Amateur Brain Surgery

Overcrowding is a topic that I have commented on in the past and the problem is certainly not going away. One aspect of the overcrowding problem that I feel is sadly neglected is vehicle ownership.

When I was a lad there was only one house in our road that actually had a car. My family obtained their first car when I was aged about 8 years old. How times have changed. My next door neighbours own no less than four vehicles. Two cars and two motor-cycles. They also have two children who are not yet old enough to drive, but when they are I expect each of them will want a car or motorbike.

This situation is not unusual. With young people continuing to live with their parents well into their twenties it is not uncommon for the occupants of a single household to have four or more vehicles parked outside. This issue is partly responsible for the pavement and verge parking problems that continue to blight our shared environments.

Considering the growing concern for the environment and the dwindling worldwide fuel resources it seems completely mad that multiple vehicle ownership is not being adequately disincentivised.

We think that anyone who owns more than one vehicle should be required to pay double the road tax on the second, triple the road tax on the third etc. We also think that houses and flats should have a defined number of vehicles that the occupants of that property can own and park outside or in their drives. If the owners were to rent or purchase additional garage space then they would be allowed to have more vehicles, paying the appropriate road tax charges of course.

Vehicle ownership is not a god-given right, which many believe, but a privelige. Any political party attempting to introduce radical measures like these will be bound to lose votes but steps must be taken to alleviate the overcrowding on our roads. Profligate vehicle ownership is a selfish, wasteful use of resources that should not be tolerated.

 Yet another case where the culprits should simply be put to death. The two young idiots who murdered Sophie Lancaster by kicking and stamping her to death just because she was dressed as a Goth have been given long prison sentences, but why should we pay to keep these murdering scum alive?

Ryan Herbert, 16, of Rossendale Crescent, Bacup, received a 16-year minimum term at Preston Crown Court and his accomplice Brendan Harris, 15, of Spring Terrace, Bacup, Lancashire, who was convicted after a trial last month, was given a minimum of 18 years.

These sentences can in no way compensate for what they have done. There is really no room in this over crowded country for anti-social hoodlums like these. As I have said before, in cases like these the culprits should simply be executed. End of story.

After having read a recent report of a ghostly orb photographed near Edinburgh airport we have been interested to hear of other paranormal activity in the vicinity of the popular airport.

Ian, a transfer bus driver who works for Edinburgh airport car parks, has reported several sightings of ghostly apparitions around the airport. Now you might be forgiven for thinking that, maybe, he’d been enjoying a wee dram or three. But Ian is a responsible bus driver who is very down to earth, honest and never drinks while at work.

He has reported having seen what appears to be a woman, dressed in white, with a shawl covering her head. He has seen this ghostly apparition on several occasions, after dark, close to Ingliston. He reports that the apparition appears to float above the ground, staying quite static before fading to nothing. Ian says that seeing the ghost is in no way frightening. He reports that he was once able to watch as the apparition appeared to become increasingly distinct before fading to nothing over a period of about 20 seconds.

Ian also reports having seen another ghostly apparition in another area around Edinburgh airport close to the airport car parks off Almond road. In this case the apparition was clearly that of a pilot from the first world war.

Given the history of the airport as an air force training base, established in 1915, this comes as no surprise. Ian says that he has only seen this apparition on one occasion but his sighting is backed up by workmates in that area of the airport who say that they regularly encounter the ghost of an airman who they think is responsible for ‘moving’ items around their office. They also report hearing the ghostly sound of distant aircraft engine noise, not caused by the modern aircraft that currently use the airport.

There have been a number of ghostly apparitions both seen and felt at Glasgow international airport. One of the most recent was on the bank of White Cart Water which runs close to one of Glasgow airport’s car parks, under the M8. Visitors to the long stay car park report seeing what appeared to be a boy sat on the bank, staring across towards the industrial complex on the opposite bank. Some say that this is the spirit of a young boy who drowned in the water way.

Whilst these reports must be treated with some skepticism, there is no doubt that Scotland is rich with paranormal activity. Each year there are many reports of inexplicable sightings, ghostly apparitions, orbs and even a monster that lives in a lake. I am looking forward to my next visit when I’ll be tracking down some more ghost reports from around the Scottish highlands.

It has long been believed that Prestwick Airport is the only place in the British Isles visited by the late, great Elvis. But it has recently been revealed that he visited Tommy Steele in London.

Prestwick airport have photographic evidence of Elvis visiting them on 3rd March 1960, during his time in the U.S. army. But there doesn’t appear to be any photographic evidence of his rumored and secret visit to Tommy Steele in London.

The revelations were made by theatre producer Bill Kenright on the Radio 2 show Tracks of My Tears, presented by Ken Bruce. He explained that Elvis was a fan of Tommy Steele and he flew into London for a secret visit during which Tommy Steele showed Elvis the sights.

Tommy Steele, now 71, confirmed the story to a newspaper telling them that he had promised to keep it quiet.

I’ve just signed up to Twitter under the username ‘tonyboney‘ so if you fancy signing up, saying hi and following me please do!

I have quite a bit of spare time, in between fixing various pieces of lab equipment trashed by students, so I’ve played with Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon and a variety of other social networking and bookmarking facilities.

I quickly tired of being poked, deluged with peculiar videos and having sheep thrown at me on Facebook so I now only use it to stay in touch with a few geographically distant friends. I still look at digg when I’m bored, mainly seeking weird and unusual news. The kind of stories that make me feel so ultra-normal or fortunate.

Twitter seems to be a little different. People enter short answers to the question ‘What are you doing?’ In my case the most common answer to that question would be ‘naff all’. Once signed up you can elect to ‘follow’ existing tweeters (twitterers? twits?). This means that you monitor their constant answers to this simple queston. I’m currently following a whole bunch of techie internet geeks whose work and blogs I’ve read at some time. Its interesting to see how similar and mundane people’s daily routines and activities really are.

But watch out for the Twitter Gestapo. They’ll blacklist and ban you very quickly if they even get a hint of spam. I foolishly followed the advice of someone who said that the thing to do is sign-up and follow as many people as possible, which I did. I sent a couple of updates regarding websites that I was looking at and immediately met with a slap and label as a spammer! Apparently it has something to do with the ratio of people following me to the people I am following. It’s not my fault that all my old chums are now dead or incapable of using a computer!

So I deleted that account and set up this new, spam free one. So why not give twitter a go yourself and make certain you follow me (doctorbone). You will get to hear about all sorts of interesting stuff like what I had for breakfast, what I’m wearing and maybe even what the weather is like. How can you resist?

That old saying that ‘The Sqeaky Wheel Always Gets the Oil’ certainly appears to be true. Brighton and Hove community police have responded to the verge-parking issues that I reported recently and told the culprits to cease or face prosecution!

I was really surprised that anything was actually done after receiving a somewhat terse and less than pleasant message from the council informing me that it was nothing to do with them. The local Police Neighbourhood Specialist Team have addressed the issue and informed many regular offenders in my area that if they persist in parking on pavements and verges they will be prosecuted.

This comes not a moment too soon as someone not too far from where I live had started to park their works van totally on the pavement outside their house forcing pedestrians, and those with push-chairs and wheel chairs, to walk in the road. This was causing massive incovenience and even danger to many of their immediate neighbours, but they have now been forced to stop by the police. Hooray.

So its a big ‘Well Done’ to the Brighton and Hove Police Neighbourhood Specialist Team. The moral of this story is clearly: Don’t sit back and let people damage your environment with selfish lack of consideration. Be a squeaky wheel and complain. If you don’t get a response, complain again and get others to do the same!

On a recent trip to Scotland I had an unpleasant encounter with a driver who appeared to think that he was perfectly within his rights to use his phone whilst steering into Edinburgh Airport Car Park with just one hand.

When will drivers learn that driving while on the phone is illegal because it is dangerous. People have been badly injured and killed by selfish idiots, like the one I encountered at Edinburgh Airport.

What can other drivers do when they see some foolhardy idiot attempting to control their vehicle whilst engaged in a conversation on the phone?

Luckily for me the whole incident was captured on the car park security cameras. The police were called and the driver’s phone records were checked to find the times when he was on the phone. I was reassured that he would receive a substantial fine, and that’s before he goes before the magistrates charged with threatening behaviour for confronting me in the car park.

If you see someone using their phone whilst driving let them know that you disapprove, take their registration details along with location and time of the incident and call the police. If enough people complain often enough something will definitely be done.

Local authorities are seeking tougher laws that will enable them to prosecute motorists who dump rubbish from their cars. We at ABS whole-heartedly support these moves.

Current laws make it really difficult to enforce littering laws, even when an offending vehicle is caught on camera. This is because the individual who dropped the litter needs to be identified. New laws would see the registered vehicle owner being issued with a littering fine in the same way that speeding tickets are currently applied.

A pilot scheme of these new powers is set to be trialled in London as from June and will be extended across England and Wales if successful.

Littering is just another example of the disrespectful behaviour that we see around us every day. On my journey to and from work I routinely see people launching cigarette butts from their car windows and often see large amounts of plastic rubbish piled up on roadsides clearly dumped from vehicles.

It’s about time that anyone seen treating our shared environment with such disregard met with the full force of the law. If it were up to me I’d make them work down the sewers during the busy summer months.

The Brighton and Hove area is plagued by selfish drivers who seem to think that they have the right to park on pavements and verges. They don’t! And it is about time it stopped.

Why is Pavement Parking and Verge Parking Wrong?

1. It can cause an inconvenience or even a hazard to pedestrians
2. It creates hazards for visually impaired, disabled and elderly people
3. It can cause problems for people with pushchairs, wheelchairs and mobility scooters
4. It can cause costly damage to the kerb, pavement or verge
5. Damaged or defective pavements, caused by parking, can become hazardous
6. Injuries sustained as a result of damaged pavements and verges result in local authorities facing significant claims for compensation
7. Verge parking destroys valuable green space and makes roads look muddy and messy

The enforcement of pavement parking and verge parking laws has been the responsibility of the police. Hence, nothing has ever been done about it. Take a look around any densely populated area of Brighton and you see road after road full of cars illegally parked on the pavements.

As of 31st March the Road Traffic Act 2004 came into force and Brighton and Hove City Council became responsible for the enforcement of the regulations. Parking Attendants will now be called Civil Enforcement Officers and will be given powers to issue Penalty Charge Notices for various parking offences. These will include pavement parking, double parking and parking on a dropped curb.

But will we actually see some action? I’ll believe it when I see it. If you want to complain about pavement parking in your area the following BBC site has some good advice: How to Complain About Pavement Parking

Basically, you need to take a digital photograph, record the date, time, where it was etc. And then send all this to parking@brighton-hove.gov.uk . But don’t expect a reply.

Storyville, on BBC 2 today (30th March) at 2250, tells the story of Henry Marsh, one of the UK’s most respected neurosurgeons, and the wonderful, life-saving work he carries out in the Ukraine.

Henry has teamed up with a Ukrainian surgeon, Igor Petrovich, who is trying to make a difference in a country where the lack of surgical resources means that people are becoming disabled and dieing due to tumours that would easily be removed here in the UK. Henry visits the Ukraine at least twice a year, taking with him discarded medical equipment from St. Georges hospital in London. He shares his expertise and helps to perform complex operations with Igor.

The lack of resources often means that they need to improvise. Henry has had to use a normal DIY Bosch drill, bought in a local market, to make holes in a patient’s skull in order to remove a life-threatening tumour. As Henry himself has said:

“What are we if we don’t try to help others? We are nothing. Nothing at all.”