International medical conferences are a perk of the job. After years spent in the foothills of the NHS, once they finally scale the heights, doctors can feel justified in cashing in on smart hotels and free food in foreign parts. But at what cost to the environment? A professor writing in BMJ (June 28) reckons that attending medical conferences spits out 600,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year - and that excludes the energy costs of big hotels and conference centres. So medics may soon have to forsake those exotic destinations and content themselves with a hotel in the local retail park instead.

Talking of international travel, it's not often that you spot multi-millionaire pop stars taking the train. But Modern Railways (July) reports that the American musician Neil Diamond went loco rather than a stretch limo on his journey from Glasgow to Manchester during his UK tour. Good for him. A Diamond geezer indeed.

Transport in Nigeria is slightly more basic than even a British train. But Student BMA News (July) says that necessity is the mother of “glorious invention” in rural Nigeria, where a tricycle with a roof acts as an ambulance at one hospital and a local clinic has an autoclave steriliser powered by corn cobs. A centrifuge is made from a bicycle wheel. The NHS might like to take note in case of any future cost-cutting.

Cat news next, and an item in Defence Focus (July) about a newly unearthed plea from the Admiralty, dated 1921, for a rise in the allowance granted to feed the office mouser. Apparently, the shilling a week given for moggy meals had not risen since 1902. Fortunately, the suits saw sense and increased the food allowance for the hard-working recruit by a mighty sixpence.

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Police forces are enlisting new recruits. Police Professional (June 26) says that podiatrists are being signed up to help to identify crooks captured on grainy CCTV images by the way they walk. The journal cites the case of a suspect “with a distinctive swagger” whose posture and gait gave him away when the podiatrist analysed footage - sorry - captured near the scene.

Finally, a mention for poor Professor John Allen of the University of London who lost his rag at the orchestrated interruptions of his lectures by workmen in a neighbouring room. Times Higher Education (June 26) says that after several polite requests to turn it down, Professor Allen blew his top and screamed at the contractors to “shut the f*** up”. He said that he got his “idiomatic expressions” from Hollywood action movies.

Other views

“There was a big dent but I wasn't allowed to keep it as a souvenir”
Private Jason Thompson, of the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, is pleased that his body armour saved his life, but sorry he couldn't keep it, reports Defence Focus (July)

“If Cameron did a dump in the street they would say he was recycling”
The former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, comments on the press apparently giving the Tories an easy ride, in Local Government Chronicle (June 26)

“Calling for a zero tolerance to these drugs suggests a woeful lack of awareness of the complexities of mental health”
Dr Dave Tomson, a GP in North Shields, says that anti-psychotic drugs are a last resort, but vital if patients risk harming themselves or others, in GP (June 27)

“I would know we had world-class commissioning when people worried more about their commissioner than about Monitor”
David Nicholson, NHS chief executive, says foundation trusts concentrate too much on regulators, in Health Service Journal (June 26)

“It took him a long time to recognise that the Civil Service is a restraining force against radicalism”
Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle on Tony Blair's bemusement when first taking office that nothing was getting done, in Public Servant (July)

“Some people value tanker drivers more than police”
Grahame Maxwell, Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police, in Police Review (June 27)

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