The big hectic weekend has finally arrived. The band has just had a last run-through of the set. We've seen Simon PA, the sound equipment is loaded up and the mobile stage is ready to roll. Transport is all booked. Phone calls and texts are flying in all directions and I've nipped off to get an early night.
Grow into these trousers... >>
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You might be surprised to know that the founder of chiropractic therapy, Daniel David Palmer, wrote that "99% of all diseases are caused by displaced vertebrae". In the 1860s, Palmer began to develop his theory that the spine was involved in almost every illness because the spinal cord connects the brain to the rest of the body. Therefore any misalignment could cause a problem in distant parts of the body.
In fact, Palmer's first chiropractic intervention supposedly cured a man who had been profoundly deaf for 17 years. His second treatment was equally strange, because he claimed that he treated a patient with heart trouble by correcting a displaced vertebra.
You might think that modern chiropractors restrict themselves to treating back problems, but in fact some still possess quite wacky ideas. The fundamentalists argue that they can cure anything, including helping treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying - even though there is not a jot of evidence.
I can confidently label these assertions as utter nonsense because I have co-authored a book about alternative medicine with the world's first professor of complementary medicine, Edzard Ernst. He learned chiropractic techniques himself and used them as a doctor. This is when he began to see the need for some critical evaluation. Among other projects, he examined the evidence from 70 trials exploring the benefits of chiropractic therapy in conditions unrelated to the back. He found no evidence to suggest that chiropractors could treat any such conditions.
But what about chiropractic in the context of treating back problems? Manipulating the spine can cure some problems, but results are mixed. To be fair, conventional approaches, such as physiotherapy, also struggle to treat back problems with any consistency. Nevertheless, conventional therapy is still preferable because of the serious dangers associated with chiropractic.
In 2001, a systematic review of five studies revealed that roughly half of all chiropractic patients experience temporary adverse effects, such as pain, numbness, stiffness, dizziness and headaches. These are relatively minor effects, but the frequency is very high, and this has to be weighed against the limited benefit offered by chiropractors.
More worryingly, the hallmark technique of the chiropractor, known as high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust, carries much more significant risks. This involves pushing joints beyond their natural range of motion by applying a short, sharp force. Although this is a safe procedure for most patients, others can suffer dislocations and fractures.
Worse still, manipulation of the neck can damage the vertebral arteries, which supply blood to the brain. So-called vertebral dissection can ultimately cut off the blood supply, which in turn can lead to a stroke and even death. Because there is usually a delay between the vertebral dissection and the blockage of blood to the brain, the link between chiropractic and strokes went unnoticed for many years. Recently, however, it has been possible to identify cases where spinal manipulation has certainly been the cause of vertebral dissection.
Laurie Mathiason was a 20-year-old Canadian waitress who visited a chiropractor 21 times between 1997 and 1998 to relieve her low-back pain. On her penultimate visit she complained of stiffness in her neck. That evening she began dropping plates at the restaurant, so she returned to the chiropractor. As the chiropractor manipulated her neck, Mathiason began to cry, her eyes started to roll, she foamed at the mouth and her body began to convulse. She was rushed to hospital, slipped into a coma and died three days later. At the inquest, the coroner declared: "Laurie died of a ruptured vertebral artery, which occurred in association with a chiropractic manipulation of the neck."
This case is not unique. In Canada alone there have been several other women who have died after receiving chiropractic therapy, and Edzard Ernst has identified about 700 cases of serious complications among the medical literature. This should be a major concern for health officials, particularly as under-reporting will mean that the actual number of cases is much higher.
If spinal manipulation were a drug with such serious adverse effects and so little demonstrable benefit, then it would almost certainly have been taken off the market.
Simon Singh is a science writer in London and the co-author, with Edzard Ernst, of Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial. This is an edited version of an article published in The Guardian for which Singh is being personally sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association.
Grow into these trousers... >>
Wet Pussy-----------------------------------
Ingredients:
1 oz Chambord raspberry liqueur
2 oz Irish cream
6 oz Milk
Mixing instructions:
Put the Chambord, Irish Cream, and Milk or Creamer in a shaker with ice. Shake, Strain and pour into glass. You can use alot less milk and make a shooter out of it.
BETWEEN THE SHEETS-----------------------------------
Rum
Brandy
Cointreau
Splash of Lemon juice or Sour mix
Blend with ice, Strain & Serve up in a chilled cocktail glass
VIBRATOR-----------------------------------
2 parts Southern Comfort
1 part irish cream
FRENCH KISS-----------------------------------
Dry & Sweet Vermouth
Pour over ice, Garnish with a lime wedge
Hawaiian/French Surfer on Acid-----------------------------------
1 oz Chambord® raspberry liqueur
1 oz Malibu® coconut rum
1/2 - 1/3 oz Jagermeister® herbal liqueur
2 oz pineapple juice
Mix all ingredients together in a cocktail shaker filled with ice cubes. Shake vigorously. Pour over ice cubes into an old-fashioned glass. It will be a bit frothy on top. Garnish with a cherry and lime wheel, and serve.
B. J.-----------------------------------
in a shot glass
fill it half with baileys
and half peppermint shnapps
turn it into an orgasm by topping it with whip cream
Jamaica Me Crazy-----------------------------------
Malibu Rum over ice,
add pineapple juice
and a couple drops of Tia Maria
Screaming Slippery Bald Beaver-----------------------------------
1/2 oz vodka
1 oz butterscotch schnapps
1 oz Bailey's® Irish cream
1 oz Chiquita Kiwi-Strawberry Juice
Pour ingredients into a stainless steel shaker over ice and shake until ice cold. Pour into an old-fashioned glass three-quarters filled with ice, and serve.
Sex on the Beach-----------------------------------
* 3cl vodka
* 1.5cl peach schnapps
* 1.5cl Chambord liqueur
* 5cl fresh orange juice
* 5cl cranberry juice
Pour all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake. Strain into a highball filled with ice. Garnish with a slice of lime.
Sexual Healing-----------------------------------
* 5cl Stolichnya vodka
* 1.5cl Cointreau
* 2 stalks of redcurrants, de-stalked
* 2 to 3 slices of ginger root, peeled
* 1.5cl fresh lemon juice
* half teaspoon clear honey
Muddle the ginger and the redcurrants in a shaker to release the flavours. Add the remaining ingredients and ice. Shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a small sprig of redcurrants on the rim.
Shaft-----------------------------------
* 3cl Aperol
* 3cl gin
* prosecco
* Pour the gin and Aperol into a mixing glass with ice. Stir. Strain into a highball filled with ice. Top up with prosecco. Drop a slice of orange into the drink.
Angel's Tit-----------------------------------
* 4cl maraschino liqueur
* 2cl double cream
Pour the maraschino into a liqueur glass and float the cream on top. Garnish with a maraschino cherry in the middle of the creamy top.
If Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.Grow into these trousers... >>
Not much to see you may think; but what's that little, right-pointing shadow bang in the centre? I'll blow it up.
All is revealed below the belt...
It's the bottom half of the Eagle, the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) on Apollo 11."Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."WOW!
The LRO has captured images of all the other Apollo sites except 12 (coming soon). On the image from Apollo 14 you can actually see the path made by the astronauts as they trekked back and forth to some experimental equipment! Amazing.
I'll have a go."A 2-minute website intro for www.thethinkingatheist.com which sums up a key argument against God. (Like...where the heck is he?)"[There's something a bit weird about the embed code for this clip. so here's the YT link.]
Well not me, but these folks did...1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 ...I seem to remember a story in Chinese history where an Emperor was duped by an Old Man and a chessboard. For some payment the Emperor agreed to place 1 grain of rice on the first square, 2 on the second, 4 on
the third, 8 on the fourth and so on. Then the 64th square alone needs 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 grains of rice. Add up all the rice and it's twice that plus 1 (or is it -1) anyways it's about 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 grains. An impressive harvest.P = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128 etc, etc to infinity.How the hell do you do that? Think this way...
2P = 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128 etc, etc to infinity.Notice that each number in 2P has a counterpart in P, except for one (assuming the sequences continue to infinity) and that solitary digit is the number 1. It can't be in 2 times anything or it would be two.
When I first worked in biochemistry we studied an obscure blue pigment in a single celled algae (a simple plant). It's the blue-green stuff on the pond walls in this photo. Over the years we were able to show how the algae makes this pigment and, by a bit of jiggery pokery, infer how higher plants make phytochrome. That's the plant hormone which controls germination, leaf breaks and flowering time. Without phytochrome, flowering plants may not have evolved and humankind would never have witnessed that aspect of beauty.
with other plants for sunlight or minerals in the soil, caterpillars or worse, the countless chances and improbabilities of that flower being here and now. That to me is the miracle, if there is one, the unlikely path which lead to that particular blossom. And it is after all, no more than the plant’s attempt at sexual reproduction. Nothing mystical or supernatural about it, it's just awesome.
Via A Simple Prop.
Grow into these trousers... >>
They were taken just at sunrise so the shadows are deep and only high ground is illuminated (or is it sunset? North is down in these photos the Sun is to the left and the Moon rotates once a month and blah... I can't visualise it just now). 
"She became known as the miracle girl and was hounded by Peruvian media, receiving hundreds of letters from people she had never met before".Her harrowing story makes no mention of the supernatural though. Grow into these trousers... >>
"On 11 February 1858, a 14-year-old local girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed a beautiful lady appeared to her in the remote Grotto of Massabielle. The lady later identified herself as "the Immaculate Conception" and the faithful believe her to be the Blessed Virgin Mary. The lady appeared 18 times, and by 1859 thousands of pilgrims were visiting Lourdes".OK, 67 healings from 200 million visits, that's a success rate of about 1 in 3 million, or 0.0000335%. Hardly impressive given that on rare occasions people spontaneously recover from serious illnesses for which medical science has no cure, or an attempted cure failed (cancer can naturally go into remission for instance). Compare this to a control group of 200,000,000 people and how many would have survived naturally with no divine intervention? I guess a lot more than 67. Miracles at Lourdes are a piss take. I would love to see the criteria which the Catholic Church uses to judge such phenomena.
"An estimated 200 million people have visited the shrine since 1860, and the Roman Catholic Church has officially recognized 67 miraculous healings which are stringently examined for authenticity and authentic miracle healing with no physical or psychological basis other than the healing power of the water".
Things are really busy round here just now. It's Cleckheaton Folk Festival this weekend and tonight I'm joining in with a crowd of other musicians for a mass jamming session, then our band is playing live tomorrow, as part of the counterinsurgent NAFF (Not a F**king Folk) Festival for those who are not enamoured of the folk music idiom. 
Just before he died, the much missed Douglas Adams gave the following talk about his experiences tracking down endangered species. I have never seen this video before, though Adams' Last Chance To See is an old favoutite.
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