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Drinking up to six pints a day is OK for your health, a leading alcohol scientist has claimed. Dr Kari Poikolainen, who used to work for the World Health Organisation as an alcohol expert, examined decades of research into its effects.

When a 37-year old man walked into a hospital emergency room in Glasgow, Scotland last October complaining of "wavy" vision and a non-stop headache that had lasted four weeks, doctors were at first stumped, the British journal The Lancet reported today. The unnamed patient "had no history of head injury or loss of consciousness; his past medical record was unremarkable, and he was taking no medications . . . ." Body temperature and blood pressure were both normal, and a neurological exam scanned negative. But when an eye specialist was called in, the fog began to clear, at least for...

Take one shot of reality, add two shots of panic and a mixer of self-loathing, and you have the licensing law debate. 'Late-night drinking: the backlash' read a front-page strapline of The Times (London) on 24 August, promoting a two-page news piece on the likely fallout from the new licensing laws in England and Wales, which come into effect on 24 November. The Times reports that local councils have been 'swamped' by last-minute applications for new licenses to sell alcohol, which will give little opportunity for the public to object; that four pubs in the centre of Sevenoaks, Kent, will...

Welcome to The New Hobbit Hole Concerning Hobbits The New Hobbit Chronicles This is a continuation of the infamous thread New Zealander Builds Hobbit Hole originally posted on January 26, 2001 by John Farson, who at the time undoubtedly thought he had found a rather obscure article that would elicit a few replies and die out. Without knowing it, he became the founder of the Hobbit Hole. For reasons incomprehensible to some, the thread grew to over 4100 replies. It became the place for hobbits and friends of hobbits to chit chat and share LoTR news and views, hang out,...