I was surprised that my 10-year-old son brought this home for homework – took me a moment to start the path to working it out:
(inspired by Movember…)
Let’s face it, there is a serious illness affecting women* worldwide, and it needs fighting. Millions of women are caught up in a cycle of buying new handbags, even though they already have one.
This cycle is speeding up. Once upon a time handbag fashions changed annually. Now it is every couple of months.
Problems:
- Not knowing which item is in which handbag – women often have 2 or 3 in concurrent regular use
- The poor husband looking for an item finds it particularly difficult
- Previous handbags take up a lot of shelf-space, causing larger homes to be built
- Generally the bags are imported, causing an outflow of our country’s cash
- Jealousy of others with better bags causes mean thoughts
- Money spent on handbags could be better spent on more enjoyable, locally brewed products
Solution:
Participating women acknowledge the problems, and commit to only purchasing one new handbag per year (that’s still a massive 60 in the average adult lifetime).
Handbag is only purchased during January and February (aka Baguary).
Any owned bag that hasn’t been used in 10 years should be donated to NZ, where it would currently be in fashion.
* men seem to get by with the same bag for years or even decades…
Read MoreMinerva Schools at KGI is a bold new concept. The idea of presenting lectures over the Internet is not new, but they way they have designed theirs means students are more involved than if they were in a classroom or lecture hall.
“We know there are tons of biases that affect how professors call on students,” says Kosslyn. “Women students don’t get called on as much as male students.” In each class, students’ faces are displayed as thumbnails across the top of the screen. For them, it’s always in alphabetical order, but “for faculty, we vary the order depending on who needs to be called on based on data we’ve collected before and how much they’ve been talking in class. It’s a decision support tool that helps them overcome the traditional biases in class.”
If students are answering a question, professors can send them silent notes to warn them that they’re veering off course. Passing notes under the table, so to speak, works both ways; students can send professors messages if they don’t feel comfortable asking a question out loud.
Also unusual is that despite not having classrooms, the students are not living at home:
Minerva students spend their first year living together in San Francisco, their second year in Buenos Aires and Berlin, their third in Hong Kong and Mumbai, their fourth in London and New York.
Full story at Newsweek.
Read MoreOne of the main causes of death and disease is inflammation. Regardless of the contributing factors like being overweight or having clogged arteries, it is inflammation that ultimately gets you. And turmeric reduces inflammation, better than aspirin. See http://hplusmagazine.com/2014/05/01/turmeric-curcumin/
Given that I love curries – perhaps my favourite food – it is a no brainer to start adding turmeric to my diet.
A. Eat more curries, and choose those with more turmeric in them. The easiest way to achieve this would be to cook them myself, without the use of packet mixes. This is something I have always wanted to do, so now I allocate Sunday afternoons to this endeavour.
I’ll start with recipes from:
http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/collections/curry
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/recipe/easy-homemade-curry-pastes/
B. Add turmeric to non-curry dishes. For example, I will see if Nicola can add it to my roast potatoes:
Gordon Ramsay’s Roast Potatoes with Garlic and Turmeric
Crispy Turmeric Roast Potatoes
Step 1: Involve an organization like the International Peace Bureau
Step 2: Get permission from the town of Nanyuki. It is in Kenya, on the equator, right next to Mt Kenya (2nd highest in Africa). I figured the equator was a good place to find a location, and I wanted somewhere with tourist appeal, not a violent country, and not too hard to get to. There is an airforce base right there.
Step 3: Get every nation to send a rock. They could make a big deal about sourcing it and transporting it – a bit like the Olympic torch.
Step 4: Build a giant stone circle. My son William says it could use the design of the peace symbol. The design will such that 40-50 initial stones will create the shape, but lots of room for any other stones to be added. As well as nation states, ethnic peoples could also contribute.
It would be the only truly international structure, something that is from everywhere and belongs to everyone.
I know I tend to have a lot of ideas that never make it to reality, but this one I would like to achieve.
Read MoreThese bits of info – via New Scientist – are well worth committing to memory!
Blood transfusions are dangerous if the need is low!
Of people judged on arrival at hospital to have more than a 50 per cent chance of dying, those who had a transfusion of red blood cells were twice as likely to survive as those given no transfusion. But in arrivals judged to have less than a 6 per cent chance of dying, those who got a transfusion were five times as likely to die as those who did not.
Friday-itis
People who have non-urgent surgery on Friday have a 44 per cent higher risk of death than those who have it on Monday.
The risks are tiny, but who wouldn’t opt for a Monday op knowing this?
Pre-Op Shave
The shave, typically using a disposable razor, is more dangerous than any bacteria living in your hairs. Because the nurses are prone to cut you.
Hip Replacements
There are 200 types. Some are tried and proven. Choose them ahead of the “latest” un-proven sorts.
Check-ups
A regular check-up is important if you need to keep something monitored. But if you are in good health, harmful false diagnosis is as common as useful – there is no net gain in living longer or avoiding a heart attack:
Read MoreHealth check-ups have long been popular in the US. They have recently been introduced in the UK as a “midlife MOT” to be done every five years. They sound like common sense but check-ups are surprisingly controversial, because they look for illness in people who have no symptoms. This can lead to unnecessary worry and treatment.
The most recent trial into the effectiveness of general check-ups looked at nearly 60,000 Danish people offered annual checks for five years. Five years after this period, heart attack rates and overall death rates were unaffected
I was fetching my car from a mechanic the other day, and as he was explaining the work done the phone rang. He answered it and talked for a minute or so.
Then he apologised, he said “I thought it was just another one of those scam phone calls that I hang up on”.
That’s how bloody prevalent they are.
I get roughly 5 per week. They outnumber all other landline calls I receive. They are an incredible inconvenience and sometimes get me angry – and that’s not my type. At least I am smart enough to not be fooled. Clearly some are fooled, enough to fund major telemarketing operations.
The ACCC received 84,000 complaints, and that was just in 2012 – I imagine it would be many times more this year, and that’s just people who complain to the ACCC!
The main types of call are:
- we are Telstra, you have been unknowingly downloading illegal files, you will lose your Internet unless you do as we say
- we are Microsoft technical department, you have a virus
- we are Qantas/Jetstar, you have won a free trip (automated)
I wouldn’t call it war or terrorism, but it something like that – foreigners attacking our vulnerable citizens.
What really pisses me off is that Telstra could surely end it tomorrow if they chose. And they choose not to. I’m unsure if it is:
- not wishing to acknowledge fault/blame
- not wishing to spend $$$
- they make $$$ from the incoming phone calls
The thing is, Telstra is a phone company. The number might come up as unlisted on my home phone, but Telstra must know who the caller is. And that means that when they see thousands of calls coming from the same number in the Philippines, they could do something. I suggest one of these:
- phone them and ask who they are calling on behalf of. Ask enough questions to verify them, and cross-check it with their Aussie hirer
- implement a *SCAM (7226) number for people to call and report their last received call as a scam
- require all foreign telemarketing companies to register with Telstra, else their calls will be blocked
There has to be a solution.
Read MoreFull story here
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/a-hair-salon-gurus-next-big-thing-ending-the-12b-tyranny-of-shampoo/
Basically, this is how it currently works:
- You know you ought to wash your hair, so you buy the brand that sounds best. It might be what it claims to do (more bounce…) or that it matches your hair type (dry)
- Your hair is clean, but also dry – so you buy conditioner
- Your hair is now soft, but you have some dandruff
- You think the anti-dandruff product has an effect, but doesn’t cure it
- Try a different brand (without realising it might be the same company, same ingredients)
50% of people have dandruff. That means it is normal!
Almost all hair products contain what are basically chemical detergents. Ignore the packaging – typically when they boast natural ingredients they are negligible when you look at the list of ingredients. If you see words like sulphate near the top of the list, it isn’t going to be great for your hair.
sodium laureth sulfate, a chemical ingredient used in virtually all shampoos because it kills oils and leaves users with a squeaky-clean scalp. Problem is, that also dries out skin and hair follicles—a problem that most people treat by buying, without batting an eye, additional products like conditioners
Now the man who sold the Bumble and Bumble brand to Estee Lauder has come up with a detergent free shampoo that he says will be the new way. And get this, it is a cleansing creme. It doesn’t lather. You probably didn’t realise this, but a key reason for including sodium laureth sulfate in shampoos is that it lathers – and people equate that with cleaning. Even dishwashing liquid does it – the bubbles are to reassure you, they don’t actually aid in cleaning.
I have been using a non-lathering, non sodium laureth sulfate hair product for years. My hair isn’t great, but it is less problematic than ever before.
Read MoreThe concept of an Elephant’s Graveyard strikes a chord with many humans.
I would love to be able to emulate the ritual of elephants for my own death, but typically it won’t be possible.
To make it work you will need the following:
- All generations living in the same locality
- No bureaucratic interference
- Distance achievable by an elderly person
The final point is critical. Most animals seem to be highly functional right until death. Humans aren’t like that. We can’t hike 50 miles and then drop dead. 50 metres is more like it. So we need to place ourselves close to the graveyard when we feel our end is nigh.
I have long toyed with the idea of a natural post-death dispersal, the idea that I disappear into nature via a regular process:
- Taken by vultures or hyenas
- Rotted into soil
But that seems so random and impersonal. It would be substantially more special if I lay down amongst the bones of my ancestors. I wouldn’t even need to see bones, just trust that I was in the same place.
The only way it could work for me is to buy some land and be sure that it would stay with my family forever. And then (when my time has come) lay myself down amongst the bones of my future family. It might not become a thing, but it would feel nice trying such a thing as my final act.
Read MoreAn intelligence chief is ranting about his needs. He says we need:
someone who has a fleet mind and lots of muscles….
His subordinates take this as an order and recruit Nickel Hayes, a flawed but talented quarterback with a 3rd-tier team.
Nick becomes a spy for hire, as long as it fits in with his football schedule. Every episode is a different city.
Nick has a model girlfriend, but his female un-model agent helper slowly becomes his best friend 😉
The Chief was forced/tricked/unassumingly made Nick a big budget operative.
Every case is different, because Nick is the big buck $$$ superstar case-solver. Murder, corruption, and so on [Mentalist but gutsier… shhhh]
Nick is ultimately a nice guy with quick wits and athletic skills.
Slowly Nick evolves into an intelligence operative, and slowly he falls for his helper agent.
Meanwhile, he is so pumped by his off-field activities that on-field he is on fire. His team rises and he becomes a celeb…
He is one part Johnny English, one part James Bond, one part [put famous good looking quarterback here, I am not American]
The show offers:
- a variety of USA locations – international in Season 2 when he becomes a kickboxer
- action befitting a fit football star
- morals befitting the ideal football star
- high life lived
- low-life of crimes investigated
- cleverly having Nick involved but never implicated – the key point of difference!
- PATRIOTISM
- an inside look into the training and dedication – too often we see heroes with perfect abs and no explanation of how they developed them. Lets see the hard work for a change…
- Nick’s family is not mentioned. Season 3 could involve a conspiracy to involve him because of X family reason (his Dad went AWOL for example)
A new Hart to Hart, a new Moonlighting, with the glitz of Vegas and the innocence of Joey from Friends.
FREE IDEA: Just credit me as a co-creator.
Read More