B-movie Madness

I enjoyed writing this piece for Den of Geek about B-movie animal monsters. It was sooo hard to choose (especially as anything made before 1960 basically turns into a B-movie purely because of the melodramatic style of acting and the quality of the special effects) but here's a mere selection of the greatest killer animals to grace the B movie screen. Enjoy!

How to Make a Difference When You're Dead (If Not Before)

Several years ago I suggested it would be great if the organ donor system in the UK changed to the opt-out scheme some other countries already use. Wales introduced this plan in 2015 and now England is finally doing the same, with Scotland and Northen Ireland looking likely to follow suit. However, my enthusiasm was apparently misguided: it doesn't seem to actually increase the number of donations. 

Even Spain, which boasts the highest rate of organ donation worldwide, only has 35.3 organ donors per million people. Am I crazy, or does that sound pathetically low?  Why isn't everyone donating their organs? 

It's almost as if we're still clinging to beliefs left over from Ancient Egypt, that we'll be taking our physical bodies into an afterlife, so it's essential not to have any bits missing (bad luck if you get blown up or eaten by piranhas). It's completely irrational and we need to get over it. We're all going to die, so we might as well do something constructive with the situation. Inviting medical professionals to pillage your body for the bits they need when you're dead has no negative impact on you. In fact, I can think of two major advantages:

1) It dramatically decreases your chances of being buried alive.
2) If your family isn't too precious about the size / style of your coffin, they could just box up what's left of you and stick it in some tupperware. Funerals are really expensive, so any chance you get to cut costs, go for it!

Apparently, people are rubbed up the wrong way by the opt-out system; I've heard several say they would happily donate organs but they will opt out rather than let the government assume ownership. Which to me sounds like quite a stupid way to let your own principles prevent you from actually helping people. It's not as if "the government" is seizing organs for their own sinister means (at least, not that we know of, although nothing would surprise me), so you're not really giving your body to them, you're donating it to your fellow citizens. Sharing out your body parts after your death is surely the ultimate in socialism (and recycling).

The opt-out system appears to fail because it depends on your next of kin giving the OK for your organs to be donated. Although I can't think of anything more monstrously selfish than choosing to be buried intact rather than save a life via the kidneys / heart / lungs that are going to be of no use to you six feet under, I can kind of sympathise with someone not making the most rational decision when they're grieving. Nobody wants to think of a loved one "being cut up", even if logically you know that the person is dead and has absolutely nothing to lose by saving a few lives on their way out. 

What isn't particularly well-known is that even if you register as a donor your family can still veto that decison and block your body being used for donations. (Is it me, or is that a bizarre ethical abuse of our individual autonomy?) If this is what happens when you've specifically made your wishes clear, I would imagine that under the opt-out system where the decision is made entirely by your next of kin, most of them are going to default to saying no. (So if you want to contribute some body parts, let your peeps know, yeah? It's the one altruistic action EVERYONE can take, with absolutely no effort or disadvantage to themselves.)

                                  

I think the ideal would be a system where everyone has to register a living will - just a little form you have to fill out next time you're at the doctor's - stipulating whether or not they wish to donate. Something along the lines of:

A) Yes, I would like to donate my organs after I die because I understand that there is literally zero downside for me as I will be dead.
B) No, I would rather my organs rot uselessly in the ground or be burnt to cinders. I understand that by refusing to donate my organs I forfeit my right to receive a donated organ in the event that I need one.*

(*I know! I'm soooo mean. But fair...)

If you'd like to make a difference while you're still alive, you can donate blood and stem cells / bone marrow; you could even be paid handsomely for your time by taking part in a medical trial. I've done a couple, which freaks out most of my friends and makes me sound like Seinfeld's crazy pal Kramer, but where else would you get paid to sit around and watch films / write novels, while people BRING YOU MEALS (a holiday from cooking and housework, yay!) and you get paid for contributing to medical research? I know they SOUND scary, but after a couple of disasters which made "elephant man" headlines, they are safer than ever. Consider the fact that every drug available today will have been through multiple trials, they are running ALL the time, and the doses given are many times weaker than the levels which have already been proven safe in animals. Try https://flucamp.com/ or https://www.trials4us.co.uk/ - if you can get past their ridiculously rigorous screening process, you might just get a staycation with a difference!

Pictured: almost certainly not you

Guess Who's Back?

Just in time for Easter! Here's my take on the 25 best films about Jesus: I thought it might be a bit of a weird one for Den of Geek but they're always game for something a bit quirky.Speaking of which, here's a shot from the surreal Der Jesus (1986). Enjoy!