeide
He plays the flute. Did you know that? The video below tells you ten more things that you possibly didn’t know yet about him.
His former music teacher Céline Bognini who interacted with him for several years recalls him as very energetic and enthusiastic as well as highly inquisitive. He wasn’t particularly good at reading notes and singing, but she’s kept a photo of 9-year-old Kylian, from before he started playing the flute. She only has good memories of him, she says and calls his personality sparkling. Now contrast that with what is being said about young Kylian in the above video.
The pivot point is always that people with NPD see themselves as deeply flawed, while all they actually are is human.
Nobody’s perfect. Or, we all are.
See the Catch-22?
The crux is that you can’t get people with NPD to accept themselves the way they are and as soon as you show them to the world the way they are, they tend to feel deeply betrayed. They can’t accept that they’re actually perfectly fine (and that everything else follows from that).
How can they get to that point of self-acceptance? By changing the neurological pathways in their brain a little. Very gently, little by little.
The second Catch-22 is that you somehow need to get it through to their subconscious. You can’t be (too) open about it.
I keep thinking about neurofeedback within this context.
Alternatively, maybe it is somehow possible to convey to them that they should see themselves as newborns. Nothing intrinsically good or bad about them, and in possession of plenty of potential, also for growth and for positive change.
Anything’s possible.
I’m no longer comfortable with driving a Tesla. Are you?
In the past decade, subsequent governments have so often violated English law and even ignored rulings by English courts.
It’s refreshing to see something quite different for a change. Thanks, Rishi Sunak.
Once you start abandoning human rights principles, you set off a frightening cascade of abuse of human beings from all backgrounds, including white English people.
