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Friday, February 18, 2005
Want bullets with that?
Here's Ron Gould of Arizona on CBC's 'As it Happens'. He and his fellow Senators have just passed a law permitting hand guns in restaurants.
Sexless Marriage
The Cupid dating agency in Nanjing brings together people who want marriage without sex, such as those with medical or psychological problems.
The Birmingham Six
Last week Tony Blair apologised to the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven - two groups falsely accused of IRA terrorist bombings in the 1970's. But where does this leave the Birmingham Six? Here's Paddy Hill, who served sixteen years in prison for a crime he didn't commit and still awaits an apology, describing his feelings on Outlook from the BBC World Service.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Mating cry of the crocodile (be careful where you try this)
Laurie Taylor talks to Dr Jerome Lewis about the Mbendjele people of Congo-Brazzaville, for whom sound is often more important than sight. Their 'massana' mimicry can equally be a children's game or a religious rituals.
The last fox hunt
Just to mark the occasion, here's Kirsty Walk on Newsnight announcing the last legal day of fox-hunting. Whether it's the last fox hunt only time will tell - some say this weekend will see the most hunts ever. Who will the police arrest now - the hunters or the sabateurs?
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Washington Duke and lung cancer
It's interesting to hear that when he started his research, Richard Doll was himself sceptical that cigarettes caused cancer. He thought motor cars were more likely responsible. The reason is quite simple: tobacco had been smoked for centuries with few consequences. It was only after Washington Duke began mass production of cured tobacco in 1880 that cheap, easy to inhale cigarettes became available, and rates of cancer went through the roof.
Stormtroopers and cancer cells
Sir Richard Doll was the man who discovered the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. In this interview with Phil Adams on Late Night Live (Radio Australia), he relates the story of a German doctor using Nazi symbols to explain the action of radiotherapy.
Monday, February 14, 2005
Is Charles and Camilla's proposed marriage legal?
I wondered what all the fuss was about when I people talking about the marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles. But this week's Panorama on BBC (broadcast on the web) points out that the 1949 Marriage Act expressly forbids civil weddings by members of the Royal Family. Here's Princess Margaret telling us the advice she was given back in 1960. They could get married in Scotland, mind you!
Sir Alexander Fleming with Arthur Miller
It's not widely known that Arthur Miller wrote radio plays in his early career. Here he is in 2003, recalling a script for a broadcast on the discovery of penicillin, after which Dr. Fleming says a few words. [the Archive Hour, BBC Radio 4]
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Jeff Kennett, Beyond Blue
I always felt a bit ambivalent about Jeff Kennett, the former premier of Victoria, Australia. Yes, he is an arch-conservative but he has one of those personalities that you can't ignore, summed up by the famous Saturday Night Live joke "I'm Jeff Kennett, and you're not!" - a bit like an Antipodean Norman Tebbitt or Newt Gingrich. Well, I was surprised to hear that Jeff is now spearheading 'Beyond Blue', a pressure group on improving treatment and resources for depressed people in Australia. Here he is talking to Terry Lane on Radio National's 'The National Interest', following the tragedy of Cornelia Rau, the Australian woman who was locked up in a detention centre for ten months as a suspected illegal immigrant.
