[ so·lil·o·quy – the act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers ]
Aside from all the very serious news of death and terrorism and politics and the economy, there have been a whole host of other stories in the news that have caught my attention this week. So I thought I’d offer a bit of a round-up for this week’s Sunday Soliloquy just in case you missed any of them.
The Right Diet for You
I learnt that when it comes to eating I am a “constant craver” (according to the BBC). Did you watch the Horizon documentary at the start of the week that looked at personalised diets and what kind of healthy eating plan could help you lose weight? Even though I hate the idea of dieting (I love my food!), it was really fascinating. And I have to admit that their description of a constant craver – someone who likes to graze all day – was pretty fitting (snack, anyone?!). According to the programme, the best way for me to get back in the “normal” category for my weight I should try the intermittent fasting – the 5:2 diet – eek! Apparently, on 5:2 you should eat 600-800 calories on your two fasting days, rather than the zero I thought. I don’t think I’ll be giving that a go this week, but I was intrigued. There’s a follow up this week so you may still get a blog post on the subject yet. Find out the right diet for you on the BBC Horizon page.
This Girl Can
Sport England launched the This Girl Can (#ThisGirlCan) campaign, an advertisement and series of posters that show ordinary women exercising. The idea is to demonstrate that girls of all shapes and sizes can “jiggle” and “sweat” their way to better health and fitness by having fun and not worrying about what other people thing of them. It’s an attempt to tackle the gym culture and competitiveness of sport that apparently put a lot of women (and men, I am sure) off getting active. There is so much pressure to look and be the best at an activity that lots of people don’t bother at all. Personally I love it, I think it is a very positive campaign and I hope that it encourages lots of women to get outdoors and hike, run, cycle, dance, swim, and all the other things that keep our hearts healthy and bones strong. I could easily have been one of the personas the creators wrote down when designing the campaign, and so I had better take heed. If you’ve not seen the full video yet here it is:
Found: One Rifle from 1882
This story from Nevada really caught my imagination. Did you see that a rifle has been found propped against a tree in Nevada’s Great Basin National Park? It was found the other day and could have been there for years! The large Winchester rifle was made in 1882, and was a popular type of gun used in that area at the turn of the century. How amazing! I wonder what the story is? Who put it there? What did they do? Archaeologists say the gun has been stood there for a very long time, based on the stock being cracked and buried in the dirt – it wasn’t spotted before now as the trees and stock were a very similar colour. What a mystery. I bet we never really find out the full story, but it’s the sort of thing movies are made of.
We Did Land on Mars!
There was a buzz on Friday morning as a press conference was held by the Beagle2 team. Beagle2 was a UK-led probe designed to analyse the surface of Mars, launched in December 2003, that disappeared and was assumed destroyed in a high speed impact on the surface. I remember thinking at the time how annoying it would have been if I was on that project – years and years of work and the technology was lost. Isn’t science and technology amazing? Not only did we send a probe to Mars (that did actually get there!), but we have now been able to take photographs of such high quality that we can see exactly where the probe landed. Wow. Sadly, the lead scientist Colin Pillinger died last year and will never know the probe landed. Now we know just how close we came to a successful mission, I wonder what will happen next.
Eye Ball Tattoos – Say What?!
I didn’t even know you could get ink on your eyeball until this week. Every time I think about it it makes me squint and shudder – why on earth would you want someone to stick a needle in your eye, one of the most precious parts of our body, to colour it in?! Euwww! It really does sound horrible and incredibly painful, and it also looks really weird. Each to their own and all that, but the photographs I’ve seen of people with one jet black eye or two bright green eyes just look quite ridiculous. Judgemental? Well yes I guess so – but only for the thing itself; I know that the having a tattoo (of whatever kind) doesn’t make us any less of a person or cause us to be criminal (which has actually been suggested by some!), I simply don’t understand the art of playing with our eyes in this way. It’s certainly a statement!
What stories in the news have caught your attention this week?
Shybiker
Fun news stories. I’d heard the one involving the guy with the eyeball-tattoo. Like you, I didn’t know that was possible. His legal defense was hampered by his appearance — most people assume someone who chooses to look so odd is obviously deranged and guilty. I’ve seen that issue before — can a tattoo you have be used against you as evidence?
Cheryl Pasquier
Yuck, the eyeball tattoos are horrible – I hadn’t seen those !