Following on from the previous post about the liberalisation of prostitution, here’s another piece of unexpected sensible news.
The NHS in Wales will be the first in the UK to fund a cannabis-based medicine for people with multiple sclerosis. The drug in question is Sativex which has been on the market for some time.
Bravo for them as this is in line with current medical research, but directly contrary to the the recent draft NICE clinical guideline which rejected the drug for use on the NHS in Wales and England based, apparently, on a flawed assessment of its cost effectiveness.
You see, by chipping away, entrenched attitudes can be changed.
Wales 1, Blinkered Politicians 0
All posts by Keith
Internet Prostitution
There was a very interesting article in the Economist on 9 August under the headline “Prostitution: A Personal Choice”.
The first interesting thing is that such an august institution as the Economist does not support the UK government fetish of zero tolerance because the buying and selling of sex is dangerous, immoral etc. etc.
Instead the writer makes a number of points supported by recent research. First and foremost:
The internet is making the buying and selling of sex easier and safer. Governments should stop trying to ban it.
While they agree …
Some prostitutes do indeed suffer from trafficking, exploitation or violence; their abusers ought to end up in jail for their crimes. But for many, both male and female, sex work is just that: work.
This newspaper has never found it plausible that all prostitutes are victims … the commercial-sex trade [looks] more and more like a normal service industry.
They go on …
Moralisers will lament the shift online because it will cause the sex trade to grow strongly … But everyone else should cheer. Sex arranged online and sold from an apartment or hotel room is less bothersome for third parties than are brothels or red-light districts … the web will do more to make prostitution safer than any law has ever done. Pimps are less likely to be abusive if prostitutes have an alternative route to market. Specialist sites will enable buyers and sellers to assess risks more accurately. Apps and sites are springing up that will let them confirm each other’s identities and swap verified results from sexual-health tests. Schemes such as Britain’s Ugly Mugs allow prostitutes to circulate online details of clients to avoid.
Governments should seize the moment to rethink their policies. Prohibition, whether partial or total, has been a predictable dud. It has singularly failed to stamp out the sex trade.
Moreover …
The “Swedish model” [criminalising the purchase of sex instead of its sale] … is misguided, as a matter of both principle and practice. Banning the purchase of sex is as illiberal as banning its sale. Criminalisation of clients perpetuates the idea of all prostitutes as victims forced into the trade. Some certainly are — by violent partners, people-traffickers or drug addiction. But there are already harsh laws against assault and trafficking. Addicts need treatment, not a jail sentence …
Sweden’s avowed aim is to wipe out prostitution by eliminating demand. But the sex trade will always exist — and the new approach has done nothing to cut the harms associated with it.
And finally …
Prostitution is moving online whether governments like it or not. If they try to get in the way of the shift they will do harm … the unrealistic goal of ending the sex trade distracts the authorities from the genuine horrors of modern-day slavery … and child prostitution (better described as money changing hands to facilitate the rape of a child). Governments should focus on deterring and punishing such crimes — and leave consenting adults who wish to buy and sell sex to do so safely and privately online.
One day governments will start taking real notice of research findings and start understanding.
Something for the Weekend
This week’s cartoon is for all the adults out there …
Oddity of the Week: Electric Bacteria
No, it really isn’t 1 April, nor is this something out of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett …
Stick an electrode in the ground, pump electrons down it, and they will come: living cells that eat electricity. We have known bacteria to survive on a variety of energy sources, but none as weird as this. Think of Frankenstein’s monster, brought to life by galvanic energy, except these “electric bacteria” are very real and are popping up all over the place.
Unlike any other living thing on Earth, electric bacteria use energy in its purest form — naked electricity in the shape of electrons harvested from rocks and metals … Experiments growing bacteria on battery electrodes demonstrate that these novel, mind-boggling forms of life are essentially eating and excreting electricity.
That should not come as a complete surprise … we know that life, when you boil it right down, is a flow of electrons …
A few years ago, biologists discovered that some produce hair-like filaments that act as wires [see above], ferrying electrons back and forth between the cells and their wider environment … tens of thousands of electric bacteria can join together to form daisy chains that carry electrons over several centimetres … it means that bacteria living in, say, seabed mud where no oxygen penetrates, can access oxygen dissolved in the seawater simply by holding hands with their friends.
From: New Scientist; 19/07/2014. Read the full story (paywall).
Weekly Photograph
The City of Westminster seems to have gone mad this year with their hanging baskets. Or maybe they are just especially splendid due to the warm, and slightly damp, summer. Whichever they are magnificent. This one was in Mount Street, Mayfair, but all are the same extravagant display.
Hanging
Mayfair, August 2014
Ten Things #8
Ten things for August? Well the list was started because it’s holiday season, as you’ll see from number 1 on the list …
10 Smells I Love:
- The sea — which actually isn’t caused by ozone!
- Coffee — despite the fact that I hardly ever drink the stuff
- Elderflower
- Fresh bread
- Petrichor
- Roses
- Church incense
- Cinnamon — and Christmas
- Pine wood — that wonderful resiny smell
- Wood smoke — which takes me right back to my teenage years round the camp fire in the scouts
Small is so evocative, but different for all of us, with the power to instantly transport you somewhere else. I’m sure I could add another ten to that list quiet easily.
Something for the Weekend
I came upon this during the week. It tickled my funny bone.
Click the image for a larger version
Your Interesting Links
Another selection of the interesting and curious you may have missed. As usual, science-y stuff first and a rather more mixed bag than normal.
Did you know that for about 2 months of every year there is no night in the UK? No neither did I! This from IanVisits back in May.
Ants that eat electricity are heading for London. No it is 1st April!
[Phobia warning] While we’re on insects, scientists have found a gargantuan aquatic insect in China.
A very rare calico lobster has been caught off the coast of Maine. Rather attractive isn’t it! It’s still alive and on display in an aquarium, but will be returned to the sea later in the year.
On to things that are slightly more concerning. Apparently the environmental cost of beef is ten times that of other meat. But why didn’t they include lamb?
Next an interesting piece on why most of our domesticated animals have floppy ears.
My body makes funny noises. Yours probably does too, but maybe different ones. But why do bodies do these strange things?
Does your rainbow smell? As a “normal” person I find it hard to imagine what synaesthesia must be like. Here are a few insights.
Going back to food for a moment … Scientists are finding a surprisingly complex world of microbes in cheese rind. Yep, that’s what makes all these cheeses taste different.
It looks as if we may have been, and still are being, seriously misled all these years into thinking fat is harmful. Scientists are now suggesting this really isn’t so and dietary advice needs to be changed. Duh!
So stepping quickly into the world of medicine … On how the Great War helped create the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
At last some people are beginning to understand the way things work. Here’s a medical study which underlines that decriminalising sex work actually reduces HIV infections as well as violence etc.
Next up we have two interesting articles looking at whether women should or shouldn’t shave areas like legs and armpits: the first by Hadley Freeman in the Guardian; the second by Lucy Brisbane in the Evening Standard. Basically don’t fall into the trap of doing it because fashion etc. say you should. But think about it and shave or not, depending on whether you actually want to, not because of fashion or other people’s attitudes. Be yourself and remember the old adage: “Those that matter don’t mind, and those that mind don’t matter”.
For the historians amongst you, an interesting new theory on how our legends really began.
We’ll gradually bring the historical pieces up to date, so next a look at the naughty and scatological world of medieval marginalia.
A soldier’s lot hasn’t actually changed that much since the Battle of Hastings. Photographer Thom Atkinson displays the essential soldiering kit as it evolved over the last millennium.
Our favourite London cabbie reachee the end of his series on Waterloo Station with a look at the advent of the Eurostar terminal.
This has to be crazy museum piece of the year: an exhibition of broken relationships. Well it is in Brussels.
And finally I’ll leave you with two amusements. First a fractal giraffe. Secondly a display of tooth jewellery.
Anchors away!
Oddity of the Week: Gummy Bear Brat
Spencer Grundhofer, of Grundhofer’s Old Fashioned Meats in Hugo, Minnesota, makes Gummy Bear Bratwurst.
Full story at www.odditycentral.com/foods/minnesota-meat-shop-makes-gummy-bear-bratwursts.html.
Photograph of the Week
This week another from the archives. This young lady was wandering into Hammersmith Hospital one hot August day a couple of years ago.
Young Lady
Hammersmith Hospital; August 2012