Saturday

So here I am living in a democratic country. I have a new leader, a new PM. Did I get any chance to elect him or have a say in his selection? NO. So basically I now appear to live in anything other than a democracy.

Whether I would or would not have voted for Gordon Brown as PM is not the issue. The issue is that he is now the Prime Minister and I have no choice but to accept it. That sucks.

Sunday

Having had a week stuck in bed with a completely screwed back and painkillers so strong, they make me want to hurl, that I have to have tablets to counter act them, that took my daily total to over 25 tablets. Great Stuff. Rather than feel totally sorry for myself I decided to look through my collection of films and grade my top 100. It proved more difficult than you would think, i struggled to get it below 175. Anyway, much pruning of also good films later, I present my top 100 films. Clicking on each film title should take you to the IMDB page for that film. I am happy to enter into discussion about the films, but I doubt you will change my ranking. It is after all a very subjective thing. You will notice no Roger Moore bond films, I had to cull them early on. Metropolis was an early casualty too, not because its a bad film, just because I don't enjoy it as much as the others.

To look at some of the ones I omitted go to my IMDB page

rank web
1 Blade Runner (1982)
2 The Fifth Element (1997)
3 Independence Day (1996)
4 North by Northwest
5 2001 - A Space Odyssey
6 Casablanca
7 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
8 Doctor Strangelove
9 Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
10 Witness (1985)
11 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
12 Mission: Impossible (1996)
13 Earthquake (1974)
14 Die Another Day (2002)
15 The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
16 The Fugitive
17 Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)
18 The Godfather
19 The Sting
20 A Fistful Of Dollars
21 Ghost Busters (1984)
22 Citizen Kane
23 Funeral In Berlin
24 Rebel Without A Cause
25 The Graduate
26 The World Is Not Enough (1999)
27 Alien (1979)
28 Leon
29 Enter The Dragon
30 Ronin (1998)
31 Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
32 Deliverance (1972)
33 GoldenEye (1995)
34 Goldfinger (1964)
34 Top Gun (1986)
36 Barbarella (1968)
37 Psycho (1960)
38 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
39 The Great Escape
40 Die Hard (1988)
41 Get Carter (1971)
42 The Exorcist (1973)
43 The Party (1968)
44 Batman Begins (2005)
45 Stargate (1994)
46 Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)
47 Frantic
48 Reservoir Dogs (1992)
49 Se7en (1995)
50 The Italian Job (1969)
51 The Matrix (1999)
52 Jaws
53 Pulp Fiction (1994)
54 Star Wars (1977)
55 Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
56 The Eagle Has Landed
57 Gladiator (2000)
58 The Jackal (1997)
59 Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
60 Easy Rider
61 Enemy of the State (1998)
62 The Wicker Man (1973)
63 Papillon (1973)
64 Vanishing Point
65 Capricorn One (1978)
66 Straw Dogs (1971)
67 The African Queen
68 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
69 Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
70 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
71 Butch Cassidy And... Sundance Kid
72 Cape Fear (1962)
73 Ice Station Zebra (1968)
74 Casino Royale (2006)
75 Fille sur le pont, La (1999)
76 Arthur (1981)
77 Night of the Living Dead (1968)
78 Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
79 The Driver (1978)
80 The Transporter (2002)
81 Layer Cake (2004)
82 The Naked Runner (1967)
83 Gorky Park (1983)
84 A Streetcar Named Desire
85 The Day The Earth Stood Still
86 Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
87 Clockwork Orange
88 Men in Black (1997)
89 The Big Sleep
90 One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
91 The Day of The Jackal
92 Apocalypse Now (1979)
93 The Bone Collector
94 Kes
95 Notting Hill (1999)
96 Snatch. (2000)
97 The Terminator (1984)
98 Monty Python's Life Of Brian
99 Barefoot in the Park (1967)
100 The Blob (1958)

Tuesday

Who would have thought it? The Gila Monster has a feature that helps us diabetics?

The drug is the first incretin memetic to be approved and works by mimicking the action of naturally occurring human incretin hormone, glucagons-like peptide-1 (GLP-1).

Byetta has been shown to stimulate insulin secretion only when blood sugar is high, and can even restore the 'first-phase' insulin response, an activity of the pancreas' insulin-producing cells that is lost in patients with type II diabetes.

Now is that bloody magic or what? Of course now I am worried that they are going to have to trap and kill a load of lizards just to help me.

Thursday

Well now it is my wigglers that are under attack. Diabetes now seemingly damages the DNA of my sperm. The poor little fellers are under attack from all sides, is there no hope for them?

BBC News Report

Saturday

So the latest thing seems to be, don't give us drugs to manage diabetes, make us change our lifestyle. Here are a couple of news items I picked up on recently:
CBS News Report
and
BBC News Report

Interestingly, I am NOT overweight, I don't eat unhealthily and haven't for many years, yet I am Type 2 diabetic. I have been told that I HAVE the illness and it won't go away, it cannot be cured. The tablets, and I am on avandamet as it was the one that eventually managed to get my blood sugars down below 7.0 (most of the time), keep me in check, they help regulate my body, they do not provide a cure. My question is, who are these people at the Mayo clinic talking about? For me, these tablets do not prevent Diabetes, they help control what I have. Are they advocating that I stop tabletting and adopt lifestyle changes in order to keep my blood sugar down? But I already have it, so, are doctors prescribing these drugs to patients who haven't got Diabetes, but might get it because they are fat / overweight / inactive ? I don't understand.

Another intersting story on the genes front emerged this week:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-04/28/content_862461.htm

I quote "Despite its growing global prevalence, the disease's underlying causes have been only minimally understood, restricting treatment and prevention efforts." from the above source. MINIMALLY UNDERSTOOD. I read that after I was still seething about the Mayo professors and their apparant generalisation that type 2 diabetics are overweight and immobile.

More and more I feel like a leper, perhaps I ought to get some T SHirts printed up with 'It's in my Genes'

Tuesday

Scientists say they have mapped the most important genes that put people at risk of type 2 diabetes, offering hope that a test could be delivered.
The findings could explain up to 70% of the genetics of the disorder which affects over 1.9 million UK people.
Family history is a major risk factor for the condition, along with obesity.
See http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6342855.stm for more

and

More evidence has emerged suggesting a link between pollutants found in oily fish and type two diabetes.
An international team found high levels of persistent organic pesticides (POPs) in the blood correlated to insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.
see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6544709.stm

Interesting that as a man at under 16stone (ie under 98Kg) and at 6'2 " tall, I am in no definitiion obese, yet nearly everything i read points to obesity being the major contributing factor to beming type 2 diabetic. Indeed when I went to the Diabetics Session run by my local Health Authority, i was the thinnest person there, yet I now feel 'fat'

It is depressing

Sunday

Dr Who is back, and it now feels like it has never been away. Instead of the interminable wait for the new series (now replaced with the wait for new Torchwood), I have the interminable wait for the next episode and the calculations of when the last episode is on, and if it will clash with annual holiday…..
Vote Saxon. Is that the new Bad Wolf, is that the theme running through this series, and Ror Marsden, I had forgotten what an absolute master actor he is. Memories of DCI Dalgliesh came flooding back. Good to see him on the screen, if only to fall fowl of an ex Dinner Lady with a straw.
Whilst I can confess to having seen every single Doctor Who on it’s first TV airing, and the Peter Cushing movie at the Cinema, one thing bugged me in last nights Doctor Who. All these years and I had thought TARDIS stood for Time And Relative Dimensions in Space. Last night they clearly in both speech and subtitles lost the ‘s’ from Dimension, making it singular. It now doesn’t make any sense to me. Am I just being picky?