The Last Word

In an effort to enhance the surfing time of BBC News Online readers, we are happy to welcome your comments and observations about the news. Submission guidelines at the bottom of the page.

NARROW MINDED
Never mind the unfairness of how broadband users are charged for accessing their e-mail (Goodbye to a flat rate for broadband, 15 September). What about the 20% of the population who have no broadband access because BT and others will not extend their services to those of us who live in small villages? And no, I do not live out in the wilds, my village is close to Cambridge in the midst of the Silicon Fen.
Chris Carrington
Cambridge, UK

DRIVING AGE
In Video games back in US dock, 15 September, you report that following claims by teenagers in Tennessee that they were acting out Grand Theft Auto when they shot at vehicles, lawyer Jack Thompson claimed that games manufacturers want to keep selling violent games to children. Well Grand Theft Auto is rated 18, which means that minors should not be able to purchase a copy. Other violent games have similar restrictions, and all games have a suggested minimum age printed on the box. Why not sue the gun manufacturers, without whose weapons the tragedy would not have occurred?
Kathryn Wesley
UK

SO FAR SO GOOD
You report that Sofas get smart for hi-tech homes, 14 September. Sofas will be really smart when, apart from turning on the television and ordering takeaways, they can give you hormone injections to stop you putting on weight and electric shocks instead of exercise.
Talia Giraudo
Malaga, Spain

SNAIL MAIL
Re: 10 things we didn't know this time last week, 12 September. Um... I only see nine snails. Am I missing something?
Mags Storey
Haywards Heath

RETRO CHIC
Is Griff Rhys Jones trying to reinvent the Restoration Comedy?
Wallaby Testperson
Oxford, UK

GUN REPORT
I'd like to ask what has happened in Britain - and when, concerning guns. There never used to be headlines about murders, even five years ago, like there are today. Have rules changed there, or the reporting of news, or something else?
Stacy A. Cordery
Monmouth, Illinois, US

SICK WORLD
Maybe the Britishness (is that even a word in English?) Test should involve downing a fishbowl of dubious alcohol, running down Faliraki High Street while singing the Birdie Song, mooning and flashing breasts, followed by being violently sick in the middle of the street. The kind of scene quite common in most British town centres on a Saturday evening.
Gavin Rynne
Bromley

FAT CAT
Jane Gwilt writes that her cat has been on the Atkins diet for nine years but has never lost an ounce (The Last Word, 9 September). The cat is probably eating several times his Atkins allowance by snacking at several places.
Gilly Alexander
Kidderminster

NUT
This was my entry for the Caption Competition, 12 September. It didn't win. You decide:- "It's always the nutty ones that are left in a box of black magic."
Jon T
Edinburgh

DREAMS AND VISIONS
You report on research by Dr Peter Fenwick, (Test for near-death visions, 10 September) who is to study out of body experiences by putting pictures on the ceilings of accident and emergency units, to test if the experiences are real or imagined. (Patients who survive cardiac arrest will be asked if they saw the pictures.) In 1982 I was in hospital in California following a parachute accident from a jet. I was given pain-killing drugs, but went into arrest. However, the loudspeaker on the machine I was on was not working, so no-one was alerted. I can remember the four people who entered my room, their conversation, and actions. I was not "floating" but I was "standing" behind the staff working to save my life, and my own body in the hospital bed. Three days later I was out of intensive care. I was later visited by the doctor, and I relayed the events as I perceived them. He looked at me for a moment and then said, "Everything you told me happened in the manner you stated, but you could not have known them because, YOU WERE FLAT ASS DEAD - MARINE!" He then said he had only seen two other cases such as mine and knew I was not making up stories.
Snake (Sh'e Bao Lin), USMC, (Ret'd)
Panama

MEAN AVERAGE
Being a secondary school teacher, I recently got 20 of my year 11 students to take your Britishness test, 3 September. Not one of them got more than seven right, with the median average mark being three. Perhaps Britons should also have to pass the test before being allowed a passport to go abroad. It might help our reputation overseas.
Jim Hines
Abingdon, UK

BURNING FLAME
You say: "There's no monument yet to the nearly 3,000 people who died." (New York's gaping wound, 11 September) There is a monument in Battery Park. The damaged globe from the World Trade Centre has been placed here with a plaque and a burning flame.
Debbie
West Sussex, UK

GO FIGURE
I notice that the performance figures for the railways are timetabled to be released three months after the events. This doesn't bode well.
Kevin Thornton
Staffordshire, England

TOO MUCH
In Sharon Osbourne 'left Ozzy', 11 September, you write: "Osbourne told TV interviewer Barbara Walters her husband had continued to abuse himself while the family waited for a bed to become available for Jack." Too much information!
Alan Jackson
Liverpool, UK

PROUD RECORD?
In Swedish Minister Dies After Stabbing (11 September) the writer declares "Attacks on Swedish politicians are rare. A notable exception was the assassination of the then Prime Minister, Olof Palme, in 1986." I'd like to know what their idea of "rare" is - two murders, that of the PM and Foreign Minister, in 17 years is not exactly a record to be proud of.
Ian Ashworth
Reading, England

QUACK SCIENCE
So there's a shortage of people studying science and opting for trivial subjects such as Media Studies? (Homer good, Homer Simpson bad, 10 September.) This story was followed on the radio by a report on some valuable work carried out by scientists - establishing whether a duck's quack echoes?
Dave W
Northumberland

CROSSING ARMS
'Shopping at the World's Largest Arms Fair' (11 September). C'mon BBC - riling the government is one thing, but I *REALLY* wouldn't cross these guys if I were you.
Andy Smith
Bradford, UK

CALENDAR BOYS
Toby Bradbury may not like references to "9/11" (The Last Word, 9 September), but we talk about "the October Revolution" which one understands to have taken place in Russia in November 1917: the reference is to the calendar of the nation in question.
Robert Carnegie
Hamilton, Scotland

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The Last Word is updated on Tuesday each week.

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