A collection of tips
Acne: Clarol Silver Serum seems to be effective in treating this, by re-balancing the skin flora.
Skin tags (fibromas): Dermaxx is a homeopathic remedy containing the essential oil Thuja occidentalis, which is known for its ability to remove skin tags.
Sources: various
Sunday, 19 July 2020
Sunday, 12 July 2020
Fake News About EU
Over the years, fake news has been spreading about EU. Here are the real facts.
Treating Brits abroad costs other EU countries five times as much as the NHS cost of treating EU citizens.
Educating migrant children does not cost £3.26 billion, as claimed by Vote Leave. In 2016 government figures reported that nearly 700,000 school-aged children had at least one parent who was a citizen of a European country. This figure includes people such as Nigel Farage; he has two children by his first wife who is Irish, and two more children by his second wife, a German national.
There has never been an EU ban on bendy bananas, or Bombay Mix. There has never been a ban on under-8's blowing up balloons - just a requirement that packaging has to include a safety warning. Likewise, the EU did not call for life guards at paddling pools - it has no jurisdiction to do this.
The Smoking Ban in UK pubs is UK law, and did not come from EU legislation.
There was no need to replace UK passports with a different colour cover as there this is a decision for individual countries. The decision to go from blue to burgundy was taken by the UK government.
There is no EU Army.
The UK remains metric. The change from Imperial measures happened in 1965, eight years before the UK joined the EU.
The EU did not try to put Kent in France. In a report looking at environmental changes in Europe, it was listed as having similar issues as France. Nor did it try to rename Trafalgar Square or Waterloo station.
The UK will still participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, as this is not an EU event. The annual international song competition is run by Eurovision, a television network that is part of the European Broadcasting Union, which also runs a radio network, Euroradio. Eurovision was set up for the purpose of exchanging TV programmes and TV news footage.
English will continue to be an official language of the EU as it is the most widely spoken language, understood by 51% of all adults. All 24 official languages of the EU are accepted as working languages, but in practice only three - English, French and German - are in wide general use, with English being the more commonly used. English is still an official language in Ireland and Malta.
Source: Various.
Treating Brits abroad costs other EU countries five times as much as the NHS cost of treating EU citizens.
Educating migrant children does not cost £3.26 billion, as claimed by Vote Leave. In 2016 government figures reported that nearly 700,000 school-aged children had at least one parent who was a citizen of a European country. This figure includes people such as Nigel Farage; he has two children by his first wife who is Irish, and two more children by his second wife, a German national.
There has never been an EU ban on bendy bananas, or Bombay Mix. There has never been a ban on under-8's blowing up balloons - just a requirement that packaging has to include a safety warning. Likewise, the EU did not call for life guards at paddling pools - it has no jurisdiction to do this.
The Smoking Ban in UK pubs is UK law, and did not come from EU legislation.
There was no need to replace UK passports with a different colour cover as there this is a decision for individual countries. The decision to go from blue to burgundy was taken by the UK government.
There is no EU Army.
The UK remains metric. The change from Imperial measures happened in 1965, eight years before the UK joined the EU.
The EU did not try to put Kent in France. In a report looking at environmental changes in Europe, it was listed as having similar issues as France. Nor did it try to rename Trafalgar Square or Waterloo station.
The UK will still participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, as this is not an EU event. The annual international song competition is run by Eurovision, a television network that is part of the European Broadcasting Union, which also runs a radio network, Euroradio. Eurovision was set up for the purpose of exchanging TV programmes and TV news footage.
English will continue to be an official language of the EU as it is the most widely spoken language, understood by 51% of all adults. All 24 official languages of the EU are accepted as working languages, but in practice only three - English, French and German - are in wide general use, with English being the more commonly used. English is still an official language in Ireland and Malta.
Source: Various.
Sunday, 5 July 2020
Documents - What to Keep and for How Long
More than ever, we have paperwork, even if we've gone digital. So what do we need to keep and for how long? (Applies to UK.)
Keep forever
Source: Feature in Good Housekeeping, February 2019
Keep forever
- Marriage, birth and death certificates, wills, house deeds, and adoption records. These are only issued in paper form, and can be difficult and costly to replace. Keep the paper copies in a locked and fire resistant security box.
- Car V5C logbook is also a paper document,which you must pass on to the next owner if you sell your car.
- Life insurance: make sure your beneficiaries know where this is kept and who is the main contact.
- Pensions: keep all your documentation, otherwise you could miss out on hard-earned money.
- Medical records: a medical exemption lasts for five years or until your 60th birthday. Keep a note of your NHS number as you will need this if you change GP.
- Keep hold of your child's Personal Child Health Record (the red book) if you have a paper version. There is now a digital version, the eRedbook.
- National Insurance number: if you've lost your NI card, you should be able to find it on a payslip, P60 or tax return. If not, you can apply for a replacement card.
- Pets: keep proof of their vaccinations. A pet passport lasts for ever, provided rabies vaccinations are up to date.
- Passport
- Driving licence: the paper counterpart to the driving licence has had no legal status since June 2015. You should destroy yours but keep your photocard licence. BUT paper-only licences issued before 1988 are still valid and must not be destroyed.
- Vehicle documents: keep car insurance, road tax and proof your car has passed its MOT until they expire. Either keep hard copies in a locked box or store digital copies in a safe place.
- Rental agreements: keep until you have received your deposit back from your landlord or letting agent in case you need to argue anything.
- Extended warranties have different time limits depending on manufacturer, so make a note of the expiry date.
Keep for two years
- Tax records, including your P60, coding notices from HMRC and proof of interest paid on bank accounts.
Keep for one year
- Payslips only need to be kept until you receive your P60.
- Utility bills: keep a record for a year in cases of problems, and so you can compare when it comes to deciding on a new deal.
- TV licences can be done online now, so you pay by direct debit, there is no need to worry. Otherwise, keep a note of when you need to review.
Self employed?
- Keep records of your business income so you can fill in tax returns and for five years after the 31st January tax return deadline.
- For a limited company, you need records of the company itself and its income. You need to keep records for six years after the end of the financial year. If paperwork isn't your strong point, hire an accountant to help.
- If you are a sole trader, running an unlimited business, you need to keep a record of your business income and expenses for your tax return alongside your personal income. Keep these records for five years.
Sunday, 28 June 2020
Factfulness
Factfulness by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund (Sceptre, 2018)
This book shows that the world is in a better position than we (and people in other countries) think, and explains why the way our minds work can be the reason why.
The human brain has evolved over millenia, and we are hard-wired with instincts (e.g. jumping to conclusions quickly, liking gossip and stories and craving fat and sugar) that helped our ancestors survive - but these instincts serve us less well today.
A low child mortality rate in a country tells us that their parents and their society protect them from dangers such as germs, starvation and violence, that most families have enough food, their sewage systems don't leak into drinking water, there is good access to primary healthcare and their mothers can read and write. Since 1960, all over the world, child mortality rates have dropped.
Humans tend to divide all things into two distinct and often conflicting groups - with a big gap in between. In 1965, 15 'developed' countries had just 2% of the world's population; women had fewer than 3.5 children, and child survival was above 90%. In the remaining 125 countries women had more than 5 children on average, and child deaths were common. Today families are small and child deaths rare for 85% of the world's population. Life expectancy in low income countries is 62 years, and most people have enough to eat, access to improved water and their children are vaccinated. Only in exceptional places (Afghanistan and South Sudan) is the rate of girls finishing primary school as low as 20%.
Only 9% of the world population lives in low income countries, but even these have better conditions than Afghanistan, Somalia and the Central African Republic, which are the worst places in which to live (in 2018). The majority (75%) of people live in middle income countries.
The terms 'developed' and 'developing' countries are unhelpful and it is better to use four income levels. At Level 1 (1 billion people), life is hard, with large families, water has to be fetched from a distance, cooking is done over a fire, poor soil means crops are poor, and you can't afford healthcare. At Level 2 (3 billion people), you can buy food you didn't grow, keep chickens, have a bike so it is easier to fetch water or get to work; electricity helps your children do homework but it is not reliable enough for a freezer. But illness could send you back to Level 1 again. At Level 3 (2 billion people), you have one or more paid jobs and can save money. You have a cold water tap, stable electrical line, perhaps a motorcycle, so you can go further for better paid work. Your savings help with accident and illness. Your children start high school and may well end up with much better paid jobs. At Level 4 (1 billion people), you are rich. With more than twelve years of education, you have been on an aeroplane, have hot and cold water indoors, can eat out once a month, and buy a car. Often it takes several generations for a family to move from L1 to L4, but it is possible.
Averages can mask reality. Average income in different countries can imply that all incomes in one country (e.g. US) are higher than in another (e.g. Mexico) but the reality might be that there is overlap with a proportion of Mexicans earning as much as some Americans.
Our instinct is to focus on the bad rather than the good, because of the misremembering of the past, the selective reporting by journalists, and a feeling that while things are bad, it is heartless to say they are getting better. While we should still be concerned by plane crashes, endangered species, crazy dictators and the like, we should still be able to accept that we are making progress, but the media and activists rely on drama to get our attention.
But today the life expectancy of the world is 70 years and the number of deaths per year from natural disasters has decreased to less than half over the last century. Today, 80% of the world's children have been vaccinated against some form of disease and worldwide, 30 year-old men have spent 10 years in school on average, and 30 year-old women 9 years on average. 80% of people worldwide have some access to electricity. In the US, the crime rate has been on a downward trend since 1990.
We tend to assume that things develop and continue in a straight line fashion. But the Ebola outbreak in 2014 was difficult to contain until it was realised that people were infecting others before showing symptoms themselves, so the number of cases was doubling every day. Once you know the cause, you can deal with the issue or realise that things are already changing for the better.
The world population is increasing very fast at present, so people are rightly concerned. But the evidence is that the rate is slowing. There are 2 billion children (aged 0 to 15) in the world today. UN experts predict that in the year 2100 there will still be only 2 billion children. But they also predict that by 2100, the world population will be increased by 4 billion people, as there will be more adults (age 15 to 74), so the shape of the population curve will change. These extra people come from children and young people who have already been born. Since the trend for smaller families is already well under way and will continue as income levels rise worldwide, the global population is predicted to stabilise in 2060.
However, people still believe that in many countries people have huge families, whereas the facts show that worldwide people are already having fewer children. The exception is those few countries still experiencing extreme poverty. Our problem is that we see where we are at present - and assume a straight line increase, whereas population levels are on a downward curve. But it will take three generations to stabilise.
The human fear instinct can also distort our view of reality. Some fears are hardwired deep in our brains for good reason (snakes, spiders, heights and being trapped in small spaces) as they helped our species to survive in the past. The media focus on disasters makes us feel the world is a dangerous place, even while it has never been less violent or more safe. Even natural disasters kill fewer people because more are better prepared, better educated and live in safer environments. While difficult to believe with media coverage of specific areas, even conflicts and fatalities from conflicts are at a record low. In the US, the risk of being killed in a car accident or homicide is 50 times higher than the being killed by a terrorist. Things can be bad, but also still getting better.
We also tend to focus on the individual victim when it makes more sense to make changes to benefit more people. Training village health workers and get as many children as possible vaccinated will do more good that providing expert care in hospitals that few can access. In 1950, 14.4 million children died before their first birthday. In 2017 the figure was 4.2 million - still too high but what a reduction.
Use the 80/20 rule. By understanding what is the biggest factor, you stand the best chance of changing things for the good. In most budgets 20% of items account for 80% of the spend, and confusions or missing decimal points can cause problems. Of the 7 billion people alive today, 1b are in the Americas, 1b are in Europe, 1b are in Africa and 4b are in Asia but 7 out of 10 people get this wrong. Arguing about emissions per nation is pointless; we need to state emissions per person.
Beware of 'the majority' as this can be as little as 51%; get the actual percentage. The generalisation instinct ends up stereotyping people and places, often incorrectly. Fewer pregnancies result in roughly two years less menstruation. Manufacturers of menstrual pads are dreaming up new needs for menstrual pads (thinner, for specific needs of 300 million women) in Level 4 countries, while ignoring the need for low-cost pads reliable throughout the day for the 2 billion menstruating women in Level 2 and 3 countries. Likewise, big pharmaceutical companies focus on developing new, revolutionary, life-prolonging medicine and are failing to reach huge markets in Level 2 and 3 countries where millions of people need drugs that have already been discovered at affordable prices.
In some countries you come across half-built houses. The owners are not disorganised, but can't get loans to finance building, and money can be stolen or lose value through inflation. So they build the lower story, then buy individual bricks as and when they can afford them and eventually build the upper floor.
The US spends more than twice as much per head of population on health care as other Level 4 countries, but life expectancy is 3 years less than them; 39 other countries have longer life expectancies. The reason is the lack of basic public health insurance.
When something bad happens we want to find who or what is to blame. We tend to look for bad guys who confirm our existing beliefs. Free, independent and truth-seeking journalism may not be representative.
The urgency instinct makes us want to take immediate action in the face of a perceived imminent danger, when we need to take time to investigate causes and assess the best actions.
END
This book shows that the world is in a better position than we (and people in other countries) think, and explains why the way our minds work can be the reason why.
The human brain has evolved over millenia, and we are hard-wired with instincts (e.g. jumping to conclusions quickly, liking gossip and stories and craving fat and sugar) that helped our ancestors survive - but these instincts serve us less well today.
A low child mortality rate in a country tells us that their parents and their society protect them from dangers such as germs, starvation and violence, that most families have enough food, their sewage systems don't leak into drinking water, there is good access to primary healthcare and their mothers can read and write. Since 1960, all over the world, child mortality rates have dropped.
Humans tend to divide all things into two distinct and often conflicting groups - with a big gap in between. In 1965, 15 'developed' countries had just 2% of the world's population; women had fewer than 3.5 children, and child survival was above 90%. In the remaining 125 countries women had more than 5 children on average, and child deaths were common. Today families are small and child deaths rare for 85% of the world's population. Life expectancy in low income countries is 62 years, and most people have enough to eat, access to improved water and their children are vaccinated. Only in exceptional places (Afghanistan and South Sudan) is the rate of girls finishing primary school as low as 20%.
Only 9% of the world population lives in low income countries, but even these have better conditions than Afghanistan, Somalia and the Central African Republic, which are the worst places in which to live (in 2018). The majority (75%) of people live in middle income countries.
The terms 'developed' and 'developing' countries are unhelpful and it is better to use four income levels. At Level 1 (1 billion people), life is hard, with large families, water has to be fetched from a distance, cooking is done over a fire, poor soil means crops are poor, and you can't afford healthcare. At Level 2 (3 billion people), you can buy food you didn't grow, keep chickens, have a bike so it is easier to fetch water or get to work; electricity helps your children do homework but it is not reliable enough for a freezer. But illness could send you back to Level 1 again. At Level 3 (2 billion people), you have one or more paid jobs and can save money. You have a cold water tap, stable electrical line, perhaps a motorcycle, so you can go further for better paid work. Your savings help with accident and illness. Your children start high school and may well end up with much better paid jobs. At Level 4 (1 billion people), you are rich. With more than twelve years of education, you have been on an aeroplane, have hot and cold water indoors, can eat out once a month, and buy a car. Often it takes several generations for a family to move from L1 to L4, but it is possible.
Averages can mask reality. Average income in different countries can imply that all incomes in one country (e.g. US) are higher than in another (e.g. Mexico) but the reality might be that there is overlap with a proportion of Mexicans earning as much as some Americans.
Our instinct is to focus on the bad rather than the good, because of the misremembering of the past, the selective reporting by journalists, and a feeling that while things are bad, it is heartless to say they are getting better. While we should still be concerned by plane crashes, endangered species, crazy dictators and the like, we should still be able to accept that we are making progress, but the media and activists rely on drama to get our attention.
But today the life expectancy of the world is 70 years and the number of deaths per year from natural disasters has decreased to less than half over the last century. Today, 80% of the world's children have been vaccinated against some form of disease and worldwide, 30 year-old men have spent 10 years in school on average, and 30 year-old women 9 years on average. 80% of people worldwide have some access to electricity. In the US, the crime rate has been on a downward trend since 1990.
We tend to assume that things develop and continue in a straight line fashion. But the Ebola outbreak in 2014 was difficult to contain until it was realised that people were infecting others before showing symptoms themselves, so the number of cases was doubling every day. Once you know the cause, you can deal with the issue or realise that things are already changing for the better.
The world population is increasing very fast at present, so people are rightly concerned. But the evidence is that the rate is slowing. There are 2 billion children (aged 0 to 15) in the world today. UN experts predict that in the year 2100 there will still be only 2 billion children. But they also predict that by 2100, the world population will be increased by 4 billion people, as there will be more adults (age 15 to 74), so the shape of the population curve will change. These extra people come from children and young people who have already been born. Since the trend for smaller families is already well under way and will continue as income levels rise worldwide, the global population is predicted to stabilise in 2060.
However, people still believe that in many countries people have huge families, whereas the facts show that worldwide people are already having fewer children. The exception is those few countries still experiencing extreme poverty. Our problem is that we see where we are at present - and assume a straight line increase, whereas population levels are on a downward curve. But it will take three generations to stabilise.
The human fear instinct can also distort our view of reality. Some fears are hardwired deep in our brains for good reason (snakes, spiders, heights and being trapped in small spaces) as they helped our species to survive in the past. The media focus on disasters makes us feel the world is a dangerous place, even while it has never been less violent or more safe. Even natural disasters kill fewer people because more are better prepared, better educated and live in safer environments. While difficult to believe with media coverage of specific areas, even conflicts and fatalities from conflicts are at a record low. In the US, the risk of being killed in a car accident or homicide is 50 times higher than the being killed by a terrorist. Things can be bad, but also still getting better.
We also tend to focus on the individual victim when it makes more sense to make changes to benefit more people. Training village health workers and get as many children as possible vaccinated will do more good that providing expert care in hospitals that few can access. In 1950, 14.4 million children died before their first birthday. In 2017 the figure was 4.2 million - still too high but what a reduction.
Use the 80/20 rule. By understanding what is the biggest factor, you stand the best chance of changing things for the good. In most budgets 20% of items account for 80% of the spend, and confusions or missing decimal points can cause problems. Of the 7 billion people alive today, 1b are in the Americas, 1b are in Europe, 1b are in Africa and 4b are in Asia but 7 out of 10 people get this wrong. Arguing about emissions per nation is pointless; we need to state emissions per person.
Beware of 'the majority' as this can be as little as 51%; get the actual percentage. The generalisation instinct ends up stereotyping people and places, often incorrectly. Fewer pregnancies result in roughly two years less menstruation. Manufacturers of menstrual pads are dreaming up new needs for menstrual pads (thinner, for specific needs of 300 million women) in Level 4 countries, while ignoring the need for low-cost pads reliable throughout the day for the 2 billion menstruating women in Level 2 and 3 countries. Likewise, big pharmaceutical companies focus on developing new, revolutionary, life-prolonging medicine and are failing to reach huge markets in Level 2 and 3 countries where millions of people need drugs that have already been discovered at affordable prices.
In some countries you come across half-built houses. The owners are not disorganised, but can't get loans to finance building, and money can be stolen or lose value through inflation. So they build the lower story, then buy individual bricks as and when they can afford them and eventually build the upper floor.
The US spends more than twice as much per head of population on health care as other Level 4 countries, but life expectancy is 3 years less than them; 39 other countries have longer life expectancies. The reason is the lack of basic public health insurance.
When something bad happens we want to find who or what is to blame. We tend to look for bad guys who confirm our existing beliefs. Free, independent and truth-seeking journalism may not be representative.
The urgency instinct makes us want to take immediate action in the face of a perceived imminent danger, when we need to take time to investigate causes and assess the best actions.
END
Sunday, 21 June 2020
People Fixing Our World
This is a series available on the BBC website. All are interesting but some are really worth recommending.
Treasure in the Toilet [BBC video 24 March 2020 available for one year]
Human sewage contains lots of valuable nutrients, so should we be recycling it? One of these nutrients is phosphorus, a key ingredient in fertiliser. It is an essential but limited resource which cannot be replaced by any other element.Once it finds its way into the sea it becomes impossible to recover.
We all excrete about half a kilogram of phosphorus a year, making cities a potentially rich source to the element. Phosphorus recovery from wastewater, sewage sludge (up to 40% to 50%) and the ash from incinerated sewage sludge (can reach up to 90%).
In the Netherlands human sludge is already being processed to recover phosphorus and recycle it into a high-tech fertiliser which will not leach into the environment.
END
Treasure in the Toilet [BBC video 24 March 2020 available for one year]
Human sewage contains lots of valuable nutrients, so should we be recycling it? One of these nutrients is phosphorus, a key ingredient in fertiliser. It is an essential but limited resource which cannot be replaced by any other element.Once it finds its way into the sea it becomes impossible to recover.
We all excrete about half a kilogram of phosphorus a year, making cities a potentially rich source to the element. Phosphorus recovery from wastewater, sewage sludge (up to 40% to 50%) and the ash from incinerated sewage sludge (can reach up to 90%).
In the Netherlands human sludge is already being processed to recover phosphorus and recycle it into a high-tech fertiliser which will not leach into the environment.
END
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