Assembly Rooms Fringe: Unseen, not Unexplained - Functional Neurological Symptoms

9 August 2013 at The Famous Spiegeltent, Edinburgh

Dr Jon Stone, Consultant Neurologist in Edinburgh and a tiny audience gathered in the Spiegeltent on George Street in Edinburgh.

Dr Stone spoke about the meaning and treatment of functional neurological symptoms.

Example - stammering.

Example - a patient suffers from a tremor in the right hand, but when they are directed to pay attention to their left had by making some complex movement, the tremor in the right hand dances in tune with the left or stops trembling.

Some patients are wheelchair-bound because of functional neurological symptoms.

It's not 'all in the mind' and it makes no sense to say so. It's in the brain and the way the brain works.

More at Dr Stone's website at Neurosymptoms

Assembly Rooms Fringe: Simon Hoggart

9 August 2013 Edinburgh

Someone put his microphone on the breast pocket of his jacket so that every time he turned to the audience to his left, his voice boomed out. And every time he turned to his right, he faded like a fogbound ship.

Someone shouted out for him to speak up and Mr Hoggart asked the technical people to help by turning up the volume, but that didn't work because the microphone was still not where it should have been.

Then he took to holding the little mic. And then everything was interrupted by clunks and banging noises.

And he started half an hour late because the show before ran over. But he didn't run over because there was a show following.

He looked sad and a bit confused.

He had not need, really: He spoke very well.

Let's see, what did he think.

He told some funny stories about Steve Bell and John Sargeant that showed them as good people with the right motivations.

And about the politicians, he started by saying that in the main they were honest and hardworking, but it was a pity they were limited in intelligence. OK, I can repeat that because it attacks a whole class - and it's obviously part truth and part joke.

But what about specifics?

He said:

A was unaware of her double entendres.

B was constantly bad tempered.

C was a vicious bitch.

D etc.

I am not going to gossip and repeat the names.

I see that not gossiping makes the job of a political commentator difficult.

Contributing To A Widely-Read Page

Here's an article from Blogger Buzz: The Official Buzz from Blogger at Google on how to expand an audience with Google+.

One thing I notice is where the article says:

Kelly always shares her blog posts from her personal Google+ profile and the Miami Fashion Bloggers Google+ page, a page she contributes to with almost 400,000 followers. 

And that seems to be key to this, the idea of contributing to a widely-read page on a subject that one is interested in and write about.

Here's the link:

Expanding your audience with Google+: Kelly Sak's story