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.
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.
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...
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?
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...?
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...
And today’s thought:
R.I.P. NHS
Angus
