I study the effects of ultra-processed foods... here's why I still eat 'the bad ones' - "he opened up about his daily diet and admitted that he indulges in UPFs as they taste good and can save time. He said: 'Just because something is ultra-processed doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad for you.' 'I use, for example, a marinara sauce that’s low in sugar and sodium, but when I’m making a nice pasta dish, it cuts down the preparation time. I’m not going to make a marinara sauce from scratch.' A 2019 analysis by Hall and his colleagues found that ultra-processed foods led participants to eat about 500 calories a day more than when they ate a matched diet of unprocessed foods, suggesting they are addictive. Despite the findings, Hall says he hasn't been put off UPFs and he 'treats them as recreational substances.' Opening up about his typical daily diet, he made another surprising revelation: that he doesn't eat breakfast. Some nutritionists say skipping breakfast has consequences, as it may lead to low energy, poor concentration, overeating later in the day, or blood sugar imbalances... At a scientific conference in November 2024, he reported that the first 18 trial participants ate about 1,000 calories a day more of an ultra-processed diet that was particularly hyperpalatable and energy dense than those who ate minimally processed foods, leading to weight gain. When those qualities were modified, consumption went down, even if the foods were considered ultra-processed, Hall said."
Impose tax on baked beans, MPs told - "Baked beans should be taxed as part of the war on Britain’s ultra-processed diets, MPs have been told. Prof Chris van Tulleken, the NHS medic and author of Ultra-Processed People, said it was time to “appropriately” tax supermarket foods such as the breakfast staple and bread. The healthy food campaigner’s proposals threaten to hike the prices of British favourites like beans on toast, as well as fish fingers and even yoghurts."
Dietitian shares new details about what happened after eating ultra-processed foods for month - "a dietician who ate nothing but ultra-processed foods (UPFs) for a month has revealed why she believes they have been unnecessarily demonized by the health and scientific community. Jessica Wilson, 42, from California, made headlines last year for her experiment which saw her consume almost exclusively foods with more than five ingredients, including pre-packaged and frozen meals and takeaway food. Now, in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com she reveals that 'UPFs can be part of a healthy diet and policymakers need to change the conversation'. One of Ms Wilson's biggest frustrations of the lack of a clear universal definition for UPFs, which she says just confuses consumers. From her research, she says she has been given 'multiple definitions of UPFs from different researchers and doctors' and she was once told that a fresh croissant from a bakery in Paris would be considered a UPF because milling flour from wheat is considered a form of processing. 'People are grasping for straws and trying to insert themselves into a trending topic and it’s not a good look,' the diet expert says. After taking on the UPF diet challenge, Ms Wilson says she has adopted a more relaxed approach to food which has helped reduce her stress levels. Meanwhile, society has become more obsessed than ever with reading food labels and plagued by what she calls 'analysis paralysis'. While burgers, chips and chicken nuggets are some of the best-loved examples of products that fall under the umbrella UPF term, Ms Wilson found from her experiment that there lots of UPFs that aren't bad and actually nutritious. Research shows that more than half of the calories consumed in the US come from ultra-processed food sources, a statistic that has been held up as a bad thing. But Ms Wilson believes this simply shows they are 'essential to many people in our current society' due to their affordability and being processed doesn't necessarily mean bad... Two weeks into her diet, Ms Wilson was surprised to report a range of benefits. She found she was less hungry, she moved around more unintentionally, she experienced less fatigue, needed less caffeine and she wasn't as 'grumpy' after work. Even her wife, Elisha, commented that she was 'complaining less and doing more'. By the third and fourth weeks, Ms Wilson said the positives continued but she struggled slightly with keeping track of the things she ate and she got 'bored' of the UPFs she had in rotation. However, once she had finished the challenge, the dietician she actually felt than she had before. To her surprise, she also toned up and noticed a difference to her physique. The diet expert told this website: 'I don't use a belt daily but I do use a waist leash to walk my dog and that leash got looser and I needed to tighten it. 'So my weight did not change but I had an improvement in body composition.'"
Rise of ultra-processed food PHOBIA: Experts warn fears about UPF means people are eating less healthily - "They also warned that a number of UPFs – such as baked beans, vegetable-based pasta sauces and some soups – are actually very nutritious and can contribute to a healthy diet. The scientists, from the universities of Aberdeen and Liverpool, said the focus of public health guidance should remain on eating a diet full of fruit, vegetables and wholegrains while limiting foods high in fat, sugar and salt. In the new article, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, they argued that less well-off people could be most affected by any blanket health warnings about UPFs without more scientific evidence... The article states there is a potential 'social cost for many people with more limited resources' of removing convenient options. Meanwhile there could be negative mental health impacts on 'those who worry about their health or live with eating disorders, particularly if social circumstances make avoiding UPFs difficult'."
New study challenges what we know about ultra-processed foods - "What we found challenges the simplistic UPF narrative and offers a more nuanced way forward. Two ideas often get blurred in nutrition discourse: liking a food and hedonic overeating (eating for pleasure rather than hunger). Liking is about taste. Hedonic overeating is about continuing to eat because the food feels good. They’re related, but not identical. Many people like porridge but rarely binge on it. Chocolate, biscuits and ice cream, on the other hand, top both lists... Nutrient content mattered – people rated high-fat, high-carb foods as more enjoyable, and low-fibre, high-calorie foods as more “bingeable”. But what people believed about the food also mattered a lot. Perceiving a food as sweet, fatty or highly processed increased the likelihood of overeating, regardless of its actual nutritional content. Foods believed to be bitter or high in fibre had the opposite effect. In one survey, we could predict 78% of the variation in people’s likelihood of overeating by combining nutrient data (41%) with beliefs about the food and its sensory qualities (another 38%). In short, how we think about food affects how we eat it, just as much as what’s actually in it. This brings us to ultra-processed foods. Despite the intense scrutiny, classifying a food as “ultra-processed” added very little to our predictive models. Once we accounted for nutrient content and food perceptions, the Nova classification explained less than 2% of the variation in liking and just 4% in overeating. That’s not to say all UPFs are harmless. Many are high in calories, low in fibre and easy to overconsume. But the UPF label is a blunt instrument. It lumps together sugary soft drinks with fortified cereals, protein bars with vegan meat alternatives. Some of these products may be less healthy, but others can be helpful – especially for older adults with low appetites, people on restricted diets or those seeking convenient nutrition. The message that all UPFs are bad oversimplifies the issue. People don’t eat based on food labels alone. They eat based on how a food tastes, how it makes them feel and how it fits with their health, social or emotional goals. Relying on UPF labels to shape policy could backfire. Warning labels might steer people away from foods that are actually beneficial, like wholegrain cereals, or create confusion about what’s genuinely unhealthy."
Starmer has outed himself as a cultural elitist... and it’s about time - "The truth is, in the days when a politician could proudly enjoy the odd concerto for the enormous boon it is, the likes of Beethoven weren’t considered the preserve of the few. It’s noteworthy that Starmer chose both the Pastoral Symphony and Emperor Piano Concerto as “passions” because, he explained, they gave his father solace at the end of a 60-hour factory week. The rich history of nineteenth and twentieth-century Working Men’s clubs and institutes, which gave the labouring classes access to liberal education, speaks to a similar, lost time."
Cigarette butts fuelling growth in ‘superbugs’, study finds - "A study conducted across 35 Chinese cities suggests cigarette stubs help to spread antibiotic resistant genes – segments of DNA which give bacteria the ability to survive treatment with antibiotics, and give rise to ‘superbugs’. Scientists took samples from more than 100 public parks, and found “opportunistic” bacteria from a smokers’ mouth combined with hazardous chemicals found in cigarettes, before proliferating and mutating. Then, when the butts are dropped, the bacteria can leach into the surrounding environment."
German nurse killed 10 patients ‘to reduce workload’ at hospital in Wuerselen - "A German palliative care nurse has been jailed for life after being accused of killing patients to reduce his workload. A court in Aachen, western Germany, found that the 44-year-old male nurse murdered 10 patients using lethal injections and attempted to murder 27 others at a hospital in Würselen... The case echoes that of nurse Niels Hoegel, who was handed a life sentence in 2019 for murdering 85 patients. He is believed to be modern Germany’s most prolific serial killer... In July, a 40-year-old palliative care specialist, named in the media as “Johannes M”, went on trial in Berlin accused of killing 15 patients with lethal injections between 2021 and 2024. In at least five cases, he was suspected of setting fire to his victims’ homes in an attempt to cover up his crimes."
Winning Second World War was not worth it, says D-Day veteran - "Alec Penstone, who played a vital role sweeping for mines during the D-Day landings, questioned the state of the country for which his fellow servicemen gave their lives during an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Friday. Asked what Remembrance Sunday meant to him, he said: “My message is, I can see in my mind’s eye those rows and rows of white stones and all the hundreds of my friends who gave their lives, for what? The country of today? “No, I’m sorry, but the sacrifice wasn’t worth the result of what it is now.”... Asked by host Adil Ray what he meant by his comment, the veteran, who described himself as “just one of the lucky ones” for surviving the war, said: “What we fought for was our freedom, but now it’s a darn sight worse than when I fought for it.”"
Left wingers will hear the words of this original "Antifa" member and push for more freedom: for "anti-Zionists" to assault Jews, migrants to live off the public purse and transwomen to use women's toilets
Common Sense Extremists on X - "“At least you’re not speaking German!” Probably doesn’t land as hard when now there are entire neighborhoods in your country speaking Arabic and Hindi…"
Plumber sues auctioneer after truck shown with terrorists - "All Mark Oberholtzer wanted to do was upgrade his ride. What he got instead was a world of trouble from half a world away. The Texas City, Texas, plumbing company owner is suing a Ford dealership for more than $1 million in financial losses and damages to his company’s reputation after a pickup truck he once owned ended up with Islamic militants fighting in Syria’s civil war. A photo of the truck, with his Mark-1 Plumbing decals still attached, went viral, leading to thousands of harassing phone calls. “By the end of the day, Mark-1’s office, Mark-1’s business phone, and Mark’s personal cell had received over 1,000 phone calls from around the nation,” Oberholzer’s lawyer wrote in the lawsuit, filed December 9 in Harris County, Texas. “These phone calls were in large part harassing and contained countless threats of violence, property harm, injury and even death.” Oberholtzer said this wouldn’t have happened if the dealership had just removed the decals before the truck was resold... In October 2013, Oberholtzer took the truck to AutoNation Ford Gulf Freeway in Houston for a trade-in, according to the lawsuit. He got a 2012 Ford F-250 and said goodbye to his old truck. He started to peel off the company’s decals from the truck’s doors but a salesman stopped him, according to the lawsuit. The man told Oberholtzer that peeling off the decal would damage the paint on the truck, according to the lawsuit. Oberholtzer said the salesman told him that AutoNation would remove the decals before the truck was resold... Oberholtzer had to temporarily shut down his business and leave town, according to the lawsuit, resulting in financial losses. He’s also had visits from Homeland Security and the FBI. And he still has to deal with phone calls, which continue to come in a year after the photo first appeared. He now carries a gun for protection, according to the lawsuit."
Meme - "Why do balls hurt when hit, but not when fucking? How
can guys fuck so hard it sounds like a white man running in flip flops but when they get tapped on the balls, it's painful and nauseating?
Edit: I'm female and just genuinely confused about ball pain"
Meme - "KOMI'S INVITING TADANO OVER
Man: DO You REALLY HAVE A CAT? CAN I GO TO YOUR HOUSE TO SEE THE CAT?
Man in room: ? Where's the cat?
*Woman closes door*
Woman whispers into ear: MEOW."
The world's largest bacteria are visible to the naked eye - "The world's largest bacterium has been discovered amongst the mangroves of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Measuring over a centimetre long, Thiomargarita magnifica is over 5000 times bigger than the average microbe. An eyelash-sized bacterium is breaking records and boundaries as it redefines what single-celled life can be. Thiomargarita magnifica is a titan of bacterial life. It is over 10 times bigger than the previous largest bacterium opens in a new window and is large enough that it can be picked up with a pair of tweezers."
Tony The Tiger Helps Sex Worker In Grrreatly Offensive Prank Video - "Tony the Tiger typically helps young kids seize the day in his Frosted Flakes cereal ads. But a new prank video shows the cartoon mascot helping a distressed sex worker hook new customers. In the video, which surfaced online Wednesday, two men argue about which one of them will patronize a 43-year-old sex worker named Candy. "You can ride the baloney pony," a man says as he counts a fistful of money in front of Candy. "You can have her," says the man's unimpressed friend. "No, I don't want her," replies the man with the money. "You're stuck with her." The video cuts to a depressed Candy, who is walking down the street alongside her cereal pimp, who apparently has a position on sex work: "It's gr-e-e-a-t!" "I don't care Tony, it's such a stupid job anyway," Candy tells the sugar-coated-cereal-pushing cartoon tiger."
Instagram - "Super Sentai Yellow Heroes at a baseball game in 2015."
Team Yellow
In a leaked phone call, CBC management was asked why can't the CBC get interviews w/ Conservatives. : r/CanadianConservative - "Remember when Trudeau was having lunch with Rosemarie Barton before the debates - and referred to her affectionately as “Rosie” during the televised debate? Nothing was done. Their bias has been incredibly blatant year after year. I don’t bother listening to anything from the CBC as I know it will be some left wing hit piece. Yet…they take my tax dollars."
Federal budget 2025: Canada looks to join Eurovision - "The federal budget announced Tuesday proposed a plan that would boost funding for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and its French-language counterpart, Radio-Canada — and included in that plan was the possibility that Canada could participate in Eurovision. According to the budget, $150 million would go toward the broadcaster “to strengthen its mandate to serve the public and to better reflect the needs of Canadians” in 2025-26"
CBC hired 84 percent racialized, Indigenous, or disabled while having job vacancies for top talent: Internal report - "The CBC far exceeded its “equity representation” target in the last fiscal year, with 84.1 percent of new hires being “Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, and racialized people,” according to the public broadcaster’s new corporate report. In the “reflecting contemporary Canada” subsection, the report shows the CBC had aimed for 65 percent of new hires to fall within the three groups, but surpassed it by 19 percentage points. Some employment lawyers believe the CBC’s fixation on race and disabilities in its hiring process is limiting the broadcaster from accurately reflecting the Canadian population, and could fall into hiring discrimination. “Moving away from merit-based hiring is a disaster no matter what the makeup of your organization is,” said Toronto-based employment lawyer Puneet Tiwari, partner at Levitt LLP. “If an employer wants a more diverse workplace, it should be an equal opportunity employer, but still hire based on merit. As an Indo-Canadian whose grandparents came here in the 60s, I’ve seen more representation across all media outlets.” CBC hiring doesn’t appear to reflect the overall ethnic demographics of the country. Canada’s most recent census data from 2021 showed that approximately 4.9 percent of Canadians were Indigenous, 26.5 were visible minorities (with 67.4 percent being white), and 27 percent had disabilities. The country’s demographics and population has dramatically changed in the last four years through immigration, however, increasing from 38.1 million in 2021 to 41.7 million in 2025... At the same time, the CBC described how they’ve had difficulties hiring top talent due to the precarious state of the journalism industry. “The shortage of specialized talent, both domestically and internationally, increases recruitment difficulty and costs. This challenge is compounded by a declining interest in media careers, particularly in journalism, which may adversely impact customer experience and revenue.”... the CBC faced backlash when Juno News reported the public broadcaster had hired at least 20 temporary foreign workers through the federal government’s Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIA) program since 2015, claiming there were no Canadians available to fill the jobs... Journalist Travis Dhanraj, a visible minority journalist, resigned from his role as a CBC news host in July, calling the public broadcaster’s diversity push a branding exercise. “With the CBC, everything is completely performative. They don’t actually care about hiring the best journalist, or letting the journalist even do their jobs…I think they’re [focused] on ticking boxes,” said Kathryn Marshall, one of the employment lawyers representing Dhanraj. “I think they tokenized him…they wanted him to fit a mould they thought a racialized on air personality journalist should be like”"
Proof that diversity is the way to recruit top talent
Woman, 23, ducked out of agreed paid sex with man then posed as brother to threaten him into paying S$8,100 - "A woman agreed to meet a man she met online for sex in exchange for S$400 (US$312), but later said she could not go through with it as her period had started. Despite being paid S$150 for her "time", the 23-year-old woman asked the man for more money. When the man ignored her, the woman posed as a fictitious, angry older brother and lied that she was only 17, threatening to report him for underage sex unless he paid up. Fearing exposure, the man transferred money multiple times, totalling S$8,100, before finally lodging a police report. Chang Wai Chain, now aged 24, was sentenced to 11 months' jail on Monday (Sep 15). She pleaded guilty to one count of cheating, which the prosecutor stressed could have been extortion had the charge not been amended. The court heard that Chang had been on the online Sugarbook platform, which connects "sugar daddies" and "sugar babies", as a 23-year-old female named "Jasmine". The victim, a 51-year-old man, contacted her via Telegram and they agreed to meet at his home for sex. On Apr 4, 2024, they met as arranged. She had a soft drink, chatted briefly with the man, then said she would not have sex because of her period. The man gave her S$150, instead of the agreed S$400, and no sexual acts took place. The next night, Chang contacted the victim, saying she had lost the S$150 and wanted more for a party. The victim agreed and sent her S$200 via PayNow. When she later demanded more money and he refused, she pretended to be her own brother. In messages sent to the victim on Apr 8 and Apr 9 last year, she lied about her age and told him he had committed a crime by offering to have paid sex with a 17-year-old. Eventually, she threatened to report him to the police and expose him on social media. He initially paid her S$3,000 and she kept pressing for more over several days. The victim finally lodged a police report on Apr 11, 2024, as he feared the demands for money would not cease. In total, he was cheated into transferring Chang S$8,100. During police investigations, Chang lied repeatedly, claiming she did not have an agreement with the victim for paid sex and claiming that she had asked him for S$6,000 only because she felt he had taken advantage of her. She also falsely claimed that a friend had sent the underage messages as a “joke” from her phone, and repeated this lie in six police statements between April and June last year."
UK-supplied ambulances sold off to fund repairs for officials' cars - "Ambulances supplied to Malawi by Britain under a three million pound scheme to help stop women dying in childbirth were quietly sold off by local officials to fund repairs to their own vehicles. A fully-equipped Toyota Land Cruiser ambulance and six tricycle scooters capable of ferrying women from villages to clinics were sent to Karonga, a remote district near the Tanzanian border, under the UK Aid Match Maternal Health programme. The scheme, which covered Malawi and Kenya, was funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and ran between 2015 and 2018. But all of the vehicles, along with medical equipment including an ultrasound machine, were quietly auctioned off by the Karonga District Council earlier this year, prompting outrage among locals and civil society groups who say the sale is a betrayal of their communities and risks undermining trust."
Clearly, colonialism is to blame for Africa's problems and the solution is even more money
Man spends up to $1,000 to 'test' escort service he found on Locanto: 'The call girls on the platform are fussy' | STOMP - "A man wonders why escort services are allowed to advertise online after he spent up to $1,000 to "test" one he found on classified advertisement website Locanto. Stomper Eric said he came across the platform while looking for a "licensed social escort service". To be clear, while the business may be registered, it cannot be "licenced" as an escort service. The Stomper said: "Since it was there, whether legal or illegal, I tested the personal service it offers. It offered call girls from A Hotel Joo Chiat and A Hotel Dickson. They call themselves Monroe Club. "Do the police know about this? They are everywhere at Orchard Road from Hotel Supreme to Mercure Singapore on Stevens at a much higher price compared to those in a budget hotel. And they move from one hotel to another to avoid suspicion and the authorities. "This was obviously operated by a well-organised syndicate." He said he spent up to $1,000 on the escort service and griped: "It doesn't offer good service as described on the platform. Their service is worse than the licensed Geylang brothel girl. "The call girls on the platform are fussy with many do's and don'ts. They are mostly from lndonesia, Vietnam, China and some from other countries on social visit pass. They are part of a huge syndicate with an international network." The Stomper asked: "Why they are allowed to actively engage on a public platform in Singapore? I have doubt that the authorities are not working on this area. "It's cause for concern that Singapore has become a place where this sex service is easily available and for those paying taxes in Geylang to run a legal brothel, but these syndicates avoid paying taxes while running a movable brothel from a hotel to the public housing estate." The Stomper also claimed he was scammed on Locanto. He said: "The most absurd and unbelievable is the platform is offering all kinds of services. This range of services is a cause for concern. Some offered a dating service for sugar mummies, but it was a scam. "I have been scammed by paying $500 to join as a member to get a sugar mummy.""
STOMP really publishes a lot of things
I moved to Italy for a better life. Six months on, here’s why I’m giving up - "Every local I’ve encountered has been charming, spirited and welcoming. The local nursery is an eight-minute amble down the hill and costs nothing. The food is fresh and reliably divine. The weather has been perfect – hot but never humid in the summer, mild in the spring and autumn. The country’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, has injected Italy with a shot of optimism and national pride. Most of the locals appear to approve of her – I’ve only heard hysterical American expats wail about her being a “fascist”. In short, Italy feels like the polar opposite of the UK, which was recently ranked – in the Global Mind Project’s annual Mental State of the World report – as the most “stressed” country in the world and the second most “miserable” (ahead of only Uzbekistan). I say this with sadness, because I’m proud to be British and I miss what it used to be. The property market in the UK is just as depressing. I own a studio in London, on which my mortgage repayments doubled earlier this year. It’s taken me eight months of enormous strain to evict my tenant whose contract had expired and had stopped paying their rent in full, but until recently refused to move out regardless (on the advice of the council, no less, owing to rules that are only getting worse for landlords under Starmer). I’m now having to sell it for significantly less than I bought it for five years ago. In Italy, while the “buy a cottage for €1” scheme is largely a farce, it is possible to purchase a fixer-upper with an acre of land for less than €80,000. As I’ve already mentioned, childcare is free, and people are generally cheerful. So why are we packing up and leaving? The bureaucracy, for a start, would test the patience of a saint. One day, when it’s a distant memory, I will laugh about how complicated it is in Italy to post a letter or book a doctor’s appointment, but the rage we wrangle with on a daily basis is currently still too hot. I could also do without the devout Catholicism (our son was subject to two hours of religious indoctrination every Wednesday at nursery, which felt a bit overzealous for a toddler). And, as child-friendly as this nation is, there are not many opportunities for young people coming out of secondary school. The last reason is my fault, not Italy’s: the language barrier has done for me. I’ve done an intensive Italian course, which certainly helped me get by, but the truth is, I am simply bad at foreign languages. I am shy and awkward enough around strangers in English... This has led me to conclude that no matter how beautiful the scenery or welcoming the society, I will never flourish anywhere in Europe, and is why we’re headed next (and hopefully, for good) to the US."
People are just realizing why there is a bulge on your beer glass - "The nonic pint glass was invented by Hugo Pick back in 1913 to 'provide an improved drinking glass'... The distinctive bulge serves not one but three smart functions. Firstly, it gives drinkers a much better grip, even when the glass is slippery with condensation - preventing embarrassing (and wasteful) drops. Secondly, it makes the glasses incredibly easy to stack and un-stack - very handy for harried bartenders during a busy shift. Unlike standard pint glasses that often stick together when stacked, nonic pints also rest perfectly on each glass's bulge, allowing them to be separated quickly without frustrating delays. But the biggest benefit - and the reason behind the unusual 'nonic' name - is that the bump cleverly protects the delicate rim if the glass gets knocked over."
Voices: We’ve never been healthier or more mindful. No wonder we’re all so miserable - "The rise of sobriety has coincided almost perfectly with the rise of loneliness. They – we – sit in a sober, sugary haze, absorbing humanity and connection through a screen. The digital detox generation might be physically healthier, but emotionally, they’re running on empty... There’s a happy medium that most people naturally find – one or two drinks a night, enough to soften the edges but not enough to erase the plot. The problem isn’t alcohol itself; it’s our relationship with it. We have come to treat booze as either poison or crutch – a moral binary that leaves no space for the ordinary joy of having a drink. Look to France or Italy. There, wine is a companion to life rather than its purpose. The idea of drinking to oblivion is considered strange. Alcohol is folded gently into the rhythm of the day – a glass with lunch, another with dinner – never with the goal of drunkenness in mind. Compare that with Britain’s boom-and-bust relationship with drink: we abstain religiously, then binge like Vikings at the weekend. It’s not a coincidence that countries where alcohol is demonised, or outright banned, tend to be more repressive and miserable. Prohibition doesn’t purify people; it represses them."
