Editor's pick: Internet identification is no kind of panacea
Sally Adee says that proposed systems to tie all internet activity to real-world user identities “would solve the problem of hauling someone known only as ‘Haxxor420’ into the dock” (31 March, p 22). But any such system would have holes, ones which those intent on criminal activity would not hesitate to exploit.
A very obvious hole is that devices belonging to innocent users are routinely made to enact the will of nefarious remote parties, for example by tricking the user into installing malicious software.
Any activity by a compromised device will naturally be tied to its owner, with no glimpse of the identity of the actual criminal. Such laundering of identities has been impeding investigations for as long as there have been computer networks.
Mandatory user identification would hardly be noticed by villains. At most, its effect would be to end anonymity for law-abiding users, to the detriment of human rights, and to provide online companies with yet more personal data to abuse.
More ideas about the origins of patriarchy (1)
Your special report on patriarchy goes some good way towards raising the profile of science in what appears to have been the province of social science (21 April, p 34). How far the magazine has come! Gendering pressure is administered in patriarchal societies through households even before infants are socialised. All, including mothers, need to recognise their gender biases: these are systemic in our societies, despite all we have legally in place.
More ideas about the origins of patriarchy (2)
Your excellent report gives many explanations for the profusion of patriarchal societies and asks: how did we get here? Part of that was an enormous change that occurred within Western society in the early 4th century.
Up until then, in the early days of Christianity, women and men were equally involved: women as well as men could be bishops, say theologians Helen Bond and Joan Taylor. Then Constantine became Emperor of Rome and thought Christianity might be the means to control and unite the empire. He needed a masculine, military-style religion, so the women were airbrushed from church history.
More ideas about the origins of patriarchy (3)
My wife, Jennifer Darnley, has suggested to me that one major reason for the development of patriarchal communities was the realisation that sex is required for a pregnancy, and that children were not in fact created spontaneously by the magical powers and choices of women alone. This switched the power balance towards men by creating an awareness of familial relationships and dependencies. In turn, this reinforced the benefits of settled agriculture and increased awareness of animal and crop-breeding techniques.
More ideas about the origins of patriarchy (4)
Anil Ananthaswamy and Kate Douglas relate the origins of patriarchy to patrilocality: women moving to their spouse's place. Indeed, research into the history of one English county shows that the elder sons of landowners remained with the land. But the men of working-class families travelled to find work and women remained in their village of birth.
And it was once considered effeminate for a man to read and write, so as recently as after the second world war, it was good etiquette for women to conduct all correspondence on behalf of the family. They were also expected to take responsibility for its finances. My mother, as did her mother and generations before, kept money in a neatly divided box with all transactions recorded in a notebook. My father handed over all his cash, to which my mother added anything she might have earned.
First class post – 12 May 2018
Don't hold your breath waiting for such a ban to happen in the US
Melissa Liechty of a European Union ban on neonicotinoid pesticides outdoors, to save bees (5 May, p 7)
Beyond a certain point wealth is superfluous
Like Mark Sheskin, I do not maintain that current extreme levels of inequality are reasonable (31 March, p 28). But I observe that beyond a certain level of wealth, assets become barely recognisable as personal wealth (28 July 2012, p 40). People can have lavish lifestyles and extend these to their family, but there is a limit to the personal jets, mansions and jewels one can command.
Beyond that, wealth is just data – the actual ownership is immaterial. Factories, mines and oil wells produce the goods and make profits, but their owners are so saturated with wealth that it makes no difference to their life. They may provide employment and produce value in the same way; but they could be state- owned and no one's life would be different.
We're not so sure statins are a good idea for us (1)
Anthony Warner extols the virtues of statins and argues that they should routinely be taken to reduce cardiovascular disease, which kills one in three globally (21 April, p 24) . But the longer we live, the more likely we are to get cancer. Anyone who loves science and rationality will thus deduce that taking statins increases the risk of dying of cancer.
A neighbour who is a family doctor told me of a survey asking how colleagues would prefer to die. The favoured option was a heart attack halfway up a mountain. Choose how you would like to die and live your life accordingly, but where euthanasia is illegal, taking statins seems not entirely rational.
We're not so sure statins are a good idea for us (2)
I realise that Warner's article is labelled “Comment” and does not purport to enlighten us on recent research, and that as a blogger and author he is entitled to his opinion about fad diets and antivaxxers. But his sweeping remarks about those who may have an “anti-statin point of view” are infuriating, not so much because I disagree with him but because he offers no solid evidence.
I have refused statins because of the side effects I experienced, even on a very low dose. I have also taken part in university-led studies that confirm that such side effects are real and interfere with quality of life.
The editor writes:
• We have covered statins and the controversy over their side effects in depth. See Michael Brooks's report on “cholesterol wars” (11 February 2017, p 28).
Humanity is at root a migrant species
Andy Coghlan reports research and discussion about when our ancestors left Africa and arrived in various places around the world (14 April, p 10). An important aspect of being human is that we are a migratory species.
Migration has sustained our existence for most of human history and has carried ideas and technical innovation to all parts of the world. More recently, the rise of nationalism and the institution of hard borders have tried to control and curtail movement, primarily for economic purposes.
The ever-increasing number of migrants seeking a better life should be regarded not as a problem, but as an opportunity for countries to refresh the ir populations and improve their economies.
So where does the energy come from?
Michael Marshall reports proposals for converting carbon dioxide into useful products (17 March, p 34). I am sceptical.
Let's start with converting CO2 to synthetic fuel. In reversing the combustion process you need to put in at least as much energy as you once got out. In practice, given inefficiencies, you need far more. You could use renewable energy resources, but there are almost certainly better ways of using them.
And as for making carbonates by reacting CO2 with calcium oxide: this is made by thermal decomposition of carbonates – releasing CO2. Doing this in the cement industry produces about 10 per cent of global human CO2 emissions.
The editor writes:
• The idea is indeed to use renewable energy, especially to make hard-to-substitute liquid fuels for certain uses.
Trauma and rewriting memories of childbirth
Jessica Hamzelou writes about memories being encoded into recognisable patterns in the brain, and how this might have therapeutic uses (14 April, p 6). I was once on a trolley outside the operating theatre awaiting an elective caesarean, when another woman emerged having just had hers – while awake to see it. Naturally I asked how it went, and she gave me a truly terrifying and graphic description. A nurse intervened, and I headed in for my operation.
The next day I was (very gingerly) able to visit her and asked for more detail. She told me a totally different story: it was the most wonderful experience of her life, full of joy and love, and that she didn't notice being cut at all.
I asked nurses and midwives about this. All agreed that the experience of being awake during a caesarean can be searing, but the memory changes completely within 24 hours. So, however these memories are overwritten, could the process be used after other traumatic experiences?
A police caution is not 'being let off'
You mention a man being “let off ” (Feedback, 14 April). A requires an admission of guilt, and becomes part of a person's criminal record. Cautions must be disclosed and can be taken into account in sentencing for other offences. Granted, the let-off misconception is widespread. I have seen barristers flicking through reference books to check the status of cautions.
For the record – 12 May 2018
• Coming of age in New York: Margaret Mead in fact studied at Columbia University (28 April, p 42).