What the F***, China?!

 Apparently, President Xi Jinping is worried about food waste in China.  Evidently, approximately 18 million tons of food is wasted in the country (as measured in 2015) (earth.org). 

China has the largest population on earth and 18 million tons of food could feed the population of South Korea. Or about 30 to 50 million people (earth.org)

So what was his suggestion in order to combat food waste?

Have restaurant-goers weigh themselves and then choose what to eat from a suggested menu based on their weight. 

Ummmm. WHAT THE F***?!

So, one restaurant in Hunan Province took this advice to heart and installed two scales in their entryway. Patrons were encouraged to weigh themselves and then there is a guide nearby the scales to suggest what the patron should order. 

The restaurant states they never forced anyone to weigh themselves but were trying to advocate for less food waste. But really?  How would you feel walking in to a restaurant and seeing a scale there and a guide for what to order based on what you weigh?

Other measures taken in the country are charging restaurants a fee for the amount of food they produce, an online system to track that, and on-site composting. 

The restaurant in Hunan Province is keeping the scales, despite outrage. They apologised for anyone who was upset, but they're not changing their new policy. 

What the F***, China?!

What the F***, Russia?!

 It's probably unsurprising that the most recent news coming out of Russia is that a dissident of Putin's government has been poisoned. It seems to be the go-to method of silencing anyone who doesn't tow Putin's party line. Or doesn't tow the Kremlin's party line. 

Alexy Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who wants to 'nullify United Russia' and vote Putin out of office, was allegedly poisoned while waiting for his flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk, where he had been campaigning. While waiting for his flight back to Moscow, Navalny and his team sat in the airport and had tea.  Not too long after takeoff, Navalny went into the washroom on the plane and was unable to get out. There is video evidence in which you can hear Navalny moaning and screaming in pain. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Omsk. 

Medical personnel took Navalny off the plane and by the time he arrived at the hospital, he was in a coma. Plain-clothes and uniformed police officers descended on the hospital where conflicting reports from doctors and policemen reported that a dangerous chemical was found in Navalny's blood and then that there was no such chemical found in his blood. 

Navalny's wife and his press secretary demanded that he get transferred to a hospital abroad. It seems that it took the interference of Western leaders before Navalny was transferred to a hospital in Germany.

Navalny's poisoning is only the latest in a long line of poisonings thought to be the work of the Kremlin to silence dissidents and political rivals. 

Two years ago, the founder of the Russian media outlet 'Mediazona', and activist, Petr Verzilov says he was poisoned.  He had been in a courtroom all day while his girlfriend was being tried for wearing a police officer's uniform and running onto a soccer pitch. Verzilov says that these poisonings are done in places that are easily controlled.

When they got home, Verzilov took a nap and when he woke up he fell ill.  He was unable to move properly, could not see properly, and eventually lapsed into delirium in which he could no longer recognize his girlfriend. 

In the hospital, relatives were barred from seeing Verzilov, and police and other security personnel descended on the hospital.  By the time he was released from the hospital for treatment in Germany, there was no sign of any toxin in his blood. 

Another opposition politician states that there were attempts to poison him on at least two occasions.  

Vladimir Kara-Murza, currently the vice-chairman of an NGO called "Open Russia" which promotes democracy and civil society in Russia, says the first time was in 2015 after Boris Nemtsov was shot and killed.  Both Nemtsov and Kara-Murza backed a bill that would impose sanctions on Putin's inner circle with regard to human rights violations. Just as with the previous cases, doctors did not find any toxin in Kara-Murza's blood.

The second attempt was in 2017 where Kara-Murza suffered the same symptoms as the 2015 incident including multiple organ failure.

In 2004, journalist Anna  Politkovskaya was poisoned on her way to Beslan in North Ossetia, where a gunman had taken teachers and students hostage in a school.  Politkovskaya lapsed into a coma from which she did recover.  Two years later, she was shot and killed.

There are other similar cases, including a former double agent found with his daughter, unconscious on a park bench in the UK; the poisoning of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London, though that was done with polonium; and also Yuri Shchekochikhin, a journalist who was allegedly poisoned with a radioactive substance. 

For the most part, it would seem that these poisonings are meant more to scare the victims, not necessarily kill them.  

It's to send a message to stop what they are doing. Don't be a dissident, don't speak out against Putin, don't support bills that impose sanctions on Putin's inner circle. Keep your head down, and don't cause problems. 

What the F****, Russia! Stop poisoning people just because they disagree with you! It's the 21st century and communism is soooo 1984.

(with sources from Al Jazeera)

What the F*** People?!

 There is little debate that breastmilk is the best nutrition for infants.  However, it's also important to note that not every parent can breastfeed for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to, inability to produce, health issues that prevent breastfeeding, and adoption. What do you do if you want to feed your baby breastmilk, but you can't breastfeed? Well, there's always formula, if you don't want to go any other route, like buying milk off the internet or accessing a breastmilk bank.  

But past infanthood, is breastmilk still good for people?

I watched an episode of the Netflix show "[un]Well" (okay I watched the whole series. And it just gets more and more disturbing). Season 1, Episode 3 "Bulking up with Breast Milk". 

All I can say (though I will say more) is What the F***!?

The premise of the episode is that consuming breastmilk can help treat cancer, can help bodybuilders bulk up, and that it's just simply good to consume as milk for cereal and to put in your scrambled eggs. Yes. In eggs...

So, there are a variety of ways to get breast milk. Some are a bit dodgier. 

Milk banks are not a bad way to go if you really want to consume human milk.  But remember a milk bank's first priority is for pre-term babies in NICU.  But then they'll sell the milk to just about anyone willing to buy it, it seems. 

Sure, donors are screened, and the milk is pasteurized, but they'll still sell it to people, say, bodybuilders or men who claim breastmilk cures their prostate cancer. 

I suppose, if that's your thing, getting it through a milk bank is probably the best thing at least it's been pasteurized. 

But how good is breast milk for adults? Does it have the same benefits as it does for children? If you're a bodybuilder, is using it in protein shakes - with protein powder - doing you any good?

Some doctors and nutritionists think there's no problem with adults drinking breast milk.  Actor Amber Tamblyn's husband, David Cross, has had her breast milk - milk she pumped to dump after her first post-baby alcoholic drink.  One of the Kardashians believes drinking and rubbing it into her skin helps with her psoriasis, though there are no studies or evidence to prove that it has any benefits. 

Tamera Mowry drinks her sister Tia's breast milk. She says it boosts her immune system. 

But honestly? What the F***? It's a bodily fluid. If you're not getting it from a milk bank, which at least will pasteurize the milk, how do you know that the person you've met on Facebook doesn't have a communicable disease?

Honestly people.  What the F***?! 

What the F***, Trudeau!?

Justin Trudeau was elected on the basis of his name.  Anyone who thinks differently, well, that's okay. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.  But much like our neighbour to the south, Trudeau had no political experience prior to becoming our Prime Minister.  The closest he came is being the son of the Prime Minister in the 1970s. 

The Trudeau Administration has been wrought with controversies since Trudeau was first elected in 2015.

He has committed several ethics violations.

The most recent one is the one that is being discussed currently in the news.  

Trudeau awarded the We charity, run by brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger, management of a $900-million student grant program. That decision has now been canceled in light of the new scandal.

What scandal you ask?  The charity has ties to the Trudeau family. They have paid the family up to $300,000 for speaking engagements. Trudeau said that despite his family's involvement with the charity, he did not see any conflict of interest.  But then realized and stated that he should have recused himself from Cabinet discussions on awarding the grant management. 

If only this were the only scandal in the Trudeau administration.  But it's not. It's just the most recent. 

His first ethics violation was in 2017. Trudeau accepted a vacation with his family to the private island in the Bahamas of the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam (ipolitics.com). The Ethics Commissioner ruled that this could cause influence within the Liberal Party through the Prime Minister.

His response was that he would clear all his family vacations through the Ethics Committee. 

The scandal had the effect of dropping his approval rating from 43.2% down to 37.3% (CBC.ca)

But one ethics violation wasn't enough.  His second came just last year, 2019, when Trudeau tried to influence the then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Reybould to overrule a decision not to grant a deferred prosecution agreement to SNC-Lavalin. (CBC.ca). 

This brought his approval rating down to 29.6%.  But Trudeau has time on his side. He currently has a majority government, and polling done before the most recent scandal showed support for Trudeau's government at about 40.4% (CBC.ca)

What will be interesting to see will be how this scandal, coming during the government's handling of the coronavirus, will affect post-scandal polling. 

But really, what the F***, Trudeau?