I think people who smoke are silly in the first place, but new research has shown that if you smoke and have multiple sclerosis, you’re even sillier. The research suggests that smoking increases brain tissue shrinkage in those with MS, and could, as a result, affect the severity of their impairment. Doesn’t sound like much fun, really. Anyway, far be it from me to make judgments about others’ chosen pasttimes, however suicidal they might be, so to read more on

As user ‘sophieg’ pointed out over at the forums, it is the annual Blind Week appeal coming up towards the end of the month – October 23 – 29, to be exact! Not knowing much about what the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind do, a quick squizz around their official site reveals a huge list of awesome stuff the Foundation does on a day-to-day basis to assist blind, deafblind, and vision-impaired people. Their services include things such as: