iblog

Lottie: Rory Bremner has admitted that he once phoned Margaret Beckett and, fooling her into thinking he was Gordon Brown, managed to extract detailed party secrets from her.

Although this is rather a serious moral issue, it’s also surprising that Bremner and his fellow impressionists haven’t yet been snapped up by intelligence services. Imagine the stuff you could find out about any political leader just by being able to impersonate their PA or spouse.

Most of us are safe from this kind of trickery because it’s likely our friends and enemies can only manage a squeaky voice or bad Irish accent to disguise themselves on the phone, but if you’re a mate of Bremners; be careful…

Caroline: As a child did you love Toad of Toad Hall in Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows? And if so did you realise that Toad had an important moral message to impart? It has been revealed in documents being shown in the Bodleian this week for World Book Day, that Grahame created Toad as a kind of caveat for his wayward seven year old son Alastair. At the time he was already getting the wrong kind of attention from figures of authority and his father invented Toad to try to teach him right from wrong. The stories were sent in letter form to Alastair during the summer of 1907 when he was on holiday with his nanny in Littlehampton. Sadly he developed into a troubled teengaer despite Mr Toad’s efforts and committed suicide just before his 20th birthday whilst a student at Oxford.

Caroline: Do you think it is easier to get away with lying in e-mails rather than on the phone or face to face? Well don’t become too complacent because researchers are currently developing software said to be able to spot a cyber-liar and this could be available to buy as early as next year. The academics behind the software have analysed thousands of e-mails and discovered that there are a range of tell-tale signs indicating that we are not being truthful. E-mails which are untruthful have an average of 28% more words than truthful ones as we try desperately to sound convincing. We are more likely to use third person pronouns in an attempt to distance ourselves from the lie and we are often deliberately vague to minimise the likelihood of being discovered to be a liar. Next time you e-mail your workplace to say you are sick, one of the most common cyber fibs, watch out that your employer has not invested in the new software!

Anna: Time to help farmers get a fair and stable price for their products, strengthen the position of developing countries in the world markets and forge a closer link between you and the producers. You’re yawning? Yeah, it sounds pretty do-gooding and worthy, but in fact it can well and truly be FUN. Which is why you need to know that this year, Fairtrade Fortnight will run from 26th Feb - 11th March. A great chance to persuade your fellow citizens to make yours a “Fairtrade Town” and do a quiz at your local (download the questions from the Fairtrade site). Best of all, though, you can stuff your face with delicious Fairtrade chocolate (there are over 20 brands to choose from now) and feel worthy at the same time! So don’t forget - choose products with the FAIRTRADE mark…so much the better if it’s not just for a fortnight.

Rushda: Many children dream of being able to not go to school, be it because of boredom, fear of bullying, or simply the desire to experience delicious morning lie-ins. I shamefully admit I occasionally skipped school in order to do the latter, and often wondered how it would be not have to go to school at all. Little did I know, however, that thousands of children in the UK actually do not go to school and end up being home-schooled instead. Apparently it is getting more and more popular as three times as many children are being taught at home when compared to a decade ago.

Though studies show that home-schooled children perform better academically, personally I think parents should realise that there is more to school than pure academic education. Being with other children helps children mature socially as well as academically, and it seems a shame that a child may learn to do arithmetic but not know how to play tag in the playground, they may know how to read rhymes in books but never get a chance to chant them aloud with others. Apart from that, there also is the problem of how the education can be monitored. I find it hard to believe that all parents have enough willpower to teach everyday. I can easily imagine a sleepy parent who shoos his child away in the morning to go play with his toys.

Rushda: Like many others I really can’t wait for the smoking ban in public places. More controversially however, I really wish smoking was banned full stop. I hate to go all nanny-state on smokers, and I know there are a lot of complex issues involved, but there really is something very strange about still being able to buy killer cigarettes which have even recently been shown to have the same effects on the brain as more serious illegal drugs such as cocaine. There is an incredible irony in the way warning stickers are plastered over cigarette boxes (so much so that you can barely the see box), and so many products are being sold (nicotine patches etc.) which try and get you to stop smoking. And yet cigarettes are being sold like groceries everywhere without anyone batting an eyelid.

The benefits of an outright ban seem undeniable: reduce the temptation and you’ll reduce the addiction, reduce the number of cigarettes and you’ll reduce the number of cigarette-related deaths. It seems perfect to me. But I guess I’m failing to understand the wonderful privileged position of those smokers who would not give it up for the world.

Caroline: You may think that your granny was talking rubbish when she advised you to wrap up against the cold in case you caught a chill. I certainly did and used to tell her that colds were caused by viruses and not by getting cold. It seems however, that there may have been an element of truth in her advice. A study at Cardiff University has shown that a group of 90 students who had their feet immersed in cold water for 20 mins caught more than twice the number of colds than the control group. It is not clear why this should happen although it could be that the virus is only activated when the body temperature is lowered to a certain level or that cold feet causes the blood vessels in the nose to constrict and lose its ability to fight the cold virus.

Caroline: With the recent news that statins may be linked to the onset of Parkinson’s disease you may be interested to know how to reduce your cholestorol naturally. Making dietary changes is a number one priority, reducing the intake of saturated fat and increasing the amount of soluble fibre such as oats, lentils and pulses. Drinking cranberry juice helps raise the level of good cholestorol and plant sterols,available in health food shops, are a natural statin. Daily exercise helps to reduce cholestorol and the good news is that two units of alcohol a day has a beneficial effect too but only for the over 40s!

Rushda: A recent study of medieval Islamic art has shown the surprising result that the geometric principles the artists used were used were in fact discovered centuries later by modern mathematicians. The artists did not know complex geometrical formulae and yet they were still able to produce such complex pieces of art. Islamic designs have always used what is called “quasicrystalline geometry” which contain both symmetry and polygonal shapes. This means that they are sophisticated enough designs to be able to be extended indefinitely. Whatever the research means for Islam as a religion, I’m sure muslims worldwide are proud of this new evidence. They have been going on for centuries about how Islam can capture the future, and this could be a little piece of what shows it.

Anna: It may soon be a cheaper option to fly to Russia for a vodka, than buy one in a London club. Air Berlin hopes to be the first provider offering budget flights to Russia from the UK (they are already flying from Berlin). All the company needs now is consent from the two countries’ governments. If your Russian geography is a little hazy, let me tell you that St Petersburg is northwest of Moscow, close to both Finland and Estonia and on roughly the same latitude as Stockholm. A chilly but beautiful destination for a romantic weekend away or a cultural short break. Let’s just hope this new budget route is not publicised too widely so some of us can enjoy visiting before the inevitable stag party invasion begins…