Hello again, all you not-necessarily-voting-in-the-forthcoming-European-Parliament-electioners
This week has been a week of poor health. Not personally. I mean other people's...
The 12th-18th has been Mental Health Week:
'Mental health'
"If you're having mental health problems, you're not alone. One in four of us will have problems with our mental health at some time in our lives."
http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth/pages/mentalhealthhome.aspx?
Mental health problems can be a lot more mundane than people think.
Then there's another kind of health...
The Torygraph has has advised people WITH A HEADLINE not to drink fruit juice. (Paper versions are always different) How irresponsible is that!
{Update: here's a scan of the original, terrible advice}
They've been claiming that 'the latest' medical advice is to not drink fruit juice, because it rots teeth. And they've also been claiming that the 7-a-day idea is a demonstration that they can't make up their minds!
As part of the research for my second-to-last mini-essay - 'Eating For £1 A Day' - I was refreshed as to the actual medical advice on this subject.
The NHS's advice is (and it still is - it hasn't changed) that people should strive to eat at least five portions of fruit and veg per day (which includes 7!); and that the best drink to have on its own is water.
They say that fruit juice is a good source of vitamins and should be drunk in order to get them, but should be consumed at mealtimes, to avoid dental harm.
They also say to preferentially consume fruit in solid, fruity form, because solids satiate hunger, but fluids don't.
So, overall, the advice regarding fruit juice consumption is this: it's good for the vitamins, but drink it at mealtimes to spare your teeth, and preferentially consume solid stuff to spare your waistline.
Does that seem like medical advice to not drink fruit juice, to you?
And then on to cultural health...
'UKIP’s ‘Days Since Last Embarrassing Revelation’ chart steadfastly remaining at zero'
http://newsthump.com/2014/05/16/ukips-days-since-last-embarrassing-revelation-chart-steadfastly-remaining-at-zero/
Thank you, Newsthump :-D
But in the real world, UKIP hardly seems much less farcical!
'Ukip asks MEPs for £10,000 ‘from your generous payments’'
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4028266.ece
Instead of treating the money they get from the EU as dirty money, and eagerly returning it to taxpayers, they have decided that they shall keep all their ill-gotten gains.
But Mr. Farage is not content for the members of his
Presumably, those tweeds he wears, loafing while watching dogs tear foxes apart, are immensely expensive. Blood sports have always been so damn costly, haven't they... not least to the wildlife!
Given the extensive preposterousnesses of their verified behaviour, the content of this article seems to be brought into contention:
'Inside the UKIP Zoo'
http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/news/home/article/3140/inside-the-ukip-zoo
"One employee said: 'They are utterly chaotic. I was horrified by them. There's an element of the 70s golf club.'
Another added: 'You see the most extraordinary things. Everybody has been out with everybody else. There are animals in the office, people taking their clothes off... there are no sanctions. People are used to doing their own thing.'
At one point, workers wrote a list of 'people we want to shag' on the office whiteboard - including the name of Mr Farage, the party leader who is UKIP's only household name.
His wife Kirsten reportedly has to send emails on Mr Farage's behalf, because he does not know how to use a computer and prefers to receive faxes.
She has admitted that the office 'takes some getting used to' and privately described the atmosphere as a 'freakshow', according to The Times."
I'm not saying i necessarily believe these claims. But they seem highly plausible, given everything else they've done:
[storms are divine retribution for the gays]
[UKIP votes "no" on tackling ivory trade]
[UKIP gladly gains votes from the BNP]
[Lenny Henry should go where Black people come from... not Dudley!]
[70% of laws 'do' originate in Europe]
[OK, they don't... but they 'do' originate in Europe]
[the gays should thank straights for persecuting them all the time]
[censorship of opinion is perfectly fine, unless it's ours]
[the EU is to blame for UKIP not getting votes from their moronic voters]
[arrest people who call us fascists, even though they're basically right]
[the public should be stripped of the right to vote]
[we're not corrupt Nazis, we just snort crack off naked girls, while proudly showing off our Nazi tattoos]
And i'm trying to hold back, too, at my seething resentment of the way the BBC's fawned over Nigel Farage and the Unbearable Kunts Isolationist Party.
Farage has been invited to, and featured on, Question Time, nineteen times! That's an order of magnitude more than all of the world's scientists, put together, throughout the current goverment's time in power!
The BBC should be doing better than promoting sympathy for stunted fascists.
And by 'stunted' i mean 'not quite' - fascists openly exhort more than one moronically demented policy:
'The Flaw Part 2 - The Tommy Tankers (BNP Youth)'
http://youtu.be/RzQmpp5rEcU
That one policy being: "foreigners are harming this country, so let's condemn them as much as possible!"
But how are they harming this country? Through crime? Well, that's factually inaccurate!
'EU migration has little impact on crime rates in England'
"minorities from the European Union are only responsible for approximately 1% of all crimes committed in England."
http://phys.org/news/2014-05-eu-migration-impact-crime-england.html
That research was funded by the EU, by the way, who have a vested interest in suppressing international crime, mitigating climatic change, combating disease, facilitating continent-wide scientific collaboration, and redistributing wealth to the poorest people as part of a recognition of universal Human Rights.
[the EU has reduced alcohol caused deaths, while the UK's have skyrocketed]
[the EU passed strong net neutrality laws, to protect consumers]
[the EU has banned pesticides, to help protect bees from colony collapse]
[the EU has been assertive about extending human rights to women]
[the EU has funded research into how to best protect children from Web-based threats]
[the EU quashed the online piracy act, to preserve people's freedoms]
[the EU condemns violence against lesbians in Africa, and Queers everywhere]
[the EU imposes standards on food and drugs, to protect people from harm by quacks]
[the EU imposes noise pollution regulations to protect marine wildlife]
[the EU imposes air pollution regulations, to protect people from cardiovascular disease]
It's no concession to say they're not perfect - everyone's corruptible, but that's nothing new - and it hardly warrants lying about them. Especially if you think they have done genuine harm. (nudge nudge, Greenpeace)
Frankly, i find it outrageous that any people think the UK must enjoy a net financial benefit from the EU, when it clearly has far more money than any other member State! ...well, if you count all the trillions of dirty money perfectly-legally squirreled away in the Channel Islands, Turks & Caicos, etc, under the UK's decidedly dodgy tax regime.
We should be proud that we have the corrupt billionaires to tax money from and give to poor continental Europeans, and yet the 'public discourse' (Media's chosen narrative) completely ignores this. Instead, our minds are led down the garden path, with shit about Brussels bureaucrats making the 'honest working man' poorer! (Through having to pay for straightened cucumbers, presumably... which they don't - all of those stories are completely fictional!)
But our own pollies do that well enough on their own, thank you very much. All of that 'missing' tax revenue is piled up on the metaphorical shores of tiny Caribbean islands, because our own politicians have decided that it shall! And it is from their pressure that the EU has made dodgy financial decisions, in recent years.
Instead of encouraging redistribution of wealth, and a cultural benevolence, both to UK citizens, and those of the EU, the Media has been perfectly happy to pander to the anti-EU propaganda, and encourage everyone to think that their own ignominy is a direct consequence of greedy Europeans.
Whom, ironically, we have far more in common with than the people who sell us this bullshit! So the public pressure mounts up on MEPs (even though nobody bothers to even find out what they look like) rather than the MPs who should be raising tax revenue from the greedy bastards who make it their living to suck money out of society and not put it back!
The people of the UK, and other European countries too, of course, should have a long hard think about the way they vote, in the coming European Elections. 90 years ago, Europeans made exactly the same mistakes that Britons are making today.
They are confusing countries with people, and collaboration with exploitation. They are gullibly falling for conspiracy theories, and anti-social propaganda, because they are happy to settle for what the Media tells them, and they are ignoring the fact that with elections, they have to choose between the options available to them.
By voting for politics that's even worse than that exhibited by the currently powerful parties, they will make their lives and 'their country' even worse.
By not voting at all, they censor their role in democracy entirely - politicians need not worry about people who disagree with them, if there is no threat that their vote will go against them!
A vote for one-policy xenophobes, like UKIP, is not a protest vote - it's a self-flagellation vote! Don't be a masochist - vote for people/parties that are at least benign.
'Why voting Green is a good protest vote'
http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/green-party-protest-vote-eu.html
Here's how to vote, by the way:
1) If you haven't registered to vote, do so - find the website of your local council and register promptly.
2) Research the policies of all the candidates, using the only available resource - Wikipedia.
Unlike with national politics in the UK, where we have the wonderful theyworkforyou.com there is no such penetrable resource for MEPs.
This means we must guess what they might be like, according to affiliation. Just look up their EP parties on Wiki and see what happens.
3) Go to the voting station on Thursday 22nd May 2014, having already made your decision, and put an 'X' next to at least three boxes.
You will have the options of Parties, and independent candidates. You don't get to choose individuals within Parties, though - the Party decides who they want to allocate your vote to!
4) Put the piece of paper in the big bin, and then go home and hope you got your choice right!
P.S. If you were considering voting for UKIP... they don't want you to, anyway:
'Strip public of the vote says UKIP candidate'
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/05/13/strip-public-of-the-vote-says-ukip-candidate
"I sometimes think the people who fought for the vote in 1832 and 1888 and so forth, trying to extend the franchise were probably doing the wrong thing," he told an election hustings in West Hampstead. "I think perhaps we should start reducing the franchise."
("Franchise" in this case means the possession of a vote, to cast)
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=738645972822880&id=119416361412514
That's UKIP's Press Advisor, by the way :-D
In other news:
It's pet cancer awareness month! Did you know, that 50% of dogs over 10 years old are diagnosed with cancer? And that 50% of them are cured with surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy; 25% have controllable cancers, and the other 25% can only be given palliative care? Compare that 50% diagnosis rate in elderly dogs, to the 41% in humans of any age. As you might expect, knowing that 'cancer' is a myriad of different conditions matching the number of types of cells they can be exhibited in, dogs don't have cancers quite like humans do. For more information, follow the link:
http://phys.org/news/2014-05-cancer-common-pets-pet-awareness.html
Pope Frank has declared that he would be willing to indoctrinate aliens, if he got the chance. First communications with aliens reveals that they won't come here, in case their children are abused by nonces in frocks <s> "While [one of the Vatican's astronomers] accepted that the chances of ever getting such an opportunity were slim, Guy Consolmagno said [in 2010]: “Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul”." Bullshit! All the evidence in the world says souls are nothing other than fictional constructs within religious mythology. Sorry, guys, but you look no less bonkers after this :-P
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-says-he-would-baptise-aliens-9360632.html
Solar panels have found their way back on top of the White House! Jimmy Carter actually had some put on in 1979, during an oil price spike, but Reagan removed them in 1987. Weirdly, it was George W Bush who had some put back, but not on the White House itself - on the cabana, to heat the White House swimming pool! Bluff Cold War climate obsrutionist fossil-fuel industry shills have been condemning it of course - using all the arguments that are actually diametrically opposed to their position: pollution in making the panels (nowhere comparative to the FF industry's) making jobs (though apparently those in the renewables industry don't count) etc, etc, etc.
http://phys.org/news/2014-05-solar-panels-atop-white-house.html
The results of a study into the genetics of a girl, found in a cave in Mexico, have been published. The girl was found in Hoyo Negro, a deeply submerged cave in the Yucatan Peninsula, and has been found to be 12,000-13,000 years old. She was probably one of the first American humans ever, and has been named 'Naia'. There's a video of the location, in 'contemporary stuff'.
http://phys.org/news/2014-05-genetic-prehistoric-girl-dating-dna.html
Yet another superstitionist charlatan has been prosecuted for fraud - this time, a 'psychic' in Fife, Scotland. She's been sentenced to 225 hours of unpaid work, but only for the £8000 she extorted as undeserved housing maintenance payments - not for the other £8000 she extorted from people through 'psychic' nonsense and 'hypnotherapy'. I wonder how many of the welfare abusers we hear about, on TV, are actually 'criminally flexible' fraudsters, like this?! Isn't it frustrating that their pseudoscientific frauds aren't recognised as such!? [sighs]
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/fife-psychic-sentenced-for-8-000-benefit-fraud-1.372258
Try this for 'big boned'! Paleontologists have discovered the bones of a specimen of one of the largest ever land animals. The picture shows just its femur, which is much larger than the man lying next to it. Estimates are that these dinosaurs would have weighed ~100 tonnes, at this size!
http://phys.org/news/2014-05-fossils-largest-dinosaur-argentina.html
HAARP - the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program that conspiracy 'theorists' love to make shit up about, has finished its atmospheric research, and will be shut down this summer. The site will be taken over by the University of Alaska, but they have no interest in continuing the research, so there's going to be $300 million of cool equipment to to dispose of! Amusingly, the anti-State ideologies that conspiracy 'theorists' anchor around HAARP, were largely originated by the Pentagon, who invented militaristic applications as reasons to fund the project, that has basically been really cool.... but largely useless... research into the upper atmosphere. Suckers, haha :-D
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/05/haarp-terminated/
Resveratrol? Not the wonder chemical that food companies want you to believe! "...few studies have looked at whether resveratrol has benefits at the levels typically found in the human diet. "The thinking was that certain foods are good for you because they contain resveratrol," study researcher Dr. Richard Semba, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a statement. "We didn't find that at all." But red wine, dark chocolate and grapes may still be good for the heart and have other benefits, Semba said. However, the benefits may not be due to resveratrol, he added."
http://www.richarddawkins.net/news_articles/2014/5/13/debunked-red-wine-antioxidant-won-t-help-you-live-longer?
Essen, in Germany, has approved a charity's scheme to motivate unemployed drug addicts by paying them in beers, lunch, and some money, akin to a successful scheme in Amsterdam. In return, the work they do is simply to clean the streets - this gives them a feeling of responsibility, self-worth, and everyone else a difficult-to-ignore value to the people's lives. If it works in other places, and not just in Amsterdam, this could work to help addicts all around the world, by mobilising them, and correcting prejudicial social attitudes about addiction.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/14/german-alcoholic-street-clean-paid-in-beer_n_5317443.html
Due to recent news about the MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) virus originating in camels, some morons in Saudi Arabia have decided to show excess affection to their camels, in defiance of the WHO's advice. To them, presumably, they see it as rebelling against the State, rather than foolish antiscientific self-harm. Saudis see their camels like pets, so i imagine there are many people who would deny that their dog's fur carries lethal strains of staphylococcus aureus, too. Never take your pet near a sick person, and certainly don't take them into hospitals! (I am aware that some ignorant people are fond of the idea of deliberately doing so)
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1514381/us-centres-disease-control-scientists-study-infectiousness-mild-mers
------------------------------------------------------ contemporary stuff
'What happens when WHITE HOT METAL hits Water!'
http://youtu.be/wwr6EgxeevE
'Adult Problems'
http://youtu.be/Zv5upD-50cY
'LOADED SPICY BAKED POTATO AND CHICKEN'
This is Greg's Kitchen, where the food is finger lickin'...
http://youtu.be/yh4JQX_zDps
'BLOOPERS and OUT TAKES 2 - GregsKitchen'
http://youtu.be/6-0DK3lMnrA
'Finding Naia'
"In a submerged cave in Yucatan, divers found the near-intact skeleton of a delicately built teenage girl, who died more than 12,000 years ago probably after falling into a natural sinkhole from which there was no way to get out."
http://youtu.be/R2i3I8MxmU4
'A Live View from the International Space Station'
"Watch white clouds, tan land, and blue oceans drift by. The above video will appear black when it is nighttime on the Earth below, but the space station's rapid 90-minute orbit compresses this dark time into only 45 minutes."
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140514.html
'Room for Tennis in Rome'
These four points, haha - ridiculously good tennis, in Rome :-D
[Nadal]
[Dimitrov]
[Murray]
[Murray2]
'HORSE'
http://youtu.be/L46iCN6MBFM
'Aussie presenter almost shoots herself in the face'
http://youtu.be/ClL86IwN6o8
'Which names do merged businesses discard?'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27421888
'Disney CEO Figures They’ve Built Up Enough Goodwill To Do A Real Sexist One'
http://www.theonion.com/articles/disney-ceo-figures-theyve-built-up-enough-goodwill,35874/
------------------------------------------------------ of the weeks
Word Of The Week: ornery -- bad-tempered, belligerent, cantankerous
Etymology Of The Week: game (meaning 'birds for eating') -- from 'gamebird' meaning a bird hunted for sport; but the obvious derivation from 'game' meaning an activity performed for pleasure is false. 'Game' meaning a pleasureful activity comes from the 18th century. The meaning of 'an activity performed according to rules' comes from the 13th century, as does the idea of a 'wild animal caught for sport'. This is why modern blood sports enthusiasts equivocate their immoral pastimes with civilised behaviour!
Expression Of The Week: Boko Haram -- an abbreviation, in Hausa, from 'haram' for 'sin', and 'ilimin boko' meaning 'education that's fake' - a term used to refer to 'western' education. That is how the nickname for the 'Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad' - 'boko haram' roughly means 'western education is a sin'.
Fact Of The Week: There is no significant evidence that flossing reduces incidence of caries (cavities) or gingivitis, and thereby subsequent cases of infection. But there is good evidence that brushing time is beneficial, so don't waste it with flossing - spend that extra time and effort doing a little more brushing. Dentistry is a profession that suffers a lack of academic rigour, when it comes to medical advice, because dentists are largely private sector individuals. If you'd like to keep up with dentistry-related research yourself, however, then follow the Dental Elf and the CEBD - Centre for Evidence Based Dentistry.
------------------------------------------------------ non-contemporary stuff
'The European Union Explained*'
http://youtu.be/O37yJBFRrfg
'Starsuckers'
A great doco about the Media, their insidious training of people and especially children, and their incredible gullibility to bullshit stories. It's 1h 41m long, but it's definitely worth watching.
http://vimeo.com/49021336
'Townswoman Replaces Past Residents with Dolls'
http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/strange-places-and-customs/townswoman-replaces-past-residents-with-dolls/
'6 Crazy Constructions Featured in ‘Dare to Look’'
http://www.ripleys.com/weird/inside-ripleys-world/inside-ripleys-books/6-crazy-constructions-featured-in-dare-to-look/
'Penn & Teller's Nail Gun Trick - Penn & Teller Fool Us'
http://youtu.be/4_rS08u3Fjs
'Will Hay - The Goose Steps Out - the part cut from the movie'
What position are the panzers in? A pincer position. So a pincer movement with panzers? Yes - a positioned panzer pincer.
http://youtu.be/MsEaZvzwl_8
And Kryten on twitter:
A robot that shits bricks
https://twitter.com/KrytenK/status/459777360423038977
Wear a suspiciously long groinal attachment to work Wednesday
https://twitter.com/KrytenK/status/459711221558960128
"I’m not very good at innuendo..."
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/86098184770/im-not-very-good-at-innuendo-for-example-is
'saving the world, one laundry load at a time'
https://twitter.com/KrytenK/status/467397323472265216
There are all kinds of twitters and tumblrs like that one. And i have to say, i think they're a good thing. Decades old shows will never be forgotten, while they're being followed obsessively by a tiny number of people on social media :-D
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