Spudtater's Journal

While I was a medical student, I saw a young guy with a bad knee. After the patient left, the consultant explained that the surgeon who had carried out the operation had got it badly wrong, and this was the cause of the patient's disability. He would never walk properly again. I asked the consultant why no one had informed the patient. He answered that you don't blow the whistle on colleagues and they don't on you. [...]

I was part of a chain of errors that led to the death of a patient [...] and I confessed it to my consultant. I was overcome with remorse. I wanted to apologise to the relatives and stand up at the inquest and say it was all my fault and I deserved to be struck off. He counselled me to brazen it out. Another colleague helped me buff the notes (to "buff the notes" is to make entries in the patient's records which don't actually lie but contain only the helpful elements of the truth).

— 'We all kill a few patients as we learn', Jed Mercurio, The Guardian, 18 May 2004

Someone linked to this on the Bad Science blog. Quite terrifying, in a way. But it's hard to see what can be done; people simply refuse to accept that mistakes do happen in hospitals, and when they do, it's not always appropriate for heads to roll.

galaxy_girl	They're discussing moving the UK to european time.
spudtater	*Splutter* Ridiculous! They should be moving to our time!

8^)

But seriously, the Prime Meridian is defined by the fact that the sun will be at its apex at 12:00. Sunrise and sunset, consequently, will be equal times before and after 12:00 at Greenwich. There's, like, maths and stuff. That goes out the window if we decide that we're going to start shifting the time forwards just to get people out of bed earlier (even if it is for their own good).

And I intentionally say start shifting the time forwards. Because what happens after we shift? One company and then the other will start thinking: "Hmm... our employees are very tired in the mornings and it's hitting productivity. Perhaps we should start at 9:00 rather than 8:30." (Or 9:30 instead of 9:00, or whatever). Eventually everybody will have shifted their effective working day an hour ahead, at which point some journalist or politician will say: "Hey, guys, I've just had an idea..."

So, yes, looking at the map, it appears that not only should we stay at GMT, but Spain for one should join us there. Arguments could be made for France, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg too.

Well, I can dream of date lines based on rational principles, can't I?   8^P
(I mean, Kiribati, Tonga: UTC+13? UTC+14? You're doing it wrong!)

Monday's word-of-the-day calendar informed me about Nellie Bly, 19^th century investigative journalist extraordinaire.

Why have I not heard of this awesomeness before?

This morning's news included the story of a report on the question: "should people in troubled relationships stay together for the sake of the children?". To which the answer turned out to be: "No". Or, more specifically, "unhappiness in children is more likely to be influenced by conflict in their family than the family's structure"

Thank you. You'd have thought that would be bleedin' obvious, but apparently not, as they then interviewed some fucking Tory who went on to explain how this survey, comprehensive and unbiased though it might be, contradicted the beliefs and policies of the Conservative party and was therefore, obviously, wrong.

I may be paraphrasing there. But only a little.

My personal feelings are that the increase in divorce levels are consequences of nothing more complex than the fact that more women are able to support themselves, giving them an increased chance of being able to escape unhappy or abusive relationships. But this would contradict that rose-tinted image of 1950's household nirvana that is so bloody pervasive in this country, wouldn't it?

The Press Complaints Commission has launched an investigation after the Scottish edition of the Sunday Express ran a front page story alleging survivors of the Dunblane massacre "shamed" the memory of their dead friends by boasting about drunken nights out on social networking websites.

— "PCC targets Sunday Express over Dunblane allegations", Oliver Luft, The Guardian, 16 March 2009

The Scottish Sunday Express has recently been slated – and rightly so – for running a horrifying story about the survivors of the Dunblane Massacre. The story, and the reaction to it, is a great example of the good ways and the very bad ways people are using the web to spread information.

— "Web takes revenge after Express story", Nicole Kobie, IT Pro, 19 March 2009
(includes link to scan of original article, with victims [re-]anonymized)

We, the undersigned, wish to express our deep offense at the article published in the Sunday Express on March 8th 2009 about the survivors of the Dunblane massacre. [...] We demand a swift and proportionate response to the widespread disgust caused by this article, beginning with a front page apology. We would also like to see appropriate disciplinary action taken against Paula Murray, the author of the piece, and her editor at the Scottish Sunday Express, Derek Lambie.

— "Sunday Express "Dunblane shame" article", iPetitions, 8 March 2009
(5,700 signatures so far; donation not neccessary)

So, The Daily Express are getting their arses handed to them, it seems. Serves them right.

Products advertised "for men only". How insecure about your masculinity do you have to be to buy a product on the strength of that? And there are now far too many...

• "Just For Men" hair colouring — probably the first to wander into this territory.
• Yorkie bars
• That shampoo ad on TV recently... I forget which
• McCoy's crisps
• Burger King
• What have I missed?

Oh, and answers to the fandom meme are now shown. Congrats to digitalraven for getting the most right.