Bad Habits 1
A report out recently says that the British may waste more food than any other nation, throwing out 30-40% of all the produce they buy and grow each year ... Figures collated from the government, supermarkets, processors and farmers show that modern food production methods may appear efficient, "but the reality is that large-scale manufacturing and rigid supply chains are creating very significant quantities of waste".
What happened to the parental cries of 'Eat up your sprouts' and 'Think of the starving Chinese'? And the riposte of 'They're welcome to them'?
Perhaps it's time for mass education on the lines of posters like these.
Bad Habits 2
Pope Benedict XVI faced claims last night he had 'obstructed justice' after it emerged he issued an order ensuring the church's investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried out in secret.
"What really bothers me about this document is the way it suggests that what happens in the confessional should stay in the confessional," said Carmen Durso, a Boston lawyer who has represented scores of American victims abused by priests.
"In the cases I've dealt with, the paedophiles frequently use the confessional to try and initiate contact with youngsters."
What really bothers Jakartass is how, through male domination, the Catholic church has over the centuries enshrined greed and pomposity with impunity.
Suffer little children, anyone?
Good Guys
As the Asia-Africa Sumptuous winds down with the expected trite soundbites about resolving debt issues, capital market cooperation, improving market access, striving to provide voluntary non-reciprocal market access to Asian-African Least Developed Countries, one man is on a higher plane, and I don't just mean the Himalayas.
"We must build a future where quality education and health care are not only privileges of the wealthy but the rights of all; where our faiths rightly guide us to serve humanity, not to harm it and where a concern for collective well-being has replaced narrow national interests."
I'd suggest that 'market' interests have replaced those of nations (cf. the first story above); otherwise, Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, is spot on.
John Mills R.I.P.
To a slightly younger generation who first came across the name Mills through his sister Annette, who manipulated Muffin the Mule on TV, he is part of the history of our times and culture as mediated by movies.
To those born more recently, after Mills' daughter Hayley's time as a Disney child star (wear your sunglasses for this hallucinogenic site), he's a familiar young face in old black-and-white movies on daytime TV and a familiar old face on primetime programmes such as the 1995 Dickens mini-series Martin Chuzzlewit and as a regular witness on nostalgic shows like This is Your Life.
I once wanted to meet him. I'd fallen in love with Hayley in Swiss Family Robinson. We were, and still are, of an age. In 1971 she went off with an older man and I transferred my unrequited love to the real world.
64=65 (eh?)
If, like me, you've never made much sense of maths except when shopping, then this will confirm all your prejudices. But be careful. Some of the optical illusions on this website can cause dizziness or possibly epileptic seizures. The latter happens when the brain can't handle the conflicting information from your two eyes. If you start feeling unwell when using this website, immediately cover one eye with your hand and then leave the page. Do not close your eyes because that can make the attack worse.
(Thanks again to J-Walk Blog.)
