Peter Cox's Blog » Uncategorized

Cultured Meat

Agent — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 08:59:32 +0000

Here’s are interesting idea that I’ve been predicting for decades. I don’t think cultured meat is for me - I’ve done pretty well all my life without it - but it could well be a saner and kinder use of our food resources. Be interesting to see if the epidemiology shows any health advantages over the very bad record “animal” meat currently has.

Rolld

Agent — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:54:33 +0000

You May Mock, But When They Come For You, Who’ll Be Laughing Then?

Agent — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:17:53 +0000

“Since trying Michael Menkin’s Helmet, I have not been bothered by alien mind control. Now my thoughts are my own. I have achieved meaningful work and am contributing to society.”

$35, and cheap at the price.

The Falafel Trail

Agent — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:00:42 +0000

photo credit: paulgalipeau

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.

… You couldn’t make this stuff up, could you?

Shock - Inhaling Pigs’ Brains Is Bad For You

Agent — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:12:27 +0000

Who’d have thunk it?

Grubby Virgin

Agent — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:10:31 +0000

OK, it’s name and shame time. I held back last time, but now I’m downright angry. The Virgin gym I’m temporarily going to is horribly grubby. I have ONCE seen the changing rooms being cleaned. NEVER seen the gym itself being cleaned. And it’s a busy place – lots of juicy standing orders flowing in – so they can certainly afford the cleaning fluid.

At my main gym (temporarily closed for rebuilding) one person wipes the machines and equipment down at busy periods (you can’t realistically expect customers to do this). This is reassuring, and very sensible.

Why can’t Virgin do this?

For some even more devastating reviews of Virgin Gyms, read ReviewCentre.com. Two point nine out of ten isn’t good enough, is it Mr. Branson?

Lies of the Tooth Fairy

Agent — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 16:28:44 +0000

Watching Hilary Clinton’s rally in Penacook, NH at the moment, I am again partly appalled and partly outraged by the popular American perception of the British health care system. An audience member (I know, it’s probably rigged) has just asked Ms. Clinton about reforming the American healthcare system so that "it does not duplicate the mistakes of Britain, where you can’t get access to healthcare in a timely manner" (my paraphrase).

Guys, where exactly are you getting your information from? Why don’t you consider asking a reasonable cross-selection of Brits about their direct experience (some of us are even online!). And why do you persist in calling our system "socialised medicine"? That’s the language of the Cold war, people.

We in the UK actually have both the American and the British systems running side-by-side. Most dentists are now "private", i.e. you must pay them directly. The result is that the nation’s teeth have never, in recent times, been in such a poor condition.

Just one example demonstrates how seriously Americans are misled about this. In 203, NewsMax, the right-wing current affairs website reported that "the so-called National Health Service has wreaked havoc on the U.K.’s dental care… things are so bad that 600 dentally challenged Welshmen laid siege to one dental office in Carmarthen in a desperate effort to get an appointment. People came from 90 miles away, pitched tents and even attempted bribery. "

Newmax concluded "What remains of the free market is keeping the U.K. from losing its last molar and bicuspid."

This is a breathtaking lie.

The fact is that, since the free market has been allowed to operate in the UK most dentists have stopped taking patients on the NHS (National Health Service). Dental costs have soared - people can no longer afford basic treatment - and our teeth are in a parlous state. A recent survey showed that people are even resorting to self-treatment: "Some said they took out their own teeth or fixed broken crowns with glue. One person in Lancashire had carried out 14 separate extractions with pliers." That’s what the free market in dental care does, NewsMax. Get your facts right before you have the temerity to lecture me or anyone else about the British NHS.

And when, as only rarely happens these days, a dentist does open up for practice who is not entirely motivated by pecuniary gain, and makes part of his or her list available to NHS patients, you can bet your bottom dollar that the rush to sign up will be a veritable stampede. Which is what happened in Carmarthen.

One of my children had to have a hernia operation a few weeks ago. The consultants, the surgeons, and indeed every single person at the hospital couldn’t have been nicer or more efficient. A MRI scan just before Christmas suggests that all is well. How much would this cost under the American system? I dread to think.

The NHS is not perfect, and is certainly under sustained attack - much of which comes from US-based healthcare companies, who see the UK as a wonderfully promising market.

All I can tell you is this - given the choice between the American and the British system, I would move myself and my family, if necessary, to live under the UK system. It’s a no-brainer.

PC Update

Agent — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:56:26 +0000

Hi – I’ve been really cruddy these past few days – heroic quantities of phlegm with resulting phlegmatic behaviour – seems like everyone in town has either had this or are having. Felt much better this am, then needed to go back to bed two hours later. But I’m on the mend. I do have a lot of reading, noting and commenting to do for many people – aiming to get at least some of this done over the weekend… So cut me a little bit of slack, and while you’re cutting, slice some for yourself, too…

Alan Coren

Agent — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:24:26 +0000

I was so sorry to hear about Alan Coren’s death. As luck would have it, I found myself sitting opposite him at dinner just a few weeks ago. He’d always been a childhood “hero of wit” for me, so it was quite a thrill. Although he smoked his way through dinner, he seemed in pretty good heath, and was certainly in good spirits and humour. He had a long and fruitful publishing relationship with gentleman publisher Jeremy Robson, and spoke very highly of him. Millions will miss him.

Tony Benn’s Letter To The Home Secretary

Agent — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 07:48:50 +0000

To: The Right Hon Jacqui Smith MP

Home Secretary

House of Commons

London

SW1A OAA

Dear Home Secretary,

I am writing to you as President of the STOP THE WAR COALITION, to give you advance notice that there will be a demonstration in Trafalgar Square the day Parliament meets calling for the immediate withdrawal of all British troops from Iraq and Afghanistan at which I shall be speaking along with others.

Afterwards many of those present - including myself - will be marching along Whitehall to the House of Commons to meet MPs and urge them to support this call for a withdrawal, as I shall be doing in approaching Malcolm Rifkind my own local MP. We shall be doing this in an orderly manner and I am making available to those who wish to have one, a postcard over my printed signature as a Privy Councillor, asking the police, and others to assist them. I enclose a copy of this postcard.

The authority for this march derives from our ancient right to free speech and assembly enshrined in our history, of which we often boast and which we vigorously defended in two world wars.

I am copying this letter, and its enclosure, to Jack Straw, the Commissioner of the Metropolis, and as a courtesy, to the Prime Minister’s office.

I hope that you will be able to re-assure me that those who demonstrate and march down Whitehall will enjoy your full support and the support of the police. But it is only fair to tell you that the march will go ahead, in any case, and I will be among those marching.

Yours in peace

TONY BENN

(Also see this posting)