\\\\\Uni’s/////

Can’t decide which one to put as my first choice.

It’s either Exeter or Bath. I’ve heard that Bath is a better uni overall, but I still don’t know which one I want to go to more. Can anyone tell me anything about either of these uni’s ?

Cheers

–Jim–

 

Medical Trials and Animal Testing…

Having heard about the recent situation with the medical trials which have gone seriously wrong at Northwick Park, I have to say I’m not sure I will ever be tempted to partake in a clinical trial! I’m not sure as to how true this statement is but I had heard that one of the patients involved’s head has swollen to around 3 times it’s usual size.

This drug had been tested on animals prior to this clinical trial however I think the problems which have arisen from this trial only show that animal trials should be allowed to run much more, obviously they have to be restricted in some ways or all kinds of drugs would be tested on animals all over the place, but problems like this current situation could possibly be avoided if further animal trials were allowed to take place.

Also I think clinical trials on humans need to be controlled much more, I mean, the 6 men involved (it was 8 in total but 2 were given placebos, damn are they lucky…) have all suffered sever organ faliure through taking the possible anti-inflammatory drug and are now all in critical conditions in intensive care. I have also read that none of them are currently getting any better. One of the guys involved was a 21year old student trying to make money to pay for his course. They were paid around £2000, but life isnt really worth that is it, its worth a hell of a lot more. So if I were you, and you’re thinking about taking part in a clinical trial, I would definitely think twice before signing that line at the bottom of the page, it seems you really really would be signing your life away.
Although I did find it slightly amusing that this article was on the front page of the Daily Telegraph and a few pages further into the paper there was an article about a company wanting half a million people to take part in a new drug trial. Heh. If only they knew

–Jim–

 

H5N1

Ok, when I first heard about the bird flu cases in China, admittedly it did cause a slight bit ofworry, mainly because of the fact it was China, but I wasn’t massively bothered about it and I quickly forgot about it. However I am now fairly worried after reading the following news article: LINK The French have now found 2 cases of H5N1, the deadly bird flu. This is slightly closer to home and I’m thinking it won’t be too long before Britain has its first case. There is the channel which seems to serve a useful barrier but I’m sure infected birds will cross it sooner or later. Let’s just hope the WHO sorts this out as asap.

–Jim–

 

ooo

Damn its windy outside at the moment! Hope I don’t get blown away in the night lol.

Think I should go sleep now…

 

Ill. Sick.

Going to doctors later on, but for now, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here it is, I can’t be bothered to write any more.

 

Urgh.

Terribly day. Couldn’t sleep last night, shivering too much. Woke up today not being able to talk which got a bit better as the day went on but my throat still hurts, I have a headache and I’ve felt sick on and off all day. Had a biology test first thing which I had forgotten all about then further maths which is always a headfuck, then had to give a presentation in physics which means more talking. Had a driving lesson in which I made stupid mistakes because I felt so crap. I don’t even feel like playing the drums, I always feel like playing the drums

-Jim-

 

Danish Cartoons

Having recently found out about the situation involving the printing of several (around 12 it seems to be) carttons depicting the Prophet Mohammad, I have to say I’m fairly annoyed.

Firstly, the cartoons did not just depict Islamic religious figures, there were figured from a wide variety of religions and it was in no way intended as an attack on any religion, let alone the Islamic faith.

Secondly, the printing of these cartoons abided by Danish law to the full extent and besides, there has to be freedom of speech and expression. You can’t take that away from people, or is that what has to happen?

Thirdly, now followers of this faith are running out into the streets and burning THEIR OWN NATIONAL FLAG I mean, you can’t sink much lower than that. Burning your own flag because of a cartoon. If you search for “cartoon prophet mohammad” in google image search, at the time of me writing this, you could still see one of the cartoons on there. However it does seem that all of the other cartoons have been removed from the net, which is a big shame.

Also, now there is a boycotting of Danish product, by the followers of this faith. Ok so I can understand being upset about it, to a certain extent, but burning their own national flag, boycotting their own national products and urging other followers of ther faith to boycott Danish products, trying to bring down a national economy (which frankly wont work) all over a stupid cartoon… doesn’t make sense to me personally. What’s worse, is that, apparently, the editor in chief of France-Soir, one of the papers which printed the cartoon, has been fired by its owner.

Unfortunately (in my view) the papers have apologised, but that aside, the boycotting and so on is still going on, I mean, what do these people want??? Personally I think the papers had every right to print the cartoons and freedom of speech is one of the most important rights we have. Personally I’m not overly religious, probably not at all but If we went to the middle east and started printing Christian papers and preaching Christian papers etc what do we think would happen then huh?

–Jim–

(also see Lizzies Blog for more info on this subject)

 

Not such a bad day after all…

Got up stupidly early to go into school far too early to revise for an exam that started around 8:45. So I went in and met my mate Joe and we talked maths for a while, realising we actually had a lot to go over. The exam was stupidly difficult and altho I thought I understood the topics before going into the exam, I came out realising I didnt. However it was my last exam until June, which is damn cool.

Oh well, came home after that and setup my drumkit for the first time in aaaages, before Christmas was the last time its been setup at home. Played on that for a while, wasted a few hours, Sam and Charlotte came round and we had band practice for the firt time in aaaaaages aswell. We have done a recording session but other than that its the first time weve played together since before Christmas and it was great .

We’re well on the way to finishing another two songs. One of which has more of a classic rock feel to it and the other has a real driving marching rhythm and a great keyboard led melody. Special Price and I Fear Nothing are the titles, you might hear some soon!

–Jim–

 

What a great weekend.

Spent most of today at work, which admittedly wasn’t that bad because we spent most of the day looking at Chuck Norris lines on the net Other than that I’ve done nothing but avoid Maths revision. Yay. Which just means tomorrow will have to be spent doing more maths revision than I would have had to do if I had done it today. Oh well.

On the upside I did manage to upload a photo which I took of the sunset looking down my road on my way home from school a couple of weeks ago. Helps me forget about stupid things like maths exams