Penguin68

Had my 2nd AZ jab yesterday - apart from some slight muscular tenderness still at the site, no other side effects (my first had a shaky 4 hours or so with an additional headache on the first morning after the shot).

Depends which surgery, I'm guessing. Some will be in the study, some not.

It is optional but it is automatically being added to blood test request forms. you can cross it out but the phebotomist won't.

What can we say? Back to the starting point. It is not the first time that this happens. My GP trusts that specialists can help but this does not happen. Rheumathologist trusts that GP knows what to do next but this does not happen. Ophtalmologists, kidney specialists, dentists, all the consultants trust that other colleagues know what to do next and that does not happen. Sadly, most specialists work in silos - so whilst they may liaise through GPs (actually dentists and ophthalmologists sit outside that loop, normally, unless they involve hospital specialists) they rarely talk together about a particular patient. If you present with multiple conditions, more likely as you age, this is problematic. An elderly relative of mine had both a respiratory and a heart condition where the standard treatment for one actually exacerbated the other - it was only when both specialists could be brought together in a room that a complementary treatment regime could be sorted out. And I have noted that ordering tests effectively seems to have worsened. As everything is now hands-off no one gets to review what's actually printed out on forms (except the patient, not medically trained to know what the abbreviations are). And at least one local practice is sending all patients who need blood tests to have an HIV test in addition (part of a survey) without discussing this with the patient. As even having an HIV test can impact life insurance adversely (as most people only request a test if they think their behaviour has put them at risk) I think this is entirely reprehensible. [some insurance forms ask 'whether you have been tested for HIV'].

The type of service you are getting does really seem to be a function of whether you have a postie 'in post' on your walk. If you do (as I currently do) you will get daily deliveries, except on rest days or when the postie is sick or on leave. If you don't, well 'go whistle' seems to be the Highshore Road mantra!

as I've said that is what e bikes are for 'Budget' e-bikes run from ?850-?1200 - I should have added 'state pensioner' to the list of 'unwanted guests' - for those pensioners with cars (possibly bought when they were richer) these are sunk costs - springing close to a grand on an e-bike isn't always an option. Particularly if they have nowhere secure to keep them.

Hills don't bother me and shouldn't for the masses How lucky for you that you are neither elderly, frail, arthritic, asthmatic or otherwise 'disabled'. Pray that none of these guests come to visit.

If you look at Copenhagen's lanes Copenhagen is (a) relatively flat and (b) has extremely wide streets - for an 'old' city. I still have seen accidents involving cyclists there, however - though mainly involving pedestrians or other cyclists. The roads in ED are generally much narrower. I am still in favour of the 'experiment' which opens the full width of the road, including pavements, to a mix of traffic - cars, pedestrians, two wheels - and without signage - other than directions - or road markings. This forces all road users to be mindful and cautious. However, it is not possible where street parking is allowed - so having proper car parks for those who need to stop in areas is a necessary corollary.

Coming in late to this but can you tell me what peer review means in an academic context since you seem to claim some knowledge in the area. Quite by chance another poster in another thread has linked an article which refers to peer review and which sets out (in the context of the publication cited) what it's about, if this is of any help. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/what-unrefereed-preprint

suggests that even very low doses of a steroid such as Prednisolone can reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine. I cannot see any statement as to dosage levels in the linked abstract, nor to the severity of the Chronic Inflammatory Disease (CID) in the 135 patients studied. Nor any listing of proprietary drugs (but of core ingredients of these drugs). The precautionary statement "This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice." should be noted. By all means draw the attention of your GP to this article if you suffer from a CID, but take his/ her advice about vaccination. This article is about possible reduction in 'cover' from Covid-19 infection or severity, and not about any side effects of taking a mRNA vaccine.

Yeah, I thought so too, but on several national charity sites I am seeing the later date. The 12th is when they are legally allowed to open, but they are not compelled to open then. Many pubs, for instance, without an economically large enough open space/ garden will not open as soon as they can, but as soon as its economically viable for them to open. Charity shops may have good reasons for not opening up as soon as it's legal to do so.

The move to zero emissions road transport is to help meet our climate change targets as set down in domestic law and international targets through the 'COP' process. This does not form part or any of the justification for the LTN schemes - posited around a response to Covid-19 and issues to do with local air quality. Moving traffic from leafy neighbourhoods to rather less leafy neighbourhoods does nothing for CO2 emissions worldwide. Which is the scale at which climate change operates.

Although it is true that the Veolia refuse collectors add kitchen to garden waste both in the lorry and (sometimes) in Garden waste bins; in doing so they are in control of what combined waste is being collected. Faced with a mixture which they haven't 'created' they cannot be certain the 'right' waste is there. [Of course, before garden waste was charged for, they weren't being contractually obliged to care!]. The setting-up of separated waste collection was a Southwark revenue creation scheme - not a Veolia initiative. Although in some areas they do treat kitchen and garden organic waste differently - garden waste being composted for fertiliser and kitchen waste being fed into anaerobic digesters to produce saleable methane these facilities are nor available for their London operation yet. So all Southwark organic waste collected is composted. [NB 'green' garden waste can also be readily anaerobically digested - but not woody waste, I believe, which is more common in towns, where the bulk of 'green' waste is just lawn clippings).

Where?

If just 10% of the population were to change travel behaviour, the emissions savings would be around 4% of lifecycle CO2 emissions from all car travel. Or just 0% in a fully electric or hydrogen powered environment. [Note the citation is for car travel, not manufacture]. And CO2 emissions are irrelevant to issues of air quality. If we are concerned about healthy streets, and the citations in this and related threads of the very sad case of the girl who died of asthma would suggest we are, then this CO2 'factoid' is irrelevant to this debate.

A scientific research question, classically, is the posing of a Null Hypothesis - that is to say that whilst you cannot prove something to be true, you can prove the opposite to be false, which then implies that the thing to which it is an opposite is (likely to be) true. Putting it another way, something must be falsifiable to be determined as true or false. In the case mentioned here - this is not scientific research under that definition - but the analysis of actual, real world (not experimental) data - you cannot run this (non) experiment twice to see whether you get the same result. And all data collected is open to different analysis and conclusions - nor are relationships (correlations) demonstrably causal. At best you can infer some levels of probability that an assumed correlation might be causal. What I am saying is that the conclusions drawn may 'make sense' and yet actually be wrong. It is almost inevitable where you do not have a repeatable experiment opportunity that researchers will tend to 'call' results which fit their world-view - and to ignore those that don't. This is a researcher bias which is understood and does not necessarily call into question the bona fides of the researcher. [And, additionally, where researchers are influencing the collection of primary data, their bias will influence the questions that they ask, and the constituency of possible data that they collect]. Whilst not necessarily intentionally biased, it does however leave their conclusions open to valid debate and dispute. And sometimes research results which do not fit current prejudices (for instance in favour of cycling) become treated as heresy. Which is where, when and if they do become accepted, that you come across the concept of a Paradigm Shift (c.v. Thomas Kuhn).

Egg-white will give you a temporary fix - but better I'm afraid to get a proper repair as soon as possible than rely on a setting agent.

It would have been The Upland at the time, I'm guessing.

Because April is the first month of the financial year. It is the first month of their financial year, but, just for the record, companies and other bodies can set their fiscal year whenever they want - many run January 1st to December 31st. Local authorities broadly match the governmental fiscal (which actually runs from 6th April to 5th the following year) because their budgeting year will then match the government's, but they generally end their fiscal years, I believe (certainly companies do) on 31st March.

This was a good April fool, well catching the Zeitgeist of this board, but now would be a good time to lock or lounge it. Before it gets too much of a real life.

You would be passing it. Soo slow I was walking at the time, and it wasn't on the S Circular.

A hopper (P4) bus passed me a couple of days ago - with one of those 'Bus Full' notices at the front. There were three (3!) passengers on board, all at the back of the bus. Public transport, what public transport?

Mine also arrived today (1st April). I had bought on the day I got the notification.

Yes, I'm very concerned about this as well, as I've also signed up for a postal vote. Just received polling cards (and Private Eye on the right day!) - the polling cards say that postal votes will be sent out on 21st April - so a date for our diaries.

Which requires less car journeys to be made overall. Rubbish. The amount of dangerous particulates is rapidly reducing (and is mainly from diesel engines) - petrol engines produce CO2 (yes, and other stuff, but nothing like the impact of NOx2), but this is not dangerous to health in and of itself (indeed without it we would have no vegetation). Electric cars (whose manufacture certainly may be polluting) do not pollute where they are driven (give or take tyre particles, not a significant problem). An electric/ hydrogen propulsion car population would have virtually no impact on levels of pollution where they are being used. Actually, the major polluters around here are people, who are driving all pollutants. Perhaps we should stamp these out? Sir David Attenborough wants to see the world population reduced to a third (interesting to see how he proposes achieving that). Are we, indeed, fighting the right battle?