Take a seat, have a drink, let's talk! - 013 School bullies: how serious a problem?

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  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I think the old adage that, everything in moderation, works best. Although I've
    Never felt the need to " Alter" my perception of the world. Who knows maybe
    I should. :D
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited May 2015 Posts: 12,480
    You and your choice of words: "innocent". GREAT photo, though! I'll be sharing that one, thanks. ;)

    Well, I agree with SaintMark and thelivingroyale. And basically, I think it does impair you, so driving a car, flying a plane, etc. while under the influence - not such a great idea. I think it probably is less harmful than alcohol, or at least similar. I think smoking anything is probably carcinogenic, so there's that to consider. I'm fine with it being legalized, actually. And that is happening more in my country at long last (U.S.). I never believed it was a "gateway" drug (especially judging from my friends who smoke/smoked). I think the addictiveness of it is blown out of proportion - cocaine or heroin, on the other hand, are verifiably addictive and far, far more hamrful. I think pot ought to be viewed similar to alcohol. (You could temporarily change the title of this thread: "Take a seat, join me with a spliff, let's talk!") :)>-
  • Posts: 107
    Probably discussed already but it would be funny if a future Bond movie has Bond smoke up to keep his cover. A baked Bond. <:-P
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    There's no real thing known as an innocent drug. Everything kills you, some are just more proactive about it than others. That being said, do I have a problem with people smoking marijuana? No more than I do anyone smoking a cigarette, or drinking a beer.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    The munchies would be fun, seeing Bond pigging out on Caviar and Quails eggs ! :))
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    How alcohol and tobacco is legal while pot is not, is beyond me. I suspect foul play. That being said, I have quit smoking the stuff myself.
  • SarkSark Guangdong, PRC
    Posts: 1,138
    Obviously no mind altering is "innocent", but in comparison to some legals highs marijuana is quite benign.
  • Posts: 1,181
    I think it's really only a matter of time until it's legalized in the US. Once the older generations have passed I believe it will easily be voted in. I'm not a pot smoker myself, but I think it should be legal. As long as it's not used while driving, just like any other strong medication or drug.
  • Campbell2Campbell2 Epsilon Rho Rho house, Bending State University
    edited May 2015 Posts: 299
    MJ is not 'innocent' as such, it's about the same level as alcohol when consumed while driving. But it's much less of a danger when you look at Saturday night brawls, people on booze regularly are more aggressive, more likely to end up in fights or shootings. Alcoholics in general more often tend to reckless, pointlessly hostile behaviour, show a lack of restraint with their violent impulses when they struggle to deal with frustrations. You can find some of that with people who smoke weed, yet it's much rarer and the weed is likely not the reason for it, as with people nursing multiple addictions.
    Why was grass considered a dangerous drug then? MJ wasn't illegal for a considerable time without all of civilization breaking down. During prohibition alcohol was illegal in the United State, they built a huge apparat of law enforcement to turn them into a nation of teetotallers. Took them only 13 years to find out it was a useless task. By then they got themselves a number of effective organised crime syndicates versed in smuggling and violence, similarly a large branch of police concerned with nothing but keeping forbidden substances from the streets. When it became clear to them alcohol prohibition lost support with politicians and had no chance to stay these very policemen faced losing their jobs. They looked for a substitute for alcohol to keep themin business, drugs seemed to be a growing thread and marihuana was just handily included with all sorts of opium, without actual facts supporting most of the claims about its destructive effectsmade when MJ was banned. Most other countries just followed that example, also for a lack of actual research.
  • SarkSark Guangdong, PRC
    Posts: 1,138
    I believe that in the future people will look at the War on Drugs the same way they do prohibition.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    edited May 2015 Posts: 24,183
    <center><font color=#E9AB12 size=6><b>009
    </b>Thoughts about the rise in obesity?</font>

    Fat-Kid-Meme.jpg

  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Should we be drinking while talking about obesity? Drinking kind of aids in the obesity issue.
  • Posts: 12,526
    I think parents need to be more responsible for the health of their children.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    It has to do with convenience. When people have "better" options than to move around physically, there is a fat chance of gaining weight.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Many of us sit in front of computers all day at work, then sit in front of a
    TV screen for the evening. So you do have to watch your food intake. Or
    Go to the gym a bit more often. ;)
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    edited May 2015 Posts: 24,183
    I think there are many concerns here. First of all, in countries where everyone fiscally contributes to health care, the financial weight - no pun intended - on everyone only increases as more and more people are hospitalized with heart and cardiovascular diseases. Obviously we on average live longer; the effects of an unhealthy life style show themselves in greater abundance as the population ages.

    Of course some of the causes of the obesity epidemic are well understood. An overexposure to sugar and fat, especially at a young age, combined with an increased use of cars for even the shortest trips and the fact that we spend more time sitting on our butts doesn't help us in any way.

    So it would seem simple enough to tell people to lose weight by hitting the gym. The problem with that is that we want results and we want them fast. So we run and do push-ups without the proper training or guidance and end up getting hurt and tired pretty fast. Walking or driving a bike seems like a waste of time, so none of that will happen either. And why take the stairs when we can take the elevator? Good intentions are quickly eclipsed by our inherent laziness and our strong appetite for the indulgence of 'doing things the easy way'.

    Food, in my opinion, remains the ultimate key to a healthy life style. No more sugar and fat; simple enough, right? Well, no actually. It really isn't that simple. Raw vegetables and unprocessed food are often more expensive than canned stuff. Also, many people are unwilling to spend an hour washing and then cutting and then cooking vegetables and such, when we can just as easily put some lasagne in the microwave or pick up a greasy bucket of KFC on our way home. Better still, why not go to a fast food restaurant because that even saves us the trouble of doing the dishes. Funny thing though. Those noisy dumps hardly qualify as restaurants, whatever they serve isn't really food and fast can be debated too. Plus, what sane person stuffs solid grease down his throat and flushes it away with half a gallon of concentrated sugar known as a soda drink? Parents who teach their kids this habit are no better than the ones who teach them how to smoke or get stoned. Anyway, it takes some practice and some willpower but unless we start rethinking the poisonous mixtures of processed garbage, saturated fats, sugary beverages and alcohol we swallow down in too large quantities every single day, this obesity epidemic isn't going to end any time soon.

    I haven't even begun my rants concerning the massive deforestation our planet is suffering only to support the meat industry.

    Point is, I'm worried. Some kids half my age can't walk a decent mile without gasping for breath or complaining that their muscles hurt. Some of my pupils bring more food to school than I have in three days: a box full of greased up sandwiches with three layers of baloney, mayonnaise and butter, chocolate bars, two bags of potato chips and several cans of genuine Coca Cola. A male adult should try not to exceed 60 g of sugar every day. Three cans of Coca Cola already put you at 100 g of sugar! And that goes on top of the other filth these kids digest. Many of them are so chubby at the age of 14, one wonders if they'll live to turn 40 some day.
  • Posts: 7,653
    A sign of the times.
  • SarkSark Guangdong, PRC
    Posts: 1,138
    I think you're overcomplicating the issue darth. You can eat a diet of pizza and beer and never leave your couch and not get fat, just as long you don't eat too much of it. Of course, you won't be particularly healthy, but you wont be obese. It's literally as simple as calories in>calories expended=get fat. there was a teacher in Iowa(I think) who proved this by losing 30 lbs on a diet of Krispy Kreme-because he ate less calories than he expended.

    The high price of more healthy foods is a separate issue, because you don't have to eat healthy foods to be thin.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,718
    Another James Bond, who was seen in 1971 in Las Vegas, could have lost some weight too. ;)
  • Posts: 1,993
    Obesity is also about appearance. For example, in OHMSS the girls in Blofeld's scheme are all thin, beautiful, and desirable. The villainess is fat, unattractive, and toady, qualities that clearly distinguish her as someone other than ally, friend, or lover of Bond. Other than Irma Bunt, I cannot think of another overweight female in the series. There have certainly been plenty of overweight men, which suggests overweight men are more acceptable on screen than overweight women. For women who are overweight, does the absence of women of a similar body type in a Bond film reinforce social stereotypes?

  • edited May 2015 Posts: 4,617
    If people want to be fat, thats OK with me, they are adults, I think the big issue is bringing up kids, its very sad when you see kids being collected in the playground and the poor kid who is 7 or 8 is already taking after their parents, not sure what can be done about it but it must be extremely hard to re-train your body after you have been brought up on pizza and KFC.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    We need a global redistribution of fat.
  • Posts: 1,181
    I think the main culprit in the rise in obesity is definitely an excess intake of carbohydrates, particularly sugar. For most people there isn't close to enough time in the day to exercise and burn off the excess calories to maintain caloric balance. Almost all of our food in the supermarkets today has been laden with sugar. It's almost impossible to escape. The only way you can make sure you are not falling prey to the food industries tricks is too steer to the produce and whole foods sections.

    Personally, I'm probably 98% vegetarian. I occasionally have meat if it is served at special occasions or when I travel home, but that is a rarity. I try to stick to things like green vegetables, brown rice, nuts and occasionally fruits. My rule is that if I have to try and figure out what is inside the product or an ingredient list that has 20 items, something is wrong with the product most of the time. I avoid sodas at all cost and most fruit juice. A medium soda has around 44 grams of sugar, a 12oz soda has around 30-40 grams. The WHO recommends around 10-25 grams of sugar for a healthy male. So imagine someone who has 3-4 sodas a day. It's a losing battle. Anything with sugar is pretty much out for me, unless it has natural sugars and fiber to balance it out.

    I highly recommend watching a man named Dr. Robert Lustig on youtube discuss the sugar epidemic. It's very interesting and he really hits the nail on the head with the science. He explains the money side of things very well. Here's one I just recently watched by him. You can also check out his Sugar The Bitter Truth episode as well.

    The problem with sugar is that its extremely addictive. We are naturally driven to sweet things and away from bitter for safety in nature. It's hard to think of things like soda and fruit juice as heavily dense calorie packed food items that will make us store fat. I don't fully blame heavier people personally, because I think it's so hard to steer clear of all the junk and mess that's out there and the disinformation that exists everywhere. It's almost like trying to swim in a toilet bowl without getting any on you. It's pretty much going to happen to some extent.

    Good topic by the way! Definitely one of my top interests is Health/Nutrition.
  • Posts: 4,622
    DrGorner wrote: »
    Many of us sit in front of computers all day at work, then sit in front of a
    TV screen for the evening.
    I think the poor kids these days just aren't moving around enough.
    Kids weren't fat when I was growing up, other than the odd token fat boy, who liked to stuff his face.
    We were always running around, playing games, sports, riding bikes etc

    We didn't have video games, computers etc to keep us sedentary.
    Plus I don't recall parents packing those glutenous type lunches that @dimi described.
    And then of course when we finished high school, many of us were smoking and pubbing so much there was hardly any time for eating, let alone over-eating.
    Smoking is a great appetite suppressant.
    I never worried about weight until I quit smoking.
    Now I do a good run 2-3 times a week, and try to stay off crappy sugar laden junk.
    But I still eat burgers and fries and plates of chicken wings.
    But I think the kids have to find a way to stay physically active.
  • SarkSark Guangdong, PRC
    Posts: 1,138
    For most people there isn't close to enough time in the day to exercise and burn off the excess calories to maintain caloric balance.

    Nonsense. Don't eat so many calories and your caloric balance is much easier to maintain.
  • Posts: 1,181
    I'm even talking about a slight over eat, 250-500 calories. I agree with you about not eating so many calories. It's all about the type of calories you are eating. If it's heavy-handed on the sugar, it can interfere with insulin and other hormones such as leptin which has a lot to do with satiety. The brain then does not receive the signal to stop eating as soon as they should.

    A small overeat can amount to several extra pounds every year and before you know it your overweight. One of the videos mentioned even one soda a day can lead to a 10lb weight gain by the end of the year. I'm guessing that is if you are hitting the recommended calories with a soda in addition to that.

    It takes tons of physical activity to burn these calories off. Far more than most people are capable of doing.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    edited May 2015 Posts: 24,183
    <center><font color=#E9AB12 size=6><b>010
    </b>Discuss: Democracy isn't a *perfect* system.</font>

    democracy-shared-1.jpg?cdn=no
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    Democracy is a beautiful concept and theoretically the best system we can have, or so I think, unless we assume a utopian sort of total anarchy in which everyone is decent enough not to commit any crimes or abuse his fellow man. But the many imperfections inherent to our kind incapacitate us to roam freely in a lawless society and never harm others. Thus, some level of control is required and thus, we need a government, a constitution, a court, police, ... Or don't we? Furthermore, it's in the interest of the people that the government needs to answer to said people and that by means of election the people are given the power to vote a different government into power.

    One of the few weaknesses of democracy, I think, is the fact that many politicians are more concerned with being re-elected than with good leadership. Sometimes a society as a whole needs to make harsh decisions and sometimes those decisions aren't exactly popular amongst the majority of the people. And therefore, sometimes, depending on the courage of a politician, the decisions are simply not made. This is one of the reasons why it's so difficult in our spoiled world to enforce for example environmental laws: many of those restrict our own freedom at some level and politicians are usually afraid to face the next election round after having told us that our freedom will be somewhat reduced.

    Furthermore, I strongly believe that the proverbial 'majority' isn't always right. Sometimes a minor few people just happen to know better. Yet the majority vote is what makes the difference. A minor few warned us decades ago that our current industrialization model would damage us and our planet severely. Few politicians, if any, were willing to listen. A minor few warned us, years ago, that our financial and economical excesses would soon lead us into financial crises. Hardly anyone acted when it still wasn't too late. A minor few can be more right than the majority. Politicians are often smart enough to realise that but very few are willing to risk their career going against the majority vote.

    These two weaknesses lead to temporizing, to fixing things for the current generations without giving any thoughts to the next.

    Now, imagine a dictator who has but to snip his fingers and his wishes turn into reality. Let's say he is kind and intelligent and brave enough to make decisions his servants may not at first like, but will eventually understand. The world could be a far better place. The problem, of course, is that dictators aren't usually all that kind or intelligent. The very word 'dictator' has a negative aura around it, and there's a perfectly good reason for that too. Few dictators were wise like Marcus Aurelius and even he isn't always celebrated by historians.

    So in the end, I acknowledge that democracy probably is the best system of government we have, but I don't think it's perfect.
  • MrcogginsMrcoggins Following in the footsteps of Quentin Quigley.
    Posts: 3,144
    Dimi clear concise and in my mind spot on the money great post Thankyou .
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