Thirty-Four Hot Dogs

Eating competitions. 

We love to see people indulge themselves, gorge themselves on food as a sport. It reminds us that the extra portion we had beyond the norm is nothing when compared to these excesses of gluttony, and so we feel a little better despite the extra calories we've eaten.

There  has been a huge upset in the Coney Island annual 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Competition. 

Sonya Thomas, last year's winner, an out and out favourite is beaten by fellow competitive eater, Miki Sudo, for this year's title.

Miki ate 34 hot dog sausages and buns. 

It's not only the quantity eaten at one sitting that is mind boggling but the time taken to do so, just 10 minutes.

after the main course

I let out my belt a notch

Black Forest gateaux 

Paul Conneally

July 2014

Syria Deal - The Good The Bad And The Ugly

A piece on the US Russian deal to destroy Syria's Chemical weapons ... To read the piece click here:

SYRIA DEAL: THE GOOD THE BAD ANDTHE UGLY

Steve Jobs Waxwork goes on show at Madame Tussauds

An eerily lifelike wax model of the late great Steve Jobs creator of the iPhone and Apple goes on show at Madame Tussauds. It's in Hong Kong to start but is due to go on a world tour. CLICK text to read more at AllVoices.

Morning After Pill Given Out To Children Without Parents Consent

NEW YORK CITY Schools give out Plan B morning after pill to teenage pupils some as young as 14 without telling parents.

Gays Drug Use Seven Times Higher Than Heterosexuals - AllVoices

A new report from the Lesbian and Gay Foundation (LGF) and the University of Central Lancashire, finds that drug use amongst the lesbian and gay community is much higher than in the rest of the popoulation of the UK. 4,000 people were surveyed as part of the research and one in five of the gay community showed signs of drug or alcohol dependency.

Overall drug use in the LGBT was seven times higher than in the rest of the population. The reasons for this seem complex. Dealing with homophobia in a still disrminatory society and the party lifestyle associated with the LGBT community could be factors.

Green On Blue

They call it 'green on blue'. A soldier from a nation state allied to NATO troops turns their gun on on them. 
In Afghanistan it's happening more and more. So much so that the allied troops stop training local men to enter the Afghan security forces. What trust there was between Afghan forces and Nato forces is rapidly breaking down. The aim is to hand over the security of Afghanistan to its own forces by 2014 and withdraw all allied troops. Some, from both sides, say leave now.


checking back
back over his shoulder
autumn grass

Paul Conneally

More on Green on Blue Attacks at Allvoices

A Cut Too Far - Amish Hate Crime Trial

Sam Mullet Snr. and fifteen of his followers are accused of hate crimes. 

They attack and cut off the hair and beards of fellow Amish that they believe have broken God's laws. Amish laws.

Mullet claims that it's his right to punish those that insult God by their behaviour.
Wearing the wrong clothes, watching a movie, using the telephone.

All sixteen are now on trial in Ohio. Guilty verdicts will bring jail sentences. Long ones.

thinking of home
the autumn wind
through her hair

Paul Conneally

Words of Peace - The Pope in Lebanon

Pope Benedict meets up with leaders of Muslim communities in Lebanon.

The meeting, which was arranged months ago, comes at a time when US and other western governments' diplomatic buildings are under attack across the Middle East and beyond.  

Even as the Pontiff speaks in another part of Beirut Western businesses are under attack.

words of peace
a dove with an olive branch
in a cat's mouth

Paul Conneally
2012

Full Story at AllVoices

Winter Shoots

As tensions rise between Iran and the West with sanctions against Iran's oil industry being put in place by the US and European countries, UN nuclear inspectors arrive in Tehran. Their task to check out claims that Iran's nuclear programme is not purely to make energy but nuclear weapons too.

These inspectors, from The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), expect full and open access to Iran's nuclear facilities and lead scientists. They need to confirm Iran's claims that the programme does not include the production of nuclear weapons.


Iranian's appear welcoming of the visit, feel that it will stop once and for all 'rumours' spread by the West and in particular by the US, that its nuclear programme is not only a civilian operation.
Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asgar Soltaniyeh, calls these rumours "enemy plots".

winter shoots
the power of nature
over words

Paul Conneally

Snow Blind

A teenage girl watches in horror as her mother collapses and dies in a ski slope chair lift. Jade Ramsden and her mother, Cheryl Fairbrother, are going up Monetier’s L’Yret at Serre Chevalier, when Cheryl suddenly becomes ill.

Emergency services try to resuscitate the stricken skier but to no avail and she dies before reaching hospital. Cheryl was visiting her daughter Jade working in the French ski resort of Serre Chevalier when the tragedy occurs.

snow blind
nothing but sadness
on this mountain

Paul Conneally

Bone and Blood

Ex boxing champion turned promoter, Ricky Hatton, tells boxer Amir Khan to avoid Floyd Mayweather. Hatton says Khan should put off all thoughts of meeting Mayweather for the foreseeable future.

Hatton believes that Mayweather would be just too good for Khan at present. Khan has made it known that he would like to fight Mayweather as soon as possible. Khan recently caused uproar in the boxing world when he accused the ringside judges of skullduggery after his controversial loss to Lamont Peterson last month.

bone and blood
the boxer looks anxiously
at his towel

Paul Conneally

Vitamin D Could Save Elderly Eyes

Vitamin D supplements could help combat many eye diseases of the elderly according to new research undertaken in the UK. Taking a simple vitamin D supplement was shown to lead to improvements in the sight of mice as quickly as six weeks into treatment.

The vitamin, which also prevents rickets, can combat such diseases as macular degeneration of the eye. Scientists believe that the vitamin could have similar effects on the human eye as it does on the eyes of mice.

Vitamin D deficiency causes a problem with blood flow and scientists believe that this effects the blood flow to the retina at the back of the eye. Better circulation could result in less eye problems.

READ FULL STORY ON ALLVOICES

Epilepsy and Schizophrenia Link Found

A new study seems to show a link between epilepsy and schizophrenia. The report by research teams in Taiwan states that people with schizophrenia are six times more likely to also have epilepsy than the rest of the population.

Read Full story here:
Link Between Epilepsy and Schizophrenia Found

A Taste of Singapore In New York

SEE FULL REPORT AT :
New York Licks Lips Over Singapore Takeout

New Yorkers love their food and this weekend some of the lucky ones got a taste of Singapore on their own own block. The travelling pop-up kitchen Singapore Takeout set up in the Big Apple offering tempting Singaporean cuisine to New York folk.

Visitors to the kitchen could sample classic food from Singapore including pork buns, laksa, short ribs buah keluak. The dishes were all cooked up by Malcolm Lee, top chef from Candlenut Kitchen who specialises in Peranakan food.

The food drew interest from some of New York's top chefs including Anthony Ricco, Dominique Ansel and even Ed Cotton. Ed Cotton might down the line feature Singaporean dishes on his TV show Top Chef. Ed Cotton said:

"I was able to spend a fair amount of time in Singapore and learning about the actual foods and the culture and everything. One of my chief favourite dishes is chilli crab, along with this noodle dish that I had - char kway teow. I'm gonna replicate that dish and turn that into a ravioli."

Below is a video of a chef flossing Singapore Pork Buns:

TUrner Prize Won By Art School Reject With Old Folk Song

The prestigious Turner Prize for art has been awarded to Susan Philipsz, 44, an art school reject who specialises in sound art. The prize winner was announced at London's Tate Britain art gallery in London last night.

The £25,000 prize is the biggest accolade an artist under 50 can achieve in the British art world and sets winners up for life. Previous winners include Tracey Emin, who won the prize for her controversial 'Unmade Bed'.

See Full Report at AllVOICES : Art School Reject Wins Turner Prize With Old Folk Song

Amitabh Bachchan Furious At Rice Company Copyright Caper

Amitabh Bachchan is fuming. The Bollywood legend is threatening legal action against a company that sells rice. He claims that the rice company is running an advertising campaign that rips off his KBC quizmaster avatar and the show's format.

Bachchan writes on his blog:

"A company selling basmati rice has done an exact imagery of KBC. The set, the computers, the question and the contestant being asked from an over the shoulder shot of AB, in suggestion and the voice being used again to ask a question on the product being marketed. This is so unethical and legally wrong."

READ MORE: Amitabh Bachchan's KBC Rice Wars

Forest Songs

Papua, Indonesia.

The Korowai Tribe number about 3,000.

Nomadic tree-dwellers living in the forest canopy at heights of up to 50m above the forest floor.

Living off forest animals and plants, hunter foragers, they also cultivate some crops.

The Korowai have their own language.Their only clothes, when they wear any, banana leaves.

Until 1970 they believed that they were the only people on Earth having never met anyone outside of their tribe.

Now included for the first time in Papua's census they have been given the status of 'tree-dwellers'.

They are believed to be the first people anywhere in the world to be given this official status.

catalogued
like some new species
forest songs

Paul Conneally

A Green Guide To Drinking Tea And Coffee

Re-posted from: Hold The Milk! A Green Guide To Drinking Tea And Coffee at Allvoices:

Some of us do drink an awful lot of coffee and tea so maybe it adds up to a significant amount. But is it significant enough for us to consider how we take our tea and coffee and how we prepare it?

So what’s the score when it comes to tea and coffee?

Berners-Lee and Clark present us with these figures:

21g CO2e: black tea or coffee, boiling only the water you need
53g CO2e: white tea or coffee, boiling only the water you need
71g CO2e: white tea or coffee, boiling double the water you need
235g CO2e: a large cappuccino
340g CO2e: a large latte

What strikes one immediately is the difference in carbon footprint that taking tea or coffee white makes. Taking milk more than doubles the carbon footprint of a cup of tea or coffee. It’s surprising at first that the milk makes such a difference. One might have expected that the growing and transporting of the tea and coffee itself would have been the biggest factor but no it’s the milk. Why? Well milk comes from cows and as ruminants they produce an awful lot of methane at both ends!

Berners-Lee and Clark claim that drinking three large lattes a day equates to twenty times as much carbon equivalent as flying half way across Europe.

So the most environmentally sound beverages other than cold water seem to be black tea or coffee made with water from a kettle that’s been used to boil just enough water to fill the cups and no more and certainly not sugared.

So green tea really is amongst the greenest drinks one could choose!

Enough thinking I’m off for a brew.

morning sun
a wren flits in and out
the back border

paul conneally

James Bulger Killers Were Old Enough To Be Tried for Murder

Robert Thompson and Jon Venables - James Bulger's Killers - were old enough to know what they were doing and so it was right to try them for murder.

This is the response from the British Government to calls from Maggie Atkinson, the Children's Commissioner for England, who said yesterday that children under 12 should not be held criminally responsible.

Maggie Atkinson wants the age of criminal responsibility raised from 10 to 12 in the UK.

A Government spokesperson from the Ministry of Justice said:

"We are committed to tackling crime, and in particular intervening early with young people to prevent crime and antisocial behaviour.

"We believe that children aged 10 and over can differentiate between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing. We do not intend to raise the age of criminal responsibility. It is not in the interests of justice, of victims, or the young people themselves, to prevent serious offending being challenged."

The Pill Cuts Cancer Risk Heart Disease And Prolongs Life

Women that use The Pill live longer.

A new study by Professor Philip Hannaford in the British Medical Journal reports that using the contraceptive pill reduces the risk of cancer and heart disease when looked at across all women.

The pill slightly increases the risk of cancer and heart disease in younger women but the protection it offers older women more than compensates for this.

Some Catholic organizations believe that by concentrating on the positive health benefits for older women that younger women will not realize that they are putting themselves at increased risk of cancer and heart disease by using the pill. The Catholic Church opposes all artificial modes of contraception.

Other pro-contraception groups such as Planned Parenthood warn those with more than one partner should also use a condom to protect from sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia and syphilis.