Announcement

Unfortunately I no longer have the time to maintain this blog. This is because there is so much going on in my personal and professional life, which I need to concentrate on.

I therefore only plan on finishing the following articles:

• An open letter to the DfT (which I will also email to them), in lieu of the PDF document, because I no longer have time to finish this document.
• Why I personally believe Britain should drive on the right.  Yes, I am in favour of this change too, but this has nothing to do with metrication.

After that, I will keep the blog open, moderate comments, and respond to comments. But I will no longer be posting new articles and the migration to WordPress is also cancelled. My apologies for this.

Should this change and I have more time to write articles, I will post another announcement saying so. 

I will in any case maintain existing articles where necessary (corrections etc.), if I get the time.

Apologies and blog roadmap

Apologies for the lack of posts since March 2014. Until this point I have had practically no time to prepare new posts for the moment, and a lot had been going on in my life - in short I was extremely busy, so had practically no time to make posts until now.

Video: Glyphosate and GM threaten monarch butterflies

You may be aware that bees are under serious threat due to pesticides and other toxins in the environment. Likewise, the monarch butterfly risks becoming endangered, as genetically engineered corn and soya and other genetically modified crops have largely eliminated the monarch butterfly's sole food and breeding source, the milkweed. Glyphosate-based herbicides also destroy soil, plant, animal, and human health. A video explaining the plight of monarch butterflies as well as what you can do, is included with this article.

Reasons for drinking raw milk and avoiding processed milk

(NaturalNews, 5th October 2013) Until the early 20th century, raw milk - natural milk sourced straight from the cow - was considered both a safe, nutritious drink and a medicine. Doctors would routinely prescribe it for a plethora of chronic ailments ranging from indigestion to constipation, and many cultures regarded it as a perfect food. After all, just as eggs provide all the nutrients needed to grow a healthy chick, milk provides all the nutrients needed to grow a healthy calf.

In this article, you'll find out why raw milk was held in such regard by every culture that consumed it. You'll also find out how today's processed milk, which has undergone pasteurisation and homogenisation, compares to it in the nutrition department.

Three remedies for Alzheimer's Disease

(NaturalNews.com, 5th October 2013 by J D Heyes) Medical science still has not figured out the puzzle of Alzheimer's disease, but there are some natural remedies that medical researchers say could offer substantial relief: colostrum, ashwagandha and turmeric.

Video: "Cancer: The forbidden cures"

This article includes a video "Cancer: The forbidden cures", produced by the filmmaker Massimo Mazzucco. This video describes cures for cancer which are inexpensive and come from nature, but have been thwarted and suppressed by the drug-based medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry who cannot patent these natural cures.

Opting out of PRISM, the NSA's global surveillance program

As you will have no doubt have seen in the news, the National Security Agency (NSA), a US government agency, has been running a hitherto top-secret global surveillance program called PRISM, in collaboration with US technology giants Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Facebook among others (although Twitter was conspicuous by its absence from the leaked presentation slides).

Basically if you visit the website or use an application or Operating System of one of the collaborating companies, PRISM clandestinely logs your online activities. The activities of the NSA were leaked by ex-CIA operative Edward Snowden to Glenn Greenwald and hence the Guardian and the Washington Post (although the Washington Post subsequently heavily edited its story).

This article examines suggested alternative software and services according to the site PRISM Break and gives an analysis of the events. In any case, the Internet needs to be protected from governments and big corporations.

Big Green divestment call

I came across an article by Naomi Klein on The Nation magazine regarding a call for Big Green, that is the large mainstream environmental organisations, to divest in fossil fuels. According to this article, several mainstream environmental have stopped investing in fossil fuel companies, others have not. This article summarises the main points and provides a link to the original article.

A call to reform or repeal the EU Directive on Herbal Medicines

This article calls for either the amendment or repeal of the EU Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (2004/24/EC), the THMPD in short, enacted back in 31/03/2004 and in force as of 01/05/2011. This directive has licensing requirements for safety and quality, but also imposes steep costs typically between €97 000 (£80 000) and €145 600 (£120 000) due mainly to the cost of testing. This is because the licensing requirements are intended to be similar to those for pharmaceutical drugs. Not a single license is in place for Ayurvedic medicine or traditional Chinese medicine which have both been in use for thousands of years, along with herbal remedies from all over the world including the Amazon basin.

Labelling Matters - A CiWF, RSPCA, WSPA and Soil Association campaign

The organisations Compassion in World Farming (CiWF), the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and The Soil Association are campaigning jointly for clear method of production labelling regarding dairy products and meat. This campaign, which was launched in Westminster, is an EU-wide campaign. Without clear labelling, there is the danger of buying factory farmed produce without realising it.

The Labelling Matters campaign calls for clear and simple labelling which convey the chief characteristic of the production system (e.g. factory farm, free range, organic). This will enable customers to know how the animals were kept. In writing this article, I am giving my backing to this campaign.

More research verifies powerful anti-cancer properties of turmeric

(NaturalNews.com, Friday 3rd May 2013) A growing body of research continues to pile up, showing that turmeric (Hindi: हल्दी "haldi") and its naturally occurring compounds have potent anti-cancer properties.

The turmeric root is one of the most important spices and traditional medicines across vast sections of Asia, and has been for hundreds of years. Indeed, turmeric has been used in India for millenia, and is central to Indian cuisine and also a major part of ayurvedic medicine. Scientists attribute many of turmeric's health benefits to the trio of naturally occurring chemicals known as curcuminoids, which give the root its characteristic yellow-orange color. The name curcumin, which technically refers to only one of the curcuminoids, is sometimes also used to refer to the entire group.

Although many studies have been performed on curcumin rather than on turmeric root itself, it is important to note that the body absorbs curcumin much more effectively from the root than from supplements.

New look ready, more posts to come

This blog now has a new look, and makes use of HTML5, CSS3 and JQuery.  Feel free to let me know your thoughts on the new layout.

More articles will be coming soon, including but not limited to:

• One or several articles on the PDF of road signs improvements, this will be coming soon.
• Articles on the environment
• Technology articles
• Articles on health

Apologies once again for the lack of posts

Apologies once again for the lack of posts, I have been busy with moving from Antibes to Lyon, where I now live permanently. So did not have much time to go online until recently. I have several articles in progress, so new posts will be coming soon.

Video: GMO Film Project

I decided to share the video trailer to an upcoming film, GMO Film Project, which shows a father's discovery of GMOs via the symbolic act of Haitian farmers burning seeds in defiance of Monsanto's "gift" of 430 t of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds after the devastating earthquake of January 2010.

Organic farming can feed the world

Those who defend genetically modified (GM) crops claim that biotechnology is necessary to feed the world and that non-GM and organic farming alone is not capable of producing enough food for everyone. This is pro-GM propaganda.

The reality is that organic farming can feed the world, all that needs to be done is to change the methods of farming, including stopping factory farming and intensive farming which is bad for our health and for our planet. As well as this, wastage needs to be eliminated, and there needs to be a change from unhealthy diets to a healthy and varied diet (where this applies).

Apologies for the lack of posts since October 2011

My apologies for the lack of posts. Unfortunately the last few months have been very busy lately, and last month alone I was commuting to Monaco (from Antibes) for my day job, so I have not had time lately, to finish and post the articles I have been working on.

Video: Civilisation types

In this lecture, theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku talks about the types of civilisation. A Type 1 civilisation would correspond to a Buck Rogers type civilisation, type 2 which would correspond to a Star Trek type civilisation, and type 3 which would correspond to a Star Wars type civilisation (specifically The Empire).

Apparently we are currently a Type 0 Civilisation, but transitioning towards a Type 1 civilisation, and according to current calculations we will reach Type 1 in approximately 100 years, but that this transition from Type 0 to Type 1 is also the most dangerous phase and that some people fear this transition. More details are in the video itself.

Video: Why batteries are primitive

This is an interesting video I found on batteries. In this video, the theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku explains why current battery technology is primitive, that today's batteries have far less energy per kilogram compared to petrol. The future possibilities look very interesting indeed - including using lots of carbon nanofibres or graphenes (a graphene sheet is a 2-dimensional layer of carbon atoms) to increase storage capacity dramatically, once nanotechnology matures of course.

What a UK metric road signs changeover could look like

We have explained the need to go metric, to have metric road signs, and have given many examples of what metric road signs would look like. I also believe metrication is a good time to have a look at signage improvements including clutter removal.  I do not plan on going into too much detail about the changeover, as metrication and road signs have been rather overdone (on this blog). But I do intend on looking at the key points.

Could sign colours (motorway, primary route, local route, roadworks) be standardised?

Anyone who has driven through Europe will have noticed that the road sign colours are not uniform for motorways, primary routes, non-primary / local routes, and roadworks signs. The differences are explained in more detail here. Could the colours for these signs be standardised in Europe, if not worldwide? Even though there is no safety issue from leaving things as they are, the purpose of this article is to start a discussion.