Lambing snows and April showers

Every crofter in the Highlands of Scotland will tell you about the lambing snows.
Last year  at this time we drove south to Inverness to have our winter tyres replaced with summer ones. The weather was beautiful.
But - It started snowing just after we left the garage and  by the time we reached Sutherland there was deep snow. Our croft house is up a hill. We made it but it was touch and go

April Showers -
That weird situation when there is lovely bright sun and it feels like spring and then
from nowhere
it rains
briefly
and then there is bright sun again.
I reckon this is just the same as the lambing snows - just a warmer version!

Tree Farming

I love trees.

I have planted trees whenever I have been able to - which is not often

I have also, with great sorrow, had to cut down diseased trees.

What I don’t like is tree farming - particularly the way it was done in the 60’s and 70’s in the Scottish Highlands.

There were big tax breaks then for owning a bit of forest, so bit s of countryside would be ploughed up by massive machines, creating huge furrows. These would make walking there impossible for ever after.

Non-native fast growing trees were planted in straight rows, jammed tightly together. 

Usually there was no idea of landscaping or protecting the beauty of the countryside.  The trees were not looked after as would happen in our old ancient woodlands. The trees were never thinned or pruned.

Now these are being “harvested”, leaving ugly areas like giant scars. No effort is made to re-landscape as that reduces profit.

Sometimes an area is planted with trees in such a way, that a beautiful view is blocked from view.

We lived in Canada for a while and that was very much the case, where we were.

 All you could see anywhere - were trees and more trees.

But sometimes you get used to a nice bit of forest somewhere – It has always been there – as long as you can remember.

Then – one day – you drive past –and it is gone – shock horror.

I don’t like my landscape changing.

But what really upsets me is this

Biofuel

Last week on our way south from Sutherland, we were parked next to a huge lorry stacked high with beautiful logs from big trees. On the side of the lorry it said Biofuel

It made me want to weep

The thought of all those trees being taken off to be put in some giant furnace where they will burn up in no time at all and produce  a pathetic amount of energy is awful

Surely the two sides of the energy equation here do not make sense

If one tots up all the energy /fuel and man hours involved in the production of those trees, from the machine to plough the ground and the machinery to fell the trees, the machinery to turn the tree into neat trunks and the fuel of that lorry to transport those trunks to the biofuel plant, I suspect that as much energy /fuel has been used in production as will be obtained after burning.

It surely cannot be an efficient way of doing things.

In times gone by one saw lorries carrying logs to the pulp mill to produce paper. Somehow that did make sense. Something tangible was being made.

But the UK no longer has a pulp mill. Our trees have to go to Norway to be pulped - Crazy

Biofuel in general seems a crazy thing.

To be growing edible products for biofuel when half the world is starving just seems bonkers.

To be felling precious Amazonian rain forest to grow biofuel is beyond crazy

But

I suspect that tree farming in Scotland will seem wonderful compared to fracking

More lambing news

Most male pensioners get up in the night for a pee. But most do not expect to see a sheep in obstructed labour right outside the bathroom window.

This poor lady had the baby’s head hanging out and nothing else happening. The contractions seemed to be going away.

So what do you do? Go back to bed or phone the crofter neighbour?  Perhaps it is normal sheep behaviour and the crofter will not be amused?

Thank goodness crofter neighbour was not too cantankerous and came out to have a look.

He unceremoniously hauled the lamb out by the one little leg which was poking out beside the head.

The lamb seemed very dead and its mother seemed quite uninterested. She was probably in a state of exhaustion and shock poor thing.

However after a while of doing horrible things like poking his fingers down its throat the crofter sparked a bit of life into the lamb.

The crofter wondered if there was another lamb to come because the mother was contracting again

BUT

To the horror of all, what she pushed out was her own womb (uterus) – turned inside out.

Now this is not a good thing at all and has to be put right fairly quickly. If left too long it becomes swollen and can’t be pushed back. However it is a job for the vet.

Luckily the vet is near on the other side of the glen and was happy to have the sheep brought across.

However – said sheep did not want to be caught and ran all over the hillside - with its womb hanging out behind.

Eventually she was caught, put in the trailer and got to the vet.

My admiration of vets has soared

The vet gave the sheep an epidural to relieve pain. Now as a doctor who spent some time doing Obstetrics, I can say with authority that this is a very difficult procedure.  A needle must be inserted into just the right place between two back vertebrae and into the space around the spinal cord and never into the spinal cord. Just imagine doing that in a big woolly highly stressed sheep – Wow

He then washed and cleaned the womb and pushed it back into just the right position and put some stitches over the entrance to stop it coming straight out again.

Mother and baby saved

And both still doing well

I was a Kelpie

A million years ago - or so it seems, I was taken by my mother into Inverness, to Dr Blacks Memorial Hall and enrolled in the Brownies.
Oh it was so exciting - I can still remember the thrill.
First there was the uniform - the brown dress with a belt and a tie. The  belt was  brilliant. I had never had a belt before. But - the tie was just so exciting. It wasn't an ordinary tie, which would have been exciting enough, but it had to be made by folding a yellow bit of material in a special way.
A brooch went in the front of tie denoting which "six" you belonged to.
In Brownies, you were divided into sixes. There were fairies , elves, pixies and gnomes and because it was Scotland - kelpies
It was a big room, on the ground floor and there were lots of little girls and Brown Owl and her helper. In the middle of the room was  - The Toadstool
After a while Brown Owl said that she thought I would make a good Kelpie.
Now I thought this was because I was such a good little Scottish girl
BUT
I recently went to an International all day conference on The Loch Ness Monster
There I discovered that kelpies were big fierce monsters and were perhaps the basis of the the myth that gave rise to The Loch Ness monster.
I have to admit to being very disturbed by this knowledge
Obviously Brown Owl had observed me for a short while and decided that I was a big fierce monster.
Perhaps she was right. I was always big and continually got the strap at school.
The kelpies had a special song
"Here we are the little Kelpies
Bright and quick and ready helpers"
Oh I just loved it all
and
I so looked forward to flying up to guides (held in the same place on the floor above)
But
I was sent away to boarding school - in England

Scottish Nationalist confusion

Are the SNP confused or are they just trying to confuse us?

The SNP (Scottish nationalist party) are the party in power at present in Scotland’s devolved parliament.

They want Scotland to be an Independent Scotland and to this end have organised a vote in 2014 on independence.

But - there is a huge fudge going on.

They say -

Look at us, we are amazing.

Already we have made lots of things free.

Free dental care

Free prescriptions

Free care of the elderly in their homes

Free travel over the Forth Road Bridge

They also say

If you vote for independence

We will make more things free

Such as -

All childcare.

BUT

All this free stuff is not something that happens or doesn't happen with or without independence.

It is policy carried out by whichever political party is in power at that time.

OK -The SNP is in power right now and it is their policy (mostly funded by England)

But

They might not be in power after the next election. After the election it is quite likely that labour will be the main party in Scotland. They will then carry out whatever their labour policies are.

Labour’s leader - a splendid feisty lady called Lamont or as we call her - Daphne Broon - is challenging the SNP’s desire that everything should be free. 

It is a great and good desire to have, she agrees, but how will it be paid for?

Good question.

It is an especially good question to ask if Scotland does become independent when all serious economic experts forecast that Scotland will have less money and will need to raise income tax a lot, just to maintain the status quo.

So Mr Salmond - you need to have 2 separate plans to lay before us

1. What exactly Scotland’s position will be if independence happens – this should be the same for all parties

2. What the SNP’s policy is if it wins the next election.

They are 2 quite different things please stop trying to confuse us  - assuming you are not confused yourself

Surrounded by Sheep in Labour

In our little croft house, we are surrounded by sheep, which belong to our neighbouring crofters.
It seems to be peak lambing time just  now. They do it a bit later here, up in the far North, having learnt over the years that snow and cold can arrive and kill early lambs. So the " tup " as he is called, is introduced to the ladies at a later time.
The tup in previous years was called Hamish and he came all the way from Achiltibuie, in a roofless trailer pulled by the crofters bright yellow railway van. The crofter works part time on the railway. We met them on the single track road which we then blocked, for at least 20  minutes, as the crofter showed off his merits to us - Hamish's merits not his
But -
Watching all these poor ladies around us giving birth, I feel as if I am in a giant maternity ward and it is unsettling.
As a doctor I have delivered a huge number of babies.
For a while I toyed with the idea of staying in O&G, as it was called.
It is a wonderful area to work as, there is no doubt, every birth is a miracle.
On the reverse side, a death is totally devastating.
But I couldn't take the lack of sleep. The hours were - all day for 5 days a week - plus every third  night and every third weekend.
A weekend would be from Friday morning until Monday evening - in theory it could be with no sleep at all.
One weekend, there were so many deliveries which required my input - the complicated ones -  I had so little sleep - that I arrived at a point where I did not care about anything anymore.  I was a very dangerous doctor and am so grateful that nothing awful happened. I was shocked that I could feel that way.
It made me decide against O&G as my career.
I have also, as a female Scottish pensioner,  had my own children and there is no doubt that the whole business is just as awful as it looks to an observer.
So here I am surrounded by all these labouring sheep.
They are so brave. They don't yell and scream like us. They walk round in a small circle, occasionally smelling the ground for some reason. They lie down and the upper rear leg jerks with agony during the contractions. Then - up they get again in another frantic circle. On the ground their eyes are closed, head turned up to the sky as if pleading to an inner God.
Some are quite quick but some seem to take ages. There is no pain relief - no gas and air - no epidural. Poor poor ladies
and
It is us that inflicts this on them
We put Hamish in there to have his evil way with them. We do it every year. So every year they have to go through this agony.
Why?
Because we like eating their babies.
Well - I do - I love lamb. It is my favourite meat
But
Oh Dear

The Highland Clearances and me

I often think about the Highland Clearances and wonder where I stand on them.
For anyone who doesn't know, they were a terrible time in the history of The Highlands of Scotland.
There was crippling poverty and overcrowding. Crofts, when inherited, were divided between many sons, becoming smaller and smaller and less and less able to sustain the families on them. Unlike England which had mills and mines etc, The Highlands had not much else for the working man to do.
So -
Many emigrated voluntarily to the new World.
and
Many emigrated involuntarily
and
Many did not get as far as emigrating but died after they were forced off their croft.
It is hard to know who to believe but it would seem that -
Some landowners were genuinely acting in the best interests of their tenants and went about things in a kindly way
and
Other landowners genuinely believed that they were doing the best thing for the tenants but employed factors and ground officers who could only be classified as evil
and
Other landowners were just evil and did not care a jot about their tenants and were solely after profit.
So
Like everything else in life it is not straightforward. There is no doubt that something had to be done. The status quo was not possible without even more terrible suffering and there were the odd events such as potatoe famines and cholera outbreaks to compound the misery.
And then there was  sheep.
Landowners discovered that sheep brought in  money - I presume from the sale of fleece to the prospering wool trade.
From an accountant's point of view it was a no brainer. Clear the crofters who never paid their rent and buy lots of sheep and  make money.
In my childhood at my little primary school in The Highlands, we all hated several things but top of the list was-
1. The Campbells - because of the massacre of Glencoe in 1692
2. The English - because they beat us at the battle of Culloden in 1746
3. The evil landowners of The Clearances - because they were cruel and evil and forced us out of our homes and country  - from about 1746 onwards
4. Catholics (at my first school which was all faiths) and Protestants (at my second school which was Catholic)
Scots have long long unforgiving memories kept alive by sad songs.
Then I started genealogy and to my horror began to find that different lines of our family were amongst the hated ones.
Some lines were simple crofters who were cleared from their homes.
One ancestor line had been the owner who cleared a small island on the West Coast
Another line  - he was a ground officer in Sutherland - employed by the hated Duchess of Sutherland.
Another line was one of the hated lowland sheep farmers who opportunistically came north to farm sheep on huge acres of rented land which had recently been cleared of crofters
Another - was English
and
Another - was a Campbell
Oh Dear

The Siskins are back

They are back - the siskins - hooray.
For at least 2 years, there has not been any.
We thought that was it -the end of them - all finished.
But two days ago we saw one and then yesterday a few and today there are lots - just like it used to be.
The air is full of their pathetic little high cry and the bird table is heaving with the tiny yellow aggressive birds. The poor old robin doesn't stand a chance.

Mrs Thatcher and my Dad

A young adult attacked me verbally -
"How could I possibly support Thatcher, that evil lady who stood for the selfish state".

I tried to explain -

My father had a small company in the far North. My memory was that it was a constant anxiety for him to find orders, to keep “The Works” going and to provide salaries for “The men”. It had been the same for his father who had run it before him.

One year there was a dearth of orders and my grandfather did not have money to pay the men at Xmas. So Granny used her small inheritance from her father to pay them. This meant that there were no presents for my father and his sisters.

The well-being of the men was always foremost. My father would spend so much time looking after the men and their families that I can remember anger in my teens as I thought he spent more time with them than with his family. To him, the responsibility to his men and the local community came before the responsibility to his family. Just as when I worked as a doctor, my responsibility to my patients came before anything else.

When my father retired, he aspired to be an MP under Margaret Thatcher but died before the election. She wrote us a lovely letter.

Mrs Thatcher was also a child of someone who ran a small business. She would have had the same sense of responsibility drummed into her.  - A responsibility linked to business.

i.e. In order to carry through your responsibilities, the business must be thriving.

If the business makes money there is money to pay the workers.

If the business is struggling there is less money for the workers.

If the business fails to succeed, it is bankrupt. There is no money for the workers and no product for customers.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the business owner, the worker and the customer. Each has a responsibility for the whole to work.

When Maggie was first elected, that relationship had broken down. A large amount of business (owned by the government) was bankrupt due to the union-led workers demand for unaffordable salaries. Many of these were in sectors which were no longer viable.

She once said that - 

“The Labour Party failed when it ran out of other people money to spend”.

Maggie’s politics was based on her early experience. She believed that encouraging and freeing up small business to flourish would help all in the community

I think that what she started so successfully, ultimately failed because businesses got too big and because of globalisation

Once it stops being a small private business in a small community it doesn’t work

It becomes depersonalised and faceless.

Why should someone like my Granny spend her inheritance on the employee's Xmas when her husband is a tiny cog in some global super-company?

It is essential that there is that fierce sense of responsibility and the bigger the company gets the less likely it is to exist.

Mrs Thatcher was known to have been disappointed that so many people who made money by her policies did not become philanthropists as the Victorians had done.  She did not believe that a citizen had fulfilled his or her responsibilities when they paid their tax bills. More was required of them. She herself tithed her income to good causes

She would have been quite horrified at the present practice of so many to avoid even paying their tax.

It was not being selfish to encourage business to succeed

Equally it was not being selfish to stop supporting bankrupt business.

Of course she and others knew that the workers of those companies would be badly affected. But hopefully the taxes of those that were in work would pay enough in welfare, to be able to help them.

The most critical thing she had to do was to encourage business wherever it was, so that there would be work to provide wages, to generate tax, to help those without work and enable the country and society to function.

Money does not grow on trees - people somewhere must be working to generate it.

The way things looked before she was elected, the country was heading for bankruptcy and the breakdown of society had started, with even bodies going unburied.

And it must be remembered that she won with landslide elections, so what she did was done with the will of the majority of the country at that time.

It had to be done, everyone knew it.

It just needed a strong leader to do it

Crofting

I almost missed a tiny snippet in my paper saying that there is to be a change in the crofting laws.

“The Crofting Commission is ending tenancies of crofts that are not in permanent use”

i.e. Crofts which are not in use will be taken back.

Well this is not new – it happened to our croft.

Many years ago, the family leased a small farm on quite good ground near the sea. But our ancestor was a younger son of many and had to leave.

He was offered a croft, the plot we have now. It is terrible land, high up, on the wrong side of a stony hill.

But he had no choice. He was also a stone mason and in 1835 he moved here and he built the little croft house where I am at present. Slowly over the years, he cleared the stones off the land all the way down to the river.

His family worked the croft until 1960 when it passed to an aunt who was a university lecturer.

Under the crofting laws at that time she was able to buy the house with a tiny patch of garden – but the farm land – the croft - had to go. 

Because she was not actively using it – it was taken away - just like that - and given to the neighbouring croft to use.

So this ‘new’ law is not new - just recycled.

Crofting law is very complicated.

Big land-owners hate crofters on their land because they have so many crofting rights.

Crofters hate the big landowners because of the way they often get treated.

The land further up the hill from us is common grazing for the crofters along our road.

It is also an area where the local estate has sporting rights to shoot grouse etc.

Up till now there have been no problems. Both sides have quietly respected the rights of the other.

But the elderly landowner has died and no-one quite knows who the land has gone to.

A young brash man from Essex, speaking estuary English has come on the scene, demanding to know from my husband and our neighbour - what right we have to be on his hill - and to get off it.

Oh Dear

The newspaper article was headed “Croft Clearance fury”

About 1819 the people on our side of the glen watched the flames, as the other side of the Glen and beyond was cleared. First the Duchess of Sutherland forced the men to enlist in her regiment and then sent them away.

Once they were gone the women and children were forcibly evicted by her underlings and their houses burned down – all to make way for profitable sheep.

Our side of the glen was spared, perhaps because the land was so poor. Or perhaps, as the rumour has it – one brave crofter took a stand and talked them out of it.

Anyway – this side is not going to be cleared of locals now

You can see how wars start!

Sleep deficient people must not drive

Recently I went to a lecture at the Science festival about sleep. It was  given by top doctors in the field.
It was very interesting
The main thing I took away with me was how dangerous  it is for a sleep deprived person to drive.
Testing shows it is as dangerous as someone who is over the allowed blood alcohol level.
Some of the most dangerous amongst us are those with sleep apnoea, whose sleep is continuously interrupted by episodes of apnoea (absent breathing) after runs of loud snoring. Their breathing stops ie they die. This wakes them up with a big start and they breath (and snore) again.
Where this is happening many times a night, sleep is so messed up that they become very sleep deficient. The person himself is unaware.
They don't know they snore, they don't know that they stop breathing and they don't realise when they start breathing again.
But they develop signs of lack of sleep such as bad temper and low mood and daytime sleepiness.
It can mess up their job and their marriage.
Sleep Apnoea (OSAHS - Obstructive Sleep Apoea Hypopnoea Syndrome)
is extremely common. Anywhere between 2-4% of middle aged people have it. It becomes more common with age
Sleep apnoea is easily tested for on the NHS, after referral by a GP to a special sleep centre . It is easily treated on the NHS. The person wears a mask (over nose or mouth or both) at  night which gently blows air. I tried it and it is quiet and quite pleasant.
The treatment is highly effective.
My father died in a car accident. He went to sleep at the wheel.
Now I suspect he had sleep apnoea.
How I wish we had known that before he died.
He might still be here.

House of Lords report on Scottish Independence economics

A group of Peers from all parties in The House of Lords has analysed many of the core economic arguments behind the idea of Scotland becoming independent.
AND
They are NOT what the nationalists want to hear.
1. A separate Scotland would start off with a huge debt. It would be so large that it would quite dwarf the annual output of the country.
2. An independent Scotland would have difficulty joining the EU. It would take time, it would find it hard to bargain for the same good terms as the UK and it would have to join the disastrous Euro.
3. North Sea oil revenues would not be enough to make Scotland prosperous.
Add this to -
Sales of Scottish whisky have gone down.
and
The report last week about Scotland's demographic time bomb.
ie a huge number of people are reaching retirement age with not enough young people in work to pay taxes to pay their pensions
AND
one must conclude
that
Scottish independence is madness

Margaret Thatcher RIP

Being a Scottish pensioner people might expect me to loathe Margaret Thatcher
But
I thought she was wonderful.
When I was young being brought up in the Scottish Highlands, all I knew was Conservatism. Scottish Highlanders were by tradition and instinct Conservative.
The Scottish Labour strongholds where down south in the lowlands, in industrial Glasgow and Clydebank and parts of the central belt.
A bit of Liberal influence crept into the North - but Labour -  Never
Then the SNP came on the scene - very left wing and again not appealing to the North.
Then came Maggie and her disastrous Poll Tax which she inflicted on Scotland first. It caused riots which were not reported in England. Nobody in England cared  until it later happened to them. (This is the sort of thing that makes Scots cross with England)
But
I liked her and admired her
Life in Britain was dreadful before she took over. It was so bad that we left and went to Canada in search of something better.
Then  this little petite women got in and sorted it out.
MEGA
Being female, I admire her even more because I can understand what a huge thing it was, to have done what she did - as a female in a very very male world.
She was amazing.
If only she hadn't done a 3rd term.
Perhaps PM's should be banned from doing a third term. It always seems to be a mistake.
My Mum met her once at a function she was hosting and was most impressed. She had previously met Edward Heath who had looked over her shoulder all during their conversation looking for someone more important to talk to. Margaret Thatcher had a good conversation with her - woman to woman type stuff and listened to and was interested in what my Mum said and made a point of thanking her and all the helpers when she left.
A niece of mine once shared a taxi home after an event with one of Mrs Thatcher's children. The taxi stopped first at The Thatcher house and Maggie (PM at the time)  insisted on my neice coming in and cooking her some eggs (herself) because they had missed their evening meal.
So what was this poll tax
It was a way of raising money for local government services such as collecting rubbish.
Before - the money was raised by a tax called - Rates. This was based on the value of your property and was a single tax regardless of how many lived there.
Poll tax was per person - everyone paid the same - although there was help for poor people
So suddenly  - everyone in one property had to pay something.
The argument was that we all use the services therefore everyone should contribute - who can.
There were winners and there were losers as with all tax changes
I dunno - it is very unfashionable to say so - but I thought it seemed pretty fair to me
Why should a little old pensioner living alone pay the same as a big household of wage earners?

My neurons made me do it - it is not my fault.

Its not me its my Neurons.
This was the title of a very interesting lecture I went to last week at the Science Festival.
One speaker was a top philosopher and neuroscientist and the other was a top barrister and expert in the law.
Can we really blame bad things that we do on our neurons (our brain cells) and claim it is not our fault?
or
Do we do bad things because we are bad?
There wasn't really a definitive answer but there was lots of fascinating information about the brain that caused much thought.
What should happen if a normal law abiding man develops a brain tumour which causes his behaviour to change so that he becomes sexually attracted to children and his ability to control himself becomes poor.
Is this his fault?
What should happen if he makes a pass at a child?
Lock him up - to protect society?
What about a diagnosed psychopath who has not yet committed a crime but who almost certainly will?
Lock him up - to protect society?
Is a psychopath mad or bad?
The barrister explained that the law is made by society to suit society so that it can function properly as it wants to.
So - a man who has acted on an impulse to sexually molest a child would be put away from society to protect it's children- regardless of the fact that it was definitely the fault of his neurons.
The psychopath - as yet society does not lock up people who might do something but as yet have not.
Although
Society does lock up some mentally ill people suffering from schizophrenia who are deemed to be either a danger to themselves or to others but who have not as yet done anything wrong.
No-one has ever been locked up because of the result of a brain test such as an MRI or fMRI
and yet these tests can now give some fairly good pointers.
Research on prisoners applying for parole has shown that an area of the brain called the anterior cingulate is different in the majority who re-offend.
So
A day may come when all those applying for parole will be scanned and parole refused on the basis of the scan findings?
Perhaps a day may come when all children will be scanned at age 5 and  only those with Ok neurons admitted to normal school. The rest would be sent to some special school where  they would get intensive remedial help. They would, for instance, be given strict boundaries and be taught impulse control and anger management.
but
Can you teach morality if it is not there?
Can you teach empathy if it is not there?
What do you do if someone is just BAD?

The Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness monster exists. How do I know?
Because my grandfather saw it - not just once but twice.
There are newspaper articles about his sightings so they must be real!
He saw it once in 1939 and then again in 1950. He was a local businessman - a pillar of the community and a scientist.
Today at the Science Festival I went to an all day talk, bringing together all the current research and thoughts on Nessie.
What they all seemed to be saying is this. -
An awful lot of people have spent an awful lot of time and money over the last 50 years or so - trying to find Nessie
and
they have not succeeded
and I for one rejoice.
It cannot be proved that Nessie exists
But
It cannot be proved that Nessie does not exist.

Above is the well known photo taken by a Harley Street Surgeon. Later a man came forward saying it was a hoax but many believe that he was just settling a score. The Mail had paid him to run another hoax in which he used an umbrella stand made from the foot of a hippopotamus to make possible Nessie prints. The hoax was discovered when someone noticed that all four were left feet. He was sacked by The Mail. His revenge was to produce a story  claiming that the surgeon's photo was a hoax. Maybe it was!

The newspaper article just above here is the one from 1950 giving my grandfather's description of what he saw. He was by the Loch - at Foyers with two other people. They all saw it.

3D printing, copyright and patents

I went to a fascinating lecture at the Science festival  - on 3D printing.
One speaker runs the chemistry department at Glasgow University, where they are already using 3D printing to make some drugs / medicines.
The other speaker was an expert in litigation in areas such as patents and copyright in 3d printing.
The 3rd speaker was a brilliant computer geek.
I knew that it was possible to scan and print a small object such as a spoon. I had no idea that the technology had advanced as far as it has. There seems to be no limits to what it is going to be able to do.
It has already been used in plastic surgery for a woman who was having to have a large part of her jaw removed for cancer. They were able to scan the area before removal and print out a prosthesis which exactly replicated her face.
But back to medicines.
The professor told us that soon everyone will be able to have a small printer like a microwave in the kitchen and be able to print out our own medicines. We will of course need a recipe.
How will this affect the drug companies?
It will make it very difficult for them to patent their drugs.
Another example given was spare parts for our cars. If we need a part we might be able to go on the internet and find a recipe for it and just print it out at home on our 3D scanner. But - it might be a poor recipe and we might not have the best quality ingredients and that could be dangerous in a car.
So - instead
We might go down to somewhere like Halfords. They would have the accurate licensed recipe from the car manufacturer and ingredients. They would then print the part out in their 3D printer. No need for them to stock parts for every car and no delay for you while they order them up from somewhere miles away.
The other worry is guns. Print your own gun!
Fancy a pair of designer sun glasses like your friend has. Well - just copy them in the scanner!
The law has not begun to catch up and it is going to be a minefield that makes file sharing on the internet look like nothing

Saint Anthony

In the middle of Edinburgh is a bit of countryside called The Queens park.  It has a hill called Arthur's seat  - which was a volcano
What I never knew, until this week, was that it also has a picturesque ruined chapel called St Anthony's Chapel - next door to St Anthony's well.
Apparently there is more than one St Anthony.
There is the well known St Anthony - good for finding things.
There is also a St Anthony who is good for skin complaints.
In long ago times, people with skin problems would flock to St Anthony's well to take the water and pray in the chapel.
Now - the water in the well is piped away and it is covered with a huge boulder (carried down to Edinburgh from the far North by a glacier after the ice-age).
The ruined chapel is sometimes used as a romantic backdrop for wedding photos.
St Anthony was born in 250 AD in Egypt  He gave away all his worldly goods and lived a  hermit's life in the desert. He was a very holy man. He asked that the site of his burial be unmarked but it was discovered and his relics were later thought to cure certain  painful skin diseases such as ergotism, erysipelas and shingles.
Erysipelas became known as St Anthony's fire
The Knights Hospitallers of St Anthony, were an organisation that cared for the sick all across Europe. In the 15th century they had a skin hospital in Leith (Edinburgh)
Saint Anthony is also the patron Saint of pigs, butchers and bacon!
http://web.undiscoveredscotland.com/edinburgh/stanthonys/

Prostate Cancer genetic markers found

Men the world over should rejoice at the medical news this week.  Genetic markers have been found connected to the nasty kind of prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer can almost be divided into two types
1. A friendly, very slow growing variety in which a man will probably die old of something quite different.
2. A very nasty, very fast growing variety which will kill a man off within 10 years or less.
Both types can be picked up by a simple screening blood test called a PSA.
The trouble is that it does not tell you which type it is.
So the poor man has to have a biopsy of the prostate which is done by sticking biopsy needles into it via the inside of his bum (anus/rectum).
If by chance a patch of cancer is picked up by one of the needles it can be looked at under a microscope and some idea of how nasty the type is ascertained.
If really nasty then treatment choice is easy - removal.
BUT
What to do -
if nothing is picked up by any of the needles???
if the PSA keeps getting worse???
What to do
No man wants to needlessly have his prostate obliterated by surgery or radiotherapy. It can have annoying affects on his ability to pee and poo and on his sex life.
Up until now you had to treat 12 to 48 men unnecessarily in order to save the life of one man
However - NOW - the great news
A simple £30 DNA blood test (on the NHS) can give the answer
Well it will do in about 5 years when they have it finally sorted.
They have tested lots of men with and without cancer and pinned down specific genetic markers . If a man has those then he is at very high risk of having nasty prostate cancer and once his PSA starts going up he needs his prostate obliterated.
Men that don't have those genetic markers can relax and stop worrying.
A statement issued said
"Take a room of 100 men. At the moment if I did a test of them all, I could split them into two thirds with a low risk and one third with a high risk. With this new test though I can pick out the one man in 100 with 4.7 times risk
There have been similar findings for breast cancer in women and also for ovarian cancer
It is also great news for children of parents with any of those cancers because they will be able to check out whether they need worry about themselves
Genetics is wonderful