Scary: Pro-Ana

I find it a good initiative to once again draw attention to the problem of anorexia nervosa among young girls, which is commonly thought to be inspired by the ever thinner models on the catwalk. From an ad like the Nolita ad, there should be no doubt that an anorectic body is not an incarnation of beauty, but the sad result of a sick mind.
The scary thing is that this ad has been critisised for being an inspiration for the anorectic girls. I did not want to believe that anyone could ever be inspired by this photo, but then Nola showed me some websites made by supporters of the pro-ana movement. In their world view, anorexia is not wrong and no sickness, but an ultimate level of control over your body. They encourage each other with photos of ever more bony bodies and write tips to each other on how not to eat when you are hungry, the easiest ways to puke, and burn extra calories at every possible occasion. That is scary - and really sick.

Illustration courtesy: The Furor Over an Anorexia Ad - TIME magazine

Green yellow cabs

Last night I dreamt I was in New York, I was on my way out to go dancing with my sister. I saw the streets were filled with yellow cabs as usual, but then I noticed something strange: the colours of the cabs were changing. When they were driving normally, they were yellow, but when they were holding still or running slow as in a traffic jam, they would change to green.

I do not remember from where, but somehow my subconsciousness has picked up the headline that "NY yellow cabs to go green by 2012" and woven it into my dream in this special way. I had forgotten everything about this news item until I told my dream to a friend and realised that I had read something about the yellow cabs recently. Funny how the mind works.

Photo courtesy: www.jezblog.com

Ban Bamse & Kylling

The recent events in Poland, where Ewa Sowinska has pointed out the danger of homosexual tendencies expressed by the purple Teletubby Tinky Winky, gives inspiration to further investigation. We should seriously scrutinize all the innocent-looking children series for such more or less apparent "Bad Influence". For example I suggest we start with the Danish tv-series "Bamses Billedbog", where the two male characters Bamse and Kylling often hug, hold hands, or even dress up as husband and wife (Sven Herlig and Dorthe Elisabeth, see picture). This is of course an apparent example of how simple games is a direct suggestion for your children to become homosexuals.
Illustration courtesy: DR.dk

New Center for Protein Research

In the news: The Novo Nordisk foundation has given a grant of 600 million Danish Kroner (approx 80,5 m) to the establishment of a new Danish centre for protein research. The new centre will be placed within the Panum Institute in Copenhagen. The first two scientific leaders of the centre have been appointed: Matthias Mann, a world leader in Mass Spec research, currently positioned at the Max Planck institute in Munich and Søren Brunak, the current leader of the bioinformatics facility CBS at DTU.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research is now in the news worldwide. Read the article in Nature News.

US school shootings

The first time I ever heard of a shoot-out in a US school I thought it was a one-time incident by crazy young people who happened to be in possession of firearms. But it sends cold shivers down my spine every time I see the story repeated in the news. Every time a new school, new state and new gunmen. It draws a sad and scary picture of the US culture, since it can repeatedly foster these insane events.

Most recently at Virginia Tech University 33 people were killed, including the gunman.
Read the sad story at BBC.