Secular News

With public satisfaction in the NHS just 21%, one area has a plan to shake up its services that could reduce GP waiting lists, as well as unblock hospital beds - but can it really work nationwide?

Good uses for nettles | Noisy restaurants | Playfair code | Evil OfficeAt my father’s funeral (Ted Ellis, a former Guardian country diarist), we had some sturdy nettles mixed with the flowers on the altar. They also appear as a cure-all in an old family herbal. So I happily endorse Claire Ratinon’s recommendation to leave a patch in your garden (Don’t rush to rip out your nettles – here’s three ways to put them to good use, 28 March). My mother also swore by a few stings to prevent joint pain. She lived to 90.Mary StiffWestwood, Broadclyst, Exeter• I love reading Grace Dent’s reviews, but could she mention how noisy a restaurant is? My friends and I are getting older, and find that more and more restaurants are noisy: hard surfaces, music, tables too close together. It can transform the food and the experience. Alicia BakerHighgate, London Continue reading...

Eight participants – most of them ‘lesbian first-timers’ – are invited to shed shame and revel in pleasureGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastEight women are lying in a room in a mansion in Mount Martha, a wealthy suburb an hour out of Melbourne. Their heads are in the middle of the circle, their bodies splayed out like a multi-pronged sundial. Slowly, as Jordana Ezra guides them, they insert a finger into their vaginas. As they breathe, they push a pressure point.“Go to noon … press in, breathe,” she says. “And now, three o’clock.”Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...

Dolphins circled their capsule after it landed off the coast of Florida.

Dolphins circled their capsule after it landed off the coast of Florida.

The debate has sparked a wider dilemma about the broader purpose of welfare

The debate has sparked a wider dilemma about the broader purpose of welfare

Laws in the Isle of Man to let terminally ill adults end their own lives are in the last stages of debate.

Laws in the Isle of Man to let terminally ill adults end their own lives are in the last stages of debate.

Increasing numbers of young people are using the drug, experts say. The health impacts can be catastrophic.

Increasing numbers of young people are using the drug, experts say. The health impacts can be catastrophic.

Products that enhance the uptake of this neurotransmitter are burgeoning - including drinks that mimic the effects of alcohol, without the hangover. Here’s what happened when I tried them“Chinese medicine.” “That weird Hungarian liqueur.” “Something my grandad would drink.” The taste test is not going well. Dry January is over and we’re hitting the bottle, but this is not alcohol we’re drinking. It’s theoretically the next best thing: Sentia Black, “a unique blend of functional botanicals, designed for focus and conviviality,” reads the blurbWe’ve been trying it neat, but once you mix it with tonic water it becomes much more palatable – “festive and grownup”, as one of my test subjects puts it. Taste aside, though, does it work? The conversation is certainly free-flowing, but whether it is more “focused and convivial” than it would have been without the Sentia is hard to say. None of us end up dancing on the table or spoiling for a fight, at least. Nor does anyone wake up with a hangover the next morning, so there’s that. Mind you, it is £32 a bottle. Continue reading...