Television violence

Still reading Freud’s essay at reference 1 which I reported on at reference 2, given Freud’s emphasis on the important of violence in our makeup and in the way we organise ourselves, I thought it would be well to take another opinion on same, starting with the fine book at reference 3, which I first read more than ten years ago.

This led to Willard W Hartup, which led to the affordable reference 4. In which connection the large variation of price of second-hand books on the Internet continues to surprise me. The market is far from perfect – in the sense that economists used to use the word – and it is often worth checking. In this case, a book of some 600 pages, made up of papers given at a conference in Monte Carlo on aggression, organised by NATO in 1973. My copy formerly owned by someone at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. 

And I recall some people from that time starting to get a bit uneasy about the amount of science which was being sponsored by the US Department of Defense. Did you really want to take the Defense Shilling, as it were?

Turning the pages of reference 4 led to the paper about television violence and children’s aggression at reference 5. Robert E Liebert was a professor for many years at SUNY of reference 6 and looks to have done a lot of work on this subject – although, oddly, apart from his various books, for example at Abebooks, he is more or less invisible on the Internet. And invisible at SUNY, despite being there for around thirty years.

Now I have often wondered whether violence on television serves to sublimate or promote violence, so I was interested to read that, on the basis of more than 50 studies in the US alone, involving more than 10,000 children, Liebert concludes that ‘there is a statistically reliable and socially significant relationship between the amount of violence that a child sees on entertainment television and the degree to which he becomes aggressive in his attitude and behaviour’. He discounts the one dissenting study. Violence on children’s television was clearly a topic of considerable interest at that time.

I have also looked at reference 7. This was a report of an experiment done with about 140 children, half boys and half girls. Half were shown a short film with aggressive content, half were shown a non-violent film. Immediately after the showing, the children were tested for aggression in two stages. The second stage involved watching them at play, but the first stage involved giving children buttons to press which it was said could hurt or help an unseen child. An unseen child who did not in fact exist. I don’t suppose such an experiment would be regarded as proper now, but the key result is summarised in the snap above. It seems reasonably clear that watching violence promoted violence, with a bigger effect for boys than for girls.

While in the interview at reference 8, Liebert affirms that violence on television does not sublimate innate violence, does not allow children and others to blow off aggression harmlessly. He also tells us that televised action attracts, as well as just violence.

Fifty years later than the book with which I started, I am aware of several successful and non-violent television programs for children: ‘Sesame Street’, ‘Peppa Pig’ and ‘Big Cook Little Cook’. And not all computer games are violent, thinking here of ‘Super Mario Kart’, a favourite of one of my own children. Perhaps, collectively, we have learned: we have successfully promoted non-violent entertainment for children.

But it would be interesting to find out whether Liebert’s work has stood the test of time. Maybe that will come.

References

Reference 1: Civilization and its discontents – S. Freud – 1930.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/interim-report-no1.html. 

Reference 3: The evolution of childhood: Relationships, emotion, mind – Melvin Konner – 2010. 

Reference 4: Determinants and origins of aggressive behavior – edited by Jan de Wit, Willard W Hartup – 1974. 

Reference 5: Television violence and children’s aggression: The weight of the evidence – Robert E Liebert – 1972.

Reference 6: https://www.suny.edu/. 

Reference 7: Some Immediate Effects of Televised Violence on Children's Behavior – Liebert, Barron – 1973.

Reference 8: How children react to graphic violence on TV, real and fake – Sandra J. Weber, Robert M Liebert, New York Times – 1991. A newspaper interview be found at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1991/02/10/854891.html?pageNumber=224. 

Two circuits

The morning circuit involved a modest amount of shopping, so I decided on the trolley.

With the first item of interest being a fine display of dandelions on the south facing bank to the western entrance to the West Hill rail bridge. The best display I have seen this year. One can only suppose that they like the sun.

Then heading back over Clay Hill Green, a fine display of celandines. Ours our coming out in the back garden, but they are not getting the sun that these ones do. Pity I failed to eliminate the shadow.

With a bonus being the arrival of the green alkanet. Perhaps a week earlier than last year's first sighting, noticed at reference 1.

I did try for an art shot of some handsome tulips, but once again the telephone could not really cope with the bright floral colours.

On the second circuit, I probably solved the blue-black car problem mentioned at reference 3 by the simple expedient of making a note of the registration number. After which carcheck tells me that what we have a 2025 BMW X3 XDrive20 M Sport MHEV blue auto. I guess the '25' in the registration number was a clue. Bing suggests of the order of £50,000 new - which is rather more than we plan to spend on our next car, assuming that is that we get as far as one. And I failed to find it in the depths of reference 4.

But at least on this occasion, my notion that black had changed to blue was actually correct.

Then having got through town, some of the white alkanet (?) which got me exercised about this time last year. This underneath the advertising hoarding at the top of Hook Road. For an episode from the last series, see reference 2.

Close up of same.

Much action at the old Majestic site.

While opposite, an office building which was given a wash and brush up last year, is now suggesting conversion to residential. Which I would have thought would cost a good deal - all those new services to be put in for a start - but presumably less than starting from scratch.

For the first time for a little while I made it to the Screwfix underpass. Looks rather more bright and cheerful in the snap above than it does in real life!

PS 1: the small and scruffy flyer snapped above was thrust into my hand by a young lady as I was crossing Hook Road, just before I got to the white alkanet (?). The god lot are going to have to do a bit better than this to catch this one.

Furthermore, I failed to make much sense of the address given bottom right.

PS 2: a correspondent has reminded me of the times we have stayed in the Beachcroft hotel, a few yards to the east of the Butlin's at Bognor, the place called 'Holiday Centre' in the snap above. Also that while Bognor itself might be a bit run down, like many another seaside resort, there is also some very fancy housing to both east and west, particularly west. See references 5 and 6 for some of this. Visits which failed to restart after the plague. Maybe this year?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/trolley-667.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/03/white-alkanet.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/fishy-polesden.html.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_X3.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=bognor. I notice here, along with Bognor, what appears to be an unscored Wellingtonia at Petworth.

Reference 6: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=bognor.

Boundaries

A morning digression.

When one makes images on paper with a pencil one is apt to draw outlines. As a beginner, that is likely all that one does. If one is not a beginner, perhaps something like the snap above (from reference 1).

Or if one is making an image on a wood block with a burin. At least, if you are an engraver who follows in the steps of Eric Gill.

But the real world, on the whole, is not like that. If you view an object, there is a point of view and the boundary of the object as seen from that point of view, is unlikely to have a marked boundary. You just have one mass of colour meeting another mass of colour, perhaps in something approximating to a straight line, in the way of the snap above, lifted from reference 2.

But there are exceptions. A picture on the wall, a rather special sort of object, is likely to be framed by a frame, although there is something of a fashion these days for frame-free presentation.

Another, illustrated by the snap at the top of this post, is where the lighting and the object combine to produce more or less black boundaries on white. Where incident light is trapped in some crack or crevice, which thus appears black.

Yet another, my starting point, is where the light is behind some material which does not have a sharply defined surface, say a cotton sheet rather than a slab of smooth but matt stone. In the latter case, one just gets two masses of colour meeting, without a boundary. But in the former case, you may get a white boundary between two darker masses. Somehow, enough light is getting trapped on the surface so that when viewed tangentially, as it is at a boundary, that boundary appears as a white line.

I have not been able to make my own image of this effect, but Holman Hunt clearly knew all about it. As can be seen, for example, on the top boundaries of some of the sheep and in the glow around the cliff dropping down to the left.

Will I be prompted to take a proper look at reference 4, picked up from somewhere years ago, and not much looked at since?

Is this something that the creationists of Epsom get into, or are they too busy with their big power tools being conceptual? I don't suppose that this is a matter on which reference 5 would be helpful.

[The CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Credit: Piotr Traczyk/CERN]

PS: not relevant here, but interested to read over breakfast, in yesterday's Observer, about the upcoming collider battle, for which see reference 6. And for some old news see reference 7. Is it just the CERN people wanting to build their empire, or is it really worth taking out the particle physics budget for the next half century? Has the large hadron collider (LHC) done well enough for it to be right to throw a lot of money at more of the same? How on earth will Leader Starmer come to decide how to cast his vote, assuming that is, that he has one?

I guess delegation has to be the answer, with the Leader usually just ticking through whatever recommendation eventually emerges. Hopefully the delegates will not have arrived in Downing Street with too many of their own axes to grind.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=gill.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/search?q=mondrian.

Reference 3: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hunt-our-english-coasts-1852-strayed-sheep-n05665.

Reference 4: The elements of drawing - John Ruskin - 1857.

Reference 5: https://www.uca.ac.uk/campuses/epsom/.

Reference 6: The biggest machine in science: inside the fight to build the next giant particle collider: The European physics laboratory CERN is planning to build a mega collider by 2070. Critics say the plan could lead to its ruin - Davide Castelvecchi, Nature - 2025.

Reference 7: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-next-supercollider.html.

Fishy Polesden

It was a warm, sunny day and we thought about paying a visit to Painshill, a place not visited for coming up for five years, a place to be found at reference 1. But in the end we opted for the familiar Polesden Lacey. Was it Fowler the fish man who tipped the balance?

A fine display of daffodils on the drive up to the house. Lots of flowers at the entrance to the car park - where BH had some problem with the parking machine - a machine which we learned when we were on the way out could be brought to accept cards with a bit of trickery. BH, however, resorted to the other machine.

Started off with tea and fruit scone, declining the cheese scone on offer, as not looking quite like the Epsom home-brew. The fruit scone was pretty fresh and pretty good, despite a rather hard crust.

Inside, lots more spring flowers and lots of benches in sunny spots. We took good advantage of them. The flowers included some unusual yellow crown imperials, a change from the more usual ones, which followed shortly after.

On the way taking in this familiar plant, one which we see a good deal of on the Isle of Wight and which seems to be spreading. Neither of us could bring the name to mind and I decided against cheating and asking the telephone. I thought something beginning with the letter 'a', while BH thought something long, like aspidistra or liriodendron. The name came back to me just before we got to Ashtead on the way home, Echium pininana, or echium for short. Aka giant viper's-bugloss, a sort of borage. Apparently an endangered species in its native Canary Islands, despite being quite common in this country, at least in our part of it.

We did think about taking the Long Walk, but it was still shut for the winter, to give the grass time to recover. A courtesy not extended to the rather tired grass right in front of the house.

The thought today being that while Mrs Greville might have been very rich (from beer from up north), she was not rich enough to level the walk - which I feel sure that an oligarch or tech titan of our time would manage.

Decided that the fine, freshly baked bread of home beckoned, rather than the canteen food offered by the National Trust. Taking in Fowlers on the way, where I spent rather more than expected, starting with the rather cold prawns snapped above. 500g or so of them. Cold enough that the eggs underneath came away in a clean lump. The flesh, while cold, was not frozen. Cold from the ice covering the bottom of the display counter.

A short, local circuit in the afternoon, taking in a shiny new electric van from Sainsbury's. It seems that our Sainsbury's is one of three pilot sites to have taken the plunge into electric delivery vans. There was also the matter of a large, dark blue BMW in Manor Green Road, which I felt sure had been black last time I had seen it. A shiny new model for the new year? But I was not at all sure that my memory was not playing tricks and I have not yet been able to resolve the matter.

Followed up with the second round of sea food. Taken with the odd glass of our fine Racines from Guildford, and with the salad served with our antique crab serving spoons. I drew the line at pressing the accompanying salad bowl into service, it being busy with bananas.

1250g or so of claws. Plus the ball pein hammer and the serving board to go with it. This last not having had an outing for a while.

Lower grade preparation of which had not included taking out the machine marks. Quite difficult to do with hand tools on a board of this size without making things worse.

An opened claw.

Some debris.

All rounded off with some foreign plums.

A bit of an extravagance, but a good feed, and not something that we do very often. And not much like the crab, also good in its own, rather more delicate way, taken a month or so previous. Colbert's crab, as noticed at reference 4.

PS: Google Image Search does not quite manage to find the spoons on the snap above, he failed to make the connection to crab - and I failed to make the connection for him, which did seem to be an option.

But he did come with these shell salad servers from India, to be found at reference 5. So not a bad effort.

PS: finding the bowl is left as an exercise for the reader.

References

Reference 1: https://www.painshill.co.uk/.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/09/painshill.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/07/echium-pininana.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/cadogan.html.

Reference 5: https://www.indiamart.com/bkp-enterprises/salad-servers.html.

Toothy Dover

Ten days ago to the Wigmore Hall to hear the Dover Quartet; a day onto which the dentist had gate-crashed, which meant back to Epsom straight after the concert. Not our usual form at all.

With the Dover Quartet coming from the US. There looks to be links with both the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Northwestern in Chicago. 

The first of these may well be a fine institute, but I notice that its website is right off message: 'Curtis is committed to a rich and diverse environment, free of discrimination. Curtis does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected class status in the administration of any of its programs or activities, including admissions, financial aid, educational programs, or other Curtis-administered programs and activities or in its employment practices'. Perhaps someone needs to have a word with them about their funding.

A cold day and it seemed to be trying to rain, but the good news was that the water main hole in the road by the West Hill rail bridge had been mended. They must have worked Sunday given that nothing much happened Saturday, with the scene on the Friday being noticed at reference 2.

On the tube, a young family pushing a double pram from iCandy - with the bundle above coming in at a little over £1,300 - which seems a great deal to me, but then it is a long time since we were in the market for such things.

And looking at the snap above, I am reminded once again of how much design and technology such prams and my own trolley (aka walker, aka rollator) have in common. The wheels and their mountings, for example, are virtually identical. See, for example, reference 9.

That is to say, back in the days when beer came in at less than 50p a pint. This nugget courtesy of the chap at reference 3. Serious toper I should think. 

And I am reminded that the Tooting Broadway Wetherspoons held respectable Theakston's Export at £1 a pint for years, say in the 1990s. While I think Theakston's themselves put up a tent up on the hill for Derby Day, at least once, at which the proud boast was real beer for the regular price.

Olle & Steen quiet at noon. Lots of Lime bikes out in the street, but no Bullingdons. One van from Hedonism, a place I have not visited for years, although we did pass it quite recently, as noticed at reference 5.

Then on the way to the Hall, a flash Rolls Royce, a 2024 Phantom V12 extended wheelbase model. Any offers on what the FO might be? Presumably not our own Foreign Office, although I dare say they do call in such a car from time to time when they have a very important visitor. People like POTUS.

Was whoever it was at the very same concert? Maybe the chap who made the announcement reported in the snap above possible?

Into the hall for Dvořák's Op.96 and Schumann's Op.41 No.1. Dvořák as good as ever - having been previously heard in 2024 and 2018. The Schumann was probably new to us and my recollection was that it might grow on me. While when I tried it on YouTube earlier today (on my laptop), it was as if I was hearing it for the first time - except for some fast bits in the middle which did seem familiar. Curious.

Afterwards the audience oddly subdued. No idea why: Wigmore Hall lunchtime concert audiences are usually very enthusiastic clappers, with a big majority going for the encore, rather than wanting to nip out for the next fixture. And they usually get it.

We made our way back to Bond Street and Waterloo, with time there to pick up cheese and tomato baguettes from Upper Crust before our train left. A sandwich bar I think that I first discovered during my last lap in the world of work, that is to say the first years of the present century. I think that, at that time, I thought they were pretty good, despite there not being much competition. Whereas on this occasion, not so good. Baguette undercooked. Cheese probably intended for use in a toastie. Tomato cut very thin. And the whole decorated with white goo. But they served - much better than a couple of the pasties on offer - a food I find a bit heavy going these days - not least because of excess pepper.

While according to reference 7, Upper Crust has been going for forty years, so somehow I missed them for the first half of their existence. 

Out at Epsom with time in hand to get to the dentist. All the same, there would not have been time for a comfortable lunch in town.

I learn now that the Schumann was not new to us at all, having heard it Dorking about five years ago, as reported at reference 8 - on which occasion we liked it, rather to our surprise. 

I don't suppose that music has a stronger claim to stick around in memory than other stuff - so perhaps it is as just a much a casualty of the older brain as everything else.

PS: I was also reminded that the blog search feature is case blind but not accent blind. If you want Dvořák and that is how you spelt it then, that is how you have to spell it now. Accent blind might suit me better.

References

Reference 1: https://www.doverquartet.com/.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/trolley-801.html.

Reference 3: https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/.

Reference 4: https://hedonism.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/01/consone.html.

Reference 6: https://slippedisc.com/. Including advertisements from Aga, on the strength of my have looked at their saucepans earlier today. But they are too expensive and too late - as am suited elsewhere. As will reported in due course.

Reference 7: https://uppercrust.co.uk/.

Reference 8: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/02/dorking-two.html.

Reference 9: https://www.saljol.de/en/. The source of the cosy snap above.

A trick of memory

Back at the beginning of January we had occasion to go to the Delaunay restaurant in the Aldwch, as noticed at reference 1. And on that occasion, BH took as her main course something carelessly described at reference 1 as 'mackerel roulade'.

I must have asked Bing at that time what a 'roulade' was, getting an answer something like that snapped above. Roughly speaking, something, not necessarily a cake, in the format of the Swiss roll which used to be popular with children when I was young. I remember being rather fond of the chocolate version, brown crumb with white goo and with the whole lightly dusted with icing sugar. Usually bought inside a clear plastic wrapper.

Then yesterday (Thursday), we had occasion to back to the Delaunay, and I thought to look up what we had taken on the first occasion, prompting in me a strong visual memory of fish served in a Swiss roll format, no doubt flaked and mixed in with some kind of sauce to enable same.

BH elected to go for the mackerel again and I was rather surprised to find it consisted of a couple of mackerel fillets together with a confection of grated celeriac made into a rugby ball shape with some kind of white sauce, probably some kind of mayonnaise. Maybe three or four cubic inches in volume and quite filling. Nothing like my visual memory at all - although I dare say BH's memory of her dish was spot on.

Checking the menu this morning, I find the dish described as 'Seared Mackerel ... with a celeriac remoulade', much more like what she got than what I had remembered. And more or less consistent with what can be seen in the background in a zoomed version of the relevant snap at reference 1 - a snap which, as it happens, had not yet been recycled.

Bing explains that a remoulade, properly rémoulade, originally French, is nothing to do with a roulade, being instead a sort of sauce rather than a sort of cake.

The snap above being of a US derivative, taken from reference 3. Red rather than white.

I gloss over the further confusion caused by conflation of celeriac with celery, but it is striking how my visual memory was very much a construction after the event, rather than a memory of what actually happened. As unreliable as the stuff generated by AI. For the same sort of reasons?

PS: out of this post to the rather depressing piece at reference 4 in the FT.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/01/weaver-one.html.

Reference 2: https://www.thedelaunay.com/.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remoulade. '... The sauce is made from mayonnaise with vinegar, mustard, shallots, capers, chopped pickles, and/or fresh herbs (chives, tarragon, chervil, burnet). It is commonly served as céleri remoulade, a mustard-flavored remoulade variation with shredded raw celeriac. Often it is served as a condiment for red meats, fish, and shellfish...'.

Reference 4: Putin’s imperial mission destroys freedom in Russia: Victory in the Ukraine war would serve as the perfect justification for autocracy at home - Tony Barber, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 5: How Tucker Carlson became Putin’s useful idiot: The American TV host and the Russian leader have enemies in common - Gideon Rachman, Financial Times - 2024.

Trolley 806

An  M&S food hall trolley, captured outside B&M, just by one of the High Street bus stops.

Returned to the stack at M&S, where, it being a DIY lunch day, I took the opportunity to buy some ham rolls, that is to say a packet of premium ham and some white rolls.

I managed to get in a muddle at the check-out, caused by the 'search for item' image not looking much like the 'petit pain' rolls I had selected, and was reduced to using a manned check-out. With one coming free at just the right moment.

Sadly, as it turned out, the white rolls were undercooked and taste-free. While the ham, although described as air dried and coming in decently thick slices, was damp and tasted rather strongly of pickling fluid - whatever that might have been. All in all, rather disappointing. But the brace of orange tomatoes from Morocco, left over from the day before, were fine.

Later in the day I was confused by a roadside cypress. I thought it had turned brown because it was ill or perhaps even dying - but it turned out that all the brown seen from a distance was the red tips - quite possibly something to do with reproduction - of the scaly needles seen up close and personal.

Working with Gemini and Google Images comes up with the suggestions of Port Orford cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) or Italian cypress (Cupressus Sempervirens), more probably a variety of the former. In any event, it seems that plenty of conifers with scale needles go in for coloured new growth in the Spring. 

However, Wikipedia has a very likely looking snap at reference 3, with the caption 'male cones in spring with diagnostic red colour' - so perhaps my first thought was right after all. Clearly a tree which I need to keep an eye on.

Interesting that Gemini, while not able to work directly with images, has a fair stab at it on the basis of a description. Clearly again, I shall have to read this interchange more carefully.

While a bit further on, the attention of my nose was caught by the flowers snapped above, probably some kind of viburnum. Very smelly it was too. I associated to the remarks of Freud in the essay at reference 2 - already the subject of reference 4 - about the changes to the use we make of smell resulting from our move to an erect posture - which took our noses well away from lots of smells which might otherwise have been of interest.

PS 1: it will be interesting to see if the US sticks to its new tariffs long enough to discover that imported cars are a lot cheaper than the home made ones because home workers want to be paid a lot more than foreign workers. The US, like the UK, has long taken the soft option of cheap goods from abroad on credit. Credit that is in the form of accumulating national debt, a lot of it held by oil rich, gas rich or just harder-working foreigners. Will the voters of the US be able to stomach breaking out of this bind?

PS 2: later still: BH rather liked the portion of the ham that fell to her. Maybe the difference is that she likes pickles more than I do?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/trolley-805.html.

Reference 2: Civilization and its discontents – S. Freud – 1930.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamaecyparis_lawsoniana.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/interim-report-no1.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.