Wednesday 5 June 2013

Save the Badgers!

The british badger will be facing genocide this summer as 70% of the population will be killed.

Why?

Because the UK government refuses to use a vaccine to fight bovine TB, they'd rather just decimate a species.

A vaccine DOES exist and it is much cheaper to implement than a 'cull' but our government would rather spend half a million pounds in a recession so they can kill off a species. Most of the money being spent is going to policing the 'cull' so that protestors and hunt saboteurs don't get in the way. The majority of the public is against the cull so like any good democracy they're going ahead with it.


The UK government has shown time and time again that is is NOT a democracy by ignoring public opinion and now thousands of badgers will pay with their lives and activists with their freedom as they do everything to prevent the insanity.


This is not just about 'a few badgers' it's about how the so called 'democracy' we live in is more like a dictatorship. We must protect these badgers as doing this will send a powerful message, that we will not just sit down when they demand we do and that we will fight for all that we hold dear.


How to help

-Boycott UK produce (Other countries produce the same foods so just buy those labeled as being Spain or some other country)
- Donate to a UK Hunt Saboteur group or help out your local one
- Spread the word


Save the British badger or else we may lose them completely.

Friday 3 May 2013

Mozambique Rhino's Extinct

See the article

It's official; poachers have killed the last 15 rhino's in Mozambique for their horns.

This just highlights how selfish humans can be and how those actions have horrific consequences; it's not like they were killed as they were a threat to human life as that's more understandable but rather they were killed for their horns.

Humans are pushing so many species to extinction so they might have something pretty to wear or for 'medication' and other such things which are completely pointless. It's beyond sad to think about it and this just highlights how quickly it can happen, before you know it there won't be any rhino's left in Africa.

Let's just take a moment to promise to ourselves to buy anything made from another person be it rhino, human, shark, lion or anyone else because if we do they'll be gone before you know. Less demand means less need to supply afterall.

Clare x

Monday 22 April 2013

Earth Day Celebrations!

So today is Earth Day, the one day of the year people actually have to think about the environment until next year anyway.


But what's the point in partaking? Whether you believe in Global Warming or not you just just take a few moment to say "Thanks Planet!" since if the Earth wasn't here you wouldn't be either!

Everyone always does the standard turning off the lights for an hour and sure that's good but its nothing if you don't turn off electrical items if you're not using them so instead of just doing one thing on one day a year because everyone else is doing it why not aim for one tiny little thing each day or once a week?

Here's a little list of tiny things you can do to help the planet on a weekly basis:

- Meat free Monday
- Put that plastic bottle in the recycling bin if there's one around
- Donate some unwanted clothes or items
- Dispose of those batteries properly!
- Buy local when you can 
- Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth 
- Wash dishes in a bowl or put the plug in 
- Put some food out for the birds e.g. seed balls or take some birds at the local park some stale bread
- Add a few plants to your garden or windowsill
- Turn the lights off when you don't need it and at night

See? Little things that add up to one big thing!


It doesn't matter how you celebrate Earth Day, whether you act on one day or all throughout the year.


Happy Earth Day, Earthlings! 




See you in the next one,
Clare x

Wednesday 17 April 2013

My theory on the Boston Marathon Bombings

We've all seen this in the news and all over facebook,youtube, twitter, google, etc and I'm sure everyone has their own thoughts on it and the purpose of these bombs and this is literally just me quickly explaining my theory which may or may not be correct as it is just a THEORY which doesn't mean it's fact.



My theory:
These bombs were clearly homemade so you assume they weren't made by a well known organisation and this 'attack' was merely a test run for the bombs to see how powerful they actually were.

Why do I think this?

Well considering the number of bombs they had a lot more people could've died or been injured if they had been correctly placed in some strategic manner e.g. causing people to flee in one direction then having a larger bomb or several in the area the people will go towards. This didn't really seem like a very good attempt at killing people at all and these bombs were all over the place so either the person or people responsible have no idea how to correctly plan something or this wasn't an attempt at killing a large number of people.

Also think about the decided locations of the bombs; the marathon route was covered in media. This means that it would be easy to see the damage caused by each bomb without even needing to be at the marathon allowing for the person(s) to spectate how successful the bombs were.



Obviously I don't know all the facts of the case and things are still unfolding but that was my initial thought the day the news of it came on tv. It just didn't feel like there was any real malice behind it in terms of trying to kill people, they wanted to see the kind of effect it would have in a public space for future plans. So if this is true then these bombs are only the beginning and Boston and surrounding areas could become under serious threat as more testing is done and they become better at building these bombs.

Regardless of what the motive truly was let us hope the criminals responsible for them are removed from society and placed into some kind of rehabilitation program. Why a rehab program? Well you don't want them converting others in prison to their cause now do you?

Our thoughts go out to the people who have been affected by the bombs and we wish all of them will recover without any complications.


If anyone has any thoughts on my theory or if you have one of your own then share it! It won't hurt anyone to do that and so what if we all turn out to be wrong? Least we tried to come to a logical conclusion and that's worth something!

Clare.

Saturday 13 April 2013

Cuts will "Help people back into work"?

I haven't posted a new blog in AGES so I figured I'd do a quick one now then another either later today or tomorrow.

If you're in the UK you're bound to know about all the cuts going on to welfare and benefits. You're also bound to know that millions of Britons are now homeless because they can't afford to live in a house and there's no space in council houses. So if people already can't afford an actual home then what's with the price of living going up even more?
This is not just affecting those without children, thousands of children are now homeless and unable to go to school or able to afford school thanks to the removal of EMA preventing many from buying school supplies.

Apparently putting up the price of living will "help people back into work". The only problem there is that THERE ARE NO JOBS. The majority of us must've heard about the scramble for eight jobs at a coffee shop- almost 2000 people applied for it many of which were over qualified. If this is what it's like now then how can you expect people can get a new job? Sure forcing households to put out more money will mean they have to find another way of making extra money but new jobs just aren't easy to come by when everyone else in the area wants it as well.

These new added taxes will make it harder for households who have to cope with rising energy bills and increasing food prices. We're going to see thousands of Britons losing their homes and even more homeless children, these taxes won't help our situation at all.

But I mean,what do you think? How do you think theses taxes could have a positive effect?
Comment your thoughts as always guys.

Clare x

Wednesday 3 April 2013

Is your diet making you ill?

We all know what lifestyle diseases are like lung cancer which are caused by our own choices like deciding to smoke 40 a day and typically people have no sympathy when they become ill since it's "their fault". There are other things though that can make you not just sick but will shorten your lifespan and eventually kill you...only thing is you've been encouraged to do these things.

What does: Heart Disease, Cancer, Mercury Poisoning, SalmonellaDiabetes and Obesity have in common?

Animal products
It's been proven time and time again that consumption of animal products increase the risk of so many 'lifestyle' diseases which can have horrific long term effects. Think back to Japan and both their mercury poisoning cases: Thousands died from it and what food substance contains mercury? Fish All fish contain small amounts of it and the further up the chain you go the higher the amounts of mercury so eating dolphin, shark or even tuna can mean you're being exposed to high concentrations of it. It didn't just kill those who were directly exposed to it but affected and mutated fetuses causing problems for generations to come.

The image is so large so you can see how it works in the fish food chain. Low in mercury puts them near the bottom of the food chain and high in mercuary puts them at the top hence why sharks are in that category- only thing missing is Dolphin and any species that eats a high amount of fish.


But what about protein right? And calcium? You need to eat animals and their products to get these!
Not quite; you can find protein in everything you eat. Have you ever heard of someone being protein deficient really? Yes there are foods in high concentration of it such as nuts, beans and lentils but it's not like you need to eat alot of them (but if you do then great news as they have less fat than animal products per gram so go wild!!) With calcium it's in alot of other foods such as broccoli spinach and other leafy greens as well as tofu (doubles with protein as well) and dried herbs.

FACT: Countries that eat less animal products have a higher life expectancy rate and lower rates in diseases including heart disease and cancer.


Dairy Products

I'll start with these as people tend to forget how bad they really are for you thanks as you're 'educated' to believe you need to eat them but this is a LIE.
Dairy products are fattening and sure you can get the low fat if you like and if you're lactose intolerant you can get special stuff with the lactose taken out. 75% of all humans are lactose intolerant and most don't even realise it; it was only when I cut out dairy that I realised I was no longer getting sick, I used to be constantly ill with colds and flus which would affect my asthma horribly but now I'm rarely ever sick! All I did was cut dairy, nothing else (this was after I became vegetarian).

The consumption of Dairy has been linked to so many different disease it's almost unreal; Cancer, autisism, schizophrenia, diabetes and even the dreaded acne is linked to it. But still we continue to consume what is literally poisoning and slowly killing us. How could it's consumption be doing this? Well consider that cow's milk is made to grow baby cows into adults by getting them to gain 300 pounds a year and many hormones to help do this; not so great sounding for humans then is it? Antibiotics are in some places the only way to keep dairy cows alive due to the conditions they are forced to live in and also give birth in; these antibiotics build up in the cows so when they are eventually processed for hamburgers the antibiotics end up in those that eat them and also in those who consume the dairy. Human activity caused the birth of Mad Cow Disease by feeding natural grass eaters grain and dead animals; we still continue to do this.

That was big chunk wasn't it? And hopefully you can see how dairy isn't good for humans to consume. There's even been claims that girls who eat high amounts of dairy start their periods well before they should do; this could be due to the growth hormones the cows are being given.




Meat

Up until this point I haven't mentioned cholesterol which is also relevant to dairy so I'll do that now. Not all cholesterol is bad, in fact your body needs some, but the stuff in animal products have some serious negative impacts on your body which can lead to heart disease and blocked arteries however cholesterol found in plant-based food has positive effects including removal of the bad cholesterol. That's the simplest I can put it really; even low fat diets including animal products raise your bad cholesterol levels causing problems.

It's been seen time and time again that meat eaters have a higher cancer rate compared to non-meat eaters; of course there are other factors to take into account such as drinking or smoking rates but that doesn't mean you can ignore the fact that diet seems to play a role in some types of cancer. In some cases plant-based diets have seen cancer sufferers get a full recovery or the cancer cells begin to stop growing. This does make us ask a scary question: Are the hormones exposed to meat animals causing cancer in humans? Is that what's suddenly causing this epidemic of cancer in countries that eat more meat? Full studies need to be done into this and not by researchers being paid for by the food industry as the truth will be hidden then.

Like I mentioned about with Mad Cow Disease we have created serious illnesses that kill thousands in the end be it human or not. The more recent examples are Bird flu and Swine Flu both created in factory farm conditions and our response to fix this is to just load them with more antibiotics  70% of the world supply goes to factory farms. There are more antibiotic resistant diseases today than ever before, why? Because after we end up consuming the antibiotics through meat animals it builds up so that when some disease comes along making you ill there is the chance that disease could become resistant as it's exposed to low levels of the antibiotics.
We are the ones at fault here; we've been creating these illnesses then killing all the infected even though we are the ones who made this problem and continue to make it so much worse.

I don't want to go on forever so I'll leave everything here but there'll be a few links for you to check out if you like.



Comments, thoughts and suggestions on what you want covered to go in the comments as always guys :)

Clare x

This is a little list of things with a few facts
Cholesterol focus but a blog with loads of info for you
Getting dirty with the dairy
A bit more meaty goodness for you
Covers different diseases and the causes with what's been shown to reduce the effects of the disease
Brings up a few points of diseases linked with animal products (just because you don't like peta doesn't mean the facts are false)


Sunday 31 March 2013

Supervised Cutting in School?


Have a read of this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/unsted-park-school-supervised-self-harm_n_2965945.html


What do you make of it? It's an interesting idea really which is why I wanted to bring it up, sure its very controversial but if done correctly then it could be pretty positive. By that I mean young people who would cut in private (you would expect) are more likely to do something that could seriously injure them and will continue to cut even with therapy but if supervised then there's someone to prevent them opening an artery or vein which could cause them to bleed out; plus if there was someone there then they could treat the injuries.

That's just my take though; what's yours?

Clare x

Friday 29 March 2013

London's "Mystery Meat" could be Dog or Cat

If you live in the UK you might have heard about the newest little scandal regarding take away's. A private investigation into fast-food places in London that tested meat DNA came across a little place that's stumped them. Yes; they found horse DNA but that's not all. The so called 'lamb curry' is not lamb, beef, chicken, pork, goat, horse and even human has been ruled out.

It's uncertain what it is but some suspect Cat or Dog but I would think it's more likely to be Rabbit since people do eat it in this country and it would be easier to get a supply of rabbit meat than dog or cat... in theory at least.

Here's a link to the story if you're interested: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/mystery-meat-on-menu-could-it-be-cat-or-dog.html?page=1




This most likely has gone on for years; not just in takeaways but in the meat industry itself as how can we be sure what we're eating these days when it's already packaged for us? Unless you make something yourself you can never know what it is and we take the risk of eating something unsavory every single day.

I may not eat meat but even then when eating out especially take out I can't be entirely certain as who knows how they prepare their food? How they store it?


What are your thought's on this? Are you surprised by it at all? I mean, I'm not but it's interesting to see what the rest of you think.

Leave your comments and suggestions for the next blog in the comments as always!
Clare x

Wednesday 27 March 2013

Everyone's going mad over marriage!

So at the moment everyone's buzzing about the supreme court case for marriage equality and now gay rights but I've got to ask you, especially those who are against gay rights; Does Human Rights include Gay Rights?



Before you jump up and down yelling no (for those saying yes well done to you) then just rethink that not in terms of something that doesn't fit your religion or ideology but try to see it without the all of the black and white imagery. As a human you have a right to not be discriminated against; Racism for example is taken very seriously now days as it is targeting specific groups of people. This Human Right also includes sexual orientation and then using that laws against being homosexual are a violation of human rights.

You don't need to support Gay Rights to see that since gay humans are still human any discrimination specific at targeting them is against human rights.

Then as it would be discrimination to not allow marriage of certain couples Gay marriage should be legal.

Cultures and society's will have different views on it depending on their ideologies but as we have Human Rights we should not be able to ban it in any country.

A little interesting fact: The last time North Dakota (US state) changed their laws on marriage it was to outlaw inter-race marriages; this includes mixed race individuals like myself up until the 3rd generation (I'm 2nd generation).
Obviously that's a breech of human rights there but nothing is currently being done about it.

Hopefully the supreme court will rule that not allowing marriage equality is a breech of humans rights because if they do that it could mean all laws will need to change not just for gay marriage but for places like North Dakota.

If you support the case for gay rights then the group Humans Rights Campaign is urging all on facebook to change their display picture to the below image to show support. If you aren't already a fan I'd suggest liking the page even if it's just to follow the case.



Comment your thoughts and feelings as always guys!
Until next time,
Clare x

Friday 15 March 2013

A Level Reforms??

I just heard about this and my only thought was 'What?' sure I'm no longer doing them but these changes don't make much sense and will make things considerably harder.

For those who don't know what they want to do or don't know what A-Levels are let me try to explain...
A- Levels are 2 years of education done in a sixth form at a secondary school after year 11 with the first year being called AS and the second year being called A2 but these both make up an overall grade. When I did mine we had coursework and did exams for each year on the modules covered in whatever subjects you chose to take; these all affected the over all grade.

The new proposal would mean that instead of exams in year 1 they would only be in year 2. Doesn't sound that bad? Well if you fail an exam in year 1 you can just resit it in year 2; with the new proposal this could not happen and the exams will consist of modules covered over a period of 2 years. For my psychology we had 4 exams and had 3 topics per exam; that would mean using the new proposal students would be facing 12 modules in a 2 hour exam where they may or may not end up with a pass.

So not only would these new exams cover a huge range of topics where learning it all would be difficult to do so there will also be the chance that the students will not have anything at the end of the course; they could waste 2 years of their lives.

These plans will also mean that all A Level courses will need to be rewritten.



The system works as it is already and allows those who do badly in year 1 to redo that year so they end up with a better grade; with the proposed system this could never happen and a considerable amount of students across the country may fail their A Levels. This won't help the ones who are already struggling at all and will make it much more difficult to reach higher education by going to university.


There's a link at the end to have a look at if you're interested.

Comment your thoughts and feelings as always guys!

Clare x


http://news.sky.com/story/1064915/as-levels-gove-urged-to-rethink-exam-reform

Monday 11 March 2013

How to End World Hunger

World hunger is a serious issue no doubt with billions of people going hungry everyday and the human population rising everyday. So is there way to stop it? CAN we stop it? Or is there nothing we can do?
Millions of children die from starvation daily across the world and though we all say world hunger is a big issue, and have been for years, where's the fix?

60% of the world grain feeds farm animals.
13 pounds of grain = 1 pound of beef (Not to mention the amount of clean water)
1 acre of land= 20 pounds of beef OR 365 pounds of protein rich soyabeans.


What does that mean?

If you eat meat you are prevent someone else from eating.


This does not mean you can never eat it, more like eat less of it. The less animals being raised and killed for it  (there are those who die and are not made into human food as well) then the more grain left over which can feed other people and can be sent to help those in desperate need of food.

You may scoff at first thinking I'm just being a 'stupid veg person' but the numbers DO NOT ADD UP.

Every year 150+ billion animals are killed for food. There is roughly 7 billion humans on the planet.

That is millions of pounds of grain being lost through meat and we don't even get a good return, 13 pounds for 1 pound is not good and you also have to consider the amount of water those farm animals are drinking while in some places they can't drink the water as it'll make them horribly sick.



So in Conclusion, how can we make world hunger a thing of the past?

East less Meat

Meat Free Mondays are a great way to start! Trust me; it's easier than you think.


What about fish? That's not part of causing world hunger right? Well I'll do another post on that because believe me it'll be a long one and needs serious addressing before it truly is too late.


For now though, I leave you again and as always your comments, thoughts and any issues you want covered or clarified are desired.

See you next time!
Clare x

Thursday 28 February 2013

Horse meat scandal? Why are we so upset over it?

We've all heard about this 'horse meat scandal' hundred of times now on tv as new products are found containing horses but really what's all the fuss about?



I'm vegetarian going vegan and from my own belief's if you can eat a pig you can eat a dog, if you eat a cow you can eat a horse. The only reason you would find it disgusting is because you've been brought up to see a horse as a pet and not as food unlike the cow or baby sheep AKA lamb that you'll probably be eating on Sunday.

Is the fuss because you were lied to? Well I ask you this: Why are you surprised that an industry that makes millions from killing and hiding the truth of what goes on behind their doors would actually care about what's in the meat? It is an industry they only care about profit; nothing else. You can not trust them to do their jobs in checking and now their refusing to check children's sweets containing gelatine for horse DNA which is very very possible for them to contain and I actually always assumed did.

If your upset over this horse DNA thing you need to rethink how you view 'food' animals as in some countries they'll happily eat a horse but for some reason you seem to think it immoral? Well I say it's immortal to eat anybody when alternatives exist; pleasure is not an excuse to continuing eating animals and lets not forget some serial killers kill for pleasure shall we, I don't see a difference between eating an animal for the sake of pleasure when you have alternatives available are being any different from killing a human for the sake of pleasure.


Horses are not the only beings who wish to live.



Feel free to comment your views as always and I'm interested to see why you're upset, if you are that is, over this whole scandal.

See you next time!

Clare x

Friday 15 February 2013

Male rape and rape myths


So I'm a student studying Criminology and we do one police module where we seem to have quite a few great lectures...surprising for me really since I was debating on doing a language instead but we'll not get into that. One of the topics of the more interesting lectures was sexual offending or more specifically male 'rape'.



By that I mean male victims of rape. One of the topics society ignores and laughs off when the reality is that it's nothing funny or anything to joke about. Other than male domestic violence victims they're one of the most ignored victim groups within western society and are just brushed off with focus being on women victims which is all good and dandy for them but what about you guys? Could you imagine a scenario where you being male are being forced into sexual intercourse with a group of women after falling asleep at a party? That was a real example given to us by our lecturer and you know what happened to those women? They were NOT charged with rape. Why? Because rape laws are gender bias in the UK and most US states.

By gender bias they are specific to a penis and how many women do you know with one of them? The fact of the matter is if you don't have one you can't be charged with rape. Now forgive me for this but that's not exactly gender equality is it? In this day and age you would've thought rape laws would also allow women to be charged but that is not the case everywhere, in some it is; thankfully.



I am a female and I can see how plainly wrong it is, you don't need to be male to demand a change in rape laws or any sexual offence laws to allow women to be charged as a rapist. You just need to have half a brain and some common sense since you can't run about saying how things are so much more equal these days when you're allowing men to be victims one of the most psychologically damaging crimes and never allowing them any kind of justice. It is just not on. Also rather lovely for you guys out there; If someone is forced to go down on a man then it's rape but if they're forced to go down on a woman it's not. All part of the blind spot in rape laws.

Men are the main victims in this little shaded area but lets not forget that a woman can't be raped by another woman thanks to the blind spot in rape laws. Now feminists are the main cause of why there are still blind spots (according to my female lecturer who is an expert in this topic with a book coming out this year on it) and excuse if I'm wrong here but they're damaging womens rights as well by preventing female victims claiming rape charges against other females. It seems to me like they haven't though it through here.




Now for a little bit on common misconceptions on rape

MYTH: Rape is about sexual gratification
TRUTH: It's actually about power, not some kind of uncontrollable sex drive.

MYTH: You can resist a rape if you really want to
TRUTH: It is a natural reaction to freeze, we all do it at the threat of danger or bodily harm and in order to prevent yourself from being hurt you just shut down. It is an evolutionary trait in both genders. The police will tell you to fight as it's more likely to get a conviction then but in reality you most likely wouldn't do.

MYTH: Stranger commit rape
TRUTH: In reality the one who are most likely to rape you are the ones closest to you being family, friends, spouses, boy/girlfriends, any other person you know such as a teacher, etc. Usually there is some kind of  relationship between the rapist and the victim(Fisher, Cullen & Turner, 2000) and those same people in the brackets came to these statistics for us Uni students in the UK:

Classmate (35.5%)
A friend (34.2%)
A boyfriend or ex-boyfriend (23.7%)
An acquaintance (2.6%)
Other (4%)

This must give you some kind of an idea of the chance of a stranger raping you with 4% of offenders here being strangers.

MYTH: All women want to be raped
TRUTH: Seriously? Do I even need to comment on this one? Sure there's probably SOME out there but not ALL of us do! We still have the conception today that some people are 'asking for it'  by how they're dressed which is ridiculous since why should we have to abandon what we like just because if we were to be raped the jury would deem us a willing victim because of it? I like my platform boots, 'leather' trousers and jacket and mini skirts and my new bright blonde hair but should that mean I'm 'asking for it'? or how does walking around at night alone mean that as well? For some reason I don't think me walking to and from the off-campus library late at night alone means I'm 'asking for it', do you? Though I'm sure some jury somewhere would disagree.

MYTH: Many women falsely cry rape
TRUTH: Most rape cases will never come to light for many reasons ranging from the victim being too afraid or doubtful in policing ability to come forward or the lack of evidence in the case which would mean the case wouldn't be taken to court. You are also more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted by someone you know than a stranger, would you want to convict a friend or a family member? or even your spouse? Rape within marriage is still rape; always remember that.



A fact to keep in mind: By the time a rapist has been caught and convicted they will typically have committed 14 previous rapes with each one becoming more violent.



Rape is probably the worst crime against a single being to ever occur, yes murder is bad too but that person is dead so they don't have to deal with the consequences but a rape victim is still alive and they have to carry the memory of what happened to them around for the rest of their lives and with how the criminal justice system and law reacts to rape most victims will never see justice. Imagine someone you know hurting you in such a way and seeing them every day afterwards because they're in your class, at your work, your spouse, your family. The psychological damage it would do is tremendous.

We need to fight to get rape laws to change, to allow women to be recognised as a rapist and tear down those social views making rape a joke for both men and  women (not ignoring you transgender peeps, your sex is whatever you feel you are) in order for justice to finally come for so many victims to afraid to come forward and for those failed by the system that's meant to protect them.

Clare x

Edit: Here's a few links if anyone is interested in the topic or would like to speak to someone about an experience:

Rape Crisis UK: http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/malerape2.php
Victim Support: http://www.victimsupport.org.uk/Help%20for%20victims/Different%20types%20of%20crime/Rape%20sexual%20assault%20women
Support Line: http://www.supportline.org.uk/problems/rape_sexual-assault.php

Hello World!


This is my first entry just to say hello and to let you know what to expect from me here.

Hopefully there will be new blogs every few days and there's no real plan for them... some will be about criminology and others on animal rights. It should cover a wide range of topics and I hope you'll enjoy reading them and that they might inspire you to take action in issues that really speak to you.


Either way I hope you enjoy reading these :)

Clare x