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• 1. At 11:38am on 02 Aug 2009, Richard_SM wrote:

  
  Why should ordinary people fear donating money to the impoverished, such as Gazans or Tamils? Do we need to book an appointment with a solicitor before responding to altruistic instincts?
  
  This letter George Galloway MP had to send to the Charity Commission suggests many problems. The 'war on terror' is having a slow but steady affect on the shape of society in unimagined ways.
  
  

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• 2. At 2:19pm on 02 Aug 2009, Sinibaldi wrote:

  Some steps in the wind...
  
  I hear, in
  the strength
  that always
  remains, the
  delicate rhymes
  of a deep
  sensibility, and
  even a pleasure
  where the
  sun-rise appears...
  
  Francesco Sinibaldi
  

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• 3. At 1:11pm on 06 Aug 2009, Neil wrote:

  So, the RICS is now predicting that house prices will end the year higher than at the start, having previously predicted a 10-15% drop over the year. My suggestion for a story is this...
  
  When we get forecasts or predictions regarding the economy, they are often followed up later by updates which contradict the original prediction (like the RICS case). There are 2 possibilities here:
  - The original prediction was wrong, in which case why give any credit to the new one?
  - The original prediction should have included a measure of the confidence in the figures, in which case the update is really just providing a clarification by narrowing the confidence interval.
  
  In the case of the RICS predictions, presumably the confidence interval would have been centred somewhere between 10% and 15% and maybe we could expect a typical bell-curve distribution of probabilities around that mean value (or something like that - I know the decrease couldn't be more than 100%). For the update to be a small +ve change the bell-curve would have to be quite broad, so I'd imagine that the original prediction should really have been something like "house prices will end the year at between 0.7 and 1.06 times the value at the start of the year, with 90% confidence" (my stats may be wrong, but this is just an illustrative example). That sounds like a very different quote from the original headline. By the way, if 10-15% was their 90% range, then they were just wrong and any updates should be treated with corresponding scepticism.
  
  Why aren't predictions on the economy accompanied by proper statistical measures, as we would expect to see in scientific papers? In the absence of this information, why do we lend any credence to these predictions when we know they are often contradicted by the same organisations which originally issued them?
  
  I think that if the original report of the RICS prediction had read "house prices may drop by 30% or rise by 6%" it probably wouldn't have made the news - it would be like saying "we don't know what will happen", which might have been a more honest statement in the first place.

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• 4. At 09:47am on 07 Aug 2009, meldrewsrevenge wrote:

  Maybe we could use Harry Patch's passing as a hint to look to the state of our war graves. Mostly they're neglected and in poor condition. I visited my uncle's grave (I never knew him of course) in Kanchanburi near Bangkok a few years ago and the contrast is astounding. The Thai people keep their war cemeteries in immaculate condition, not a blade of grass out of place. I have a photo of course, don't know how to upload it.

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• 5. At 12:41pm on 14 Aug 2009, meldrewsrevenge wrote:

  Whatever the rights and wrongs of the American Health Service debate, isn't it good to see so many people engaged in debate! They're out on the street with their placards, shouting at each other and holding the debate. In this country we grumble into our cocoa and do as we're told. Why can't we be American?

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• 6. At 12:43pm on 14 Aug 2009, egrvdf wrote:

  Why is this site such an incredibly confusing mess? Why does it say You and Yours at the top of what I thought was an ipm blog page?

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• 7. At 2:35pm on 16 Aug 2009, invisibleatheist wrote:

  We recently lost one of our dogs to liver cancer, just a week between him appearing unwell to having to be put to sleep, and very traumatic. Having had pet insurance on both the dogs for all their lives, and having switched from the previous insurer to M&S Money three years previously on the basic of the WHICH report on pet insurance, we paid the vet bill and submitted it to M&S Money to settle. They claim to settle fast. The bill came to under £500.
  
  After two weeks of waiting but hearing nothing, my wife phoned them to be told they would not settle the claim since it was less than the rest of the year's premiums which we pay by direct debit, as we had just renewed for another year just a month previously, this amounted to 11 months.
  
  Despite having paid M&S in excess of £1,400 in the last three years, they refuse to pay anything under this policy, claiming that the whole year's premium is 'loaned' to us, and the DDs pay off the loan. They thus maintain that we owed them the balance of 11 months' premiums at the time of his death.
  
  I understand that they are not the only ones who pull this stroke, but most don't, and other insurers I have spoken with were horrified that anyone could be so callous in such circumstances; Animal Friends [http://www.animalfriends.org.uk/] for instance, state that the full claim would be settled in the event of death, and then the insurance policy would automatically cancel with no cost to us.
  
  You would benefit many people by exposing this appalling get-out by a company which was once one of the pillars of UK retailing; a highly respected company. Many dog owners have insurance against the risk of their pet needing expensive treatment while lacking the funds themselves, and it is a huge industry. Considering that the excess they always have precludes most routine treatments, which come below the cut off, insurance is purely for the rare cases of serious medical emergency so that an otherwise healthy dog does not have to be put down on the grounds of affordability.
  
  The loss of a much-loved dog is always going to be traumatic. It is appalling that people can have this financial burden landed on them at a time when they are already coping with bereavement. That a company can wriggle out of responsibility, having taken DDs for years right up to the time of the death of the animal is sick and it would be a public service to let people know so they can act accordingly.
  
  I would be happy to furnish more details if required, and to expand on this in any way you wish.

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• 8. At 4:44pm on 19 Aug 2009, DrNeilMathieson wrote:

  Sentence from my week
  
  "I spent an evening with my uncle Ray, drinking tea and playing dominos"

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• 9. At 6:34pm on 28 Aug 2009, brightshinyday wrote:

  my week in one sentence - still haven't found a job, but booked a holiday - sod it.

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• 10. At 4:37pm on 29 Aug 2009, jshm22 wrote:

  A story that would interest everyone and generate a laugh would be jokes in different languages/countries/cultures
  
  Comes from my trip back from abroad where a Tunisian and Russian waiter were nipping out for a cig at the resturant I was at and we got talking and started to tell translated jokes and tales, none that can be typed here though, but just proves that comedy seems to work in bringing people together.

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