Five things you need to know today

Missing Man – Granton Library gardening project – Drumbrae Leisure Centre – Colinton Library to unveil sculpture – TED Talk by Richard Weller

 

Police in Edinburgh are appealing for information to help trace a man who has been reported missing from his home in the Capital.

Christopher Knights (26) was last seen at his home address in Loaning Road, in the Restalrig area of the city, on Monday, October 14.  He has not been seen or heard from since.

He is described as white, 5ft 10ins tall, slim build, blue eyes, with short brown hair.  When last seen he was wearing a black sweatshirt, a navy shower-proof golf top and navy golf trousers, along with a small black rucksack.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: “While there are no immediate concerns for Christopher’s safety, his family are anxious to hear that he is safe and well.

“We would encourage Christopher to contact his family or the police to let us know that he is ok.  Similarly anyone who has seen or heard from him over the past week should also get in touch.”

Anyone with information should contact Police Scotland on 101.

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Granton Library have started a project to beautify their surroundings with the help of Granton Community Gardeners – but they wonder if you might have some plants going spare that they could use? If so then get in touch with the library. Telephone 0131 529 5630

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If you use Edinburgh Leisure’s pool at Drumbrae then there are some changes afoot….

“Drumbrae Leisure Centre: Important customer reminder – as from 21st October blue overshoes will not be made available at Drumbrae Leisure Centre. All swimmers / pool customers will be asked to remove their shoes before entering the pool changing village. We ask for your support in this change of practice to ensure we can improve cleanliness in these areas and more importantly help the environment.

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Colinton Library is currently displaying exhibition provided by Colinton Community Conservation Trust detailing development of statue of Robert Louis Stevenson to be unveiled on 26th October. You can see how it was made here.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlWsXbkwLBw]

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From the TED stable of talks which have been filmed for you to watch at home, Edinburgh-born Richard Weller delivered this talk in Glasgow.

“Weller was studying medicine in Australia when something suddenly struck him as odd: Why are the Scots so sick? Australians suffer from heart disease at one-third the rate that Britons do, with lower death rates from heart attacks and heart failure, and fewer strokes overall. When Weller looked into it, this wasn’t unique to Australia and England: In fact, there are wide gaps in mortality even within the UK, a gradient which maps roughly … geographically? A five-degree change in latitude — between London and Edinburg, for example — shows a nearly 20 percent higher rate of mortality. Weller and his team have been working ever since to crack this mysterious gap, and most recently their research shows it may be related to exposure to sunlight. Nitric oxide (NO), a chemical transmitter produced by the skin and stored in great reserves, is released by exposure to UV rays, and this in turn is very important to cardiovascular health.

Weller is a senior lecturer in Dermatology at the University of Edinburgh. His two areas of study are the role of NO in human skin physiology and the role of skin barrier function deficiencies in atopic disease.”