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Brings together in a single hour The Why Factor; More or Less and Trending.

The Thought Show: Soviet World War Deaths

Factual: Life Stories

Soviet advance

18/12/2014

Soviet World War Deaths

BBC World Service - The Thought Show, Soviet World War Deaths

More or Less delves behind claims over the number of Soviet World War deaths.

More or Less looks at Soviet World War death claims; in Trending Anne-Marie Tomchak charts the row over Irish water and in the Why Factor Mike Williams asks why we share.

Did almost 80% of the males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 not survive World War Two, as has been claimed online? In More or Less Ruth Alexander hears from Professor Mike Haynes from the University of Wolverhampton and Professor Mark Harrison of Warwick University.
Plus, the Chinese economy has overtaken the US to become the biggest in the world according to a recent IMF announcement. We hear from Matthew Crabbe, author of Myth Busting China’s Numbers, who explains the trouble with understanding and using China’s statistics.
In Trending, presented by Anne-Marie Tomchak, what happens when a superhero finds himself in Cairo? A 20-year-old photographer filmed his friend dressed as Spiderman, performing everyday tasks around the Egyptian capital, one of the busiest in the World. In Cairo, says the photographer, Spiderman has met his match because life is so impossible that not even a superhero could function.
We follow the debate on Irish social media that has been growing for months. The Irish Government is changing the way people pay for their water prompting 100,000 people to take to the streets of Dublin to protest. Currently most people do not get water bills – it is paid for through taxes. But now the government has set up Irish Water, a semi-state body, which is installing water meters and will start sending bills from 1 January 2015. Online there are numerous videos, tweets and memes calling for the proposed water charges to be dropped. But this is not just about water. After the banking crash of 2008, the Irish economy struggled and the country underwent a series of austerity measures. The new water charges seem to be the final straw. We hear how people have been protesting online, and whether the government is taking any notice.
And we speak to the man who makes comedy films about relationships – from a male perspective. His spoof about an African-American woman who cuts her hair off and goes “natural” has had millions of hits on Facebook, and received mixed comments. We ask him why he made it and whether he thinks it Is sexist.   
In the Why Factor, Mike Williams asks, why do we share? What makes it different from giving? And what does it have to do with strategy and impulse control? Mike talks to the scientist Nikolaus Steinbeis who found out which region of the brain is active  when we share and why small children have problems with that. He visits the Redfield Community in the north of London, where over 20 people share a household and he discusses with a young 'couchsurfer' and a software specialist from the Linux foundation about the pros and cons of sharing.  

(Image: Russian infantry men advancing. Credit: Three Lions/Getty Images)

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