Fat profits: how the food industry cashed in on obesity When you walk into a supermarket, what do you see? Walls of highly calorific, intensely processed food, tweaked by chemicals for maximum "mouth feel" and "repeat appeal" (addictiveness). This is what most people in Britain actually eat. Pure science on a plate. And next to this? In the UK, 60% of us are overweight, yet the "fat" (and I include myself in this category, with a BMI of 27, slap-bang average for the overweight British male) are not lazy and complacent about our condition, but ashamed and desperate to do something about it. When obesity as a global health issue first came on the radar, the food industry sat up and took notice. Weight Watchers, created by New York housewife Jean Nidetch in the early 1960s, was bought by Heinz in 1978, who in turn sold the company in 1999 to investment firm Artal for $735m. You would think there might be a problem here: the food industry has one ostensible objective – and that's to sell food. How did this happen? OK, here's scenario two.
Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe Updated 7/16/2013 – See Original Here Once at a picnic, I saw mathematicians crowding around the last game I would have expected: Tic-tac-toe. As you may have discovered yourself, tic-tac-toe is terminally dull. There’s no room for creativity or insight. Good players always tie. But the mathematicians at the picnic played a more sophisticated version. As I watched, the basic rules emerged quickly. Each turn, you mark one of the small squares. But it took a while for the most important rule in the game to dawn on me: You don’t get to pick which of the nine boards to play on. Then your next move must be here… This lends the game a strategic element. The resulting scenarios look bizarre. A few clarifying rules are necessary: What if my opponent sends me to a board that’s already been won? What if one of the small boards results in a tie? When I see my students playing tic-tac-toe, I resist the urge to roll my eyes, and I teach them this game instead. Anyway, that’s Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe.
10 Potential Strategies For Addressing Size, Weight and Shape Discrimination by Jill Andrew - Fat in the City - Curvy Plus Size Fashion Blog Fat in the City’s JILL ANDREW responds to Tuesday’s online Globe & Mail article on Size Discrimination In the Toronto based daily newspaper, Craig and Mark Keilburger tackle Size Discrimination and ask for strategies for change Howdy everyone! I’d like to propose 10 potential strategies (not necessarily in the order presented) for addressing size, weight and shape discrimination. The number 10 just happens to be a lucky number of mine but by no means is this list exhaustive. Let’s face it strategies are much more complex than a quick fix list and often with lists once it’s done and we check it off we think we’ve conquered it. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Thanks folks for reading some of my strategies ~ only 10 of a collective many! Addressing Miriam Berg’s quote: Hey Miriam! Addressing Karyn Johnson’s quote: Hey Karyn! Jill Andrew, PhD (c.) is the founder/director of BITE ME! Author’s note: please excuse any typos
Why HTML is Not a Programming Language HTML is great. It defines the structure of webpages and it determines how data is displayed online. What you’re looking at right now is HTML code, read and interpreted by your browser. But this doesn’t make HTML a programming language. A Markup Language HTML is a type of markup language. That’s how the browser knows that However, this is not programming. Not a Programming Language Programming languages have functional purposes. Still Awesome Unfortunately, coding only in HTML doesn’t make you a programmer. Knowledge of web page structure is a valuable asset for anyone to have, in IT as well as in other fields, and I’m definitely not trying to discredit anyone’s knowledge on the awesomeness that is HTML. Still think HTML is a programming language? Ben Romy Ben is a 2012 graduate of the iSchool, now working for MLB Advanced Media. More Posts
critical weight studies In recent years a field of study that has come to be entitled ‘fat studies’ has developed, largely in response to the discourse around obesity in developed countries. Just as gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered people have chosen to reappropriate the once pejorative word ‘queer’ for their own purposes, attempting to reinstate it as a positive self-identifying and political term, some academics and activists seek to use the word ‘fat’ to describe corpulent people in a positive, accepting manner. In her foreword to The Fat Studies Reader, a ground-breaking collection of radical essays critiquing dominant cultural representations of fatness, well-known fat activist Marilynn Wann (2009: ix) defines fat studies as ‘a radical field, in the sense that it goes to the root of weight-related belief systems’. The sculpture Bronskvinnorna (The women of bronze) outside of the art museum (Konsthallen), Växjö, Sweden. The sculpture is a work by Marianne Lindberg De Geer. References Like this:
Cannes Wildfire Tumblr Thursday, the 27th of June Wildfire / Full of Tomorrow: How brands can embrace miraculous new technologies to create small wonders that will change our daily livesSee the full seminar right here. Tuesday, the 18th of June Hovertrax We all wanted hoverboards after Back to the Future, but they never arrived. Friday, the 14th of June Doorbot Doorbot saves you from having to get up from the sofa unless you really need to. Thursday, the 13th of June Mindtunes Mindtunes is a track created by the power of the mind. Nice idea from Google here. Wednesday, the 12th of June Flying Sushi The brainchild of Yo! Wednesday, the 5th of June Artificial Tacticle Sensations Intriguing technology developed by Disney Research. Quantified Self, Cognitive Health and the Transformation of Medical Care The ‘quantified self’ revolution could transform the way we think about health care. Quotable Tuesday, the 4th of June The Next Big Thing in Big Data: People Analytics Mashed up, mixed up… how can brands hack the future?
Arched Eyebrow » former unfat person. Here is me when I was 17 Here is me now I am 23. Digging around for the photo of me at my thinnest meant going through my Facebook to find the photos for my leavers’ ball. So much of that is irrelevant now: former friends I can’t stand to be in the same room as, pals with their then-boyfriends who have probably been very long-forgotten, hairstyles that were never revisited. The one thing that remains oddly relevant is the fact that I wasn’t very fat. Whenever I get interviewed for a magazine, or even just when talking to acquaintances about my size, one thing they get obsessively stuck on is the fact that I once lost a lot of weight. People cling onto the ‘former fat person’ tag for dear life. I lost about four stone (25kg) in my last year of secondary school before I went to university for the first time. It was always for them, not for me. Making the effort to lose weight has a massive impact on your social life. It wasn’t fun. When I’d lost weight, I wore a bikini once.
SocialOS from PeopleBrowsr - build your own social network At PeopleBrowsr, we are delighted to announce the launch of a brand new type of social network – one you can build and maintain yourself. With public platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, brands and consumers are increasingly being encouraged to use them exclusively to connect and communicate. Now that these networks have combined memberships in the billions, it is becoming harder to find those in your community that you have the most in common with and connect with. Brands are naturally investing time and energy into these public platforms, while at the same losing control of their brand, their fans and their community. David Armano in a post titled Social Business: Where It’s Been & Where It’s Going talked about the evolution of social media into social business. Figure 1.2 from “Social Business By Design” We think the next phase of social as we move towards social business will allow corporates and government entities to create their own networks.
3 Dystopian Ways We're Fighting the Obesity Epidemic Remember when other countries used to point at the U.S. and laugh because Americans are so fat? Well, they're not laughing now: According to a global report, obesity is now a bigger problem than hunger (no pun intended). And while Americans are sitting here trying acai berry enemas and grabbing up whatever metabolism-boosting overalls QVC vomits at us, the rest of the world is tackling the problem in much more proactive ways, like ... #3. Taiwan Has Created a Wi-Fi Tooth to Stop Binge Eating In what has to be the saddest possible way to become a cyborg, researchers over at the National Taiwan University have created a Wi-Fi-enabled chip to jam into people's teeth that detects when they're binge eating and rats them out to their doctor. National Taiwan University"I see that you were also crying the whole time, Mr. We meant Doctor Octopus, but hell, this works, too. #2. Florence Delva / Workbook Shop / Getty"I got all this from a single dump!" #1. Associated PressSee "short answer," above.
Women in their Digital Domain There's no question: the world has gone digital. This monumental shift in communications has greatly affected consumers' lives and brought about dramatic changes in marketing. For American women, who still make the majority of household purchases, digital communications fulfill unique needs – seeking and sharing of information, building and maintaining personal and professional networks, and of course online shopping. According to a new study, Women in Their Digital Domain, these activities offer marketers engaging ways to connect digitally savvy, female buyers with their brands. The goal of the study, conducted in partnership with Ogilvy & Mather Chicago, WPP's Mindshare and Microsoft Advertising, was to understand how marketers can make best use of all that the digital realm has to offer. Q: How are women of all ages and lifestages using technology? This quantitative study revealed three segments of digital sophistication among.
Big deal: You can be fat and fit An activist at a National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance rally in New York wears a T-shirt to promote self-image. Marilyn Wann: Study confirms fat is not a death sentence, and overweight people live longerWann denied health coverage because of her size; she became an activist afterwardWann: Fat people continually get misdiagnosed, receive poor health care because of biasWann: Doctors finding new Health At Every Size approach provides better care Editor's note: Marilyn Wann is author of "FAT!SO?" (CNN) -- After a careful review of all relevant research worldwide, the U.S. government's leading analyst of weight data just confirmed what I've long known: Being fat might not be a death sentence. That this study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association seems at all shocking is a measure of the intensity and pervasiveness of weight prejudice in our society and in our sciences. I take an interest in the topic because I'm fat and because I don't have a death wish.
Black Mirror (TV series) Black Mirror is a British television anthology series created by Charlie Brooker that shows the dark side of life and technology. The series is produced by Zeppotron for Endemol. Regarding the programme's content and structure, Brooker noted, "each episode has a different cast, a different setting, even a different reality. But they're all about the way we live now – and the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy."[1] In November 2012, Black Mirror won the Best TV movie/mini-series award at the International Emmys.[5] Announced on 12 July 2012,[6] the second season began broadcasting on 11 February 2013. On 9 January 2014, Charlie Brooker announced the third series of the show, confirming at least two more "helpings".[7] Robert Downey, Jr. has optioned the episode The Entire History of You to potentially be made into a film by Warner Bros. and his own production company, Team Downey.[8] The second series is popular in China.
Fat is Not an Emotion So why do so many of us have days when we “feel fat” regardless of our actual weight and shape? “On days when I feel fat—” Anna Guest Jelley, founder of body-positive company Curvy Yoga, stops herself. “Fat is not an emotion,” she corrects, and moves on with her talk on modifying a yoga practice for curvy bodies. Fat is not an emotion. That phrase has stayed with me since she said it. One of my teachers, Tomas Hicks, calls it the Superficial Fascial Layer, and he describes it as a testing zone between you and the outside world. So why is it that every woman I’ve ever known, and most of the men I’ve talked to about it, have days where they “feel fat” regardless of their actual weight and shape? I consider myself a pretty aware person. I’ve always believed that if you feel good, it doesn’t matter whether or not you look good. We have a bad case of cultural body dysmorphia, and get confused about what we think we look like, what we actually look like, and what we think we should look like.