Childhood Obesity And TV Advertising

My rant today concerns the recent ban on Children's TV advertising of so called junk food in the UK.

The worst thing about it is it's yet another half hearted gesture to the pressure groups, who somehow think people have no free will.

Kids are getting fatter, who's to blame. Well they seem to think it's the TV advertisers and the evil junk food peddlers. Can you see a problem with that statement? cause I can. The reason kids are getting fatter is nothing to do with that at all, its the fault of the parents.

I have a 7 year old son, and he is perfectly healthy and normal, because I and his mother control what he eats, and we give him advice on what he should do to look after himself. That my friends is called parenting. He watches TV, Jetix, cartoon network, CBBC etc, and he sees the McDonalds ads, (yes they are still there , more on that later), but so what! he gets taken to McDonalds every few weeks for a treat, and that does him no harm whatsoever. They, like the vast majority of the chain fast food people,and most of the independents as well for that matter, produce a very good quality product, that tastes good, they wouldn't be in business for long if they didn't, just don't eat at them everyday, and you will be fine trust me.

Since when did we loose control of our kids , It's our responsibility to bring them up, not the governments. They will be exposed to lots of stuff that they should be protected from, but its our responsibility to protect and guide them not anyone else's, and if you're a parent, and you think its not, then you are not fit to be looking after anyone let alone a child. Now if you don't know already, and if you read this blog regularly enough, you will get to know my views on government, and its mis-guided and often cynical nanny state interference in our lives, and this TV ad ban is a great example.

From what I can tell this is what happened in this case. All the pressure groups say, TV advertising of Junk food is Bad stop it now ! Government says OK, Large corporations for example McDonalds, and the TV companies, say, but this will hurt our business. Government thinks yes and our Tax revenue too, and so gives the companies a back door to getting around the ban.

Yes within two weeks McDonalds were back, advertising as much if not more on TV, but with the added option of a fruit bag or carrot sticks that you can have in your happy meal. I don't have and can't get the sales figures, but my guess is, very few kids are choosing the fruit or carrot stick option on the happy meal, well it wouldn't make me happy would it you? I can tell you what my sons reaction to a carrot stick is in his happy meal, because I got him some as a joke, And it wasn't a happy one I can tell you.

So to sum up my rant today, Boo to the government for another half hearted crap nanny state intervention, and congratulations to Mc d's for getting around it, but people take responsibility for your own lives and lets all tell the meddling pressure group do-gooders of this world where they can stick their interference.

The above rant is my personal view and opinion, if you agree or it annoys you or if you have anything to say please leave a comment

Global Warming Is Bullsh*t

Wow that's a controversial title. Let me first tell you about myself, I am not a celebrity, I am not a politician, I am not an interested party in any way, but unlike 90% of the people telling you about man made global warming,I am a scientist, in fact I have a bachelor of science degree from a major university in the UK.

So here are the facts about climate change.

The climate is getting warmer, Yes it is but there is no human input into this change, ask yourself a question , just stop what you are doing and think for a moment, how does CO2 act in the environment. When you drive your car the CO2 your engine creates goes out through the exhaust pipe (at ground level), CO2 is not lighter than air, if it was when you blow up a balloon it would float like a helium filled balloon , Does it ? no it doesn't. The fact is the CO2 from your car floats around at ground level until it gets absorbed by plants, (that's what plants do!), they absorb CO2 use the carbon C to grow, they like you and me are carbon based organisms,and breathe out oxygen. That's what they have always done and always will do. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does what it always did it makes more plants. IT DOES NOT AND CAN NOT make the atmosphere warmer, that's what that big yellow thing in the sky does its the sun that makes things hotter.

We are all going to be flooded by the melting ice cap. No we are not going to be flooded, two points here, first there is the Medieval Warm Period, which was a time of warm weather around 800-1300 AD. It was warmer then than it is now and as far as I know no one drowned , there is a lot of nonsense talked about the melting ice caps, first of all a large percentage of the ice mass floats on the surface of the ocean, because uniquely water becomes less dense as it freezes. Do an experiment for me will you? fill a glass with water, and then put some ice into it, make sure the level is to the top of the glass. Now watch as the ice melts, does the water level rise, does the glass overflow, No? Well neither will the sea. Most observable sea level changes are caused by the land sinking and not the sea rising, the sea has stayed at the same level for millennia, and will for some considerable time yet.

Actually the earths climate varies in a cyclical nature. over time it has been colder than it is now, and it has been warmer than it is now, there has been much more CO2 in the atmosphere than there is now, and a lot less too.Truth is we are a largely insignificant little stain on a big planet, and no matter what we do we are highly unlikely to make the slightest dent in the ecosystem. If anything it is currently recovering from the mini ice age, which followed the Medieval Warm Period, but whatever it is doing our climate is driven by many factors over which we have no control mostly the sun.

If you ever meet a climatologist , and remember there aren't many of em, ask them how long there have even been scientists studying the climate, and if they are honest they will say not long, (it's actually less than 40 years) there have been people studying physics and chemistry and astronomy a lot longer than that, centuries in fact, and there is still allot we don't understand in all of those spheres, so anyone that says we understand climate and why it changes is talking bullsh*it, you should be able to smell it a mile off. One case in point remember the hole in the ozone layer and how we were all going to die, notice how that went quiet, well here's why, It started to get smaller, no and not because we stopped using aerosols because after it got smaller it started to get bigger again, and now yet again its getting smaller, This all went quiet because NASA admitted we have only been able to measure the hole in the ozone since the 60's, and they now believe it to be cyclical, sound familiar. Oh and one last point when they did make this announcement, I.E we have been scaring you shitless for 5 years but we were wrong don't panic, It was done in such a low key way that you would never have heard about it, if you had not read this.

Remember I have no axe to grind no research grant to preserve. I am just sick and tired of all the bullsh*t. The major report on climate change that was published recently was written largely by beaurocrats and politicians, and to a much lesser part scientists, but I have been involved in research and let me tell you if you have enough money you can get scientists to prove anything. In the 70's because it suited the political climate all the scientists were warning of another ice age. If me and you had enough money we could prove the same again (but we don't).
Allot of people are making allot of money out of human caused climate change, and it isn't you and me, we are the ones getting screwed with increased taxes higher fuel costs and other stealth environmental taxes which are being imposed on us. You are still going to get screwed, but just so long as you are aware why it is happening you will be a lot better off in my opinion. Oh and one last point if you can place a bet on man made climate change being disproved in the next 20 years do it, because let me tell you in about 5 or 10 years time there will be another wild theory which will completely supersede it. Yes were just about due another ice age and I bet its our fault.

The above rant is my personal view and opinion, if you agree or it annoys you or if you have anything to say please leave a comment

Oh Those Nutty Celebs and Their Amusing Ways.

Hi all, Well its the OSCARS tomorrow, and I thought it wasa great time to air one of my all time favourite rants, yep those nutty celebs. Hopefully there wont be too many ill informed speeches from know nothing well meaning dogooders, about things they don't understand, Al Gore and George Clooney on global warming spring to mind. Driving around in their Toyota Prius cars whose eventual scrapping,and disposal of the batteries in them, will cause more environmental harm than any CO2 they would have produced intheir lives if they had had normal petrol engines. still that's for another rant I am getting off the point.

No my rant today is on the growing number of celebs joining that nutty religious cult, the scientologists, you know who they are but in case you didn't, here is a list (source wikipedia list of scientologists).

Kirstie Alley, Anne Archer, Jennifer Aspen, Beck, Catherine Bell, Karen Black, Nancy Cartwright, Kate Ceberano, Erika Christensen, Tom Cruise, Jenna Elfman, Doug E. Fresh, Paul Haggis, Isaac Hayes, Katie Holmes, Tyler Hynes, Jason Lee, Geoffrey Lewis, Johnny Lewis, Juliette Lewis, Christopher Masterson, Danny Masterson, Jim Meskimen, Sofia Milos, Haywood Nelson, Corin Nemec, Marisol Nichols, Judy Norton, Michael Peña, David Pomeranz, Laura Prepon, Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley, Kelly Preston, Leah Remini, Patrick Renna, Ernie Reyes, Jr., Giovanni Ribisi, Marissa Ribisi, Ruddy Rodriguez, Michelle Stafford, Ethan Suplee, John Travolta,

I am sure there are some I have left out, if you know of any more leave a comment.The vaguely disturbing thing about this is, that so many of these people who are in the public eye actually have some influence over the masses, (ok masses who are lets say a few sticks short), but still seems a bit sleazy to me. Now I have to say at this point that I support everyone's free will to believe whatever they like, No matter how mad and misguided, but these people once you join them, suck your money out of your account like a demented vacuum cleaner, and give your brain a good washing into the bargain. They are using the celebs, who see a different side to it all having their own celebrity centres etc, into getting the ordinary plebs to join, who then loose all their money and sanity etc etc. They are mostly harmless to you and me but we should protect our fellow humans from this kind of crap don't you think.

I have to ask myself why are these people joining this weird organisation, an organisation that was started by a bad science fiction writer (L ron Hubbard), whose core belief is that we are inhabited by bits of aliens who were brought here in space worthy DC8 aircraft, and blown up by volcanoes, (I kid you not). I mean all religion even themain stream ones are pretty nutty, but this just takes the cake. On a side note if you want to know more about these wacky scientologists have a look at http://www.xenutv.com/

The best reason I can come up with is that being associated with this bunch gets them more work. For example tom cruise now is in charge of united artists and john travolta managed to get backing to make Battlefield Earth,a film widely thought to be the worst film ever released by a major Hollywood studio, the story for which was written byL ron Hubbard (bad sci fi I rest my case).

I just hope that there is a greed related explanation, or if they do genuinely believe the teachings of L Ron that they stop breeding.

The above rant is my personal view and opinion, if you agree or it annoys you or if you have anything to say please leave a comment.

America Do The World A Favour

Let me start by saying I am a British citizen, but my rant today concerns our friends from the ex colonies. That's right you lovely people separated from us by an ocean and a common language. Mr and Mrs American voter.

You have a chance this year to do something for yourselves, and the rest of the world, which will make this planet a better place for us all to be in. like it or not we are all effected by what happens in the USA, and this year being an election year more than most.

It's not often that I take an interest in politics, being a libertarian I think that the best thing that can happen to most politicians is to be placed somewhere where they can do no harm, bottom of an ocean, in a cave underground (without access to weapons), on an desert island somewhere, you get the idea. However I notice for the first time in as long as I can remember, there is a candidate in the running that could do some good rather than harm, and that is mr Barack Obama.

Thankfully the Bush era is coming to an end. We have suffered six years of state sponsored terrorism, manufactured threats, two ill conceived and un winnable wars, both in the pursuit of oil and power rather than any aim to remove threats, or a war on imaginary terror that has more to do with the US government than any Moslem orArab nation in my opinion.

Yep my rant today is an impassioned plea to all you lovely people in the USA. Please put an end to all this republican Christian fundamentalist self serving power grabbing, and give us at least a three year break from the threat of annihilation by our own governments, If he gets the democratic party nomination then please vote for Barack Obama.

Oh and if you want to get informed about what is happening in the world today, take a look at this video you can thank me later.

ZEITGEIST, The Movie - Official Release

The above rant is my personal veiw and opinion, if you agree or it annoys you or if you have anything to say please leave a comment.