Friday, 10 May 2013

Views, and cynical thinking and possible conspiracy theories

Hi,
So.... Wow! today I went to update the blog and OMG! I have over a 100 more views in 1 week! Cool hu!
anyway today i will talk about Politics ang children.
Ok so if your parents follow a particular party then you are 71% likley to support the same one. Although you are 21% more likely to be more liberal than your parents and 7% more likley to be more coservative. according to  http://www.gallup.com/poll/14515/teens-stay-true-parents-political-perspectives.aspx    
So do you support the same parties, or have the same political views? I have similar views to my parents, but that might just be because I don't actually know that mutch about politics. The other day Dad said I should read a book on politics that he has. He said that he didn't want me to always have to say: "Yea thats what I think about politics! But I don't know for sure, thats just what my parents said." Dad wants me to have an opinion about politics whch is mine and not his. So how mutch do you really know about politics? Most people probably accept their parents opinion and vote for whatever party they are told to. In that case how do the end results - the parties in power - change with everyone voting whatever their parents did? Well, there are still well informed people, voting for what they think will help, instead of obediently following their parents. The Tory party are making alot of cuts to the education system many people won't know enough about politics to make an informed decision. Then they expect us to just vote what our parents did. if our parents didn't vote Tory then maybe they will eliminate the option to vote.
 http://ontd-political.livejournal.com/10165355.html

http://procapitalist.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/should-people-on-benefits-be-allowed-to-vote/

Maybe!

Or maybe they are just hoping that the great job they are doing running the country, will win our hearts at the next election.
Anyway whoever you choose to vote for, I hope they do good stuff Etc.
Bye!

Monday, 6 May 2013

Body Image, Dove and Ranting

Hi,
So Dove has a Positive body image campaign. They have Real Beauty Sketches http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

And loads of other 'Body Friendly' Ads. And that's great. But.....

90% of girls (15-17) want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance, Body fat being the most common.
So why has barely anyone done anything about it. Well....
When women get self conscious they try to look 'better'. By buying more makeup, more clothes, more hair product. These things make them feel like they look better. All those dieting courses, all the biscuits for comfort eating, that make you go back to the diet again. All of this so you buy more stuff! basically, if we felt good about ourselves, we wouldn't need to buy so many things. Things to cheer us up, things to make us look different, then things to make us fat again, and so the cycle continues.
With the Dove ad, although they are telling women to feel good about their bodies, they are still promoting the idea, that what we look like is the most important thing. If you think about all of the body image related deaths, tha anorexia, bulimia, diabetes and suicide then maybe you will start to see a problem with mesages like looking good is the most important thing.
So thanks alot dove you are really helping end the body image problem! (Not)
Bye

Facts
Girls’ self-esteem peaks when they are 9 years old.
80% of children who are 10 years old are afraid of being fat.
9 million teens in America below 15 years are obese, that’s three times more than in 1980.
Obese boys and girls have significantly lower self-esteem than their non-obese peers.
Up to 12% of teen boys are using unproven supplements and/or steroids.
Nearly a quarter of girls age 15-17 would consider undergoing plastic surgery.
13 percent of girls age 15-17 acknowledge having an eating disorder.
7 in 10 girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way including their looks, performance in school and relationships.
80% of 10-year-old girls have dieted.
90% of high school junior and senior women diet regularly.
Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents.
95% of people who diet instead of following a healthy meal plan will gain back the weight they lose in between one and five years.
73% of teenage girls who abuse diet pills and 79% of teenage girls who self purge frequently read women’s fitness and health magazines.
At any given time, one in every three women and one in any four men are on a diet.
9/10 of girls who are high school juniors and seniors diet while only 1/10 of high school girls are overweight.
Individuals who frequently diet often experience depression.
35% of individuals who diet only occasionally progress into pathological dieters.
2/5 of women and 1/5 would give up 3-5 years of their life to realize their weight loss goals.
The diet and diet-related product industry boasts annual revenues of $33 billion.
By 1990 the average age that a girl began dieting had dropped to eight from fourteen in 1970.
Roughly one half of girls in 4th grade are on diets.
More than half of nine and ten-year-old girls admitted that they felt better about themselves when dieting.
Often, one of the first seating disorders symptoms to manifest is poor body image.
According to a study from the University of Central Florida, nearly 50% of girls aged three to six were already concerned about their weight.
A study showed that women experience an average of 13 negative thoughts about their body each day, while 97% of women admit to having at least one “I hate my body” moment each day.
Roughly half of the women in the U.S. wear size 14 or larger though most standard clothing retailers only cater to sizes 14 and smaller.
When asked to choose their ideal body shapes, 30% of women chose one that is 20% underweight while 44% chose an ideal body shape that is 10% underweight.
A Glamour magazine survey showed that 61% of respondents felt ashamed of their hips, 64% felt embarrassed by their stomachs, while 72% were ashamed of their thighs.
One study showed that women overestimate the size of their waists by 25% and hips by 16%, while those same women could correctly estimate a box’s width.
One study showed that 75% of women consider themselves overweight when, in reality, only 25% were.
Four out of five women in the U.S. are unhappy with their appearance.
81% of ten-year-old girls experience a fear of being fat.
42% of 1st through 3rd grade girls say they wish they were thinner.
Adolescent girls are more afraid of gaining weight than getting cancer, losing their parents or nuclear war.
More than half of white, adolescent girls who are a normal weight view themselves as fat.
Seven out of ten women felt angrier and more depressed following the viewing of fashion model images.
A study that offered preschoolers a choice between two dolls that were identical except for weight, the preschoolers chose the thinner doll nine out of ten times.
Children were asked in one study to rate pictures of other children based on attractiveness. The obese child was rated less attractive than a child with a facial deformity, a child in a wheelchair and a child who is missing a limb.
One quarter of all television commercials convey a message related to attractiveness.
The rate of eating disorders in Fiji surged following the introduction of Western television programming.
A study found that viewing music videos featuring thin women correlated with a jump in body image dissatisfaction.
In Allure magazine model and actress Elizabeth Hurley stated, “I’ve always thought Marilyn Monroe looked fabulous, but I’d kill myself if I was that fat.”
Actresses Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts and the singer Diana Ross meet the BMI criteria for anorexia.
A People magazine survey showed that 80% of female respondents felt that women in movies and television programs made them feel insecure about their bodies.

Sunday, 5 May 2013

5 Reasons to LOVE Home education (Or not)

Hi,
So The local elections are over and now we are looking at who we voted for and thinking "Why did I vote for them/ What was I thinking?" Well In the area I live we had 2 options. Conservative or UKIP. So where is everyone else? And if anyone else had been there to vote for who would I have voted for? Well the green party (Though they are small) answer most of my problems. But..... And its a big but. The Greens like so many other parties, do not like home education. Now this is mostly because one of their most famous members, is a teacher. The biggest problem home educators have with support, is that so many people, just don't understand. So I'll explain.

1. First there are several kinds of Home Ed. The two main types are structured, and autonomous. Structured Home ed is a lot like school. There are set lessons and some people follow the national curriculum. this branch of  Home Ed is often popular with special needs or Severely ill children, who can't learn at the same pace or have to take time out of school for medical treatment. Many parents also choose to educate their children this way because they simply prefer it. On the other hand there is autonomous or unschooled home ed. This can mean anything from having set themes, and letting the children do their own projects, to having no structured schooling at all.

2. The second thing you should know is that all types of home schooling are proven ways of successfully educating kids. Research shows that many home educated children are more motivated and work harder than ordinary school children. The Institute for learning's magazine 'Reflect' has an article by author Geoff Petty, that says testing is demotivational, he says: "How would you feel If your boss tapped you on the shoulder and said -Your teaching isn't as good as everyone else's you know- and how long would you remain motivated if he/she did that every other day. Yet we effectively do the same thing when we grade our students."

3. Third that Home Educated children do socialise. Not only do many Home Ed kids have school educated friends there are also after school clubs and Home Education groups that have weekly sessions, open days and trips. Also many Home Ed children choose to have friends who are adults which helps prepare them for the adult world (What better way to learn how to be grown up, than talking to, well.... grown ups.) So Home Ed children are often mature smart and boring school lessons haven't had the chance to stifle their creativity.

4. Home Educated children can and often do take tests and exams. Any home ed child can take GCSEs and other tests if they want to. most home ed kids go to college and/or university, and do really well. The Open University is a popular choice too. A common worry is SATS. Now this kind of test is not necessary I emphasise this because at school kids are often told that these tests impact your future career. This is not true! SATS are to test the school the grades have nothing I repeat NOTHING to do with the child they are teacher tests. They go on the schools league tables and have no actual baring on the child except a dim veiw of how well they remembered certain information on a certain unimportant day. They mean Nothing.

5. The last and most important point is childhood. At school kids do as they are told. They learn to sit still and tag the line. But at home they can Learn to be themselves and create whatever they want Home Educated kids see more of the world and tend to be happier than school children. They also have good jobs and grow up to be normal, working, happy people. Home Education frees them from a lot of peer pressure, and gives them the opportunity to (As One Direction put it.) Live while they're young.

So now I am Done I suppose the last thig to say is thank you for listening. I hope this has surprised you and maybe opened your eyes a little. So I have one last surprise.
I am Home Educated too.
Bye.

Links 

The Institute for learning home page:  http://www.ifl.ac.uk/

Education Otherwise (The official home education home page):   http://www.educationotherwise.net/

Home educating youtuber Ross Mountney:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHG1OBAbBVn5TiYOaDIXPCA

 

Saturday, 4 May 2013

Local elections: why the tories did so badly

Hi,
So the whole world is talking about the local elections. The Torys didn't do very well. So everyone is really suprised. Why did so many people not vote Tory?
Well....
They sold off the NHS.
They cut the budget for the very young, the very old and the sick.
They couldn't afford to give hard working, now reduntant people homes, and yet they coud afford a huge expensive funaral for an exleader who made us worse off than they have yet.
They are making homeless people, people on benafits and Single parents seem like the bad guys, when they are the ones, making people so unhappy, that the soicide rate has gone up considaribly since the elction.

And now for my last and most important point.
They weren't even elected in the first place. No they had alot of votes sure. But they weren't elected. they had to join forces with the Lib Dems so they had enough votes to get in. So we are stuck with a party who are kicking us in the face and denying it. Who havent even been voted in properly. And they wonder why we didn't vote for them enough!
Still confused?
Well google David Cameron and see what people think about him. If you google just his name you get a load of news articles Etc. But if you add "liar" to the end of it. You get rants and news articles and youtube videos and anger and a website claiming that 77% of us don;t like him at all.

Thats all for now enjoy the internet anger.
Bye

Bad Poetry Rant Style!

Hi,
So I thought I would share a poem with you. I write these when I am particualy annoyed so don't expect it to be any good.

The Girl With No Face

I'm everywhere around you
You see me on every screen
I'm something to look down to
I am what not to be

I'm a plus size model
A body with no face
Pixelate my personality
And call me a discrace

Laugh but don't become me
Or they will laugh at you
You don't even know me
You don't have a clue

I'm the panning shot on the 10oclock news
Someone you'll never meet
But that doesn't meen you should judge me
When you can only see my feet

So next time you are filming
Or a new clothes line arrives
Then don't you dare ignore me
Just look me in the eyes

Cause I may not be that skinny
I'm twice the size of you
But show how great my hair is
And show I'm human too.

Thanks for reading my rant in the form of a bad poem.
bye

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Number time!

Hi,
So I tought I would Share some figures with you. these are all aproximate calculations.

8 million Americans have some sort of eating disorder.
one in 200 American wemen suffer from anarexia.
10 - 15% of people with anarexia or bulimia are male.
anorexia is the 3rd most cronic illness among adolecence.
50% of girls between 11 and 13 see themselfs as over weight.
only 1 in 10 people with eating disorders receive treatment.
About 80% of the girls and wemen who have care for their eating disorders didn't get the intencity of treatment they need and are often sent home earlier than the recomended recovery time.
95% of people with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.
18% of 13 year olds have attempted to loose weight.
so these are only some of the figures from one website (the link is below)

http://www.state.sc.us/dmh/anorexia/statistics.htm

so thats all for now
bye

Politics Rant.

Rant Beggining!
Hi,
So the other day I went to a car boot and got a v for Vendetta Guy fawks mask. I found it completly by accident but I thought it would be interesting to look up anonymous on ebay. Omg They had pages and pages of those masks, I mean, I know that Anonymous are using that mask, but I didn't know how popular it is. if you google it, you get wikapidia, and a load of pictures of the guy Fawks mask again. On Wikapidia I was suprised to see how little they mentioned the occupy movment as it was mutch more wide spread as there information implies. I know Wikipidia is not that reliable but still I hoped it would be a little more realistic. The occupy movement was Huge and there was evidence of it in most major cities across the UK not to mention America and other countries. but hey guess what BBC news didn't publish it. Just like it barely mentioned the bad turn out for Margeret Thatchers Funeral, or the fact that, in Liverpool the big BBCone TV screen was turned off for the whole day. Or the grand turn out of only like, 2 people watching other big tv screens. Basicaly I have to find out whats going on in the world (The best i can ) on my own because the news just seems to be telling us what the government want the world to look like and not how it actualy is. And with the ridiculous cuts causing problems sutch as an 80% rise in teacher suicides peaking around the time of ofsted inspections and the BBC giving the Selling of the NHS vertualy no coverage I am beggining to wonder if anything the politicians say is True at all. I mean the only people who seem to be benefiting from anything they have done so far is themselfs and the people who they know. coinsidence?
anyway Rant over!
Bye