Новости за 10.03.2017

Teaching young offenders about sex and relationships. shutterstock

Given the lack of quality sex and relationship education in British schools, and that sexual and reproductive health has traditionally been seen as the domain of females, it’s no wonder that the UK has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in Western Europe.

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An Oxfordshire coroner recently announced that George Michael died of natural causes. The post-mortem examination revealed that the singer suffered from a number of health problems, including dilated cardiomyopathy.

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Recent political events have turned the world upside down. The UK voting for Brexit and the US electing Donald Trump as president were unthinkable 18 months ago. In fact, they’re so extraordinary that some have questioned whether they might not be an indication that we’re actually living in some kind of computer simulation or alien experiment.

The beautiful subtropical island chain of Okinawa is officially Japan’s 47th prefecture, but it’s also home to thousands of US marines. Many are stationed at Futenma Airbase, which some have called “the world’s most dangerous [military] base” for its location in the middle of a city. Debates over the future of the base have been rumbling for decades but, despite the decision to relocate the facility, decisive action to resolve the situation is so far not forthcoming.

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Fake news is not news – that is, it is not in fact news, and the matter of fake news is not a recent revelation. But while fake news is a thorny problem that needs addressing in its own right, it is part of an even bigger issue too. Discourse –- the process by which humanity collectively comes to an understanding of itself, and so shapes its own future –- is fundamentally broken.

Basque children fleeing the Spanish Civil War arriving in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1937. Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

The UK government has squashed an attempt by MPs to restart a scheme which offered hope and protection to unaccompanied child refugees, that was shut down in February.

A fair deal? Shutterstock

Bill Gates has stated in an interview that robots who take human jobs should pay taxes. This has some obvious attractions. Not only, as Gates says, will we be able to spend the money to finance jobs for which humans are particularly suited, such as caring for children or the elderly, but robots are also unlikely to complain about tax levels, they don’t use services financed by tax revenue such as education or the health services and they are most unlikely to salt away income and assets in a tax haven. Читать дальше...

A tax called national insurance has become the centre of a row within Britain’s ruling Conservative Party. The recent budget announced a rise in the tax for the self-employed (from 9% to 11% on profits above £8,060 – still less than the 12% paid by employees). But a number of Conservative MPs have strongly criticised the announcement, forcing the prime minister to delay any changes until autumn.

The human brain is not good at remembering more than a few things at a time. Christopher/Flickr, CC BY-SA

We would all like to boost our cognitive ability beyond the limits set by Mother Nature. So it’s no wonder that brain-training programmes – which typically focus on training our working memory – are a multibillion-dollar industry. But can this kind of training really make us smarter?

It has been 18 months since Jeremy Corbyn was first elected as leader of the Labour party, promising “a new kind of politics”. In September 2015, he pledged to build on the enthusiasm generated among his supporters during a leadership contest that saw him start as rank outsider before sweeping to victory on a left-wing wave.

Yes, but it wasn't Donald Trump's doing. Twitter

Since almost immediately after his inauguration as 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump has been claiming credit for what he sees as a miraculous recovery in the nation’s economy. Barely a day goes by without a tweet trumpeting a new jobs deal or the strength of the US stockmarket.

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Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) arrived in Sunnydale – and on our screens – 20 years ago. She was a teenage girl with supernatural gifts unwillingly “chosen” to slay vampires, demons and monsters in all guises. Sunnydale had all the outward appearance of a typical southern Californian town of the American Dream. But in fact, it was Hellmouth, a crack between earth and the dimensions of hell, and thus a source of power for all... Читать дальше...

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Since the onset of austerity in 2010, the estimated number of people sleeping rough in England has more than doubled, from 1,768 in 2010, to 4,134 in 2016. As the number of homeless people increases, while support services and hostels are diminishing, rough sleepers are becoming ever more visible in British cities.

There are some great uses. Shutterstock

Despite the fact that mathematics is often described as the underpinning science, it is often not given enough credit when scientific discoveries are presented. But the contribution of mathematics and statistics is essential and has transformed entire areas of research – many discoveries would not have been possible without it. In fact, as a mathematician, I have contributed to scientific discoveries and provided solutions to problems that biology was yet to solve. Читать дальше...

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It’s not unusual to hear of doctors being struck off for making sexual advances to their patients, but it’s not that often you hear about patients making sexual advances to their doctor – yet it does happen. And when it does, patients need to take some moral responsibility for their actions.