April 2012
127 posts
“By the time I started university in 1997, I hadn’t had a period for a year. I was so tired that most nights I was in bed by 9pm, and my lack of energy made studying a real struggle. I was expected to get a first or 2.1, but got a 2.2. When I woke up in the night drenched in sweat, I assumed it was tension.”
—Weekend experience: I went through the menopause at 18
“Most of the 20th century people have been trying to treat homosexuals - from psychoanalysis, oestrogen therapy, electric shock and aversion therapy. This is the latest round is much more spiritually-based and has been going for at least 25 years in the US and, increasingly, here. It seems to be a mixture of a feeling that the person is “wounded” - they talk about emotional woundedness in their stuff. That seems to be old psychoanalytical theory about a distant father and an overbearing mother, stuff that’s been already shown to be not associated with sexuality, but they [campaigners] keep on this line.”
—Professor Michael King on the scientific support cited by anti-gay campaigners for their belief in the power of “therapy” to change the sexual orientation of gay people
Guardian Comment: Black mathematicians: the kind of problems they wish didn't need solving →
guardiancomment.tumblr.com
Check out Jonathan Farley – a professor of mathematics who has received death threats from the KKK and was once wrongly detained on suspicion of being a bank robber – writing on racism in academia.
John Derbyshire, a columnist for the National Review, wrote an essay last week…
“Despite the suspension of hostilities by the regime, activists report that there is no evidence of the withdrawal of heavy machinery and troops in any of the provinces. The complete withdrawal of heavy machinery (including artillery and tanks) and troops from residential areas is a ceasefire term.”
— Description of the situation in Syria this morning from Avaaz
