He continues: “It is madness to suppose we would make a significant difference by using more energy-efficient lightbulbs and using agrofuels rather than oil, or that city dwellers can or would take up a rural farming or a hunter-gatherer lifestyle: given our numbers there is no land.”

Age, sex, pain intensity, interpedicular distance (IPD), canal compromise, loss of vertebral body height and kyphotic angle (KA) were selected as potential risk factors and compared between the non-operative success group and the non-operative failure group.

We used a navigation mesh to describe the paths that can be followed by computer-controlled characters in our video game.

In another twist to the myth, his Head of Department, the ageless and loathsome Vermishank, was not a plodding epigone but an exceptional bio-thaumaturge.