Posted in from the dark room, photography, Uncategorized on November 4, 2007| 3 Comments »
sugar with that?, originally uploaded by bobsee.
We all have different rhythms, and different ways of getting going, or keeping going.
Popped into Tinderbox (the Byres Road one) recently for breakfast and saw this cup lying on the next table.
Can you imagine taking this much sugar in your coffee to get going every morning?
Posted in from the dark room, photography, Uncategorized on October 30, 2007| 5 Comments »
Posted in from the dark room, photography, Uncategorized on October 29, 2007| 7 Comments »
the colour of the sky, originally uploaded by bobsee.
I swear the colours we see in the sky constantly change and even after days, and weeks, and months and years of skies, we still look up sometimes, and think, WOW, that’s BEAUTIFUL
Posted in from the dark room, photography, Uncategorized on October 28, 2007| 3 Comments »
the colour of the forest, originally uploaded by bobsee.
I love this kind of forest. It’s a very typical, not man-made, Scottish forest. I love it when the forest floor of ferns turns this amazing coppery brown colour
Posted in from the dark room, photography, Uncategorized on October 27, 2007| 5 Comments »
the colour of stone, originally uploaded by bobsee.
These stones are only visible when the water level in the stream is low.
I love the greenish blues of some of them in amongst the grey ones
Posted in from the dark room, photography, Uncategorized on October 26, 2007| Leave a Comment »
the colour of water, originally uploaded by bobsee.
This is a waterfall and stream (we call a small stream a “burn” in Scotland) on Skye.
Look at the colours in the water.
Aren’t they lovely?
This photo set me off checking out the colours of different natural phenomena. You’ll find the others in the coming days here under titles “the colour of……”
Posted in from the consulting room, health, Uncategorized on October 26, 2007| 3 Comments »
The BMJ has published a report criticising the way drugs are regulated in Europe
Silvio Garattini and Vittorio Bertele of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan are critical of the dominance of pharmaceutical industry priorities in bringing drugs to market. They appeal for a more patient and doctor led priorities.
There are two common issues which doctors and patients have about prescription drugs – firstly, the drugs which are available often don’t work for individual patients, so there is always a desire for drugs which work better than the ones currently available; and secondly, drug company priorities are more market driven – they are more likely to fund research into drugs for developed countries problems than developing countries problems, even though many more people die from common diseases in those latter countries. The reason why the first problem is not addressed by the current system is summed up in the article –
New drugs have only to show they are of good quality, effective, and safe, independently of any reference or comparison to drugs already on the market. This results in overuse of trials against placebo. Even when new drugs are compared with existing treatments, the trials often seek to show equivalence or non-inferiority rather than superiority to those already available. Such trials could allow drugs into the market that are less active or safe than those in current clinical use. This is because the non-inferiority limit includes a higher incidence of adverse events. The wider the limits the smaller the sample needed and consequently the higher the chance of missing a difference and concluding for non-inferiority. Sometimes limits are so wide that what is considered non-inferior statistically may be worse clinically
They conclude
It is unethical to experiment on patients with the sole aim of obtaining a marketing authorisation. New drugs should be required to have some added value (greater efficacy or less toxicity) to current treatments or be cheaper
So true. This is a European perspective but exactly the same problems are present in the US. And what about the majority of people in the world? How could the system be improved to meet the most pressing health needs in the world, rather than just in developed countries?
Posted in creativity, from the dark room, photography, Uncategorized on October 25, 2007| Leave a Comment »
knot on wood, originally uploaded by bobsee.
This was a log I walked past on Skye.
It caught my attention.
What did? Well, the hole did actually! It looked like a keyhole, or a secret, very small doorway, or maybe a wormhole in the universe? (Hey, you’d be amazed how the imagination can be stimulated by a walk in the country!)
Anyway, after the hole caught my eye then the swirling lines of the wood entranced me.
Take a look. You can look at this for a LONG time I think. The patterns, the colours, the sense of energies straining and twisting and bending the fibres of the wood and how they all swirl around a space…..and into that space, we can dive, deeper and deeper and deeper.
What do you think you might find, if you let your mind slip down this hole, like Alice, falling down the rabbit hole?
Posted in from the dark room, photography, Uncategorized on October 24, 2007| 4 Comments »
Dry stane dyke, originally uploaded by bobsee.
This is what we call a “dry stane dyke” in Scotland. It’s an ancient art and it’s the making of walls with the stones as they are. They aren’t shaped or machined to fit and the art lies in fitting them together without using any cement or mortar to bind them together.
I love their organic uniqueness. They are glorious!
And I love how with time the lichens and the moss soften many of the hard edges and bring the greens and golds and the silvers to the shades of grey.
I love how they weather and how they fit so perfectly well into the fields.
Posted in from the dark room, photography, Uncategorized on October 21, 2007| 2 Comments »
leaf, originally uploaded by bobsee.
Today in the UK, it’s Leaf Sunday. Apparently this is THE day when the leaves of autumn are supposed to look their most colourful. If you’d like a map of where in the UK to go ‘leaf peeping‘ then here’s one here.
This time of year always reminds me of a thing John Peel once told about on his radio show years and years ago. He suggested a nice thing to do at this time of year might be to go out and pick up a leaf that had fallen from the trees and write on the leaf the word “Hello” with black marker pen. Then someone walking along might see the leaf, pick it up and see the “Hello” and their day might be a better day. I know, sounds kinda ridiculous, doesn’t it? But go on, try it! And if you pick up any leaves with “Hello” on them, tell me about it, will you?
