Gruts

BBC: Nations row over Mother Teresa
…When Mother Teresa was born in Skopje in 1910, neither Macedonia or Albania existed. The streets of the modern capital, Skopje, were part of the Ottoman Empire. But now that the world's most famous nun is approaching sainthood an unseemly row has broken out over her identity.

I'd have thought Mother Teresa's true identity was obvious:

Hebden Bridge Times: Thirty month ban for drink driver
A Hebden Bridge woman who twice hit a car while trying to turn a corner was banned from driving for 30 months… Ms Maggie Wood for [defendant] Flory said she "deeply regretted" the incident and had picknicked.

BBC: 'More IVF' on the NHS
Couples could be offered IVF treatment on the NHS, it has been reported. Infertile women under 40 will be offered up to six cycles of IVF at a potential cost of £15,000 a patient, according to the Daily Mail.

Bloody madness. There are genuinely ill people waiting for hip replacements, heart surgery, and cancer treatment; there are people paying for prescriptions for real ailments (major and minor); there are people who can't find a local NHS dentist; and we're going to spend £15,000 a shot (or, rather, half-dozen shots), trying to help perfectly healthy, infertile couples to conceive. Bonkers.

I'm sorry, but when it comes to this subject, my usual liberal views go straight out the window. The ability to bear children is not a human right, and being unable to do so is not an illness.

BBC: HRT 'doubles breast cancer risk'
Taking certain types of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can double the risk of developing breast cancer, says a study of more than a million women.

This is an irresponsible, scaremongering headline (whether they use inverted commas or not). Saying that a risk is doubled doesn't say anything about how much risk there actually is. If I buy two lottery tickets instead of one tomorrow, I double my chances of winning the jackpot, but the odds against it are still around eight-million to one.

BBC: Penis is a competitive beast
[A] team from the State University of New York believe the thrust of the penis during sex may help to clear a woman's reproductive system of a previous lover's semen.

Eeeew! We're entering into serious sicko territory here:

They tested their theory in experiments using latex phalluses, an artificial vagina and a mixture of starch and water.

These people are quite clearly bonkers (ahem). I wonder what they write in their CVs.

"Can I have two of those buffalo mozzarellas, please?"
"Have you got a number?"
"Have I got a what?"
"A number."
"What sort of number?"
"A number from that roll over there, to show it's your turn to be served."
"I'm the only person here."
"It's just some of the other customers might get upset if I serve you and you haven't got a number and they have."
"There aren't any other customers."
"I know, but if some came along…"
"Well, they'd just have to wait because I was here first, wouldn't they?"
"…Mozzarella, was it?"

In the Liverpool branch of John Lewis (still known locally as George Henry Lee, despite the recent needless name change), they are selling an "Anthony Worrall Thompson Juice Extractor" for £89.50.

Hey, I'd pay that much just to watch the look on his face.

BBC: Welsh have 'survival gene'
Professor Jane Aaron, of the University of Glamorgan, has a theory on why the Welsh seem to respond to adversity with an extra effort. [She] says the Welsh have what might be likened to a survival gene - a setback prompts a renewed burst of creative energy.

Oh dear, here we go… That's likened to a survival gene; Prof Aaron is a Professor of Literarture—she's talking figuratively, not literally.

I do wish people would stop inventing new genes willy-nilly like this—especially silly (and dangerous) patriotic genes. What next? Look-you-genics? There isn't a special Welsh survival gene that magically kicks in under adverse conditions, in the same way that there aren't special Welsh genes for synchronised singing, eating leeks, and losing at rugby.

BBC: Skydiver plans Channel flight [29-Jul-03]
An Austrian with a carbon wing strapped to his back is to attempt to fly across the English Channel unaided.

Unusual use of the word unaided.

BBC: Wild horses return to Kazakhstan [30-Jul-03]
The world's only truly wild horse, known as Przewalski's horse, is to be re-introduced into Kazakhstan after becoming extinct there 60 years ago. Munich Zoo, in Germany, which bred the animals in captivity…

Unusual use of the word wild. The article continues…

"The Przewalski's survival chances are good. There are snow leopards there but they don't usually go for full grown horses," said Beatrix Rau, curator at Munich Zoo.

Well, they're hardly likely to go for horses if the horses went extinct there 60 years ago, are they?

Still, at least Ms Rau didn't claim that Przewalski's horses are rarer than giant pandas.