Night Owls, 2085 Students, and Blackest is the New Black!

Where would be without psychologists? Of course this is a rhetorical question as we would be where we are with or without psychologists, but last week I was intrigued to learn from Sunita Sah, a professor in business ethics (sounds rather like an oxymoron) and a psychologist, that 'morning people' are more likely to cheat and behave unethically in the night hours. Now I get up every day at 05.00, but by 23.00 I am usually in bed fast asleep. So much for being a badly behaved night owl!

On Tuesday the only Graduation Ceremony I didn't take part in was No 4, which was the one where the psychology students from our College were graduating. At the first 3 ceremonies I presented our students, all 2085 of them! As always it was a wonderful celebration of their achievements. It was a nightmare time for me – I love being on the stage, 4 million watching on-line, but my nemesis is name pronunciation! My erstwhile and steadfast colleague, Janice provides me with a sporting chance to get the names phonetically correct, many, many thanks as always Janice for your help.

I did watch myself on YouTube for all of 75 seconds, before turning off. Watching myself I wished I had invested in robes made from the new black –Vantablack. Described last week in the media as 'blackest is the new black'. This is a material so black that it absorbs all but 0.35% of visual light. The material is made up of carbon nanotubes, each 10,000 tines thinner than a single human hair – it’s so black that the human eye cannot understand what its seeing. Shapes and outlines are lost, leaving nothing but an apparent visual abyss.

It seems that if I was to have an Armani suit made from this material (there are other suits you might want to consider buying) my head, hands and feet would appear to float somewhat corporeally around a suit shaped hole. In effect, I would disappear. Making me wince slightly, (in terms of disappearing), was Mel Campbell, writing in the Guardian newspaper (I know, I know, but we all have to earn a living) – she was mourning the passing of that old fashioned, some would say quaint, phenomena called a blog.

It appears that today's in the know people (usually described as young) don't do blogs anymore. Blogs are dead, long live 'WhatsApp; Snapchat; Tumblr; Instagram; and Vine'. This is where folks today go to find their instant interaction, news, information, emotional moments, and so on. Maybe you are reading this posting and are now asking yourself why - indeed a question my Father asks me every so often is why do I write my blog? - well for some 5 years I have written this blog as a means of saying things that perhaps I don’t get to say during the week. I dare to think at times it’s creative and interesting. I will be up at at 05.00 next Sunday writing and posting my thoughts. Thank you for continuing to read my musings whatever time of day you choose to do so!