Hello and welcome to the TCC Weekly.

This week, with half of our office decamping to Somerset, we remove our ear from the ground and turn it instead to the Pyramid Stage, in a Glastonbury-themed special edition (only partially brought on by the sudden absence of staff). We’re not going to go to quite the lengths of sister publication The Guardian who’ve produced a Live Blog on the weather there, but rest assured we’re not far off.

Having always been bastions of counter-culture and all things avant-garde, TCC obviously has no problem turning its hand to this. Look forwards, among other things, to our Kanye West “Can’t tell me nothing” Behaviour Change section, our Florence and the Machine “Rabbit Heart” themed Health Hub, and of course – re-named for one week only – Charlie’s Field. (If some or all of these references are lost on you then we totally understand).

So remove your finger from the pulse, use it instead to wave a lighter in the air, and enjoy our socio-psychological lowdown.

David Evans
Director
 

• Behaviour Change ~ Why loud, aggressive tunes are more soothing than Whale music
• Polls, Policies and Politics ~ Could Corbyn win?
• Health Hub ~ The skinny jeans time bomb affecting public health
• Values Lab ~ We look at hedonism through the values lens
• Charlie’s Field ~ Pythons, psychoanalysing Harry Potter, and the answer to how much you’d be earning if wages went up in line with Glastonbury ticket prices

• First up this week – and something of particular relevance for infirm festival-goers – a new study has found that, as well as assuaging emotional problems, music can actually heal physical symptoms. But choosing a genre can of course be tricky. A separate piece of research may help with this, claiming that aggressive and “extreme” music – such as that of the tranquil-sounding Five Finger Death Punch – is actually more soothing than quiet or slow music.
• On the subject of emotional healing, Thomas Scheff this week argues that a failure to engage with the issue of emotion is part of the reason psychology is failing. As a separate report explains, emotional brains are physically different to rational ones.
• On the topic of irrational decisions, a new study has found that some teen brains are “hard wired” to make risky choices, thanks to a shorter working memory. But for parents thinking strong-armed tactics are the way to tame teens, take note of the following finding: yelling at youngsters doesn’t work, and can often bury aggression rather than channelling it.
• Meanwhile this week, Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis could be up against the behaviour change conundrum to end all behaviour change conundrums – namely that of stopping public urination (which damages the environment). Will a public statement do the trick? We fear not!
• Not everyone’s bothered about the planet of course, so for those of you who aren’t why not take advantage of private jets to Somerset that Addison Lee are apparently piloting this year.
• Also this week, if you’re dancing in a field it may be hard to believe that anything more than love is ever needed. But break-ups do happen, so take a look at these end-of-relationship letters from philosophers for guidance. Hopefully you won’t opt for the vile new app being billed as “the tinder of breaking up”.
• And finally – just to doubly affirm that we’re down with the kids – have you ever wondered why you swipe right on tinder, not left, to if you’re interested in someone? If not/ if so here’s the explanation. Rest assured it’s not entirely random.

• Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour candidate most likely to appease the Glastonbury hoards, this week won an unlikely endorsement – in the form of one Michael Gove. But is the veteran leftie as much of an outsider in the contest as he’s painted as, some are asking?
• That said, perhaps Gove is himself not so far from being a radical? His suggestion law firms should pay more legal aid certainly suggests…well let’s not go over the top, but it’s moderately progressive.
• Alan Milburn, meanwhile, makes a more predictable Labour endorsement, by backing Liz Kendall and labelling Margaret Thatcher a “great” like Blair. And if it’s Maggie’s qualities we should be looking for then Michael Deacon suggests Kendall certainly fits the bill – on the basis that she’d respond more stoutly to someone stealing her sandwich than any of the other Labour candidates!
• Meanwhile your enemy’s enemy might be your friend, but when it comes to the politics Hard Left it seems your enemy’s friend is always your enemy – as Russell Brand discovered last weekend, when he was slated by anti-austerity protesters for having supported Far Right Capitalist Barons The Labour Party.
• Also this week:
  o   With Greece and Spain shifting leftwards, why are similarly beleaguered Portugal sticking so resolutely to the austerity agenda
  o   New research has shown that the UK has far and away the most expensive private rental sector in Europe

• To return to our central theme – events on Worthy Farm – several health risks associated with festival going have been identified this week. These include the risk of trench foot (a disorder which we thought had declined in the UK along with dysentery and gout), and the dangers of wearing skinny jeans. Indeed, the swollen calf Time Bomb is emerging as the preeminent public health crisis of the day.
• The Atkins Diet seemed obscure enough to us, but this week there's a slimming technique which really takes the biscuit. The answer to losing weight, a new study says, is quite simple: join the Conservative Party. Tories are apparently more predisposed to lose weight than less individually responsible lefties! Here at TCC we say that's stuff and nonsense; the reasons that our waistlines are so resolutely girthy are clear, and pertain solely to the inherent contradictions of capitalism.
• Meanwhile, to turn to public health matters a little more pressing, a Lancet-funded Climate Health Commission study this week has suggested that improving public health and solving climate change are effectively two sides of the same coin. Click here to understand why.
• Finally, for the tech-savvy and the health conscious, there are two gadgets this week which might get you going:
  o   A new tool which could allow blind people to “see” with their tongue
  o   A personal trainer app offering live feedback

• Find out how Glastonbury prices compare with inflation – and how much you’d be earning if wages went up in line with ticket prices.
• Understand the unlikely science at play in Stonehenge’s Pagan Summer Solstice festival.
• Learn whether Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (as Philip K Dick asked)? The answer, Facebook and Google can now tell us, is no: they dream of seals dressed as knights riding horses.
• Continue the literary theme and psychoanalyse the Dursleys in Harry Potter, with a little help from author J K Rowling.
• Read The Monopolists, the book explaining board game Monopoly’s tangled past.
• Have your stomach turned by the health and safety scandal involving food frozen since the 1970s – that’s the nineteen seventies – being sold as fresh.
• Tut at Daily Mail clickbait such as this article about a python getting its head stuck in the pavement (which we’re of course more than willing to circulate ourselves).
• Use the new app that lets you conduct polling on your mobile.
• And finally, to return to our overriding theme, here are the 6 sociological sub-groups at Glastonbury to avoid if you’re going and thank heaven you’ve side-stepped if you’re not. Whatever you’re doing, have a great weekend!