25-hour day, anyone?

British summer time started yesterday, so we are back to short days and long nights. As we put the clocks back one hour yesterday, we all had a 25 hour day and the question is: what did you do with your extra hour? Stayed in bed longer, played more with the kids, more time on the PC or you did not even notice that you were given an extra hour?
There are now some research on creating a 25 hour day using combination of light brightness and pulses that allow the manipulate of the body clock and over time adding approximately one hour to each day.
I found this fascinating and I know that this research had to be in controlled environment and its application into our day to day lives is not straight forward, however, what would I do with an extra hour everyday? And what if this extra hour is my last hour? Who will benefit most from my extra time? Lately, we are developing lots of ways to save time, you can check your emails on the go, carry your computer with you, cook frozen food, ready meals, automatic washing machines, etc all to save time, but what are we saving time for?
I believe that whether it is 24 hour day or even 40 hour day, we will always be busy, will always be running around sorting things out and sending texts apologizing that we are running late. It is about priorities and whatever is on the top of your list now will be on the top of your list if you have more time, so does anyone fancy a 25 hour day?

Science or what?

The buzz words in medicine at the moment are about "evidence based" and "controlled studies", we need to prove everything and research everything in a "controlled" way, to the extent of this paper here on the effectiveness of parachute in preventing death. Here is the summery of the paper, you can read the full paper on the BMJ.


BMJ 2003;327:1459-1461 (20 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7429.1459

Hazardous journey

Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials Gordon C S Smith, professor1, Jill P Pell, consultant2

1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, 2 Department of Public Health, Greater Glasgow NHS Board, Glasgow G3 8YU

Correspondence to: G C S Smith gcss2@cam.ac.uk


Abstract
Objectives To determine whether parachutes are effective in preventing major trauma related to gravitational challenge.

Design Systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

Data sources: Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases; appropriate internet sites and citation lists.

Study selection: Studies showing the effects of using a parachute during free fall.

Main outcome measure Death or major trauma, defined as an injury severity score > 15.

Results We were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of parachute intervention.

Conclusions As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials. Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute