"We are all either prisoner or guard"

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The Lucifer Effect – Phillip Zimbardo Your common or garden variety scientist generally only becomes noticed via some groundbreaking invention or earth shattering discovery. Psychologists take a somewhat different route they gather infamy either through setting up cults of personality (a harsh accusation perhaps – but not to wide of the mark I reckon) like Freud or they force people to electrocute others in the name of science like Milgram. (Although in fairness to Milgram he was only actually pretending so that’s ok really…) Milgrams high school classmate Phillip Zimbardo achieved fame by the tried and tested psychologist’s method of becoming infamous. Well rather Zimbardos’ experiment into the social psychology of imprisonment became infamous and cast a long shadow over the rest of his research. You may have heard of the Stanford prison Experiment (SPE), by which I mean the experiment and not the band (defiantly not the band!). If not know that Germaine Greer once...

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“Its political correctness gone mad” practically the modern equivalent of “I’m not a racist but…” (In terms of its use rather then its sentiment I stress to add – although in some cases the two are not entirely divorced.) A battle cry used to bemoan the passing of age old values (notably British and Christian in origin) or the increasing interference in our constitutional affairs from Brussels. It’s a rallying call against a world in which you have to sing “baa baa woolly sheep” and you have to celebrate “Winterval” instead of Christmas. Dear Lord what is the world coming to? Except, much like statistics, I suspect (and in some cases have proof) that 99.9% of political correctness gone mad stories are 100% made up on the spot. The so called “war on Xmas” being a particular favourite for news starved journalists in the festive seasons. The perfume and razor ads have barely started and the first tales of Birmingham city council (which gets quite a raw deal from the P.C....

A quick end of year catch up with Hank.

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Henry Rollins takes a few minutes out to share his thoughts.

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First up: I will be using some of my own recent hardships as a fan in this rant, but it's to prove a point. I will not be getting into a "Four Yorkshiremen" argument with others about who is the bigger fan, or who has suffered most. Any real football fan has had their moments of extreme ecstasy and also hit the depths so it's all relative. Secondly, this is not aimed at everyone who doesn't go to watch "their" team. Some people work, some people can't get tickets, some people have other reasons for not going to the ground. But still they follow their team with the same zeal as us idiots who pay in week-in week-out to see your left midfielder not trying hard enough and to get a piece of freezing gristle in your mouth when you buy a "pie". I once only had five pounds to my name when Morton were due to play Cowdenbeath midweek. It's a two hour walk to Cappielow and a fiver in. It would cost another £4 to get buses there and back. I left my house at five to...

JennyPiccolo on te Lust that dare not speak it's name.

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Neds are hot. Believe it.

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I apologise in advance for my Carrie Bradshaw-esque endless rhetoric, but in a subculture where bisexuality, promiscuity, and open relationships are not unusual, where does it leave the soft-hearted young fools like me? I'm sick of only consummating a relationship after fourteen pints of diesel, or lying alone between bouts of intercourse while the eager young man fucks off for a joint or a game on the Playstation, or worse, to write on the forum. I'm sick of chat-up lines like 'I'd cheat on my girlfriend for you' or 'It's five to three, if you were gonna pull someone better, you would have by now'. Have we always been cold, hard people, or do we just treat each other badly because that's the way we're always treated, just because we're different? To look at, I'm hardly a beacon of alternative culture, but it's the only 'scene' if you will, where I've been able to feel comfortable. As an essentially weird person, I only ever felt I fit in surroundings where eccentricities...

In Praise of the Diddy Teams

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"FIFA has a huge responsibility to reach out and touch the world, using football as a symbol of hope and integration". - The FIFA mission Gibraltar got dingied from having their national team become a full member of UEFA recently. This is despite the court of arbitration of sport giving it the OK and Gibraltar being a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). I know a lot of people think there are too many diddy teams but Gibraltar surely have as much right to play as Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Wales or the Faroe Islands. Where is the harm in playing Andorra, San Marino or Liechtenstein twice over the course of two years? The spokesmen for the Football Association, Deutscher Fußball-Bund (Germany's governing body of football) and Fédération Française de Footbal (The French Football Federation), amongst others, who have raised concern must surely be more afraid of a humiliating defeat to themselves rather than what is best for the game. Spain's UEFA...

Dave

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Does laughing at tragic events mean that we have become a jaded and cynical society? Is the media responsible?

A quick look at the action, or lack of, taken by the game’s authorities to combat homophobia

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Looking at the lack of action taken to combat homophobia in football and also looking at the tragic case of Justin Fashanu

If Merseyside needed an enema they’d plug it in here

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A wee guide to New Brighton