Interesting Links for 28-10-2011

[andrewducker]

• French government 'banning vegetarianism' in school canteens
  (tags: food france vegetarianism )
• Wheat is EVIL. Apparently.
  (tags: wheat gluten weight diet food health )
• Samuel L. Jackson Is the highest-grossing actor of all time.
  (tags: SamuelLJackson movies money )
• Sentencing laws: Mandatory life and public protection. A difficult balancing act
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Comments

[andrewducker]

Delayed because there was a link to "deadline.com", and LJ's posting filters refuse those:

http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/warners-pulling-harry-potter-out-of-circulation-dec-29-with-12-1b/

[andrewducker]

Although apparently you can comment with them. Intriguing!

[theweaselking]

.... wait what?

(the "filters" comment, not the article)

[andrewducker]

http://andrewducker.livejournal.com/2541954.html
and
http://andrewducker.livejournal.com/2542086.html

[hano]

time to up sticks and go to Dreamwidth I think...

[andrewducker]

If you'd like an invite then ask away.

(You don't need one if you get a paid account, which isn't expensive.)

They're having problems importing from LJ at the moment, due to the recent security changes, but I'm sure they'll get that fixed.

[momentsmusicaux]

I'm pondering the upping sticks too.

Had a look at the import. Does it convert all the privacy settings on each post too?

[andrewducker]

Yup. It imports all of the groups you have set up, and then sets up the security in the same way.

[threegoldfish]

Has France always been this ban-happy or is this a new, reactionary government thing?

[andrewducker]

I don't think they think they're being ban-happy. Vegetarianism has never really caught on in France, so it's just not something they've taken into account.

[threegoldfish]

It just seems like every story I see about France is "France bans this" or "France bans that". Probably based on how I get my news more than anything.

[andrewducker]

There was the Burqua thing as well. Can't think of anything else apart from those two.

[alitheapipkin]

I was right there with the anti-wheat guy until he said people should eat soy products instead. Soy is evil in an entirely different way - currently responsible for high rates of deforestation in the Amazon and it trashes soil fertility. When did food chices get some complicated? I can't win :( Even the co-op have started using palm oil in their own brand products despite it being the number 1 cause of deforestation in SE Asia.

[nancylebov]

Also, he was talking about people gaining a bit over 40 pounds/year because of excess calories and appetite from wheat.

I can believe there are people who gain 40 pounds in a year, though I don't think its very common for non-dieters. However, year after year? 200 pounds in five years? Rare. 400 pounds in 10 years? Hardly anyone.

[alitheapipkin]

Oh yes, I don't believe that without peer reviewed science to back it up. I should have said that I had sympathy with his argument rather than implying I completedly agreed with everything he was saying.

[octopoid_horror]

The anti-wheat guy almost sounded alright until the last "hey, try the placebo effect that you could get from any diet, bad science celebrity endorsed fad or otherwise!" bit

[spacelem]

The French ban thing (okay, it isn't technically a ban) seems like a very dogmatic approach to me. I don't think that a vegetarian diet is essentially unhealthy for children of school age (although I have yet to be convinced about vegan diets).

In addition to the "won't eat" people, what about the "can't eat" people? They say that they can only offer one meal option per day. Do they take equal care for gluten intolerant children? For lactose intolerant children? What about nut allergies? Are they just going to decide that everyone who isn't catered for by their particular diet just has to go elsewhere?

I recall my school offering many different options, with separate salad bar and snack bar. It seems that France's restrictions are more like sheer bloody mindedness than due to any practical reasoning.

[andrewducker]

Schools vary dramatically. I went to one high school that had a variety of lunch options, and one that didn't do meals at all. Both of them had over 1000 pupils at them. My friend Ed went to a high school with about 100 people in it. I suspect that their meal options were rather more confined.

[spacelem]

My school from 7-11 was a boarding school in Yorkshire. They provided vegetarian food for vegetarians (but there was no option about it, the vegetarians just got served veggie food, and we meat eaters where never asked if we fancied substituting our bacon for something else less tasty). Then again, you had nowhere else to go if you didn't eat it. Plus there was a "you don't get to leave the table until it's finished" rule, which pretty much sucked for me whenever tomatoes or mushrooms were on the menu (or curry, which I had not yet learnt to love).

[naath]

For a small school it's much easier to make just one thing than lots of options; and if you give options and let the kids choose freely then it's harder to ensure that they all take some of every kind of nutrient than if you are just dishing up single meals.

I expect the in-practice solution is for children who can't/won't eat whatever the canteen is offering to bring in their own lunch. Which is more effort for parents.