Almost fact free science reporting

From the BBC website... yet again. This time it's about left handedness: Scientists at Oxford University have identified a gene LRRTM1 that appears to be linked to left handedness, but there's a hitch according to this article the gene is also linked with schizophrenia. Except for this idea seems at the moment only an idea which hasn't yet been investigated there are too many mays and nothing definite - the article says the risk is only slight, well how slight, 1 in 1 000, 1 in 10 000, a million? and the killer quote for me is.

We don't yet know the precise role of this gene.

If the BBC reported the arts or politics in such a slapdash manner there would be uproar, questions in the House of Commons and general carpeting of the editors but science it doesn't matter as long as they can twist something sensational out of it.

Dressing Up For Adults

All That Glitters Is Not Gold, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

For the first time in ages we have had a weekend off. No decorating, no travelling to see family, no nights tripping the light fantastic in a marquee as the rain lashes down outside. So we took a leisurely bimble into King's Lynn, I think we had a successful trip into town, Si got himself a rather smart man bag for his stuff and will also be useful for the honeymoon and a couple of pairs of summer shoes. I also got shoes, a pair of summer sandals and these beauties above. At their full price £20 they would have been a bit too much to justify but at only £5 I can break them in (ha) around the house and stick them into the dressing up box waiting for just the right occasion to give them an airing!

Air Show

Some pictures.



The chap stood next to me had the most amazing camera set up. I don't think he took any pictures though, just hugged the camera



There wasn't a display by the Red Arrows this year but we did have a Hawk from 100 Sqn to look at.



And vintage bombers too.

Ads I loathe

Normally I'm fairly laid back about the adverts on the telly (cue hollow laughs from the sofa next to me) but right now there is a crop of really annoying crap adverts. They are memorable that's true which is one of the aims of any advert but these fail the biggest test of making me want to buy. Any half decent ad plants the idea into your head, right now Becky is trying to persuade me that we should go to M&S tomorrow to do our weekly shop so that we get the free fairtrade dipping chocolate. Now that's an ad that works we want chocolate we want it now and we want it from M&S however we will not be getting it as we were strong and more importantly Marks and Sparks are closed right now.

No these ads just make me want to never try to the product.

The Kellogg's Bran Flakes advert with all the fake health fads - just eating a bowl of Kellogg's, a bit of fruit and drinking more water is not going to make you healthy: you have to stop eating crap and this ad is shit.

MFI - Arguing, horrible families - why would anyone want to associate themselves with that?

Orange Mobile Phone - Faux naive songs seemingly aimed at morons hate, hate, hate.

Princess Tiaamii.

I actually sort of like Jordon and Peter André, not enough actually make any effort to read about them or buy their record from the other year or watch a programme about them if there was anything better on (better being almost anything from the umpteenth rerun of how they make chocolates on Playaway, a seminal film I'm sure you would agree)


but they seem to make a happy couple and it keeps tabloid journalists happy with the innocent campness of it all.

But... But....

Congratulations on the birth of their daughter and all but what were they thinking with the naming thing? "Princess Tiaamii." It's cruel the poor wee girl is going to get teased from the get go. It's also a form of self aggrandisement by the parents "arn't we special and a cut above the rest by being so original" instead it comes across as being uber chav and stupid. Poor kid at least she can change it when she grows up.

Dwarf Bread

As part of our exciting get slim at a sensible pace regime we have been eating a lot of fruit and vegetables as you would expect but each diet or reducing methodology no matter how sane it claims to be and is in many cases has it's own quirks and favoured products which get frequently mentioned in recipes and "handy tips". So along with the cottage cheese and mullerlight yoghurt we've been trying scan bran



Scan Bran is the dwarf bread of slimming, it is exceptionally dry, tastes like plywood and can sap moisture out of anywhere, I've broken it up to see if it was possible to crumble it or whether that was just an urban myth and I could feel it wicking all the moisture from my finger tips. Our consultant swears by it, "look at so and so she eats lots of scan bran and she's managing to lose weight despite the pork pie habit." But she doesn't claim to eat it herself. It seems to work on the basis of: you're hungry, all you've got is scan bran but by the time you've managed to soften a small corner you've fallen asleep.

The Report

The rain stopped for long enough for us to have a go on the dodgems and for me to win a coconut on the coconut shy. It rained for the fireworks but there were big heavy umbrellas laid on so that we could stand outside and watch. They were magnificent, but I couldn't hold the umbrella and take photos at the same time. I did get some photos of the evening here are the best of them. Words to go are here