The Befouled Weakly News

22 November 2009


Good morning.....

It’s been a busy, busy week but we did enjoy some delightfully diverting entertainment on Tuesday evening when we ambled into Stratford to attend a showing of a film at the Falstaff International Film Festival. Now, I appreciate that it’s not too often we have an opportunity to attend an international film festival (how would we ever hear about an international film festival, let alone one on our virtual doorstep) but this festival had some personal relevance; Huw Bowen’s film Schrödinger’s Girl was being shown and we had a personal invitation from the director himself.

Huw, as some of you will know, is a friend of Nick’s who embarked on a career as an independent film maker some time ago. This is, I think, his first feature film and while it’s probably not going to be coming to a cinema near you any time soon, it was nonetheless a most enjoyable and entertaining diversion. It’s about scientists in three parallel universes all of whom are working on ways to travel between these parallel universes. As you might imagine, some of these parallel-universe travellers are good, others are less good.

We were hoping for the stretch limousine and red carpet treatment befitting a film premiere but, in fact, this wasn’t quite the film’s world premiere – it has also been shown at the Comic Con Film Festival in San Diego in July and at the Swansea Bay Film Festival in May/June. I know that there have also been other perhaps private screenings because a number of the audience had already seen it.

We were joined for the occasion by our friend Vicky, as well as Nick and Lucy and a gaggle of similar miscreants. Pen and I were planning to make an evening out of it but in fact I was later getting home than I had anticipated. So, the aperitifs and five-course meal in a fancy restaurant had to give way to a hasty visit to the local fish and chips emporium. We inhaled our meal, sprinted to the Civic Hall and arrived there just in time to be told that they were running a bit late and the ten past eight showing would now kick off about nine o’clock. Hmmm, we could have had the five course fancy restaurant meal after all!

The film is about a woman who exists in three parallel universes and, in each one she is experimenting with travel through these parallel universes. Each universe, of course, has its own distinct personality and the only quibble I have with the film was what seemed to me to be a cliché in the depiction of one of the parallel universes. One of the three universes is a totalitarian state which is filmed largely in grey. I don’t have any kind of problem with a totalitarian regime being presented as brutally and depressingly grim but I think we’re probably clever enough to work that one out without the visual clue of having everything filmed in a dull, grey tone which, as I say, I just thought was a bit clichéd. Still, it was a good film and a most enjoyable evening, in spite of the singularly uncomfortable seats and the somewhat less than precise running schedule.

You can find out a bit more about the film if you like here or here. (Why two web sites? While the film was originally entitled Schrödinger’s Girl, it has now been re-titled Triple Hit largely, it seems, because no one can work out how to type “Schrödinger’s Girl” into Google).

I know I’ve been including articles about how good red wine is for one’s heart for some time now. Well, imagine my delight when I spotted the following on the BBC web site:

Alcohol 'protects men's hearts'
Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests.

The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.

Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found.

Experts are critical, warning heavy drinking can increase the risk of other diseases, with alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per year.

The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease.

The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.

Crucially the research team claim to have eliminated the "sick abstainers" risk by differentiating between those who had never drunk and those whom ill-health had forced to quit. This has been used in the past to explain fewer heart-related deaths among drinkers on the basis that those who are unhealthy to start with are less likely to drink.

Good cholesterol
The researchers, led by the Basque Public Health Department, placed the participants into six categories - from never having drunk to drinking more than 90g of alcohol each day. This would be the equivalent of consuming about eight bottles of wine a week, or 28 pints of lager.

For those drinking little - less than a shot of vodka a day for instance - the risk was reduced by 35%. And for those who drank anything from three shots to more than 11 shots each day, the risk worked out an average of 50% less.

The same benefits were not seen in women, who suffer fewer heart problems than men to start with. Researchers speculated this difference could be down to the fact that women process alcohol differently, and that female hormones protect against the disease in younger age groups.

The type of alcohol drunk did not seem to make a difference, but protection was greater for those drinking moderate to high amounts of varied drinks.

The exact mechanisms are as yet unclear, but it is known that alcohol helps to raise high-density lipoproteins, sometimes known as good cholesterol, which helps stop so-called bad cholesterol from building up in the arteries.

'Binge-drinking'
UK experts said the findings should be treated with caution because they do not take into account ill-health from a range of other diseases caused by excess drinking.

"Whilst moderate alcohol intake can lower the risk of having a heart attack, coronary heart disease is just one type of heart disease. Cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle, is associated with high alcohol intake and can lead to a poor quality of life and premature death," said the British Heart Foundation's senior cardiac nurse, Cathy Ross.

"The heart is just one of many organs in the body. While alcohol could offer limited protection to one organ, abuse of it can damage the heart and other organs such as the liver, pancreas and brain."

The Stroke Association meanwhile noted that overall, evidence indicated that people who regularly consumed a large amount of alcohol had a three-fold increased risk of stroke.

"Six units within six hours is considered 'binge-drinking' and anyone indulging in regular 'binge-drinking' increases their risk of stroke greatly," said research officer Joanne Murphy.

Public health specialists warned no-one should be encouraged to drink more as a result of this study.

"The relationship between alcohol and heart disease remains controversial," said Professor Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"While there is good evidence that moderate consumption is protective in people who are at substantial risk of heart disease - which excludes most people under the age of 40 - we also know that most people underestimate how much they drink. This paper adds to the existing literature but should not be considered as definitive. "

In the UK, the recommendation is no more than two to three units of alcohol a day for women - the equivalent of one standard glass of wine - and three to four units for men.

The British Liver Trust said: "There have been several studies suggesting that small amounts of alcohol can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease in men over the age of 40.

"But these are often misinterpreted by people looking for a health reason to consume alcohol.

"If you want to look after your health, stay within the limits of no more than 3-4 units a day for men or 2-3 for women and aim to give yourself at least two days off alcohol a week."

Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, agreed that the message from this study was not clear: "At the end of the day, you're juggling different risks and benefits, maybe helping your heart or maybe damaging your brain and liver.

"The simple message is moderation.

"Stick to the guidelines, and you won't go far wrong."

Hmmm, not sure I can get through eight bottles of wine each week, even if I could afford it!

Love to you all,

Greg


For the cat lovers amongst you - Cat Haiku

You never feed me.
Perhaps I'll sleep on your face.
And that will show you.

You must scratch me there!
Yes, above my tail! Behold,
Elevator butt.

I need a new toy.
Tail of a black dog keeps good time.
Pounce! Good dog! Good dog!

The rule for today.
Touch my tail, I shred your hand.
New rule tomorrow.

In deep sleep hear sound
Cat vomit hairball somewhere.
Will find in morning.

Grace personified:
I leap into the window
I meant to do that.

The mighty hunter
Returns with gifts of plump birds
Your foot just squashed one.

You're always typing
Well, let's see you ignore me
Sitting on your hands.

Terrible battle
I fought for hours. Come and see!
What's a term paper?

Wanna go outside.
Oh, no! Help! I got outside!
Let me back in!

Small brave carnivores
Kill pine cones and mosquitoes
Fear vacuum cleaner

Want to trim my claws?
Don't even think about it!
My yelps wake the dead.

I want to be close
to you. Can I fit my head
inside your armpit?

Oh no! My Big One
has been trapped by newspaper.
Cat to the rescue.

Humans are so strange.
Mine lies still in bed, then screams!
My claws aren't that sharp.

Cats meow out of angst
"Thumbs! If only we had thumbs!
We could break so much."

Litter box not here
You moved it on me again
I'll crap in the sink.

We're almost equals
I purr to show I love you
Want to smell my butt?


Back to the Befouled Weakly News