Word: birmingham
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Minimal Place. Among the explorers of this uncharted corner of human interaction is a team of ethologists at work under Dr. Michael Chance in Birmingham, England. In a recent issue of the British journal New Scientist, two of them, Christopher Brannigan and Dr. David Humphries, report that the team has isolated and catalogued no fewer than 135 distinct gestures and expressions of face, head and body. This human semaphore system, they explain, is not only capable of expressing an extraordinary range of emotions but also operates at a lower-and sometimes different-level of consciousness than ordinary speech...
...four-year-old thinks his favorite toy is about to be snatched away by another child, he probably will tense his lips and scowl, thrust out his chin and then raise his hand, as if to strike the offender with an open palm. In the ethological jargon of the Birmingham investigators, the child is in a "defensive beating posture." The more forward he holds his hand, however, the more likely he is to deliver the blow. Recognizing this change to an "offensive beating posture," the other child may well decide to retreat, even though not a threatening word has been...
Under ethological examination, even ordinary smiles take on new wrinkles. One of the most common is what the Birmingham scientists call the "simple smile," a mere upward and outward movement at the corners of the mouth. It indicates inner bemusement; no other person is involved. The "upper smile" is a slightly more gregarious gesture in which the upper teeth are exposed. It is usually displayed in social situations, such as when friends greet one another. Perhaps the most engaging of all is the "broad smile." The mouth is completely open; both upper and lower teeth are visible. It is typically...
Change in Attitude. Many doctors are protesting, some have become highly emotional about the matter, and a few are trying to sabotage the law. In Birmingham, England's second-largest city (pop. 1,200,000), Professor Hugh McLaren, a strong-willed Scottish Presbyterian, simply refuses to perform abortions except in case of "dire peril" to the woman's life. Since he is head of the NHS's Maternity Hospital there, he can decree what subordinates may or may not do-and they may not perform abortions. The effect of the McLaren ukase is to send most Birmingham...
...academic elegance is traceable to his schoolteacher parents in the Midlands, who provided him with a solid academic background. He performed brilliantly at Birmingham's King Edward's Grammar School and Cambridge's Trinity College. Classmates and buddies from his World War II army service remember Powell as a fearful grind who studied over holidays and insisted on wearing tie, jacket and Sam Browne belt during the hottest days in India. He has grown more relaxed in middle age, having traded the atheism of his schoolboy idol, Nietzsche, for High Anglicanism. He has also exchanged...