Britain seems to be having a bout of “Tall Poppy Syndrome“. You see, we have this bright young thing on University Challenge. She slaughters the competition, and allows herself a smile when she gets the right answer. Except, people hate her. [Daily Mail] [Guardian]
Update: Her team won! The BBC have a Have Your Say about this.
Right now, with schooling and education standards falling even lower according to the Cambridge Review on education, you’d think we’d celebrate success.
But no! We fall even deeper into the mire of conspiracy and superstition. What’s the racist and obnoxious Jade Goodey ever done apart from whore her death around the media? But somehow we (the media would have us believe) respect and celebrate her, as if being a fat foulmouthed media tart is something to aspire to.
If more people were a little more like Trimble and a little less like Goodey, we might have an economy. Or an industry. Or at least enough people with enough sense not to vote Labour back in.
Now, onto MMR: Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science blog keeps track of MMR hoaxes and other media nonsense. However, not everyone likes their work critiqued, especially when they get it so very wrong. In fact, LBC’s lawyers came down on him when he put the following recording of Jenni Barnett talking crap on LBC. She said she welcomed a debate – which she did by closing off the comments and removing the post from her blog. Nice.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Related to this is the BBC’s “Street Science” series on MMR:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
And here is a segment on Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour about the dangers of not using the MMR vaccine:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
There’s a couple of very good books if you want to get a handle on urban legends, bad science and conspiracy nonsense.
Don't normally watch it but caught the final last night by accident. Had no idea people hated her. How weird. I think she's cute, in a way. Apparently she plays the cello; there's something about cellists…
The Jade Goody case and the Gail Trimble case have absolutely nothing to do with one another. You ask: 'What’s the racist and obnoxious Jade Goodey ever done apart from whore her death around the media?' I'm not intimately familiar with Ms. Goody but as far as I know Ms. Goody had known about her cancer for less than a year so unless she suddenly sprang into being on the day her doctors discovered it then of course she's done something other than 'whore her death around the media'. Let's set the racism aside for one moment because that was never proven conclusively. One of the first things Ms. Goody did in her short life was care for her disabled, mentally-ill mother. Children who care for their parents save the country millions.
You assert that: If more people were a little more like Trimble and a little less like Goody, we might have an economy. Or an industry. Or at least enough people with enough sense not to vote Labour back in. So the only role models available to us are Goody and Trimble because an all powerful media tell us that this is how it must be? People should try choosing their own role models, preferably someone within the realms of their real life. By the way, Jade Goody was 'educated' under the Tories. She was a product of their regime.
The Jade Goody case and the Gail Trimble case have absolutely nothing to do with one another. You ask: 'What’s the racist and obnoxious Jade Goodey ever done apart from whore her death around the media?' I'm not intimately familiar with Ms. Goody but as far as I know Ms. Goody had known about her cancer for less than a year so unless she suddenly sprang into being on the day her doctors discovered it then of course she's done something other than 'whore her death around the media'. Let's set the racism aside for one moment because that was never proven conclusively. One of the first things Ms. Goody did in her short life was care for her disabled, mentally-ill mother. Children who care for their parents save the country millions.
You assert that: If more people were a little more like Trimble and a little less like Goody, we might have an economy. Or an industry. Or at least enough people with enough sense not to vote Labour back in. So the only role models available to us are Goody and Trimble because an all powerful media tell us that this is how it must be? People should try choosing their own role models, preferably someone within the realms of their real life. By the way, Jade Goody was 'educated' under the Tories. She was a product of their regime.