Surgery 'has growing death risk through the week'

Another study has taken place in the U.K. showing that patients operated in British hospitals during the weekends have a higher chance of dying than those whose operations occur during weekdays. According to official this (slight) increase in the death rate may have to do with the fact that hospitals are sparingly staffed during weekends, making it more difficult to take care of those patients who have just been operated and who need the most care. Although all the officials and organizations involved agree that this is not an acceptable outcome, this is not the first time that the NHS has been blamed of such negligence, "NHS malaise" such as Katherine Murphy, chief executive of patients associations called it.

Opinion:

It seems that the NHS has problems, and the result is clearly to be seen in this report. If money is the problem that is putting citizens in danger, it is up to government officials to intervene and fix this problem. A higher death rate due to a lack of post surgical care seems like a third world situation. Where is the money going? Are doctors not getting enough money? I doubt it! Maybe is not a financial issue but an ethical one. Are doctors feeling that they have to get more money in order to work in the weekends? Maybe is time to demystify the medical profession and have doctors do what they are meant to do take care of the sick without exorbitant pay.

Flies as Feed

In the U.K. Scientist at the Food and Environment Research Center experimenting  are investigating ways to use insects and flies as part of the protein feed for cattle. Traditionally farmers farmers have used a mixture of grains, beans and other vegetable sources to feed their animals during the winter time when grass is less readily available.

Some farmers object to the idea of feeding cattle insects, because they think that the customer will not accept it.

The idea of feeding cattle from insects and larvae is already a reality in South Africa, but the E.U. is not yet ready to use insects for cattle feed. South African researcher Jason Drew thinks that fly farming is a sustainable way of feeding animals: "it's a natural process, it repairs the environment and it is sustainable. British supporters of fly feeding animals fear that if we don't find more sustainable sources of protein we may not be able to continue to afford buying meat.

Opinion:

I think is ridiculous how people are constantly trying to find ways to feed themselves more and more protein while research repeatedly shows that people in industrialized countries consume an excessive amount of protein. Not only is it not necessary for people to consume as much protein as most people do, but specially animal protein has been linked to many serious and debilitating diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. 

Behind this mad race towards more animal protein there must be a link to the meat industry.This research by the Food and Environmental Research Center will result in the consumer suffering the consequences of unnatural food production and excessive protein consumption. 

Being Human

Dr. Brian May, astrophysicist, rock star guitarist of the famous group Queen and  advocate for animals rights discusses with Jeremy Vine what the meaning of being human is.

Dr. May questions the different characteristics which are known to make us humans such as being homosapiens or differing from God, animal or machine. He sees the ability to be kind as distinctly human, and wonders why it is that our specie indulges in cruelty. He presents the issues of the present state of our world in which the rich get richer and the poor poorer, and says that we have a long way to go as species. He warns us for the our human tendency to inflict cruelty on children and animals, and doesn't differentiate between these two forms of violence to the most vulnerable members of society.

Opinion:

I agree with Dr. May's statement that humans are cruel in a way that animals aren't. The way in which people show their selfishness and cruelty is not only evident in the way in which we deal with our environment and each other, but also in many other ways, such as the callousness  which we have for animals. The meat, and dairy industry are responsible for thousands and thousands of murders and and abuse on a daily basis, all for the sake of financial profit. 

Maybe what makes us human is our ability for kindness as well as our ability for extreme cruelty and selfishness, maybe that's just the way we are. What a sad and scary thought. 

Warn young children about pornography, say heads

As a result of the ease with which young children can access the internet officials, parents and schools are discussing what the best ways are of protecting children from the potential danger of internet pornography.

Some teachers are in favor of having open conversations with young children about internet pornography, since so many of them have already may be in danger of exposure and should be able to cope with the distorted view of relationships and sexuality which pornography presents.

Parents often turn a blind eye to the problem, and even set up facebook accounts for children way under the of fourteen. Nevertheless 83% of parents have trust that schools will inform and educate their children well regarding the perils of internet pornography.

Opinion:

I think it is a great idea for young children to get educated about the potential danger of pornography.  Children who are given information regarding the fact that there are people out there who may have an unhealthy attitude regarding sex may be able to protect themselves better from sexual abuse. Of course information regarding deviant sexual behavior should be presented in an appropriate way for the age group, by professionals who understand facts without scaring the children. At the same time also important that parents don't leave the task of sexual education exclusively to schools just because they are afraid of dealing with the difficulties of the subject.

Click: How social media is making cities smarter

From: BBC media player

In London 8 million people have access to information about public transportation through the use of social media. There are smart busses, trains, sensors on parking spaces etc. But unfortunately these apps are not connected to work together.

Dublin has volunteered to serve in an experiment to connect their sensors to create a network available to the social network system. Through such a system potential problems can be spotted before they become a real problem. The goal is to use the city's existing infrastructure and improve on it with the idea of creating a "smarter" city, which will lead to a greener city, with a lesser degree of pollution.

By 2050 70% of all people will live in cities. By planning and organizing the infrastructure of the cities better these cities have a better chance of having cleaner air. 

Opinion:

What a great idea to use the social network to organize transportation, traffic and cities more efficiently! This seems like a great use of technology. The only downside that I see to this idea is that the necessity for such a complex organization is the result of an over developed society in which the city has become over full. Organization may bring a certain degree of sanity to these over populated hectic places, but it doesn't take away the fact that the more concentrated cities are the more problems that people will have and the more dependent that they will become on technology and further removed from nature.  

Did the football pools almost destroy society?

Ninety years ago Liverpool's family Moore launched the concept of football pools in the U.K. At first it was seen as low risk fun, but soon enough groups began to see a more sinister side to this form of gambling.

In the 20th century a technological explosion took place in the world with the development of television, radio and computers which enabled mass participation in the football pools.

Although the negative impact of football pool participation was down played by promoters, however left wing politicians were not so complacent about the innocence of this increasingly popular pastime. 

Interestingly enough when the lottery was introduced in the 1990's most politicians saw it as a positive development with positive social consequences. The national lottery has overshadowed the football pools, nevertheless more than 1/2 million people in the U.K. participate in the football pools each week.

Opinion:

Football pools is no different than any other form of gambling including the National Lottery. Casinos and betting on horse races are also legal in the U.K, so it would seem hypocritical to ban football pools. Maybe betting is a natural outcome of our competitive society, but maybe it goes even further back to the pre industrial society, in either case it seems like making rules to prohibit it will not really solve the problem. Although I don't consider gambling a benevolent pastime, I do think that football pools are a natural consequence of the football frenzied society which the U.K. seems to be.

 

Why do People Still Buy Personalized License Plates?

Last year people in the U.K spent 67.000 pounds on personalized license plates.
Personalized license plates seem to be popular among the different echelons of society. People such as Lord Alan Sugar and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have them, and even in these times of crisis it doesn't seem to stop those with less means from succumbing to he apparent charms of these badges.
Apparently the film industry has noticed the effect that personalized license plates have on people, since they have been used in James Bond films and in many television series to tell the audience something about the character.


Opinion:

What does the popularity of personalized license plates tell us? Well, it seems that the need to be seen, to make a statement is intrinsic to humans, or at least to many of us.
Articles like t-shirts, caps, bags and many others have been personalized for years. It is only logical that cars would also be used in this fashion, since they, more than many other material goods people own are a symbol of status and are often associated with power, beauty, virility, sportiveness and sex; so for those who need approval and a bit of extra self confidence it seems like a logical step to personalize their license plates.

Seed production in the U.K.

Seeds are the foundation of British farming. The European Union is active putting together legislation which will tighten the regulations on the development, sale or trading of seeds.
The E.U. wants to prevent seeds from being sold or given to anyone in the E.U. if the seeds are not registered on a E.U. list, where they are correctly identified in order to protect buyers and sellers.
Opponents of this plan claim that this legislation by the E.U. will mostly benefit multinational seed companies who will have less competition from the smaller end of the market. Since licensing seeds is so expensive(costing thousands of euro for each variety of seed), there is a big chance that many varieties of seeds, with potential answers to problems such as diseases and pests will disappear.


Opinion:

I think that such strict regulations from the E.U. regarding the sale, trade and development of seeds can have tragic consequences. A most important problem seems to be the consequences for the eco-system, since old varieties of potentially valuable seeds could disappear as a result of the high costs and complicated procedures involved in registering seeds. The wisdom of traditional farming will be undermined for the sake of uniformity, sterility and profit.

Coronation Street Star William Roachy in Rape Arrest

British Coronation Street actor William Roachy has been arrested in connection with an alleged rape 50 years ago, approximately the same number of years that Mr. Roachy has been involved with the popular television soap. The now 81 year old Roachy is being held in Lancashire Constabulary. The police is encouraging anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse to come forward, and assures that cases will be handled properly.

Recently Mr.Roachy had to apologize for making insensitive remarks when openly sticking up for sexual offenders. He also believes that it is important for people accused of sexual crimes to keep their anonymity in case they are proven innocent, since sexual offenders are very likely to be stigmatize by society.

Opinion:

It is good news that sexual offenders can't get away with their crimes even decades after having committed them. Specially in the case of William Roachy it is important that he faces his crime, since he is a public figure in a popular television show. Proceeding with this investigation and eventually prosecuting this suspect can confirm people's faith in the justice system, since there doesn't seem to be a statue of limitation for a crime even if committed many years ago, and the suspect is a famous actor. Nevertheless the danger may be that because Roachy has been a part of the viewers life for so long there may be a lack of objectivity from the part of the public which in some way can detract from the seriousness of the situation. When it comes to television people often have difficulty drawing the line between reality and fantasy and trying a popular actor may become a soap series in itself.

The Great British Class Survey

From Thinking Allowed



The British responded massively to the Great British Class Survey. This survey was a source of commotion on television, newspapers, Facebook and Twitter. The study identified 7 social classes, from elite to precariat with various shades in between.
The survey was done through an internet questionnaire in which 160,000 people participated. Critics of the survey responded by saying that the sort of people who respond to internet surveys is different to the general population, more like the Radio 4 crowd, who generally have more refined interests.
To counteract this discrepancy 1000 more people were interviewed face to face, a group which was more representative of the bulk of the population. Most of the conclusions of the survey are based on this group rather than on the larger group.
The point was to explain the differences between people and this survey moves away from classifying defining class in terms of occupation and identifies class by cultural factors.
Whether the conclusions reached by the Great British Class Survey are substantial enough to be taken seriously remains debatable.

Opinion:

The Great British Class Survey seems to not quite have brought clarity to the issue of class difference. It seems like the methods used were less than appropriate in getting an accurate picture of the class distinctions in Britain in this day and age, where there seem to be a wide range of gray zones when it comes to classifying people. It is possible that due to the general access to the internet that most people have now a days, information and interests that were once limited to a particular group can be now accessed by all sorts of people, making it difficult to make clear divisions of classes based on tastes and cultural inclination. As the world globalizes, this interest in categorizing people into social classes seems anachronistic and could only be justified if it had been done in an intelligent way by insightful sociologists, and with a clear purpose.

Fundamentalism and Ford: Church v State

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/northernireland/ethics/ethics_20130428-1054a.mp3

According to Lord John Alderdice, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, religious fundamentalism is an attitude which can affect all religious beliefs. Alderdice sees fundamentalism as more than just strict, conservative religious views and more as a frightened way of thinking which creates boundaries around groups. This way of thinking affects Christians, Jews, Muslims and all other religions and it is based on the idea of the inerrability of the scriptures. Groups and communities feel threatened and attach themselves to what they believe is certain.

In the case of Northern Ireland politician David Ford, fundamentalism showed its ugly head when Mr. Ford felt compelled to step down as elder of his Presbyterian church, where he and his family have worshipped for over twenty years, after voting in support of same sex marriage eight months ago. His decision to step down was made in an effort to try and reduce any offense his views towards same sex marriage may have caused the congregation.

Opinion:

I agree with John Alderdice's view that religious fundamentalism is the result of group fear. The extent to which fundamentalism is expressed may have to do with the situation in which the particular group finds itself. Sometimes these fundamentalist ideas are expressed in the form of terrorism by oppressed groups, such as in the case of Muslim fundamentalism. Many other times fundamentalism is expressed in more insidious ways by bullies, or groups who try to keep their believes and ideologies intact, an example could be much of prejudices and discrimination that we find in the West. These bullies have in general more power, through either financial means, a powerful religious hierarchy and political power and usually those three things work together to create a strong belief system, which will be defended at all cost. In either case any kind of fundamentalism, whether religious, political, financial, Eastern or Western is an obstacle to individual and collective freedom. We have to constantly ask ourselves in which way are we allowing ourselves to be conditioned, and if it is possibly leading to some kind of fundamentalism?

Crime doesn't rise in high immigration areas – it falls, says study

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/28/immigration-impact-crime

Research by the London School of Economics shows that areas with higher numbers of immigrants do not have higher crime rates than other areas. On the contrary it has been shown that places with large numbers of eastern European immigrants show a fall on property crimes such as theft and shoplifting.
There are several reasons for the lack of crime in densely immigrant populated neighborhoods. According to professors Maria Fitzgerald and David Wilson, immigrant populations have little money to spend on the "night time economy", and immigrants often lack the financial means to indulge in alcohol, a major culprit in street violence.
Another possible reason for the low rate of violence in immigrant neighborhoods is globalization, since the quick access of information via internet makes it clear that crime is not acceptable. Also, the average immigrant attracted to London are hard working, entrepreneurial types.

Places where asylum seekers from the1990s have settled did show to have problems with criminal activities. The solution to this problem may be in creating job possibilities for asylum seekers, but authorities are weary of this possible solution since it may send mix messages to potential asylum seekers.

Opinion:

I was surprised by the fact that immigrant neighborhoods in London did not show a higher crime rate than neighborhoods with more homogeneous populations. However I do see that at the present time immigrants may have different possibilities regarding work and other information due to the computer technology which is now available on a large scale, which may provide access to a wider range of jobs and as result prevent potential crime. It is also possible that because of technology potential immigrants are better screened and some of the less desirable characters are kept out of the country.

Globalization may also make it easier for immigrants to integrate and get to work quicker, since more and more people have access to all parts of the world through the internet and as a result can have a better understanding of what to expect when immigrating to another country, creating a better situation for the immigrants in which they may feel less isolated and more connected to their new situation and as a result less likely to fall into criminal activities.

Computer kids: Does your child need a digital detox?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/10010478/Computer-kids-Does-your-child-need-a-digital-detox.html 

As ridiculous as the idea of a child needing a digital detox may sound, it is a fact that many children now a days are addicted to their digital screens and have developed physical and psychological problems as a result of their addiction.In England parents are spending up to 16,000 lbs. for a 28 day digital detox program for their child. Computers and other digital toys and machine have taken over the baby-sitting rol of the t.v. Parents who have been conscientious about not letting their children vegetate for hours in front of the television seem to have succumbed to the digital trap.Psychologists warn about the consequences of over indulgence in digital gadgets, such as a sedentary life style, higher blood pressure as a result of being online, increase in the production of dopamine which is connected to the development of addictive behavior, while neuroscientist are studying the impact that the modern digital world is having on children’s brains.

Opinion:

It’s interesting that people may be surprised by digital addiction in children, since it is the adults who have created this digital world in which their children now traffic. I think that there is little hope for digital sanity in our youth when the adult population has been the first to succumb to this addiction. Putting a child on a digital detox is a symptomatic approach to a deeper problem, which will not be solved by merely putting the child on a temporary digital diet. To approach digital addiction in a constructive way we need a change in world consciousness and not merely the blind leading the blind.

BBC Panorama 2013 North Korea Undercover (Documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbIvUQakU74

This BBC documentary gives us a glimpse into the mysterious world of North Korea.This is an issue which seems to be a source of concern to Western countries lately due to North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons and its leader's belligerent attitude towards the west. The documentary is made undercover and gives the British public a perspective as to why North Korea could be a potential threat to England as well as to the rest of the western world showing a militaristic, well armed and brainwashed country who is at the mercy of a power hungry leader not unlike Adolph Hitler.In a typical fashion to many other BBC documentaries, this documentary presents a bold but non-sensationalistic view of the bleak situation in North Korea. It exposes the viewer to North Korea’s oppressive system, the Korean's people's constant state of alert and threat of war, and to Kim, the country’s megalomaniac dictator, who's regime keeps the country in a state of fear, poverty and trepidation. Many Koreans have their human rights violated and end up in concentration camps in the North Korean Gulag system.

Opinion:

The documentary portraits a post Orwellian society which seems to be everybody's enemy. Their isolation, political extremism and eccentric actions makes North Korea into a country that is far removed from the rest of the world and which to a certain extent still doesn't get taken very seriously. The West seems to continue to be more distracted by the threat of Islamic terrorism, which seems more present and boisterous, than by the almost facetious threats of North Korea Kim-Jong-il. North Korea is a country under the grip of a madman and although he seems to have complete control over every aspect of life in that country, it seems almost inevitable that sooner than later his ways will lead to his downfall and that of his system.