Please take a ticket: You are pending miracle # 7,329,561

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Parents who want God to save girl lose case
A family judge at the High Court yesterday gave the go-ahead for a seven-month-old girl, who has only one year to live, to receive a bone marrow transplant that has a 50 per cent chance of giving her a normal life, but a 10 per cent chance of killing her.He authorised the treatment even though it is opposed by the girl's deeply religious parents, who believe God will provide a miracle cure. He said that the parents are a "happily married, well educated, professional couple with a very good understanding of scientific matters". He said that in her written evidence, the mother said: "I am a Christian and both me (sic) and my husband have faith and hope that God can heal our daughter, and our conviction is that He will heal her."


Is there a waiting list for miracles? Come on God, get a fucking move on! Looks like the lumbering old NHS is going to beat you to it.


Shy baby

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Hormone spray could banish shyness
It was hailed as the "trust" hormone, then the "mind-reading" hormone. Now it seems oxytocin may also help people with social phobia to interact. Markus Heinrichs at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and colleagues are studying 70 people with generalised social phobia, characterised by overwhelming anxiety and self-consciousness in social situations. Half an hour before undergoing standard cognitive behavioural therapy, which is designed to alter negative thoughts and behaviour, the patients were given a dose of oxytocin by nasal spray. Preliminary results suggest oxytocin improved their readiness to interact in role-playing and their confidence in tackling social challenges outside the sessions, says Heinrichs, who will present his results at the World Congress of Neuroscience in Melbourne, Australia, this week.



Galloway faces suspension

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Galloway replies
The committee appear utterly oblivious to the grotesque irony of a pro-sanctions and pro-war committee of a pro-sanctions and pro-war parliament passing judgment on the work of their opponents, especially in the light of the bloody march of events in Iraq since this inquiry began four years ago. They describe that as questioning their integrity and bringing parliament into disrepute. The house would do well to honestly calibrate exactly how its reputation on all matters concerning the war in Iraq stands with the public before deciding who precisely has brought it into disrepute.

Fireworks from Galloway



Polly won't be voting for Boris then?

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Boris the jester, toff, serial liar and sociopath for mayor
David Cameron has just made his worst mistake.

He will bitterly regret the day he encouraged Boris Johnson to stand as London's mayor. What does it say about the desperate state of the Conservatives that they will put up a clown to run a great global city? London is the nation's powerhouse, and a city of daunting complexity.

Tories running top City firms and Conservative boroughs won't find the Boris Johnson candidacy charmingly funny. Some may or may not agree with his rightwing views, but they will wince at serious London politics treated by the Tory leadership as a celebrity Eton wall game.



The White Tide Man**

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James Wolcott -  Mitt Romney's Life Aquatic
...an artsy New Agey campaign video by a candidate with obviously wayyyyyyyy too much money to piss away, to continue with the watery theme...aspiring presidential empty suit Mitt Romney has a peculiar notion of the most pressing problems our country faces- 'indolence and perversions'? If anything, it strikes me as a blessing in disguise that most Americans are too indolent to indulge in perversions...




** For those too young to remember 1959, see here


No breach of the peace

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Brothers admit violent pub attack
Two brothers have admitted violent attacks on two men at a Shetland pub. Brian Hetherston, 24, his brother Terry, 19, and their mother Valerie, 44, pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of Michael Black.
But at Aberdeen High Court the brothers admitted reduced charges of attacking Michael Black and Brian Smith.

Brian Hetherston admitted struggling violently with Michael Black and repeatedly kicking and stamping on his head to his severe injury and to the danger of his life. Terry Hetherston admitted repeatedly striking Brian Smith on the head and body and kicking his body to his injury.

The trio, all of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, were also charged with breach of the peace but their not guilty pleas were accepted.


Do what?!

Support the troops?

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Nimby neighbours' war with wounded soldiers' families
It is often the first port of call for servicemen and women returning home after being wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan. Soldiers who may have lost limbs or suffered severe trauma spend months rebuilding their lives at Headley Court military rehabilitation centre. But when an Armed Forces charity decided to buy a £ 1.7million six-bedroom house nearby so visiting relatives would have somewhere to stay, the well-heeled neighbours in Ashtead, Surrey, launched their own offensive.