There is a parallel to Itamar's ms-speech list -- frantic activity for a couple of months after the last Vista Beta followed, in the past few weeks, but absolute silence -- unless, of course, my membership has lapsed somehow. Guess everyone is just waiting now for the next shoe to drop

Bruce

The weather certainly has gone weird. In Ireland, we had a very warm winter right up to the end of February, but March went totally berserk, and was more like January with snow, cold, hail, sleet and whatever you would like yourself. However it all turned in April, and we were back to our normal Spring. Naturally enough, we all blame global-warming.

What is now preoccupying minds on this side of the pond is the downturn of energy resources, and a new dependency on Russia for gas and oil supplies, and whether the UK and Ireland should go nuclear for energy.

I think we have all all noted this and are wondering why.

Certainly on this side of the pond, tax does not play a part at this time of year - that happens between October and January. Equally the threat of war has not impinged on many peoples' minds, except in respect of the constantly rising cost of energy, particularly petrol and diesel, the overheating of the economy, and the pressures that, particularly young, people are under in maintaining their employment, coupled with a long commuting. There is a general feeling of failure in voluntary community service, as people no longer have the time to be involved.

I believe that a lot of people are now more heavily involved with their families after a hard day's work, and are not able to pursue their normal interests in the way that they used to. I have certainly noticed this with my own children. They do need to be more involved with their families today in order to prevent juvenile delinquency.

A good idea. Certainly I would be prepared to do this with ViaVoice (except with Excel where the formulae still remain a total mystery to me due to my having a non-mathematical brain ).

Makes it much easier to understand

Hugh Laurie is a very popular comic actor, having cut his teeth with Blackadder, and was a great buddy of Stephen Fry in satirical comedies. He only recently decided to move to the States, as he felt that his brand of humour had exhausted itself in the UK. However not being a great TV watcher, I have not seen " House".
Quentin

House is an interesting show. Although the stories are clearly TV fiction, they bother me. The medicine is clearly wrong and have absolutely no correlation with how we practice medicine in the real world. In fact House could be a textbook for students on how not to think.

Although I enjoy the show, especially Mr. Laurie's quirky humor, I am concerned that a real patient will misinterpret the medical aspects. In particular House performs a series of dangerous, invasive, sometimes painful tests and treatments- almost at random.

This is not how medical thinking works! In the real world, I often see patients that are misinformed about their diagnosis and the necessary tests. Just think, you are scheduled to see your doctor for a test. Then you see Dr. House performing the same test on TV. You get the picture.

I won't get into the issues of a doctor popping pain pills......

Yeah, I know it is only TV, but I have to do this stuff every day with real people and lives.

DSteiNeuro