Equal Opportunities Monitoring...

"Is your gender identity different from your birth sex?"

Gender, identity and sex all in one question. Is it not enough to keep Biology and also Sociology departments busy researching and discussing for centuries!?

"Chillo È Nu Buono Guaglione" ... I can't stop singing it in my head ...

NIMA: Not In My Anthem!

Cristina Aguilera has recently sung the national anthem at the Superbowl of American football in the USA. She freely re-interpreted a few words which cost her boooos from the audit.

Jumping across the pond to the older Anglosaxon and multi-cultural country, the UK, the prime minister David Cameron has recently downplayed the role of multiculturalism in his political agenda. Is this to minimise the probability of mistakes in the event a non-British native sings the national anthem in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London!? Perhaps a new acronym, short words which are dear to Anglosaxons, could effectively summarise this: NIMA which stands for Not in My Anthem!

middle class, neuro, normality, priors, stereotypes

You can't leave your bikes in the hall

You have to come up with 3 paperibus

Homosexuals are sick

Eat proteins and carbohydrates separately

Age 30 is a turning point in one's life

Being feminine is a female trait and being masculine is a male one

Foreigners cannot vote

The Queen is the head of the Army

The Earth is flat

Priest cannot marry

You must dress appropriately

Never ask for the salary

Causation rather than correlation

Sun spins around the earth

Never ask a woman her age

Men appear dirty and oveconfident while women clean and more introverse

Too few women in science

I know because I have experience

As a whole, stereotypes sound like forecast errors in one's head which are "path-dependent" (wusthat!?) and spread in various ways. Can you spot them? Nice attempt in research on generosity. Do they evolve over time?

Big Beng Bercow!

John Bercow is a member of Parliament in the UK as well as the Speaker of the House of Commons. I only learnt yesterday that his wife is also in politics.

Have not figured yet how I learn this? Sally Bercow has in an interview given a solid contribution to the quality of the public debate in the UK by suggesting that 'Becoming Speaker has turned my husband into a sex symbol' . Is this introspection or a proposition to be tested with solid empirical evidence!? I would be intrigued to learn whether/how this may inform public policy...

greek and roman

were old greeks freaks?

was Homer a homer!?

was a roman a no man?

was Martial impartial?

About one million peaceful protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square!

And perhaps about one day before the regime in Egypt is over?

The Industrial Revolution, my shirt and woolen jumper

While ironing a shirt for an opera show tonight, thoughts about fashion came to my mind. After all, I live in the country that gave birth to the Industrial Revolution and without a technological boom, e.g. the spinning jenny or the power loom, in the 18th-19th century, perhaps I would not wear a nice shirt and woolen jumper today (see innovations in textile manufacturing in Wikipedia for an inspiring diagram of such processes).

Back in the 21st century, the technology seems to have evolved in several directions: evidence suggests that fashion consciousness may affect lifestyle and the unstoppable fashion addict may find some relief by testing his/her ability online !

TBC1 on innovation in chemicals and the search for a dry cleaner in Central London!

TBC2 on the bifurcation point in history between lycra and tweed...