Facebook risks 'infantilising' the human mind

Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity, according to a leading neuroscientist.

The startling warning from Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford, and director of the Royal Institution, has led members of the government to admit their work on internet regulation has not extended to broader issues, such as the psychological impact on children.

She said she found it strange we are "enthusiastically embracing" the possible erosion of our identity through social networking sites, since those that use such sites can lose a sense of where they themselves "finish and the outside world begins".

She claimed that sense of identity can be eroded by "fast-paced, instant screen reactions, perhaps the next generation will define themselves by the responses of others".

Social networking sites can provide a "constant reassurance – that you are listened to, recognised, and important". Greenfield continued. This was coupled with a distancing from the stress of face-to-face, real-life conversation, which were "far more perilous … occur in real time, with no opportunity to think up clever or witty responses" and "require a sensitivity to voice tone, body language and perhaps even to pheromones, those sneaky molecules that we release and which others smell subconsciously".

She said she feared "real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf. Perhaps future generations will recoil with similar horror at the messiness, unpredictability and immediate personal involvement of a three-dimensional, real-time interaction."

The solutions, however, lay less in regulation as in education, culture and society.

Greenfield argued that the appeal of Facebook lay in the fact that "a child confined to the home every evening may find at the keyboard the kind of freedom of interaction and communication that earlier generations took for granted in the three-dimensional world of the street. But even given a choice, screen life can still be more appealing."

She quoted one user saying they had 900 friends, another saying the fact "that you can't see or hear other people makes it easier to reveal yourself in a way that you might not be comfortable with. You become less conscious of the individuals involved [including yourself], less inhibited, less embarrassed and less concerned about how you will be evaluated."

But Greenfield warned: "It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations. We know that the human brain is exquisitely sensitive to the outside world."

Full article here.

This woman has just said all the things I've been thinking about these sites for the last 4 or so years...

Vile.Vile. Vile. Vile. Vile. Vile. etc.

Who seriously fancies this man?

A Message for Obama

“What do you want to say to Obama, now that he’s about to become President of the US? A greeting? A warning? Some sage (or silly) advice? An idea? Hold up your message to the camera and tell the world what you’d like to tell him.” — A message for Obama.

The Guardian set up a group on Flickr called A Message for Obama with the above message. If you get the chance to look through them, it's really interesting - especially some of the comments. There are a few bewilderingly controversial ones in there too...

World of Warcraft mentalist

This man clearly lost some marbles some time ago:

"For my keys to send to all instances of WoW on my 11 computers, I use Octopus 1.3.2. Maximizer in Octopus allows me to start up all WoW instances at the same time or any individual instance such as if a WoW instance has crashed. It also allows me to shutdown all of the computers at the same time."

<-----This guy springs to mind, and to quote the old guy at the chicken farm in Napoleon Dynamite: "Son, I have no idea what you just said." AND if I could find her, he'd be getting a 'Greta' right now.

Do you know what makes it worse too? The super-positive comments after the article! "I wish you were my dad!!11". It's a sad world we live in...

ID cards plan 'still on track'

The Home Office today denied that it was performing a "complete roll-back on identity cards by restricting trials to workers at just two airports.

Airside workers at all UK airports were due to be issued with ID cards from the second half of 2009 under the Home Office's delivery plan, which was published in March.

But Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is now expected to confirm that there will be an 18-month pilot scheme at just two airports – London City and Manchester.

Her decision follows opposition from the Unite union, which argues that ID cards require fewer checks than existing security measures. The unions also argue that staff would have to pay £30 for a card to do their jobs – although cards would be free of charge during the pilot scheme.

Phil Booth of the NO2ID campaign said: "We are seeing a rather transparent attempt, I think, to save some ministerial face.

"The unions and the industry are clearly opposed to this and if the government were to try to force this on the 200,000 airside workers they had previously claimed, then they would find themselves either in court or facing industrial actions," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He added that the pilot scheme represented a "complete roll-back" from the government's original intention.

Non-EU foreign nationals who are students or marriage visa holders will be issued with ID cards later this month.

The Home Office's delivery plan, published on March 6, then states that: "From 2009, the scheme will be extended to UK citizens. The first ID cards will be issued to people working in specific sensitive roles or locations where verification of identity will enhance the protection of the public. This will start in the second half of 2009, with the issuing of identity cards to those working airside in the country's airports."

The Home Office said that the second half of 2009 would mark "the start of the roll-out" and that it was "still on track in that way".

Later today, the home secretary is expected to unveil plans for private firms, shops and the Royal Mail to bid for contracts to fingerprint millions of people for the new identity cards.

The government is aiming to contract out the task of gathering biometric data for new passports and ID to the private sector, according to the Daily Mail.

Applicants will have all 10 fingerprints and their faces scanned. The data will then be passed to the Identity and Passport Service to be stored on the new, computerised national identity register.

A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that the government wanted to create a network of "convenient outlets" where people could easily go to complete the application procedures for the biometric documents.

Smith, who is delivering a keynote speech on ID cards later today, is also expected to disclose that the cost of the scheme - previously estimated at £4.5bn - is now closer to £5bn.

Booth warned that private companies were unlikely to be interested in bidding for contracts which would be scrapped if Labour loses the next general election.

Full story here.

So Obama made it...

I'm very cynical and generally believe that all politicians are w*#kers, so please sir, prove me wrong.

Still, as everyone has pointed out: the better of two evils.

Read/watch his speech here.

Prince of Persia and the Jake Gyllenhaal mystery

This game looks amazing and I can't wait to play it on the XBox 360. But that's not what I'm posting about. I'm confused. The picture above shows a fairly slender man with quite well-built arms and legs, right? So how did Jake Gyllenhaal end up making the following transformation for the up-and-coming Prince of Persia movie?

All I can say is 'shudder'. A bad shudder that is.

Lone Demos

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act made it illegal to demonstrate anywhere near Parliament without official police permission, so if you feel strongly about this then become part of the monthly MASS LONE DEMONSTRATIONS to highlight the danger and stupidity of having this law in a democracy.

You don't have to demonstrate AGAINST anything - you can demonstrate FOR things too - Christmas leave to be for the mandatory 12 days, the right to wear odd socks and purchase them singly, for the Government to give more money to provide clean water in the 3rd world, the right to have free weekly therapy on the NHS... whatever.. Taking part in this is 100% LEGAL and peaceful - you're not going to get into any trouble providing you apply to demonstrate using the correct form.

Some of my favourites:

Chinese Olympics + Tibetan Torture = Coca-Cola Profits

San Francisco: Responding to a question about Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the Olympic Torch Relay, Mr. Isdell, CEO of Coca-Cola, defended the sponsorship by referring to the Olympic Torch as a symbol of hope and openness.

Banner in Sydney, Australia

Ongoing protests around the Olympics Torch Relay to highlight China's occupation of Tibet is a refreshing reminder that no amount of "feel good" advertising and "brand" associations can whitewash the reality - that the Chinese government suppresses human rights in Tibet.

China is not the first government that has attempted to use the Olympic Games to gain credibility from a global audience. In 1936, the Olympic Games were held in Nazi Germany, and the Nazis had the same goal - to extract credibility from the world community. For Coca-Cola, however, the Olympic Games and the Torch Relay provide a tremendous marketing opportunity, associating its brand with the feel good games that has arguably the largest audience in the world. Coca-Cola has reportedly invested more that US$100 million into the Games. The promise of financial returns from the sponsorship are too great for any human rights or environmental concerns to put a damper on their plans.

Actual Coca-Cola Advertisement with Monks

While China hopes to benefit politically by hosting the Olympic Games, Coca-Cola aspires to profit financially from the Olympic Games. Coca-Cola, it seems, will sponsor just about anything, as long as it sees potential profits.

The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games were used by the Nazis to paint a picture of Germany as a peaceful and tolerant Germany, even though the persecution of Jews, Romas and others deemed undesirable by the state in Germany had already started. The first permanent Nazi concentration camp had opened in Dachau in 1933 - three years prior to the Olympics - and Jews were not allowed to participate in the Games. Coca-Cola was a primary sponsor of the 1936 Games. And the first modern day Olympic Torch Relay was initiated in Berlin in 1936, and Coca-Cola was its sponsor at that time too.

While the magnitude of horror inflicted by Nazi Germany is unsurpassed and we hesitate to make comparisons with China's oppression in Tibet, one must raise serious concerns about corporate sponsorships that do not take human rights concerns into account, as was and is the case with the Coca-Cola company.

In fact, Coca-Cola's involvement in Nazi Germany went further. While the Coca-Cola company was supplying Coke to Allied soldiers on the war front, its German counterpart, Coca-Cola GmbH, was busy selling Coca-Cola to Germans. When Coca-Cola GmbH could no longer receive the syrup from the US after the US entered the war in 1941, it developed a drink using ingredients available in Nazi Germany called Fanta. It seems that Coca-Cola had hedged its bets. If the Allies won, Coca-Cola would rule the world and if the Nazis won, Fanta would.

Olympic Torch Run Arrives in Berlin, 1936

To be fair, Coca-Cola was not the only company to hedge its bets during World War II. But the extent to which companies will go to ensure future markets and profits, however unethical, is disturbing. And Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the Olympic Torch Run and the Beijing Games is just that - unethical and devoid of morality. It makes no difference whether Tibetans are murdered, tortured or intimidated by the Chinese government. Its mandate is to increase its sales in China, and it will do nothing to risk losing access to these emerging markets, particularly at a time when its sales in the US are declining as consumers become more health savvy.

The current protests around the Olympic Torch Relay are a perfect moment to scrutinize the role that corporations play in this day and age of globalization and send a clear message to the corporations that human rights must come before profits. On the one hand, there is increased talk of Corporate Social Responsibility - which is corporation's response to globalization - in which Coca-Cola figures prominently. Yet, when a pressing issue such as Tibet comes to the fore, Coca-Cola chooses to remain silent and endorse the Games for financial reasons, absurdly citing "openness" and "hope" to defend their involvement.

On March 20, 2008, over 150 Tibet support groups from around the world penned a letter to the Coca-Cola company labeling its sponsorship of the Games "tasteless" and asking it to ensure that the Olympic Torch does not go through Tibet.

If Coca-Cola is serious about being a good corporate citizen and even an average student of history, it must end its sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics to send a strong message that financial profits are secondary to human rights. Until then, we would encourage all torchbearers to cease being ambassadors for a company that is blind to everything except profits. And encourage consumers to think before they drink Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola's sponsorship, frankly speaking, is simply not Olympic in spirit.

Amit Srivastava is the Director of India Resource Center, an international campaigning organization based in San Francisco, USA.

India Resource Center works to support movements against corporate globalization in India, as part of a project of Global Resistance. Global Resistance works to strengthen the movement against corporate globalization by supporting and linking local, grassroots struggles against globalization around the world. Their goal is to ensure that those most impacted by globalization are engaged in and at the forefront of the movement against corporate globalization.

This is an old article but it's a good example of the kind of press IRC are producing. You can take action and read more here.

Michael O'Leary. Tw*t.

Living Icons of the UK

At the end of last year, BBC TV's Culture Show asked people living in the UK to vote for the UK's Greatest Living Icon. The rules of the poll? Well, to be eligible, the person nominated had to be alive; they had to have been born in the UK or be currently living in the UK; and they had to have made 'an impact on British cultural life'. We, the voting public, were also asked 'will we still be thinking about them in 10 years time?'

And the winner is... It should come as little surprise, then, that the top place in the poll went to Sir David Attenborough. Now 80 years old, he has a varied and long history in broadcasting. During his time as controller of the BBC in the 1960s, he introduced colour to the UK's television sets. He's long been a campaigner on environmental issues - many years before it was considered trendy to support such causes - and his recent BBC series Planet Earth has been watched by an estimated 500 million people worldwide. In 2008, the David Attenborough Studio will open in his honour at the Natural History Museum, ensuring that there will be a permanent reminder to keep us thinking of him 10 years into the future and beyond.

TOP 10 LIVING ICONS

1. Sir David Attenborough
2. Morrissey
3. Sir Paul McCartney
4. David Bowie
5. Sir Michael Caine
6. Stephen Fry
7. Kate Bush
8. Alan Bennett
9. Kate Moss
10. Dame Vivienne Westwood

I've left out most of this article because it was far too long, but I'd recommend reading it. If only for the bizarre write-ups for each celebrity... Kate Moss? 'A Nation of Animal Lovers'? What about her love for fur then?

Still, Sir David should be up there... they at least got that right.

See the full article here.

Amnesty appeal

"This autumn the Government wants to push through a Bill allowing police to lock people up for 42 days without charge if they are suspected of a terrorism-related offence. When the Counter-Terrorism Bill comes back to the House of Commons, your MP will have a chance to help defeat it: the Bill only passed by nine votes last time, so it will be close.

Allowing police to lock people up for a month-and-a-half without charge will undermine basic human rights to which everyone in the UK is entitled. It will also damage community relations, make intelligence gathering more difficult and possibly ruin the lives of innocent people. This Bill needlessly sacrifices important civil liberties but gains nothing in the way of security.

The only way to convince MPs to vote against 42 days is to show them how many of their constituents are against this unnecessary and counter-productive piece of legislation."

Sign the petition here.

Student 'antics'

Working for a University you get used to seeing them everywhere, all looking the same, trying to be 'zany', buying their posters, listening to their iPods and talking about how much of a student they are. "Oh that is such a student thing to do!", "I'm gonna go home and watch Tellytubbies because I'm such a student"... They pop their collars as if to protect themselves from the working class employees. But what really takes the biscuit for me is students thinking that it's okay to wear pajamas around campus, or even to the shops. NO! It's not okay, you look like a tw*t and I don't want to see your 'crazy' pajamas.

It's a man's world

"After Spaced I naively expected a slew of parts where I could be a goof," says Hynes, "but people don't write goof roles for women. You're expected to be 'the girl' with 'the hair' [I've never seen such aggressive air quotes] standing with your hand on your hip going, 'You guys!' I have done those roles, but I find it really hard. Sometimes every single fibre of my being is screaming out, 'When do I get to trip over? When do I get my laugh?' But what can you do, apart from write your own stuff?"

The obvious question is, why didn't she write her own stuff? "There's been a few things that I've started," she says, "and they've meandered, or I've lost my nerve. It's hard to organise yourself when you have small children. The months go by and you realise you haven't had time to have a shower, let alone write."

It baffles me that she's been left behind where the others (Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost) have all gone on to become pretty huge... She's awesome!

The Vegan Organic Network

My Granddad still has one of the best gardens I've ever seen and has passed on an obsession: since I was able to walk I've loved helping plants to grow. It is still perhaps the simplest and greatest of joys. The most inspiring and wise people I've ever met have all shared this passion and this year has been just incredible in terms of this. I've decided to write about each person and associated event/s one by one...




















In keeping with permaculture principles, our very own local hero is Graham Cole. Jamie and I had an instant affinity with Graham when we first met him at our local seed swap three years ago: he was vegan and liked to grow veg organically/permaculturally (is that a word?!). Every year we end up talking to him for longer and longer! This year we visited him and his equally lovely partner Diane at their home, where Graham works as a gardener, growing fruit and veg on a HUGE estate. He does all this vegan organically, which is even more amazing considering he works for a Lord and Lady, who in all likeliness (the Class War in me would say) could be right up their pampered arses about such things.

The Vegan Organic Network are the most important progression for an ethical future - and especially for any vegan who buys an organic vegbox. There's not many options for a combination of the two, despite it being obvious as it's the natural way of things anyway. If crop rotation and permaculture principles of dealing with pest problems are applied instead of chemicals, then why oh why do organic and biodynamic farms use manure and the slaughterhouse remains of animals to achieve fertility??? Veganic growing, by contrast, is the most natural and sustainable way. Most vegans already know that a plant based diet, as well as being more ethical, is far more sustainable in terms of land use. Far too much arable land (as well as food and water!) is used to keep animals for meat production. The same amount of land could be used to feed thousands more people, as well as grow green manure.

We visited Graham and Diane's twice this summer and also went to a talk Graham did on Vegan Organics at a local cafe. At each of these events Graham spent a little bit of time speaking about green manures. Green manures are plants that can be introduced as a part of the crop rotation cycle, to improve the soil's structure and fertility naturally. This is as opposed to churning up the growing beds (either by breaking your own back digging or relying on fuel-driven machinery) and upsetting the delicate life forms which have a symbiotic relationship with the soil, causing poor soil health, nutrient deficiencies and the false need to use animal products or byproducts to correct all of this. Mulching and using composted matter are other ways of achieving fertility. But on a large scale, and with recent food crises in mind, green manures are by far the most efficient.

So this year we've experimented with a small patch of green manure, to save bare soil and consequent erosion, in between sowings. We've also made our own fertiliser to Graham's recipe (just nettles and water - this makes a concentrate which you can then dilute. Warning: this can be extremely stinky!) and used it to help our ailing apple trees, which are in pots (and ailing no more I'm glad to say!) The two strawberry plants we bought from Graham in Spring have now multiplied to twelve, through sustained summer-runner-staking, and finally, we eventually got around to joining the VON!!

Thanks to Graham for all the help and advice, food, book loans, the goji plant (I tried all Spring to grow one from seed with bagel luck!) and for sharing his own garden with us, giving us the chance to see all this theory in action.

Graham Cole is a Trustee for the Vegan Organic Network.
Please visit their website, where you will find more information and the latest news, as well as downloadable pdf files on a range of related topics. There is also an online subscription facility (£16 for the year, concessions and family membership options available). Aside from donating to a worthy cause in need of support, you will also then be invited to various VON community events, as well as the lucky recipient of "Growing Green" magazine four times a year, to which you can contribute to yourself!

Btw: the vegan society also has a good page on vegan organic growing here.

Stockholm Syndrome

I think that this is the biggest threat to our health nowadays as people show an alarming loyalty to the the state that holds them captive. As it is a self preserving response to identify with that which holds an abusive power over them, we can see why people won't give up their cheap flights... cars... or even their shitty jobs. They invent justification for their submissive behaviour and defend consumerist society, even though it has led to greater dissatisfaction and physical and mental illness due to the unnecessary complications of modern life. We need to simplify. And survive.

There is no hope...

...When budget airline chief executive Michael O'Leary is still this deluded:

"Higher oil prices won't end low-fare air travel, it just increases the attraction of Ryanair's guaranteed lowest fares, as consumers become more price sensitive and switch away from high fare/fuel surcharging airlines like BA.

"Higher oil prices will speed up the decline of high-fare shorthaul travel this winter as many European airlines consolidate or go bust.

"The airline industry is cyclical, and this downturn will provide enormous opportunities for strong, well financed airlines, such as Ryanair to grow."

L. Ron Hubbard - a hubbard?

A thought just occurred to me. In my family the word 'hubbard' has been assigned to fill the vocabulary void to refer to a person who intervenes in a situation with the intention to help someone, when in fact help isn't needed and often that action will make a situation worse. I can't help but feel like L. Ron's (Elrond?) attempts to improve the condition of the human spirit (or Thetan), is his way of living up to his namesake. "We don't need your help, you hubbard! I was doing much better before - when I had more money!"

Note: You can also use this word as a verb, e.g. "please stop hubbarding!" or "I hope you don't mind but I hubbarded your phone over there".

This Modern Love

There's definitely something unique about my generation's attitudes towards relationships and family pursuits (or lack thereof). The 'Noughties' seems to be gearing towards the preservation of the individual. I for one am guilty of this. We're all fucked up and bitter before we've even started and if we're not, we're deeply rooted in our own little ways and are sure as hell not going to let anyone get in the way of that. I mean, who really wants to suffer the difficulties of keeping another person happy? Not to say that no one cares about one another. To the contrary. We're all hopeless romantics, firm fans of Wes Anderson movies, Zach Braff sensitivities and Spaced-style platonic relationships that might be something more. That said, we wouldn't know true love if it walked up to us and introduced itself, and will almost certainly sabotage the whole thing by convincing ourselves that it wasn't working. In fact 'true love' terrifies us because unless we can be certain that it is, it could result in an embarrassing blow to our pride when it falls down around us leaving us feeling vulnerable and laid bare. We know that we are truly unique and yet we still hold out for a partner just like us. Someone who likes the same obscure German expressionist movies, enjoys a bit of jazz, who hates going to the pub, doesn't smoke, likes taking walks in the rain etc. Everyone else is just... well... a disappointment.

The onslaught of post-breakup bitterness and the resulting crushes on the only men that seem nice in the world

But why are they so old?

Sir David Attenborough

Knighted for his outstanding contribution to British television and his efforts in the conservation and documention of the natural world, Sir David Attenborough has long been a hero of mine. He's modest about his knowledge and success and is one of the few remaining 'gentlemen' of our time. He also uses the word 'immense' a highly unprecedented number of times.

I think I might be trapped in the wrong century. I say: bring back men in suits and hats and comb overs. And yes, I'm a feminist, but by all means: hold that door open for me, pull out my chair and lend me your coat.

___________________________________________________

Sir Ian McKellen

Perhaps I find Knighthoods a turn on. Perhaps it's an ill-fated move to have a crush on a gay man who was born in 1939. All I know is that he looks good as a wizard and has an honest, kindly look about him.

It's most unfortunate that X-Men 3 reduced the commanding character 'Magneto' to nothing more than a gang leader with no more presence than 'Shredder' from Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Coincedentally his 'gang' strongly resembled 'Beebop' and 'Rocksteady' - when will Hollywood learn that just because you're 'bad', doesn't mean you have black hair, a piercing and/or a leather coat? I digress... Yes. Sir Ian McKellen is good.

If you wanna be my lover... gotta be born no later than 1940 and have a knighthood.