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{ Category Archives } invective

Changed waiting rooms

When I first started going to Worcester to get my bag changed, the chemotherapy patients had their own waiting room deep inside the suite that treats both haematology and chemotherapy patients. The two groups of patients both checked in with a single receptionist, and then the haematology patients waited in the main waiting room, whose [...]

Write to your MP about the Digital Economy Bill

First, some context about the Bill. It is full of controversial measures. For example it provides for disconnection from the Internet if a content provider simply accuses someone of infringing copyright. Another example is the designation of public Wifi hotspot providers as private subscribers instead of common carriers, which means that they must either inspect [...]

Why did I get cancer … ?

… or was I just unlucky? It is a natural question for anyone to ask when he first discovers that he has cancer. As a scientist, my first inclintion was to look for some data to help me to understand whether anything I did could have contributed to my cancer’s development. It doesn’t take long [...]

This made me cry

I found this on Hacker News. She says it so much better than I can. It’s what I want to say. Just watch it, please.

If not “fighting”, then what?

The following is the text of a letter I sent to the editor of the Independent newspaper, responding to a letter in today’s paper in which an oncologist deprecated the use of the word “fight” in relation to a cancer patient’s management of his or her cancer. Sir, Dr Bruce Sizer takes issue with the [...]

Libel reform

In April 2008 Simon Singh published an article in the Guardian in which he explored the use of Chiropractic to treat, amongst other things, childhood asthma. The British Chiropractic Association (BCA) took issue with the article, and refused to be satisfied with an offer to print a counter to it. Instead, citing a “substantial evidence [...]

Wankers

Via Conscientious I saw this poster. I can’t imagine what good the police think it will do. The number of false positives alone is likely to use up a huge amount of time. Perhaps the perpetrator of the campaign should be indicted for wasting police time. Allow me to clarify. How many terrorists are there [...]