I saw some new variety of cookies in Tesco the other day - in the cereals aisle. I think they were yet another one of those substitutes for a sensible breakfast, marketed, presumably, at the apparently increasing numbers of people who regularly fail to find either the time to pour milk and cereal into a bowl, or to just grow up and eat fruit or something. This new variety of pseudo-food shouldn't have taken me by surprise, though, apparently: "As seen on TV," it said on the box. Oh yes, I thought, of course, I'll have half-seen an ad at some point, won't I? Then I remembered, I don't have a TV. One day my brain might start paying attention to what I'm doing… That's the least one should be able to expect, surely? But anyway, it got me thinking: not about my brain's inattentiveness, but about what those words actually mean - "As seen on TV." Do they mean anything at all? It's a phrase now so deeply ingrained into our culture, yet what exactly are we supposed to take from it? Well,

According to Wikipedia, “Any risk that can be quantified can potentially be insured.” This is a relatively easy concept to understand. We take out policies to cover potential risk to pets and cars, and know why it makes sense to have home insurance. However, sometimes the concept of quantifying ‘risk’ becomes rather a grey area. It’s pretty much understood that as patients we’re covered against negligence should we receive treatment from doctors and nurses in hospital. Any ‘normal’ person attempting to perform First Aid should be aware that if they administer the ‘wrong’ treatment, they could potentially face a lawsuit, even if they were attempting to save someone’s life. However, this weekend I faced the most surreal situation, when someone threatened to sue me because I wasn’t a nurse… Most people know that it is a criminal offence to impersonate a police officer. There are even more obvious dangers posed by those who impersonate members of the medical profession. However, when it

Stratford, Ontario - The Nobel Prize is awarded each year in October. It is usually a serious and often somber event meant to highlight someone fighting for peace or justice. David Pratt, author of the book “The Impossible Takes Longer; The 1,000 Wisest Things Ever Said By Nobel Prize Laureates” (Walker & Company, 2007) fills his book with poignant, thought-provoking and emotional quotes. “But let’s be honest,” he says, “sometimes the smartest people say or do the dumbest things.” Like the most recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore who said, “The future will be better tomorrow.” The 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Niels Bohr explained of the horseshoe hanging above his door, “I certainly do not believe in superstition. But you know, they say it does bring luck even if you don’t believe in it!” Then there is the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine winner, James Watson, who collected his prize for his groundbreaking work on DNA and promptly went on to research the all important effect