In the news

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19353039

discuss.
It's an astringent, with no evidence to suggest that it has any tightening properties whatsoever, other than to make your foofoo feel tighter to yourself.

It's a cynical product, preying on innate prejudices.

But it has gold dust and pomegranate

I hate the skin-whitening thing in east asia - it's the main selling point for beauty skin products in the same way that anti-wrinkle is here. It used to be true that it had nothing to do with wanting to be caucasian: white skin = no working in the fields = privilege and wealth (just as people here used to powder their faces pale/white). However, I don't think that's strictly true anymore. What about cosmetic eye surgery? To a minority (I'm sure it's still very much a minority) the aspirations of western culture have become conflated with aspiring to be western, and white at that.

I know nothing much about south asia though, just to be clear.

This always annoys me. Indian beauty norms are not about wanting women to look white. It's not to do with that at all, they (in general obviously) favour the light-skinned-Indian look, not a white-as-in-Caucasian look.

Their culture around beauty and skin colour is no more 'troubling' than ours, it's exactly the same, but we favour tanning as opposed to lightening.

Now I think both are slightly troubling, we risk skin cancer to get darker skin through UV light, they risk similar problems through bleaching their skin to go lighter, but it needs to be highlighted that 'they' are not trying to look like 'us', any more than 'we' are trying to look like 'them'.

I hate the skin-whitening thing in east asia - it's the main selling point for beauty skin products in the same way that anti-wrinkle is here. It used to be true that it had nothing to do with wanting to be caucasian: white skin = no working in the fields = privilege and wealth (just as people here used to powder their faces pale/white). However, I don't think that's strictly true anymore. What about cosmetic eye surgery? To a minority (I'm sure it's still very much a minority) the aspirations of western culture have become conflated with aspiring to be western, and white at that.

I know nothing much about south asia though, just to be clear.

I was perhaps making too big a generalisation to lump the two together, but I sort of assumed that the skin-bleaching thing in India was part of a similar phenomenon to the 'caucasianising' surgery in South East Asia.

Also I wasn't trying to imply that it was any worse, or indeed different, to the obsession with tanning in Western Europe, that's equally absurd and dangerous, but perhaps without the colonial and racial hierarchy undertones. So actually maybe it is worse.

my comment is a minor point. by and large skin-whitening in east asia has almost nothing to do with colonialisation and pre-dates it by centuries.

the whole thing though, ugh. and srsly who wants to 'feel' like a virgin again?! it's not being done for the woman's benefit.

What about cosmetic eye surgery? To a minority (I'm sure it's still very much a minority) the aspirations of western culture have become conflated with aspiring to be western, and white at that.

I know nothing much about south asia though, just to be clear.

The eye roundening and removal of asian characteristics is extremely common among aspiring models, popstars and media personalities in Korea and Japan.

Plastic Surgery idol in japan - YouTube

I just learned (about 10 years late), that more veterans of the Falklands War killed themselves in the years since the 1982 conflict than died during the war itself.

This has blown my mind.

The Falklands was horrific. Not only was a relatively young and inexperienced sent to a hostile and remote theatre, they had been trained and equipped to fight street skirmishes in Northern Ireland, not freezing bogs in the South Atlantic against a country with planes, ships and professional (if conscripted) soldiers. Whereas now anyone joining the forces knows what they are getting into, back then if you joined the Navy or Air Force in particular it was reasonable for you to expect never to have to actually fight anyone for the entirety of your career. As such there simply wasn't any understanding of post traumatic stress and there certainly wasn't any infrastructure to deliver effective treatment. People were just sent home, patched up and expected to cope. Hundreds of them didn't of course.

my comment is a minor point. by and large skin-whitening in east asia has almost nothing to do with colonialisation and pre-dates it by centuries.

the whole thing though, ugh. and srsly who wants to 'feel' like a virgin again?! it's not being done for the woman's benefit.

I agree the idea is horrible. Although I don't think people should be prevented from applying creams that won't do anything useful to their vaginas, the marketing is very distasteful and I don't like the implied message.

However, drawing any conclusions about Indian culture and society (I'm not accusing anyone of doing this, but just in case!) on the back of the existence of this cream is a waste of time. After all, what you might consider to be the 'Western' version of this cream (more info here too) is a lot more drastic and distasteful.

Can I not use the 'Western version' to make generalisations and draw conclusions about the depressing state of Western capitalism and societal pressures about body image?

I think it would be a bit sensationalist to do so unless it starts becoming hugely popular.

The Falklands was horrific. Not only was a relatively young and inexperienced sent to a hostile and remote theatre, they had been trained and equipped to fight street skirmishes in Northern Ireland, not freezing bogs in the South Atlantic against a country with planes, ships and professional (if conscripted) soldiers. Whereas now anyone joining the forces knows what they are getting into, back then if you joined the Navy or Air Force in particular it was reasonable for you to expect never to have to actually fight anyone for the entirety of your career. As such there simply wasn't any understanding of post traumatic stress and there certainly wasn't any infrastructure to deliver effective treatment. People were just sent home, patched up and expected to cope. Hundreds of them didn't of course.
It's awful. I wonder whether the support for those involved with conflict is much better now?

Has this been posted yet?

London's bicycle accident black spots, mapped:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/road-safety/8989366/Graphic-Londons-cycle-accident-black-spots-mapped.html

Yes, it's been posted before, although I can't remember where.

It's always important to note that in London there aren't really any 'blackspots' for cycle crashes. They're fairly evenly- and randomly-distributed. A 'blackspot' is one where there is a systematic problem, such as persistent crashes from left turns. That's very rarely the case in London; for instance, the southern junction of Blackfriars Bridge, which has 14 crashes in this mapping, is a bad design with multiple problems. It stands out among junctions in the number of crashes, but it is also one of the junctions with the highest traffic flows in London. That there are so many crashes is for the most part down to it being so busy. (That it is a bad design is also something we know even without using crash data, as it has many other problems, such as a poor walking environment, etc.) Even if a junction has a high incidence of crashes measured against other junctions, it could still mean that there is a lower crash rate, i.e. number of crashes compared to vehicle flows.

People like talking about 'blackspots' because it highlights design more than driver behaviour (the implication is usually that people are merely lured into these problems and that poor driving is not to blame). NB there is of course a need for a comprehensive and radical redesign of such junctions.

Also, I'm not too sure how accurately-mapped the data is. Take the death of Paula Jurek, for example:

https://www.lfgss.com/thread62831.html

This is actually mapped at the junction of Barker Drive and St Pancras Way, far to the south of where it happened.

It's also worth noting every time this comes up that crash data from one year only isn't very useful. You want to compare at least three years' worth of data, ideally more. There are various sites that have mapped such multi-year data, e.g. the BBC site of fatal crashes 1999-2008:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8401344.stm

Again, the markers are somewhat off the sites where the crashes actually happened.

Also, that map only involves TFL data. My last incident (in this period) doesn't show on there, as TFL had nothing to do with it, and likely heard nothing about it.

Ah yes, I forgot to mention that. Do you mean police (STATS19) data?

It's likely to be in that, as the police were called

Currently the company is going to court (sometime in September) having pled Not Guilty to failing to hand over the name of the driver to the police. I'm not sure how you can plead not gulity to that. I see it going something like this -

Prosecution- Did the police ask you for the name of the driver?
Company- Yes.
P- Did you give it to them?
C- No.
P- Thanks.
Judge- Guilty.

I'm tempted to take a days leave to cycle down to the court and watch, but can't really be arsed I don't think.

--edit--

It is however a bit wierd what data is on there, as lots of it seems to be in small streets that wouldn't affect TFL's operations at all, so why do they have the data?

It's likely to be in that, as the police were called

[snip]

It is however a bit wierd what data is on there, as lots of it seems to be in small streets that wouldn't affect TFL's operations at all, so why do they have the data?

It's not TfL's data--it's collected by the police and therefore for all crashes to which they are called (bar the odd administrative error). TfL have a unit that works on analysing and publishing these stats. It's just a bit easier to collate it centrally than to let every London local authority do it separately. TfL are, of course, particularly interested in crashes on the TLRN.

At least some of the plots in side streets would appear to be mistakes, too. I suspect that many are not correctly plotted at junctions (where the vast majority of crashes occur, I think the latest figure was 84%), but at the location used in the mapping for a link (one of the intersecting streets), which often seems to be halfway along the street. I don't know much about on-line mapping, though.

Police data is known to be highly incomplete owing to the level of under-reporting. It is thought that only fatal crashes don't attract under-reporting, with quite a lot even with serious crashes, and pervasive under-reporting for slight injuries.

Agreed. If it were to become available to our society I think it would spark the next level of '50 shades of grey' discussion. Not empowering, just choice.

Bit late to the Virgina tightening but, it's been available in the west for a long time, the story is about it it being available for the first time in India this month.

Not at the above, but it's funny so many think it's a sign of the failure of an eastern society when the failure has been part of western society since the 80's.

Ok most here won't have heard of it or have any interest in trying it, but the same is certainly true of the vast majority of Indians.

"The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has revoked London Metropolitan University's power to teach or recruit international students, leaving nearly 3,000 students facing deportation unless they can find another place to study within 60 days."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/aug/30/border-agency-international-students-threat

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/missing-woman-unknowingly-joins-search-herself-165249353.html

^^ whole clamp down on student thing is a massive fail imo.

Of course being a "student" is a good way to get into and remain in the UK. But they're already cutting down on the number of hours they can work (to a ridiculous degree imo).

Policy definitely needs to be handled with care rather than by your marketing/spin/PR department.

GB cyclist Simon Richardson crash driver Adams jailed

"Edward Howell Adams, 60, was convicted of dangerous driving after he hit Simon Richardson 26m (85ft) into the air on the A48 near Bridgend last August."

Anyone else having trouble imagining this as described?

^^ whole clamp down on student thing is a massive fail imo.

Of course being a "student" is a good way to get into and remain in the UK. But they're already cutting down on the number of hours they can work (to a ridiculous degree imo).

Policy definitely needs to be handled with care rather than by your marketing/spin/PR department.

My ex was kicked out of the UK for working more hours than she was allowed under a student visa. In fairness, they could quite reasonably have kicked her out because the 'college' she was 'studying' at was a room above a chippy in Hounslow that she couldn't point out on a map. There are stacks of them, each with stacks of 'students', that would be much more appropriate targets than a major uni. But that wouldn't have got the great big 'tough on brownies' headlines this govt wants.

^^think they meant 'through' rather than 'into'. If they are correct, these Paralympians really are supermen.