2010 February « Bradley Simpson

Archive for February, 2010

Let’s keep it in perspective

February 22, 2010

Ian Ferguson’s comments on the merits of funding Winter Olympics athletes needs to be kept in perspective. The average NZ tax payer pays about $2,600/year in tax to the welfare system, and about 8 cents/year towards the Winter Olympics athletes (or 30 cent, but only in Olympic years).

Without wanting to get into a government spending discussion, if the government decided to double this contribution to Winter Olympics athletes (from $1m to $2m, or 8 cents to 16 cents per ‘average’ NZ taxpayer/year) would it really bother anyone?

Not me.

Tags:Olympics, SPARC, Winter Olympics
Posted in Olympics, Sport | Leave a Comment »

Can you win a gold medal by accident?

February 21, 2010

Watching the Winter Olympics today I was reminded of this race from Salt Lake City:

Now watch the interview with Steven Bradbury:

half a dozen blokes had just fallen over and they wanted me to go up there and take a gold medal for it

Trained for 12 years, persevered following some serious injuries, tactically chose to stay out-of-the-way during the semi- and final. Does not sound like an accident to me.

Tags:Lucky, Speed Skating, Winter Olympics
Posted in Olympics, Sport | Leave a Comment »

Honest food labeling

February 17, 2010

Imagine for a moment that every food available in the supermarket was packaged in a one-style-fits-all manner. All food was either in its fresh state, or in clear labeling, with only the top 2-3 ingredients determining the foods name.

I think this would immediately encourage people to buy ‘food’, rather stuff that has been manufactured to resemble food, more often.

I have looked through my cupboard, and present below, as a point of example, what some foods would become (current name, followed by actual components (new name):

Pumpkin; actual: Pumpkin

Vanilla Almond Cluster Crisp; actual: Cereal sugar

Drinking Chocolate; actual: Sugar cocoa

Maple flavored syrup; actual: Fructose (sugar) water sugar

Sweet Tangelo Orange Marmalade; actual: Sugar water

Honey, can you pick up some cereal sugar, sugar cocoa, sugar water sugar, and sugar water while you are down at the supermarket?!

It would of course make shopping a hell of a lot more confusing, but would at least increase the consciousness of what were are actually buying and eating.

Tags:Food labels
Posted in Diet, Education, Food, Health, Nutrition, Weight Gain, Weight Loss | Leave a Comment »

What the sports supplements companies don’t want you to know

February 16, 2010

Whole grain cereal and milk is just as good for your body’s recovery after exercise as a Sports Drink.

note: study ‘supported’ by General Mills Bell Institute

Posted in Exercise, Fitness, Food, Health, Nutrition, Sport | 1 Comment »

How to increase your Basketball free throw percentage

February 15, 2010

Some recommendations:

Aim to spin the ball backwards 3 times before it goes in the net
Aim for apx 2 inches in front of the back rim
Launch angle of 52 degrees (the top of the ball arm will be about 2 inches below the top of the backboard

Tags:Basketball, Free Throw
Posted in Basketball, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Women eat less calories with more male company

February 14, 2010

Interesting ‘naturalistic’ study which showed women eating at a University cafeteria ate fewer calories when in the company of men, than they did by themselves or in the company of women. The total calories they consumed also increased with the more men that were present.

Posted in Diet, Food, Nutrition, Weight Gain, Weight Loss | Leave a Comment »