Healthcare is important to everyone, yet large variations in its quality have been well documented both between and within many countries. With demand and expenditure rising, it’s more crucial than ever to know how well the healthcare system and all its components – from staff member to regional network – are performing. This requires data, which inevitably differ in form and quality. It also requires statistical methods, the output of which needs to be presented so that it can be understo...

Just when something feels played out, a fresh viewpoint can revitalize it. That's the power of being a writer. You get to show people a way of perceiving the world they had never considered before. FICTION VORTEX: Founded in the 277th year of the Takolatchni Dynasty, Fiction Vortex set out to encourage people to write and publish great speculative fiction. It sprang fully formed from the elbow of TWOS, retaining none of TWOS’s form but most of i...

The Palmer River Gold Field is roaring. Miners pour in, most are Chines. One, Fou Yei, a young Eurasian girl, attracts the attention of brothel owner Miss Kate who buys her bond and puts her to work.George Colley is her first client, is fascinated by her. He buys her bond, disguises her as a boy and takes her to The Palmer. The couple develop an uneasy relationship.On a visit to town, they see Ginger, a huge miner, brutalise Tommy Tse, a successful trader and tong represent...

In the tallest and poorest house in a very narrow winding street, was an attic with a single window. Behind this window, was a bird in a cage; the state of the house and the cage were so miserable that the bird did not even have a cup for drinking: he had to make do with the neck of a bottle closed with a stopper. The bird had no problem with this and sang joyfully – as for the bottle neck, he remembered the good old days when he was still a bottle...