Misguided and creepy. Yep, that sums her up

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Jackie Danicki - Just asking
Isn’t there something just a wee bit misguided and creepy about a father going on a crusade to save the planet when his own child is a drug-addled wreck?

I'm not suggesting that there is anything the Gores can do now for their son, except to get out of his way as he heads for rock bottom. (Have they been delaying his landing all these years? I have no idea.) But even if I were inclined to be lectured on how to live by two moral busybodies like Al and Tipper Gore, their son’s sad situation would give me pause to wonder about their priorities, sensibilities, and drive to be holier-than-thou celebrities.
Isn’t there something just a wee bit misguided and creepy about an alcoholic blogger questioning the actions of a politician because he has a son who takes drugs?

What the fuck?

For the record, Al Gore III has been been arrested twice for marijuana possession and once for suspected drunk driving. He was also found to have prescription drugs in his possession but it is not clear whether he had been prescribed these or not. 18 years ago, when aged 6, he was almost killed when he was hit by a car and has required extensive surgery and physiotherapy for his injuries.

What's Danicki's excuse?





Let us rejoice!

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Aberdeen University Graduation Ceremony

It takes a lot to make my wife nervous but when she stood in for the Chief Executive at yesterday's award ceremony at Marischal College (the second largest granite building in the world after the Escorial in Spain),  she hadn't realised that she would be at the head of the civic and academic procession, alone, be-gowned with just a mace-carrying Sacrist in front of her with the audience all around her singing Gaudeamus Igitur at the top of its voice.

That got the old heart thumping!

But once she was seated all she had to do for the rest of the proceedings was just enjoy it and applaud, like everyone else.

 


Whoops!

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1.5m wrongly told they risk heart disease
Thousands of people have been wrongly told they are in danger of developing life-threatening heart diseases because of flaws in the way doctors routinely calculate the risk, according to a study of more than a million people published today. Current estimates of the number at risk of cardiovascular diseases are 1.5 million too high, the report says, suggesting the anti-cholesterol drugs statins are massively and needlessly over-prescribed, inflating the £2bn annual bill to the NHS.

The great cholesterol myth has had a stranglehold on UK health policies for years despite increasing evidence that blood cholesterol levels in most people are perfectly acceptable. The move has been to constantly lower what is considered a 'normal' or 'healthy' level of cholesterol (or LDL/HDL). When a drug popped up which enabled this to be easily achieved guess what? We ended up with a statins bill of £2 billion a year. Statins are now available in the UK over the counter. Only last week NICE advised 'that all people over 40 should be considered for statins and offered them if they are at a 20% risk of becoming ill within 10 years'.

The other area of concern, not mentioned in this article, is the misdiagnosis of high blood pressure. Like cholesterol levels, there is a downward movement in what is considered 'a healthy' BP. I have my own blood pressure monitor (it's identical to the one used by my practice nurse) yet whenever my blood pressure is taken at the surgery it is always higher than when I take it at home, leading the nurse to mutter about 'keeping an eye on it' etc. This 'white coat hypertension' effect has been researched and published widely and yet doctors still rely on a single measurement taken at the surgery to make judgements about hypertension.

To compound matters the same cuff is used on all patients regardless of their arm size. In the US it has been suggested that over 90% of cuffs are too small for the patients they are used on. Finally, add the incorrect placement of cuffs (something I've experienced many times), either too close to the elbow joint or much too high up on the arm, and you have a recipe for false readings.

For the record the average reading from my last seven blood pressure recordings is 124/69 with a resting heart-rate of 47. Not bad at any age and pretty damn good for someone rapidly approaching their seventh decade (especially given my previous very bad habits!).



Unsalted bullshit

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Sandwiches 'rival crisps on salt'
Pre-packed sandwiches may contain as much salt as several bags of crisps, a study suggests. The health lobby group CASH looked at 140 sandwiches on sale and found over 40% had 2g or more of salt - or a third of an adult's recommended daily intake.
And the problem is what exactly? Most pre-packed sandwiches are sold to be eaten as lunch. Lunch is one of the three meals a day we consider normal. Most of the sandwiches on sale (60%) contain LESS than a third of an adult's recommended daily intake and only about 20% of the actual average daily salt intake.  So, what percentage of your recommended daily intake should one of your three daily meals contain? A third? Sounds about right to me. So perhaps the headline should read something like this: Eating sandwiches for lunch helps maintain healthy salt levels. So why didn't it?

Asda's Extra Special Yorkshire Ham and Hawes Wensleydale sandwich topped the list, followed by Pret a Manger's All Day Breakfast sandwich followed by a chicken and bacon sandwich and a sausage, egg and bacon sandwich. The lowest salt sandwiches in the survey were Co-op Healthy Living Tuna and Cucumber and Tesco Healthy Living Chicken Salad.
You don't have to be an expert to see a certain pattern here. Sandwiches with salty fillings tend to be...erm... SALTY! Clearly what you put in the sandwich will affect its salt level. But that doesn't stop Ms Jo Butten, the nutritionist from CASH, making this bizarre comment:

"One of the easiest way to reduce the salt content would probably be to use a different sort of bread, as that can be a significant factor"

Doh! I give up.


Unintended consequences #739

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Cut out junk food and get fat
For a long time many schools funded non-varsity and intramural sports with revenue from vending machines. Now that many schools have been pressured by anti-obesity activists into eliminating the machines, money for extracurricular activities has dried up. Meaning kids not involved in varsity sports now have less to do, making them less active, making them more likely to put on weight.



We do the wire-taps, OK?

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Man arrested for taping his DWI investigation
NEW HAMPSHIRE, USA: A 48-year-old Chestnut Street man was arrested early this morning for wiretapping for allegedly recording police while they were investigating him for driving while intoxicated. Police say they were patrolling the downtown area at 2:54 a.m. when they discovered Christopher A. Power (no relation) of 52 Chestnut St. sitting in the driver's seat of a vehicle with its motor running at the Rochester Common.

After speaking with Power, police began investigating him for driving while intoxicated and arrested him. During the arrest an audio recording device was discovered. "During a search after the arrest an audio recorder was discovered on the driver's seat cushion," Capt. Paul Callaghan said. "The officer noticed that the recorder was recording." Power was charged with driving while intoxicated and wiretapping, which is a Class B felony.



Strange Brew

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Cream rises to top as Bruce finally gets degree - 50 years after angry walk-out
As a precocious and talented teenager who believed he was destined for stardom, Jack Bruce thought he knew it all. So, when his tutors at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama failed to take his ideas on music seriously enough, he quit the course in protest. Click to learn more... Now, nearly 50 years on, Jack Bruce, the rock legend who founded the superband Cream with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, has returned to Scotland's national school of music to receive an honorary degree and make peace with the body he walked out on.
Bruce, together with Ginger Baker, were both jazz enthusiasts and Bruce claimed that he tried to get Cream to play progressive jazz in disguise with Eric Clapton unwittingly 'playing the part of Ornette Coleman'. Listening to Cream again with that thought in mind you get a completely different perspective on some of their music.





Identity crisis

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Yesterday my wife arrived at her office without her ID - not that she has ever had to show it, up to now. The security guys know her by name, largely because she holds a senior position and is usually the first to arrive and the last to leave the office.

But there had been an attack at Glasgow airport, on the other side of Scotland, and the  threat level was 'critical' so, naturally, security had to step up their vigilance.

This increased vigilance manifested itself as a  requirement to sign the visitor's book. (That'll keep 'em out). In the space where it asked for the name of the person she was visiting she wrote, 'myself'. It seemed to throw the guys for a moment, but the penny finally dropped and she was permitted to enter the building. Phew!



Fat Worst

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Sp!ked | Achtung: if you’re fat, you’re anti-social
By focusing on private matters such as health and weight, the German government is trying to develop new points of contact with people’s everyday concerns and fears. It is turning personal lifestyle into a political issue. Where in the past sports campaigns were designed to engage people, and make them join sports activities voluntarily or out of personal interest and enthusiasm, the current health plan puts the economic and social necessity of slimming at the centre of the debate.

Government-endorsed slimming and health awareness are no longer about increasing the quality of our personal lives; rather they are about instilling in us a new sense of social duty and even conformity. Indeed, we should remember that for all today’s talk about having the ‘right’ Body Mass Index, there is in fact no scientific and enduring definition of what ‘overweight’ is. In the past (and in some cultures even today) being ‘overweight’ was seen as an enviable condition because as it was an indicator of social wealth and economic success.

An isolated government is using the issue of what foodstuff we put in our mouths to ‘make a connection’ and to enforce new forms of authority and standards of responsibility. The German people should tell it to get stuffed.