Family Names

I was ten when my mother changed our name from Greenberg to Greene. I had no idea why she did this, nor, presumably, did she. It had to do with the breakup of her marriage, that was clear-she no longer wanted his name. But why, I asked later, when I was old enough to wonder about such things, didn\u27t she go back to her maiden name

The Power of Speech/ To Stir Men\u27s Blood : The Language of Tragedy in Shakespeare\u27s Julius Caesar

In the Rome of julius Caesar, language is power and characters rise or fall on the basis of their ability to wield words. Their awareness of the importance of language is indicated by terms they associate with it

Feminist Fiction and the Uses of Memory

All writers are concerned with memory, since all writing is a remembrance of things past; all writers draw on the past, mine it as a quarry. Memory is especially important to anyone who cares about change, for forgetting dooms us to repetition;and it is of particular importance to feminists

A Bedtime Story

As we begin National Sleep Awareness Week, that time of year we set the clocks forward, the National Sleep Foundation is busily Waking America to the Importance of Sleep. A fine and laudable mission, but I wonder, as I watch sleep get its twice-annual 15 minutes of fame --what about those of us who just can\u27t sleep

Why We Can\u27t Sleep

Can\u27t sleep? Well you\u27re not alone, especially among women. A 2007 poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that 67 percent of women frequently experience sleep problems and 29 percent use some type of sleep aid at least a few nights a week. Other surveys have consistently found that nearly half again as many women as men complain of insomnia

Confessions of an Angry Insomniac

The first thing to go is your sense of humour. Then it\u27s the desire to do the things you used to do, and then the desire to do anything at all. Parts of your body ache that you don\u27t even know the names of, and your eyes forget how to focus. Words you once knew aren\u27t there any more, and there\u27s less and less to say. People you once cared about fall by the wayside and you let them go, too

Science with a Skew: The Nuclear Power Industry after Chernobyl and Fukushima

It is one of the marvels of our time that the nuclear industry managed to resurrect itself from its ruins at the end of the last century, when it crumbled under its costs, inefficiencies, and mega-accidents. Chernobyl released hundreds of times the radioactivity of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined, contaminating more than 40% of Europe and the entire Northern Hemisphere. But along came the nuclear lobby to breathe new life into the industry, passing off as “clean” this energy source that polluted half the globe. The “fresh look at nuclear”—in the words of a New York Times makeover piece (May 13, 2006)—paved the way to a “nuclear Renaissance” in the United States that Fukushima has by no means brought to a halt

Snooze Alarm: What the Deaths of Celebrities Can Teach Us About the Dangers of Insomnia

When a star dies from an overdose, there\u27s a tendency to write it off as drug abuse. That amazing combination of drugs in Heath Ledger\u27s body, for instance -- what was he thinking? Blame the celebrity, chalk it up to reckless living, a self-destructive lifestyle, a pursuit of pleasure through recreational drugs. But the drugs that killed Ledger -- three types of benzodiazepines, an antihistamine, two pain relievers -- are all substances people take for sleep

Autism and the U.K. secondary school experience

This research investigated the self-reported mainstream school experiences of those diagnosed on the autistic spectrum compared with the typically developing school population. Existing literature identifies four key areas that affect the quality of the school experience for students with autism: social skills, perceived relationships with teaching staff, general school functioning, and interpersonal strengths of the young person. These areas were explored in a mainstream U.K. secondary school with 14 students with autism and 14 age and gender matched students without autism, using self-report questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative analyses showed consistent school experiences for both groups, although content analysis of interview data highlighted some differences in the ways in which the groups perceive group work, peers, and teaching staff within school. Implications for school inclusion are discussed, drawing attention to how staff awareness of autism could improve school experience and success for students with autism attending mainstream schools