Opinion
Want Sleazy Gossip? Read The Classics!
Gossip in the time of ancient Rome has trickled down to us. There are passages in Petronius, Procopius, Seneca and Suetonius that would have regular readers of crazydaysandnights.com or gawker or d-listed or any other celebrity schadenfreude site spit-spray their latte.
By Johan Kugelberg | Arts, Notebook, Opinion | Wednesday, 25 April 2012 at 4:45 am
Glowing fish illuminates environmental health hazards
Harmful chemicals circulating in the environment may affect more parts of the body than was previously believed, according to a new study.
A team of researchers from the University of Exeter and University College London found that environmental oestrogens may contaminate organs that until now scientists had not considered vulnerable to their deleterious effects.
Environmental oestrogens derive [...]
By Katherine Rowland | Notebook, Opinion, Science & Technology | Wednesday, 25 April 2012 at 4:31 am
India’s continued demonization of rape victims
How should a country respond when its police force is found wanting? That is the question Indian’s face after a sting-operation carried out by a leading magazine last week exposed widespread rape-denial among a senior stratum of India’s police force. If the media reaction is an index, all that this revelation could muster was a [...]
By Ram Mashru | Notebook, Opinion | Wednesday, 25 April 2012 at 4:30 am
Is outdoor child’s play doomed to extinction?
Figures released by the National Trust earlier this month paint a picture of a generation of children disengaged with nature and outdoor play, largely ignorant of the joy of unbridled exploration. According to the charity, fewer than one in ten children regularly play in wild places compared to almost half a generation ago, a third have never climbed a tree, and one in ten can’t ride a bike. But has children’s play really changed in recent decades, and if so, how?
By Emma McFarnon | Notebook, Opinion | Wednesday, 25 April 2012 at 12:00 am
Same-sex couples who want to embrace marriage should be a cause for rejoicing in the Christian Church
There is a quiet rumbling that has been gradually getting louder for the past decade or so, and which is only now breaking the surface and demanding attention. It is one of the remaining discriminations suffered by thousands of people in Britain each day, and finally society’s attitude towards it is beginning to change. It [...]
By Elizabeth Fry | Notebook, Opinion | Tuesday, 24 April 2012 at 4:55 pm
Why do we fetishise meritocracy when most success is down to luck?
Market forces are the basis of political liberty. Despite the biggest economic crisis for a generation, most of us still believe it. We might get slapped around the face by the system from time to time – by the increasing frequency of rough sleepers we encounter on the way to work, or when we read in the paper about pensioners who can no longer afford to heat their homes – but on the whole, as a society we seldom question the fundamental soundness of the free-market anymore.
By James Bloodworth | Notebook, Opinion | Tuesday, 24 April 2012 at 12:38 pm
Poster Boy and the Occupy Movement needs you! (To play truant on 1 May)
The streets of New York City are plastered with advertisements showing neon-toothed celebrities, airbrushed physiques and products we’re told we must have. It’s enough to make Tyler Durden heave, and for many these adverts have become an unwanted intrusion on the streets. So much so for one man, that you might come across a billboard [...]
By Jake Hanrahan | Arts, Notebook, Opinion | Tuesday, 24 April 2012 at 4:00 am
Any press is good press? Not when anorexia’s involved
Media coverage of eating disorders comes and goes in waves; one minute it’s in fashion and the next, every editor in the world is sick to death of it. If one frustratingly and frighteningly successful news site is anything to go by, though, anorexia, or coverage of it, is really hot right now.
By Ilona Burton | Health, Notebook, Opinion | Tuesday, 24 April 2012 at 4:00 am
Online shopping: Whose impulse is it anyway?
Impulse online shopping really is taking hold – a recent study by Kantar Media Compete has shown that 65% of online shoppers regularly scour daily deals sites for inspiration and Alexa Chung has also admitted to buying some fashion items on impulse. But are we really acting on our own impulse or are we being manipulated by online marketers?
By Alex Wares | Notebook, Opinion | Monday, 23 April 2012 at 5:44 pm
The end of Europe’s right-wing winter?
For those who hoped the biggest crisis of capitalism since the 1930s would lead to a new wave of left-wing politics, the three-and-a-half years since Lehman Brothers went under have been a depressing experience. The right dominate Europe. Neo-liberalism should have been left on the ropes by the financial catastrophe: instead, it was handed its greatest opportunity yet.
By Owen Jones | Notebook, Opinion | Monday, 23 April 2012 at 4:43 pm
Most viewed
|
|
Latest from Independent journalists on Twitter