Lifestyle NHS: Bouncy injuries: Capsulated char: Cambridge terminators: Half an Ark: and the worst scam........ in the world.

Numbing amounts of lack of warm, niggling amounts of atmospheric movement, Nano amounts of skywater and not a glimpse of solar stuff at the Castle this morn, I wasn’t able to post yestermorn because I couldn’t access my Google/blogger account thingy, quite miffing but I did manage to start on the clean up after all the decorating.

 

The “Lifestyle” NHS raises its moronic head again

According to Tory MP and GP Phillip Lee those of us who are unfortunate to suffer from ‘lifestyle-related diseases’ such as type 2 diabetes should be made to pay for their prescriptions.

Lee said that to ensure that people could continue to access care when they needed it; the NHS needed a fundamental reform. He told the audience at the Institute of Economic Affairs that the government and the public needed to recognise that the way the NHS had been set up for a generation of ‘stoic’ British people was now no longer viable and take steps to reform it accordingly, otherwise the health system faced what he alarmingly described as ‘collapse’.

In order to encourage patients to take responsibility for their own health, as well as saving what he estimates from FOI requests to the Health Department to be around £400 million, Lee proposes removing the right to free prescriptions for those with diabetes and other similar illnesses. He also praised the Danish system of giving a patient a budget for their prescriptions, which they would have to top up themselves if they exceeded, and suggested that all GPs should dispense medicines. Insisting that this was not part of a desire to privatise the health care system or prevent it from being free at the point of access, he said: ‘I just think that we have got to have an affordable system that rewards individual responsibility.’

 

This is the thin end of the wedge that could lead to smokers, drinkers and the not so slim being charged for treatment from the dear old lady.

 

But what about those “other lifestyle” medical needs-the joggers who damage themselves wearing out the pavements, the weekend footballers who damage others on the pitch, the speeding drivers who crash and damage themselves and others on the black, pothole infested driving things and all other self inflicted injuries from diy, athletics, rugby, tennis, squash and other assorted “pastimes”.

It will never work; we pays our stamp and we are entitled to treatment, no matter what the cause of our “illness” is, smokers pay way more tax into the coffers than they take out from the NHS, excessive drinkers are just a pain in the arse and should know better, larger than life people should probably consume less fatty stuff (if they can afford it), but none of these “lifestyles” is the concern of  The Piss Poor Policies Millionaires Club Coalition, Blighty is supposedly a “free” land where we pay our taxes, some of us obey the laws, and the function of Government is to keep us safe, control the economy and keep the fuck out of our business.

 

Sadly “they” have done none of these things, so “they” look for someone to blame-us.

 

According to “experts”

Excitable children suffered an “alarming increase” in injuries while jumping on inflatable’s, Researchers studying hospital statistics found a 15-fold increase in wounds including broken bones, head injuries and cuts since 1995.

Fractures, strains and sprains were found to be the most common injury, with one in five hurt children reporting damage to the head or neck.

Current advice from the Boys’ Brigade, the youth organisation, cites statistics showing approximately 10,000 injuries arising from bouncy castles in the UK every year.

It claims 4,000 of these were caused by playing on inflatable’s in private homes, while the remainder were at public events.

Most of the injuries are caused by children bouncing off the inflatable and onto the ground, being hit by other children or just falling awkwardly” the charity’s guidance notes. “

Researchers writing in the journal Paediatrics are now calling for safety guidelines, as they find 43 per cent of all bouncy castle-related injuries are caused by falls.

Other painful accidents were caused by children attempting spectacular stunts or colliding with one another.

 

Simple solution-don’t inflate the stupid things...

 

Somewhere over the teabag

The latest thing in the world of brews is Tê, a pod-based tea maker prototype which could signal the demise of the very bag itself.

The firm behind the new system claims it features "a disposable capsule and the ability to reduce brew time and increase drink quality".

The Tê system brews tea in two minutes, rather than the traditional four that is recommended by tea companies, it also allows users to select the strength of their tea; prices of capsules would vary depending on the quality of the tea, and the machines would likely be cheaper than some coffee machines.

 

Tea bags are recyclable, what do you do with the plastic capsule?

 

According to Cambridge “researchers”

The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) will study dangers posed by biotechnology, artificial life, nanotechnology and climate change.

The scientists said that to dismiss concerns of a potential robot uprising would be “dangerous”.

“The seriousness of these risks is difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a cause for concern, given how much is at stake,” the researchers wrote on a website set up for the centre.

The CSER project has been co-founded by Cambridge philosophy professor Huw Price, cosmology and astrophysics professor Martin Rees and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn.

“It seems a reasonable prediction that some time in this or the next century intelligence will escape from the constraints of biology,” Prof Price told the AFP news agency.

“What we’re trying to do is to push it forward in the respectable scientific community.”

He added that as robots and computers become smarter than humans, we could find ourselves at the mercy of “machines that are not malicious, but machines whose interests don’t include us”.

 

If we are still here the centre will launch next year.

 

Who pays for this bollocks...?

  

Staying with the end of the world thingy

 

Lu Zhenghai from Urumqi, China was afraid the rumours about the apocalypse happening in December of 2012 might be true, so he decided to follow Noah’s example and build an ark.

He spent all his life savings of 1 million Yuan ($160,500) on building his apocalypse proof boat, capable of keeping him safe in case of a disastrous flood. The vessel, designed by Lu himself, is 21.2 meters long, 15.5 meters wide, 5.6 meters high and displaces about 140 tons of water. It’s not much to look at, but Lu claims that once it’s finished, it will fulfil its purpose.

The new Noah started working on his DIY ark in 2010, but after two years of constant spending, he has exhausted all his financial resources. With less than a month to go before the dreaded deadline, the boat still needs about a million Yuan in equipment to be ready.

Just in case the 2012 apocalypse doesn’t happen, Lu plans to use his boat to offer sightseeing tours on the Tarim River, combat floods and provide ferry services.

Maybe he could go to the bank for a loan-after all they won’t need the money after December...

 

And finally: 

Got this in the email this morn (when I finally managed to log in).

angusdei@live.co.uk:

Information reaching my desk shows that you are the next on the list to receive a compensation amount of 500,000.00 GBP (Five hundred thousand Great British Pounds). You are receiving this compensation because your email, amongst others, was submitted to us by the anti-fraud unit of the Interpol as previously scammed victims. This compensation was provided by the United Nations as reconciliation.

We have instructed our bankers to transfer 500,000.00 GBP to your bank account without delays. Details of our bankers are as follows:

Bank Name: NatWest Bank PLC – Edinburgh Branch – United Kingdom
Tel: +447024055365
Fax: +447040905126
Contact Person: Sharon Burnett (General Fund Manager)

Please kindly send the below information to our bankers to enable them transfer your funds immediately.

1. Full names
2. Residential address
3. Phone/ Mobile number
4. Fax number
5. Email address
6. Reference code (Your reference code is HM-099118)
7. Bank account details
8. Copy of your international passport or driver’s license

You should send the above details by fax. Their fax number is +447040905126. They will transfer 500,000.00 GBP to your account as soon as you have faxed your information to them. It will take only three working days to receive your funds.

Please inform us as soon as you receive your money

Best Regards

Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP
Chancellor of the Exchequer
HM Treasury
1 Horse Guards Road
London
SW1A 2HQ
United Kingdom

Tel: +447024075301

 

Spot the error...

 

That’s it: I’m orf to have a butchers at Sesame out in the East

 

And today’s thought:

R.I.P. NHS

 

Angus