It has been known for close relatives to forget my birthday, so I was very interested to read at the British Psychological Society blog that a study has shown that people who are dogmatic have poorer working memory. That explains everything.

Behavioural economists have shown that we overestimate how much gym time we will use when signing up for monthly or annual health club membership; we’d be better off paying for individual sessions.

That’s certainly my experience. I was a member of a gym behind Fleet Street for a number of years, and never lifted a single weight. Membership was subsidised (modestly), but this was not complete profligacy, or an egregious triumph of hope over experience; the purpose of my membership was really to use the showers. My exercise regime involved riding a bike to work 130 miles a week in all weathers, so access to a shower was mandatory. I rode flat out, had no concept of rest and recovery, and would end up knackered, or — more scientifically — suffering from overtraining syndrome.

The idea of modulating effort and choosing to have rest days never crossed my mind — the mutant puritan gene at work. Progressively, after riding home from 12-hour days late in the evening following frequently pointless conference calls with New York head office, all the benefits of this excercise started to go into reverse. Continue reading ‘gym fees require heavy lifting’

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’

Today’s news from Bath is that it’s wet and windy out there — as is traditional for British Bank Holidays and school vacations. It looks like the walk to the park to play ball with the kids is off. Which is a shame, for more reasons than one.

Environmental psychologists have known for a while that green areas are psychologically good for us, helping us to recover from mental wear and tear. But now the good people at the universities of Sheffield and De Montfort, Leicester have found that some green spaces are better for us than others.

When it comes to urban green spaces, mental health benefits increase with the level of biodiversity, Dr Richard Fuller (Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield) and colleagues have found. A green area rich in species is better for us than an equally green area with fewer species. And we seem to be pretty good at assessing how many kinds of species live in urban parks, just by looking at the plants.

The researchers point out that the world’s human population is increasingly concentrated in cities, isolated from nature. So perhaps we should now be investing the municipal parks manager with much higher importance. S/he is providing something of more profound human value than just pandering to preferences for busy lizzies or pansies.

Hat tip to The Situationist for alerting us to this story.

So I went to London for a few days, then came home and went training. Not too arduous you’d think, but there was some background stress coming from one particular stakeholder. And with one child (aka Chip off the Old Hack) already down with a cold, it could not be long before man-flu symptoms started to manifest themselves at the head of the household.

Now, I think I have mentioned before that I have an evolutionary theory for man-flu, of which I’m sure Art de Vany would be proud. Man-flu is predominantly a British expression for a headcold requiring the male of the species to become totally inactive and self-pitying. One of the key symptoms of man-flu is a general lack of sympathy from the female of the species, who is genetically resistant to the strain (although not to the strain of having to take care of him).

My theory, which I’ll elaborate when I’ve next got time, has been accepted by three evolutionary biologists, so I feel confident that a paper would get approved and peer reviewed in some eminent journal, so long as the panel was all male. The only woman academic I’ve suggested it to just scoffed. But then I don’t think she fully appreciated the media value of the story, and got too hung up on the need for evidence.

Anyway, so apologies for those who keep coming back looking for more on Nassim Taleb.