Been stuck in a basement for the last couple of weeks so not a lot to report unless you’re interested in the coagulation of tepid drain leakage. I’ve finally summoned the energy to comment on some older bits of news and a headline from today.

Health groups point out (video link) that waist measurement is a better indicator of obesity than a height vs weight calculation (i.e. the Body Mass Index). Rearrange the following: shit, no, sherlock. In fact, let’s just have a quick browse through the BBC archives. What’s this? Scientists believe that waist measurement is a better indicator of obesity than using scales even as far back as two years ago? Tabula Rasa has been pushing this fact for a while now (although I’ve long since archived the post) which probably means I can get government grant for research into “How to apply common sense in a practical and relevant manner.”

The government also announced that they are appointing Caroline Flint as the new “Minister for Fitness” to help tackle the obesity problem in Britain. Crime busting Caroline, who, along with trusted sidekick and husband Phil foiled an armed robbery in 1994, is now taking on the issues of health, diet and a UK “fitness strategy” so that, come 2012 and the London Olympics, we aren’t all a nation of fat bastards. This announcement is a last minute u-turn as the foxy Ms Flint’s new role was originally destined to be filled by current deputy Prime Minister and pie-munching, croquet fan, John Prescott.

The standards of teaching between the ages of 11 and 16 in the UK are, quite frankly, outstanding. This is not a news story in itself, although I think it should be, but is inferred from the proposal announced today that children should be learning their times tables a year earlier than they currently do because the numeracy standards of 11 year olds is worryingly low. In last year’s national curriculum tests, only 76% of students achieved the correct standard (which means, for those of you struggling with that figure, 69 out of every 100 pupils have problems with simple maths). However, the good news is that between the ages of 11 and 16, these problems with basic levels of numeracy are overcome as this years GCSE results are better than ever, GCSE’s in no way whatsoever being dumbed down or considerably easier than O-Levels ever were.

In other news, the sun’s come out again.