What a great little idea! Find your local Freecycle Community and use it to "find homes for stuff too good for the land fill". The rule is that it's got to be for free. If you want to sell, use ebay, a local paper or go to a car boot sale. If you can't sell it, give it away. If you can't give it away, recycle it. Free your inner packrat!
Locally, I've discovered a pretty active East Berkshire Freecycle Group.
While reading about the Sudan 1 red dye scare here in the UK, I discovered the issue of acrylamide in processed foods.
According to the World Health Organisation, acrylamide is "known to cause cancer in animals. Also, certain doses of acrylamide are toxic to the nervous system of both animals and humans."
The UK Foods Standards Agency describes the problem:
"In April 2002, scientists in Sweden discovered unexpectedly large amounts of the chemical acrylamide in foods rich in starch that had been cooked at high temperatures. These included crisps, chips, bread and crispbreads. Acrylamide is known to cause cancer in animals and its presence in some foods may harm people’s health."
Carcinogenic crisps, chips and bread? Now that could cause a little panic couldn't it?
The WHO is worried enough to setup an international network to co-ordinate investigation into the problem and the risk communication has been commendable in how open it's been. However, I've only just heard about it. Given how government and industry work together, they're not about to broadcast any big precautions are they?
Check out all the articles published by the FDA. It's here I found a presentation dated April 13, 2004 on exposure assessment:
So just how concerned should one be? I tracked down the very latest conclusions about acrylamide in the summary of the 64th meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee On Food Additives but you're better off reading the summary by the Heatox Project. The bottom line seems to be that the average person is getting 1/200th of the dose of acrylamide that is known to cause nerve damage to rats and 1/300th of the dose known to cause cancer. High intake consumers (which I suspect includes most children) are getting about 1/50th and 1/75th respectively.
Of course there's huge error margins in the calculations and variability with individuals so honestly, I'm not sure what to make of it yet. A Margin of Exposure (MOE) of less than 100 (i.e. more than 1/100th of a deadly dosage) is unacceptable to me. It will certainly make me think twice about that side order of fries or packet of crisps. And those kids meals are a disaster!
Excellent French-Canadian film about a man coming to terms with his impending death through cancer and those who help him. The general metaphor of invading barbarians is repeated many times. IMDB describes it well:
"we develop tidy definitions of who we are and who we are not. Life then deals us changes. Change is experienced as a violation (invasion) and the source of change feels foreign and evil (barbarians).How we are ultimately changed by these invasions defines who we are."
Superb script. Humourous and touching but not at all saccharine. Highly recommended. According to a Guardian article, You have a 1 in 3 chance of dying from cancer too. For American males, the odds is nearly 1 in 2.
Sounds like good advice:
"Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week, and 15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis is probably good for the vascular system."
Forget the drama's. Watch comedies. Reminds me of a poster I saw that claims children average 500 smiles a day while adults only average 15. Why do we stop smiling? Further on in the article, there's this quote:
"UK heart experts said there was increasing interest in the idea that positive emotions benefited health."
Just an idea? Isn't it just blindingly obvious that there's a big causal relationship between emotion and health?
As previously posted, I started going to the gym several weeks ago. In a minor fit of madness, I committed to a gym membership just before my ski trip. They had a special promotion where you buy a three month membership and they give you four months with no joining fee (this is just at the local community centre). So, for this membership to be more cost effective than going on a pay-as-you-go casual basis, I have to make it the the gym 18 times by the end of May.
So, dear reader, you can be my gym buddy and keep me on the straight and narrow. Since coming back from the ski trip, I been to the gym 4 times. I'm trying hard to go to the gym at least twice a week. I generally try to go every third day and I know I should try to go three times a week but I'm not that committed yet.
So, this month, my commitment is to go to the gym 8 times. I'll try to post feedback each time I go.
My routine is quite basic. I stretch first and then do a cardiovascular routine that has to last for at least 30 minutes. I gradually want to up it to 45 minutes but it's currently about 35 minutes. I use the running machine, rowing machine and elliptical cross trainer primarily. I might use the stepper. I don't care for bike machines. I then follow this with around 40 minutes of circuit training. This month I'm concentrating on upper body. I then finish off doing some crunches. If I've got time, I do some stretches while sweating in the sauna. Overall, a visit to the gym takes about two hours.
K* was vested in a Beaver colony last week. That is, he's not living in the local river but he joined the Beavers/Cubs/Scouts variety. He really looks forward to the weekly meeting. They keep the emphasis on having fun so the meetings are rather loud and chaotic. I suspect he also like the rituals and "clubiness" of it.
I know some people don't approve of the paramilitary style of these organisations but I obviously disagree. I went through cubs and scounts myself. There's many commendable values and skills that they try to teach and they provide a strong community spirit.
K* turned six last week. We had his birthday party at the Bracknell Look Out Discovery Centre last weekend and Jenny made one of her fantastic birthday cakes.
