US comedian Sarah Silverman courts controversy. She’s outspoken and provocative. After performing at the technology, entertainment, and design (TED) conference I attended in California last week, she deservedly received rapturous applause from a liberal audience that days earlier had shown near-unanimous support for gay marriage. Silverman described how she wanted to adopt a terminally ill […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklCategory: David Payne
David Payne: What the world needs now
The woman who warned me I wouldn’t sleep was right. Even after just one day of talks about technology, entertainment and design (TED) at the Caflifornian conference of that name (What the world needs now, is this year’s theme) my head feels as it’s about to explode. […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklDavid Payne on ideas worth spreading in 2010
I just shared a sofa with a 25-year-old Canadian inventor, a Texan neuroscientist turned fiction writer who authored a recent BMJ editorial on synaesthesia, a former lawyer and journalist who now runs a global technology company, and a social entrepreneur whose mother took her out of school each summer to see the world. Some of […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklDavid Payne on hypoxia, Everest-style
Dan Martin undresses in 20-knot winds beneath the Everest summit to prepare for a femoral artery blood sample and muscle biopsy while a team of sherpas look on, entertained by what they see. The critical care anaesthetist and his three colleagues ended up on the top of the world’s highest peak two years ago as […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklDavid Payne: Open access and the editor’s choice
A management consultant friend confessed last week that despite advising many media company clients about their digital strategy, he had little interest in Web 2:0 and social networking, shunned the TV when he got home, and ate dinner with his wife while BBC Radio 3 played in the background. […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklDavid Payne on charity knitting
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is a Canadian knitter who challenges people to think long and hard before they buy something over the course of a week. At the end of the week, during which you’ve hopefully resisted the temptation of capuccinos, theatre trips, jeans, shoes, meals out etc, you work out what you’ve saved and donate the […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklDavid Payne on Second Life
There’s a great scene in US sitcom Cheers when postal worker Cliff Clavin confidently predicts that email is a passing fad and the art of letter-writing will one day return. Cliff is threatened by technology, fears for his livelihood, and, besides, has no need of email. His world is small. All his social interaction happens […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklDavid Payne: The feelgood factor
What makes you feel good? Richard Smith asks Anna Donald in his last response to her blog about living with a life-threatening illness as a doctor. Anna will no doubt post on this very soon, and I look forward, as always, to reading her response. But Richard’s question/challenge struck a chord. Last week I returned […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklDavid Payne: It’s the economy, mum and dad
Should doctors advise people to limit the number of children they have for the sake of the environment, asks the latest bmj.com poll. Our decision to ask this question was triggered by a huge amount of weekend coverage of the editorial by John Guillebaud and Pip Hayes: Population growth and climate change. Scotsman columnist Gerald Warner […]
djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdsklDavid Payne: Videos and blogs
As I write this my boss is discussing video on bmj.com with other senior colleagues, mainly to see if we should commit to providing more embedded video clips alongside news, comment, feature, and research articles. You might think this is a no-brainer. Other sites have been doing this successfully for years. And although it needn’t […]
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