Hello and welcome to TDDO! This is really just a place to give a little bit of who I am, what I'm up to and a few select thoughts on life, the universe and everything. TDDO is also a hub for a variety of web endeavours:
 
I'm a proud member of the Liberal Democrats and run a blog at Whitchurch liberal where I discuss Lib Dem policies and the successes and failures of our Coalition Government.
 
I also have Future Footprint; a site with an environmental conscience which pulls together articles about climate change, practical information what you can do to help and busting many irksome myths about how we affect the planet. I'm currently a little low on contributors so will be running it more as an eco-blog for now while I build up content and contacts. If you fancy helping out please do give me a nudge.
 
Finally, being a geek I'm also very interested in amateur robotics and have a blog running to chart my endeavours in building a learning robot with a computer controller, a handful of sensors and servos, a coat hanger and a glue gun :)

Being an animal lover and living with two excellent rabbits and two ridiculous guinea pigs that my wife and I found at rescue centres because of very strong moral feelings on the benefits of adopting from rescue centres rather than purchasing from pet shops. The basic argument is quite simple really - when there are thousands of animals in rescue centres throughout the UK that desperately need a loving home, why would you pay a breeder to bring more into the world for profit?
In addition the treatment of the animals is vastly different. Rescue centres take in unloved animals, often unwanted pets, more often taken from breeders that have been closed down by the RSPCA for neglect or mistreatment, and care for them with love until they find a new home. Pet shops (Pets at Home is a prime example of this) have no regard for the welfare of their animals, they simply want to turn a profit on them as quickly as possible. I've seen animals experiencing terrible neglect, animals that are clearly unwell (wet bum and scabs around the nose are classic signs, along with evidence of an upset stomach) and animals that are far too young to be sold. In Pets at Home recently I saw a litter of baby rabbits that couldn't have been more than two weeks old that were all up for sale. The shock of being separated from their siblings and thrust into a new home will have likely killed half of them!
Finally have you ever wondered about where many of the more interesting breeds come from? Bulldogs, pug dogs, long-haired guinea pigs and many many more breeds have been created by people who wanted an animal to look a certain way without any regard for its health in the process. Let us not forget the amount of inbreeding needed to produce these breeds in the first place and then maintain purebred descendants. Inbreeding leads to a wide variety of health problems - joint problems such as arthritis and rheumatism being very common.
I have adopted two long haired guinea pigs which have been bred so that their hair never stops growing meaning they must be trimmed every couple of months or it will cause serious problems. To breed an animal to be unable to care for itself and need the care of a human just to live is truly awful.

I was raised by Buddhist parents and spent most of my teenage years wondering about what religious ideas were out there, what made sense to me given my lifelong scientific inclination and how their ideas govern the way you live your life. After years of agnosticism and no small amount of time spent in the Buddhist world I finally reached a point where I could no longer try to rationalise any ideology based upon any form of supernatural beliefs. Yeah there is plenty that science has yet to understand fully but the basic laws of physics definitely preclude overlords, creationism, heaven etc.
Now I've heard many ridiculous ideas about the nature of Atheism over the years, the top ones being:
 
"Atheists don't believe in anything"
I think you'll find that's Nihilism. Atheists simply don't believe in supernatural religious ideas.
 
"Atheists can't have a moral code"
What? just because we can't be scared by any sort of 'god is watching you' ideas doesn't mean we don't know right from wrong. Equally when you see the scale of war, pain and persecution brought by followers of one faith upon another you can never claim that religion in itself provides any kind of moral code. Good and bad exist everywhere. Deal with it.
 
"Atheists have nothing to live for"
So because we accept that when we die we are gone for good we must therefore live out our lives in abject misery knowing we're doomed? Screw that! I'm here, I'm healthy and there is a whole load of living I want to do. In fact I think that Atheists can have a much greater appreciation of life exactly because they know they only get one shot.
 
I actually prefer to refer to myself as a Humanist rather an an Atheist. To me the word 'Atheist' defines me by what I don't believe, whereas the word 'Humanist' defines me by what I do believe in - life, love and the goodness of people :)

We have quite a big environmental conscience here at TheDaddy.org. The planet is such an amazing place (and of course the only home we have) and it's in such a fragile state at the moment that everyone needs to start doing their bit to protect it.
As such, our newest venture is Future Footprint, a site designed to help inform people of what is going on with the environment, its biggest threats and practical ways in which you can help. Also we're really enjoying building a 'mythbusting' section which aims to bust all of those ridiculous myths about the environment that seem to serve only to help ignorant people ignore the realities of climate change.
So, what we really need to help get this site going is more content. If you have an opinion on climate change, want to critique a few governmental policies, comment on current issues, provide some useful advice to living a more eco-friendly life or talk about any other related issue then we want to hear from you. You can get in touch through the Future Footprint contact form or emailing info [at] futurefootprint.co.uk

Being the ripe old age of 28 I thought it was finally time for me to start looking at the amount I drink and how that fits in with the 'government recommended levels'. My issue with these levels when I was younger was that they always seemed to amount to pretty much half a pint per fortnight which was just plain ridiculous and caused me (and I'm sure half the young people in the country) to completely ignore them. My feeling was (and remains to a degree) that if you want to have any hope of people meeting a target like that, it at least has to be a realistic one!
 
I'm the sort of man who works hard, has a busy life, gets to the gym two or three times a week and enjoys a couple of beers when he gets home to help relax and put the day behind him. I'll also happily go to the pub a couple of times a week and drink three or four pints. Most people would say that's fairly normal - I haven't been properly drunk in nearly a year, I just drink to relax, socialise and because I plain like the taste. However apparently this amounts to an average of about 32 units of alchohol per week, 50% above the recommended level for men. Really? I don't feel like a booze-hound... I don't feel the great compulsion to hang around street corners causing fights... I've not lost bladder control in well over a decade...
 
Yet still, the numbers don't lie - You're looking at a recommended limit of 21 units per week as a man and only 14 as a woman (coupled with the reported increased risk of breast cancer for pretty much any drinking). In real terms for men that's less than a beer a night on weekdays and three on weekend nights and for women it's a large glass of wine per night.
You know what though, despite being a chunk less than what I drink at the moment, it no longer seems unrealistic. Keeping within the limits I can still have a beer when I get home after a long day, I can still go out at weekends. I'm not a student any more and don't have crazy parties or pub-crawls every other day so I can look after my health without really changing my lifestyle. That has to be a good thing :)
 
For more information Bupa has a weekly units calculator to figure out your own consumption.