The initiation of a nation-wide election is like the sunrise to statisticians and pollsters. Instead of the quintessential morning coffee, this most peculiar of creatures brews tea and, as a morning exercise, attempts to predict the ways in which the tea leaves will move. Pollsters attempt to use statistics in an effort to model voting … Continue reading The pollsters attempt to shift methods
Author: sitmwy.blog
Stuck in the Middle with You was created out of a frustration with the current deterioration of public discourse. We believe political and cultural opinion is far too skewed by the extremes, making truth seeking and intelligent debate in danger of going extinct. Our writing wishes to provide it's readers with intellectual entertainment and an opinion they can trust. Although we provide opinion, analysis and commentary of a wide array of topics, we remain humble to our shortcomings and biases, which is why, at the end of the day, we remain just as stuck in the middle as you: our reader.
Stuck in the Middle with You is a cooperative venture i.e. every contributor is also an owner.
Our unique genes amplify themselves through environment
It is one of the crowning findings of behavioural genetics: the older we get, the more our specific genetic differences are associated with the degree to which we differ on measured phenotypic traits; like weight, disease prevalence and cognitive diversity. This is interesting, because genetic variance of a population doesn’t change over time (each person … Continue reading Our unique genes amplify themselves through environment
Austerity is now a pejorative
By Hobhouse. Almost as an aside to this week’s tense parliamentary antics – which included Mr Johnson losing his majority and a vote that would mean a no-deal exit from the EU become less likely – Sajid Javid, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced his party were ‘turning the page on austerity.’ This page should … Continue reading Austerity is now a pejorative
Is Boris Johnson a left-wing campus activist?
By Hobhouse. 21 Conservative ministers have been relieved of the whip, which deprives the government of not just wisdom but of dissent, too. Mr Johnson, before the emergency Brexit debate commenced, sought to coerce opinion and win the vote by threatening any rebel with the loss of his or her seat and with it, their … Continue reading Is Boris Johnson a left-wing campus activist?
Brexit expectation management
By Hobhouse. The Brexiteers have become exceptional at the process of expectation management. Think back to the Brexit campaign when various proponents of Vote Leave would take it in turns to shout about how much better Britain would be after Brexit and how easy it would all be. ‘There will be no downside to Brexit, … Continue reading Brexit expectation management
Dominic Cummings Unleashed
By Hobhouse Nick Clegg, speaking as the coalition’s deputy prime minister at the time, described Dominic Cummings as ‘loopy’ and a person with an ‘anger management issue.’ Prime minister David Cameron, in 2014, spoke along the same tangent as Clegg when he described Cummings as a ‘career psychopath.’ When heading the campaign for Vote … Continue reading Dominic Cummings Unleashed
Brexit’s Control of the Past
By Hobhouse The Brexit induced Limbo is totalitarian in effect, in that the idea and its handlers continue to erode objective truth. Orwell, writing in 1943 for the Tribune, once opined that ‘the really frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits “atrocities” but that it attacks the concept of objective truth; it claims … Continue reading Brexit’s Control of the Past
Where do ideas come from?
Neil Gaiman, a best-selling fiction author, once was posed with the question, which is simple enough in essence, of where he got his magnificent ideas from. This question, which is recurrently asked to writers, prompted Mr Gaiman to write a blog on the subject. In the blog post he answered the question with the sincerest … Continue reading Where do ideas come from?
A change in the visual cortex’s career
What happens to the congenitally blind’s visual cortex? this region does not simply stay dormant and gather cobwebs; rather, it appears this area puts up the scaffolding and undergoes a massive reconstruction, making office space for language use. Cognitive and neuroscientific research has shown the brilliant flexibility of the traditional language and visual networks to … Continue reading A change in the visual cortex’s career
Dropping everything and just noticing: notes on mindfulness
By Thomas Cornish Dropping everything and just noticing is an idea that has been spreading as a meme, predominantly in Asia, since the 5th Century BCE. This very simple idea comes under the guise of meditation, mindfulness and vipassana (meaning insight). It’s a liberating idea. Imagine neither having to take every thought as the absolute … Continue reading Dropping everything and just noticing: notes on mindfulness
