alexist

I got myself into an almighty rush because Aliza needed to be fed right before we left... well, on the way I realised I'd been confusing the time with tomorrow, and my appointment wasn't till 14:30. So I wasn't late after all.

He didn't do X-rays, which I probably should have had done. The exam showed 2 cavities, one of which I knew about (hard not to feel a hole in your tooth) and one I suspected. He also tapped my wisdom tooth, said "we need to keep an eye on that" and I said "I know, it hurts, I want it out". I was afraid I'd meet resistance here because NICE guidance is that impaction alone isn't grounds for extraction. I figured pain might be. Well, no trouble as it turns out--he wrote me a referral.

Here's the rub: I will have the same operation done at the same place with the same surgeon whether I go NHS or private. If I pay, I just get it done faster. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than actually getting different treatment if I pay for it. I have to ring them and find out about waiting times versus costs. If the waiting time is ridiculously long (like 6 months or something) I might have to pay up. Pah.

I did this just to see how it coped with theists. Not very well:

You scored as Agnostic. Agnostics consider the possibility that they may be wrong about God's existence, no matter which side of the fence they stand on. Always willing to objectively evaluate the most ridiculous proof, nevertheless, these guys are skeptics of the Nth degree. </td> Agnostic 75% Scientific Atheist 50% Theist 42% Spiritual Atheist 25% Apathetic Atheist 17% Militant Atheist 17% Angry Atheist 0% What kind of atheist are you? created with QuizFarm.com

I am somewhat agnostic, in that I don't believe the existence of a deity is actually provable (at least given the current state of knowledge) and that ultimately it's a matter of faith. But "scientific atheist" above "theist"? I'm a scientific theist, thank you :-P

(Yes, I know there seems to be a stray </td> tag there. Neither Neil nor I can actually FIND it. in the source it's actually written out using entities, but if you edit the entry, nothing. Weird. It's not worth debugging, so I won't. :P)

http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/johann_hari/article2359046.ece

I'll be the first person to say that kids are overdiagnosed with AD(H)D and that the current educational system in the UK is obsessed with testing, but this column is... bad. I don't even know where to start with picking it apart. It basically smacks of someone who doesn't know much science, but heard a nice theory that fit with his preconceptions. The trouble is that he doesn't know enough to make a critical assessment of what he's reading. So he goes into complaining about the "biomedical model"... oh, I can't even bother. It's just disjointed and meaningless.

(And then he approves of Steiner schools, which are heavily based on mumbo-jumbo! Oh dear.),

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2359093.ece

Funny... funded by grape growers! And they took this seriously. Really, the Independent is becoming more and more tabloidy by the day. Notice how the less palatable the juice, the higher it is on the table. Only apple is drinkable on its own. There's a reason Ocean Spray doesn't sell much pure cranberry juice. (Actually, pomegranate

Anyway, I predict that Britons will not be buying up Welch's. It is my experience that non-Americans can't abide the taste of Concord grape (native American variety--grape flavoured drinks, jam, sweets etc are like blackcurrant here. Americans can't stand blackcurrant and Britons hate Concord grape.)

(sorry, I've been reading the Indy this evening...)

The Independent, the green champion which has shouted about the evils of bottled water, has a promotion going: Get a free bottle of Evian when you buy the Independent at WHSmiths.

Ha bloody ha.

HOW many flavours/varieties does Crest have these days?! I remember (ey oop, in t'old days like) when you only had regular and mint. (AND I remember the breakthrough day when Listerine came in mint flavour.) Now there's 7 varieties of mint or something. Fresh mint, clean mint, cool mint, peppermint, strong mint, mild mint, vanilla mint... though now I'm wondering what "lemon ice" toothpaste is like. My mouth probably couldn't cope with non-mint toothpaste, after nearly 3 decades...

It's times like this I despair of America. Surely there must be some compromise between not enough choice (sometimes the case in the UK) and too much choice.