Abstract: Why women can run government departments but can't drive taxis...
When I heard the announcement of the new provincial premiers I thought immediately of Athens. You see 44% of athletes taking part in this year's Summer Olympics will be women. This is not surprising seeing there are so many of them around - women, that is, not athletes. Similarly, 44% of South African provincial premiers are women.
Again, statistically speaking this shouldn't be all that startling given the large number of women there are in this country. And yet the media's commentators seemed genuinely shocked that so many women had "made it". It was as if a national soccer coach had just trawled through the crowd and picked people at random to play for his side on the day of a World Cup final.
Perhaps this has something to do with another statistic: it's
Women are better on top
The unwelcome eye of journalism
Abstract: There's been a nasty shift in South African journalism...
Swimming upstream is a challenging endeavour - ask any salmon - but when the end task is a noble one, even if death - as in the case of the Pacific salmon - follows shortly thereafter, it can be argued that it's worth it. However, fighting against a tide of tabloid journalism has left science journalists wondering if it isn't easier to completely change species.
Anyone entrusted with trying to get more science and critical thinking into the media, will be familiar with the edict of most editors that their readers, viewers or listeners 'don't have an appetite for science'. This is of course utterly ridiculous because we are all consumers of science; there isn't a single element to our lives, and how we live it, that isn't examined or improved on by science.
But there's
Brief moment, BIG money
Abstract: The value of a human depends on whether or not they play football...
How do you value a human being? Think of your daily commute to work: How often do you arrive at a traffic intersection and see a beggar asking for money? What is your reaction? Although you have spare change in your car, do you invariably keep it to yourself; your decision possibly shaped by the belief that the beggar's value is somehow lower than yours?
What if, in the context of others, roles were reversed and your wealth was regarded spare change, your value considered lower? Furthermore, what if these 'others' provided nothing more than a mere distraction? Here's the best part: what if you were helping finance their exorbitant wealth for this mere distraction? Confused? I'm talking about the likes of Gareth Bale.
If the name isn't familiar, here's some
How big a sucker are you?
Abstract: Think you can spot pseudoscience? Then take the test...
Craniosacral therapy is at the very frontier of a branch of neurology that hopes to find cures for many of the debilitating neuromuscular diseases that still challenge medicine; including Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and multiple sclerosis.
Except it's not. It's actually a non-scientific, so-called 'alternative' form of 'healing' that believes that gently massaging the skull and the sacrum - the large triangular bone at the base of the spine - will align harmony within the body. It'll make you feel good - as any good massage would - but it can't cure you of any neuromuscular disease. The proof is in its own claims: "[it] works with the whole person and changes may (my italics) occur in body, mind and spirit during and after sessions".
And there's that key phrase: 'mind, body and spirit' -
Handy lessons from North Korea
Abstract: What we can learn from North Korea about populace control...
Given the smattering of rather bizarre official reports that emerge from North Korea, and the fact that they're invariably distorted in an attempt to protect it as the world's most secretive state, it's hard to imagine that the country could teach us anything. However, if there's one thing it's hit squarely on the head, it's how to keep its people in place; something I'm sure most governments wish they could get right.
If you'd like to try something a little weird but not that difficult, take a couple of minutes one day to pop into your local travel agent and tell them you feel you deserve a holiday, and that you were thinking of Pyongyang. The chances are they'd discourage you and suggest somewhere a little more upbeat; say Siberia. If I were
Coning? Are you a barbarian?
Abstract: Ever thought of candling to remove 'negative energy'. Then you need a smack to the head. Or to read this...
Few things catch my eye in store windows nowadays. Blame it on old age and my perfunctory disregard for all things fashionable. But not so long ago I did a double take when walking past a health shop near my apartment in London. In the window was a picture of a woman lying on her side with a candle sticking out of her ear. It was an advert for a procedure they offered called coning, and which it claimed could cure all manner of ills. I thought it looked rather medieval, even barbaric.
That's because it is, and modern science can prove it.
Coning, sometimes called 'ear candling' or 'auricular candling' (to try and sound like a proper medical procedure), involves sticking a candle
Why politicians need a whispering slave
Abstract: What modern political leaders could learn from the ancient Romans.
As the world waited with baited breath as North and South Korea did the 21st Century equivalent of rattling sabres, I imagined North Korean leader Kim Jong-un perched on a throne, stroking a furry white cat on his lap, whilst he grinned and jabbed a podgy finger at little plastic missiles on a large map of the world. Grouped around him were his trusty generals, continually bowing and scraping the floor, shiny medals littering their chests and beads of perspiration glistening on their furrowed, worried brows. And I thought, "Boy, that man needs a whispering slave".
In ancient Rome there was a very special tribute that was accorded to a victorious general. It was called the Roman Triumph. It was a lavish parade designed to honour Rome, but where the general was the
Should editors be our moral arbiters?
Abstract: Are TV news editors really qualified to determine what we watch?
On 20th October 2011 Muammar Gaddafi was captured by rebel soldiers, taunted, beaten and shot. His body was then publicly displayed and abused. You will remember it because it was shown on TV. It savaged some of the fundamental moral guidelines of broadcasting, but was considered justified for reasons that are dubious. It deserves re-examining now because South Africa is, unfortunately, being increasingly riddled with such 'Gaddafi' moments.
Shortly after the murder of Gaddafi I had the opportunity to challenge a professor of journalism and one of the UK's most respected authorities on issues around morality in the media why the local TV stations aired footage of his capture. I asked him who makes the decision whether or not I, as a viewer, should witness Gaddafi's obvious distress. He missed the broader philosophical
The volatile chemistry of the business brain
Abstract: Think your staff think rationally? Think again. They're held hostage to chemistry...
It's alluring to believe that we are the masters of our thinking, especially in a business environment; but hidden away in bits and pieces of our bodies are chemicals and bursts of electrical activity that hold our reasoning hostage.
Towards the end of 2011 when Britain was still immersed in navel-gazing over the riots that had left its capital in flames, I was attached to the science desk of the Financial Times in London. One day I approached the editor with an idea that there were similarities between mob behaviour and the actions of market traders. He seemed bemused that I should even suggest that the responsible and calculative thinking that underpinned the world's financial capital could in any way mirror that of the rampant youths who had trashed and burned
Piggy, and the death of journalism
Abstract: Look to Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' for the tragic future of journalism...
You should keep this magazine; and one day in the not-too-distant future show it to your grandchildren or great-grandchildren and explain to them how in the old days you used to pay money to read something written by people called 'journalists'. They'll be amazed and surprised, even laugh at how bizarre such a notion should be.
I'll be long gone by then, my final days spent as a dejected pauper, strapped to a gurney, thrashing around and frothing at the mouth, shouting between the spittle about how democracy killed a discipline and an art form, and steered humanity towards idiocy.
If you have a sneaking suspicion where I'm going with this, I'd hazard a guess you've read William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies'. Like Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', it endures as one