Free Cheeseburgers!

According to this report on the BBC, the figures of 2000 calories a day for women and 2500 for men are inaccurate. The quotas are too low by about 400kcal - "a cheeseburger" - apparently, as we already take enough exercise to burn the extra calories off.

Naturally, I'm shocked - reality often rounds itself to politically-expedient numbers, after all. That's why we can be sure that CO₂ atmospheric concentration targets are Proper Science - they're exact multiples of 50ppm. Next thing you know someone will be claiming that alcohol consumption recommendations shouldn't be an exact number of units (defined as 10ml of pure ethanol, based on the content of a one-ounce shot of 40% spirits, just so it's nice and exact), and the world will go to rack and ruin!

The article mentions a fear that the the Department of Health will "sweep this report under the carpet" - and they should rightly be fearful. As we've learned from Alan Johnson sacking Professor Nutt, we can't have science causing "confusion" with official policy. Such tension has to be resolved, and quickly lest it worry the populace - but, as we all know, the state know's what's best for us, so policy can't be wrong or changed. It must be the science to blame, eh?

I don't know about you, but I'm about to go and eat my free cheeseburger!

- KoW