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Continue reading →: W3 Prompt #163: Wea’ve Written WeeklyHere’s my competition entry: a pair of reversible rhyming sonnets. The first (“Fragments”), inspired by last week’s winner – That Summer by Kim Whysall-Hammond – serves as the input. The second (“Transitions”) draws from one of the scrambled variations generated by the delightfully bonkers N+7 Machine. A mind-bogglingly tricky brief…
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Continue reading →: Mary Allen Wilkes: The Forgotten Pioneer Who Brought Computing HomeMary Allen Wilkes, an eighth-grade geography teacher’s student, became a pioneering computer programmer who developed the operating system for one of the first personal computers, the LINC. Despite substantial contributions, she faced gender discrimination, with her work often underestimated. Wilkes later pursued a successful legal career, highlighting women’s vital role…
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Continue reading →: The Validity Crisis in Mental Health Diagnosis: Between Science and Social ConstructionThe debate in psychiatry centres on whether mental illness diagnoses are genuine medical conditions or social constructs. The DSM provides a framework for diagnosis but lacks biological validity, relying instead on subjective symptom checklists. Criticisms include potential overdiagnosis, cultural biases, and the impact on stigma and healthcare access. Future approaches…
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Continue reading →: The Philosopher’s Storm11th June, 173 AD – The Rain-Soaked Battlefields of Moravia (modern day Czech Republic) The mud beneath my sandals tells the story of empire better than any historian’s scroll. Each squelching step through this Moravian marsh speaks of Rome’s reach—how far we have stretched our fingers from the seven hills,…
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Continue reading →: The Brilliant Mind Behind the Cori Cycle: Gerty Cori’s Battle for Scientific RecognitionGerty Cori, the first American woman Nobel laureate in Medicine, fought against systemic sexism throughout her career. Despite groundbreaking contributions to biochemistry, notably the Cori cycle, she faced significant institutional barriers and under-recognition. Her story highlights the ongoing bias women encounter in science and the crucial need to acknowledge their…
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Continue reading →: “I Talk to ChatGPT About My Hyperfixations”: What This 12-Year-Old Taught Me About Loneliness in the Digital AgeA twelve-year-old girl reveals that she confides her hyperfixations to ChatGPT, highlighting a concerning trend where children seek companionship from AI due to adults’ emotional unavailability. This reflects a deeper epidemic of loneliness among youth, illustrating the urgent need for genuine listening and engagement from caregivers instead of relying on…
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Continue reading →: The Emperor’s LanternCordoba, Al-Andalus (modern-day Spain), 10th June, 950 AD The tenth day of June in the year 950 of the Christian calendar found me, Zahra bint Farid, bent over my writing table in the cool shadows of the royal scriptorium, my reed pen dancing across vellum as I copied verses from…
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Continue reading →: Annie Maunder: The Brilliant Astronomer Denied Her DueAnnie Scott Dill Maunder, a pioneering mathematician and astronomer, faced systemic sexism in Victorian Britain, leading to her contributions being ignored or attributed to her male peers. Despite her groundbreaking work in solar astronomy and climate science, she encountered barriers like lack of formal recognition, unequal pay, and institutionalised discrimination…
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Continue reading →: The Structure-Agency Divide: How Sociology’s Greatest Debate Obscures Real Solutions to Social InequalityThe debate between structural forces and individual agency highlights conflicting views on power and responsibility in addressing social inequalities. Structuralists view institutions as primary determinants, while agency theorists emphasise personal capacity for change. This binary oversimplifies the interaction of both, which is essential for effective social justice interventions and understanding…
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Continue reading →: Taglines of EmpireConstantinople, Byzantine Empire — 9th June, 813 CE The Chronicle Begins I, Callistus of the Monastery of St John Stoudios, set quill to parchment on this ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord eight hundred and thirteen, as Constantinople trembles beneath the weight of empire’s shifting foundations.…
Feign the virtue thou dost seek, till it becometh thine own
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