Elephants last performed 10 years ago in a UK circus

Elephants last performed 10 years ago in a UK circus
A circus is being criticised by the RSPCA for using elephants in its show.
The animal charity said the debut of three elephants at a circus in Nottinghamshire on Friday was a "body blow for animal welfare".
It has called on the government to ban wild animals from circuses and urged people to consider the "ethical issues involved" before visiting the show.
The "European elephant act" at the Great British Circus in Newark will be the first in the UK for over 10 years.
Circuses had stopped using elephants after pressure from animal rights campaigners.

Asking these majestic animals to behave in unnatural ways in the name of entertainment is a disgrace
Dr Rob Atkinson, RSPCA
The RSPCA's wildlife department head Dr Rob Atkinson said: "This is a body blow for animal welfare in this country.
"I am sure this news will shock and sadden the public which has consistently shown its opposition to the use of wild animals in circuses."
He said the RSPCA did not believe wild animals' needs could ever be met in circuses adding that confinement, constant transportation, abnormal social groups and inadequate winter quarters all caused suffering.
'Care and attention'
"Asking these majestic animals to behave in unnatural ways in the name of entertainment is a disgrace - a disgrace which is already banned in several other European countries", Dr Atkinson added.
"There is absolutely no similarity between the lives of wild elephants and those of these circus captives," he said.
An African and two Asian elephants are due to perform at the show.
According to the Great British Circus website, director Martin Lacey "always insists his animals receive the best possible care and attention".
On the website, Mr Lacey said: "Our African elephant is called Sonja and her mother was shot in an elephant cull.
"Together with the two Asian elephants, Delhi and Vana Mana, they are great ambassadors for the species, entertaining and educating the public within the care and security of the circus to protect them."

skin deep

Description
A mink coat of classic elegance that will always be in style! This lovely coat has the sophisticated, clean lined look of rich, ranch mink with a collar that can be worn open or standing up in a mandarin collar. The mink around the collar and front is distinctively crafted to create an even darker ranch mink trim adding a quiet but uniquely lovely accent

no fur coats allowed

no fur coats gallery click this

February 19

richimag

 

Banksy is a well-known graffiti artist from Bristol.
Banksy’s stencilled works on the streets of Bristol, London and New York have attracted equal acclaim and condemnation, but the man himself is shrouded in secrecy.
Banksy’s real name is rumoured to be Robert Banks, Robin Gunningham or even Robin Banks, depending on who you believe.
It is not even certain which part of Bristol he is from. Some say Banksy is from the Easton area, others say Yate.

http://content.thisis.co.uk/bristol07/banksy/banksypage.html

Shingles 'risk' of arthritis drug

Shingles may be triggered when the immune system is weakened

Some popular treatments for rheumatoid arthritis could increase the risk of the painful condition shingles, a German study suggests.

Anti-TNF (anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha) therapy drugs can slow the progress of disease and help to reduce some of the worst symptoms.
But some of them may make patients more vulnerable to shingles, a skin disease which produces sore, itchy blisters.
Writing in JAMA, the authors advised patients on such drugs be monitored.
The team at the Rheumatism Research Centre in Berlin analysed data from more than 5,000 patients on different forms of treatment.
There were 86 outbreaks of shingles - triggered by the virus Herpes zoster - among 82 patients. Thirty-nine of these coincided with treatment with the anti-TNF drugs adalimumab and infliximab.
Etanercept, a protein therapy, and conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs were associated with 23 and 24 cases respectively.
Watchful eye
After adjusting for the age of the patient, the severity of their illness and their use of steroid hormone therapies, researchers found that the risk for patients on the anti-TNF programme almost doubled.

All drugs which damp down the immune response run the risk of increased risk of infection Professor Alan Silman Arthritis Research Campaign

Although this was beneath the threshold of clinical significance, which would be an increase of more than double, the researchers, led by Dr Anja Strangfeld, said their findings suggested doctors should be on the look out for shingles in the patients they treat with these drugs.
"Based on our data, we recommend careful monitoring of patients treated with monoclonal anti-TNF-alpha antibodies for early signs and symptoms of Herpes zoster," they wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Shingles is the reactivation of the virus infection that causes chickenpox. After a person has had the infection, usually as a child, the virus remains in their body and can return, usually after the age of 50.
It often first manifests as pain, itching or tingling in an area of skin on one side of the body or face before developing into a rash. Many continue to suffer chronic nerve pain once the rash has subsided.
A weakened immune system is thought to be one of the triggers, and it is suggested that this may be why anti-TNF drugs could have this effect.
"All drugs which damp down the immune response run the risk of increased risk of infection; steroids being a well known example," said Professor Alan Silman, medical director of the Arthritis Research Campaign.
"Shingles is also a rare but well recognised complication of immune drugs used to treat both autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis as well as cancers. This distressing but fortunately treatable infection is likely to be increased in incidence in anti-TNF treated patients."

to brighten up my day

Bored and Lonely

Should I take a lover,should I have a fling,

should I get a toy boy, and all that this will bring.

I do need some excitement to brighten up my day

someone who will love me the good old-fashioned way,

someone I can lean on in times of stress

who will be complimentary when I get undressed

who'll tell me I'm a woman and handle me with care

buy me gifts and flowers and when I need him he'll be there.

I don't think I will bother

I think it's been too long

I think I've lost the art of love,I might do something wrong,

I couldn't face the embarasment of knowing where to look, so when I go to bed tonight

I think I'll take a book.

Janet Khan 2003

distant stars in distant Galaxies

Some enlightened brains would like to include primates like the Gorilla in the social
care we are trying to establish . Basic rights to protect them from anialation and
disappearance .
Surely this is natural selection finished , the endless unknown is over , on this planet at the
moments past present and future , one species has reached the point which could have been
reached long previous in other places , distant stars in distant Galaxies should be farther ahead.Species is a very misleading term

Following traditional Darwinism

ufo ff

UFO over Plymouth

UFO over Plymouth, February 2009

Dartmoor Zoo

This article by Benjamin Mee, one of the Directors at Dartmoor Zoo, written for the Guardian describes what he went through to preserve the Zoo. Benjamin Mee, unaware of the grim living conditions, creditors and escaped big cat that lay in wait ...

vegan

I know the isolation my diet has shown me, the mental anguish of trying to present as vegan ,my internal fears,I took tablets and antibiotics in liquid form, the drugs fixed the huge infection I had

Scientists studying the DNA of Neanderthals

Neanderthals 'distinct from us'

The DNA will tease out the differences between Neanderthals (l) and us (r)

Scientists studying the DNA of Neanderthals say they can find no evidence that this ancient species ever interbred with modern humansBut our evolutionary cousins may well have been able to speak as well as us, said Prof Svante Paabo from Germany's Max Planck Institute.

He was speaking in Chicago, US, where he announced the "first draft" of a complete Neanderthal genome.
The genetics information has been gleaned from fossils found in Croatia.
Prof Svante Paabo confirmed that Neanderthals shared the FOXP2 gene associated with speech and language in modern humans.
A total of three billion "letters", covering 60% of the Neanderthal genome, have been sequenced by scientists from Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences Corporation, in Branford, Connecticut.
The majority of the sequence comes from bones from Vindija Cave in Croatia.
The draft genome can give us clues to the genetic regions which make us "uniquely human", Prof Paabo told BBC News.
"It was always a dream to look at the DNA of our closest evolutionary relatives.
"Now that we have the Neanderthal genome, we can look for areas in the human genome where a change seems to have swept rapidly through us since we separated from Neanderthals.
"There, something special may have happened in us. The cool thing is, now that we have the whole genome, we can look for these changes without bias."
Prof Paabo released details about the latest stage of his research at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Tongue twister
Neanderthals lived in Europe and parts of Asia until they became extinct about 30,000 years ago.

THE DNA MOLECULE The double-stranded DNA molecule is held together by four chemical components called bases Adenine (A) bonds with thymine (T); cytosine(C) bonds with guanine (G) Groupings of these "letters" form the "code of life"; there are 3.2 billion base-pairs in the Neanderthal genome Written in the DNA are genes, which cells use as starting templates to make proteins; these sophisticated molecules build and maintain the body

They were the closest relatives of currently living humans, sharing between 99.5% to 99.9% of our DNA sequence.
Pinpointing the differences may reveal the crucial evolutionary changes that enabled modern humans to leave Africa and rapidly spread around the world, starting around 100,000 years ago.
Accordingly, Prof Paabo and his team have focused on genes of special interest in recent human evolution, such as FOXP2, which is involved in speech and language.
Humans differ from chimpanzees at two key points in the FOXP2 gene.
But the preliminary results suggest that Neanderthals shared these same variations.
"There is no reason to believe they couldn't speak like us," said Prof Paabo.
"But of course there are many other genes involved in speech and language, so there are many more studies to be done."
Breeds apart
Since Neanderthals lived side by side with modern humans in Europe for many thousands of years, it has been speculated that we may have inherited some Neanderthal DNA in our genome today, thanks to interbreeding.
But Professor Paabo's team have found no evidence for this.
They focused on a gene implicated in brain development - microcephalin-1 - which shows significant variation among present day humans.
It has been suggested that a particular variant of the gene, found commonly in Europeans, was contributed by Neanderthals.
But the Croatian Neanderthal fossils harboured an ancestral form of the microcephalin-1 gene, which today is also found among Africans.
Overall, it seems that Neanderthals have contributed, at most, a "very limited" fraction of the variation found in contemporary human populations, said Prof Paabo.
"What is exciting now, is that we are beginning to look the other way - from early modern humans into Neanderthals."
Professor Chris Stringer, from the Natural History Museum, London, UK, commented: "If the the Neanderthal genome data show little evidence of potential hybridisation, that would fit with my view from the fossil evidence that, while interbreeding was probably possible, it may have occurred only rarely, with trivial impact on modern humans.
"The populations had been separate for hundreds of thousands of years and I think there would have been significant physical and behavioural differences between them. However, larger samples would be desirable to get a more complete picture, and hopefully those will follow soon."
Dead end
Prof Paabo said the team did not expect to find any clues which might help solve the riddle of the Neanderthals' demise.
"I don't think they became extinct due to something in their genome," he said.
"It was clearly something in their interaction with the environment or with modern humans that caused them to be extinct.
"That will not be something you can see from their DNA sequence."
And Prof Paabo was quick to pour cold water on any suggestion that the genome sequence would facilitate the cloning of a Neanderthal.
"We are talking about a very complex mammal," said the 53-year-old.
"I don't think that technology will improve fast enough to make this possible in my lifetime.
"It is more in the realm of science fiction than science."

Care home boss accused of murders 

The couple were first arrested on New Year's Day 2007 

The co-manager of a Somerset care home has been charged with murdering three elderly residents.

"horrified" NHS "009

Doctor guilty of fatal injection

Dr Priya Ramnath had denied manslaughter by gross negligence

A doctor has been found guilty of killing a patient by giving her a fatal injection of adrenaline against the advice of three colleagues.

Patricia Leighton, 51, had been taken into Staffordshire District General Hospital suffering from septic shock. She died there in July 1998.

Dr Priya Ramnath, 40, had denied manslaughter by gross negligence.

She was given a suspended six-month jail sentence after being convicted at Birmingham Crown Court.

Staffordshire Police revealed after the case that Ramnath, who was due to take annual leave, resigned from her post at the hospital on 28 July - six days after Mrs Leighton's death.

She arrived in Orlando, Florida, a day later.

They have faced agonising times to see justice brought and we hope that they can now find some form of closure Det Ch Insp Phil Bladen

An inquest in August 2004 recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on Mrs Leighton and police then took steps to extradite Ramnath.

The four-week hearing was previously told by Ramnath's colleague, Dr Doris Ng, that she was "horrified" the injection had been given.

Mrs Leighton, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, was admitted to hospital in Cannock on 20 July 1998 for treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and an infected bunion.

She suffered side-effects to antibiotics and was transferred to the intensive care unit in Stafford with septic shock.

It was there that Ramnath gave her adrenaline, she said, in an effort to raise Mrs Leighton's blood pressure.

Patricia Leighton died at the hospital in July 1998

Michael Burrows, prosecuting, had told the court that within moments of receiving the jab, Mrs Leighton had "jerked forward and sat bolt upright in her bed".

He said she had shouted out: "What's happening to me? I am going to die."

Shortly afterwards, Mrs Leighton lost consciousness and her heart stopped.

Ramnath and other colleagues tried to resuscitate Mrs Leighton but failed.

Mother-of-two Ramnath declined to give evidence during her trial.

However, Dr John Coakley, an expert in intensive care medicine who works at London's Homerton Hospital, told the trial Mrs Leighton probably died of septic shock - not the injection.

He said he "did not envy" any of the doctors who dealt with her as he said her condition had been critical when she was admitted to hospital.

It doesn't matter how long ago a crime happened, you just can't let it go, you have to fight for justice Leighton family statement

Dr Coakley said Mrs Leighton had only been given about a 50% chance of survival at that time.

Mrs Justice Rafferty said the doctor had panicked in the "pressure cooker" of the intensive care unit.

The judge told Ramnath: "The jury has found that Mrs Leighton would have lived longer, perhaps days, but for your gross negligence."

Mrs Justice Rafferty added that Ramnath's biggest mistake was refusing to listen to her colleagues.

The jury convicted her with a 10-to-two verdict after three days of deliberations.

A statement from Mrs Leighton's family after the case described her as a "very loyal and family-orientated person with a lovely, gentle nature".

'Overcome hurdles'

The statement said: "A lot of lives got wrecked the day she was taken from us."

It continued: "We have overcome many hurdles to get this case to trial.

"It doesn't matter how long ago a crime happened, you just can't let it go, you have to fight for justice.

"We are happy that the jury have returned a guilty verdict and that justice has at last been served, and hope that she will never be able to wreck another family's life."

Det Ch Insp Phil Bladen said it had been a "complicated and highly unusual" case.

He added: "Our thoughts have been very much with Mrs Leighton's family, who have waited more than 10 years to see someone made culpable.

"They have faced agonising times to see justice brought and we hope that they can now find some form of closure."

what is going wrong in the nhs

NHS facing £700m negligence bill

By Adam Brimelow BBC News health correspondent

The negligence bill is set to increase

Clinical negligence payouts by the NHS in England are expected to rise by 80% next year.

Trusts have set aside £713m to cover costs, up from about £400m this year, figures obtained by the Tories show.

stone cold

I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps,

doctors arrogance

Gene fault 'ups antibiotic risk'

Antibiotics are used to target serious infections

in 500 children is carrying a gene variation which means they are more likely to be damaged by a commonly used hospital antibiotic, a study suggests.