UK taxpayers shouldn’t pay people to lose weight and quit smoking

I am angered about the reports that officials in the National Institute of Clinical Guidelines (NICE) suggested that the government should give monetary incentives to people who lose weight and quit smoking (source). They argued that such incentives could help motivate people to change their behaviours for the better. Why can’t people be motivated by the fact that if they change their eating habits or quit smoking, they could live longer, healthier lives? Or that the negative effects that their bad health behaviour inflicts upon their significant other will lessen or disappear should they adopt healthier lifestyles?

In addition, where would they get the money to fund this? There are too many spending cuts at the moment. Hospitals wards, and in some areas, whole hospitals shut because of spending cuts. The education sector is also suffering due to cutbacks. I will be angered if any of my tax money will be spent on someone trying to lose weight or quit smoking. It’s bad enough that we, taxpayers, are paying for the unemployed. Also, what if others use this as a way of earning money? For instance, some people might lose weight, get paid, then re-gain their weight, and lose it again to get paid again. Some of you might laugh but you know deep inside that it could happen.

I am really hoping that this proposition will get rejected. Its not that I don’t want to help people get on the right track in terms of their health. I fully acknowledge the fact that there are people who really need help with their weight or with quitting smoking, but do not know where and who to turn to. I know that unhealthy people are costing the NHS a lot of money, but I’m sure that there is another way of dealing with the problem. I just hope that someone somewhere will come up with a better alternative before it’s too late.

In defence of Venus Raj’s ‘Major Major’ answer

A couple of days ago Venus Raj from the Philippines, came fourth in this year’s Miss Universe Beauty Pageant. the night was going well for her as she performed almost perfectly in all the ‘catwalk’ parts of the competition. However, when the Top 5 ‘question and answer’ segment came, she failed to answer the question given to her. She showed that : 1 she understood the question given to her, but 2 she knows what she wanted to say but failed to say it in English. (Watch the video here)

Although she came fourth out of 83 contestants, she was and still is a subject of much ridicule in the Philippines because of her answer. Is she the one to blame? I don’t think so.

The Philippines takes pride in it’s teaching of the English language. Filipinos are known to speak English as fluently as their mother language, Tagalog. In this light, by default, Venus Raj should have answered the question given to her, properly. It is this expectation that hinders many talented and beautiful Filipinas to join any beauty pageant. the common knowledge is that if you cannot speak English properly, however beautiful and talented you are, stay out of any beauty competition. Now, is this right? Of course not. Lacking fluency in English does not register you dumb and stupid, and for that matter, illegible for any beauty competition.

Think about people in the provinces, in the outskirts of the Philippines. Yes, every school teaches English, and teaches it very well. However, there are a lot of individuals that do not have the opportunity to practice this second language. They do not have enough chance to speak to others in English, which could then give them the opportunity to correct their mistakes, practice their accent, continuously hear other people speak the language, which in turn could cement the knowledge into their brains.

Going back to Venus Raj. Did she ever have any lessons whilst preparing for the pageant? If not, then that’s another area that they should invest in. She should have rehearsed the ‘question and answer’ part with a coach/teacher, asking her potential questions, and giving her advice on how to answer them. Should there be no time to do this, what about investing in an interpreter? Again, there is no shame in not speaking English. Having an interpreter would allow candidates the opportunity to disregard any language barrier and fully express herself.

In my opinion, taunting Venus Raj because of her answers shows how prejudistic Filipinos can be. She did not put our country to shame by her answer. She just showed the lack of preparation and support she had. She also exposed how elitist these pageants can be. I hope that this negative attitude stops immediately.

UK’s A-level results- an evidence of The Flynn effect?

James R. Flynn proposed that IQ scores increase from generation to generation (Flynn, 1994). This idea, knwon as the Flynn effect has been supported by James Flynn’s own research involving collecting IQ scores from 20 countries including Great Britain, Japan and the United States over 60 years. The data shows a continuous increase in IQ scores in all of the countries over the years. The reason for this increase however, is still being researched and debated up to now.

Even though Flynn believes that IQ tests do not measure intelligence, the increase in IQ scores could suggest that people’s ability to solve problems, e.g. abstract ones as evidenced by results from Raven’s Matrices test, increase over time. Yesterday’s A-level results all over Britain showed another example.

It was reported that 8.1 % of candidates acheived an A* grade and that the pass rate rose from 97.5 last year to 97.6 this year. It has also been made known that 660,000 students are applying for university places this year, an increase of 12% compared to last year. This increase in pass rate could be attributed to improved performance from the students. I am not suggesting that students this year are born with higher intellectual abilities than those of previous generations. In this light, I am not suggesting that babies born this year will automatically be more intelligent than the previous generation.

What I am suggesting is that students nowadays perform better possibly because of better education. Better testing, better instructions, better delivery of the syllabus, better lessons. So much research have been done over the years to better the education and assessment processes, in order to maximise students’ acheivement. Many suggestions and policies have failed, but continuous research and development will undoubtedly increase acheivement even more.

In addition, as mentioned above, there is an increase in students applying for a university place. Apart from increased opportunity and continuous increase in population over the years, it can be argued that such a rise in number of applicants could be attributed in part to today’s increasing pressure to achieve more, more, more. Since the traditional view of people the world over is that education is the safest and better route towards success and money, students’ significant others push them to go to university and get a degree. In addition, today’s economic climate pushes a lot of people to get a qualification to get a decent job. In comparison to only a few years ago where jobs are available to those without qualifications, today’s job market consists of intelligent applicants armed with A-levels. In order to get ahead, one needs a degree or more.

Such social pressure, situational variables and increased efficiency in the education system could be the reasons for the increase in educational acheivement.

Babies

Recently, a friend of mine gave birth to her first baby. The first time I saw the child made me think real hard about whether or not I’m ready to have one, and if so, would I be a good father. All sorts of ideas came into mind, and one of them was that I don’t want to have one ever because I don;t want to be blamed by my kids for their genes. Of course, only 50% of my child’s genetic make up would have came from me, but still I have a contribution of what will become of him.

I began thinking about all of my traits and asked myself if I am a good enough person to inherit something from. I’m not tall, I’m not white,I don’t have an athletic physique,  I’m not a quick learner despite having an extremely good memory, but I am extremely organised, I want to be right all the time, and I work damn hard all the time. I guess if my child inherits only what I perceive are good qualities (e.g. organisation skills, memory and work ethic), I could still be blamed. However, should I fail to produce an offspring, those traits, and my family tree, will come to an end.

We’ll see…

8 Years

It’s been about 8 years since I lost my cousin. These past two weeks I can’t stop thinking about him. I wonder what could’ve been of him, what will he be like if he’s still alive, how many girls would he have dated- even though he would only be 15 by now, and whether he’d still be as close to me as he have been before.

I wonder if he’s still with us, would he like Ben 10 as smuch as I do? Would he challenge me for a game of one-on-one in basketball? How intelligent would he be?

I haven’t had much time to show him how much I love him, but the moments we shared were enough to establish a relationship that has left a mark in my heart which will remain forever.

I miss his naughty acts, his addiction to Coca-cola, his way of saying thank you, I’m sorry and please. I miss him so much. I want to believe that ‘heaven’, or a similar place exists because of him. I want to see him again. There are so many things that I want to do with him, so many things and places I want to show him, so many things I want to teach him. If only I can bring him back…

More F1 controversy as Alonso wins in Germany

Double-world champion Fernando Alonso wins in this year’s German Grand Prix, ahead of his teammmate Felipe Massa and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. The Ferraris have impressed other teams and fans alike with the improvements that they’ve introduced this weekend. It looks as if this is the perfect weekend for the team- impressive in friday practice, in yesterday’s qualifying and capping it off with a one-two. But a controversial decision during the race would ignite possibly a week-long, if not a half-season long discussion.

At the start of the race, Vettel went defensive on Alonso, which allowed Felipe Massa to lead the race. It seems like he would run away with the win as he emerged in front of Alonso after their pit stops and have set fastest lap after fastest lap. But towards the end of the race, Rob Smedley, Massa’s engineer instructed Felipe to let Alonso through as instructed by Stefano Domenicalli, which in resulted in a win for Alonso. Rob Smedley immediately apologised to his driver.

In the podium presentation, Massa did not look happy, as expected. When asked about the matter, former Jordan Racing Team Principal Eddie Jordan said that “Ferrari should be ashamed of themselves. That should not have been done”. BBC presenters underlined that F1 Rule number  39.1 states that team orders that interfere with the results are forbidden. Speculations will arise whether Ferrari broke this rule or not.

In my opinion, it doesn’t matter whether Ferrari broke it or not. Team orders such as that shouldn’t be made. Felipe was ahead, he wasn’t slower than Alonso, he should have won the race. If Alonso wanted to win so badly, he should have just shut his gob up and went wheel to wheel with his teammate. Alonso had the chance to do it cleanly, without team orders. It would ahve been nice to see it happen.

I hope Domenicalli, not the drivers gets penalised, and penalised badly.

Red Bull’s Vettel reigns on German Qualifying

Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel has won pole position in the German Grandprix, his hometown race. Teammate Mark Webber could only manage fourth after a problem in his final hot lap. Hometown hero Michael Schumacher only managed to qualify in 11th place, whilst Brits Button and Hamilton are 5th and 6th, respectively.

There were no drama this time within the Red Bull team, only elation, as Vettel topped weekend favourite Fernando Alonso (Ferrari). The Ferraris especially Alonso, were extremely fast on friday practice and in the whole qualifying, due to the improvements they made on their cars. Alonso was the fastest of all drivers after Q1 and Q2, and looked like he was going to grab the pole position until, as usual, Sebastian Vettel produced a surprisingly quick hot lap in the dying seconds of Q3, which knocked Alonso off the number 1 spot.

Ferrari should still be happy of this result as this is the first time this year that double-world champion Alonso qualified in front of the grid. Also, Felipe Massa qualified 3rd, which should provide a big confidence boost to the Brazilian, as he hasn’t been producing the goods this year.

There was only one major accident this afternoon which happened to Vitantonio Liuzzi. He crashed during Q1 when he ran wide in the final corner, spun and hit the pitwall. He wasn’t injured and would start 22nd tomorrow.

For more, visit http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/7/11060.html

and

the BBC F1 page

French coach Laurent Blanc wins

It has been announced that French International football coach Laurent Blanc was successful in his bid to get rid of all 23 players he took to this year’s World Cup Finals in South Africa.

The talented French squad failed to show their true playing potential in the World Cup, failing to win a single game. They finished at the bottom of their group with 1 draw and 2 losses.

Well publicised rows between the players and the team’s coaching staff did not help the team’s cause. Striker Nicolas Anelka was sent home after blasting then coach Raymond Domenech, and Patrice Evra, the team’s captain, argued furiously with the team’s fitness coach. The team even refused to train in protest.

Domenech was swiftly replaced by Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc, who aims to restore Le Bleus’ winning days by kicking the whole team out. But is this the right decision? Personally, I think it is. There’s no doubt that the team has massive amount of talent, and that given the right coaching and a bit more time, they would produce good results. However, having shown a level of immaturity and unprofessionalism that shouldn’t be seen on a professional level, let alone a world-wide stage, I think Blanc made the right decision. Under no circumstances must that attitude be allowed in any level, in any sport whatsoever.

Matt Barnes and Theo Ratliff joins the LA Lakers

Kobe Bryant has got another one of his arch nemesis to join the mighty Lakers. Matt Barnes reportedly agreed to a 2-year, $3.6 million deal with the champs earlier today.

It is highly debateable whether Barnes is a good pick up for the Lakers or not.  As most of us know, his main arsenal is perimeter defense, but the Lakers already have Ron Artest. Surely all he’ll do is back Ron-Ron up., which is not a bad idea at all.

A couple of weeks ago the Lakers pushed hard to acquire another of Kobe’s rival, Raja Bell, but failed as Bell signed with the Utah Jazz. Bell would have been an excellent pick up for LAL because he can defend the perimeter, shoot the three and slash. In comparison, Barnes can’t shoot, but can do the other two.

LAL also acquired Theo Ratliff earlier today. Along with Barnes and Steve Blake, Ratliff makes LAL’s second unit much more solid as compared to last year’s. If we think back to last year’s conference finals against Phoenix and the finals series against Boston, the Lakers’ bench players failed to step up on a number of occassions, forcing Kobe and co to do all the work. Now that Kobe, Pau, Fish and Ron are a year older, and with Andrew Bynum undergoing surgery, these off season pick-ups can provide consistency and reliability. Phil Jackson picked up three veterans who have high basketball IQ, can play defense, and can cope with the triangle.

With these acquisitions, the Lakers are stringer than ever.

Signs for idiots

Last weekend whilst in an underground train in London, I noticed this stupid sign on the train car’s door. It is blatantly obvious that if you use this door to get to the other train car, you risk an embarassing death as there is a massive gap between the cars. Plus, you would also need to open the other train car’s door to get in there. Do the maths- wobbly, fast moving train, dodgy door, massive gap, plus the uselessness of moving to the other car, even if the train is full.

What puzzles me is the need for these kinds of signs. Have people lost their common-sense, or is our nation becoming too scared of being liable to people’s stupidity?