Yet another new blog

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/at-what-age-does-our-ability-to-learn-a-new-language-like-a-native-speaker-disappear/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=other&utm_campaign=opencourse.GdeNrll1EeSROyIACtiVvg.announcements~opencourse.GdeNrll1EeSROyIACtiVvg.vw-2LlUHEeiTfgp7g8qx2g# O dear, are we still having this discussion?  I'm with Professor Newport: the way to learn more than one language as a native speaker is to start as early as possible. In Scotland, we start Gaelic learners at the Croileagan (Parent & Toddler Groups) w hen they are about a year old. Children go on to nursery at 3 or 4 and then to primary. All these experiences take place in Gaelic. It's only at about P4 that English is introduced into the Gaelic classroom.  The need for immersion is very clear: children in Scotland are bombarded with English and Scots from family, friends and TV all the time. The classroom has to be dedicated to Gaelic to make progress. This reflects how endangere...

Sometimes, my friends tell wee stories from their childhood about being urged to eat up what was on their plates: 'There are black babies in Africa starving and you've got plenty, so eat up!' I don't remember that. We didn't eat with my parents at lunchtime - which we called dinner. This was the 1950s. They were both at work. It was my Granny that fed me and later my sister. Granny worked too, as a daily housekeeper to a factory owner and his brother (7am-11am and 2pm-5pm) but she provided our lunch every day. Good food, I have to say. There was no argument about what to eat. And no choice. I came across the road from my school (Copland Road Primary), ate whatever was put in front of me and then went back to school for the afternoon. Granny died when we were quite young and then it was Pop's turn to do the lunchtime shift. That must have been quite daunting for him, since he was more or less blind from World War 1. My sister tells cracking stories of plou...

I'm the ultimate in suspicious customers. I question everything and believe nothing. And I don't think it's a bad way to be. The latest bit of retail trickery I'm noticing is the huge number of shops being closed right across the UK. I imagine this is going on all over the western world. The reason given is: the customers prefer to shop online That all too often is just a damn lie. It's an extension of the supermarket con trick we all fell for 50 years ago. At that time, we, the customers, got handed the bulk of the work to do when we did our shopping: we collect the trolley, trundle it round the aisles (where everything is so laid out that we have to put in the maximum of effort to get what we want: milk, eggs and butter? They are in 3 different parts of the shop. The layout of the shop also changes regularly just to keep us on our toes. And the daily necessities are as far from the entrance and the checkouts as possible). Then we take the trolley to the chec...

I never really understood what Max was all about. He was an Austrian (I think) Jew who married my father's sister after walking across most of western Europe and then getting on a ferry to England in the 1930s. He worked as a tailor in London for a while. He spoke several languages including German, Yiddish and Russian. When World War 2 broke out, he joined the British Army and fought his way back across Europe. He was a Communist. These days, that word seems to have the same effect on people as 'paedophile' but in the 40s and 50s it was pretty normal and it also meant he was an atheist. I think. We never talked about religion. At some point in WW2 he spent some time in a POW camp. When he came back to the UK, he got a degree at Glasgow University and qualified as a probation officer. He went to work in Newcastle upon Tyne. He drove my other (smarter - according to him) uncle mad because he read so slowly and explained his thoughts very deliberately. We tried explaining...

I've been seeing articles all week about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. How famous they are. How odd their relationship was. The last Rivera sale was last week: http://www.artnews.com/2018/05/09/diego-rivera-painting-sells-9-76-million-new-record-latin-american-art-auction-christies-second-rockefeller-sale/ The final comment to every article was about how his art fetches twice as much money as hers . Can we sort this out? Tell me the name of any female painter whose work fetches the same as the work of a man. In terms of artists, you might manage to find the names of Berthe Morisot and Louise Bourgeois, but do their works fetch the same prices as those of their male contemporaries? Not a hope. Why is that? Let me hazard a guess. The art teachers are mostly men. The dealers who sell your art works are mostly men. The critics who can make you famous are mostly men. Of the 5 pictures on my walls, 4 are by men. I think that's kind of normal. Of course, it'...

I was annoyed at the Sunday Herald's front page last Sunday but I thought I'd wait and see what the paper's reaction was to the criticism it received. In essence, the editor's defence is that, while the Sunday Herald supports Scottish independence, "we are here to report news, not to be an echo chamber." I understand the Sunday Herald's wish to keep its editorial independence, but there were a few problems last weekend. This was the front page in question: The editor now regrets using this picture. He says the editorial team had a choice: use a picture of independence marchers that was sure to appear in many other papers or find something new. It's a tough call but surely someone round the table realised that this picture made it look as if there were as many unionist protestors as independence marchers. It also suggests at first glance that the two groups got very close. I saw on TV that that was not the case: the police and stewards were i...

It's not really cheering to learn that Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian has had ME since 1990: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-44085954 I've had a bad week but, after 2 years of CFS/ME, I 'm still at the stage where I think okay, surely this must be as bad as it gets. I went for blood tests on Tuesday at my local medical centre and had to stop three times on my way back from the main building to the car park - about 100 yards. But at least I managed to drive there, walk in, have a coffee and - slowly - walk back to the car.  Admittedly, I've spent the three days since sleeping. Reading what Stuart says means it could be worse. He writes that 25% of ME sufferers are 'bed-ridden'. Now I'm thinking: Is that me? Is that going to happen to me? Would it help if I just took to my bed? I mean, instead of keeping going. Like a lot of people with CFS/ME, I don't even have a proper diagnosis, just a jumble of symptoms that seem to add up to ...

This week I followed the story of Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit going missing, just dreading  it wasn't going to end well. Sadly, I was right. In the usual press jargon: 'a body has been found.' This week, a lot of people have been posting the number of the Suicide Helpline on twitter and Facebook.  In fact, there are many numbers where people can get help. Here are some of them: Samaritans -116 123 Papyrus (for young people) - 0800 068 41 41 For men - 0800 58 58 58 Childline - 0800 1111 The trouble is that suicide happens to other people. Those of us who are left to stand by watching have no power to persuade the person who feels suicidal to get help. In fact, we don't actually have the right to stop them committing suicide at all. And by the time people are ill enough to be serious about suicide, they are probably beyond our help - and beyond calling a helpline.  It is terrible to watch. I have two experiences of suicide. One wa...

I’ve complained often about the BBC’s news website in Scotland.   My last complaint was about its weekend coverage (there isn’t any – just headlines of crimes handed out as press releases by Police Scotland and reported verbatim) but this time I’m looking at its relentlessly negative news coverage the rest of the week.   So yesterday Tuesday 8 May, these were the big stories in Scotland according to the BBC: Drug users in Scotland 'consume most cocaine' in one session – a wee go at us all. Addicts to a man we are. If it’s no the drink, it’s the drugs. MSPs debate call for Tayside mental health inquiry - a wee go at Shona Robison. She’s a buddy of Nicola Sturgeon. Would that have anything to do with the constant attacks on her? I mean, it would be churlish to have a go at the First Minister but the First Minister’s pal – fair game, right?   Scotland's tolerance reputation 'a myth' - another wee go at us all. We don’t deny there’s racism, homophob...

Same old blog ( http://jmnboxy123.blogspot.co.uk/  ). Same old problems trying to work with Google.  Google are great with the paperwork: sign up for a blog and they'll blitz you with every kind of information for your  account,  most of which you don't need. But they won't actually tell you how to get started. If you watch The Big Bang Theory, imagine trying to make sense of Sheldon's whiteboard.  I think this is maybe the 5th blog I've set up. I can't access the others so who knows? It may be more. And it may be that when I try to access this tomorrow, I won't be able to log in so the whole bollocks will start again.  Anyone know a simple, easy-to-use system to use for blogging? Do let me know, please.