Eco-StripTease

If its yellow let it mellow and if its brown flush it down!!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:47:00 +0000

This one I am going to keep quick, mainly because my point totally speaks for its self!

Have you ever stopped to think how much water you waste in your daily life? How about every time you take a piss then pull the leaver and flush it away? Or how about when you blow your nose and chuck the tissue in the loo, and flush it down? You do it without a seconds thought right?

Do you actually know how much water it takes to flush the average toilet? Take a guess!?

10 litres of water per flush!!

Lets put that into perspective - the daily recommended drinking intake for water is 3.7 litres...so that means ONE flush of the blog...uses more than double the amount of water that the average human body needs in a whole day!! Now that screams waste to me!

Have you ever thought about the less fortunate people who are dying of dehydration every day? More than one billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water yet we repeatably flush our toilets with water that is safe to drink...where is the logic? We need to figure out a system for reusing water shower water for our toilets... or something!

But in the short term, I have a couple of brilliant bog tips!

1. Firstly for all those squeamish folk - Install a toilet dam or displacement device such as a bag or bottle to cut down on the amount of water needed for every flush....In other words...stick a brick in the toilets water tank! But obviously make sure it does not interfere with the operating parts!

2. Now a tip for the braver people in the world, the ones who care a little more and have more common sense about their use of resources - Remember the line "If its yellow let it mellow and if its brown flush it down!!" In simple terms, if you do a pee don't waste the water flushing it, instead wait until you have used it a few times before flushing it, over the course of a week you will be amazed at how much water you save! Now the brown part, this is referring to shits...and yes obviously you should go ahead and flush them down straight away, no one wants to see a log in the loo! Even me a crazy environmental chick!

And for all those people who only care about the money in their pocket...if your on a water meter and you start saving water doing these tactics...you will use less water which means...your bills will be smaller!! And you help preserve our water! I've not even considered the energy savings from cleaning and filtering our water that we as a country could make by the reduction in water use if we all did this! That is a whole new board game!

On a final note a little bit more encouragement for water conservation -
Did you know that one flush of your loo uses as much water as some people in parts of Africa and Asia use in a day for washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking?

For more water saving tips see the Water Saving Tips website!

But Think about it

"If it's yellow let it mellow and if it's brown flush it down!!"

Signs Stop Forcing me to Stop!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:21:00 +0000

Today I am going obsess over Stop Signs even though I am fortunate enough to live Europe where they are few and far between. Due to a lot of time spent in the States I have an internal rage against these dam red and white signs that force me to stop even if I can see the road is clear!! The burning anger is not necessarily totally due to the complete inconvenience of having to stop...but also because of the cost to my pocket in having to stop!!

For anyone feeling a little lost, a stop sign is a traffic sign, usually erected at road junctions, that instructs drivers to stop and then to proceed only if the way ahead is clear. Stop signs are used globally but in Europe they tend to be used far more sparingly than in North America. Most European intersections lacking traffic lights are controlled by amazing give way signs or equivalent road markings, or are replaced by roundabouts (which do not force us to stop completely).

Now for anyone from Europe who is not completely understanding the USA stop sign situation - they are EVERYWHERE! They barely have give way signs and roundabouts are a rarity! If you come to a “STOP” sign then your vehicle must come to a complete “STOP” even if the junction is clear and you can see it is clear in every direction without stopping you have to stop! Crazy! Loco! Mental! Dum! Frustrating! arghhh! And to make it worse if you do not bring the vehicle to a complete halt, and some bored pig, sorry - policeman, sees you, you can be convicted for breaking the laws of the road! (apologies for the term pig, I actually highly regard the police and have full respect and gratitude for what they do! - apart form in forcing stop signs...)

I am guessing you are now racking your brain trying to work out why I, an angry environmental chick, am taking the time to care about stop signs?!

If you know anything about fuel consumption, you will know that the most fuel is used when accelerating....harsh acceleration and braking can use up to 30% more fuel... and thus a stop sign.... that forces you to stop (sorry for stating the obvious...some times I need to) and therefore makes you have to accelerate again means a higher fuel consumption, more fossil fuel burning, more carbon emissions...thus more damage to our precious environment! Thus stop signs are costing us money! Oh and time...in having to stop the whole time!

Although I do not condone this action...

I am loving the abuse this sign has taken!

I would love to know some figures for fuel consumption differences due to the abundance of stop signs in the USA and the initiative of give-ways and roundabouts in Europe! (this is obviously ignoring the outrageously sized engines used in the US - talk about Chelsea Tractors!)

For Green Driving Tips check out the Twigs tips!

Oh and on a final note...the curses of stop signs originated in Michigan in 1915! Michigan....ummmm I will be there at Christmas...can I take revenge....Only joking!

Crap Designer's are drinking our beer money!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:14:00 +0000

This one really does shock me. How is it that we, as supposedly intelligent human beings are capable of inventing so many appliances that cost money when we are not using them? Wouldn't an educated engineer design products that wait happily and not suck on power when they are being ignored?

In case you haven't worked it out, I am talking about Standby modes on appliances!

It is estimated that nearly £1billion worth of energy is wasted each year by leaving appliances on standby! That is a serious amount of money, and with our economy in shambles right now, can you imagine how much better we would all feeling it back in our pockets? Guess how many beers that could buy! Well I'm going to help try and make it happen...! Lets save our beer money!

We have established that many appliances use a lot of power when they are on standby, with TVs, stereos and mobile phone chargers being the worst culprits for wasting energy! Great designers, they should be shot! (for legal reasons - I do not mean literally!) Did you know that up to 85% of the power used by a video recorder is consumed on standby!! They are, through their poor designs, wasting our money!

But only because we let them, there is a simple, very basic and very easy solution....turn them off! Don't leave them on standby and then they cost nothing and use no power! Genius!

Is this really that hard to work out? If you leave something on that sucks power...it is going to cost you money? So if it is going to cost you money...why would you leave it on? You might as well rip a hole in the bottom of you jean pockets and let all your change fall out as you walk along! It is an equally intelligent action!

But we are missing one aspect far more painful than damage to your beer money! And that is the impact on the environment! Carbon emissions, green house gases...you know what I'm walking about! It is estimated that stereos alone waste 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year! This wasted energy could power around 400,000 homes!! That is a sickening thought!

The good news, is the Energy Saver remote control which enables you to turn off all your appliances with one green button! Simple, easy, saves you money and helps protect the environment! Brilliant!! It can apparently make an electricity saving of 90% compared to leaving everything on standby, not to mention the reduction in CO2 emissions!

Check out the Energy Saving Trust for more information.

But I have a simple method to save money and the environment which does not involve buying anything! SWITCH IT OFF!!

And for anyone who can not figure out what uses power on standby - if an appliance is even slightly warm...it's sucking your money and spitting it at the environment!

Obesity? Worm your way out! -Eat whatever you want & lose weight!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:32:00 +0000

This time, I am not going to go on about the environment in such a direct way, this ones more on the topic of obesity! But not against it...this is more of a solution! But before I begin, I need to say that this is NOT my idea, and I would never recommend it! However, if people make the decision to do it, then that is their prerogative! And their own risk!

Do you know what a tapeworm is? Or more importantly what a tapeworm infestation is? I will tell you - a tapeworm infestation is the infection of the digestive tract by adult parasitic flatworms called cestodes or tapeworms. Sounds nasty right?

They look nasty too!

Well, to some people on our planet, they see these tapeworms and think...umm...lets eat it...! They see this as the ultimate opportunity to loose weight...yes you heard that correctly! People are eating, or should I say injesting tapeworms as a form of diet! Once inside the human body they secrete proteins in the intestinal tract that make the digestion of food much less efficient. The consequence - a less efficient digestive systems meaning you can self-indulge and consume more calories than before, because your "body's guest" is also munching on the food for its own growth! Yummy! It is estimated that people infected with a single tapeworm can lose up to one or two pounds each week. Thats pretty impressive!

By the way, a tapeworm can decide to vacate at any time...

This 1-2 pounds has nothing to do with getting off your ass and working out, or restricting your voracity and eating less - in fact you can eat total crap, McDonalds, Subway, Mars bars, pizza, chips or what ever you fancy and you will still loose weight! To be honest it sounds like the laziest greediest method of weight loss I have ever heard! It is pretty much a virtual dieter's dream: eat whatever you want and lose weight! Some would say it is the ultimate diet....weight loss is guaranteed!

But lets think about this from the view of our food consumption. Can you imagine what would happen if every fat person on the planet got a tapeworm infestation and (if actually possible) started consuming more calories than they already do? How would we as a global population fuel this quantity of food? The land to produce it, the fuel to transport it, the packaging to maintain it, the electricity to display it, the cost to buy it, the waste to dispose of it? I makes me shudder to even think about it! The environmental implications of such a diet are unimaginable, I, to be honest, do not care much for the people who choose this tactic to weight loss as it is there body not mine, and I choose to look after my body (after all without my body, I would have no home). But the environment, it does not have a chance to protect itself, we, the human population are pushing it to the extremes and actions like this, however insignificantly small they may seem, they make a difference!

Back to the worms, there is another thing. I am sure most people have seen some kind of clip from "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here" when they have to eat some crazy looking creatures...how many people would feel comfortable in-jesting a tapeworm?

And, what if you brought the wrong breed of tapeworm of the illegal market? Some tapeworms can be downright lethal! If you get the beef tapeworm, you can simply take a dose of antibiotics to clear up the infestation, but what if you get it wrong and end up with the pork tapeworm? It can be deadly! Your dealing with an illegal product, that you can not legally buy or import, if you get 'worm wriggled' over by some smug dealer there will be no chance of an easy court case suing for compensation!

One more point of warning to anyone contemplating this insane diet...or death route...once you get rid of your little friend, make sure you adjust your diet to only feed yourself and not the little parasite...or you will end up rapidly gaining weight!

So, it is pretty clear that voluntarily ingesting a tapeworm to lose weight is legally a difficult thing to pull off, not to mention dangerous! I stick to my point in a previous StripTease, your safer and less uncomfortable way to shed some pounds is heeding the advice of science and research - Consume less calories and stay active! aka only eat what you body needs!

You wouldn’t gift wrap cancer so don’t puff it at others!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:46:00 +0000

So apparently, according to a few off my readers I have been progressively getting more and more angry in my StripTeases…well this one is not going to disappoint you!! Today I am going to write continual abuse against the selfish, self centered, respect less, idiots out there who inflict their second hand smoke on others. The fact that they are dumb enough to smoke in the first place and damage their bodies is irrelevant, they can do what they like, BUT when they force their dirty disgusting habits on other individuals who have made the intelligent and healthy decision not to smoke…that makes me MAD!!

Of the more than 4,000 chemicals that have been identified in secondhand tobacco smoke, at least 250 are known to be harmful, and 50 of these are actually known to cause cancer! For those who are skeptics of this - approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths occur each year among adult nonsmokers in the US as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke!

In case you were wondering, there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke! Even low levels are harmful! It is even estimated that living with a smoker increases a nonsmoker’s chances of developing heart disease and lung cancer by 20%-30%!! Non-smokers who breathe in secondhand smoke take in nicotine and other toxic chemicals just like nasty smokers do!

So you selfish smokers are giving people cancer! I bet you wouldn’t have the bollocks to give it to them cancer if you had to wrap it in a box on their birthday?!

You do not need to be a genius to work this one out - the only way to fully protect non-smokers from exposure to secondhand smoke is to prevent all smoking indoors! In case you didn’t quite get that, I will simplify it - separating smokers from non-smokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot keep non-smokers from being exposed to secondhand smoke! Just be a reasonable human and don’t smoke inside! If you want to be dirty and smelly, go outside!!

I will keep this one short and end with one final note –

If you insist on participating in such an anti-social unhealthy, smelly, damaging (to both health and the environment – see previous blog) and plainly disgusting habit of smoking – then don’t do it around us!

For facts on Smoking see The Useful Cigarette!

Mans Best Friend more Dangerous than an SUV...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:25:00 +0000

I am guessing you might be starting to think my StripTeases are a little wacky? Well...they are about to get a whole lot worse! I just fell upon some insane news, to be honest, it shocked me, and I have to say it really did sadden me too!

I love my dog, I feel my life, is partly, a little more complete as the result of having a dog, and I am sure many of you are sat there reading this thinking similar thoughts about your pooch (or beast - sorry guys)!

You can now join me in distress! Your dog is more damaging to the environment that an SUV…!!! What I hear you cry? Let my elaborate…

New Scientist recently published research, by two sustainable-living researchers from New Zealand, showing their conclusions based on the resources required to feed our hungry pets!

So apparently it takes slightly more than 2 acres of land to produce the roughly 360 pounds of meat and 210 pounds of grain that a medium sized dog consumes each year!

How does this link to an SUV I hear you say? Again, apparently, in contrast, less than half that amount of land is required to produce the energy to power an SUV that’s driven about 10,000 miles a year.

I say ‘apparently’ not because I do not believe it, I believe the concept of the research, no one can dispute that, it’s the exact figures that I am pondering over! But either way, our dogs are definitely making an impact!

Oh, and by the way, they based their research on a medium-sized dog – so for anyone with a large dog… (I will let you do the thinking!)

By the way, when I say food miles, I mean the distance the dogs

food had to travel...not how far the dog walks with its food..

I just liked the picture!!

There is one more thing – these calculations do not even take into account your dogs food miles! OR all the other animals we own!

Take a moment now and look at your dog’s food, where is it from?? Post a comment with your answer and any thoughts you have!

Tea Bagging 165 Million a Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:19:00 +0000

I woke up this morning, as I do every morning…and I made myself a lovely hot cup of English tea! Ummmm taking that first sip, feeling the warmth run down through my body and into my core! Such a satisfying moment, one I like to relive numerous times during the day! As a student working away in my little den (aka bedroom) the adventure of making my way to the kitchen and flicking the kettle on, popping my tea bag into my big, in fact giant is a better word, my giant mug! Yes, I am easily pleased, but back to the point, making a cuppa is a great excuse for a break from the books!

Note - this is not my mug...but I am sure I would

quite possibly enjoy my tea more if it was!

This leads me to wonder - how many cups of tea do I and do we as a nation consume? It must be a staggering number! I know I must have at least 4 cups a day!

My investigations began - and to my discovery 80% of Britons drink tea! That is a staggeringly high figure! I having travelled a lot I can confirm that our British tea drinking habits are a huge stereotype across the globe but don’t forget to have your scone with it!

I am also pleased to read I am not alone in my 4 cup a day habits – the UK is the largest per-capita consumer of tea!! Averaging about 3.5 to 4.0 cups per day! I'm not really sure how one drinks half a cup of tea…kind of seems like a waste of a yummy beverage to me! But did you know 3 cups of tea a day helps stop heart attacks and strokes in girls (sorry guys tea can not help you - and if you don't believe me see the Daily Mail)

A great little fact - 80% of office workers claim they find out more about what's going on at work over a cup of tea than in any other way! Everyone has too love a little gossip over a cupa! (for more facts see UK Tea Council)

No doubt you are wishing I could just talk about my love for tea…but I am afraid I can not help myself! I simply have to work out the waste created by tea bags! The UK drinks 165 million cups per day that is 62 billion cups per year! That is a serious amount of tea bags, which for years, the majority, will have all ended up in landfill! Note, that thought really does sadden me! Think of the compost value in a little tea bag when multiplied by 62 billion!

You will understand my excitement when councils across the country introduced compost bins!! (to find out about compost bins in your area check out the Recycle Now website)

I am not going to have a big rant about tea bags, but sometimes I wonder how many tea bags we could save if a bag could be used multiple times and still get the same great taste!?

For anyone unsure of the English tea culture and wanting to know how to make the Perfect Cup of Tea - Check out the BBC’s How to article!

So the National Grid has to forecast electricity demand every minute of every day of every week, second-guessing what millions of people will be doing at any moment in time! Bearing this in mind, can you imagine having the job of predicting what us irrational beings are planning? Well the good news is that TV helps the unfortunate soles who work day and night predicting our energy consumption!

Think about the number of people who are sit watching Saturday nights X-Factor, or an episode of Eastenders? Now think about what a very large majority of them do when the commercial break comes on?

You guessed it, flick the kettle switch, and make a cuppa!

This creates an almost instant increase in energy demand, called a “TV pick up”! Staggeringly this can be as high as 10% more than existing demand. The popularity of a some programs, combined with the country’s legendary tea-drinking habits and the use of electric kettles make TV pick-ups a uniquely British phenomenon!

I have another quirky little fact for you - the biggest ever TV pick-up during the 1990 World Cup! After England’s semi-final against West Germany, following an edge-of-the-seat penalty shoot-out, demand soared by 2,800 megawatts. This is the equivalent of more than a million kettles being switched on, providing enough hot water for 3 million cups of tea!!! Now that’s what I call boiling!

Did you realise that kettles are one of the most used appliances in the kitchen? The average UK family brews their kettle around 4 times a day, with a totally of around 1500 a year!!

I have to say my view of kettles is pretty dire, but with no realistic alternative there is not much we can do other than opt for the newer kettles, which do make vast improvements! Generally though, kettles seem to sum up a shameful approach to energy – they usually boil way more water than we actually need and the worse part is the insulation. You are now wondering what insulation I am talking about? You are right, most kettles do not normally have any, which means when you pop the kettle on, and get distracted, you come back to find the water tepid…not cuppa-tea material. So…you boil it again…using even more energy! Brilliant! We really have got a great system…

I am now going to do my save the environment part because every little counts!! If every household in the UK used an Energy Saving Recommended kettle that uses about 20% less electricity, we would save around £170 million of electricity a year!!

Additionally, if people also only boiled the water they needed, as a nation we could save enough power to light our streetlights for around 7 months!! It is crazy what we can do it we all put our heads together!

I will leave you on the note…I think I need a brew!

Shot with explosive harpoons that explode inside the body - In the name of research?

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Another controversial topic…but only to those nations naïve enough to honestly believe they are not in the wrong!

Lets talk about whales, you know the huge graceful creatures that inhabit our oceans? They once numbered 275,000 in the world but now, there are less than 50,000 of them still alive! Do you know why? Because idiots hunt them down, shoot them with exploding harpoons that burst inside their flesh… oh and the best bit they claim that killing 1500-2000 whales a year is Research?!? Having worked at a Marine Biology Research Center in The Bahamas (The Cape Eleuthera Institute) (note -I am not a scientist, I did marketing!) I know for sure that there can be no 'scientific' justification for this level of whaling, you do not need to kill a sample size that catastrophically large to get statistically significant results! In 2004, 1693 whales were killed by International Whaling Commission member nations… all in the name of research… this puts the real scientists of the world to shame!

The Japanese invented the concept of 'scientific' whaling in 1987 as a way round the moratorium on commercial whaling instituted by the International Whaling Commission. Don't be fooled by the terminology. It is not research, it is commercial whaling! Nobody needs 500 whales, most from the same species (minke), and from the same feeding ground, to "research" anything of importance.

In truth, their research is not really research. It is merely an excuse for supplying whale meat on the Japanese market! Thankful though, this market is slowly dying, but at a much slower rate than the rate at which the whales are dying!

To further the insanity, Greenpeace activists revealed that around 200 tones of meat and blubber from endangered fin whales are still in storage, waiting to be tested for chemical contamination and a further 179 tones of bones and entrails have been dumped in a landfill site… because the market is dying, but still they are tracking, hunting and killing more and more whales for research. Australia and many other countries use non-lethal data collection techniques, such as "knicking" the skin of a whale for biopsy samples to determine DNA and toxin levels. Analysis of faeces is the next most accurate ways of determining the animals' diet without killing it… Also, tagging whales with data sensors and tracking their movements tell us much more about their behavior and life patterns than any forensic data could provide… but the Japanese don’t want to know!

The devastating truth of the justifications the Japanese have come up with! (your going to love this) One of the justifications they cite to justify there murderous hunts is that “whales eat too many fish” and must be controlled as part of marine ecosystem management… Possibly one of the craziest things I’ve heard!! Many whales don’t even eat fish!! They eat krill. Of the thousands of whales cut open between 1987 and 2005 (in the name of research…), the overwhelming majority did not have a single fish in their stomachs! As you can see their research… is pretty degrading to scientists!

The data on what the whales eat is perverted to help their propaganda campaign, which argues that whales eat too much commercially important fish, and that we should cull the population to save our fisheries. They even selectively release data on certain species, while ignoring data on others just so they can print a pretty picture to protect this industry! As you can see by the photos, there is nothing pretty about what they are going!

Now something that makes me even more mad - Japanese whalers have admitted almost all of the mature female minke whales they killed in Antarctic waters last season were pregnant… so not only are they killing the whales they are also stopping the next generations of whales from even being born! By the way, they say this fact with great pride… remember they ‘think’ they are helping save our fish populations!!

I briefly mentioned how these beautiful creatures are killed, but I think you deserve some more details, and a video (see below)! They use explosive harpoons that puncture the skin and then explode inside the body, bowing the whale’s insides to pieces seconds after impact! The whales can then take minutes or several hours of suffering before it dies often by bleeding to death. Even then they may have to be shot many times using shotguns, before they finally die.

Worldwide populations of whales are becoming increasingly vulnerable to extinction! Thankfully there are people out their devoting their lives to protect our whales! For more information on their actions and ways to support them see their website Sea Shepherd, and for information of Japanese Whaling see Wikipedia.

Now, check out this video of whaling... it is not pleasant viewing!

100 years and it's still where you chucked it!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:57:00 +0000

I went to a huge bonfire and fireworks party on Saturday night, it was fantastic. But something really bugged me! Littering! Why? What possesses people to just chuck their 'crud' on the floor? Would they do that in their own home? I hope not… so why would people do it elsewhere?

So I was walking along and unfortunately overheard some idiot woman’s conversation (I say unfortunately because it really made me and angry and to be honest I still am angry now!!)!!!

Her exact words as she stood in the middle of the public common surrounded by hundreds of people all gathered for the show -

“I presume we just dump rubbish on the floor?!?”

I am guessing your now wondering what my response was… I am not exactly a quite one with my opinions… so my reaction -

“No you tramp, you find a bin!!!”

I will accept that maybe my words were a little harsh, and in all honestly I was not talking directly to her… rather speaking loudly to my friends in a method that I knew she would hear… you know the type, the indirect reply! Yes… I am a little harsh, but sometimes in life you just need to be!

My main frustration was the fact she honestly thought the ground was the answer to her rubbish needs… is it really so hard to educate people to understand what a bin is? After all, dogs are trained to shit outside, cats are trained to relieve themselves in their litter tray and even donkeys poo in the same place! Yes this is a different topic, but is pooing so different to dropping trash? At the end of the day, poo biodegrades a hell of a lot faster than any litter will! So technically litter is worse!

Anyway, I was good and I did not become confrontational, I continued on with my journey and I did not stop to make a scene but I did count the bins from then forth… lets just say there were a lot!

For educational purposes...this is what a rubbish bin,

trash can or litter bin looks like!
Please dispose of rubbish in litter bin!!
See it's easy!!

Before we talk about the environmental damages of littering, did you know it is a criminal offence? You can be fined up to £2,500, with the average fine of around £90, plus court costs! And all for being lazy and not putting it in the bin! Why?!?

Environmentally, it is insane how long it takes for some substances to break down! Did you realize that it is pretty much an indefinite amount of time for plastic bottles to break down!? How about aluminim cans? 80-100 years!! Glass? Indefinitely! (Unless broke down into a sand like substance by the forces of the sea) Tin cans? 50 years!!

How long do you think for that oh so harmless tin can? 50 years!! It is truly amazing how long it takes for our nasty man made substances to break down! Even a banana skin takes 2 years! Any type of litter takes a long time to disappear naturally, so whatever the material the right thing to do is not to drop it in the first place!!

Right, to all you skanky smokers out there who think it is fine to flick your cigarette butt's on the floor, have you ever thought how long they take to degrade?! Did you realise that around 122 tonnes of cigarette butts and cigarette related litter is dropped every DAY across the UK!! A random crazy fact about this - around 7 billion cigarette butts are littered in Australia each year and if laid end to end, the line of butts would circle the earth 4.4 times!! Ew!!!

How long do you think it takes for a single butt to break down? It takes up to 2 long painful years to break down! Yet another reason why smoking sucks!! And to make it worse, statistics show that cigarette butts are the most littered item, constituting more than 50% of all litter in the UK!

Why is it that cigarette butts seem to be considered a non littering substance, one that is OK to just fling to the ground? Someone please tell me? People need reeducating!

If we think beyond the time scale for rubbish to degrading we can see that there are further implications for littering! Litter harms animals, who mistake it for food, or get caught up in it, injured or even strangled by it!

Many dolphins think bags are for playing with, some dolphins even think they are jelly fish. But the horrible truth is, these bags just end up killing them!

Even the cost of cleaning up littering is embarrassing to the human race! Just think if the national cost of around £370 million a year that is spend to remove litter from our streets, waterways and open spaces was used on something else, say health care or improving our transport infrastructure…you can not deny that we would be better of as a nation! The jobs employing street cleaners could be implemented elsewhere and as a nation we would be better off!

Another thing, linking to one of my previous StripTeases, all the trash that is thrown on the ground also escapes the chance of ever being recycled and returned into the supply chain of society…yet more negative effects of the slobbish behaviour of littering!

My plea, Don’t be a Skank - Don’t Litter!!

(for more facts click here)

Glass thrown at a horse?

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:29:00 +0000

I was casually driving into central London last week, peacefully humming along with my music… ok I’ll stop the scene setting and get to the point! I came across two of the biggest, boldest, and bravest horses I have ever seen! It was rush hour: cars, taxis, buses, motorbikes, high-pitched mopeds, cyclists, pedestrians, dogs, and generally animal like Londoners were everywhere… and there, right in the middle of this hustle and bustle where two horses. They were not even batting an eye lid at the car horns, swerving maniacs and hectic environment… they just took it all in their stride and paced on in their gallant duties fully trusting their riders!

You will probably not be surprised to learn that mounted police have been around since 1760 when they first appeared to stop the plague of robbing highwaymen! But did you know that these patrols use to be seen as so dangerous that the officers carried a revolver and sword? That’s awesome!

Today mounted police are a force not to be messed with! With a strength of over 120 horses in London alone, these horses are trained for business! They know how to body barge crowds, withstand flying bottles and raging citizens, they have the patience to stand on patrol for 4 hours or more, and have the sheer size to make even the meanest thug quiver in his adidas trainers! These horses will withstand almost anything at the command of their masters, what other creature the size of a horse has such loyalty? It really is an incredible role taken on my these beasts!

So how is it that such a peaceful, graceful animal can be trained and placed in such dangerous situations as riots? It really does blow my mind to see how committed they are to perform their duties! In my eyes they are more loyal than any human equivalent especially when you bare in mind that they do not understand why people are attacking them!

Take a recent football match in Millwall. Our country's lovely footy fans ended the match with bottles and glasses being thrown at police horses. A police horse was inevitably injured by glass! But sure as hell, that horse stood his ground and stayed strong!! Forever faithful to the command of his rider!

Another story making the Herald news about police horses, saw a woman arrested after her out of control dog attacked patrolling police horses in Harlow. The horses bolted…one with the dog still attached! (that must have been an interesting sight) The dog did some serious damage to the horses, one horse will be off duty for at least five days from severe wounds while the other has had to have stitches!!

Amazingly I am not having a rant in this StripTease… but anyone who has it in them to attack a police horse is a sick sick human being! If you do not believe me about how brave and perfectly trained these horses are then check out this clip from the Metropolitan Police Activity ride! Breath taking precision!

Now have a look at this second video, it just shows how unbelievable horses really are, and what they will tolerate for their trusted rider! This is from a bullfight, where horses are trained to lean into the force of a charging bull! Incredible!! Before the horses started to wear the armour there were many horse fatalities in most bull fights! By the way...a charging bull has a lot more power and force behind it than a horse!

On a final note, just incase anyones wondering...Lets get onto the pooy part! What happens to the shit on a 4 hour patrol? OK so maybe their dung didn’t even cross your mind…but I will tell you anyway! It is left on the road…What’s the difference between horse and dog poo?? It turns out that horse excrement is classified as biodegradable waste but dog crap is toxic and contains bacteria, which are harmful to humans. Horse poop contains no transferable diseases so it is left on the road..it does makes sense if you think about what they eat…Grass!

On that dropping I will let you get on!

Gobbing Up the Swine

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:40:00 +0000

This StripTease is about another one of those random articles that seemed to motionlessly jump out of the page and slap me around the face! Rather graphic I know, but then again so is the sight of someone spitting their skanky green phlegm on the pavement as they walk by… ok so I don’t know for sure that it is green, I’ve never actually stopped to look at the colour, but colour aside, either way its gross!

So why is it that so many people have lost their ability to swallow? In a nation facing an obesity epidemic, I find it very, very hard to believe that people have forgotten the motion of gulping! Yet is seems to me that people have switched to spreading their spit all over the sidewalk in a manner that even I am ashamed of! Goodness knows how my poor grandmother feels at the sight of some nasty looking thug ejecting saliva from his oral cavity!

Have you ever sat trying to watch a football match but found your attention constantly being pulled away from the ball? (I said ball, NOT balls…you sicko!) Your attention is being grabbed by the continuing action made by the players spitting on the pitch? It is repulsive right?!

Right, back to the article that hit me in the face when I least expected it! Entitled “Spitting Footballers Raise Swine Flu Risk”! It seems that I am not the only person seeing the dark side of this disgusting habit that is spreading throughout the nation. Footballers have been told to stop spitting on the pitch because it increases the risk of spreading swine flu!

The Telegraph did not actually say anything about how gross the actual practice of ‘gobbing’ is but the equivalent article on the BBC website included words from the Health Protection Agency, "Spitting is disgusting at all times. It's unhygienic and unhealthy, particularly if you spit close to other people". They then went on to say something more in line with my opinion warning footballers against spitting for the reason that the nation looks up to footballers as role models… results from The Children’s Society show 55% of those asked say David Beckham is a good role model… cough laugh cough

So back to spitting, and we can assume that if it appears to be OK for David to spit then surely it is OK for everyone else to spit? Well let me say - I very strongly disagree, and this article makes me very happy!

It appears that these yobs now have a consequence to their spitting actions, they get SICK!! Brilliant!!

1 billion pounds for bottled water?!? - the drip down

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:15:00 +0000

Let us start with a simple question – if you could get something 10,000 times cheaper than elsewhere, would you? How about if it was better quality and that much cheaper to buy? You are probably now thinking… who is this Vanessa Procter and why is she asking me questions with such obvious answers, of course I would buy it! So let me elaborate.

Globally, we consumed 154 billion liters (41 billion gallons) of bottled water in 2005, which is a 57% increase in volume since 5 years earlier. Please bear in mind that it costs 240 to 10,000 times more to buy bottled water as opposed tap water. For the price of one bottle of Evian, a San Franciscan can receive 1,000 gallons of tap water. What is more crazy is the demand for bottled water, which you have to pay for, is even increasing in areas where tap water is safe to drink! Talk about bottling your money away!

Ok, so now your wondering why I am taking the time to write about this… who cares if people want to throw their money away on expensive bottled water!! But I care! Because I care about the environment! Bottled water produces unnecessary rubbish, which ends up in landfill - only about 20% of the plastic bottles are recycled... this is a different GUR that I will not address right now!! Bottles also use vast quantities of energy and fossil fuels in production, distribution, and disposal. If you think about it, in developed worlds we have already established advanced water infrastructures with taxpayers' money... so why are people opting to pay again?

It is important for my to acknowledge that in many parts of the world, tap water is not available nor safe to drink - I am not going against the justification on drinking bottled water in these areas! In these regions, the failure of governments to provide basic water services has opened the door to private companies and vendors filling a critical need, albeit at a very high cost to consumers. But what if the money spend on bottled water went towards creating an tap water network....?

So how about developed countries, why do we opt to pay for expensive water housed in environmentally damaging bottles?

Possibly it is because we think bottled water is cleaner and somehow better than tap water, but that is not true! In reality the standards for tap water are higher than those for bottled water, in fact our tap water is tested more than 100,000 times to ensure that it meets or exceeds every standard for safe drinking water! And let me add - in some places, few or no standards are imposed on bottled water. And yet we still buy outrageously priced bottled water. Why? Did you know that 40% of bottled water should be labeled bottled tap water because that is exactly what it is… brilliant! But even that doesn't dampen the demand! Crazy!

So what is the true cost of bottled water? Most of the price of a bottle of water goes for its bottling, packaging, shipping, marketing, retailing and profit. Another factor is – where does bottled water water come from? These water extraction plants have huge implications for the surrounding eco-systems. Environmentally, transporting bottled water by boat, truck and train involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels! Just supplying Americans with plastic water bottles for one year consumes more than 47 million gallons of oil. To put that in perspective, that is enough to take 100,000 cars off the road and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere!! All for something that comes out of our taps for a margin of the cost! Ridiculous!

We can safely say that it is clear that bottled water directly adds to environmental degradation, global warming and a large amount of unnecessary waste and litter!

I will end with the words of Mike Quigley the Cook County Commissioner, USA, "It is devastating to the environment. We're contributing to global warming and we're also forcing a far greater dependence on foreign oil.   In fact, crude oil is used to make the plastic for the bottles, and to transport them to the store adds up to 1 1/2 million barrels each year!"

1 million pounds of carbon!! Gur, I will say no more!!

The Shining Ass that Delayed 23 Trains

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Now this article jumped out at my like a shining ass does on a sunny day! Ok, I will try and portray this in a serious light... but be warned I may well fail! So a German was thrown off a train after failing to present his ticket (yes the story sounds pretty lame so far, but 'bare' with me, a lot more will be 'exposed' in due course - this is the scene setting)

It was a 22-year old student from Germany who after trying to travel with no ticket and consequently caught out, was removed from the train. When leaving the train he decided to take is anger out via his backside... and proceeded to moon the train!

But unfortunately for him the sun did not shine out of his ass for long... while pushing his bare butt against the window he had somehow managed to get his trousers stuck in the train door! And I am sure you can imagine what happened when the train began to pull away from the platform...

Yup, you guessed it, he got dragged half naked down the station! Must have been a sight for sore eyes!

It gets better - he was not only dragged along the platform, but he was also dragged out of the station and onto the tracks... all with his bare bum exposed! He managed to get dragged 200 meters while somehow keeping his legs away from the low-slung double decker trains wheels!

Fortunately for him a passenger pulled the emergency brake, ending the mooning and he escaped with cuts and bruises! The student is now facing charges of dangerous interference in rail transport, insult on the train staff, and may also face compensation claims for the delays he butt caused to 23 trains!

Choking Us 10million Light's at a Time

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:58:00 +0000

I feel the need to set the scene before I release my frustration on this one, so bare with me!

According to the United States Department of Agriculture there were 5.608 trillion cigarettes manufactured in 2008, and my guess is that they were all smoked that year! Do not even try and tell me that that is not insane! That's nearly 1,000 cigarettes for every man, woman, and child on this planet!

I will kindly save you all the boredom of the maths, but it works out at that per minute about 10,669,710, so just over 10 million are being smoked! As a non-smoker I am taking the word of the world wide web in the fact that it takes longer than one minute to smoke a single cigarette, so that means that there must be a minimum of 10 million lit cigarettes in the world at any one time….GUR that's crazy!

Oh, and if you do not believe me about the 1,000 per child part - How old do you think the youngest smoker in the world is? Well, I will tell you, two-years-old!! I hope you guessed wrong, I know I did! Tong Liangliang was taught how to smoke by his dad (obviously a great dad..!) at the age of two and he now smokes a pack a day and even throws tantrums when he doesn't get his fix! (For more info visit the Daily Mail)

So let us now think about the environmental damage of smoking a cigarette. Research I have found shows a single cigarette creates between 5-10 grams of carbon; let's say 5 grams for ease of calculation. We have established an estimated 10 million cigarettes are smoked a minute across the world – let us do the maths – that's 50 tonnes a minute equalling 72,000 tonnes of carbon a day! All from cigarettes that cost the smoker money while creating health problems (treating smokers costs the NHS in England £2.7bn a year - BBC, 2008) plus making them smelly, yellow and aged! I will not list the vast array of negative impacts that smoking causes, but I will add one you might find interesting - 25% of residential fire deaths are down to smoking!

Right back to my point - That means that in a year –
smokers are creating an estimated 26,280,000 tonnes of carbon!
Now that is what I call choking us one light at a time!

I am sure I will get some sceptics of my figures and numbers; I would love to hear from you! But just in case anyone is thinking "this is B*** S***" for other reasons… such as my exclusions of the need to take into consideration the emissions from the world's annual cigarette production, the heat of cremation of the dead bodies, the burials, the CO2 savings due to shortened life spans and CO2 costs for hospital treatments, and finally make an adjustment for the landfill of cigarettes… then maybe it would be a true figure… my response to that… I might appear to have time on my hands… but honestly that's insane!

I'll end on a closing note of a comical new anti smoking campaign from Onion – let's hope it works before we all choke!

New Anti-Smoking Ads Warn Teens 'It's Gay To Smoke'

Every Little Counts!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:07:00 +0000

I have just read a fascinating article… if fascinating is the right word… possibly faece-nating would be more fitting! With the world facing climate change like a fly hitting a freight train, the Japanese Airline ANA is trying to do its bit to cut their emissions. For a four week period they are, with the use of 'loo monitors', forcing passengers to empty their bladders before they board the aircraft.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you… you really did just read that they are making people pee before they fly! The airline's chiefs say that empty bladders mean lighter passengers, so their fleet of aircraft will save fuel and reduce their carbon emissions. This is their latest attempt to cut carbon emissions! Sounds like a plan to me! You have to give it to them for trying – every little helps – and after all flying is the fastest-growing source of carbon dioxide emissions, and accounts for a whopping 600 million tons of greenhouse gas each year. (View the Pee before you fly policy of Japanese airline on Metro) or (For more information and another persons view on this visit Globalisation and the Environment)

Closing thought - "There are generations yet unborn, whose very lives will be shifted and shaped by the moves you make and the actions you take." -- Andy Andrews

So I guess what I am trying to say is - PEE BEFORE YOU FLY...

GUR enough Fluff, let’s Strip to My Real Frustration!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:09:00 +0000

So the school has admitted to "breaching health and safety regulations" BUT…

I feel I must now add some more information - the girl "had been told by her teacher to put her hands into clay to make a mould." Note this says CLAY not plaster. "She was then supposed to pour the liquid plaster into the clay mould." It continues, "Instead she put her hands up to the wrist into the bucket of plaster."

Which means, she was meant to make a mould of her hands in clay, and then use the plaster and thus was not told to put her hands in plaster.

I fully understand quite how young she is. At 16, maybe young people have the desire to insert their hands into substances that will set rock hard. Maybe she took a liking to the plaster and wanted to have it permanently attached to her arms for fashion reasons…being 23 I am far past knowing what is 'hip' to 16 year olds!

But in truth, my frustration goes far beyond this case. My annoyance is of the culture of suing, trying to blame others for your actions, transferring liability, taking the consequences away from one's own actions! I can list endless cases, but here are 3 of many that jumped out at me as crazy -

Woman who says she cannot find a job is suing the college where she obtained a bachelor's degree (ever thought that maybe… shes just rubbish…)
Woman sues zoo over splashing dolphins
An Italian man from Parma sues demanding £140,000 in compensation after claiming his wife's constant nagging left him impotent (don't even get me started on this one)

These three cases all represent millions of others which really, to me, show desperate times. Times when people can make financial gains from incidents that really, to me, should never have made it past a passing comment, let alone lawyers and court.

How has our justice system evolved into one where a woman who chose to visit the zoo, and chose to stand close to the dolphins, can be rewarded compensation for a little splash of water? Water doesn't exactly hurt! There were clear signs warning of the slippery when wet floor. And now as a result, no doubt that zoo will have to change its regulations; which will most probably result in a future where excited little kids and fascinated visitors are shut far away from the playful dolphins for fear that a splash could cost the Chicago-area zoo thousands! (For more information and another persons view on this case please visit TVSnarks blog)

So, the main GUR of my previous "Man Up" StripTease was the culture of suing! Do I need to continue? Please comment and let me know how you feel on this topic!

Man Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:15:00 +0000

What sort of a world are we living in? Having just flicked through The Times, I could run of a long exhausting list… but I am certain that all you readers would be sound asleep by the end, that’s if you even make it to the end!

So I’ll focus on one story that took my fancy or should I say frustration.

Right, back to the kind of world we live in – it is one where a girl can be stupid enough to stick her hands wrist deep in a bucket of plaster and walk away with £19,000 compensation!!! Now to me that is insane… Let us take a moment to think about this… I can make the choice to put My hands in a bucket of burning plaster AND I can sue someone else for liability even though I was the one who put my hands in the bucket in the first place? Just in case you were wondering, (as I did, which unfortunately meant I had to read to the end of the article) there was NO mention of a close range shotgun being held to her head thus forcing her to insert her hands into boiling plaster... She made the decision herself!

OK… so she did walk away with 2 out of 10 fingers (that’s a 80% removal of her finger/thumb appendages by the way), but at the end of the day it was her choice! And I’m sure the £19,000 softened the blow (minus £2,500 that went on costs for anyone judging my figures). To me that is a pretty good result, on her behalf, for an afternoon’s art class!
Back to my GUR! (for anyone who does not know me… when I say gur imagine me growling like a dog or more realistically a giant wild bear!!)

Stories like this really do rattle my cage! When someone sues for liability because they have been injured or affected by their Own actions…why can’t they just man up and take the consequences of their actions!

One thing remains to be said once the fluff is stripped of “You've made your bed now lie in!”
(Note: This expression is commonly used as a response to people who have been complaining about problems they have brought on themselves.)

Check out my StripTease

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:32:00 +0000

So... I have been a little quiet since I started this blog...ok yes I have been rather silent - not even a squeak! And for those of you who know me that might have come as a surprise!

But, fortunately, a new era has now been turned! As of today I will (even if I have to tie myself to the key board with rope and good old duct tap) be blogging! I am however, not convinced I like the terminology of 'blogging'...it kind of reminds me of...the bog... and some rather uncomfortable connotations which would probably be a little personal for my second 'blog' - so that will remain unsaid.

Now you are probably wondering what I could possible write about that would entice you to follow my 'blog' actions? Currently, I can not say as I am querying the same thoughts! But give me time, keep reading and time will tell what topics appear.

But!!!

Be warned!! With the nature of my opinions and views on current affairs the topics maybe be offensive to some (consider this my disclaimer). If I cause offence--Awesome!!--make a comment and we can start a hot debate and work out the further angles that I have missed or intentionally ignored! It will be fun!

I am going to close this 'blog' by renaming it... if I use the current name 'blog' I will continually think of the toilet when I write... not so nice! So....

I hereby rename my blog - StripTease!

"Obespopulation"

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa Procter) — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:29:00 +0000

Globally, over the last 20 years there have been significant increases in obesity rates. The macro trend of obesity prevalence rates in adults has increased by three to four fold since the 1980s. That is a fat nation!

A Government Report has projected that by 2050, 60% of the population could be obese if current trends persist. Are you part of this 'obespopulation', are you children Fat? 17.5% of parents do not recognise obesity in with children? Surely they can see that they are fat...that flabby wobbly bit...that's called FAT!!

With an obesity epidemic facing the UK what are we, the nation, going to do about it? Are we going to continue to greedily feed our fat faces while docilely sitting on our back sides? And do not even try and talk to me about some people having genetic problems...if you eat more calories than you burn...your going to get fat...and if you eat less...then you will not get fat! Simple! Oh and if you still want to argue...try to find a random fat person in a starving African village...oh you cant find one?? Well that is because its just another excuse that people use to put the blame away from themselves!

Is obesity really another form or suicide? Are we as a nation slowly creating an attractive destiny of greed and laziness? I have nothing against fat people apart from they fact they are fat...but it does not make me treat them differently, abuse them or look down at them! As a fit and health young woman who has never been on a diet...I would always help if a fat ass wanted my advice to shed the pounds(/tonnes)! To me the key is making the life style decision to make sure you make the time to be active! Simple, and as a result I can eat what I like!

How can we form a mechanism to halt this 'outward' spiralling trend? The NHS is footing the bill (even trying to pay people to shed the weight - with our tax money!)! We are taking the discomfort on as a nation...when I say a discomfort...have you ever sat next to a fat person on a long haul flight and found you got the short straw of only half your seat? How about the question of luggage allowance? If I way 10 stone less than a fat person surely its only fair that I get that allowance for my bags? I could go on for hours about this but I will save you the ear ache!

Fat people, please, save your selves before your lard kills you!