Geoffrey Miller recently published research which clearly shows that human males can detect whether or not females are fertile. The data support the conclusion that males can detect whether or not females are ovulating, even if they don’t know that that’s what they are detecting. His unusual study took place in lap-dancing clubs and the …
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Category:Living
Islam and Christianity must work together
In a letter, A Common Word Between Us and You, addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders, 138 prominent Muslim scholars from every sect of Islam urged Christian leaders “to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions”, spelling out the similarities between passages of the Bible and the …
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Eco-consumption under pressure from economic slowdown and greenwash
The slowing US economy is dragging down several green industries, including demand for green homes, energy-efficient home products and renewable energy, according to Energy Pulse 2007, the third annual national consumer market study conducted by the Shelton Group. For eight different kinds of energy efficient home products, this year’s Energy Pulse survey found that consumers …
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Art pioneers donationware
Alternative rock group Radiohead, has released their seventh studio album, In Rainbows, as a donationware download from their official website: that means you can pay what you like to download it. You decide what to pay for the 10 MP3 files – from nothing to £100. So far they have not revealed how many people …
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TV makes you bad
A study carried out at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US analysed 2,707 children aged two and five, based on information from their parents and found that children aged five who watch television for 2 hours a day are more likely to suffer behavioural problems and poor social skills – fresh evidence that too much …
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Is ‘Do Unto Others’ Written Into Our Genes?
An article by the New York Times based on a series of recent articles and a book, “The Happiness Hypothesis” by Jonathan Haidt, a moral psychologist at the University of Virginia, who has been constructing a broad evolutionary view of morality that traces its connections both to religion and to politics. Here’s an extract: Of …
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TV beats family, hands-down
Sad but unsurprising results of a UK survey show that children spend far more time watching TV than spending time with family, or anything else. A survey of of 1,800 families with primary school-age children was part of research accompanying the government-backed Booktime literacy project. The survey suggested that children were more likely to be …
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Should the state be on death row
The US Supreme Court agreed to reevaluate execution by lethal injection just as Texas was preparing for its 27th execution this year on 27 September. This article summarised the recent trend. But reading it made it clear that there is a self-evident inequity in capital punishment in an advanced nation. It seems that the proportion …
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Gender pay gap increasing again as corporates opt for convenience.
In the UK at least, the gender pay gap among managers has widened for the first time in 11 years. The Chartered Management Institute disclosed in early September that women, from trainees to chief executives, have failed to keep pace with the rise in male earnings. In a survey of more than 42,000 managers in …
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Supermarkets’ collusion costs you money
In the UK, the Office of Fair Trading has concluded a three year investigation by bringing charges against the main supermarkets for price fixing with dairy producers, naming Asda, Morrisons, Safeway, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, as well as dairy processors Arla, Dairy Crest, Lactalis McLelland, The Cheese Company and Wiseman. They claim consumers were defrauded of …
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