130 Years Old & Counting. "It's The Vodka," Says Oldest Woman Ever.

If true, this lady is the oldest woman in the world ever.  You are asking "but what about the quality of life"?  well she still plays backgammon and enjoys a vodka or three. Doesn't sound too bad to me.  I am always frustrated by the lack of detail in these stories. I want to know her lifestyle, diet, living conditions, medical history and brand of Vodka.

If of sound mind and good health good luck to her but, realistically for most people living this long would be hell on earth.  Imagine being spoken to like a child and thinking the world smelled of stale urine for any longer than absolutely necessary.  One thing I have noticed in nearly all of these examples of long lives, there is usually lots of family care and very little "medical" involvement.  And joking aside,  there is always mention of alcohol in some form.  So the message is clear avoid doctors like the plague... and enjoy a wee drink and you will be ....really really old one day. 

Botox Barbie ? There had to be a story ... there is.

I must admit I skipped over this initially dismissing it as yet another desperately sad mother and daughter seeking publicity. In many ways it is exactly that however, there are some serious questions raised by the latest bit of "news" concerning Sarah Burge.  At 15 years of age her daughter has the dubious title "Botox Barbie"  due to her mother assisting her with botox injections but, where does neglect begin and end in a case like this. At 15 this young lady is all the woman she will ever be and her mother,  it appears,  offers other services to those willing to pay £500 per hour for themand botox treatment is not included. I wonder if any agency is looking into the case. Just like the parent who goes on holiday leaving children to look after themselves, or the parent who fails to ensure their child's safety this mother is doing something not quite right. The difficulty is that the line has become blurred to the point where we know things like this are not right but we cannot define why they are wrong.  What do you think ?  Responsible parent ?  or Irresponsible publicity seeker ?

Creepy Babies Yes Creepy Babies.The Latest Marketing Tool.

They really freak me out they are so CREEPY. I remember the first time I was spooked by the creepy baby syndrome. It was a movie with a talking baby,pre CGI it looked like they has super imposed an adult talking mouth onto the baby head and it just looked weird. Just like Mr Ed the talking horse it didn't quite work. The one I hate right now has babies in a sort of skate board skate off and they sing and dance through a routine selling us bottled water you know the one filtered for thousands of years.  What I really really hate though is the ones where you only hear the baby voice but it is delivering an adult message.  The one I heard is for Mile Ready for Sports Relief a worthy cause no doubt but the baby voice makes me cringe.  Lastly there is the one where the baby is the boss of a toilet tissue company it annoys me greatly. I am sure there are lots more out there so let us know your best or worst one? My money is on the skateboard kids,  they head the creep factor stakes so far.

  Unless you know better. 

Bottled Water and The Sell By Date Question.

I am no fan of bottled water because I object to paying for anything that comes out of my kitchen tap for free.  Also some of the claims they make for spring this and mountain stream that and mineral content just annoy me. What annoys me even more is the mountain of waste bottles that ruin the environment and cause major problems for wildlife.  This little story made me smile and makes you wonder how stupid our society has become.   This guy had called in a radio station to say that he always buys a particular(well known) brand of water. Today on his commute to work on the train he read the blurb on the label for the first time. Sourced from the foothills of The Alps...From a natural alpine spring...Filtered through Alpine Rock for thousands of years..A miracle of nature that takes each drop 15 years  to reach the bottle....... Sell by 15 Feb 2010.    Now that just says it all.

Aliens Discovery Chances Better Than Ever Says the Astronomer Royal .

 

Like most people I am fascinated by the prospect of life on other planets. I look to science and therefor scientists to find this out and report it factually and promptly.  Until they do they should keep quiet, zip it, shut up.

You see The Astronomer Royal has said the chances of such a discovery are greater than ever.  Well how amazing.  Technology has advanced to a level where we can have a realistic hope of detecting planets which are like Earth.  If only he could have waited a year or two, technology would have advanced even further and we will have an ever more realistic hope. I mean what a pointless thing to say unless you want to get a bit of publicity for your Astrologers Conference

SWINE FLU: ARE WE ALL OWED AN APOLOGY?

Let us not forget that there were some serious cases of swine flu and sadly there were fatalities. We are not through the winter yet, but it does look like the warnings about thousands of dead, industry grinding to a halt and, mass vacination plans were more than a wee bit off the mark. Again we have been victims of "WORST CASE SCENARIO PLANNING".  It is designed to terrify you so that when what actually happens is bad enough, it is stiill nowhere near as bad as they said it would be and you feel relieved that it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  So don't say we didn't tell you.

What Do You Think About ...Meditation On The NHS?

I confess I know little or nothing about alternative medicines other than that my opinion has always been it seems more like common sense than mysticism.

I am all for people having the freedom to choose treatments and therapies but with the NHS cutting services allover the country, and when it is a post code lottery for some people to get life saving drugs, I must question if I really want my money being spent on "meditation".  They say it will save money long term for depressive/mental illness as people can be treated in groups. At 300 pounds per patient who knows, I just wonder how much the teach yourself meditation book costs? 

Now there is something to think about  

Snow Is Falling All Around Us. But Will The Salt Last? Who Knows?

Yes it is December, winter time, in the U.K. so there is more than just a chance it will be cold wet and there will be some snow. I have known this since I was around two or three. It got very cold in the winter and it snowed.We still went to school, folks went to work and, the roads department kept the roads clear,simple. Now as I look out at the blizzard from my window I hear that local authorities are concerned they mayrun out of road salt.   There has been no snow for around 10 months, so you would have thought they would have had time to amass more than sufficient stocks to cope with anything but, as always they just do not seem to think more than a few days ahead at a time.  I would go as far as to insist any roads department that runs out of salt should sack their top guy instantly  but what will happen is we will get the usual "impossible to forecast or predict" excuses.  Yes it is December winter time in the U.K ??   

Ozone Hole is Healing So We are Doomed ?

It must be me. I seem to have a clear memory of being told there was a hole in the ozone layer and frantic scientific effort was dedicated to finding a way to fix it or we were all doomed. My memory may be flawed but generally that was the story, am I right so far?  Now the good news is the hole is healing and sealing up nicely.  Hold on a minute that means that global warming will speed up the ice will melt faster and.....we're all doomed. Don't you just love the way science helps us confront the big problems of life and provides utter confusion on almost every problem we face in the modern world.  Turns out the hole in the ozone has been keeping us cool, so does that mean they called it wrong first time around?  Probably not  it's my flawed memory. 

Is There Life On Mars. There Used To Be.....Maybe..... Say NASA.

 
Life On Mars?  Sometimes it is a let down when science comes up with answers,soon all the big mysteries will be answered. However, the fact that there may have been life on Mars sometime doesn't do it for me.It seems to have the researchers all exited but I want pictures of this "life",I want to see their discarded sweet wrappers and drink cans.What did they wear,what kind of stuff did they eat and where did they go?   No,  what we have here is a few "magnetic fossils" on a meteorite.   My point is, it seems to me these announcements are always hyped up and made way too early. To release this to the media as powerful new evidence of "life" strikes me as a wee bit irresponsible.  Other scientists seem to be of the opinion that the rock picked up the fossils when it smashed into The Earth.  First rule of science (or at least it should be)The obvious and simple answer is often the correct one.