Beauty (2)

84% of teenage boys think that their lives would be improved if they had a better body; six out of ten say they worry about their body shape at least twice a week, and 25% would consider cosmetic surgery to look more like their celebrity idols.
Only 13% are happy with their bodies, with 68% dissatisfied with their legs, 67% with their arms, 65% their bottoms, 64% the size of their penis, 62% their faces and 49% their hair.


Sneak magazine/Daily Mail

Beauty

I was walking the dogs today, Sunday morning, in the heart of Loynton Moss woods. There was a mass of bluebells and little pink flowers I know not the name of.
It struck me how different this little world was from ours. Here the flowers held their beauty with modesty. They did seem not care if they were not seen by masses of human eyes.
In our society, beauty seems to be nothing unless it is flaunted. Beautiful people (and I use the word in its popular sense) have to be seen. At clubs, on the TV, in the papers, anywhere to get noticed.
How lovely it was, in the woods, to see modest beauty.

The Night

The night does not fall she rises
to catch the falling day
The day falls - crumples across the earth
its long shadow racing over houses
it swoons exhausted releasing
the fixity of the world
to scatter into the night,
and in the wilderness far from city lights
the horizon disappears
trees grip the earth
and fields become a cradle
blanketed by darkness
where I and the others lie.

Robert Thomas

Litigious Britain

A local education authority has urged schools to ban pupils from wearing swimming goggles, for fear that they pose a "drowning risk" to other children. The authority in Gloucestershire is concerned that teachers might be so distracted adjusting goggle straps that they wouldn't spot other pupils getting into difficulty. Teachers have been advised that children should only wear goggles in special circumstances, for instance if they suffer from allergies.

The England and Wales cricket board has decreed that every volunteer who comes into contact with junior players - umpires, groundsmen, scorers and even tea ladies - must be subjected to a full police vetting. The ECB has also warned coaches to insure against the possibility of "child welfare legal action".

Councils around Britain are ripping up paving stones and replacing them, with ugly asphalt, In an effort to cut compensation costs. In 2003 alone, 800 people a month tried to sue Liverpool council after tripping on uneven flagstones. Although 80% of the cases proved unjustified, it cost the council £5.6bn. Now, 60 streets in Liverpool are getting an asphalt makeover - to the horror of residents - and Bradford and Durham have begun similar schemes.

A village carnival that has been running since 1912 has been axed after someone threw a water bomb. Organisers of the Tottan and Eling carnival are being sued for "distress and pain" by a woman who was hit last year by a balloon filled with water. As a result, insurance costs have risen so high that the village has been forced to cancel the event.