May 2017 – Jack Sanger

The Despotic Mongol, the Animated Iranian and the Abducted Child

When I’m in London I become a cineaste first, gallery viewer second and eater, third. Theatre has drifted down my list. of priorities. I find it harder than ever to suspend my disbelief, except on first nights when the adrenaline is burning through the actors. But, then, tickets are at a premium and I don’t… Know More
Read more: The Despotic Mongol, the Animated Iranian and the Abducted Child
Too much knowledge is a dangerous thing

Reading the paper over coffee this morning I noticed that Health Ministers are giving the go ahead for hospital consultants’ success and failure rates to be put on-line. This could be as bad as it gets for patients. Some time ago now I developed one of the first appraisal systems for top medical professionals. An… Know More
Read more: Too much knowledge is a dangerous thing
It’s a load of Balls Ed

For some time the dubious solutions to failure in the private sector have been imported into the ‘uncompetitive’ public sector. The assumption behind the strategy is that by introducing competition, then standards rise. Thus, cleaning firms win the right to increase MRSA in hospitals by offering minimum wages, rock bottom tenders and dirty floor cloths.… Know More
Read more: It’s a load of Balls Ed
The bald shall not inherit the earth

Some research says baldness can be equated with extra virility in men but that cuts no ice in today’s desire for a beautiful, undifferentiated ‘norm’. Scientists have found a way to extract hair-producing cells from my scalp and propagate them in the laboratory before injecting them in my bald area and waiting for them, like… Know More
Read more: The bald shall not inherit the earth
High speed junk

Being an academic by profession enabled me to be in at the beginning of the computer revolution. At home I ensured we had everything from ZX Spectrums and Amstrads on. My MA dissertation was typed on a golf ball and my PhD thesis was word processed. In the former, when I inadvertently put down the… Know More
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Eating time

We have all some knowledge of our biological clocks – not the ones that tell us our libidos are under threat – the others, the ones that tell us to go to sleep. When we are jetlagged it is because we have contravened a basic regulatory mechanism in our cells. Our eyes don’t like light… Know More
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Who are you, who who, who, who…?

The Embryology Bill is to be placed before the House of Commons this week. It is full of the most intractable issues but the one I’d like to ponder on here is the use of animal and human mixed gene experimentation. Being somewhat older in the tooth (but feeling every day younger in the brain),… Know More
Read more: Who are you, who who, who, who…?
Still gathering no moss in their sixties

Of course those of us of a certain age have grown up with the Stones. We decided (or didn’t) that they represented our sexual drive in a way that the more melodic and less edgy Beatles never could. Their lyrics were more dangerous. They lived as our alter egos. Jagger’s fey athleticism appealed to boys… Know More
Read more: Still gathering no moss in their sixties
The Sweet Tooth Fairies

When I received my PhD all those years ago, all the new doctorates in the country were revealed in some academic journal, I can’t remember which. Anyway, it was engrossing to discover what parallel brains had been working on during the four years I had slaved (with, I admit, mixed results). I have long felt… Know More
Read more: The Sweet Tooth Fairies
The revolt of the cyber no-brainers

There was an article this week in the Sunday Times about the latest research being done by Professor Susan Greenfield, a front-edge thinker on the degeneration of the brain, as a result of ageing, disease, trauma and so on. She has produced a book on the subject: ID: the Quest for Identity in the 21st… Know More
Read more: The revolt of the cyber no-brainers

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