Rewiring the Brain

An article recently in The New Scientist identifies ten things we don't know about the human physiology. One of them is why humans go through a "teenager" phase when no other primates do. In fact, the article points out, no other mammilian species suffer the equivalent phase of development in the transition from "child" to "adult". So why do humans have to find their way through this? Why do we not transit at puberty from child to adult without the trauma of pimples, rampant hormones and sometimes decidedly unpleasant personality changes. Why do we behave to irrationally and often dangerously while making that transition when other animals don't?

Science, it seems, doesn't know. What they do know is that our brains undergo some very big changes during that phase of our growth. It seems that there is a sea change in the brain during those teenage years and this is the primary cause of the change in sleep patterns, the courting of danger or the withdrawal and surliness. It may also be what underlies the increase in risk taking and the rebellious behaviour patterns.

I found some of the research on this quite fascinating, and some of it downright tragic. It appears that during our teens our brains more or less rewire themselves and sometimes the wires get crossed, sometimes they make wrong connections and sometimes this leads to serious personality changes. It also appears that drug use during this phase of development can have truly damaging effects and prevent the individual from developing properly. Again, this really isn't properly understood and so is almost brushed under the proverbial carpet in any debate of the use or abuse of drugs. The lack of knowledge in this area is a case of perception rather than fact since there is a lot of scattered research about, but at present no interest in the political sphere (which controls access to research funding) in setting up a proper study. After all, it might produce findings which blow all the liberal drug arguments out of the water.

According to the article, which draws on some serious studies, it is this process of rewiring during our teens that makes us humans and allows us to develop the intellectual capacity we have. Without it we might be much more like our cousins the chimpanzees - limited to the mental capability of a child for life.

So I guess we should really make more of our teenage years - the person you are is rooted in your teens!

Misinterpretted guidelines?

According to one of our Child Protection charities has published a report criticising the courts for "misinterpreting" sentencing guidelines issued by the government and intended to "protect" underage offenders. Anyone who has ever tried to use any "guideline" issued or written by the Whitehall W*nk*rs will know that it is almost impossible to make any sense out of them because they are so full of caveats. But, perhaps more importantly, the very existence of these "guidelines" is proof that even our courts are now politicised. The whole principle on which English Law is founded is that the courts are independent of the Executive, yet the issuing of "guidelines" by the Executive on any matter pertaining to the application of the law (Which the issuers of the guidelines have generally written so badly anyway!) is an interference in the autonomy of the Judges, magistrates and Justices.

The Charity is concerned that the children dealt with by these courts are among the most vulnerable in our society. Many have been abused, many are just entering their 'teens and most re offend within months of release. They point out that custodial sentences actually don't work for the majority and is an expensive operation. What they fail to identify is what the alternatives are.

This is a problem with almost every lobby group campaigning for something. They seldom put forward a credible alternative, or, where they do, it is usually a far more expensive option which they genuinely expect the taxpayer or the victim to fund. Recently I received a copy of an irate e-mail to a Police Force in the South West which outlined a large part of the problem. The police are almost powerless to deal with "Youff" crime, so they don't respond to any complaint by a member of the tax paying public until something or someone is damaged or injured. Then, of course, the courts have to deal with it. The breakdown of any form of discipline and its replacement by the "reward" philosophy of the Dr Spock Adherents is largely to blame for this, but I have to admit that it is much more complex even than just that. The massive expansion of the "Social Security" state has given rise to a complete generation of people who genuinely believe that there is no need to provide anything for oneself or ones offspring because "society owes us". I live on an estate where there is a high percentage of such families and the offspring are completely undisciplined, surly, probably abused and becoming, as they grow, more abusive and threatening themselves.

How does one address this? So far the politicians have tried "Boot Camps", "Young Offenders" institutions, Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) and a plethora of "Community Service" initiatives. Nothing seems to work. Probably because the real problem is in the homes these kids come from, with parents who shouldn't be, drug takers and alcoholics raised on the concept of "self" being more important than anyone else. This is the generation that will trash a home to feed a drug habit and then find a defending attorney who will persuade a sympathetic jury that they cannot be held accountable - because they are addicted .... And children are quick to learn.

At the very heart of this problem is the social "science" philosophy that society can be "re-engineered" to be more egalitarian and "fair". That poverty is something society imposes and not a consequence of lifestyle choices. OK, there are exceptions to that and I can think of one good friend who is "in poverty" through circumstances beyond their own control. I have no problem with state assistance for those cases, but I do have a problem with politicians who think they can strip the product of my hard work to reward feckless layabouts and maintain them in a style to which I can still, after 45 years employment, only aspire. Here is the dichotomy - our social welfare programmes, set up originally to help those who could not work even though they wanted too, and those who had reached an age where they should be able to retire comfortably, has been high jacked by the socialists who think it is about "wealth redistribution" and coupled that with their desire to restrict, control and dictate lifestyle to everyone. He who controls the income, controls the recipient. Or so they think.

So now we have entire families who have never worked and live in large taxpayer provided houses entirely on "benefit" and causing mayhem for their neighbours. We have permanent "protest" rentamobs who are funded by their weekly "benefit" cheques and we have pensioners living on pensions that are below the breadline because the politicians and civil servants refuse to address the monstrous imbalances in the system they have created to keep their feral electorate happy.

The courts are the last line of defence against those who have no social responsibility and no understanding of the very things which make any society work. Sadly they too are no longer independent and are now a part of the political machinery which is slowly destroying the very society it is supposed to be defending. Today's report is simply one among many indicators that show that the philosophy driving our political classes is deeply flawed because it does not address the core issue - that discipline begins in the family, within individuals within families and once that breaks down or is restricted or removed - society itself is threatened.

If locking up these feral children and young offenders isn't working then we seriously need to look at the alternatives and quickly. One step at a time perhaps, but, as I see it, we have to break the culture which suggests that individuals are not responsible for their own actions; that parents may not impose discipline (And I DON'T mean by beating the tripe out of a child!); that military service is "bad"; that society "owes" the feckless a living simply because they have irresponsibly brought a child into the world; that government can "redistribute" wealth through the tax system to anyone other than their own bank accounts and those of their hanger's on; that children are "victims" and their victims are potential abusers.

Locking up a child should be a last resort, but I suspect it may, in some cases, be the only way that child might even begin to get treatment for the underlying problems it has. I have encountered kids who are so seriously damaged by the age of 10 that I am not sure anything can be done with them, but we have to try. Yet how can you do anything unless you can identify what you are actually dealing with - and here the child protection laws actually work against the child concerned because they prevent any action which may impinge on the child's "rights".

This is not an easy problem, nor will it be resolved by simply addressing one part of it. Like any jigsaw, it can only be solved by reference to the whole picture. So don't hold your breath, Whitehall and Westminster have no idea at all of what the picture even looks like and in the meantime will keep fiddling and interfering without actually understanding any of it.

My Myers-Briggs results...

ESFP (Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling, Perception)

You are outgoing, friendly, and accepting. You are an exuberant lover of life, people, and material comforts. You enjoy working with others to make things happen. You bring common sense and a realistic approach to you work, and make work fun. You are flexible and spontaneous, and adapt readily to new people and environments. You learn best by trying a new skill with other people. Famous people with your same ESFP personality include: Saint Mark the Apostle, Dale Evans, Bob Hope, Goldie Hawn, Arsenio Hall, Mary Lou Retton and Kathy Lee Gifford.

Took this test on Facebook and I think its a truncated version of the real thing. Every other test of this type I have taken rates me as an ISFP meaning I am inclined to Introversion, but hey, the last time I took the real one it was a borderline decision between E and I ....

Amazing aerobatics

When it comes to flying few things can beat the swallow. The Daily Mail Online had a series of amazng pictures taken by a bird watcher and photographer - presumably with a high-speed camera. They are absolutely stunning.

The birds that form the subject of his photos are caught on camera negotiating a two inch wide opening in flight - the flight speed is around 35 mph - and this is all the more amazing as the birds have a fourteen inch wingspan. The pictures have to be seen to be believed.

Controlling children

I live in an estate that has a high proportion of famillies living on benefits or who have serious social problems. Most of the time it is a rather pleasant place, but as night falls a large gang of teens usually gather in the roads outside my building. They then kick a football into fences, my hedge, each other and adjoining gardens. It is pointless calling the police. by the time they respond to any invasion of a garden or damage to the local phone booth, the perpetrators are either long gone or ready with their excuses. Life can certainly be adversely affected by all of our neighbourhood by this behaviour and many of my neighbours are older than I and afraid to go out once this gang assembles.

The police are, thanks to child protection laws and policies in courts, unable to do anything about it. Children know their "rights" and any attempt to remonstrate with them is likely to lead to your being assaulted or - possibly worse - being accused of trying to molest them. Once that accusation is made you face months of investigation and suspicion and, despite assurances to the contrary, a record being kept on file that the accusation was made. Every time you thereafter have to apply for any position, voluntary or otherwise, that might bring you into contact with children that brecord will show up and you are likely to face renewed accusation or at least suspicion. The priniciple of "No smoke without fire" is trotted out as justification irrespective of the fact that the police have not been able to substantiate the accusation or in many cases the accusation has been proved to be a lie - a 'child' making it simply to 'get even' with an adult who has quite justifiably remonstrated with him/her for appalling behaviour.

Our society has opted - driven by well intentioned but, frankly, misguided efforts to protect children from abuse - to label every adult as a potential child abuser. The media of course whips this to a frenzy, usually focussing on sexual abusers, but I would suggest that there are more insidious abuses, the refusal of parents to instil any form of discipline in their offspring being one. Such children grow up unable to recognise that their behaviour is unacceptable to others. An example locally is one pre-teen girl round here who shrieks - an ear splitting noise - whenever she is thwarted in her demands. Other children run away from her as soon as it starts, or worse, some have discovered that they can make life miserable for the neighbourhood by provoking her! Her parents never deal with it, in fact, I have witnessed both her parents actually rewarding her by giving in to this totally unacceptable performance. Nor is she alone, I have ample opportunity to observe the better off and their offspring and see the same pattern here. Little Tarquin and little Berengaria are very quick to learn that they can get their way by "acting up" and their parents will surrender and reward their behaviour rather than confront it and teach the little brat that in a society everyone else has "rights" as well.

Last evening I endured over an hour of foul-mouthed behaviour and this morning I am cleaning up the debris in my garden and trying to repair my hedge. Damage caused by "children" who, from their language, knew exactly what they were doing and how obnoxious it was. And they also knew that no one could or would risk trying to stop them. This is a very complex issue, one made even more difficult by the fact that many of them are from homes where drug or alcohol abuse is a factor. But it is not improved by the well-intentioned removal of all sanctions for bad behaviour and the restrictions on the police for dealing with it. It is rapidly reaching the point at which the "Child Protection" lobbies and agencies may have to face accusations of complicity in the criminal damage now being caused by the out of control "children" whose "rights" they protect against the legitimate expectations of the law abiding tax-payers who have to live with the consequences.

Book sales

I have never expected to see my sales propel my books into the Best Seller lists, for one thing I am the "marketing" department and I may be good at writing them, but I am not a salesman - one reason I joined the Fire and Rescue Services. Even so my sales seem to be chugging along, the latest being through a small retail book shop in the Cotswolds who have bought in a small stock for their shelves. Should you visit Moreton in Marsh, call in on Cotswold Books!

Interestingly they had an order for a copy of The enemy is within and contacted the Publisher. Now comes the strange bit - the Publisher would only sell it to them at the full retail price! Now that doesn't seem right to me, but it is in line with their policy of not paying a "Royalty" on any discounted sales. Ergo, I have sold a sizeable number of books through Amazon - understandable since Amazon are the world's biggest book seller - but as Amazon take a 60% discount, I am almost paying the Publisher for the privilege. According to the sales reports the book has sold at a loss throughout. Not encouraging for my Bank manager as this was a "Joint Venture" and I have my savings tied up in this venture. Equally disappointing is the lack of decent marketing, something I thought I had paid into, but which I am now informed (Mind you there has been a change of ownership!) that they will "support" my marketing efforts!

Both books are selling steadily though it will take a while to recover the money and the effort put into them. So, for now, I am still writing, using the lessons learned in the writing and selling the first pair. But I am also putting an effort into working with a Publicist to develop a package that will hopefully get me onto the books of a proper Agency and then hopefully get all my books into the mainstream publishers. In the meantime I am working on getting copies of the books into High Street booksellers, no easy task as shelf space is at a premium and most of them will stock only on sale or return. I am told that arranging a "Book signing" for myself is a good way to get stocked in a store, but so far enquiries have not been encouraging.

I guess its a work in progress - one my fire service training hasn't prepared me for. I'm far to used to "instant" action.

Nuclear future?

In this last week a government adviser has come out of the woodwork to tell us that unless we build more nuclear power stations very soon we cannot hope to keep up with demand. Of course that got Greenstrife and Fiends of the Earth up in arms immediately. Yet the truth which these morons refuse to acknowledge is that we already buy some 20% of our energy from France who generate roughly 80% of theirs using nuclear. Even if the government declared tomorrow that they were going to adopt this sensible approach you may be sure that we would then be subjected to endless appearances on TV and Radio and articles in the press from Greenstrife and the Fiends foaming at the mouth and declaring that we were destroying the earth by even thinking of going nuclear. And, if any UK government had the balls to ignore these idiots and go ahead anyway, the planning process is so long winded and so convoluted it is unlikely we could build any within the next 50 years anyway.

Put simply, the future may well be nuclear, but probably not in the UK - at least not if Labour's CND element, Greenstrife and Fiends of the Earth have anything to do with it. Sometime in the next twenty or so years we can expect the lights to go out and probably expect "brown outs" in the next ten. Such are the joys of our undemocratic society which places the wishes of a tiny minority of idiots above the needs of the majority who pay for it.