Lies, damned lies and no statistics at all.

Stepdaughter #1 and I were photographed for the AAT Magazine article today. Which was a slightly bizarre experience. How so?

Well, for a start the dress code was 'smart casual'. Now I'm a jeans and t-shirt or work clothes (which with my work history, tend to be some sort of uniform) kinda guy, and so I'm not entirely sure what smart casual is. I therefore took myself to that high class gentlemen's clothing emporium that is Asda, and bought a couple of polo shirts and a pair of chinos. But Mrs MnG told me that I should never wear shirts with horizontal stripes, as they'll make me look fat. So I put on a grey short-sleeved shirt I already had, and took the polo shirts as spares.

We did three sets of photos. The first set took place in one of the computer suites at college. If you've already done AAT Foundation, you'll know that there's no computer element to Intermediate, so SD #1 doesn't even have a Burton College login. No matter, as Johnny the photographer had carefully arranged the computers to show the bright blue Windows XP login screen, with us sat on chairs in the middle. The next few minutes were a montage of Johnny photographing us, getting SD #1 to smile, and running round wiggling mice.

Next up was in the library, where we were photographed in one aisle, whilst Johnny was in the next aisle, poking his well-endowed Nikon through the books. For composition, don't you know...

Finally, we were shot actually studying, or at least pretending to. I was doodling, then pretending to read a text book, when the fire alarm went off. "Just a couple more shots..."

It was fun, and Johnny told us that he'd got some good shots. And hopefully, some accountant somewhere will see my gurning mug, and think "I'll give that man a job." Possibly. Maybe.

The Autism-MMR gravy train

There's an interesting link on NHS Blog Doctor's weekly BritMeds medical links post. An article by Dr Michael Fitzpatrick, explaining how measles RNA was apparently found in the guts of autistic children who, it is claimed, had contracted autism through the MMR vaccine. An investigation on the lab found that the tests were suspect due to DNA contamination. This investigation was withheld from the public for three years due to litigation in the UK. Lawyers acting on behalf of the children and their parents allowed the case to drag on, even when the scientific case against the autism-MMR link was overwhelming, prolonging the agony of the families and costing the taxpayer £15m in legal aid. Of this £15m, £8m went to solicitors, £1.7million to barristers and £4.3million was shared among expert witnesses. £800,000 went to Unigenetics, a company set up by Professor O'Leary who ran the lab referred to in the report. The families got nothing.

It seems to me that there is no good scientific link between MMR and autism. Those who say there is are preying on parents' need to find answers, and are only in it to make money. For what it's worth, both my little ones have had the MMR, and neither of them have autism.