My appeal video for Hexham River Hydro (@energyshare)

Last week I had the unique opportunity to visit Hexham and meet the community with whom I have partnered in the bid to win funding from energyshare.I received the most amazing welcome from so many people in the community, including the project partners, volunteers, Transition Town members, the local Abbey, councillors and the Mayor.  However it was the visits I made to the potential beneficiaries of the funding that inspired me the most, including a local community centre in regeneration area and the fabulous kids who really need their local youth initiative.Armed with just my very old smartphone, I managed to take some footage while I was there, to ask for your support in voting for a community project that will not just create renewable energy but will help provide some much-needed...

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Triglycerides, VLDL, and industrial carbohydrate-rich foods

var citeN=0; Below are the coefficients of association calculated by HealthCorrelator for Excel (HCE) for user John Doe. The coefficients of association are calculated as linear correlations in HCE (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN)) 1). The focus here is on the associations between fasting triglycerides and various other variables. Take a look at the coefficient of association at the top, with VLDL cholesterol, indicated with a red arrow. It is a very high 0.999.Whoa! What is this – 0.999! Is John Doe a unique case? No, this strong association between fasting triglycerides and VLDL cholesterol is a very common pattern among HCE users. The...

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My transformation: How I looked 10 years ago next to a thin man called Royce Gracie

var citeN=0; The photos below were taken about 10 years ago. The first is at a restaurant near Torrance, California. (As you can see, the restaurant was about to close; we were the last customers.) I am standing next to Royce Grace, who had by then become a sensation (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN)) 1). He became a sensation by easily defeating nearly every champion fighter that was placed in front of him. In case you are wondering, Royce is 6’1” and I am 5’8”. The second photo also has Royce’s manager in it – that is his wife. Their children’s names both start with the letter “K”. I wonder how big they are right now.I think that...

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Teaming up with energyshare & Hexam River Hydro

It is very rare that something pulls me away from talking about rubbish, but when I was asked to team up with an exciting hydro energy project that's competing for energyshare funding, it was far too interesting to miss.Energyshare has been created by River Cottage and British Gas, jointly managing a campaign whereby communities across the UK have applied to energyshare to have their project funded. These communities have been shortlisted into a small number of finalists, all looking to have their project funded up to the value of £100,000.The competition has also been supported by Channel 4’s Three Hungry Boy’s who spent five weeks touring...

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The China Study II: How gender takes us to the elusive and deadly factor X

var citeN=0; The graph below shows the mortality in the 35-69 and 70-79 age ranges for men and women for the China Study II dataset. I discussed other results in my two previous posts (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN)) 1) (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN)) 2), all taking us to this post. The full data for the China Study II study is publicly available (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN)) 3). The mortality numbers are actually averages of male and female deaths by 1,000 people in each of several counties, in each of the two age ranges.Men do tend to die earlier than women, but the difference above is too large.Generally...

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It's that time of year again with "Buy Nothing New November"

For the last few years I've welcomed in November with a personal challenge, to get through the month without buying anything new.  And after an expensive few months through the summer and early autumn, once more I'm welcoming the challenge with open arms for 2011. It's not an anti-consumerism protest as such, although it does give me a great excuse to throw a huge boo-hiss at all the stores that promote the festive spirit months before December has arrived.Yes, I admit the heavily commercial unseasonal 'seasonal promotions' regularly hack me off, what with Easter eggs on sale in January, back-to-school gear being promoted in June and the...

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