Feelings and Emotions are an Essential Part of Our Everyday Experience So Why Do So Many Modern Therapies Try to Get Rid of so Called ‘Bad Feelings’ by Leon Paterson

In this short article we will go beyond the limited psychology research to explore how feelings and emotions work. The variability of emotions will be demonstrated to show that they are not simply on or off – you’re happy or you’re not happy. That in fact emotions increase to a peak and then decrease often through a short space of time. Read more…

Twas The Rant Before Christmas… What Makes The COOCs Initiative Succeed Where Others Fail

The language of failure is a tricky one to use without creating unhelpful tensions which can compartmentalize the spirit and function of education and social projects. When walking through the surreal world of policy-town, phrases take root and oblige people to think and act in ways which conform to the language that is giving shape to their thoughts. Policy and it’s language has come to possess people’s practice.
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Open Access to Research Publications: Accessing Research Online by Emily Nunn

Have you ever looked for an academic research article online? A clinical trial for a new drug, for instance, evidence for the effects of climate change, or a study into the experiences of young LGBTQ people attending secondary school? If you study or work at a university, you may take access to this research for granted, but if not, you will often encounter a “paywall”; a screen that asks you to sign in to read further, or to pay a one-off charge.

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Thoughts on the Structure of Language

In the writings of Gottfried Leibniz can be found many elements relating to the possibility of a universal language. Specifically he was working on a constructed language as a concept which would gradually come to replace that of rationalized Latin as the natural basis for a projected universal language. Leibniz conceived of a ‘characteristica universalis’, an “algebra” capable of expressing all conceptual thought. This kind of algebra would include rules for symbolic manipulation, which he called a calculus ratiocinator. Read more…

Horizon-scanning: Ethics for Robots – Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? by John Sawkins

The driver-less car is already here: how many of us knew that it will be pre-programmed to make its own ethical decisions? For example, unlike the human driver, who would understandably, if given the option, seek to protect his or her family if the worst were to happen and a crash with lethal consequences occurred, the driverless car would dispassionately choose the option with the least number of casualties as opposed to saving the lives of its own passengers. Read more…