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

Pinboard Soovle Qwant Goolli

I don't recall where I heard about Pinboard but it coincided with me having become disenchanted with the Delicious social bookmarking site because I could never easily find things I had bookmarked.

There was also the small annoyance that every time I save something using the bookmarklet, Delicious would then open a blank page. Nothing on the page - nada - and I would then just shut it down.

So I read Pinboard's pricing system of a one-time very low fee and saw how it arranged things. And... then I read the blog and that told me that the man who runs Pinboard has a value system with which I could identify.

So I signed up and I'm happy with it.

The last couple of things I have pinned are Soovle, Qwant, and Gool.li - all alternative search engines.

Gool.li claims that Qwant copied its approach. I wouldn't know, but check them out and see what they do.

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Everyone from Alfred Brendel to George Monbiot to Jack Straw at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year.

Charlotte Square will be filled with marquees and authors, and we the public will stand in queues for the events.

10th to 26th August 2013

Rebel Mouse and Bluebells

This is me on Rebel Mouse.

If anyone can tell me what Rebel Mouse is all about - where it is going and why anyone would want a page except as a ragbag collection to look at from time to time - please let me know.

Bluebells

Meanwhile, here are some bluebells that I photographed in a churchyard in the centre of Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago.

Paddle - Bundlehunt $7 Deal - I Said Yes

Last night I got an email from Paddle - a company that does deals and describes itself as 'the easiest way to buy and discover digital content.'

Their email said they had a deal through Bundlehunt and the blurb for that said

We've partnered with 14 of the world's finest web designers and developers to bring you our first-ever $7 bundle. That's right. You just pay $7 to grab your copy of our Mega Creativity Bundle.
Don’t miss out on this visually stunning Lifetime creativity Bundle. With SmashingMagazine e-book bundle, Themify WordPress Themes, Adobe certified training courses, Vector Icons sets, design elements and more…you can create virtually anything you put your mind to.
With $463 worth of files for only $7, what on earth are you waiting for? Don’t miss your chance to get the Creativity Bundle. Hurry and get your copy before it's too late.
What’s Included?
Themes-a-plenty! - 5 top quality WordPress Themes.
eBooks - 4 Best Selling eBooks
Icons Love - 200+ high quality icons suitable for web and mobile designs.
Glorious Graphics and sets! - 1 Year Premium account with Commercial license to a huge collection of design elements.
Online courses - Unlimited access to one of the best adobe training courses!
Photoshop actions bundle- 20 "Clean and Crisp Photo Actions Bundle"
1 Premium "Privacy Policy Agreement"
2 month quality web hosting made for creative designers
Retail value: $463. You pay just: $7!
After purchasing, you'll get instant access to the full-items of your creativity bundle.
- BundleHunt Team

$7.00? How could I say no?

Well at least it was worth a look. Some bits didn't interest me, but I'd seen the themes from Themify - and here was a chance to take two and see how they behaved. And two months hosting for free with Pixeno meant I would have somewhere to host them.

I took up the offer of the deal, chose the Sidepane and Edmin Wordpress themes from Themify, (I already had a spare domain I could use) and set up the hosting.

Time will tell, but the host (Pixeno is based in the UK with its datacenter in Maidenhead) is behaving nicely and everything is working nice and fast.

So now I am just looking at the one month free Adobe training with TrainSimple. The intro panel when I joined for my free 30 days training says:

You're now ready to view our entire collection of training videos. You have unlimited access, watch what you want when you want. Each time you login to your account, you will be brought to your account page. You can manage your subscription, view recently viewed courses, and find our most recent releases. Start Learning! 

Tell the world you have access to Train Simple's training library

So, as I am writing this there are 45 hours left on the deal at Bundlehunt