Courtesy of the Daily Wail, pics of the androgynous model.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2046459/Andrej-Pej...

Angharad

I know we all have car problems from time to time, and in speaking to a friend about mine realised she'd had problems too.

This time I managed to get to the meeting point, in fact I was first. We had a good survey, found six or seven nest boxes occupied four of which had babies in. Between now and the onset of winter they need to weigh at least 15g to have a chance of surviving hibernation. I got to handle another three dormice and either I'm getting slower or they're getting wrigglier.

Amazingly, one of the group was called Cathy though she wasn't leading the survey.

My little legs and back are now aching from walking up and down a hillside through quite rough woodland.

Something which has been buzzing round my head for a little while is what happens to us if we suffer Alzheimer's, dementia or some major head injury - would we still retain our new gender or revert back? I don't know the answer and hope never to find out personally, but hence the recent theme in Bike.

Angharad.

It doesn't take long - that's the best bit - a breast X-ray, which is just as well because it isn't the most comfortable experience I've ever had. I think this is my third or fourth time for one of these close encounters with a plastic clamp and X-ray machine, where the woman radiographer asks you to relax while the corner of the unit is poking in your armpit and a large perspex plate is squishing your boob.

This was mentioned as a same-sex marriage but clearly it isn't as the bride is a post op transsexual who is legally female; but apparently it's a first for Cuba.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14514240

Angharad

for oodles of useless descriptions of fieldwork - I'm dormousing tomorrow - simply for research purposes of course, then cycling on Sunday - more research, naturally.

I shall probably be exhausted after the weekend (if not before) but it's been a very busy week work wise, so doing something different should be good - and those little furry critters are so cute - no not cyclists, dormice - duh!

I wanted to say in verse,
That things were getting worse;
Comments it would seem
Are few and far between
And readers are kudos averse.

The only way writers can plot
If stories are hitting the spot
Is if readers just jolly well say:
It's not as if they must pay
To read here don't cost a jot.

On behalf of the writers, this plea
If stories you come here to see;
Please give us a vote
Or a comment of note,
And you'll make us all very happy.

Angharad.

I watched the film about Jamie because I wanted to know more about where he was coming from, I didn't understand drag queens as a phenomenon, and I still don't. However, I had new respect for the lad's courage.

He had two ambitions: to become a drag queen, and to go to his school prom in a dress. He found a club in Newcastle which had a drag revue running and the person running it helped him create a routine.

After some very distasteful practices being exposed, including the alleged hacking into the voice mail of a murdered schoolgirl, Murdoch is closing the News of the World, with Sunday being its last edition. Mind you, in the days of fish and chips being wrapped in newsprint, the NotW was considered unsuitable for such applications, being too dirty.

As someone who was outted by the above named scandal rag many years ago, the premise offered by their journalist was that it was human interest, I was a departmental head in the local NHS at the time, I'm not shedding a single tear.

I'd never heard of this before or the work it's derived from, but might be of interest to some here who are more cultured than I (arguably a pot of yoghurt is). There is some strong language in character's names but hey, it's avant-garde (French for doesn't suit all tastes).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/jul/03/gardenia-review-...

Angharad

Okay, it's stating the obvious but the evidence hasn't been clear before. As this affects several people who use this site, thought I'd post this link. The interesting thing is that going on a crash diet for a week (600 calories or less per day) apparently cures it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jun/25/diabetes-epide...

Angharad

Is it just me, or do we live in a society which is driven by shallowness and selfishness, powered by a media which has a constant need for stories — whatever their merit. We are no longer citizens but consumers — and boy, can we consume.

We’re stripping the planet of its resources faster than a swarm of seven billion locusts in our selfish and conspicuous consumption and possibly storing up a payback which will endanger if not destroy our successors.

People have always managed to kill or injure themselves in inventive ways, even if the invention was unintended. The link to the attached article on the BBC website gives a few examples from Tudor England - including someone who shot himself in the head with a longbow; someone who was indirectly killed by a maypole and someone who died after their testicles were crushed during 'Christenmas games,' bet that hurt.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13762313

Angharad.

Now who would name a bike Tranny, apparently Ibis have. It's a mountain bike - not a cross one. Just to prove it, here's a link to a page on What Mountain Bike, who appear to like it.

http://www.chuckibis.com/chuck_spew/wp-content/uploads/2010/...

I want one!

Angharad.