We have "black pudding" here in Ireland. It's blood sausage.

Back in the old days, when a family would have a potato patch and a pig, they would bleed the pig, mix it with some oats, and eat the sausage.

Family gets protein, pig lives.

I am in the strange situation of having visited a dentist today (first time in 10 years, erp), having followed the advice of online reviews. They were excellent.

Back to your post: OK, the dentist* has a set waiver form.

There is NOTHING stopping you (barring pain) refusing to sign (or even, as writings are relatively anonymous, say that you had). When they ask you to leave, you write up a scathing review that they refused to treat you despite appointments; speak of their useless, defensive service; and state how you were shown the door when you refused to waive your right to judiciously review their service. You give it 0 stars or what have you - and cast doubt on any positive ratings anyone else gives.

I know where I would not go if I read that review.

Also, as you have specifically stated you have not signed their "all my writings belong to dentist" clause, they cannot ask that it be taken down.

Obviously, my opinion... Argue as you will.

*After six years of a PhD, I rankle at calling Bachelor's of Medicine "Doctors", let alone giving tooth drillers that title. Not that I would mention it in the chair...

All you need is a whole load of Sellotape (Scotch-tape for you Americans) (and some deuterium).

Everyone (well, Slashdot readers) knows that peeling Sellotape produces x-rays, so get some industrial sized sheets of Sellotape, probably at least a few layers. While peeling, aim your Sellotape at some material why only needs low energies to induce a photonuclear reaction (deuterium, beryllium perhaps).

Some might say that those might need gamma rays, but those are only high energy X-rays, so shake your Sellotape fast, and you'll increase the frequency nicely.

And voila: Neutrons!

The rest is just details

Turns out most spam is written by e e cummings.

Who'd have thought it?

I visited this exhibition last night.

Interesting stuff, and much more fascinating than repellent. Full marks to the Trinity College students who take you through each exhibit - their enthusiasm added a lot to the experience, particularly for one grounded in engineering rather than life sciences. One of the more interesting pieces was related to the piezoelectric properties of bone. The artist had taken cow bones and turned them into (rather inefficient) speakers.

Hearing "Old MacDonald had a Bone" played from a cow's femur was an, ahem, unique experience.

As incredible as travelling back to prehistory would be; saving the Library of Alexandria, or actually communicating with a Neanderthal, a few "harmless" bacteria or viruses hitching a lift could far too easily decimate world.

I mean, North America was virtually wiped out before Europeans got up there by introduced plagues spreading from the south.

I fear too what nasties would be about that had gone extinct since, or how the left-behind bacteria might evolve in the few millennia as you travel back to your former age.

Well, along with pretty much everyone else from Ireland, I have studied the modern language for 14 years. That being said, it is not used for daily conversation outside of very limited areas (the Gaelteacht). Back at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions, the language here would have been Old Irish - which was quite a bit more arcane and complex (well - at least according to the little I have seen of it), though certainly recognisable.

In Britain, Brythonic would have been spoken - which would be much closer to modern day Welsh (Britain was likely settled through France, and Ireland through Spain at perhaps 350 BC- the Celtic language had diverged earlier yet).

Trace it back, and you get earlier peoples in the Isles, conquered or assimilated. These had their own cultures, languages and monuments (Newgrange is over 5 thousand years old, and is older than the Pyramids). These too are lost - remembered only as Formorians, Firbolg, or Milesians.

Now the Welsh were these Britons existing in a land yet unconquered by the Saxons - indeed their very country is named by the Saxons for it (Waelas - foreigner, often a Celtic (sometimes Roman) epithet. Wallachia and Vlad have the same root). As was Cornwall (Kern Waelas - Foreigners of the Horn).

And yes, England experienced many many waves of conquest, as evidenced by our mongrel tongue. Perhaps the most remarkable part is that their relative integrity in the recent Millenium or so. The same, unfortunately, could not be said of Ireland - although in earlier years we got off lightly. Indeed, post Roman times, we were raiders too: Ever wondered why Scottish is just a version of Irish?.

The other half, as I might have mentioned elsewhere, is in the Hunterian Museum

I second the Imperial War Museum. For bonus geek points, the building in which it is housed used to be Bedlam.

Two other, slightly less well known places:

Hunterian Museum at the royal college of surgeons - incredible array of medical curiosities.

The Wallace Collection - Incredible array of art and armour housed in a splendidly ostentatious yet intimate townhouse. One Sunday a month, the rooms are lit candlelight.

For a Cthulhuesque experience, you can trace the two halves of Babbage's Brain

(*spoiler* one is in the science museum, the other the Hunterian)