Long time no post and this one's not even music related.
My local council are... a bit stupid? Ridiculous? They seem to operate on the basis that "if-we-say-we're-going-to-do-something-no-one-can-possibly-object". The latest example of which was their recent announcement that they plan to demolish my local swimming pool, Scartho Baths. The plan is to replace the pool with a new one at the Leisure Centre. Said new pool will be 25m long and have no diving boards. The current pool is somewhere short of Olympic standard (i.e. 50m) and has diving boards. It's on a lot of major bus routes, unlike the Leisure Centre, which is on just one bus route.
Problem, much?
Many years ago, I learnt to swim at that pool. I imagine most people in my area learnt to swim there. In the wake of the Olympics and Paralympics, demolishing a decent-sized pool and replacing it with one that's half the Olympic length seems ridiculous. What's happening with the Olympic legacy?
I should point out that the council claim that the pool is structurally unstable. Something about draining it would make the pool collapse. Now, this seems unlikely to me as I'm sure that up until fairly recently the pool was drained once a year for cleaning anyway. Obviously I know nothing about engineering. That said, the engineering report or whatever it is hasn't been made available. I'm half tempted to demand it be released so we can see how much truth is in the council's claims.
Anyways, enough ranting. I've probably missed important things out. If you're local to Grimsby, signing THIS PETITION would be vaguely helpful. And if you happen to be from the council and reading this, please think back to when you tried to shut down our nursery schools. That didn't entirely go in your favour, did it now? And I see that there's already been progress, which is also viewable at the same address as the petition.
"We won't stay silent - we'll make as much noise as we can." Enter Shikari - Tribalism
Showing posts with label seriousness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seriousness. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Seriousness: Running the British 10K for Women's Aid
No, not me. I'm unfit and have always sucked at running. My friend Lizzie, on the other hand, is being completely awesome and runnning the British 10K on July 8th for Women's Aid. The charity essentially works with victims of domestic abuse and is as such lovely. Now, I know that I personally am always loathe to donate to people I don't know, but I assure you that Women's Aid is worth it. Sooooo, if anyone is willing to donate a few pennies, you can check out Lizzie's JustGiving page HERE. I'm sure she'll really appreciate any support and obviously it's all for a good cause.
In unrelated news, Band of the Week will be back soon. Exams are over so hopefully I can get back to a regular schedule.
Short post is short.
In unrelated news, Band of the Week will be back soon. Exams are over so hopefully I can get back to a regular schedule.
Short post is short.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Seriousness: Queensland Floods
Band of the Week is coming in a couple of hours and I apologise for two serious posts in a row, but I needed to mention this.
As I'm sure many people are aware now, vast tracts of the Australian state of Queensland have been devastated by flooding in the past weeks. An area apparently 5 times the size of the UK and twice the size of Texas has been affected. Three quarters of the state have been declared a disaster zone. Given how huge the state is, that's an absolutely massive area. At least 30 people are dead, with another 61 still missing. 15 of the deaths are from this last week alone, after a huge wave of floodwater ripped through Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley and flooding spread to previously unaffected areas such as Brisbane and Ipswich.
All in all, Queensland is having a rough time of it. Flooding in the last few weeks has ruined food crops - some farmers have estimated that they may have lost up to 95% of some crops. This is affecting even those areas not subject to flooding. I was in Cairns last week and the supermarkets there were having shortages because a) crops had been lost and b) there were problems actually getting the produce up to Cairns. Many roads have sections underwater, which is playing havoc with transport. Townsville, down the coast from Cairns, is having to bring supplies in by sea, despite not being directly affected by the floods.
It's not just Queensland, either. Flooding has been ongoing in parts of New South Wales since mid-December and Melbourne has had flash flooding in the last few days. Western Australia experienced floods in December too, when the Gascoyne River burst its banks. In my Travelling post, I included a picture of a sculpture named "Cow Up A Tree" because during flood events, cows can become stuck in trees. I thought it was quite silly at the time, but I just read a story from a farmer in Western Australia who has seen some of his cows stuck up trees. Not so funny any more.
But back to Queensland. The point of my posting this was to tell you a) about the floods and b) to tell you you can help. All you have to do is go here and donate to the flood relief appeal. Some people have lost everything and it's going to take a long time to put it right. The floods aren't over yet - new areas keep coming under threat and some towns are still underwater. Just this morning, I read that a town up the coast from me in Tasmania has been flooded. Not Queensland, but it does show that this flooding isn't over yet. A cyclone seems to be forming off the Queensland coast too, which is going to cause even more problems.
You know what got me though? The international coverage. The flooding started weeks ago. It's got progressively worse, yes, but it started weeks ago. I remember seeing Rockhampton inundated on the news before New Year. Obviously, the coverage in Australia has been ongoing since it began, but the international media only seem to have picked it up in the last week. And yet, when Europe and the US were having ridiculously cold temperatures and vast quantities of snow, it got covered on Australian news. So why on earth does it seem to have taken so long for everyone else to notice the floods. Let me repeat those comparisons again - an area roughly twice the size of Texas is affected. That's HUGE. How has there been so little coverage outside of Australia? Ah well, no point in complaining.
Weather's fun, isn't it...
Queensland Flood Appeal donations here.
As I'm sure many people are aware now, vast tracts of the Australian state of Queensland have been devastated by flooding in the past weeks. An area apparently 5 times the size of the UK and twice the size of Texas has been affected. Three quarters of the state have been declared a disaster zone. Given how huge the state is, that's an absolutely massive area. At least 30 people are dead, with another 61 still missing. 15 of the deaths are from this last week alone, after a huge wave of floodwater ripped through Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley and flooding spread to previously unaffected areas such as Brisbane and Ipswich.
All in all, Queensland is having a rough time of it. Flooding in the last few weeks has ruined food crops - some farmers have estimated that they may have lost up to 95% of some crops. This is affecting even those areas not subject to flooding. I was in Cairns last week and the supermarkets there were having shortages because a) crops had been lost and b) there were problems actually getting the produce up to Cairns. Many roads have sections underwater, which is playing havoc with transport. Townsville, down the coast from Cairns, is having to bring supplies in by sea, despite not being directly affected by the floods.
It's not just Queensland, either. Flooding has been ongoing in parts of New South Wales since mid-December and Melbourne has had flash flooding in the last few days. Western Australia experienced floods in December too, when the Gascoyne River burst its banks. In my Travelling post, I included a picture of a sculpture named "Cow Up A Tree" because during flood events, cows can become stuck in trees. I thought it was quite silly at the time, but I just read a story from a farmer in Western Australia who has seen some of his cows stuck up trees. Not so funny any more.
But back to Queensland. The point of my posting this was to tell you a) about the floods and b) to tell you you can help. All you have to do is go here and donate to the flood relief appeal. Some people have lost everything and it's going to take a long time to put it right. The floods aren't over yet - new areas keep coming under threat and some towns are still underwater. Just this morning, I read that a town up the coast from me in Tasmania has been flooded. Not Queensland, but it does show that this flooding isn't over yet. A cyclone seems to be forming off the Queensland coast too, which is going to cause even more problems.
You know what got me though? The international coverage. The flooding started weeks ago. It's got progressively worse, yes, but it started weeks ago. I remember seeing Rockhampton inundated on the news before New Year. Obviously, the coverage in Australia has been ongoing since it began, but the international media only seem to have picked it up in the last week. And yet, when Europe and the US were having ridiculously cold temperatures and vast quantities of snow, it got covered on Australian news. So why on earth does it seem to have taken so long for everyone else to notice the floods. Let me repeat those comparisons again - an area roughly twice the size of Texas is affected. That's HUGE. How has there been so little coverage outside of Australia? Ah well, no point in complaining.
Weather's fun, isn't it...
Queensland Flood Appeal donations here.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Seriousness: vaccines
I have had it up to here with people scaremongering about potentially dangerous ingredients in vaccines. The latest is this: Flu vaccine contains mercury (via @TimMinchin on twitter). Basically, it claims that one of the flu vaccines used for children contains a type of mercury that some people think is dangerous. Please note: SOME people. So I did a little digging of my own. I've seen scaremongering like this before, particularly with regards to the MMR vaccine. The doctor who authored the research which suggested MMR was dangerous subsequently got struck off for his dodgy research and in my eyes and others is at least partly responsible for those children who died because he scared their parents into not giving them the vaccine (see HERE - yes, I know it's wikipedia, but all the relevant references are linked within that section).
So, onto this mercury compound, thiomersal, in the flu vaccine. Even a quick dig through that ever unreliable site wikipedia is enough to say it's probably safe. The World Health Organisation reckons there's no evidence for it being overly dangerous (see HERE, there's a lot of stuff). I mean, they're the biggies of the health world, you'd think they'd check through the research properly and come to a justified conclusion. Apparently certain people think not and this gives them grounds to write scaremongering articles like the one linked above. In particular, the article suggests that the removal of thiomersal from vaccines in the US and Europe is due to its dangerous effects. Try again, love. These two pieces say otherwise and I'm more inclined to believe them than some shoddy journalist: Mercury, Vaccines and Autism and The US Food & Drug Administration's vaccine FAQs. I promise they're both easy to read. The point is, the removal was precautionary, because at the time there seemed to be some evidence that thiomersal could be dangerous.
So, coming to the conclusion that thiomersal isn't dangerous, at least in the low doses present in vaccines, why oh why do people feel the need to write articles that say they are? Because they sell papers? Well, yes. But you know what, I think people are genuinely scared. They hear one little whisper of a possible danger and not being the logical minded individual that some people are, they don't consider the overwhelming body of evidence and latch onto the one, dire example. That's what happened with MMR. One man wrote a paper containing manipulated evidence suggesting the MMR vaccine, given to almost every child in the UK, was a cause of Autism Spectrum Disorders, the newspapers got hold of it and suddenly parents are panicking. I doubt most of them read the original paper. There is no link whatsoever between any Austism Spectrum Disorders and the MMR vaccine. None, nada, zilch. Andrew Wakefield, the man who wrote the paper, was struck off in May last year (2010). Among the charges against him were 12 counts of abusing developmentally challenged children, i.e. those children with autism that he used to give (shoddy) evidence for his study.
Basically, everything about Wakefield's study was a load of absolute bollocks. Having said that, if the newspapers hadn't got a hold of it, maybe we wouldn't have had the problem we had. The paper would have sat in an issue of The Lancet (a medical journal) quietly by itself, perhaps provoking some discussion among medical professionals. Instead we got nationwide panic, vaccination levels dropping and a few years later, guess what makes a comeback? Measles, mumps and rubella. Measles and mumps especially and they kill people. The man sickens me.
What's really awful though, is that even though the study has been discredited and its author struck off, people still won't vaccinate their kids because they're scared. When I was with my relatives near Sydney at Christmas, I discovered that my mum's cousin isn't going to vaccinate her 5 month old little girl. Her older sister has a son with autism and the family seem scared that it was the vaccines that did it. Regardless of the fact that his older brother is fine, they're still scared. Now, I can kind of understand this, but you know what they're using as an alternative? Homeopathy. Yes. Homeopathy, this biggest load of bull the medical world has ever come across. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that it works. How can it, when the doses are so dilute there's basically no active ingredient left? The only effect you're going to get is placebo and I'm sorry, love, but that won't work against diseases. It hurt to see them putting their beautiful little girl at so much risk, simply through fear. I wanted to say something, but my mum gave me a warning look, like, don't upset them. Upset them? By all means, if it'll protect their daughter.
And at that, I am going to end, because I'm getting pissed off once again about something I can do nothing about. Suffice to say, all vaccines are stringently tested before use and if you do happen to come across something that claims a vaccine is not safe, I'd advise you to read up on it before you freak out. Things are not always as the newspapers make them out to be.
So, onto this mercury compound, thiomersal, in the flu vaccine. Even a quick dig through that ever unreliable site wikipedia is enough to say it's probably safe. The World Health Organisation reckons there's no evidence for it being overly dangerous (see HERE, there's a lot of stuff). I mean, they're the biggies of the health world, you'd think they'd check through the research properly and come to a justified conclusion. Apparently certain people think not and this gives them grounds to write scaremongering articles like the one linked above. In particular, the article suggests that the removal of thiomersal from vaccines in the US and Europe is due to its dangerous effects. Try again, love. These two pieces say otherwise and I'm more inclined to believe them than some shoddy journalist: Mercury, Vaccines and Autism and The US Food & Drug Administration's vaccine FAQs. I promise they're both easy to read. The point is, the removal was precautionary, because at the time there seemed to be some evidence that thiomersal could be dangerous.
So, coming to the conclusion that thiomersal isn't dangerous, at least in the low doses present in vaccines, why oh why do people feel the need to write articles that say they are? Because they sell papers? Well, yes. But you know what, I think people are genuinely scared. They hear one little whisper of a possible danger and not being the logical minded individual that some people are, they don't consider the overwhelming body of evidence and latch onto the one, dire example. That's what happened with MMR. One man wrote a paper containing manipulated evidence suggesting the MMR vaccine, given to almost every child in the UK, was a cause of Autism Spectrum Disorders, the newspapers got hold of it and suddenly parents are panicking. I doubt most of them read the original paper. There is no link whatsoever between any Austism Spectrum Disorders and the MMR vaccine. None, nada, zilch. Andrew Wakefield, the man who wrote the paper, was struck off in May last year (2010). Among the charges against him were 12 counts of abusing developmentally challenged children, i.e. those children with autism that he used to give (shoddy) evidence for his study.
Basically, everything about Wakefield's study was a load of absolute bollocks. Having said that, if the newspapers hadn't got a hold of it, maybe we wouldn't have had the problem we had. The paper would have sat in an issue of The Lancet (a medical journal) quietly by itself, perhaps provoking some discussion among medical professionals. Instead we got nationwide panic, vaccination levels dropping and a few years later, guess what makes a comeback? Measles, mumps and rubella. Measles and mumps especially and they kill people. The man sickens me.
What's really awful though, is that even though the study has been discredited and its author struck off, people still won't vaccinate their kids because they're scared. When I was with my relatives near Sydney at Christmas, I discovered that my mum's cousin isn't going to vaccinate her 5 month old little girl. Her older sister has a son with autism and the family seem scared that it was the vaccines that did it. Regardless of the fact that his older brother is fine, they're still scared. Now, I can kind of understand this, but you know what they're using as an alternative? Homeopathy. Yes. Homeopathy, this biggest load of bull the medical world has ever come across. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that it works. How can it, when the doses are so dilute there's basically no active ingredient left? The only effect you're going to get is placebo and I'm sorry, love, but that won't work against diseases. It hurt to see them putting their beautiful little girl at so much risk, simply through fear. I wanted to say something, but my mum gave me a warning look, like, don't upset them. Upset them? By all means, if it'll protect their daughter.
And at that, I am going to end, because I'm getting pissed off once again about something I can do nothing about. Suffice to say, all vaccines are stringently tested before use and if you do happen to come across something that claims a vaccine is not safe, I'd advise you to read up on it before you freak out. Things are not always as the newspapers make them out to be.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Seriousness: Wear Purple
This coming Wednesday, 20th October, there's a movement for people to wear purple. Why? In memory of the 6 boys who have in recent months committed suicide as a result of homophobic bullying. Purple represents spirit on the LGBTQ flag, which is why it's been chosen. It can also mean other things - to me, it means a chance to get rid of negative emotions, inner being, wisdom and magic. Now, I am a firm believer in magic, so that last one is particularly important. By magic, I mean the wonder in little things, the differences small things can make. That's what these boys needed - small changes in peoples' perceptions, a few people to stand by them and tell them that they were wonderful just the way they were.
Unfortunately, these boys were not, are not, alone in their suffering. Men, women, girls and boys the world over are victimised, persecuted and outcast simply for who they love. Or in some cases, who they are perceived to love. I've come across so many cases in the news where people have been bullied simply because someone has assumed that they're gay.
I've come across people who have said - why should there be pride in being gay? You're not proud to be straight. And to them I say: no, there shouldn't be pride in being gay because it's a natural thing that you can't help. BUT, there should be pride in having the courage to be open about who you are regardless of what certain parts of society think of you. There should be pride in overcoming hatred, prejudice and intolerance for something that you cannot change about yourself.
There's a wonderful quote by Terry Pratchett in his book Guards! Guards! from the dragon (which has just told the Privy Council that it wants to eat one person a month) and the man who summoned the dragon and is now regretting it:
"You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape - the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes - we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality."
To me, this is just so true of humanity. It sickens me. I will be wearing purple on Wednesday, in copious amounts. It will probably clash wonderfully with my hair and I will tell anyone who asks exactly why I'm wearing such a clashing outfit. In support of everyone who's ever had to suffer through homophobic bullying, anyone who's ever considered suicide as the only way out. There is hope for everyone - it all starts with small changes. People just have to have the courage to make them. Love is love.
Facebook event page is here with more info.
Unfortunately, these boys were not, are not, alone in their suffering. Men, women, girls and boys the world over are victimised, persecuted and outcast simply for who they love. Or in some cases, who they are perceived to love. I've come across so many cases in the news where people have been bullied simply because someone has assumed that they're gay.
I've come across people who have said - why should there be pride in being gay? You're not proud to be straight. And to them I say: no, there shouldn't be pride in being gay because it's a natural thing that you can't help. BUT, there should be pride in having the courage to be open about who you are regardless of what certain parts of society think of you. There should be pride in overcoming hatred, prejudice and intolerance for something that you cannot change about yourself.
There's a wonderful quote by Terry Pratchett in his book Guards! Guards! from the dragon (which has just told the Privy Council that it wants to eat one person a month) and the man who summoned the dragon and is now regretting it:
"You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape - the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes - we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality."
To me, this is just so true of humanity. It sickens me. I will be wearing purple on Wednesday, in copious amounts. It will probably clash wonderfully with my hair and I will tell anyone who asks exactly why I'm wearing such a clashing outfit. In support of everyone who's ever had to suffer through homophobic bullying, anyone who's ever considered suicide as the only way out. There is hope for everyone - it all starts with small changes. People just have to have the courage to make them. Love is love.
Facebook event page is here with more info.
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