Since the launch of the http://www.headcase-ironman.me blog there have been over 25,000 visits from people all across the world. Countries as unexpected as Barbados, Argentina, Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic!  It is actually a little difficult to assess what proportion of the world’s countries that equates to as the definition of a country is not as clear as one might think! Either way impressive. Over 20k of these are from the UK, (which means it is a decidedly better show for the UK than Bonny Tyler in Eurovisions) but the leader board includes look like this:

Thursday 5pm the curtain rises on the premier of Lloyd’s the Musical. With a star studded cast, lead by the infamous Trio of John Preston, Julian Kirkman-Page and the legendary Roger Foord the collection of paradies of well known hits and classics from Mary Poppins and South Pacific to The Beatles and Edith Piaf will be unleashed within a Mama Mia style operetta. All with a decidedly Insurance and IT theme – a novel but often quite comedic marriage providing over 30 years of excellent material to work with.

Accompanied by the very talented Libby on the ivories and narrated by the austere tones of David Edwards the show will take to the stage (or small space at Steam Win Bar) with the support of Paula, Jane and Kirstin (muggins) to bring a little colour to proceedings.

The opening scene sees three elderly gentlemen sitting within the comfort of the coffee house owned by Edward Lloyd in the mid 1600’s debating the relative merit of sharing a bit of Mary, Sarah Jane and Gwendoline!

It is surely set to be an evening the market will never forget, due to be filmed and no doubt will go viral within minutes! But if you have not been lucky enough to get a ticket for this now Sold Out event we would ask that our efforts are not in vain and that if you are able to remind us we are in your thoughts and donate an extra few quid, it will provide that dutch courage before some of us bare more than perhaps we ought to, in front of a debatably appreciative audience!

Full Article:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/venom/holland-text

Meanwhile, a neurotoxin from the venom of the giant deathstalker scorpion has been found to attach to the surface of brain cancer cells. The overwhelming reason tumors come back is that surgeons can’t reliably distinguish good cells from bad at the growths’ edges. Magnetic resonance imaging—the best available diagnostic tool—doesn’t detect masses smaller than about a billion cells. This means surgeons have to find the boundaries between tumors and healthy tissue “purely by visual and textural cues,” says James Olson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. “It’s a very imperfect science. Glioma cells weave into normal tissue, and pieces sometimes get left behind.”
Doctors who treat glioma, the most common form of brain cancer, created a “molecular flashlight” by marking chlorotoxin with a near-infrared dye. On the very first trial, Olson says, the “tumor paint,” as he calls the scorpion-derived marker, “lit up the cancer beautifully. We were literally jumping up and down because we knew what incredible potential this had.” The paint reveals masses with as few as 200 tumor cells. “You can truly see the tumor almost cell by cell,” Olson says. “This will let surgeons get more cancer out, maybe even 100 percent.” Human trials on the dyed toxin will start later this year, and if tests go well, the paint could be used for prostate, colorectal, lung, breast, pancreatic, and skin cancers, as well as glioma, potentially saving or prolonging millions of lives every year.