Parliament Goes Quack!

Thanks to Rich for raising this one... A few months ago, one Rudi Vis, MP, raised an early day motion on NHS homeopathic hospitals. Basically, an EDM is a sort of petition used so that matters of interest to individual MPs can be aired without needing to take up a lot of time. This particular one calls on the government to support homeopathic hospitals through the NHS as they have "the potential to offer clinically-effective and cost-effective solutions to common health problems".

Now let's be clear on this: homeopathy is, according to all scientific studies undertaken so far, snake oil. It relies on patients taking doses of water (active ingredients are diluted to the point that not one single molecule remains in a typical dose) or similar carriers and can be shown to have no benefits at all beyond the placebo effect. At a time when proven effective treatments are being withheld from patients because there just isn't the money to go around, should we really be spending public money propping up superstitious quackery?

I've written to my MP about this as he is one of the poor, misguided fools who have supported this EDM. With a little luck (and some badgering) he may see the light.

If you want to know more about homeopathy, Google is your friend. There is an article on Quackometer about this EDM and many good debunk articles from fairly solid sources floating around.

It's a Bird! It's a Microlight! It's...

On Sunday <3 and I took the Youngling to the White Horse Show near Uffington (just a few miles down the road). The little'un seemed to really enjoy gawping at all the sights and sounds of an English country fair, but there was one thing that really caught my attention as one of the most inspired, bonkers and generally cool things I have ever seen...

There is this French fella called Christian Moullec, who has made it his mission to help save the lesser white-fronted geese which used to be common in Scandinavia, but which are now close to extinction. These geese are being bred in captivity, but to be successfully released into the wild, they need to know how (and where) to migrate. So, M. Moullec has been working with groups of not-so-endangered geese and learning how to lead them on migrations in his microlight, with the intention of learning how to lead the captive bred white-fronted geese on their migrations.

So, the upshot of this was that we spent a little while sitting in a field, watching a microlight flying circles above, in formation with seven geese and (bizarrely — and I never found out why) three storks.

Bonkers. Shine on, dude!

C'mon and shake it on baby

On Sunday afternoon we had a nice family outing to a folk music session at a local pub. Yep, that's the whole family, including the Youngling. This wasn't actually the first session for the Youngling, but the last one was a few months back and she has grown so much since then. <3 and I were a little on the nervous side abonut how long it would be before we had to get into lots of baby cuddling, feeding and so on.

We needn't have worried. The Youngling sat in a highchair for ages, just listening and watching with a rapt expression on her face, occasionally shaking her maracas, banging her tambourine or yodeling along happily. Nobody seemed to mind that she couldn't tell the difference between a jig and a reel, and several folk added to the fun by pulling faces at the little monkey. After an hour or so, <3 fed the Youngling and she was OK again for a while longer, though eventually tiredness set in a bit and it was time to take her home (though I was able to stay on a little longer and play some more thanks to <3 volunteering to be on baby duty).

We're now wondering what instrument we should be providing our wee little prodigy. It would be nice to have a fiddler in the family, but perhaps we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves...

Anniversary Binge

So yesterday was our anniversary and as a friend of <3's had volunteered to babysit for us we managed to celebrate by going out for dinner. The one friend had actually turned into two and they happily spent the evening watching Serenity while the Youngling snoozed happily in her bed.

Dinner was at the Yummy Thai restaurant in Wantage, chosen because we both rather like Thai food and have walked past the place on many an occasion and figured that we really should try it out. Now, I reckon our standard benchmark for an eatery is would we take our foody friends, E. and I. to it? Based on ambience (very homely, reasonably busy for a Thursday, quiet music, very friendly and polite staff) and starters (very nice dim sum and tempura) we decided that this place passed.

The more advanced standard for a restaurant is if, having brought E. and I. along, would E. use the word "sublime" about the food. I think, having tried the crystal scallops, the answer to that is almost certainly yes. Melt-in-the mouth scallops in garlic, lovely stuff. The rest of the food was excellent too. We'll definitely be going back.

<3 and I had agreed to stick to token presents to mark the occasion. She got me a pair of rhythm bones, curved sticks that can be held in one hand in such a way that they can be used as a sort of rattle. All I need to do is learn how to do this properly — I'm slowly making progress.