Saturday, January 25, 2014

The Loop: Answering questions which have been asked?

The Loop: Answering questions which have been asked?

the sochi toilet

Welcome to The Loop, the Magazine's letters column, including the best of your thoughts from Twitter and Facebook.

A report this week renewed warnings about the effect of night shifts on the body, saying that sleep disruption causes damage "at a molecular level" . Broadcasting being one of those areas where night shifts are kind of necessary, the Magazine's Ben Milne drew on long experience. Faced with knowing he should eat healthily during the night, he noted how attractive the contents of vending machines become at 03:30.

"Chilli-burger flavour corn snacks washed down with a jumbo-sized can of fizzy tropical fruit drink? Don't mind if I do," he wrote .

His conclusion - that the best way to cope with night shifts is not to do them - cut no mustard with Ian from Bournemouth, who sounded a bit grumpy when he emailed us at 01:40 to say: "Don't do it? Brilliant. Genius. Why didn't I think of that?"

James from Coventry, who is training to be a doctor, says he worries a lot about how effective people are during the night. But Susan, from Edinburgh, who is a nurse and works many nights, says her tip is to "snack regularly". "Little nibbles of chocolate and crisps keep your energy levels going... although most likely to be the reason that many nurses (including myself) are on the plump side." The BBC cannot vouch for the quality of her advice.

Steve from Leeds turned to poetry to express his feelings:

i do 12 hour night shifts, if you get caught napping you get sacked, if you fall asleep at your place of work, you get sacked. Your body is slowly dying, your morale is slowly dying, your head is aching most of the time. Thank god for shift pay and weekends off.

And for the internet, Steve, don't forget the internet. The kind of place where you can see photos of two toilets without a divider. Our colleague Steve Rosenberg took the now world famous shot of the twin toilets in Sochi, and has discussed the reaction to them in Russia and elsewhere.

Kaperen gets the award for the sharpest eyes of the week though, tweeting: "What an odd mirror to use for a selfie."

This in the week that Justin Rowlatt recounted being beaten by branches ("I have to admit it is very pleasant") in a Russian sauna by homophobic Russian hunters.

Duncan Walker took a trip to what might be the UK's loneliest bus stop. It's in Eden Valley, Cumbria, and has one visit a week - two if you count the return journey. In the coming days we may revisit the subject with alternative contenders suggested by you. But Paul Kopal, on the BBC News Magazine Facebook page, thinks he might have identified part of the problem with the Cumbria stop.

"Perhaps if it was somewhat near- oh I dont know - a ROAD?," said, before adding: "Oh and a bus stop sign wouldn't hurt." Visionary.

Mark Downey, London believes in the power of the media, though. "You can guarantee that this bus stop will be busy next week."

Tate Modern announced a new sponsor for its turbine hall this week. But there was some debate about how to pronounce the name of said sponsor and car manufacturer. Is it HYUN-day, asked Tom De Castella, high-UNN-digh, or HUN-day, he asked.

"Never mind about Hyundai," said Anthony Guter of pronunciation-challenged Ruislip. "What about the insult to the intelligence that is Qashqai?"

Lloyd Fleming of Cambridge said: "When Hyundai launched in Australia, the ads they ran had the tag line " Say Hi to Hyundai" with the Hi and Hy rhyming. The ads were pulled when Hyundai complained that the pronunciation of their name was wrong. I could never work out why they didn't switch to: 'Say G'day to Hyundai'."

Sadly there isn't room in the Loop this week to discuss the subject we promised in the headline. Which will annoy Graham Ludar-Smith of Carlisle whose pet hate is headlines which pose questions and stories which fail to answer them.

"If you are going to ask a question in the title then have the decency to publish an article that really does address the issue," he wrote. Next week Graham, we promise.

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