SeanMacGabhann

Callous Because not enough people in UK are stabbing each other (last night near Euston excepted) Yours Cynical

you think jumpingjackflash? I thought the reponses were mostly tongue in cheek - which is what I can easily see happening regardless of who started the thread Beej makes a good point - but as for answers.. I got nuthin'. It's the unpredictability of charging from pub to pub that really irks me about soft drinks. If I knew they would always be expensive that would be one thing - but the same drink can go for ?1 or ?3 - it's the gear change that does my head in Then again pubs are offering a service they didn't before - wifi? open before 12? etc etc - how people react en-masse to the extortionate prices will dictate whether they stay or not I guess. As Jeremy pointed out as well, pubcos probably have a big say in this too Beej - do you feel unfairly picked on? I thought the thread was benign enough

Exactly right Sue - I remain cautious about where I keep mine even when I'm not using it - never in my breast pocket for example. But as we crawl towards finding any kind of answer, eejits like Coghill, and scaremongering in general should be treated with suspicion

Mostly good stuff Piers - but again, I don't think it was Britain's in-power elite who posted the "No blacks No dogs No Irish" signs in B&B's across the land in teh 50's 60's and 70's Not that the Irish are behaving any better now they have a few coppers mind you....

Was reading this recently and thought it pertient to this thread: Ben Goldacre The Guardian, Saturday June 28, 2008 It?s the big stories I enjoy the most. ?Suicides linked to phone masts? roared the Sunday Express front-page headline this week. ?The spate of deaths among young people in Britain?s suicide capital could be linked to radio waves from dozens of mobile phone transmitter masts near the victims? homes.? Who is raising these concerns? ?Dr Roger Coghill, who sits on a government advisory committee on mobile radiation, has discovered that all 22 youngsters who have killed themselves in Bridgend, South Wales, over the past 18 months lived far closer than average to a mast ? Masts are placed on average 800 metres away from each home across the country. In Bridgend the victims lived on average only 356 metres away.? These are extremely serious issues. There is reasonable evidence of a possible link between power lines and childhood leukaemia, being generous, and we may not yet know the long-term physical risks posed by phones to those who use them, since mobiles haven?t been around too long (do send me a better reference than this for the ?latent period? in epidemiology if you have one). I contacted Dr Coghill, since his work is now a matter of great public concern, and it is vital his evidence can be properly assessed. He was unable to give me the data. No paper has been published. He himself would not describe the work as a ?study?. There are no statistics presented on it, and I cannot see the raw figures. In fact Dr Coghill tells me he has lost the figures. Despite its potentially massive public health importance, Dr Coghill is sadly unable to make his material assessable. This - if he truly believes his results - is a bit off. It also leads to obvious problems with interpretation: details are important, after all, like ?what is your control group? or ?which averages are you using?? Perhaps the average distance from a mast in any urban area is less than the average distance for the whole country, because masts tend to be clustered in urban areas, where the people are. Maybe densely populated poor areas with less political influence have more masts foisted upon them by planning committees, and maybe these poor areas also have more suicides. Or maybe he is on to something? Clusters on maps have been the beginning of several interesting stories in epidemiology, including the Broad Street Pump. I asked Dr Coghill which ?averages? he meant, but he did not tell me. Who is Dr Coghill? He says he doesn?t have a doctorate and that the Express made a mistake. Does he ?sit on a government advisory committee on mobile radiation?? Sort of. Mr Coghill participates in something called Sage, a ?stakeholder? group which discusses power cables (not mobile phones) and is run at the request of the Department of Health by RK Partnerships Ltd, who specialise in mediation, facilitation, and conflict resolution. People who campaign on stuff are rightly invited on to consultation panels run by the government, so that their concerns can be heard. Sadly, such participants seem to be misrepresented as government advisers with remarkable frequency. As an example of the kind of discussion you might find at SAGE, here is Mr Coghill?s contribution to their last document [pdf], in the section where people who disagree with the group can state their own views. ?Whilst this first interim assessment is a welcome step, it contains three important omissions? the powerfully electro-protective effect of exogenous melatonin supplementation, particularly among the UK?s 20 million elderly population, and the adverse effects of EMFs on melatonin synthesis within the body have not been addressed.? Mr Coghill recently received ?125,000 of angel investment for his business selling Asphalia melatonin pills. Readers worried by the front page story on Mr Coghill?s inaccessible research may have visited his website for more information. There they could buy his electromagnetic field protection equipment at competitive prices, and a ?149 device called the Acousticom for ?finding out if your home is being exposed to microwaves from e.g. cellphone masts?, as well as several other interesting products, including a magnet that makes wine taste nicer, and the ?Mood Maker? treatment for impotence at just ?22.32 including VAT (?the small unit discreetly attaches to your underwear? the Mood Maker will gently and gradually increase circulation in the pelvic area?). You might also enjoy his books, including Electrohealing, ?using electric and magnetic fields for alleviative and curative ends?, and of course Atlantis: ?a new look at the Plato legend with a grim conclusion re global warming and ozone depletion?. It gets better. Regular readers will know that someone?s ability to police their own enthusiasm can often be assessed using something called ?the Aids test?. Here is the Express?s front page expert Mr Coghill on Aids: ?The idea that Aids is caused by a virus is a well-protected fiction.? Is there another cause? ?The possibility that immune deficits ? can be acquired through over-exposure to non-ionising electromagnetic fields is, however, real, and proven in the laboratory.? Because, remarkably, suicide is not the first problem Mr Coghill has attributed to electromagnetic waves, and he built his earlier hypothesis on the same evidence as his current one: ?Aids cases seemed to correspond closely to the numbers of RF, VHF, and UHF station densities.? Mr Coghill discovered 11 of the 12 cities in America with the highest incidence of Aids also had the highest level of electromagnetic activity. A disease of dense urban areas, perhaps? He even had some exciting ideas about treatment. ?One first step might be to demagnetise the haem in an attempt to improve the signal to noise ratio of the immune signal ?? We should be glad that there are individuals out there with such esoteric views. We should respect and admire their tenacity and self-belief, if not their ability to provide us with actual data. But from the front page of a national newspaper, we might be able to expect something a little more robust.

again ;-)

That's the sort of thing loz I was thinking the space where Woolwich used to be would be perfect reason I thought of it was because I was in Camden last night (Scott Capurro's Edinburgh show - and peple thought he was near the knuckle @ EDT??? pheweee) and went to the diner place and it was just the perfect spot for an hour stop off and a chat. Their chili scores points for using non-minced beef as well btw

still, it's nice to have that c**t bignumber5 back in posting action, what? There are many reasons to dislike Ramsay btw (and more than one to admire him) but the straw that broke the camel's back for me were the Gin ad's - not for any "selling out" aspect particularly - more for the fact that having sworn at me through the telly for not having any passion, bo**ocks or send to avoid sh1te brands - he goes and picks a mediocre-at-best brand to hawk

Now I'm not suggesting this particular chain http://www.goodlifediner.com/ But a diner type thing like that - good british caffs are great but not the same thing Smewhere to pop in for breakfast, or a a bowl of chili and a beer, but in fairly open relaxed space - ie the opposite of GBK and it's elbows together noise-fest

in ratty's case I'm guessing it's more to do with the fact that CD is from Southampton?

Interesting point Natasha - but from where I sit *Bob* has been around for ages and hasn't just started posting to share his views on "the B word" He is usually (but not always) writing with his tongue in his cheek anyway And how come you can get away with losing the asterisks??? If Bbob is happy with that then it will save me loads of fiddly typage!

"That" has made my boss ask me why I have snorted water from my nostrils very good....>:D<

Nun's Head for a non-posh roast - good value and quality The Duke just before it does more upmarket roasts

I didn't google the article Monica - I had read it when it was published in the paper (although obviously I did eventually google to provide a link) I wouldn't worry about your profession either - the "western" medical profession has plenty of opprobrium heaped on it and seems to be doing fine My profession has tended to be either IT Support or Banking - feel free to ridicule both - I'm used to it and tend to agree

plus, he has explosive kegs, between his legs

can't see that pic as it be on flickr

insinuating?? Surely the world and his missus knows about his sexuality by now!

Some people never change tho' - take Jah Lush... is I saw him loitering outside my gaff even now, I would be nervous! ;-)

Hopefully in the interests of reasoned debate and not having a go at people - but as you mention BANT, does anyone have any comment on Barbara Nash and BANT article in full specifically "Then there are the professional bodies. They have been rather keen to distance themselves from Nash. In the Daily Telegraph, for example: "The British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (Bant) which has its own code of conduct, said Mrs Nash was not a member." This is not the entire truth. Nash is advertised on yell.com as a member of Bant. In fact, she was indeed a member of Bant, until 2007. Membership of Bant carries such privileges as "a listing in the Bant Directory of Practitioners, which is available to the public and entry on the Bant website" and "acknowledgement of professional status by the Nutritional Therapy Council". So endorsed, Nash would once again have perfectly reasonable grounds for a strong faith in her own abilities. The episode with Page on intensive care occurred in 2001. These honours were conferred upon her by Bant in 2005. "

still tho.. good poh-lice work from Siduhe, gathering the various pieces together

I see The Wire made the leader page of The Guardian today... In praise of....

sorry Tillie - expediency won out on that one... But feel free to improve it

http://www.angelcompanystamps.com/uploaded_images/No_bunny_irish-763117.jpg

Huguenot - spot on (although I did a refresh and there were like a dozen more responses that my browser first showed)

none of the above