Truly The Substance of Contentment by David Seagrave

Devereux was a self reliant bachelor who had retired from his position with Durcaster Borough Council. He lived in a charming period cottage with a huge garden built long before Miriamsfield was swallowed up in Greater Durcaster. He awoke to Phantom Limb Pain and recalled that it was the 40^th anniversary of an accident when as a young man he had set off from Durcaster to Swineherdsford on a frosty February night and been hit bya drunken motorist. He had a hot bath and the pain abated He had to see about his broken kitchen window which faced the local primary school Read more…

The Benefits of Seed Banking, and Seed Conservation in Action in Islands of the Mediterranean Basin by Sarah Hansen

Plants play a critical role in maintaining life on this planet. They sit at the base of the trophic pyramid, providing food all the way up the chain to humans at the top. They provide services such as climate regulation and flood defence. They contribute to soil formation and nutrient cycling, and they provide us with shelter, medicines and fuel.
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Interview With An Educator: Sugata Mitra

Educational History: John Pounds and the Ragged Schools

John Pounds was born on June 17th 1766 and died on January 1st 1839. In his time he did unfathomable amounts of work to improve the lives of many people, particularly children, in the city of Portsmouth. It is arguable that this humble man, ‘the crippled cobbler of Portsmouth’, has played one of the most significant roles in shaping the social and educational landscape of the United Kingdom, and possibly beyond. All because he gave his life over to being a teacher when there were none, and acting true to a selflessness and an altruism which was to go on to inspire people such as Charles Dickens and the Reverend Thomas Guthrie. Read more…

Popular Music by Dan Zambas

Popular Music is easily definable as music that is popular. Although this category is generally saved for music that hits the Top 40 charts of its time, it can apply to any genre with a following. Society understands this term as chart music and may be met with some confusion when the claim ‘jazz is popular music’ is made. Musicologist Philip Tagg defined popular music with the following statement:

‘Popular music, unlike art music, is conceived for mass distribution to large and often socioculturally heterogeneous groups of listeners, stored and distributed in non-written form, only possible in an industrial monetary economy where it becomes a commodity and in capitalist societies, subject to the laws of ‘free’ enterprise, according to which it should ideally sell as much as possible of as little as possible to as many as possible’

Tackling Income Inequality: Local Government Pay Policies by Benjamin Irvine

Recent Background to Fair Pay in the Public Sector: The Hutton Review of Fair Pay and Pay Policy Statements: The Government commissioned The Hutton Review of Fair Pay amid growing concerns about income inequality and runaway high pay. The review found that median top salaries in local government grew at a considerably faster rate than entry salaries in the period 2001-2008 (an average annual growth of roughly 5% compared to 3%).

[Will Hutton, ‘Hutton Review of Fair Pay in the Public Sector: Final Report’. 2011. p.9. Retrieved from: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130129110402/http:/www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/hutton_fairpay_review.pdf]

Peer Review

Scientific journals use a process of peer review, in which scientists’ manuscripts are submitted by editors of scientific journals to (usually one to three) fellow (usually anonymous) scientists familiar with the field for evaluation. The referees may or may not recommend publication, publication with suggested modifications, or, sometimes, publication in another journal.

This is an attempt to keep the scientific literature free of unscientific or crackpot work, it helps to cut down on obvious errors, and it generally improves the quality of the scientific literature. Work announced in the popular press before going through this process is generally frowned upon.

Rationality, Economics and Violence: A Social and Environmental Philosophy by Kenneth Wilson

The previous chapter discussed aspects of scientific rationality. This chapter continues the theme of rationality by discussing its economic form. The main concern is that the concept of rationality involved in laissez-faire capitalism turns out to be less than rational. Let me give an example of how economic “rationality” can be found wanting. This example relies on an interpretation of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. As Joel E. Cohen notes,
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The Banking Game: Literature Review Part Three and Conclusion by Doreen Soutar

The Banking Game: Analysis of the extinction of the bank as trusted institution and NONIIs as an indicator of non-reciprocal strategies by Doreen Soutar. This is the third part of her literature review and conclusion to her investigation…

Retail Banking: a Co-Operative Model

The savings and loans banking division operates in a social environment which is built on repeated encounters, engendering the growth of mutual trust and cooperation (Motashemi & Mui, 2003). Here, customers are given to believe that the bank is essentially working for the augmented good of the group, where community wellbeing is the main focus rather than the wealth of the bank, as is implied in the statement by the CEO in Barclays’ annual statement (Diamond, 2010). This is not restricted to the equality of reciprocity of a single lender and the bank, but also applies to altruism “fed forward” in an emergent, and customers benefit at different times in differing amounts.
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