One new word

Honesty
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That's not a new word you might say
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True it has been in human language from the beginning
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However we seem to have lost it recently
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Lost the idea that it is important that is
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Honesty is essential to the conduct of human affairs
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Which is why we have laws
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Which is why we teach our children to be honest
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Not to tell lies
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And yet most if not all governments lie
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Lie openly
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Lie in public through the media
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There is a simple issue here
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Over thousands of years all the world's major teachers have explained why honesty is essential to our well-being
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They knew why
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They told us why
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And so we ignore their advice at our peril even though honesty is preached by those who lie so easily
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When your government lies so often
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When advertisers lie with impunity
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When manufacturers lie about their products
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Honesty might seem like a lost cause
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Do not believe this
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Humanity goes through cycles just as nature does
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Currently we are in a 'down' part of our cycle
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Lies are common in all walks of life 
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However a counter movement is beginning to make itself felt
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Most would not immediately believe that over the last fifty years the trend has been towards more honesty
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Consider though that the International Criminal Court however imperfect is becoming more established
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Transparency International is making progress in throwing light on corruption in all corners of the planet

Corporations are being pursued for bribery issues and yes they continue to bribe however progress is being made

In many other areas lies and corruption are finding it harder
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It is clear to all how corruption destroys a society

Lies corrode societies

They erode the fabric

They destroy

And ultimately no one wins

Those who steal billions are they stupid or what?

They steal for what?

Cars, houses, gold taps, villas, yachts and the rest and how many of these can they or their families use?

No one would want the negative karma they are creating

Nor would anyone want the paranoia attached to theft

For yourself can you make your contribution to a more honest society?

Can you help fight this sickness

That one word honesty is the clue

The clue to our own behaviour

Time to bring that one little word back again into reality

Honesty

Massive star

Astronomers say they have discovered the most colossal star on record, in a region of space known as the Tarantula nebula in a neighbouring galaxy to our own.
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The record-breaking star has a mass 265 times greater than the sun and is millions of times brighter, they said.
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The discovery has astonished scientists, who thought it was impossible for stars to exceed more than 150 times the mass of the sun.
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When the star was born it could have been more than twice as massive.
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Because it is so far away – about 165,000 light-years – it can only be seen with the use of powerful telescopes in the southern hemisphere.
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If the star, known as R136a1, took the place of the sun in our solar system, its gravitational attraction would pull our planet in so close that the length of an "Earth year" would shrink to three weeks.
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It would bathe the Earth with incredibly intense ultraviolet radiation, rendering life on our planet impossible.
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A team led by Paul Crowther, an astrophysicist at Sheffield University, used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Atacama desert of northern Chile and archival material from the Hubble space telescope to study two young clusters of stars called NGC 3603 and RMC 136a.
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The first group of stars, NGC 3603, lies about 22,000 light-years away, while stars in the RMC136a cluster are in a neighbouring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud.
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The astronomers found a clutch of monster stars, including several that are tens of times larger than the sun and several million times brighter.
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Some have surface temperatures of more than 40,000C – seven times hotter than our own sun.
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These enormous stars churn out vast quantities of material, and, close up, would look fuzzy compared with the sun.
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Unlike humans, these stars are born heavy and lose weight as they age, said Crowther.
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Being a little over a million years old, the most extreme star, R136a1, is already 'middle-aged' and has undergone an intense weight-loss programme, shedding a fifth of its initial mass over that time, or more than 50 solar masses.
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Such heavyweight stars are extremely rare, forming only within the densest star clusters.
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Distinguishing the individual stars was made possible by the use of infra-red instruments on the telescope.
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Owing to the rarity of these monsters I think it is unlikely that this new record will be broken any time soon," said Crowther.
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A short but intense life
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Lightweight stars, such as our sun, live a long and quiet life.
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Massive stars, on the other hand, are very rare, and have a short but intense existence before exploding as supernovas.
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Star R136a1, discovered thousands of light years away from the solar system, the most massive star found to date.
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It has a mass about 265 times that of our own sun and would have been over 320 solar masses when it was born a million or so years ago.
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R136a1 has now overtaken the likes of Eta Carinae and the Pistol Star as the most massive and luminous known star in existence.
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Like these other giants it has a large radius for its mass and surface temperature, over 40,000C.
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Its brightness is hundreds of thousands of times greater than that of the sun.
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While still a young star, R136a1's size eclipses other categories: red dwarfs, which weigh in at about 0.1 solar masses, low-mass yellow dwarfs such as the sun, and massive blue dwarf stars weighing eight times more than the sun.
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Guardian  -  Jason Rodrigues

All very interesting and maybe also is the following

Every star or planet we see has intelligence on it or using it

Many have life not as we define it but life nevertheless

When will we engage with life from other planets or stars?

When it is our time

Once we have learnt to behave with less violence

A species that spends more on arms and war than it does on education or eliminating its major planetary issues is not likely to appeal much to other intelligences

And as they say we are a minor planet at the back end of nowhere

In the future we will make contact as we have already in the past

Couples and those things that break

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Couples deal with problems in their relationship everyday

That is not to say they have problems every day however it is to say that there are things to be done everyday to protect or develop the relationship

And of course each couple has their own unique set of problems and issues to work on

And then again there are various 'standard' issues which confront most couples at some time or another

Surely most couples have problems in the bedroom at some point where one or the other does not have the same needs or desires

When you think about it is it likely that a man and woman would be in sync sexually for year after year day in day out?

Contrary to all the sex advice columns it would seem obvious that there are going to be times where sex is not an issue and others where it is an issue

Another area where couples usually have problems is in the home where one person ends up doing more than the other when it comes to household chores

Often one will suffer in silence for some time before blowing up

Money is another where one partner makes more money and spends more money or wants more money.

Others where one partner, often the man, who might be earning more while the other partner looks after children and so earns none or less by virtue of working part time and has to ask for money from the other.

The other treating the money as 'his', because he earned it and feels he should control it

Others where one partner controls all the family money and gives the other partner an allowance decided by him

Then again a very common one is where couples do not feel they have enough money and take it out on each other.

These lead to other issues such communication problems such as 

No comprising

No talking,

Avoiding each other

Keeping quiet when things bother each other

One partner is not taking the relationship seriously enough or sometimes this can be both partners.

One might feel neglected and the other is lacking interest

Then there are those who fight with each other constantly.

Always picking a fight about anything.


Trust is also a big one due to insecurities

Jealousy or infidelity


Guess we can all feel why bother from time to time

This can then lead to divorce or breakdown of the relationship 

And they do

And yet and yet in spite of all the bad news the good far out ways the bad in most relationships

The effort to make a relationship work is reward in itself

While we might feel this is not so when things are going badly we should maybe remember that all sorts of other factors often impact us

Things like outside stress

Neighbours

Disasters

Job loss

And yet and yet being alone is OK even fine for some however for most being in relationship is far nicer than being alone

Relationships are not like plasters to apply to a wound and they do not have to be turned into commodities

Relationships take work and compromise

Bring unconditional love into the equation and they can all work

Your choice

Probability

Ask your local mathematician to define probability and he would most likely show you how to compute it
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Probability is not about the odds but about the belief in the existence of an alternative outcome cause or motive
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Ancients probability always considered by them to be nothing beyond a subjective and fluid measure of beliefs
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Probability defines how we talk and think about events and issues
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Seldom do we individually challenge or think about the probability of things
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We accept what we are told
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We seldom challenge
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Spin people on the other hand challenge everything to defend their clients position
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Spurious and genuine facts are jumbled into pictures to present the client in a favourable way
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Trade organisations
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Pressure groups
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Individuals
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And we shrug our shoulders because it is hard work to determine probabilities
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Yet they impact on us all the time
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Economic forecasts
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Statistics ever more of them
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All or most merely project out what we know of the past into the future
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Dangerous for all of us because today it is clear what we know of the past is not going to help us understand the future
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Or the need to adjust our economic models
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Or our Social models
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Or our climate models
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All are very unlikely to perform to previously seen patterns
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Probabilities are different
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Because they are unknown and difficult to predict we continue to project the past into the future
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Danger time because this will not give us the warnings we need
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Different thinking is required to predict probabilities
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To understand them even
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Probabilities are more difficult to look at
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This is why we continue to project the past into the future
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It is easier
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Unfortunately in these increasingly volatile times this will not help us much
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As past to future projections fail to materialise
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The unexpected will increasingly impact upon us often with violent outcomes

Energy consumption

 

Environmental asceticism has created a vogue for upgrading light-bulbs and tweaking thermostats.

But according to a new piece of research, many of these actions—however virtuous—arise from faulty perceptions of energy savings.

Shahzeen Attari of Columbia University and her colleagues used Craigslist, an online marketplace, to recruit 505 volunteers from across America.

Each was asked to estimate the energy consumption of nine household devices (such as stereos and air conditioners) as well as the energy savings incurred by six green activities (like swapping incandescent bulbs for fluorescent ones).

The researchers then compared the volunteers’ estimates with the actual energy requirements or savings in question.

Their results, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that although people do grasp basic energy trends, they are decidedly hazy on the details.

On average, participants underestimated both energy use and energy savings by a factor of 2.8—mostly because they undervalued the requirements of large machines like heaters and clothes dryers.

As a result, they failed to recognise the huge energy savings that can come from improving the efficiency of such appliances.

Miscalculations like these hinder conservation efforts.

When asked to rank the single most effective way to save energy, participants typically endorsed activities with small savings, such as turning off lights, while ignoring what they could economise on larger devices.

This suggests that people misallocate their efforts, fretting over an unattended lamp (at 100 watts) while neglecting the energy they could save by nudging their washer settings from “hot” to “warm” (4,000 watt-hours for each load of laundry).

A quirk of human psychology could help to explain these persistent underestimates.

When calculating such things, people often adopt a familiar unit as a mental yardstick and then generate predictions based on that unit.

As a side-effect, their estimates cluster too closely around the yardstick measure—a phenomenon called “anchoring”. In Dr Attari’s study, for example, the survey provided a reference measure by stating the amount of energy used by a standard light bulb.

Participants may have responded by unconsciously anchoring their estimates to this value, compressing their predictions into the relatively low range of an incandescent bulb.

This suggests an obvious criticism: by providing the light-bulb figure, the researchers primed their subjects to underestimate energy consumption.

But the authors argue that rather than introducing a methodological flaw, they simply acknowledged a shared point of reference.

When it comes to an accessible, quantitative measure of energy, consumers are uniquely familiar with the 100W bulb.

As a result, Dr Attari expects bulbs to exert an anchoring effect on the general population as well as on her volunteers, contributing to widespread underestimates of the energy demands of large appliances.

Fortunately, increased information seems to combat such miscalculations.

In the study those who were better at maths made more accurate predictions, as did those with broadly pro-environmental attitudes.

Ways of making energy consumption clearer, such as devices that constantly monitor household appliances, could therefore help people make better decisions about how to save energy.

Economist - Science and Technology

DNA is not all

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DNA is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses.

The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information.

DNA is often compared to a set of blueprints or a recipe, or a code, since it contains the instructions needed to construct other components of cells, such as proteins and RNA molecules.

The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in regulating the use of this genetic information.

However and here is the caution

DNA in the popular press is talked about as if it is or will shortly answer all the questions about life and its evolution 

Materialistic scientists also would have us believe that soon they will have answers for these questions

While the DNA code certainly regulates the production of proteins

Proteins being the basic buildings block of our bodies

It says nothing about how these proteins then manage to arrange themselves into tissues and organs and complex living human beings

Further physical DNA says nothing about what creates and arranges our basic patterns of thought

And our behaviour where does that come from?

The idea that these aspects of our being stem from random physical and chemical interactions as materialistic scientists would have us believe is just not credible

Materialist scientists are remarkably quiet about these questions

And very noisy about the purely physical

Yet these questions are just as fundamental to our understanding of where we came from as is the DNA of our bodies

Consider

Nowhere can we find convincing or adequate ideas about the origin of consciousness

Without understanding this we know nothing

Our consciousness is us

So 

There are two alternative explanations for our basic character

First there could be a supreme being or God who creates a new soul for each newborn child

By doing this he determines the body and character we are born with

This would also mean of course that he is responsible for creating our weaknesses and imperfections

This being so he would have to be very limited himself or very cruel indeed

This idea of God is increasingly going out of fashion, which leads us to the second idea

There is no God there is intelligence, an absolute unknowable from which all stems

There are laws in our Universe such as the law of harmony

And this expresses itself as karma and reincarnation where our basic habits and tendencies are the result of choices and experiences in previous lives

A memory of them if you will

Karma is the idea that we have made ourselves what we are now

And what we do now will determine what we become in the future

Karma applies not just to individuals but also to groups, countries and races and in turn the whole human race

This idea is more appealing to many because it means that we are all responsible for what happens to us

We are not the victims of blind forces over which we have no control

We determine our own destiny

Each and every one of us can aspire to great heights of evolution our race sex or disabilities are no impediment

Of course there are those who do not like this idea preferring to imagine that life is a lottery over which we have no control

And no karma and reincarnation are not fatalism we have the duty to help others and to make the best of our own lives

We create our own karma every day

What we do today determines our karma in the future

What we did in the past determines what we experience now

As we can DNA is only a small part in our journey of understanding ourselves

A very small part when compared to the work in trying to understand consciousness what it is and how it came to be, how it works even

Around the world

We all live on the opposite side of the world to someone else

Someone we know maybe

Most we do not know

And we are all getting on with our lives

All of us are at the centre of our lives

And at the same time while we are awake on our side of the world others are sleeping on the other side

You read this maybe while I am sleeping

Yet we can all look up at the stars

The same stars

Well some of them maybe

Well maybe not if you live in a polluted city

The point though is that we all happily live our lives oblivious to others on the other side of the world who do the same as us

Unconcerned about their lives

Until something affects us that is

Something that touches our world

Then we might have a thought for them

Depends what it is and then suddenly we are all one

As one in our fear or joy

Instant communications allow this joint energy to meld into one expression

Has this ever been possible before?

We do not know however it opens up interesting possibilities

Letting go

   

People ask us what is letting go?

What do you mean by letting go?

Letting go is when we let go of what we imagine life should be
How life ought to be, how we ought to be

Controlling ourselves and our emotions to the point that we do not know what we are

When we stop trying to dictate how we and things should be

Hearing only what we want to hear completely missing what is really being said or shown to us

Being unable to relax

So many have the idea that if they behave in the way they think is perfect then magically life will be perfect

Letting go is the recognition that nature is smarter and more powerful than we are

Nature certainly has more power than we do any time day or night

Trying to impose our ideas on nature is rather like King Canute ordering the tide to stay out

It does not happen

Or if it does only until the tide comes in again

Life has tides

Ebbs and floes

Ups and downs

Ins and outs

Notice how so many people feel aggrieved when things do not go as they think they should

Just when they want, at this moment now

Can they seriously believe that the ebb and floe should be at their command

Yes many people really believe that life should revolve around their demands

Their petty little lives

And why should they believe this?

Because they have selfish ideas

Their ideas are only about themselves

Because they do not consider that what they want might not be good for them

What they want might lead to disaster

Additionally what they want might be in conflict with their karma

They have never thought that what they want might not be what they need

That they might have life lessons to learn and these might well be that they cannot have what they want when they want it

Confusingly

Many people see others getting what they want

Yes they do

Marriage

Money

Fame

And the price they pay?

Often not visible

But pay they do

Pay they must

There is a price to pay for ambition

There is a price to pay for total selfishness

For brutally grabbing what they want

So coming back to letting go

Letting go is about accepting what life brings

Not apathy

Not sitting around doing nothing

On the contrary letting go is being active

Doing the best with whatever life gives you

Every day in whatever way it comes to you, at you

Few are the humans who know what is best for them

This is why letting go is the way to learn better what we are here for

What lessons we have to learn

What pain is ours to bear

And yes pleasures too

Letting go of assumptions

Letting go of wants

Letting go of selfish ideas

Letting go is letting go

Freeing your emotions

Going with whatever comes your way

Freeing your perceptions in favour of the truth

Trying not to impose how it should be on life

Trying not to distort events

Just letting go

Genetically engineered danger

Almost all non-organic processed food or animal products in the U.S. today contain ingredients that come from genetically engineered crops
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Or from animals given genetically engineered feed, vaccines or growth hormones.
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Genetically engineered foods have not been tested to determine whether they are safe for human consumption.
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Genetically engineered foods are different from conventional and organic foods.
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A single serving of genetically engineered soy can result in 'horizontal gene transfer
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Where the bacteria in the human gut adopts the soy's DNA.
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Animals fed genetically engineered feed are different from animals fed conventional and organic feed.
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The third generation of hamsters fed genetically engineered soy suffered slower growth
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A high mortality rate
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And a bizarre birth defect, fur growing in their mouths.
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Many also lost the ability to have pups.
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The more genetically engineered corn was fed to mice, the fewer babies they had and the smaller the babies were.
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Biotech's scattershot technique of spraying plant cells with a buckshot of foreign genes that hit chromosomes in random spots would trigger the expression of new allergens and change the character of plant proteins.
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Scientists reviewing data from Monsanto's own studies "have proven that genetically engineered foods are neither sufficiently healthy or proper to be commercialized."
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The Convention on Biodiversity recognizes that genetic engineering is a threat to the amount and variety of life on the planet.
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We are playing with fire
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We are putting life on this planet in danger in ways that we do not understand
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There can be no excuse for this
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Money and the pursuit of profit is not an excuse for putting the planet at risk
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Poor fools those who hide and distort the information made available
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Their lives and ours are at risk
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At risk of things we have no idea about
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And all for money
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In the name of greed
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Shame on you

Domestic harmony

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Although husbands across the board have reportedly almost doubled their domestic efforts since 1961,

British women in couples, on average, still spend two-thirds more hours doing chores than men do.
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And it's taking its toll
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A  report published last week by the London School of Economics indicates that divorce rates are lower in families where husbands help out with the housework.
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In response to similar evidence in the US, the quest for domestic equality has become something of a movement, with a spate of books, talk-show appearances and websites on the topic.
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And the approach is far from man-bashing.
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Most women naturally set the standards – the way laundry is done, which brand of ketchup to buy, and how to correctly vacuum all surfaces.
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This doesn't work with equal sharing!

A woman's mantra must become 'I will let go'.
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Men aren't going to be in any rush to change, because the current system works so well for them.
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To get your husband to do his fair share, you're going to have to lead the charge.
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All agree that male/female stereotyping is a large part of the problem – and provide strategies for getting past it.
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For example, both parties make sacrifices, whether it's stepping down the career ladder or relinquishing exclusive control over home-decor choices.
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If you stop making gender-based assumptions about who will, say, do the washing, then you have to plan.
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Sit down once a week with the calendar to negotiate chore division.
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It's about truly believing that my obligation to him and his to me is that we owe each other full lives."
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It sounds assertively American, but the idea is gaining traction over here.
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Busy couples try to make things efficient, simply because they have to 
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But often that means we, as Fisher puts it, "sleepwalk" into default roles, usually determined by tradition.
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It's when things aren't discussed – where responsibility is just dumped – that resentment builds 

Then the one with the most dumped on them will often try to dish out tasks
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If you feel like a helper, you won't take responsibility.
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To get things done, a person needs to own the tasks.
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Feeling nagged, he says, creates distance:
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You would stay late at work

Go on that business trip

And the dynamic builds.
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A lot of us are unaware of these dynamics:
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The key is to sit down and talk through who does what.
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Even if it's not feasible to change at that time, talking builds understanding

Which makes people nicer to each other.


Don't assume that your partner automatically understands what's wrong.

Talking openly about what's stressing you out is the first important step.


Accept that you may have different standards for domestic life.

Both partners may need to change their expectations.


Tackle the issue together: negotiating a new approach jointly

Rather than trying to impose a set of rules, will get better results.


Try not to take it personally: your partner isn't being messy in order to hurt you.


Being accusatory won't not solve the problem.

Calmness, kindness and trying to see each other's perspective works better.


Kate Burt

Now the Atlantic

A huge expanse of floating plastic debris has been documented for the first time in the North Atlantic Ocean.
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The size of the affected area rivals the "great Pacific garbage patch" in the world's other great ocean basin, which generated an outcry over the effects of plastic waste on marine wildlife.
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The new plastic waste, which was discovered in an area of the Atlantic to the east of Bermuda, consists mostly of fragments no bigger than a few millimetres wide.
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But their concentrations and the area of the sea that is covered have caused consternation among marine biologists studying the phenomenon.
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Using fine-mesh nets towed from a research ship, the scientists collected more than 64,000 individual plastic pieces at 6,100 locations out at sea over the 22-year period of the survey.
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The highest concentrations were centred at approximately the same latitude as Atlanta, Georgia (32 degrees North) but extended about 500 miles north and south of this line.
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Kara Lavender Law from the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, said the size of the Atlantic "garbage patch" was roughly equal to the one in the Pacific, where circulating currents of the North Pacific Gyre have trapped it over a wide area to the north of the equator.
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The Pacific has received more attention in terms of plastic accumulation but we know less about the Pacific so it's very difficult to compare the Atlantic patch in terms of size.
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We had a cruise this summer to try to find the eastern extent and in fact we failed to find it," Dr Lavender Law said.
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East of Bermuda we had no evidence of a decrease in concentration so we still haven't answered the question.
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All we can say is the highest concentrations between the two oceans are comparable.
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My guess is they are similar-sized problems," she said.
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For the first time we've been able to put north-south bounds on the region of plastic accumulation.
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We've presented the most extensive dataset on plastic marine debris on any ocean basin," she added.
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The nets have a mesh size of 0.3mm, so the survey has only collected fragments bigger than this size.
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Most pieces are smaller than the eraser on the top of your pencil.
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These are fragments from larger objects but we cannot say which objects they are from or where they originated.
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Most of the plastic appears to be polyethylene or polypropylene, which are less dense than seawater and float near to the surface.
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However, other kinds of denser plastic debris may have sunk to the bottom of the ocean where it has disappeared from view.
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The study, published in the journal Science, found that the concentration of plastic particles caught in the nets since the survey began in 1986 has remained remarkably constant – but Dr Lavender Law emphasised that this did not mean the problem was manageable.
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It does seem constant but we have to be careful about the interpretation that it is not getting worse, because what we are measuring is plastic larger than a third of a millimetre in size floating at the surface.
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One explanation is that the pieces are becoming small enough to pass straight through the net.
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The plastic may still be floating at the ocean surface – it's just that we are not collecting it once it's smaller than a particular size.
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Another explanation is that we've found evidence that biological growth on pieces of plastic actually makes them denser and it's possible that, over time, if there is enough biological growth they may become dense enough to sink from the surface, where we wouldn't collect it.
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Small fragments of plastic could pose an even greater menace to marine life than the larger fragments that become entangled with animals such as albatrosses and turtles.
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We know that smaller pieces of plastic are eaten and it's unclear what happens to that plastic then.
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But clearly biological organisms were not designed to eat plastic.

Stoic Russians

Ikea has claimed that it has been targeted for higher electricity bills and impeded by onerous planning hurdles in Russia for refusing to pay bribes.

It said this year that it was freezing its Russian expansion because of the “unpredictability of administrative processes”.
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Authorities in Russia claimed that an Ikea store could not withstand hurricane-force winds, prompting the Swedish company to conduct research, which found that the area of the proposed store had no history of such weather conditions.
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Nor have any other stores in the area ever been tested for such conditions

This arbitrary bureaucratic behaviour is rampant in all areas of Russian life, everywhere and for everything

Russians pay more for everything because of this rampant corruption

Corruption is endemic across the country

Russia is not alone in this every country has corruption

Just that in Russia it retards the creation of so many things

Throughout history so many talented people have had to leave Russia

In every area of life in every generation

Sadly as they say in Russia "a fish rots from the head" and everyone knows it

Will it ever change?

Can it ever change?

Locals say no

They say that the ruling elite has never cared about the people

They live and rule for themselves alone

While that might be true things are not the same as they were even a few short years ago

Looked at through different eyes we can see new elements that can make a difference

Never in its history has Russia had so much contact with the world

From government to private individuals

Never before have so many Russians lived in other countries

Never before have so many travelled and lived outside of Russia

Nor have there ever been so many companies doing business with the outside world

With foreign business partners moving in and out of the country all the time

The Internet is used by more and more Russians

A new generation who get much of their news from the Internet and each other

A generation is coming into adulthood who never new repression or Communism

The explosion of new life and business activities is greater than most see

While much of Russian life is controlled from the top much is changing at the bottom

Not visible

Not monitored

Not spoken about

All of the above is changing Russia

How this will manifest we do not know

That it will we do know

In my lifetime?
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I suspect yes

Grindr

Ever heard of this?

Grindr is a free phone app which lets gay men instantly pinpoint each other using GPS technology.

Alledgedly it has already transformed the sex lives of 700,000 men around the world.

But could it work in the straight market?

And would it mean the end of monogamy?
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Ever heard of Grindr?
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If you have, I'm going to guess that you are male and gay
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Or male, technically straight and somewhat curious
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Or the straight friend of a gay man.
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If not, allow me to enlighten you.
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Grindr (pronounced "grinder") is a free downloadable iPhone app which, it promises, will help you
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Find gay, bi, curious guys for free near you!
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Grindr harnesses GPS, allowing you to establish who else in your direct vicinity is also using Grindr.
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It shows you – on a gridded display – who these men are and what they look like;
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It'll tell you how far away from you, in feet, and even more thrillingly, fractions of feet they are standing
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And it will allow you to 'chat' them, if they take your fancy.
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Although buried deep in the Grindr ethos is the idea that you shouldn't do in cyberspace what you could be easily be doing in person.
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Don't 'chat' when you could actually, you know, chat.
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Polly Vernon  - The Observer
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Another breathless article for your perusal
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And next?

Knife culture

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Knife violence in Britain is not going away
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Violence in depressed areas is not going away
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Refusal to acknowledge the real issues of poverty and poor parenting along with poor education are not going away
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Minority usually black males = living in ghetto like estates = from single parent  families = with poor education = with no future  = leads to gang culture = leads to inevitable violence = leads to death
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These young people on the margins of society have a very serious problem of self-destructive violence.
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These poorer citizens aren't going anywhere
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There is no upward mobility for them.
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They are turning in on themselves.
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In a British society with no ideology these young people totally reject established laws and institutions.
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These young people want to consume in a free market which won't let them because they're too disadvantaged and structurally powerless
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Anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity.has to be attractive to them
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Total and absolute destructiveness, especially toward the world at large
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And importantly including oneself
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Yet they have to accomplish being a man in a world which equates masculinity with having power over something
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Yet they have nothing
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Knife culture is rooted in poverty
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With disadvantaged teenagers excluded from mainstream education.
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Knife culture is the culture of young men who have limited opportunities and no basis for hope in relation to the mainstream economic system.
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They often live in areas where the streets are pock-marked with boarded-up shops.
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Looking to the future, the prognosis is bleak.
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The coalition government is reviewing knife crime strategies, just like the government before it
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Cameron's appointment of the EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, whose 16-year-old bother Ben was murdered two years ago, to head a task force assessing existing policies has led to mutterings of 'gesture politics'.
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Several knife prevention campaigns have already been stopped because of funding cuts.
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In the short term, broader trends point to a worsening problem.
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Britain's increasing population, particularly amongst minority groups, will increase street encounters of young men in poorer areas unless trends change.
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The majority of Britons do not live in these areas
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The majority of Britons have no experience of these gangs
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The majority of Britons see this on their tele
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In their newspapers
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And it increases fear in society
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It keeps stress levels high and there is seldom a day goes by where there is no report of murder stabbing or violence somewhere in Britain
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The media seem incapable of focusing on the 59 million Britons who have on any given day not murdered, stabbed or caused any other form of mayhem
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Why is this?
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Is it news that someone stabbed someone or is it endless repetition recycled over and over?
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Why are the media incapable of introducing helpful ideas into the situation, instead of banal soundbites?
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Or does it help sales and viewership to keep the fear level high?
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It does not take fifty years to figure out that poor educational policies, poor housing policies, poor prospects and zero training of parents to be parents are major issues
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Could  it be that a certain percentage of young people killing each other is useful?
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Could it be? 
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Just a thought
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It is certainly easier than addressing the true causes of these problems
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It is certainly quite useful to divert attention from other things
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Particularly the utter failure of British governments, all of them, to acknowledge that they themselves are the problem not the youth
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That decade after decade they have abused and misused their opportunities to face the most important issues facing Britain
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So the knife culture goes on
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One day maybe we can face the true reasons why
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Until then this is the world for many in this country
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Stabbings and knifings in Britain
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■ 322 fatal stabbings were recorded by police in 2007, the highest number since records began in 1977, up by almost 40% in a decade.
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■ The number of people prosecuted by magistrates for possessing knives soared from 4,489 in 1997 to 7,699 in 2006.
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■ The number of youths aged between 10 and 17 searched by police rose from 123,819 in 2007-08 to 185,489 in the 2008/9
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■ 5,239 stab victims were admitted to hospital in 2008, including 609 under-18s – down from 5,720 in 2007.
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■ In London, the number of stops and searches rocketed from 4,400 in 2003-04 to more than 80,000 in 2008-09.
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■ Since the Metropolitan police's Operation Blunt2 began in May 2008, there have been nearly 2,500 arrests, with 550 knives and 150 other weapons seized.

More prevarication

Health watchdog Nice suggests that a series of changes to convenience foods would save thousands of lives.
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Tens of thousands of lives could be saved if major changes were made to processed and convenience foods, the UK's leading health watchdog has said, challenging the government and the food industry to act to improve the nation's diet.
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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) said that diet is not just a matter for the individual consumer.
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In what will be interpreted as a significant attack on the food industry, it recommends a series of changes, including:
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• A total ban on trans fats.
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• Halving the individual daily salt intake.
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• Legislating if necessary to encourage manufacturers to slash the content of hidden saturated fats in all food products.
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• Ensuring low fat and low salt foods are cheaper than unhealthier versions.
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• Banning television adverts for high-salt and high-fat foods before the 9pm watershed, to protect children.
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• Urging local councils to forbid take-aways and junk food outlets near schools.
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• Bringing in the "traffic light" colour coding system to show whether a product has high, low or medium levels of salt, fat and sugar.
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But the government reaction was unenthusiastic, implying that it was up to the individual to make healthy choices.
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The best way to prevent cardiovascular disease is for people to eat better and be more active," a government spokesperson said.
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The NHS provides high quality cardiac care and there has been a reduction in cardiovascular deaths of about 50% over the last 15 years through better prevention and better treatment.
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The statement went on to suggest that Nice might have over-reached itself.
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These recommendations are extensive and wide ranging, but it is not practical to implement certain proposals in this guidance, for example on the mandatory use of traffic lights alongside GDA [guideline daily allowance] in food labelling.
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It is extremely important that work by Nice is methodologically robust and includes fully workable proposals,
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Cardiovascular disease is responsible for at least 150,000 deaths a year, mostly through heart attacks and strokes. About 40% of those who die are under 75.
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"These are eminently preventable deaths," said Klim McPherson, professor of health epidemiology at Oxford University and chairman of the Nice committee which deliberated for more than two years.
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Poorer people have up to a threefold increased risk of heart disease over those who live in more affluent areas of the country.
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The focus for the Nice committee was safeguarding the population, rather than advising the individual who may have limited options.
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It is about busy people having a lot to do, having to make choices on the fly, making pragmatic choices on how they feed themselves and their children.
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Commercial organisations are very good at exploiting people who make choices on price and convenience.
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The government would not be breaking new ground if it were to legislate on healthy food, he added.
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We think it is commensurate with other bits of policy government gets involved with, like speed limits and clean air.
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Simon Capewell, professor of clinical epidemiology at Liverpool University and a public health physician, said the changes would make economic sense too.
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We're looking at well over £1bn a year in savings, not just to the NHS.
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That included, for instance, fewer people being forced to give up work to care for somebody who was disabled through heart disease.
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The committee was very concerned about the salt, fat and sugar levels in children's diet, which could predispose them to unhealthy eating patterns and to heart disease from a relatively early age.
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The Nice guidance calls for action on the way food is marketed to children – with a 9pm watershed on advertising unhealthy food.
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It urges advertising curbs also on non-broadcast media, the Internet and mobile phones. It wants an agreed set of principles for food and drinks marketing, "based on a child's right to a healthy diet".
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The committee regretted that the EU has decided against traffic light colour-coding to indicate the nutritional content of food products, which it said was the clearest indication to shoppers whether they were buying something good or bad for them.
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It urged the government to introduce it anyway through legislation – a suggestion that was immediately rejected by the Department of Health.
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Nice also called for transparency in the dealings between government and the food and drinks industry, including "full disclosure of interests by all parties".
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The Food and Drink Federation said Nice was out of touch with what was happening, claiming voluntary measures by the industry had already substantially brought down salt, sugar, saturated fat and trans fat levels.
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The Nice report was supported, however, by the European Society of Cardiology and the British Heart Foundation

Sarah Boseley - Guardian

And as usual the issue slides off the pages of the news until the next scandal when it will briefly reappear

Difficult fighting lobbies representing the most powerful trade groups in the country

Nice is doing what it can

Are you?

Just glitzy

A glitzy mall

And all is well

We can shop some more

Up and down

In and out

Minds firmly focused on finding something to buy

Therapy for some

Relaxation for others

Part of our instant culture

Mind you malls do while away the hours

Hours we have so many of

Yet we complain about not having enough time

Could it be that our priorities are not what we pretend

If we really like wandering about the mall

Then be honest and say that this is my priority over doing something more productive

Not just glitzy my true therapy

Mmmmm!

Which are you?

The advice of etiquette experts on dealing with unwanted invitations or overly demanding requests for favours
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The advice has always been the same
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Just say no.
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That may have been a useless mantra in the war on drugs
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But in the war on relatives who want to stay for a fortnight
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Or colleagues trying to get you to do their work
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The good manners response is still "I'm afraid that won't be possible."
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Excuses or prevarication merely invite negotiation.
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The best way to say no is to say no.
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Then shut up.
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This is a lesson we're unable to learn, however, judging by the numerous books promising to help us.
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This is the so called "disease to please" where many feel the imperative that they be liked.
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There are  profound reasons why people feel the need to say yes when they do not want to do something
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Reasons of self-esteem, guilt, wanting to be liked.
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But it's also worth considering whether part of the problem doesn't stem from two basically different types of people
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Those who ask for what they want and those who try to guess if what they want is available to them
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This terminology comes from a web posting by Andrea Donderi that's achieved minor cult status online.
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We are raised according to her theory, in one of two cultures.
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In the ask culture, people grow up being taught that it is OK that they can ask for anything – a favour, a pay rise– while knowing that the answer may be no.
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In the guess culture, by contrast, children grow up avoiding directly asking unless they are pretty sure the answer will be ye.
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In the guess culture a key skill is putting out delicate feelers.
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If this is done with enough subtlety, then no direct request need be made as an offer will be given.
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Even then, the offer may be genuine or just polite noise and the guesser needs yet more skill and delicacy to discern whether it can be accepted.
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Neither culture is worse or better just different and when two people from the different cultures meet unpleasantness can and often does result.
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An asker will not think it's rude to request staying with you for a month or so
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But a guess culture person will freak out at the apparent rudeness of the direct request and resent having to say a direct no
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Your boss,  who asks for an assignment to be finished unrealistically early, may be a pain or just an asker, who would accept if you said no it could not.
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But on the other hand if you're a guesser you hear your boss demanding the impossible 
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This gives us an understanding of why we can find different cultures awkward or difficult to deal with  
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British, Australian and Americans get uncomfortable doing business in Japan, because it's a guess culture and on the other side experience Russians as rude, because they are an askers culture.
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The thrust around the world is to make all of us askers...............with politeness
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Training us all to use American phrases like "that doesn't work for me".
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This might be tough on guessers however it does have the merit of being clear
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Asian societies coming into more contact with Western askers will take time to confront the idea of direct asking
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It is up to all of us to be sensitive to which approach the other person feels more comfortable with
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And maybe not to ask when we should guess!