A lot of people have been getting worked up recently about income inequality. If you read the financial press you are regularly bombarded with advertisements for the management of what is being termed “sudden wealth”: more people are winning life’s lottery. But in English-speaking countries one source of emergent income inequality that needs to be watched arises from the difficulty of learning the English language, even for native speakers.

The Guardian today has a report on another experiment that is improving literacy rates using synthetic phonics, similar to the Direct Instruction or DISTAR method which has achieved controversial success in the US. Although not all literacy authorities accept the research demonstrating that synthetic phonics is a superior method of learning to read, it is now government policy to promote it. And it seems to be filtering through, albeit quite slowly.

The path-dependent nature of illiteracy should not be underestimated. The report highlights Continue reading ‘why the rich get richer – read all about it’

Commentators often utter clichés in the face of luck, such as: “it is the same for both players.” Soccer commentator Alan Hansen once said something like this in relation to England’s penalty shoot-out in the Euro 2004 tournament, when captain David Beckham missed. It looked to all on the pitch that the ball moved a moment before Beckham struck it. Unfortunately, this possibility was quickly confined to the history books as yet another excuse for a poor England show. But the truth is that Portuguese players then had an advantage as they each ensured the ball was well placed on the apparently damaged penalty spot.

Turning to this week’s record-breakingly rain-drenched Wimbledon, is it the same for both players when the weather interrupts tennis? Continue reading ‘pray for rain, if you’re unfit’

Today at 6am another great British stereotype went up in smoke. England’s enclosed public spaces and workplaces became officially “smokefree”, following the recent examples of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. This means that the legendary hard-drinking, chain-smoking English pub regular will no longer be able to fill the air with acrid smoke as he props up the bar, and pubs may actually turn into pleasant places to be. Eastenders will certainly never be the same again. And what of that urban launderette experience of some pillock lighting up just when you’re folding your smalls?

That said, despite all the trumpeting about this being the best thing for our nation’s health in a generation etc, the Knackered Hack — who heartily approves of just about everything that’s healthy and life-enhancing — has his reservations. One of the founding principles of Knackerd-emia is to “do the opposite”*; in my case, most particularly to do the opposite of my nemesis, Michael Bloomberg, who allegedly tried to summons the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards for smoking on stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Where’s the satisfaction in that? Continue reading ‘no more coughing hacks’