The Prince vs. Ronald McDonald
British royal Prince Charles has called for the closure of McDonald’s fast food outlets worldwide in a bid to curb rising obesity levels. He made this suggestion on a visit to the United Arab Emirates, a country with the world’s second highest number of diabetes cases per capita, commenting that banning this fast food chain was crucial for improving people’s diets. Charles, who is first in line to the British throne, is an active advocate of organic food and in 1986 set up a farm on his Highgrove Estate that does not use artificial pesticides or fertilizers. He also received the Global Environmental Citizen Award from Harvard since he has been a leading international voice in protecting the natural world. “Have you got anywhere with McDonald’s? Have you tried getting it banned? That’s the key,” the Prince of Wales said.
Filed Under Food, World Health
100 years till democracy in China
Developed in countries around the world for the past several decades, democracy remains waiting at China’s gates. Communist leaders say they must focus on economic development before political reform.
The main Communist Party newspaper of China, the People’s Daily, featured an article written by Premier Wen Jiabao, stating, “Democracy will emerge once a “mature socialist system” develops but that might not happen for up to 100 years.” For the moment, China’s economy is booming but expansion is growing unevenly, widening the wealth gap. In a country of over 1 billion, this means there are millions of poor living in terrible conditions. Such numbers threaten political stability and the control leaders have over the country. Activists want an end to the governmental monopoly and are, at the same time, being jailed because of it.
“A highly developed democracy and a complete legal system are inherent requirements of the socialist system and important symbols of a mature socialist system,” Mr. Wen said.
Obviously everyone has realized that some form of change has to happen for everyone in the country, but how quickly can it happen? 100 years for a democracy, is that possible? And is democracy really the answer?
Filed Under Politics
Hybrid horribles for the hungry American
Feeling hungry? How about a big bacon cheeseburger pizza, a lasagna with meat balls on top or some buffalo-chicken-stuffed quesadillas?
Chain restaurants in the United States are promoting ever-more harmful new creations, or “hybrid horribles” with food seemingly designed to promote obesity, heart disease, and stroke. Is alarming and it can even sound unreal, but in some places, if you eat an appetizer, a main dish and a dessert, you could be consuming more than 5,000 calories -only in one meal (two times the recommended daily intake!). Americans are eating out more frequently (about 4 meals a week) and ingesting a growing proportion of their calories from restaurants that “rather than compete to make their products healthier, they are competing with each other to make their meals bigger, badder, and cheesier than ever before.”
Filed Under Food, Modern Life, World Health
Slow down and watch out for whales
One of the world’s busiest maritime lanes, the Strait of Gibraltar, is also the feeding ground to hundreds of whales, both sperm and pilot. The Spanish Navy, in the first initiative of its kind in the Mediterranean, has advised ships and ferries to move no faster than 24 km/hr in hopes to avoid injuring whales.
Each year, several whales are hit in this area, how many is unknown since injured whales aren’t being tracked and strong tides carry them away quickly.
Since November, six pilot whales have been found dead on the Andalusian beaches, a higher number than usual, but they are believed to have died from pollution.
Filed Under Environment
Ikea against plastic bags
Who said that corporations have no social responsibility? Swedish IKEA just took the decision to stop giving away free bags to customers. Now on, you will have to pay 5 cents to get a plastic shopping bag where to put your new bedside table. IKEA currently provides some 70 million free bags to its US customers; with this measure, it expects to cut that by half in the first year and to eventually eliminate the use of the bags.
Filed Under Environment
Perfectionism is bad for your health
Do you feel sometimes that your accomplishment is never quite good enough? Are you hardly satisfied with what you do? Do you hate whenever somebody criticizes what you have done? If you answer “yes” more than one time, you may have a “perfect” problem. A perfectionist is somebody who has the belief that anything less than perfect is unacceptable, they can have an all-or-nothing mindset with high expectations for themselves, believing that mistakes must never be made. This is not just a mental issue that can make your friends go away, but is also very dangerous for your health; willing to be perfect can lead to depression, procrastination, fear of failure, workaholism and even physical sicknesses like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) where abdominal pain or discomfort is associated with a change in bowel pattern (diarrhea-constipation) .
Filed Under Research, World Health
Mattel brings girls and cars together
Mattel has been making Barbie and Hot Wheels for years upon years, dividing the boys from girls from tomboys from pansies. Not only that, the imaginative delights of children has been limited. Thanks to some brave minds, Mattel has gone the way of freedom and liberty for all, in creating Polly Wheels, die-cast race cars which look and feel similar to the traditional race cars boys play with.
“Sometimes you just see things that you look at, scratch your head and say, ‘Why didn’t anybody think of this before?’ ” said Jim Silver, editor and co-publisher of Toy Wishes magazine. “It’s so obvious, but nobody has really done it.”
Saving the Earth one step at a time, opening our minds. Thanks Mattel.
Fun Fact: The upcoming Christmas toy accompaniment to “Polly Wheels” is a race track labelled, “Race to the Mall.”
Filed Under Modern Life