There are over 200 mentions of angels in the bible. In only 2 of those do they have wings. They probably precede the bible, being messengers from the gods (angelos, in Greek). They have taken over in the minds of the superstitious from saints, who lost some of their influence during the reformation. NHS Lanarkshire…

[About his new book, Ill Fared the Land] What I tried to write in the book was a sort of plea to reopen an ethical conversation about what kind of society we want to live in. Not a conversation about how to be efficient, how to be wealthy, how to succeed, how to improve GDP,…

In 2007, almost half of prisoners said they were drunk at the time of their crime. In murder cases the proportion of those drunk or under the influence of drink and drugs is two thirds. NHSconfed.org report on alcohol claims cost to the NHS is £2.7 billion per year, and the 3rd leading cause of…

A Ghanaian artist, an Ewe no less (from the Volta region), who works with modern materials to create cloths that resemble traditional kente dress. Looks fabulous, would love to see for real. http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/microsites/anatsui/

Kids as young as 8 can identify over 120 Pokemon, whereas their knowledge of real flora/fauna (esp local) is extremely limited. We also know that people's respect for their environment is closely associated with their knowledge about it. The challenge then is to make biology as interesting as a card game. http://phylomon.org [Why Conservationists Should…

The British Army have issued their first new camouflage for 40yrs, to cope with changing environments (urban, scrub, desert etc) – early versions developed in 40s by the artist Roland Penrose (Quaker, married to photographer Lee Miller)!

So I see on Unclutter that DSM is considering adding a Hoarding disorder, distinct from obsessive compulsive disorder.   "Persistent difficulty discarding or parting with personal possessions, even those of apparently useless or limited value, due to strong urges to save items, distress, and/or indecision associated with discarding."   Not sure if I understand the…

[On robot sex dolls] "What's outright flabbergasting is the casual creepiness which still dominates the male psyche." "A good sex robot, you'd imagine, would be a vivacious queen of cheeky banter giving you at the very least a fantasy verbal run for your money half-naked round the garden shed…" "Here in 2010 meanwhile, what's been…

I could go on forever about Reuben so I'll just leave him out of it for now! Holidays: Melfort Pier Villa at Olhos de Agua, Portugal – Pao caseiro toasties (like sourdough), tuna stew, sardines. Centerparc with Sie's then to Jonny's for GAP reunion Morton of Pitmilly – Geminid meteor shower Work: SGH locum job:…

In 2006 JAMA published a study of industry initiated RCTs (in Denmark) where researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Centre and Oxford Centre for Statistics in Medicine found that in half, the sponsor owned the data, needed to approve the manuscript or both (but that this was not mentioned in any of the papers). In a…