Greenie food faddism kills Orang Utans

Food processors used to use a lot of animal fat in making their products.  Then Greenies discovered that such fats were "saturated", which was a very bad thing -- even though the human race has been consuming animal fats as far back as we can go.  Anyhow, with their constant attention-seeking activism, the faddidsts managed to get saturated fats banned and looked with favour on the alternative: hydrogenated vegetable oils.  But wait a minute!  Hydrogenated vegetable oils contain trans-fats, which are VERY bad.  So after a while  everybody had to dance to that insane tune.  

But there was a substitute to trans-fats which the manufacturers wearily adopted:  Palm oil.  So a huge new demand for palm oil arose.  It was a new goldrush.  If you had palm oil you were in the money.  So businessmen in S.E. ASia started huge palm oil plantations.  OK?  No problem?

BIG problem.  To create those big new plantations,  lots of natural jungle had to be cut down.  Greenies might have objected to that but did not.  So lots of jungle was lost.  But the jungle was where the Orang Utans lived.  They were thrown out of their homes and often died along the way. So that is how food faddism kills the Orangs.  People who care for them are doing what they can but they are up against a juggernaut


Major zoos in New Zealand are joining their Australian counterparts in calling for the clear labelling of palm oil in food products.

Auckland Zoo, Hamilton Zoo, Wellington Zoo and Orana Wildlife Park have joined the initiative, spearheaded by activist group Unmask Palm Oil, asking patrons to send postcards to NZ Food Safety Minister Jo Goodhew to show their support.

Unmask Palm Oil founder Ben Dowdle said palm oil was estimated to be in about half of products available in supermarkets, and was only currently required to be labelled as "vegetable oil" in Australia and New Zealand.

"Every New Zealander should be able to choose what's in their food," he said.

"Clear labelling is the best step forward."

Palm oil is controversial due to its environmental impact — its production is linked to deforestation, which Unmask Palm Oil says results in the deaths of up to 1,000 orangutans in South-East Asia each year.

Food Standards Australia and New Zealand has previously rejected an application for its mandatory labelling.

The New Zealand campaign follows on from a long-running initiative of Zoos Victoria to have palm oil clearly labelled in Australian products.

What's the deal with palm oil?

What you need to know about the environmental impacts of palm oil and the worldwide movement to make it sustainable.

"We have worked on the palm oil issue for the last seven years," Zoos Victoria general manager of communications Jacquie O'Brien told the ABC, adding that she was thrilled to see New Zealand's zoos on board.   "It's really important because this is really about the consumer's right to know what is in their food.   'How they use that information is up to them.

"[Whether they have] environmental values or health values ... what we're asking is to give people that right."

She said polling conducted this year by Zoos Victoria in Australia and New Zealand showed 84 per cent of Australians supported palm oil labelling, along with 92 per cent of New Zealanders. The research included 1,125 New Zealanders and 1,003 Australians.

So far, 50,000 people have signed Zoos Victoria's petition for more transparent food labelling.

SOURCE

Kiwi in trouble over ‘drunken’ stunt in Venice



A DRUNK Kiwi has landed in hot water in Venice after performing a spectacular stunt off the city’s most famous bridge. The tourist from New Zealand, 49, was reportedly drunk when he jumped from the Rialto Bridge over the weekend.

But instead of plunging into the water of Venice’s Great Canal, the man managed to land on top of a water taxi passing underneath, badly damaging it and injuring himself and the boat’s driver. The force of the impact smashed the boat’s windshield and caused shattered glass to scatter everywhere.

The man was taken to a local hospital to be treated for fractures and “severe trauma” and police said he was in a serious but stable condition. The man, who is usually based in St Tropez on the Cote d’Azur and in Venice for a holiday, is likely to be charged with endangering public transport.

The incident has seriously ticked off the mayor of Venice, who is now threatening misbehaving tourists with a night in prison"

Source

Olympic Athletes Challenged by New Opponent: Global Warming

It is hard to know where to start with the nonsense below:  Yes. It does get hot in Rio:  Rio is in the tropics.  No. Past Olympic records have not been adjusted for the climate of the host city.  It was pretty cold in Helsinki but that did not make anyone run faster.   There is far greater variation in host city temperatures due to latitude than any fancied rise in temperature due to global warming

And the prediction that Britain would fade out is looking silly, seeing that Britain is third in the gold medal tally, behind only the USA and China

And if warming is slowing down the athletes generally at Rio, how come world records are being broken there daily?  The scare below is totally made-up with no factual basis


Climate change warnings poignantly made during the Olympic Games opening ceremony on Friday are likely to resonate with athletes as they struggle to train and compete in Brazil’s tropical heat.

Marathon runners, swimmers, volleyball players and even soccer referees will succumb to extreme temperatures and lose concentration during the games, in some cases risking their lives to heatstroke, according to a report released Monday by Observatorio do Clima, a Brazilian civil society group.

“Because of warming, sport will never be the same again,” and fewer records than in previous games are likely to fall as a result, the report said.

Global warming was a key theme of the opening ceremony, featuring maps, charts and graphics of rising global temperatures, melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels encroaching on cities from Amsterdam to Shanghai.

Brazil heated up faster than the global average, warming 1 degrees Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the last 54 years, and four cities smashed new heat records in 2015, according to the report. If countries don’t deliver on goals to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, 12 Brazilian cities may have to limit play in similar games by the end of the decade, it said.

Rising Heat

Sharply higher temperatures so far haven’t impacted this year’s Olympiad, according to Jose Marengo, a climate scientist at the Brazilian government’s National Center for Monitoring Warning of Natural Disasters. Temperatures in Rio could climb to about 30 degrees Celsius on Aug. 15 from about about 24 degrees Celsius on Monday, according to Accuweather.com.

Even though the games are taking place during Brazil’s winter, the heat may still impede performance, particularly in the marathon where Olympic records have only been broken in temperatures below 12 degrees Celsius. Runners perform best between 8 degrees and 11 degrees, well below the level expected this month in Brazil, the report said.

Over the coming years, athletes are likely to “give into fatigue earlier on, even if they remain in the competition until the end,” according to the report.

‘Fade Out’

The next Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020 could more heatwaves because climate change tends to create hotter summers and colder winters, Marengo said. Temperatures in the Japanese capital may top 36 degrees Celsius this week, according to AccuWeather.

“Temperatures are getting higher and heatwaves are getting more frequent,” Marengo said. “We don’t see many studies showing how this heat stress will impact people working outdoors.”

The heat is likely to be painful for athletes from colder climates, says Brazilian tennis player Fernando Meligeni. He reckons European players won’t be used to the humidity, which will make them sweat more than usual.  “I believe that the English and the Swedish, for example, will fade out,” Meligeni said, according to the report.

Warm temperatures have already caught out athletes. Two soccer matches in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil required technical time when so-called “wet bulb” temperatures -- a measurement used in occupational health -- reached 32 degrees Celsius, which is the “stop play” threshold for FIFA. Several athletes in the test events for the Rio Olympics had heat-related injuries. Eleven of the 18 race walkers succumbed to the heat and one fainted, according to the report.

SOURCE

La Boschi is in the news again




Italian politician Maria Elena Boschi has found herself at the centre of yet another sexism row after a newspaper published a racy cartoon of her with a caption that played on the Italian word for 'thighs'.

Since she was appointed as reforms minister in Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government the 35-year-old lawyer has drawn up a bill for major political reform in Italy.

Yet, despite the gravity of her achievements, Boschi continues to be the focus of much tabloid criticism for her youth and photogenic looks as well as her figure-hugging business suits. When she wore an electric blue suit to Renzi's swearing in ceremony in February 2014, one newspaper said she looked like 'a Marvel superhero like Captain America'.

Now the conservative press are unhappy with the dresses she's wearing.

She has surprised the stuffier corners of Italian politics in pushing through a complicated series of reforms to the country's Senate"

Source

Muslims are the sea in which the Jihadi fish swim

Consider this: A Muslim man in England decides it is time he made his trip to Mecca, which is religious obligation for all Muslims who can do it.  So he arranges his affairs, books his tickets and arrives in Mecca.  He marches around the Kaaba 3 times and abuses the Devil.  And when he gets back home he is pleased with himself and will have honorific title "Hajji" from then on.

So he will have met the obligations of his religion.  Except that he has not. Going on a Haj is only a minor command in the Koran. The big and often repeated commandment is to wage Jihad on unbelievers.  But he doesn't do that, nor do 99% of Western Muslims.  Why?  Because it is obvious  that if he does so he is very likely to end up dead or in prison for a long time.  He has the normal human instinct for survival.

But in supporting his local Mosque, he supports the teaching of the Mullah. Mullahs are always urging Jihad on their congregants.  And there will be some listeners in the Mosque who like the idea of being a hero.  They will usually be people who are psychologically or socially marginal but the point is that the Mosque is where they get the sense of mission that they have. If there was no Mosque and no Mullah preaching Jihad, they would go off in some other direction.

So the local Muslim community is the life-support system for Jihadis.  Take away that community and no-one would hear of Jihad and would certainly not have it preached at them.  So Muslim populations should be sent home not because they have done anything wrong but because they are what in law is called "accessories before the fact".  They share a responsibility for the murderous attacks on us committed by their more devout members.

Those who change their religion could stay.  How would we know that a conversion was sincere?  Easy. Just ask them to say something no Muslim would say  -- e.g.  "Islam is a false religion and the Koran is the ravings of an insane pedophile"

So he will have met the obligations of his religion.  Except that he has not. Going on a Haj is only a minor command in the Koran. The big and often repeated commandment is to wage Jihad on unbelievers.  But he doesn't do that, nor do 99% of Western Muslims.  Why?  Because it is obvious  that if he does so he is very likely to end up dead or in prison for a long time.  He has the normal human instinct for survival.

But in supporting his local Mosque, he supports the teaching of the Mullah. Mullahs are always urging Jihad on their congregants.  And there will be some listeners in the Mosque who like the idea of being a hero.  They will usually be people who are psychologically or socially marginal but the point is that the Mosque is where they get the sense of mission that they have. If there was no Mosque and no Mullah preaching Jihad, they would go off in some other direction.

So the local Muslim community is the life-support system for Jihadis.  Take away that community and no-one would hear of Jihad and would certainly not have it preached at them.  So Muslim populations should be sent home not because they have done anything wrong but because they are what in law is called "accessories before the fact".  They share a responsibility for the murderous attacks on us committed by their more devout members.

Those who change their religion could stay.  How would we know that a conversion was sincere?  Easy. Just ask them to say something no Muslim would say  -- e.g.  "Islam is a false religion and the Koran is the ravings of an insane pedophile"

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Note

I've got a bad cold at the moment so no  blogging today.  I may be out of action for a few days

Kayaker spent four days stranded on Australian island after croc attack

A man has been rescued in central Queensland after a crocodile attack and bad weather left him stranded on Townshend Island for four days.The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said the man was kayaking off the coast of Shoalwater Bay when a crocodile appeared from nowhere in the middle of the ocean and attacked his boat. He told rescuers the crocodile savaged his kayak and he used his paddle to successfully fend off the attack. He was not hurt and managed to paddle his damaged kayak about three kilometres to Townshend Island.

 "He was very fortunate," an AMSA said. "It didn't pierce the kayak. He said he was running on adrenalin [to get to the island]."Authorities said bad weather then moved in and the man spent four days stranded on the island, before running out of water and provisions and deciding to activate his emergency rescue beacon. He was found about 7:00 am on Saturday and taken by helicopter back to the mainland, AMSA said.

Source

Equality of respect

There could be few more idiotic assertions than the compulsive Leftist claim that all men are equal.  The obvious fact is that all men are different.  But the absurd assertion does have a purpose.  It is aimed at getting everyone TREATED equally.  That is of course also hopeless but it makes slightly more sense than the original assertion.

So why do Leftists want everyone to be treated equally?  They don't.  They just use the prospect as a battle cry to get the less fortunate segments of society involved in the tearing down of the existing system which is their real aim.  It is just a con.

But conservatives are sufficiently disturbed by the potential aggression behind equality calls to propose a compromise.  Having seen what equality calls led to in Russia, China and elsewhere, it would be most unwise simply to ignore the push for equality.  So conservatives have embraced as a value that there should be equality of opportunity.

But that too is basically unreachable.  All people may (for instance) have an equal opportunity of gaining a High School education but some students -- the brighter ones -- will get more out of it and will go on to better things than the less intelligent students.  So there is no way that all students will have an equal opportunity to move into the top echelons of employment.  And, as a result, we don't hear much about equality of opportunity these days.  Cynicism about it has set in.

But there is one way in which equality can largely be reached and thus sidetrack social unrest.  It is equality of respect.  And I happen to live in a society where equality of respect has largely been achieved -- so it is not an airy-fairy idea. Australia has a national ideology of egalitarianism. It's sometimes summarized as "Jack is as good as his master". People largely treat one another in a friendly manner regardless of who or what they are.  The cleaner and the businessman will both normally speak to one another politely, with no  regard for the differences between them.  There will be no condescension from the businessman and no hostility or suspicion from the cleaner.

It is of course not perfect and social status differences are still there but the attitude that one man is as good as another does rule most interactions.  I am pleased to live in such a friendly society.  Australia does have a national ideology that makes everybody's life less stressful and more peaceful.

Could such an ideology be transplanted elsewhere?  Probably not.  Any attempt to transplant it to class-ridden England would be a joke and the competitive element in American culture would also  rule it out.  But it is nice to know that there is one way in which we can make practical sense of "all men are equal".  They are not equal in Australia but they mostly act as if they were.  Perhaps it's an aspiration for other societies.

Note:  In the above I am speaking of native-born Australians with descent from the British Isles and Northern Europe.  Such people are seen as a single distinct group in Australia.  There are however small East Asian and Indian minorities so what applies to the first group cannot automatically be generalized to minorities.  In my observation, however, the Australian-born Chinese and Indians do assimilate strongly to the majority culture so a lot of what I said above will also be true of them  -- JR

Photoshopped or not?



She spent six weeks in a bikini during her Love Island stint. And Olivia Buckland was back in her swimwear as she posed for a sizzling snap during her trip to Marbella on Thursday - yet many of her 781,000 Instagram followers accused the star of digitally altering her image.

Olivia, who found love with Alex Bowen on the show, has not been shy of showing off her physique since she first hit screens in June and her social media activity since departing the ITV2 show proves she will continue with her bikini-clad antics.

 With her cleavage-boosting bikini top and high-rise bottoms, both her legs and bust looked phenomenal in the sexy snap - yet it was her minute waist which caught the eye. Some Instagram comments read: 'Deffo edited her waist init... Mate that's a joke saw her for 6 weeks straight in a bikini on tv and was nowhere near that hahah... I don't remember your waist being that thin though... tell me that aint photoshopped she looks abnormal.'"

Source

The contented versus the discontented people

I have been looking at the differences between the Left and the Right of politics since 1968, when I submitted my Master's dissertation  on that subject.  And my aim has been to understand WHY Leftists behave like SoBs so much of the time. How is it that implementing Leftist policies always results in harm and destruction of some sort, if not mass murder?

So my interest has been not only in Leftist claims and policies but also in their underlying psychology.  I think, in fact, that it is only at the psychological level that Leftism can be understood.  And, in that, I find myself in a degree of agreement with Leftist psychologists.  Leftists never stop offering accounts of the psychology of conservatives, adverse accounts, of course. It is one of the more popular fields of research in psychology.  So Leftists are most emphatic that you need to delve into the psychological realm to understand politics.  In any argument on the facts they will be defeated by conservatives so impugning the motives of their opponent is essentially all that they have left.

I am VERY familiar with the Leftist claims in that regard. Most of my 200+ academic journal articles were devoted to showing that the research they relied on in support of their claims was flawed, often hilariously so.

But there was one redeeming feature in their research.  In purporting to decribe conservatives they usually were quite clearly describing themselves!  An accusation that they never seem able to let go of, despite much contrary evidence, is that conservatives are "authoritarian".  Yet what could be more authoritarian than wanting to "fundamentally transform" America? (In Mr Obama's words -- words which elicited an enormous cheer from his Leftist audience).

So to find out what is true of Leftists, a good first approximation is to look at what they say about conservatives. They do Freudian projection on a grand scale.  Real self-insight is beyond them. Their motivations are so dismal that they can't afford to acknowledge what they really are.  They can only project it onto others.

But before you study a thing you have to define it and that can be tricky.  Conservatives themselves offer many different accounts of what is meant by conservatism and its opposite. The different accounts usually have a lot in common but none seem to me to strike at the heart of the Right/Left divide.

So I want to offer what is my simplest yet definition of the difference between the two camps.  I propose that the Left/Right divide consists of the discontented versus the contented people.  But the difference is a difference between characteristic mood rather than an invariable divide.  All the surveys show that conservatives are happier than Leftists but that does not mean that they are ALWAYS happy.  That would be absurd. And Trump supporters are clearly not content with the present Left-dominated state of politics, with its pervasive strictures of political correctness greatly limiting what everyone can say and do.

So conservatives have a DISPOSITION, presumably with genetic roots, to be happy and contented, whereas Leftists can't help  finding things to be discontented about.  One must rather pity them.

Exactly WHAT Leftists get discontented about will obviously vary.  There seem to be few things they are contented with and some of their discontents are quite amazing.  At the moment, for instance, they want to tear down most of America's electricity infrastructure in the name of the absurd global warming theory, a theory that is in constant divergence from reality.

So, basically, Leftists are discontented with EVERYTHING and, in consequence, want to tear down as much of the existing state of affairs as they can.  The harm and destruction that flows from their policies is INTENDED.

One of the more nauseous discontents among Leftists is discontent with their personal fame and prestige.  They have a very high opinion of themselves and are greatly grieved that the world at large does not have a similar opinion of them.  So they lash out in all sorts of ways.  Academics are particularly prone to that.  They have in fact by their employment reached a small degree of personal distinction but are quite burned up that many business people get paid far more than they do.

So they lash out at society by promulgating fanciful theories about the evils of the world that will get them taken seriously at least by other Leftists. They gain distinction by being seen by some as heroic critics of a world in vast need of reform and reorientation.

The global warming theory is a good example of that.  It's intellectual underpinnings are pure speculation but it has succeeded in creating great disruption.  And it continues to be taken seriously because a relatively small clique of scientists continue to proclaim it energetically.  The famous "97%" paper by John Cook in fact shows, if you read it carefully,  that only one third of climate scientists voice support for the theory.

So, because of their miserable psychological state, Leftists have great potential to do harm and we should never forget that, regardless of what face they put on it, their AIM is to do harm, harm that will usually affect us all in one way or another.  Their claims of "compassion" are no more than necessary camouflage for their destructive intentions.

Nazi-era industrialist's Mercedes that was stolen by a U.S. soldier is seized and returned to his German family



An incredibly rare Mercedes that was taken by a U.S. soldier from a German industrialist while he was imprisoned for working with the Nazis is now set to sell for £6m after a court ruling returned it to the family of its original owner.

The 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K Special Roadster was found by Allied troops on the estate of factory owner Hans Prym, while they were lodged there, after he was imprisoned in 1945. The car, one of the best Mercedes ever made, was transported to America where it spent the next 66 years before it was sold in 2011 for £2.9m to a Dutch car enthusiast.

After taking delivery if the classic motor, Frans van Haren took it to a car show in Essen, Germany, at which point it was seized by local authorities.

This sparked a legal case between Mr van Haren and the Prym family which went in favour of the descendants of the original owner. Now the family has put the car up for auction at Bonhams who have valued it at £5.95m"

Source

More on the obesity "war"

The latest folly about this:  JAMA has an article recently up called Weight Gain Not an Issue With Mediterranean Diet by Anita Slomski (M.A.).  One would have hoped that a Humanities degree would have made Anita more knowledgeable about people than the average laboratory researcher but it seems not to be the case.

Her conclusion has already been widely quoted so a corrective to it is obviously needed.  The population she studied consisted of overweight diabetics so does a creeping doubt arise from that?  Is that a good population to generalize from?  Is what is true of them likely to be true of all of us? I suggest not. But it is actually worse than that.  Here is a fuller description of the study population:



It is difficult to see how you can draw any generalizations from that set of contrasts.  Even the two "Mediterranean" populations were not regular eaters of a Mediterranean diet but eaters of an "enriched" diet.  Clearly, the study population was not suitable for drawing ANY inferences about the Mediterranean diet.

It is of course all very well to be negative but can I offer better data bearing on the issue?  I can.  And it's real life data.  It's not quantified, sadly, but it is so obvious as to be in little need of that.

I grew up in a Mediterranean village.  It was also an Australian country town, but an exceedingly multicultural one.  About half of the population of Innisfail was of Mediterranean origin, mostly Italians but with Greeks and Spaniards too.  They were basically impoverished peasant farmers who had fled the hard soils of  their homelands for the rich and very well-watered soils of the Australian tropics.  So I think they offer far more in the  way of generalizability than most medical studies that I have seen

And what was there about these Mediterranean folk that was extremely obvious?  After their first flush of youth, they were, to put it politely, very "pyknic" in build.  "Stout" would be another word for it.  Weight gain they had in spades on their Mediterranean diets.  Anita Slomski has got it exactly backwards.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

No place for scare tactics

By Chris de Freitas, an associate professor in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland

The column by University of Canterbury sociologist Jarrod Gilbert describing climate change "denial" as a crime, is alarming because he suggests those with opinions different to his should be silenced. What is happening to our education system when university lecturers attack, rather than defend, free speech?

The most worrying aspect of this is the apparent desire to close down debate on a theme that is associated with costly energy policies and other grave economic consequences.

Calling climate sceptics "deniers" is done with the intention of putting them in the same class as "Holocaust deniers". In this context, "denier" has much the same connotation as the N word to refer to people of a certain skin colour. Such insinuations are an insult to those who suffered and died in the Holocaust or those with dark skin. It is both inappropriate and offensive.

In the words of colleague Benny J. Peiser: "As long as we are unable to explain the evident inconsistencies that fly in the face of climate alarmism, attempts to associate scientific scepticism with Holocaust denial can only be regarded as political incitement."

The level of hysteria now being stirred up against climate scientists who are raising very serious questions is reminiscent of attacks made on scientists in Stalin's Soviet Union and pre-war Germany. Those who resort to shooting at the messenger are presumably those without solid arguments on the science.

Just as sceptics have no right to ridicule what is a potentially serious topic, climate catastrophists have a social responsibility not to unjustifiably spook the public.

Climate change scepticism comes in many forms, some which are no less absurd than climate catastrophism. No sceptic denies that climate changes. There is no such thing as a constant climate. For 4.2 billion years, climate has always been getting warmer or colder, wetter or drier, and there has never been runaway warming or cooling.

Recent research findings show there is no evidence -- none at all -- to support the global warmers' scaremongering.

Most climate scientists would agree rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to fossil fuel use could affect global climate. Basic physics supports this view. But there is no evidence that the putative change would be large or damaging. Output from computer models is not evidence unless model performance has been validated. So far, it has not.

For significant global warming to occur, increased concentrations must set in motion positive (or destabilising) feedback processes. Such processes would cause temperatures to rise by some other mechanism. One such mechanism is increased evaporation caused by higher temperatures leading to rising water vapour concentration, which is by far the most important greenhouse gas. This would increase retention of energy from the Sun and lead to further warming.

To date, scientific evidence suggests that negative (stabilising) feedback processes prevail, possibly due to the cooling effect of increased cloudiness from water vapour increase. If true, this means it is unlikely higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will greatly influence global climate.

Negative feedback processes are played down by climate alarmists who assume climate is governed by positive feedback processes which they claim will lead to runaway global warming. Four billion years of global climate history shows that negative feedbacks prevail.

"Climate change" does not confirm that carbon dioxide is causing it. The evidence would have to distinguish between human-caused and natural change. This has not been done.

From the research to date, it appears the influence of increasing carbon dioxide on global warming is almost indiscernible. Warming could occur, but no evidence suggests it will amount to much.

SOURCE  

Note:  A couple of days after the above appeared, James Renwick, Professor of Physical Geography in the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at the Victoria University of Wellington replied.  So how did he respond to the claim of no evidence from de Freitas above?  Did he present some evidence?  No.  He simply said there was ample evidence in the IPCC reports.  But he quoted none of it.

The IPCC is a political body so what it claims has to be examined.  Very often the papers it assembles do NOT support the conclusions in its Summary.  On some occasions, I have traced back an IPCC claim to the papers that allegedly supported it and discovered that none actually did.  At best the support consisted of speculation only.  It would have been great fun if he HAD quoted any of it.  I would have enjoyed ripping it.

Renwick is just being a dupe.  But global warming is his bread and butter so I suppose he has to be.  It's a brave man who would stand between a scientist and his research grants -- JR

What a loser!






Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Vegetarians live longer but what does that tell us?

Nothing basically.  It has long been known that Seventh Day Adventists, who are mostly vegetarians, live longer. But why?  It could be that a strong religious commitment has a destressing effect or it could be that they also deplore smoking. Or it could be that they spend time in church instead of doing dangerous sports.  Church is a pretty safe place. So you just can't disentangle cause and effect in the case of the Adventists.

So it is no surprise that a new study just out --  Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality by Song et al. -- also tells us that vegetarians live longer.  Their data was from two high quality U.S. databases but they appear not to have bothered at all with controls.

And you can understand why.  Vegetarians will mostly be health conscious people with strong will-power and such people will undoubtedly engage in a range of safer behaviors -- smoking less, avoiding dangerous drugs, exercising more, driving more slowly, climbing fewer mountains etc, etc.  And all those things could contribute to a longer lifespan.  Vegetarianism may be only the indicator, not the cause -- JR.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).  

Grotesque woman goes to Iran for a nose job



British porn star Candy Charms has revealed that she has travelled to Iran to have plastic surgery on her nose.  The 25-year-old adult entertainer from Essex posted a picture of herself on her Instagram account in the back of a taxi explaining she'd visited Tehran for plastic surgery.

Charms, who has 117,000 followers on Twitter and regularly features in the hardcore pornography that she posts, uploaded the image of her wearing a hijab in the cab.  She wrote about her flying visit to the Middle East, explaining: 'My nose was not straight and they are the best in the world in nose surgery. I had my nose done.'

The young porn star may actually just be one of many taking advantage of the country's low-cost cosmetic surgery, with a nose job in Iran around 60 per cent cheaper than it would cost in the UK.  It's even been dubbed the 'nose job capital of the world' thanks to the amount of procedures that take place their every year, said to be more than in cosmetic surgery-loving Los Angeles."

Source

 
British science teacher, 39, is banned from the classroom for having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old pupil

An experienced science teacher has been banned from the classroom after it emerged she had a sexual relationship with a pupil.

Rosalind Ramsey, 39, kissed the 16-year-old on three occasions and twice had sexual contact with him in her car on consecutive days after exchanging messages on Facebook.

A National College for Teaching and Leadership panel heard that she asked him to 'collect his achievement folder' from the school in a message on July 7 2014.

At the time she was employed as head of science at Seaford Head School in Seaford, East Sussex, where she had worked for 15 years.

She was rumbled two months later on September 23 2014 when another pupil reported her relationship with the boy to another teacher at the school.

Ms Ramsey admitted failing to maintain appropriate boundaries but denied that she kissed or had sexual contact with the boy willingly.

However, the panel did not find her account to be credible, and believed her to be 'a willing participant' who initiated the relationship.

The panel ruled she breached professional conduct standards, and was guilty of misconduct, abuse of position and sexual misconduct.

She was subsequently banned from teaching indefinitely and is not entitled to apply for restoration of her eligibility to teach after two years. She has 28 days to appeal.

In its findings, the panel wrote: 'The school investigated the allegations and Ms Ramsey was suspended and subsequently dismissed.

'The allegations were referred to the local authority via safeguarding procedures and reported to the police. No further action was taken by the police.

'On July 7 2014, Ms Ramsey became friends with Pupil A on Facebook and she made contact with him by Facebook using a private account to request that he come into school that day to collect his achievement folder.

'It was alleged that Ms Ramsey and Pupil A kissed on the 7, 9 and 10 July 2014 and that on 9 and 10 July 2014, they had sexual contact.'

Ms Ramsey also breached the school's social media policy by uploading photographs taken at the school prom to her Facebook account, the panel found.

The teenager, who was allowed to give his evidence in private because he was treated as a vulnerable witness, said he thought he and Ms Ramsey were in a relationship.

He claimed she also told him she liked him, and the panel noted he was a 'plausible and believable witness'.

The panel said: 'Pupil A met Ms Ramsey in her office on 7 July 2014 and said she asked him out after school.

'Pupil A met with Ms Ramsey after school and she drove him to Seaford Golf Club where they went for a walk. 'She told him that she liked him and they kissed. The language that he used described the kiss as consensual. 'He continued to meet with Ms Ramsey and they kissed on other occasions.

'Pupil A also told us that it was Ms Ramsey who instigated the sexual activity that occurred.

'He described that he and Ms Ramsey went walking around Crawley (West Sussex) holding hands after the sexual contact on July 10 2014.  'Pupil A stated that "it was both ways for the kissing. I thought it was a relationship. She said she liked me".'

Ms Ramsey was not present at the misconduct hearing on Friday and unsuccessfully applied through her NUT representative to have the hearing held in private.

Seaford Head School is a mixed secondary school with academy status for children aged 11 to 16 years old, with a separate sixth form centre for 17 and 18 year olds.

It is a specialist science and sports college, holding the Sport England Award Sportsmark, and has over 1,000 pupils.

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A moderate weather event

It is midwinter in Brisbane where I live.  The temperature at my place with doors open and no heating in operation was 28 degrees C at 3pm yesterday.  Britons would call that a heatwave.  So how come such heat in midwinter?  Brisbane is, after all, in a sub-tropical latitude, not the tropics.  Could it be that global warming is catching up with me?

Not quite.  You see, we also had a very cool summer at the beginning of this year.  So instead of extreme weather events, we are having a moderate weather event -- where summer and winter temperatures converge to an unusual degree.

I am sure the Warmists could explain it.  They can explain everything "post hoc". But it's certainly pretty weird in an opposite direction to what the panic merchants have predicted.  If this is global warming, I love it!

Half-naked STRIPPERS dance provocatively around a man's coffin in an attempt to attract more mourners to a Chinese funeral



Footage from a funeral in China shows two scantily clad women gyrating next to a man's coffin as they dance to Maroon 5's hit Moves Like Jagger.

Attending mourners eagerly film the scandalous scene as the strippers - dressed in bikini tops and knee-high leather boots - sashay around the casket. Just as they might on a nightclub podium the pair flick their hair and provocatively shake their assets in an energised dance routine while lights flash from pink to green to blue, illuminating a picture of the deceased.

At one point they even drape themselves seductively over the white coffin as though posing with the departed man - named only as Mr Jian.

Strippers are invited to dance at funerals in China and Taiwan in the hopes of attracting more morners - with a higher numbers of attendees seen as reflecting a higher status."

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Indian siblings wander into jungle with tigers and other wild animals for days at a time… but always come back unharmed



A pair of Indian siblings who have a close bond with wild animals have been compared to Mowgli from The Jungle Book.  Surendera Kumar and his sister Rajeshwari, 25, wander into the jungle for days at a time and play with monkeys in Rajnandgaon, in the Chhattisgarh region. They never fear the wild animals that roam the area and love to play freely amongst the trees and fauna.

 Their mother Pancho Bai, 45, lives her life in fear of losing them and in particular Surendera, 20, known as Golu, because of how close he gets to the animals. She said: 'He roams around in the jungle and I have to drag him home. I have seen him playing Kabaddi sporting game and hide and seek with monkeys and chasing them around. 'I've often seen Golu behaving like a monkey.

People in our village have even tagged him a Gorilla for the way he walks. He has a bond with animals and I believe that is why no animal has ever harmed him"

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