Reading for Battle
Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.
Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.
Health & Well-being
Can Preschoolers Be Depressed?
Is it really possible to diagnose such a grown-up affliction in such a young child? And is diagnosing clinical depression in a preschooler a good idea, or are children that young too immature, too changeable, too temperamental to be laden with such a momentous label?
Pamela Paul, New York Times, 25 August 2010
Is it really possible to diagnose such a grown-up affliction in such a young child? And is diagnosing clinical depression in a preschooler a good idea, or are children that young too immature, too changeable, too temperamental to be laden with such a momentous label?
Pamela Paul, New York Times, 25 August 2010
Exploring Happiness
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.” At first glance, the nursery song appears to stipulate a redundant condition. Happiness is a feeling: isn’t being happy the same as knowing you’re happy?
Marek Kohn, Financial Times, 21 August 2010
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.” At first glance, the nursery song appears to stipulate a redundant condition. Happiness is a feeling: isn’t being happy the same as knowing you’re happy?
Marek Kohn, Financial Times, 21 August 2010
Nick Clegg: good parenting, not poverty, shape a child's destiny
Bad parenting does more to hold back poor children than poverty, Nick Clegg has said.
Daily Telegraph, 18 August 2010
Bad parenting does more to hold back poor children than poverty, Nick Clegg has said.
Daily Telegraph, 18 August 2010
The secret of happiness: Family, friends and your environment
How do you find contentment in an acquisitive society? By changing the things you spend your money on, says a US academic
Rachel Shields, Indpendent, 15 August 2010
How do you find contentment in an acquisitive society? By changing the things you spend your money on, says a US academic
Rachel Shields, Indpendent, 15 August 2010
Let’s call time on this flood of useless booze rules
Politicians seem not to realise that civilised drinking is the product of social regulation, not official regulation.
Josie Appleton, The Times, 13 August 2010
Politicians seem not to realise that civilised drinking is the product of social regulation, not official regulation.
Josie Appleton, The Times, 13 August 2010
'Statins with your burger?' Doctors want heart pills on menu
Cardiologists propose putting pills beside salt and ketchup to balance heart disease risk
Denis Campbell, Guardian, 12 August 2010
Cardiologists propose putting pills beside salt and ketchup to balance heart disease risk
Denis Campbell, Guardian, 12 August 2010
We've only got ourselves to blame for the indestructible Indian superbug
The evolution of the 'New Delhi' strain is unsurprising. Mass international travel and in particular medical tourism - which has seen thousands of people from wealthy countries travelling to places such as India and Pakistan, often for cheap plastic surgery - has led to the rapid evolution and spread of diseases such as this.
Michael Hanlon, Daily Mail, 12 August 2010
The evolution of the 'New Delhi' strain is unsurprising. Mass international travel and in particular medical tourism - which has seen thousands of people from wealthy countries travelling to places such as India and Pakistan, often for cheap plastic surgery - has led to the rapid evolution and spread of diseases such as this.
Michael Hanlon, Daily Mail, 12 August 2010
Parenting isn’t a bunch of skills that can be taught
Frank Field’s proposal to have a GCSE in parenting would denigrate both what it means to be a parent and the purpose of education.
Frank Furedi, spiked, 10 August 2010
Frank Field’s proposal to have a GCSE in parenting would denigrate both what it means to be a parent and the purpose of education.
Frank Furedi, spiked, 10 August 2010
Public health, private lives
But even where the science is clear cut, how far should we go to cut our life according to its (potential) optimum length? Is it not a matter of personal choice whether we choose to risk our life and health by indulging in pies, whisky and cigarettes (or, for that matter, canoeing, ecstasy and hang gliding)?
Timandra Harkness, Prospect, 9 August 2010
But even where the science is clear cut, how far should we go to cut our life according to its (potential) optimum length? Is it not a matter of personal choice whether we choose to risk our life and health by indulging in pies, whisky and cigarettes (or, for that matter, canoeing, ecstasy and hang gliding)?
Timandra Harkness, Prospect, 9 August 2010
Read, eat well and keep spirits high to avoid dementia
Keeping one's brain active, trying not to become depressed and eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables are the best ways to ward off developing dementia, a study of almost 1,500 volunteers has found.
Stephen Adams, Daily Telegraph, 6 August 2010
Keeping one's brain active, trying not to become depressed and eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables are the best ways to ward off developing dementia, a study of almost 1,500 volunteers has found.
Stephen Adams, Daily Telegraph, 6 August 2010
Your conscience, my health: the right to refuse?
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