ArchivesBy Author: Phil
Life-changing moments
It’s been an eventful week here…a week that has seen an emotional rollar-coaster ride of worry and relief, of sleepless nights and stress for all of us…
It’s all been related to a nasty health scare that one of our number found themselves subjected to…put simply, the words of a certain Mr. McGraw:-
“I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays, talking ’bout the options and talking ’bout sweet time.”
…were certainly ringing in my ears.
+20Rave: Habib Koite
Photo Credit: by Tom Beetz (Habib Koit) (CC-BY-2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
A couple of weeks ago, I popped over to see two of my best friends and to attend my Godson’s birthday party.
After all the little darlings had run out of the energy they obtained from ingesting copious quantities of processed sugar all day, we finally packed them off to bed and gratefully collapsed in the conservatory. Around midnight, we flicked on the radio and over a large coffee, listened to Bob Harris on BBC Radio2.
+18Rant: Christian Coalition?
Oops! Another US blunder, highlighted today on the BBC website which should serve to remind us that religious extremism is by no means restricted to the Islam faith.
Right wing “christian” nutcase (and FAR more worrying – ex presidential candidate) Pat Robertson has publicly urged the US to assassinate the new thorn in their side – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
+17Rant: Why does everything have to be child friendly?
A recent story on the BBC website has got me thinking about an aspect of modern parenthood that has been a niggle of mine for awhile.
Why do parents seem to expect that every place has to be child-friendly?
Don’t get me wrong…I like kids and although I don’t have any of my own (I can almost hear all the parents out there dismissing my standpoint already with that matronising little limp-wristed wave that is in popular use these days). I appreciate the fact that for a long time, many places frequented by parents with young children had an appalling lack of facilities and this situation needed to be redressed.
+22Rant: African Dictatorship for Dummies
(An excerpt from Robert Mugabe’s autobiography “My boyfriend’s back and there’s going to be trouble…”)
Are you having trouble with your peasant population? Are they starting to grumble about not having all the expected luxuries like enough food, decent housing and clean water?
+23Stem Cell Therapy Advances
An interesting article on the BBC website describes how the world’s first pure nerve stem cells – made from human embryonic stem cells – have been created by scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh and Milan.
The more I learn about this technology, the more excited I become with it’s potential for the treatment of a myriad of diseases and (long term) even the cure for a range of cancers and HIV – provided that proper screening is undertaken to prevent the risk of infecting patients with viruses and prion diseases, such as vCJD.
+18
R.I.P Mo
Mo Mowlam’s death today is a loss on quite a few fronts.
It’s a big loss to the irreverent, no-bullshit, we-DON’T-kiss-Bliars-arse faction within the Labour party (only Tony Benn now remains from that group!)
It’s also a loss to female Winston Churchill impersonators.
Most importantly, it’s a loss of a key figure in the Good Friday agreements, which eventually led to the recent unprecedented disarming and cessation of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
Rest in Peace Mo – You earned it and you will be missed!