I'm thinking of writing a diet book ready to tap into the 2012 market.
The "new" Atkins (so I understand) is called the Dukan Diet, and it has sold over 1.5million copies in France alone, and with Celebs such as Giselle Bundchen and Jennifer Lopez rumoured to be following it, it'll no doubt sell by the bucket load now its available in English. By the way, the Atkins Diet has sold over 15million copies worldwide.
Trouble with my "No Shit Sherlock Diet" is that it is based around the following 4 basic principles;
1. Eat less food
(as well as food that is bad for you)
2. Drink less alcohol
(as well as fizzy and sugary drinks)
3. Exercise more
(that's exercise that makes the heart rate go up, and might even make you out of breath)
4. Do this all the time
(ronseal)
It'll be hard to pad this out for a few hundred pages I must admit, but I think I'm onto something - I'll even get some solid scientific evidence to back up my new diet, as well as including recipe ideas (don't use lard, don't add cheese, cut down on the fat, don't eat ready meals 24/7) exercise plans (walk to the shop, go for a little run / bike ride / swim regularly) as well as how to watch TV of an evening without drinking a bottle of wine.
Wonder which celebrities I could get to endorse this lifestyle revolution?
Friday, 28 January 2011
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Polar Bear Swims 426 Miles Non Stop
Scientists studying Polar Bears in the Beaufort Sea, North of Alaska, have watched one swim continuously for 232 hours (that's nine and half days), covering a distance of 426 miles / 687km in near freezing temperatures - a marathon for an animal searching for new hunting grounds, as the ice sheets melt, and probably something its cubs are going to be faced with, as the ice retreats due to climate change.
When talking about endurance swimming, you (well maybe just me) naturally think of the English Channel - which is approximately 21miles / 32km from Dover to Cap Gris Nez - depending on tides. So our plucky polar bear has swum the equivalent of 20 channels non stop.
The furthest a human has swum continuously is 122 miles / 197 km in 38 hours or so, the distance Susie Maroney did by swimming from Mexico to Cuba. Yes the water was much warmer, but she did get stung by a jellyfish, and break her wrist on the first night in unexpected storms. Ouch.
Then there's Lewis Gordon Pugh, who in July 2007 swam 1km in 18min 50secs across an open patch of sea at the North Pole to draw attention to the melting of the Arctic sea ice. The water temperature was Minus 1.7˚C, the coldest a human has swum in. He did this in speedos, a swimming cap and a pair of googles - the challenge was conducted in accordance with Channel Swimming Association Rules.
Lewis has since swum Lake Imja in the Himalayas, created by recent glacial melting, and Lake Pumori a body of water at an altitude of 5300m on Everest. Watch his fascinating account of this, and his views on climate change from his talk at last years TED conference below.
For the record, the furthest I've swum continuously, is 4.4miles / 7.1km in November 2009 in the 25m Guildford Spectrum. It took me two hours. I was going for 300 lengths, but for a young lad sharing the lane with me, who seemed to struggle with his turns, spending most of the time under the water, almost stationary and generally getting in the way. After a while it dawned on my the dirty boy was spending his charity swim letching at women in the neighbouring lane. The coldest water I've swum in? The now legendary open air swimming pool in Malvern, the thought of which still makes me shudder.
When talking about endurance swimming, you (well maybe just me) naturally think of the English Channel - which is approximately 21miles / 32km from Dover to Cap Gris Nez - depending on tides. So our plucky polar bear has swum the equivalent of 20 channels non stop.
The furthest a human has swum continuously is 122 miles / 197 km in 38 hours or so, the distance Susie Maroney did by swimming from Mexico to Cuba. Yes the water was much warmer, but she did get stung by a jellyfish, and break her wrist on the first night in unexpected storms. Ouch.
Then there's Lewis Gordon Pugh, who in July 2007 swam 1km in 18min 50secs across an open patch of sea at the North Pole to draw attention to the melting of the Arctic sea ice. The water temperature was Minus 1.7˚C, the coldest a human has swum in. He did this in speedos, a swimming cap and a pair of googles - the challenge was conducted in accordance with Channel Swimming Association Rules.
Lewis has since swum Lake Imja in the Himalayas, created by recent glacial melting, and Lake Pumori a body of water at an altitude of 5300m on Everest. Watch his fascinating account of this, and his views on climate change from his talk at last years TED conference below.
For the record, the furthest I've swum continuously, is 4.4miles / 7.1km in November 2009 in the 25m Guildford Spectrum. It took me two hours. I was going for 300 lengths, but for a young lad sharing the lane with me, who seemed to struggle with his turns, spending most of the time under the water, almost stationary and generally getting in the way. After a while it dawned on my the dirty boy was spending his charity swim letching at women in the neighbouring lane. The coldest water I've swum in? The now legendary open air swimming pool in Malvern, the thought of which still makes me shudder.
Toy Thailand
Just when I thought I'd got tired of Tilt Shift, this came along. The little boats around the 2min mark look amazing.
I wonder if you could somehow reverse this technique to make small stuff seem big and real? It would be great for those that that have little train sets in their lofts, with tiny villages, hills and trees - then again, maybe that's not the point.
I wonder if you could somehow reverse this technique to make small stuff seem big and real? It would be great for those that that have little train sets in their lofts, with tiny villages, hills and trees - then again, maybe that's not the point.
Toy Thailand from joerg on Vimeo.
Sunday, 23 January 2011
3D Fractals
I remember as a student back at Kington Uni getting a bit of fractal generating software for my 286 PC (Windows took up half of its memory). I left it calculating and working out for over 24hours only for it to spit out a rubbish looking image that filled a tiny proportion of the big fat screen, so I stuck to playing Lemmings (I got stuck on that level with the fast walking lemming, and the slow building one. Drove me mad)
Anyway, check this weird but mesmerising 3D fractal landscape, that would have probably have taken my 286 the last 20 years to have attempted;
Anyway, check this weird but mesmerising 3D fractal landscape, that would have probably have taken my 286 the last 20 years to have attempted;
Surface detail from subBlue on Vimeo.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
The Banking System
Watched "Britain's Banks : Too Big To Save?" last night with an open mouth. It's available on the iPlayer until 25th Jan, its a shocking insight into the greed of the few, that without regulating, risk another banking crash, worse than the one that caused the global recession.
Incidently, at the start of the recession - after the run on Northern Rock, the failure of Lehman Brothers and the government bail out, I found myself at a friends drinks party talking to a couple of bankers. After a lengthy and lively discussion, I pointed out to them that they were probably (understatement) "public enemy No. 1" for the state of the economy. The reaction was shocking. "The general public are to blame, for getting mortgages without the means to repay them".
Anyway, watch this "Britain's Banks : Too Big To Save?" on the iPlayer here.
"It's more than two years since the giant banks were bailed out with billions of pounds of tax-payers' money, yet little has been done to reform or regulate these vast institutions. The BBC's business editor Robert Peston looks at how the international regulators, a little-known and secretive committee that sits in the Swiss city of Basel, have consistently failed to curb the excesses of the giant banks and how new proposals fall short of the root-and-branch reform promised after the crash.
With the fate of Ireland, brought to its knees by the excesses of its banking industry, fresh in our minds, Peston asks whether Britain would be in any position to bail out our huge banks should there be another crisis. Are the banks, once thought to be too big to fail, now actually too big to save?
The film contains the first interviews with the government's new Banking Commission, as well as contributions from Business Secretary Vince Cable, new RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton and the Bank of England"
Incidently, at the start of the recession - after the run on Northern Rock, the failure of Lehman Brothers and the government bail out, I found myself at a friends drinks party talking to a couple of bankers. After a lengthy and lively discussion, I pointed out to them that they were probably (understatement) "public enemy No. 1" for the state of the economy. The reaction was shocking. "The general public are to blame, for getting mortgages without the means to repay them".
Anyway, watch this "Britain's Banks : Too Big To Save?" on the iPlayer here.
"It's more than two years since the giant banks were bailed out with billions of pounds of tax-payers' money, yet little has been done to reform or regulate these vast institutions. The BBC's business editor Robert Peston looks at how the international regulators, a little-known and secretive committee that sits in the Swiss city of Basel, have consistently failed to curb the excesses of the giant banks and how new proposals fall short of the root-and-branch reform promised after the crash.
With the fate of Ireland, brought to its knees by the excesses of its banking industry, fresh in our minds, Peston asks whether Britain would be in any position to bail out our huge banks should there be another crisis. Are the banks, once thought to be too big to fail, now actually too big to save?
The film contains the first interviews with the government's new Banking Commission, as well as contributions from Business Secretary Vince Cable, new RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton and the Bank of England"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)