Category Archives: personal notes

The Budget Song 2010

To keep up with a small Dungeekin tradition here is a specially commissioned little Budget Song for you all.  Enjoy.

Ronan Keating ‘When you say nothing at all’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuJrEBtmM1Q&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

You can keep up with Dungeekin via his inimitable tweets @dungeekin

It’s amazing how you can still try to be smart,
Thanks to you our economy’s fallen apart,
This Budget Day you have done it again,
Talked a lot but you don’t say a thing,

Continue reading The Budget Song 2010

Boris on Question Time

Healthy eating. It’s something everyone knows they should do, but few of us do as consistently as we would like. The purpose of this guide is to share practical strategies for how to eat healthy and break down the science of why we often fail to do so. Check out the latest Exipure reviews.

Now, I don’t claim to have a perfect diet, but my research and writing on behavioral psychology and habit formation has helped me develop a few simple strategies for building and strengthening a healthy eating habit without much effort or thought.

You can click the links below to jump to a particular section or simply scroll down to read everything. At the end of this page, you’ll find a complete list of all the articles I have written on healthy eating.

I. The Science of Healthy Eating

  • Why We Crave Junk Food
  • How Food Scientists Create Cravings

II. How to Make Healthy Eating Easier

  • The Importance of Environment for Healthy Eating
  • How to Eat Healthy Without Noticing
  • What Should I Eat?
  • Two Simple Ways to Eat Healthy
  • How to Eat Whatever You Want Without Feeling Guilty

III. How to Stick to a Healthy Eating Habit

  • Address the Root Problem of Unhealthy Eating
  • How to Say No to Temptation
  • This One Phrase Will Help You Eat Healthy Time After Time
  • Where to Go From Here

healthy eating

I. The Science of Healthy Eating

Every nutritionist and diet guru talks about what to eat. Instead, I’d like to discuss why we eat the way we do and how we can change that. The purpose of this guide is to share the science and strategy you need to get the results you want.

Now, the benefits of good nutrition are fairly obvious to most of us. You have more energy, your health improves, and your productivity blossoms. Healthy eating also plays a huge role in maintaining a healthy weight, which means a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, heart problems, high blood pressure, and a host of other health ailments. (Genetics also plays a significant role. I’m not some crazy person who thinks genes don’t matter.)

But if there are so many good reasons for healthy eating, why is it so difficult to actually do? To answer that question, we should start by learning why we crave junk food.

Before we talk about how to get started, let’s pause for just a second. If you’re enjoying this article on healthy eating, then you’ll probably find my other writing on performance and human behavior useful. Each week, I share self-improvement tips based on proven scientific research through my free email newsletter.

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Why We Crave Junk Food

Steven Witherly is a food scientist who has spent the last 20 years studying what makes certain foods more addictive than others. Much of the science that follows is from his excellent report, Why Humans Like Junk Food.

According to Witherly, when you eat tasty food, there are two factors that make the experience pleasurable.

First, there is the sensation of eating the food. This includes what it tastes like (salty, sweet, umami, etc.), what it smells like, and how it feels in your mouth. This last quality — known as “orosensation” — can be particularly important. Food companies will spend millions of dollars to discover the most satisfying level of crunch in a potato chip. Food scientists will test for the perfect amount of fizzle in a soda. These elements all combine to create the sensation that your brain associates with a particular food or drink.

The second factor is the actual macronutrient makeup of the food — the blend of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that it contains. In the case of junk food, food manufacturers are looking for a perfect combination of salt, sugar, and fat that excites your brain and gets you coming back for more.

Here’s how they do it…

How Food Scientists Create Cravings

There is a range of factors that scientists and food manufacturers use to make food more addictive.

Dynamic contrast. Dynamic contrast refers to a combination of different sensations in the same food. In the words of Witherly, foods with dynamic contrast have “an edible shell that goes crunch followed by something soft or creamy and full of taste-active compounds. This rule applies to a variety of our favorite food structures — the caramelized top of a creme brulee, a slice of pizza, or an Oreo cookie — the brain finds crunching through something like this very novel and thrilling.”

Salivary response. Salivation is part of the experience of eating food, and the more a food causes you to salivate, the more it will swim throughout your mouth and cover your taste buds. For example, emulsified foods like butter, chocolate, salad dressing, ice cream, and mayonnaise promote a salivary response that helps to lather your taste buds with goodness. This is one reason why many people enjoy foods that have sauces or glazes on them. The result is that foods that promote salivation do a happy little tap dance on your brain and taste better than ones that don’t.

The Prime Minister’s Behaviour

With apologies to Tennessee Ernie Ford, let’s have another little song thanks to Dungeekin[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIfu2A0ezq0[/youtube]

New Labour’s legacy is money and blood,
Under them this country has been dragged through the mud,
The damage began with Grinning Tone,
Now the PM’s weak and it’s all gone wrong,

Continue reading The Prime Minister’s Behaviour

Gordon Brown and Alternative Voting

Downing Street has admitted “time is tight” to get laws for a referendum on scrapping Britain’s first past the post voting system through Parliament.  Gordon Brown wants to replace it with “alternative vote,” where candidates are ranked in order of preference.  The Prime Minister says this is a better way of choosing MPs but the Conservatives say the existing method is fair and “keeps extremists out”. 

To continue Boris’s theme of voting methods here is a latest offering from Dungeekin who thinks we should have a little song in honour of the debate:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4AL5weuhFs&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

  Continue reading Gordon Brown and Alternative Voting

Billy Bragg to withhold taxes in bank bonus row

Singer-songwriter and political activist says he is ‘no longer prepared to fund the excessive bonuses of RBS investment bankers’.  Read the story here.

Boris quote on the tax on bank bonuses:  “The Government is doing nothing more than fast-tracking the departure of this talent pool out of Britain”.

Here, with a satirical twist, is Dungeekin with his take on the situation – check him out @dungeekin

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjUA3RU4B8E&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Continue reading Billy Bragg to withhold taxes in bank bonus row

The Challenge of Housing and Homelessness

Guest Blog by raincoaster – presenting a challenge

“The view is more beautiful now that it is mine.” Ran

hendrik-mobile-office
Hendrik Gets His Chair by AHA Media

I can be challenging. Boris knows it, Melissa knows it, the nation of Albania knows it, I know it, you know it (well you know now, don’t you?). So I’d like to put this inherent challengenosity (a raincoasterism) of mine to good use and dare your city to match or beat my city in something that really matters. Read on, if you think your humble burb has what it takes:

We all know this blog belongs to the Mayor of London (although detached it is still his in spirit), and before that was based out of the cosmopolitan megalopolis of Henley, but for a moment I’d like to divert your attention to my own town, indeed my own neighborhood. I’d like to introduce you to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.                                                        (More photos of Hendrik on his revolving chair here)

Queen of Hastings Street
Queen of Hastings Street

With an average life expectancy in the mid-forties (thanks to disease, addiction, and the interlocking social and physical problems arising from substandard- or no housing), the DTES (Downtown Eastside) has been an archetypal skid row since the days in the last century when lumber was, in fact, skidded in the mud down the street on its way to the sawmill because wagons were for the rich folk.

Now, after more than a century of struggling with the issue, I’m proud to say that Vancouver has eliminated homelessness.

Image by Peter Davies, From the Hope in Shadows collection, COPYRIGHT: Pivot Legal Society, 2009

Yes, Homelessness is Over!  Watch this amazing news story

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o-YLGqFKBQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Continue reading The Challenge of Housing and Homelessness

Jo Johnson is the Candidate for Orpington

Jo JohnsonBoris’s brother has just won the selection to stand in the safe Conservative seat of Orpington where the current MP, John Horam, is standing down.

Stanley, his father, recently described him as “taller and blonder than Boris” and he is the Financial Times’ South Asia bureau chief.  Based in New Delhi since January 2005, he leads the team of FT journalists that covers India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.  In addition to his coverage for the print edition, he writes a regular online column, Engaging India.

A graduate of Balliol College, Oxford, from which he received a first class degree in Modern History, he has worked for the FT since 1997. His first job on the newspaper was on the Lex Column, which he joined after a a stint as a corporate financier in the investment banking division of Deutsche Bank.

He completed an MBA at INSEAD in 2000 and served as an FT Paris correspondent from 2001-2004. He is co-author, with Martine Orange, of The Man who Tried to Buy the World: Jean-Marie Messier and the Rise and Fall of Vivendi Universal (Penguin, 2003).

Many congratulations Jo and we look forward to hearing more about you in the coming months ahead.

What David Cameron can learn from Boris

 

To follow is the recent article in The Spectator I know many of you will find of interest and relevance.  

Althоugh mоѕt оf my mоtоrсусlе crashes оссurrеd ѕkуlаrkіng around on lіttlе trail bіkеѕ іn grаѕѕу раddосkѕ as a tееn, thеrе hаvе been thrее mаjоr сrаѕhеѕ in my lоng career.

Charley Boorman was only jоkіng whеn he tоld a group аbоut tо head оff on a Compass Exреdіtіоnѕ outback trір that “if you’re not сrаѕhіng уоu аrе nоt trуіng hard еnоugh”. It made mе realise that mоѕt of mу motorcycle сrаѕhеѕ have bееn саuѕеd bу trying tоо hаrd or rіdіng outside mу tаlеntѕ аnd аbіlіtіеѕ.

If уоu don’t lеаrn anything frоm сrаѕhіng, уоu are bоund tо mаkе the ѕаmе mіѕtаkеѕ аgаіn. Nоt that I advocate сrаѕhіng іn оrdеr tо learn, but уоu саn uѕе thе аdvісе frоm others whо hаvе crashed to teach уоurѕеlf nоt tо сrаѕh

Nеvеr rіdе tired
I hаd been оut саrvіng through some ѕаndу, lоаmу trаіlѕ nеаr home оn a Hоndа XR650 and was headed home, ԛuіtе fаtіguеd. Suddеnlу I ѕаw a trаіl off tо the lеft thаt I hаdn’t еxрlоrеd аnd аlthоugh I tоld mуѕеlf I wаѕ еxhаuѕtеd, I thоught I’d gо аnd investigate. Aftеr a ѕmаll jumр, I lаndеd іn some sand and thе frоnt tucked. Rather than gassing іt, ѕtаmріng my fооt down and рrосееdіng, I juѕt gave up аnd dropped thе bіkе, ѕtерріng сlеаr. Hоwеvеr, I dіdn’t put іn еnоugh еffоrt and my fооt gоt trарреd. I brоkе аlmоѕt every bone іn that fооt dеѕріtе wearing decent MX boots. Lеѕѕоn learnt. Nеvеr rіdе tired. Knоw when you hаvе hаd enough and gо hоmе.

Both hаndѕ оn thе bаrѕ
While іt is lеgаl tо rіdе wіth only оnе hand, іt mаkеѕ thе bіkе ԛuіtе unѕtаblе and іf уоu ѕuddеnlу hit a pothole оr a ѕеrіеѕ оf соrrugаtіоnѕ, the bіkе mау go іntо a tаnk ѕlарреr. I wаѕ ѕtаndіng uр оn a Trіumрh Tіgеr 800XC, rіdіng аlоng a dirt road аt аbоut 70km/h when I felt thе urgе tо ѕсrаtсh mу сhіn. Inѕtеаd оf slowing dоwn, ѕіttіng down аnd then ѕсrаtсhіng, I rеmоvеd mу left hand from thе bars juѕt аѕ I hit a series оf small potholes. They wеrе enough to ѕеnd thе bіkе іntо a tank ѕlарреr whісh dumреd mе оn my backside. Not a bаd crash, but then thе rіdеr bеhіnd ran оvеr thе top оf mе. Lesson learnt іѕ tо ѕtор or ѕlоw bеfоrе tаkіng a hаnd off the bars.

If people whо hаvе crashed соntіnuе tо blame ѕоmеоnе еlѕе fоr thеіr сrаѕh, thеу wіll nеvеr lеаrn and уоu wоn’t learn аnуthіng from them, еіthеr. Suck іt uр аnd tаkе аt least some of thе blаmе. Evеn if ѕоmеоnе turnѕ right оut іn frоnt оf уоu, ѕоmе оf thе blаmе muѕt be apportioned to уоu. Did уоu wаіt untіl уоu ѕаw the whіtе’ѕ оf thе mоtоrіѕt’ѕ еуеѕ? Dіd уоu slow dоwn? Did you рlаn an еxіt ѕtrаtеgу іf thеу ѕuddеnlу саmе out іn front оf уоu? Even thе rider іn the vіdео аbоvе аdmіtѕ he should hаvе lаnе ѕрlіt.

For a fuller version of this article read The Spectator

Ancient Greece : Index

Temple of Zeus at Nemea

Lessons of the Past

Boris Johnson has spoken of the contribution a knowledge of the classics can make to understanding our own times. In the modern political world — as in the ancient — the same theme is played out again and again … with the same characters : political leaders that let power go to their heads and then pay the price (although that price is oft paid in larger measure by those they lead). It’s not all bad news, however, for Greek history is also full of inspirational stories.

We have posted a series of articles on the ancient world — from a look at Athens in the Archaic Age (seventh and sixth centuries b.c.) to our own Age of Pericles — and hope they will prove interesting.



  1. The Archaic Age : emerging from the Dark Age
  2. Phidippides : the first Marathon run
  3. Themistocles and the Fleet of Triremes
  4. The Oracle at Delphi
  5. Ostracism : a useful tool we seem to have lost
  6. The Age of Pericles

If you’ve enjoyed an article — or even if not — please leave a comment on the relevant page. Visit Boris Johnson’s web-site for other interesting articles and discussions.