Placenta Pie v Red Bull?

Ive never watched 'Mad Men'. In fact, I'm not at all sure that I had even heard of the TV series until last year. Needless to say I was amazed that this massively popular programme was now in series 5, especially when I had no idea what happened in years 1 to 4.

I know, very very little about it, apart from a bit of hype and some names like Christina Hendricks and January Jones.

I do know that Christina is celebrated for her curvy body, porcelain skin and red hair. As for January Jones, all I knew about her was that she had perhaps one of the coolest names ever. I mean, it really sounds like a famous persons name, or maybe the name of a stripper in Vegas, either or, it sounds very glam.

Now, however, I know another thing about January Jones. Yay me! Yup, I now know that she ate her placenta. Actually, I'm not sure if maybe that shouldn't be her baby's placenta. Though lets be honest, is ownership of the placenta really the issue here?

In fact, is it really an issue that some one ate a placenta? Animals do it, though some animals actually eat their young too, so maybe that's not a great example. In fact, I'll leave that statement there for the time being.

Ok, if some random person broke into maternity wards and started making off with 'used' placentas to turn them into placenta pie or whatever, that would most definitely freak me out. Even though, by rights, if I didn't want it, why shouldn't someone else have it?

I didn't eat THE placenta, I maybe chomped on the inside of my cheek during labour however, I can assure you that is the only part of my body I got my teeth into. But I don't even remember being offered the chance to eat my placenta, possibly it's not available on the NHS.

Maybe I was and was just to out of my face on Entonox, in fact, the only bit of child birth that I can recall feeling like how I imagined birth to feel like was when the placenta but came out. Rank and disgusting as that sounds, I can hand on heart say that not only did I not see it, but I've no idea what the hell happened to it.

And back to January Jones, if she wants to eat her freeze-dried placenta thats been shoved into capsules, then that's up to her. It's not my business and after all who am I to judge her?

Personally I used several cans of red bull a day to give me energy after having my son.

If I had been offered to have the placenta freeze dried & in capsules I'm not sure what I would've done. However after reading some recipes for placenta and seeing the pictures, I can honestly say that January made the better choice.

The Most Wonderful Thing About TIGHAR

Last year I wrote about a guy called Ric Gillespie who is the Executive Director of a company known as TIGHAR, pronounced tiger by the way, not the same way as Winnie the Pooh's mate. Anyway, TIGHAR stands for The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery so it's not hard to guess what they do.

Just in case you are having an off day, TIGHAR look for old, lost aircraft.

Amelia Earhart fascinates me, not in a creepy way, but more of a not letting things get in the way of what you want to do type way. In short Amelia Earhart kicked ass. Seriously, this woman was not held back by, well, being a woman in the early 1900's. She was a pilot, truck driver, navigator, writer (including an editor for Cosmopolitan), started her own airline and spent some time as a photographer.

Which to be fair, is pretty impressive in today's world, but even more so then, considering women only got to vote in the US in 1920.

Anyhow, in 1937, Amelia Earhart disappeared when her Electra aircraft vanished. Yup, that's right, it just vanished. No one really knows what happened to Amelia and her co-pilot Fred Noonan. Of course, with any sudden death/disappearance/mystery there are absolute pages of different conspiracy theories from alien abduction to being a spy.

So, why after so many expeditions, (at least 10) are TIGHAR going back, yet again to Nikumaroro?

Especially when the the bones fragments that were tested by forensic pathologists last year, we're found to be inconclusive, that is, they couldn't prove if it was human or not.

I appreciate that science is constantly moving forward and advances in DNA testing might be able to prove or disprove something in 10 years time that today we just don't know. Is it not time that someone had a word in the ear of Ric Gillespie and tell him that the chances of finding this aircraft & possibly Amelia and Fred's resting place is ever decreasing? Let's face it, this July it will be 75 years since all 3 of them (I'm including the plane in that) went AWOL in the world.

Some people, including Susan Butler, author of 'East to Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart' reckon that TIGHAR are looking in the wrong place altogether and that they really should consider moving their efforts to Howland Island instead.

What raised my interest in this was, if no concrete evidence for anything has been found, why has this story even made the news? I mean it's interesting and everything, but the couple were declared dead the same year that world war 2 started.

Surely, we should celebrate the life of the brilliantly brave and envelope pushing heroine that was Amelia Earhart not be looking for the remains of a woman who may have died from dysentery.

It was none other than US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who expressed interest in the expedition saying, “Even if you do not find what you seek, there is great honor and possibility in the search itself,” Clinton told the explorers Tuesday. “So, like our lost heroine, you will all carry our hopes.”

Jeez, Hillary the next time you speak to Ric, can you not suggest to him to look in a different place?

Anyone for more Pi?

It's Albert Einstein's birthday today and also Pi day. Both are incredibly important in science, maths, biochemistry, physics, the universe and probably many other areas that I haven't thought about.

I will admit that when I realise it's Pi day I get a bit excited, then a bit glum when I discover it's not pie day. No apple, rhubarb, Mississippi mud, key lime, custard or mincemeat pies.

It's a bit obvious that today should be Pi day as (in the US anyway) it is March 14th as in 3.14 or that number that haunts you right the way through high school.

I always thought that mathematics had no business in everyday life, it should be reserved for geeks, boffins and members of MENSA. So imagine how upset I was when I discovered that Pi features in nearly every aspect of life. Yup, that little equation of π=C/d goes a long way from astrophysics to designing drugs. Not designer drugs, as that is something entirely different, though knowing Pi, it will probably affect even that somehow.

π = 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510 and then some, in fact (some random information alert in which to impress/depress your mates) the last calculation that I know off Pi went to 10 trillion digits as calculated by Shigeru Kondo.

This number is something of a mystery as not only is Pi irrational and transcendental. In English that means that it can't be shown as one number divided by another and it should keep on going with out ending in any repeating numbers.

Now I remember learning that the funny symbol thing was the ratio of circumference to the diameter of a circle but apparently the whole π mystery goes much deeper.

I mean seriously, people have written books, songs and poems about Pi. There are t shirts, sweatshirts, mouse mats (for people that still have mouse mats), posters and car stickers. There are even jokes about Pi that I am never likely to understand at all, purely because I'm not a mathematical genius of course.

I am perfectly sure that if someone could do maths 'chat' like Brian Cox or Kevin Fong can do for other subjects then it would come alive and become way more interesting.

Anyone know of any candidates? Or anyone fancy tackling the subject of 2π or as some people say 'the true circle constant is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its radius, not to its diameter.'

Yup 2π or tau is considered to be more important than good old Pi.

However, I'll have to wait until June 28th for that of course.......

Zombies, Run! The Part where Will Smith Pops by to Lend a Hand

Just been dog walking and used 257 calories!!! Seriously the 'Zombie Run!' App is quite addictive, you get into the story & forget that you are actually exercising as well. Though it is a bit freaky walking along the side of the burn in the dark with a German shepherd, hearing zombie noises on your headphones & the odd cracking branch that you step on.

If you haven't watched 'I am Legend' then you won't understand why I kept expecting Will Smith to appear & have to break my dogs neck!!!! Nooooooo my poor Bon!

Im not saying for one minute that I am a complete scaredy cat but I will freely admit that when I plugged myself into my iPhone and started the app it was very easy to get immersed in the storyline.

The beauty of this is that you don't actually notice how far or long you have been exercising. It's part story, part exercise app, part game. The story begins with you in a helicopter on a secret mission about to land in Abel Township.

Abel Township is a small outpost of survivors from the zombie apocalypse and as you'd imagine they need supplies and all sorts of stuff. So it's a bit unlucky when someone, somewhere shoots down your helicopter.

Whoops, it's now time to run for your life cause those zombies heard the crash and are on their way over to you now.

Getting back to base becomes your 1st mission. In short you get a bit of story and chat from Sam Yao who is the comms guy. He will help you navigate round the zombies so you don't get eaten.

A quick word of warning though, make sure you have a suitable playlist, because I didn't. When the Sam finishes his part of the story 'invisible light' by the Scissor Sisters only served to heighten my tension.

At random intervals throughout your playlist you hear that you have picked up a first aid kit or other useful item for Abel Township, these can be given to the township after your exercise session.

When your tune finishes you get some more of Naomi Alderman's story. This is the way that the app goes. You start the mission, get a bit of story, pick up some supplies on the way, listen to your playlist and keep exercising until you either finish the mission then you can distribute your booty to the hospital, recreation area or wherever you see fit in order to grown the township.

It's a super story and I'm getting really quite into it if I'm honest, which can only be a good thing, I mean, if Six to Start and Naomi Alderman can encourage me to get of my behind and move then I reckon it would work for anyone who likes a good story.

Zombies, Run! No Shaun of The Dead

How seriously boring is getting fit? In my opinion it really should be fun and there is no way I'm a gym bunny. Now, this is the case for a few reasons and not just pure, unadulterated laziness.

I have asthma, which doesn't bode well for jumping about daft in shorts and a t shirt while using an inhaler, hell, if the proverbial psycho was after me with a machete, I'd have to stand and fight. Super hero I ain't.

The second reason for not being a gym bunny, is time. If I had time and the lungs to run about daft with my inhaler on a string round my neck, you would notice that I'm way to old for those kind of shenanigans anyway. I mean really!

So, in order to try to motivate myself I thought I'd buy 'Zombies, Run' from the App Store for my iPhone.

That means that there must be something about this app that makes me think it'll get me off my arse and do something to keep me fit?

The way i see it is, well, apart from the obvious, like anything bad happening to my loved ones, the idea of zombies scares the crap out of me. Plain and simple, the idea of them scares the bejeezus out of me.

You can negotiate with a person, you can try to reason with them, but not with a zombie. They just want to eat you and nothing short of being a good shot to their head is going to stop that happening. Jeez, you have to read 'Feed' by Mira Grant or 'World War Z' and you'll see exactly where I'm coming from.

So, yeah, this app covers both, who cool is that? Like a computer game you can outrun zombies in a post apocalyptic outpost/camp type place to get supplies to the other survivors but it combines a fitness element too. You see you actually have to run, walk or cycle, depending on your fitness level in order to get the supplies like ammunition, batteries, medicine and spare parts. (By the way, I'll ignore any comments of pink tents and 'carry on' films).

But this app isn't just running and a computer game with no integration, no! All the blurb about the game/fitness app suggests that it will encourage gamers to increase their fitness or provide runners/cyclists a more fun way to train.

You want to know if I bought it don't you? Well I did, after all the proof of the pudding and all that.....

I'll let you know how I go when I'm being chased by zombies and that is the important bit, cause there is no point in spending a fiver if the thing is worse than useless.

Happy Ending for Once

I've struggled to write a blog for a couple of weeks now and I can only think of 2 valid excuses.

The first one is procrastination. Yup, it gets me too, sometimes I can't be bothered to express myself through the written word which is usually a direct result of my second excuse.

My second excuse is that there is an ever decreasing amount of happy or quirky news, to the point where I can't find anything that is if any interest to write about. I'm not sure you'd find it interesting about how I gave myself a black eye or how on the anniversary of my Grandad's death I still manage to feel guilty for not managing to conjure up a way for him to live forever and those are the only major things that have happened to me over the past few weeks.

I could have written about Angelina Jolie's leg making a guest appearance at the Oscars. I could've written about PC Rathband taking his own life. I had written about Falkirk MP Eric Joyce until I decided that I actually couldn't make my mind up about him.

So that really leaves me with Lillian Hartley and Allan Marks.

Now, I've not chosen to write about them because there is nothing else out there in the universe, but because I think it's a lovely story.

On Wednesday, Lillian and Allan got married in Indio, California. Not really a story winner there in itself but when I tell you the rest, i want a huge big 'awhhhhh'. OK?

They met 18 years ago and having been living together since, Lillian is 3 years younger than Allan who is a mere 98 year old. (Before you ask, I haven't pressed the wrong buttons on the keyboard. I have typed 98).

After talking about marriage for years, the couple finally decided to take the plunge, saying that they had been way too bus

Riverside County Clerk's Office Deputy Commissioner of Marriages said that when the happy couple appeared at her window, Lillian said 'I want to marry this man'. At this point, Allan put his arm around his bride to be and said 'I want to be with her for the rest of my life'.

And so, like all good stories, they got married and had a special lunch at 'International House of Pancakes' to celebrate, then went back to their condo.

So, not only have the couple found happiness again after being widowed but they are now in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest combined age of a couple on their wedding day (193 years, 8 months and 3 days).

This is your chance now to go 'awhhhhh' for the couple who are cuter than kittens.