Richest 1% cause 16% of carbon emissions. Time for greater equality.

Did you realise that the richest 1% of the world's population are responsible for as much carbon dioxide being emitted as the poorest 66% according to Oxfam.

The rich of the world have carbon-heavy lifestyles. This elite, rich 1% of the world's population emit the same amount of carbon dioxide as the poorest 5 billion people on the planet according to Oxfam's 2019 study which is based on research with the Stockholm Environment Institute.

"It would take about 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99% to produce as much carbon as the richest billionaires do in a year. Governments [must] tackle the twin crises of inequality and climate change, by targeting the excessive emissions of the super-rich by taxing them more. This could raise much needed revenue that could be directed to a range of vital social spending needs, including a fair switch to clean, renewable energy as well as fulfilling our international commitments to support communities who are already bearing the brunt of the climate crisis"- Chiara Liguori, the senior climate justice policy adviser for Oxfam

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Social media "influencers" must put an advert label on their video if they're paid to promote a product

In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has introduced rules which affects how TikTok influencers and other social media users promote products of all kinds including cat products which is my area of interest.

I have just visited a TikTok page where the influencer appears to me to be promoting all kinds of cat products including a cat massager which amusingly appears to be operated by a blue British Shorthair cat (Ciccio) without any intervention or help from their human caregiver!

You can see the video below.

To me, the video promotes this product. But I don't know if this woman or man (I think it's a woman) is being paid to promote it. But she does tell viewers that there is a link on her TikTok page where interested viewers can find out more about the product.

That seems to be a way of selling this product but I can't be sure. But under the ASA rules if an influencer is being paid to promote something they have to put on their video or over the video a label to tell viewers that they are being paid to promote the product.

I'll quote The Times newspaper which explains it nicely:

Since then the ASA has drawn up rules that state that influencers are required to put an advert label on content if they have received payment, and any other incentive or are personally or commercially connected to the brand."

And The Times newspaper reports that ASA did some research to find out whether people were complying with this rule and it showed that 65% of adverts on social media were still insufficiently labelled. 

The rule applies to all kinds of social media content but often times it is on TikTok which has become a very powerful promotional tool for advertisers.

In essence, these people are advertisers. TikTok has become an advertising medium effectively and a very powerful one because the video you see on this page has been seen 48 million times. My guess is that a lot of people have bought this product on the back of the video.

Screenshot.

The TikTok account is cicciothebrit.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

If your cat is really, really anxious going to the vet you can now give them pregabalin in the USA

The FDA has approved pregabalin as an anti-anxiety drug for cats when they go to the veterinarian because, as we know, a trip to the veterinarian is sure to make a cat anxious. And we mustn't forget the cat's owner who is going to be equally anxious or even more so. It's a reason why not enough cats get the opportunity to go to the vet when they need to see a vet. You will see a stark difference between cats and dogs in this respect.

Note: this is a cross-post.

Image: MikeB

The testing of pregabalin called Bonqat in the USA didn't produce stark differences between the drug and a placebo. There was a difference and therefore it does benefit cats who are particularly anxious but the improvements were about 20% on my reading of the facts available to us on the Internet and therefore it begs the question whether alternative methods to reduce anxiety would be preferable particularly as humans are advised to handle this drug with great caution. Why then are we allowed to put it into the mouths of cats?

My overriding feeling is that Bonqat should be used reluctantly to calm down a cat in a pre-vet visit. It'll be a matter of choice whether you think your cat is sufficiently anxious and, in any case, you will need a veterinarian's prescription before you can administer the drug to a cat.

Bonqat is given to cats orally as a single dose of 5 mg/kg (0.1mL/kg) approximately 1.5 hours before the start of the transportation or veterinary visit. It is packaged in 50 mL bottles containing 2 mL of dosing solution with a child resistant closure and that adapter.

Pregabalin is a DEA schedule class V drug which is why it has to be prescribed by a veterinarian. The FDA states the following about the success rate of pregabalin in reducing pre-vet anxiety visit:

A little over half of cats given Bonqat had a good to excellent response during both transportation and the veterinary visit compared to about one-third of cats given placebo. In addition, 83 of 108 (77%) cats given Bonqat showed improvement in levels of fear and anxiety over the course of the two physical examinations, compared to 46 of 101 (46%) cats given placebo.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Social media celebrities Travis Nelson and his cat Sigrid were knocked off their bike in London

You may have heard of Travis Nelson and his beautiful, white Norwegian Forest Cat, Sigrid. Sigrid is an amazing cat because she is incredibly calm and she sits in a basket at the front of the bike while Travis peddles around London in the thick of traffic it seems to me.

CLICK THIS FOR SOME BACKGROUND STUFF ON TRAVIS AND SIGRID.

It looks hazardous but until now Travis has avoided any incidents. He's become a celebrity as has Sigrid in her own right (she has hundreds of thousands of social media followers). Travis has written a book which is available on Amazon and good luck to him. Click this to buy the book.

This celebrity social media lifestyle started quite quietly during Covid lockdown when he decided to take his cat out and it gradually evolved into this very special relationship where Sigrid insists on going out on his bike as a passenger while he travels around London. He captures all his exploits on his bike with Sigrid on his smartphone which make very nice social media videos which you can see on TikTok.

The accident

Travis and Sigrid knocked of their bike by a moped. The moped rider apologised and admitted that it was his fault. Travis was magnanimous. Screenshot.

He also publishes his videos on Twitter and I guess YouTube. And here we have his video of him being knocked off his bike in central London by what appears to be a moped coming up rapidly on his right-hand side. The moped driver knocks into his handlebar which results in Travis losing control and falling off his bike with Sigrid.

Sigrid takes it all in her stride. Travis grabs her to make sure that she doesn't run away. After the accident, a lady comes up to him and asks if he is okay and he says that he is.

His knee is injured and he says that he will have difficulty riding his bike in the immediate future. The police were also there and they I think queried why he wasn't wearing a helmet.

Criticised on social media

And finally, on social media, he was harangued and criticised for taking his cat out in London in the unusual way that he does. He was threatened with reports to the RSPCA! This is a major overreaction I think by what appears to be slightly nasty people. Leave the guy alone. He is a good cat caregiver. He is providing his cat with a lot of mental stimulation and excitement. And he is making a few quid at the same time.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

One key factor in making more money as a social media influencer

There is, according to a study, one key aspect of making more money if you are in the business of being a social media influencer, which, I have to add is incredibly competitive. Very few make it big in this profession and the kind of money you can earn in the lower echelons will be tiny. However, there appears to be a universal rule to make more money and the formula is: the more skin someone shows, the more profitable the post.

JoJo Barbie has 10.3 million followers. She flashes the flesh a lot while showing off her bum and breasts. Image: Instagram. This is her latest post at 16th November 2023.

An assistant professor of Erasmus University Rotterdam did some research on this. She first started to get interested in the topic after buying a fitness programme from the site of Amanda Bisk, a yoga teacher and Instagram influencer.

She asked herself why did she buy into this fitness programme and how does Amanda influence her? And there was a clue in that Amanda shows a lot of flesh. She wondered whether this was the key reason why Bisk is successful.

She decided to study it more scientifically. She asked an influencer agency for the market rates for the top 100 accounts in each of the following five categories: fashion, fitness, music, photography and food.

For those who don't know, most Instagram influences make their money from posting sponsored content on their Instagram pages. The advertisers pay influencers to create posts promoting their products.

And for the top accounts ranging from 1.4 million to 65.8 million followers (an awful lot as you can see) the average estimated price paid for each sponsored picture is about £14,500 (as at the date of this article)!

Most of the influencers post twice per week and therefore they make almost £30,000 a week!

There are other factors such as how many engaged followers there are i.e. those they make comments and enter into a dialogue, and how many 'likes' there are. 

Male influences earn more than female influences which is unsurprising.

Armed with the information from the agency she studied the nudity factor (as I have called it), which is if the post featured nudity to the point where more than 50% of the person was naked or the image focused on the breast or bottom, they found that the advertising revenue was 4% higher!

So, flashing the flesh, breast and bum increases earnings by 4%. Think on that. And if you are new to the market and have a nice body and don't mind showing it off it probably pays to flash the flesh.

Newcomers should also realise that the top influencers have a team working for them who help decide what is more successful and what is likely to fail. Essentially it appears that the advisers are able to better target an audience and provide the audience with what they want. Perhaps they are able to look at things far more objectively which means they are more businesslike.

But the underlying principle or formula is to be 50% naked!

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.