I'll be away from the computer for a few days - but I'm sure you'll cope without me.
I've scheduled some photos to post on weather-station if you're looking for something distracting and pretty.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Let me eat that cake
You know when you've found your perfect man when he brings chocolate cake, made by his own fair hands containing courgettes from his garden, into the office and it is perfectly gooey and supremly delicious.
Tis a shame then that he is about 10 years too old, married and into cricket.
Tis a shame then that he is about 10 years too old, married and into cricket.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Get thyself in line Gurinad
Normally I quite like the schizophrenic editorial lines of the Guardian, voicing conflicting arguments and encouraging discussion are good things. Read the paper one day and someone's reporting on surveys that show the public's attitude to working women is turning sour, the next day someone else is slagging off said research as ho-bunkem. But today's cheap-chic autumn wardrobe feature is a step too far into the hypocritical.
After just recently launching their new online ethical clothing finder, today's number 1 'life and style' feature is about getting your hands on fleeting catwalk trends while struggling under the hefty weight of the 'credit crunch'. Primark and Matalan, holders of the coveted award for worst child labour practices on the highstreet, are among their list.
Encouraging debate is one thing, but encouraging conspicuous consumption of useless tat that's been directly linked to the exploitation of workers - that's not something anyone, never mind a liberal paper should be doing.
After just recently launching their new online ethical clothing finder, today's number 1 'life and style' feature is about getting your hands on fleeting catwalk trends while struggling under the hefty weight of the 'credit crunch'. Primark and Matalan, holders of the coveted award for worst child labour practices on the highstreet, are among their list.
Encouraging debate is one thing, but encouraging conspicuous consumption of useless tat that's been directly linked to the exploitation of workers - that's not something anyone, never mind a liberal paper should be doing.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
More reasons
I keep finding ever more reasons to go completely vegan (I don't have milk or yoghurt but have recently started eating eggs, and icecream again - as wll as chocolate and cheese*).
After eating an egg salad sarnie for lunch I came back into the office to read this Guardian article about activists saving 'spent' egg producing chickens from the chopping block when the 72 weeks of their useful egg laying life come to an end.
The free range chickens mentioned in the article start producing eggs, which are gathered up for human consumption, at just 18-22 weeks. The chickens are killed around a year later because they are no longer economically viable.
An egg laying chicken's 'useful life' amounts to about an year and a half. A living thing classified as uneconomic. That really turns my stomach, the lingering taste of egg in my mouth is turning really sour.
If that wasn't enough to put you off animal products, a friend recently told me that something like 25% of a carton of milk is puss. That sounds pretty implausible, right? But some amount of puss, coming from infected udders of over milked cows, that's a whole lot more plausible.
This 'fact' has stayed with me, and today I decided to verify its accuracy. Google Answers to the rescue. In summary - milk has a measured amount of puss in it, some puss, but too much and it's not saleable.
The worst thing about this is the thought that cows can (and are) overmilked to the point of infections in their udders. I kind of feel that if you could still sell infected milk some dairy farmers would, and the cow would have to suffer for it.
Ultimately, selling live animals, flesh or animal products must exploit animals - by the very nature of the relationship. I've heard this described as speciesism, or the hierarchy of powerful over vulnerable. It's the type of power relationship that underpins capitalism and is replicated across human behaviour too; rich:poor, male:female, young:old.
* I buy organic says the little voice that feels bad about eating animals products. Is that the liberal curse? If you can't make yourself do it, at least make yourself feel bad about it instead.
After eating an egg salad sarnie for lunch I came back into the office to read this Guardian article about activists saving 'spent' egg producing chickens from the chopping block when the 72 weeks of their useful egg laying life come to an end.
The free range chickens mentioned in the article start producing eggs, which are gathered up for human consumption, at just 18-22 weeks. The chickens are killed around a year later because they are no longer economically viable.
An egg laying chicken's 'useful life' amounts to about an year and a half. A living thing classified as uneconomic. That really turns my stomach, the lingering taste of egg in my mouth is turning really sour.
If that wasn't enough to put you off animal products, a friend recently told me that something like 25% of a carton of milk is puss. That sounds pretty implausible, right? But some amount of puss, coming from infected udders of over milked cows, that's a whole lot more plausible.
This 'fact' has stayed with me, and today I decided to verify its accuracy. Google Answers to the rescue. In summary - milk has a measured amount of puss in it, some puss, but too much and it's not saleable.
The worst thing about this is the thought that cows can (and are) overmilked to the point of infections in their udders. I kind of feel that if you could still sell infected milk some dairy farmers would, and the cow would have to suffer for it.
Ultimately, selling live animals, flesh or animal products must exploit animals - by the very nature of the relationship. I've heard this described as speciesism, or the hierarchy of powerful over vulnerable. It's the type of power relationship that underpins capitalism and is replicated across human behaviour too; rich:poor, male:female, young:old.
* I buy organic says the little voice that feels bad about eating animals products. Is that the liberal curse? If you can't make yourself do it, at least make yourself feel bad about it instead.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Study tells us nothing about the way things actually work
Articles like Cambridge survey shows new doubts over working mothers in today's Guardian just serve to reinforce the misconceptions they claim to be observing.
More people will start to think family life will suffer if women work if you keep telling them more people think family life will suffer if women work.
If you mis read it even slightly - you could actually come away with the impression research has discovered family life does suffer. And we all know how easy it is to misread things - I do it all the time and I'm a copywriter. People who have lower levels of literacy would probably struggle with this even than me.
Feminism is still not dead, it keeps clawing its way back to life out of the necessity of women and men everywhere to avoid this frickin nonsense.
More people will start to think family life will suffer if women work if you keep telling them more people think family life will suffer if women work.
If you mis read it even slightly - you could actually come away with the impression research has discovered family life does suffer. And we all know how easy it is to misread things - I do it all the time and I'm a copywriter. People who have lower levels of literacy would probably struggle with this even than me.
Feminism is still not dead, it keeps clawing its way back to life out of the necessity of women and men everywhere to avoid this frickin nonsense.
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