Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the craze for gin in Britain in the mid 18th Century and the attempts to control it. With the arrival of William of Orange, it became an act of loyalty to drink Protestant, Dutch gin rather than Catholic brandy, and changes in tariffs made everyday beer less affordable. Within a short time, production increased and large sections of the population that had rarely or never drunk spirits before were consuming two pints of gin a week. As Hogarth indicated in his print 'Beer Street and Gin Lane' (1751) in support of the Gin Act, the damage was severe, and addiction to gin was blamed for much of the crime in cities such as London.
15 April 2020
WorldAffairs: Eco-Anxiety: Climate Change and Mental Health
A burning Amazon rainforest. Thinning ice sheets. Sea level rise. Wildfires in California. Thawing Arctic permafrost. It’s no surprise that many of us have anxiety about our planet’s future. The mental health impacts of climate change are increasing distress about the future while intensifying the trauma of natural disasters already happening. On this week’s episode of WorldAffairs, Caroline Hickman, Executive Committee member of the Climate Psychology Alliance and teaching fellow at the University of Bath joins WorldAffairs co-host Ray Suarez to discuss eco-anxiety in the age of climate change.
Vox: The big lesson from South Korea's coronavirus response
In South Korea, citizens have flattened the curve of the novel coronavirus -- and it's because of lessons they learned from fighting the MERS outbreak in 2015. Through a combination of aggressive and widespread testing measures, along with a system know as “contact tracing,” they’ve been better positioned to spot the path of the virus and curb its spread. While they are still vigilant for a second wave of Covid-19 cases, people in South Korea are slowly returning to public life. Watch the video above to find out how their testing and contact tracing measures work, and how it can be a lesson for countries still in lockdown.
SciShow: The Delightful Mutation Behind Siamese Cats
It's easy to assume a cat's coat pattern is based exclusively on genetics, but that isn't entirely the case for Siamese cats. Their unique coloration comes from a combination of genetics, a fragile enzyme, and losing heat from little noses and toe beans.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)