The war in Syria has driven over 10 million people from their homes. Around 4 million have left Syria, of whole 400,000 are among 1-1.5 million refugees in Europe. Evidence suggests that working age migrants benefit their host countries, but…
Monthly Archives: September 2015
Lessons from Syria 1: Refugee crisis or refugee opportunity
Tagged with: Angel Gurria, Carlos Vargas-Silva, economics, European migrant crisis, European refugee crisis, European Union, Jack Goldstone, Migration, OECD, refugees, Syrian Civil War
Posted in Current affairs
Posted in Current affairs
Antivax
“Why on earth not?” Jenna asked me. I love that question. I drained my Starbucks latte so I could give the subject my full attention. “Vaccines are dangerous. When I have kids, I’m not letting that needle near them. Just…
Arguing with antivaxers on the Huffington Post
I wanted to understand antivaxer arguments, so I debated them on the Huffington Post. They repeatedly made assertions linked to articles that didn’t support them. When I challenged their assertions, they did not engage with discussion on them. Quackery and…
Tagged with: antivax, debate, Lucy Gaskin, Measles, Medicine, misinformation, Science
Posted in Wednesday Pontification
Posted in Wednesday Pontification
Wisdom of the Tiger
There was a tiger ahead of me. Between eighty-three and eighty-nine metres. I didn’t know how I recognised her as female, any more than I knew how I measured the distance. I was still learning my new self. Nor did…
Last chance to get Spookmoth for free
Spookmoth giveaway ends 24h from now, after which it will go up to the unholy price of 99c or equivalent. Until then, Spookmoth is available from the following Kindle stores: US UK DE FR ES IT NL JP BR CA…
Posted in Giveaway, Publishing news
Fiction Review: Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford
‘It’s a funny thing that people are always quite ready to admit it if they’ve no talent for drawing or music, whereas everyone imagines that they themselves are capable of true love, which is a talent like any other, only…
Inspirations: Weaponising the Cuddle Chemical
Oxytocin is a hormone that induces trust. It is one of the maguffins in my short story, Spookmoth. Oxytocin is involved in the bonding between intimate partners and larger collaborative groups. Increased group loyalty can be at the expense of…
Tagged with: Markus Heinrichs, Medicine, Oxytocin, Paul Zak, Science, science fiction, Spookmoth, Trust
Posted in Inspirations, Wednesday Pontification
Posted in Inspirations, Wednesday Pontification
Giveaway: Spookmoth
The kindle edition of Spookmoth can be downloaded for free from Amazon until Saturday: US UK DE FR ES IT NL JP BR CA MX AU IN Industrial spying was never one of Carl McTeague’s aspirations but with the Pacific…
Tagged with: Apocalyptic, Oxytocin, science fiction, short story, Spookmoth
Posted in Giveaway, Publishing news
Posted in Giveaway, Publishing news
Politics in the Drawing Room
Lady Redesdale followed Lady Astor into the drawing room. “He’s a funny little man, I’ll grant you that”, she said. “Herr Hitler is a dear little man” Lady Astor had lived in England long enough to speak the words of…
Greater Minds: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie rejects censorship
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write lecture at the 2015 PEN World Voices festival. She spoke about self-censorship enforced by peer pressure. The festival saw controversy over whether to give a freedom of speech award to…
Tagged with: Censorship, Charlie Hebdo, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Freedom of speech, PEN World Voices
Posted in Greater minds
Posted in Greater minds
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Cockburn's Eclectics 