God bless the NHS. It is 60 years old. Finally it is at an age where it can appreciate what it is to retire. Oh god please don't retire NHS.

I love the NHS. I mean sometimes it is a pile of crap. Having spent much time in the hospital both as a patient and a medic, I have seen all sides and oh so many levels. But I still love the bloody geriatric machine that it is.

It is Free FUCKING health-care. It is good, free fucking health-care. Understaffed with the personnel it needs (like doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, social workers, administrators who can find their arsehole on the first attempt, and countless more) and completely and utterly under appreciated, especially by the stupid idiots who work in it.

The system is not perfect,but then again what is. Sure you may have to wait hours in A&E or for that appointment whether GP or hospital, and sure you may feel like you are being ignored by the doctors if you have to be an inpatient. And yes, trying to get a convenient appointment is like panning the Thames for gold.... but I want people to realise that the health-care professionals are doing this job, working the shitty hours - and boy are they shitty - because they want to help sick people not feel sick any more. It isn't for the pay (cos honestly i can't see how that is worth it) and for most (there are some subsections I can't for reasons of my sanity count here by I digress) it isn't for the prestige and respect. And right now I can certainly say it isn't for the job security. Oh and as for helping people, lets face it patients are the most selfish ungrateful and annoying idiots you'll ever meet. I should know, I am a terrible one. There they stand trying to make people well because its the job and you do the job in front of you.

Shit, I make working in the NHS sound like fighting in a war, and that is not a fair comparison. I think that patients feel ignored and lost in the great machine and I certainly feel that there are areas of improvement with health-care/patient relations. There is much that can be learnt from the other service industries on their ability to build rapport.

But I would like to make this point. When you are ill, you go see a doctor. You come as a patient, not a customer. Yes, you should be involved with the treatment and you should definitely have a say with what you put in or have done to your body. It is after all your body. But you do not ask a fishmonger to fix your computer and you certainly would not be all in the face of a plumber telling them that wrench is not suitable for the task at hand. It is your call in the end of the day. We are just trying to do the best with what we can. Changes do need to be made but they need to be made intelligently. It also needs to be led on all the different fronts, from patients and from all healthcare professionals. We cannot just continue to plug the holes but truly consider what is needed to save this wonderful institution.

So, yes, God bless the NHS. Gods bless, or if you do not believe in any divine power, just simply bless it. Fight for things worth fighting for, and free health care is certainly one.

Have you been up and working for longer than your recommended daily allowance of activities? I'm sure as students we have all been there, pulled all-nighters writing essays or frantically finishing that coursework, deadline looming. I am certain in whatever you choose your future careers and life to be you will have a similar experience again.

So I have been up for over 27 hours straight. I just did a placement all day before then went to the hospital for a night shift, 8pm to 9am. In the interests of full disclosure I will state that i had dinner and a half hour nap before i started the night shift and yes, please, do not worry. I did not directly treat any patients because, yes I'm still a student. I would also like to add that I am certain that I have stayed up longer in some alcohol fuelled daze, but this was the hardest.

I've always thought I would be good on no sleep. We have all done it, consciously working all night. But it is a very different experience not just concentrating on one thing for the whole time and not stopping from the day before. My night shift consisted of sitting or standing in a darkened ward, waiting for the next patient to come in then frantically trying to deal with the millions of jobs that suddenly appeared (it never rains it pours...). One thing this day has taught me is that when i hit hour 21 (otherwise known as 4 in the morning) I hit a wall, solid and impenetrable. You keep going because that is also when the fear kicks in. The adrenaline runs and you cannot hold a civil conversation but the information gets conveyed.

And the worst bit is, we have it easy.

I'm not suggesting in anyway that what my fellow students and I slack. Well, I don't work hard but I know some people who really put shame to the idea of the boozy incompetent medic. However I digress. Being a student is one thing but actually working is another. We as students have it easy in comparison to the doctors.

The people I see and work with in the hospital may have these 9-5 days. The more unlucky ones have 12 hour shifts (oh A&E how we love you). But what is 9-5 these days? Most of the doctors I have met are in hours before they are clocked in and leave hours after their due deadline. You work the job not the hours. A cliqued statement i know, but it is true. It is inspiring and depressing to watch the junior doctors try and stay longer so that they can get that bit extra from the job, get that extra training. Equally so is realising that the more senior doctors, stay just as late and work just as hard, maybe not for the same reasons but because. What a good 50 years to look forward to...

So I would like you to consider it. It is very difficult for doctors to forget you. Honestly you are our priority. There is so much going on in the wards that you do not see, that even we as medical students standing there do not see. Everyone is tested in life and pushed to their limits but the wheel still turns.

It’s been a long time since I could dredge something worth writing from the thin soup that is my mind. Something worth putting up on the page, at least. It seems unfair that now I am putting something up it is little more than an apology and an information piece.

First the apology. I might as well start in a groveling position. Last week’s show was lost in the ether. Now I don’t want to sound condescending, but my understanding of the situation is that eGremlins ate the episode before it could travel down the pipes. If that’s too technical, then the Internet just vomited up our recording. Its understandable, since we are the information equivalent of too many sweets.

Sadly that was the last show of the series. We have decided to take a break to plan our glorious resuscitation (yes we plan things for the show…do too…) and we’re all in need of a rest. Even such dedicated news-watchers as we three need a break, though I suspect that May only has to hibernate in a cocoon made of human livers.
Try to contain yourself dear person, we know how hard this will strike you. But fear not, you will not have to read the newspapers yourself, at least not for long, because we want to hear from you.
 
Is there a part of the show that you enjoy particularly? Or a part that you detest? Maybe you would like to be a part of the SNOS team? All of these things are possible. Please contact us at the normal addresses with anything that you want to say, just limit the “can Joe do the show on his own, perhaps naked…?” emails to one per person.
 
Further, we are working on a summer project that will hopefully plug the void in your soul until we return. Details will be announced soon. For the moment all I can tell is that Alex will be getting punished, severely. That’s got to be worth keeping an eye out for, hasn’t it?

So enjoy your summer, and keep an eye out for our sign. The revolution is coming and news commentary will never be the same again.

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Welcome, once again, to the font of wisdom and sagacity that is the Some News or Something Podcast. Listen to the team of May, Joe and Alex as they discuss the news of the week. On top of all of this is a discussion of the Luxembourger, Wigans fire service and a critique on the reviews found in Local News.
This week we are joined by the Sun, the Mirror and the Daily Sport - not forgetting the free newspapers. By Odin's Ravens, it's a good one!


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A new podcast, and an extra long one at that. This we talk about Alex's dubious ancestry, Gladiators and their readiness, the exploitation of Mylie Cyrus and announce the news that the British Xfiles are 'really quite dull'. Don't miss Joe's News from somewhere that matters as he reads from the Lancashire Evening Post, which he assure's us is a real news paper. On top of all of this there is a serious and, some might say, journalistic discussion of the recent Parliamentary debate on the Human Fertility Bill. Cor!
This week we are joined by the Sun, the Mirror and the Star - not forgetting the free newspapers. Enjoy or be damned!


You can let us know your views on anything we've discussed during the show at any point during the week by emailing somenews@rarefm.co.uk.

By the power of grey skull! You don't even have to download the show to listen to it anymore, you can use the trendy new flash player at the top of the page to stream the show to your ears right now!

Or you can download the podcast by clicking here.

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It occurs to me that as a political observer, one of limited experience and with only moderate intelligence or savvy that I leave a lot to be desired. I am not trying to whine (though that might be how this comes across), but this weekend I was assessing my performance thus far with these blogs. I have reached double figure (barely) only through dragging each piece writhing and flatulent with unverified opinion from the empty cavern that I call a mind. I suspect that my writing is weak and stilted, rather like all of the academic literature that I hated so much throughout my education, though with out the intensive research and thought.

This being the case, and feel free to correct or confirm this view by using the arcane comment button located somewhere here about, these are not my biggest failing in this arena of polemic. Instead I decided that it is my inability to pick winners. The most recent example was of the esteemed Mr Livingstone. I thought that the many good things that he has done for the city I live, the astute way in which he choose the issues that matter to most, the alliance with the green party would be enough to see him easily elected for a third term.

I was of course completely wrong. It didn’t matter that he uses the public transport system that he has worked tirelessly to maintain, extend and refine. It didn’t matter that he has had massive experience in running the largest city in the Union. It didn’t matter that for of all New Labour’s attempts to make the rich into the richest, he clung fiercely to a socialist past that allowed him to see that the common man has as much to give. His commitment to green issues (apparently so 2007) was completely irrelevant.

Now we have Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, an old etonian ‘chum’ of David Cameron. He sounds a man of the people. A man who is famous for his intelligence in print, and for hosting ‘Have I got news for you’. A man who once had to apologise to an entire city for the offense he caused.

The only thing worse than this is that the BNP secured a seat in the Greater London Assembly.

Right, so I think it’s time. I’m ready to come out and confess.

I am a geek.

I checked on the most reliable sources I could find (i.e. the internet, the crazies on the street, etc) for the definition and I am definitely one. I am into comics, science fiction/fantasy (whether books, TV or film) and computer games. I love me all that techno bullshit. I’m going to a computer science conference in Liverpool in September. Hell if you’ve listened to the show you will have realised I’m unashamedly into it all.

Actually, lets face it I’ve been out for years, so why now do I feel the need for a suitably internet confession? Well, I was out-geeked in a comic book shop for the first time in my life. I’m not sure if I can adequately describe the sensation of standing in the queue, clutching my comics to my chest as a sign that I wasn’t a pretender or tourist that had gotten lost in Central London.

So it suddenly occurred to me after all these years how people must feel when I go on a rant about the socio-political nature of Star Trek (not really… I just wanted to sound smarter than ranting about ST) or why Batman is infinitely better than Superman. Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing and although details make the experience all that more enjoyable, we can really get bogged down in them. The devil is truly in the details.

And this is where I think science journalism also goes wrong. Having been ‘taught’ how to read scientific papers you realise that most has to be taken with a pinch of salt. The politics in getting papers published is a complex and intricate dance. They have to pitch their ideas as carefully and make sure it is what the journal editors want. Bearing in mind that most papers are an accumulation of not just one life but many lives work, you have to realise the level of spin that is applied to any piece of research. Now I am not saying they lie or even bend the truth but let’s face it presentation is everything.

Then we come to public media. Sensationalist headlines, although exciting, are really very misleading. I don’t think you need to be a scientist to understand current but care certainly has to be taken in making sure people get a balanced message. Academic speak is as confusing and intimidating as walking into a comic book shop or going to a pub on the night of the Champion’s League Final. No one is expected to understand the offside rule straight off or why geeks get excitable about Windows Vista. So why should we expect journalist, whether or not they have any scientific background, to be able to condense scientific papers, usually the work of many years into a 200 word story.

When I read most stories in the newspaper about some scientific breakthrough, whether it is ‘SAUSAGES CAUSE CANCER’- panic - or ‘Why extreme diets don’t work’ – well, duh – I struggle to keep my temper. I do not think that the portrayal is right. We not only undermine what the research paper is about but also the general public’s ability to grasp the fundamental details. At the same time I worry now that I am being the guy in the pub scorning your knowledge of which side is Man Utd.

Sure I probably know more science stuff than average, but most media represent their science news stories very badly. And yes I realise that some articles can actually be quite good. I just wish they were not so few and far between. The balance needs to be struck, condensed down but not so that it no longer resembles what it comes from.

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Join us this week and here real tabloid problem pages solved (or laughed at) by our resident Agony Aunt, Stephanie Goss. You May call her ‘your grace’. Or there is a discussion about the dangers that the Cub Scouts pose to western Society, Perhaps at the behest of their sinister overlords at the NME.
This week we are joined by the Sun, the Mirror and the Star - not forgetting the free newspapers. Listen and enjoy!
Oh, May, Joe and Alex will be there too, if that’s what you’re into.

You can let us know your views on anything we've discussed during the show at any point during the week by emailing somenews@rarefm.co.uk.

By the power of grey skull! You don't even have to download the show to listen to it anymore, you can use the trendy new flash player at the top of the page to stream the show to your ears right now!

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ELECTIONS, ELECTIONS, ELECTIONS plus headlines and girls with very little clothes on. Plenty of random stories of the week including bull doping in spain, magnetic fields causing suicides, and the most non-news stories we can find.

This week we are joined by the Sun, the Mirror and the Star - not forgetting the free newspapers. Listen and enjoy!

You can let us know your views on anything we've discussed during the show at any point during the week by emailing somenews@rarefm.co.uk.

By the power of grey skull! You don't even have to download the show to listen to it anymore, you can use the trendy new flash player at the top of the page to stream the show to your ears right now!

Or you can download the podcast by clicking here.

Simply right click and select 'Save Target As...'.
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Join us for a lite show this week. Only May and Mr Perfect… er, sorry Alex for your listening pleasure. We still manage to pack in all your favourites and more, although sadly News in Briefs is on hiatus. By chance it turns out we recorded on St George's day. Happy Turkish Knight day to you too!

With the Sun and Mirror and the free newspapers, celeb gossip and outrage, we hope you enjoy.

You can let us know your views on anything we've discussed during the show at any point during the week by emailing somenews@rarefm.co.uk.

By the power of grey skull! You don't even have to download the show to listen to it anymore, you can use the trendy new flash player at the top of the page to stream the show to your ears right now!

Or you can download the podcast by clicking here.

Simply right click and select 'Save Target As...'.
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