Half of six-year-old girls 'want to be thinner'

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Study by the University of Cambridge claims half of Britain's six-year-old girls 'want to be thinner'

The study was undertaken for a new TV programme Jo Frost: Extreme Parental Guidance for UKs Channel 4.

In the study 6-year-old girls were asked to ring their ideal body shape from a range of different body shapes. Over half chose the thinnest possible - in general this was 3 sizes smaller than their own shape.

The study raises interesting parallels as recent reports have highlighted a growing obesity problem amongst UK children.

The mental health of UK children has been reported as being amongst the poorest in Europe especially around self-esteem and emotional wellbeing and the results of this study are worrying in that girls of such a young age are already showing dissatisfaction with how they look.

It is thought that some of this dissatisfaction might come from their exposure to airbrushed images of size zero models and celebrities on TV and in women’s and girls’ magazines.

first crocus

the colour not quite

what she wanted

"Many of the girls questioned in the study, by Cambridge University, said they thought being skinnier would make them more popular"

Source: telegraph.co.uk

"Cambridge's Dr Terri Apter said girls linked thinness with being popular and said “it’s distressing”"

Source: streetcorner.com.au

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Learning and Playing a Musical Instrument Improves Reading

Children who learn to play a musical instrument may have an advantage when it comes to reading.

Professor Nina Kraus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois found that a part of the brain stimulated in musicians when they play music is also important in reading.

Professor Kraus found that people that can pick out harmonies and timing in sounds are better at reading.

Many chidren in the UK are entering secondary school with reading ages below that expected for their age and some are asking if music was given a higher position within the curriculum would reading improve?

Although all UK pupils up to the age of 14 have to have at least one lesson of music education a week very few pupils actually learn to play a musical instrument.

Music education and learning how to play a musical instrument are not the same thing.

The number of children learning musical instruments has decreased since free music instrument tuition for all was withdrawn from state education. Most pupils have to buy an instrument and pay for private lessons and for many families this is an expense that they just can't afford.

A curriculum that features more strongly learning how to play a musical instrument might bring real benefits for improving reading and language skills.

spring snow

her fingers too cold

for chopsticks

"Schools which fail to make music a core subject are making a mistake, because it has advantages for the growing brain and would help all children, including those with dyslexia and autism, neuroscientist Professor Nina Kraus said yesterday."

Source: independent.co.uk

"Words and music, such natural partners that it seems obvious they go together. Now science is confirming that those abilities are linked in the brain, a finding that might even lead to better stroke treatments"

Source: google.com

"Musical experience can enhance everyday listening and language tasks. We are making new strides in understanding what changes happen in the brain with musical experience."

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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Culture | Music | Education | musical | Language | Reading | instrument | Musical Instrument

Long Live Life

New research from the Institute of Healthy Ageing at University College London, suggests that eating a low protein vegetarian diet could extend human life-span.

The research is built on earlier findings that showed a diet just above malnutrition levels can extend life by as much as 25 years. This new research finds a reduction in meat and fish protein is the important factor not the level of calories.

at eighty-five
Dad still carves the joint
winter vegetables

Pinkstinks

Pinkstinks is a campaign set up in the UK against the marketing of pink toys to girls.The founder of the campaign Emma Moore believes that the rows and rows of pink toys, clothes and other items aimed at girls encourage an obsession with body image and lead to the unequal pay and lower status that women in general have compared to men.

Pinkstinks is encouraging customers to boycott the Early Learning Centre chain of toy shops as they feel that they are hypocritical in claiming that their toys help children explore boundaries of imagination and creativity whilst heavily marketing stereotypical pink toys for girls.

Boxing Day
Ken turns Barbie
fifty shades of blue

Womens Aid

The Hall of Mirrors

What do you do when you finally locate your long lost dad and find he's a woman? Well that's just what happened to Emily Wallis and she couldn't be happier.

Although shocked to discover her father is called Chloe, wears high heeled shoes, tight dresses and is living in Margate she totally accepts her for the glamorous woman she now is. She wants to be by Chloe's side when she has her full sex-change and for her to be by her side to give her away when she gets married.

In truth it was perhaps harder for Chloe to meet Emily than for Emily to meet Chloe after years of struggling with her sexuality living as a man whilst always knowing that she was at heart a woman. Like so many in this predicament it led to despair, shame and in Chloe's case self mutilation as she attempted to push her despised male genitals back up inside her body.

So what to do when you find your lost dad or best friend or husband's a lady? Well maybe taking a leaf out Emily's book and support and accept them for who they really are might be a good place to start.

the difference
between ice and water
a hall of mirrors

Charles Darwin's Beard

Charles Darwin wrote iconic works that are still making waves today as creationists attempt to get their ideas in to the science curriculum alongside his famous theory of evolution.

But its Charles Darwin's beard not his writing that's causing a stir at London's Natural History Museum where hair from his famous beard has gone on show to the public.

By all accounts its just a few strands rather than the whole beard that are on show which is a shame as the whole thing would have been a wonderful thing to see. If only someone had had the foresight to 'scalp' his beard after death it would have made a marvelous interactive exhibit. Imagine the fun of trying Charles Darwin's beard on.

I believe that not only children but adults and even some famous scientists such as Richard Dawkins for instance who seems to have been wearing Darwin's metaphorical beard for some time, would enjoy trying it on. Now Dawkins sporting Darwin's beard would be worth seeing - in fact I'd pay to see that.

In the great age of science that Darwin inhabited no real scientist worth their salt (even the women I'm told) would dream of not wearing a beard but these days many scientists look so normal that I immediately begin to mistrust them and their science, begin to think that they are not real scientists at all but wanna-be celebrities who see their science as a way to make big bucks through populist quasi-scientific books rather than discovery.

Yes, give me a scientist with an eccentric beard, strange dress sense and syntax to match and I'll return to my studies. I might even stop shaving.

something moves
in grandad's moustache
winter supper

Foreplay

A survey of over 2,300 women comes to the conclusion that foreplay as an aid to orgasm has little or no significance. It also reveals that intercourse for Europeans is on average about 16.2 minutes whilst Americans come in on an average of 7 minutes.

The researchers speculate that: "It could be that this reflects, a greater appreciation of intercourse and sensuality by Europeans than by Americans."

Many people suffer mental and general health problems when they feel that their sex life or performance is not up to what ever standard the most recent style magazines suggest and whereas this type of research might refocus some away from having to perform the greatest foreplay it now places an emphasis on length of intercourse.

Scientists and lifestyle gurus conspire to bringeth us up and putteth us down again.

As to the American vs European intercourse time trial - well people live fast lives in America and maybe its like in skiing - the 'adrenalin junkies' do the downhill and the 'skills that kills' folks do the slalom. The important thing is that they both get to the finish line - just in different ways.

clocking off
the first snow of the year
slides off the roof

paul conneally