"As somebody who looks after several people who are living to die the slow death of senescence, there seems to me a strong case for relatively early and speedy death. In a world where all women are taking hormone replacement therapy and all men are taking statins [anti-ageing drugs], the possibility of peaceful myocardial infarction [heart attack] will diminish, and many more can look forward to a life `sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything'."He argues that sloth is a sin only in the eye of the beholder and "we need the luxury and benefits of occasional sloth."Greed in the medical world has little to do with money, according to Dr Ralph Crawshaw from Portland, Oregon. He accuses some doctors of being "time misers" who turn up for clinics late and leave early, or spend clinic time on personal administration and phone-calls. Patients may be "service misers" and Alfie, played by Michael Caine in the film of the same name, is a "stunning example," Dr Crawshaw says. "The Alfies of our world have an insouciant manner of riding an ambulance to casualty to demand a sleeping pill or immediate treatment of chapped lips. They know their rights and use them for relentless demands."Envy, according to Professor Louis Appleby, a psychiatrist at the Withington Hospital in Manchester, is different from the other Seven Deadly Sins, in that it is the only one that does not have an enjoyable side.

"It is all resentment, ill-will, and sour grapes." In fact, he finds little that is positive to say about envy and recalls that it was Sigmund Freud's view that this state of mind "explained" women. It is not envy but jealousy that worries modern psychiatrists, he says, because it is more than thought "it leads to action."Professor Chapman from the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Sydney University, asked to pontificate on wrath, prefers instead to choose someone worthy of the wrath of doctors and public health workers. "Surely, with currently three million deaths a year to their names, it's hard to pass by the strategists within the tobacco industry as exemplary candidates for our collective wrath," Professor Chapman says. "The recent revelations about over 30 years of lying, scientific palm greasing, and every manner of deceit and cover-up in the international tobacco industry, for the purposes of keeping as many people smoking as possible, showed that these people have all the ethics of a cash register.". It offered advice on how to send a fax from Windows 95, from paper, how to access the Internet. Page 64 was headed "using a modem"; underneath was a section on "fax/modem set-up and diagnostics" It seemed pretty straightforward. "Clicking Start, Settings, Control Panel and Modems successively brings you in the Modems Properties screen." That is where I made my first mistake.

I entered the right dial-up numbers, sat back, and waited for the connection. I got an irritating "bing" before being told the other modem was not responding. I had been doing this without a hitch on a laptop, and knew there was something to do with a thing called a modem before I could hook up.I looked up modem in the quick-start guide. I had a bewildering range of options - take a virtual-reality trip around the Louvre, explore the sea with a dolphin, make my own Batman and Robin cartoon, play the computer chess, learn French with Asterix, or enter the Internet through Planet Oasis. The Packard Bell executive multi-media, packed with pounds 1,000 of software installed in the factory, will be one of the best sellers this Christmas, and "adults and children alike" will be dialling the help number. It was comforting to see it flashing on the screen as I prepared to plunge into the world of PC nerds.

It is one of the main chain store's computer-software helplines And it is jammed most of the time I know, because I have been trying to get through. The tree fairy arrived early, in November, with a personal computer promising "effortless access to all the fantastic built-in software and on-line facilities" for "adults and children alike". Duty-free drink and other tax free-perks enjoyed by UK-based Commonwealth troops for more than 40 years are being killed off by Brussels. The perks were introduced under Royal Prerogative in the late 1940s, and were then incorporated in the Visiting Forces Act 1952. But Customs and Excise has recently discovered that two Brussels directives restrict relief from value-added tax and excise duties to Nato forces only, and that the Government has been acting illegally for at least nine years.Faced with the problem of how to "regularise the legal position of the United Kingdom in relation to EC law", the Treasury asked the European Commission for an exemption - or "derogation" - for the Commonwealth forces, "to enable the United Kingdom to continue affording reliefs to non-Nato Commonwealth forces from taxes and duties".Philip Oppenheim, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said earlier this month that the UK is considering how best to work towards a compromise.But it would appear that he has little chance of success - and Commonwealth forces are facing a bill estimated at up to pounds 1m in duty on their alcoholic drink, tobacco, and fuel bills, as well as VAT on all purchases.Mr Oppenheim told MPs: "The Brussels Commission has recommended that the Council [of economic and finance ministers] reject the UK application for a derogation ..."The commission asserts that such a derogation would not be restricted to one member state but would apply throughout the community and would entail a change in relevant directives."In the commission's opinion, the procedure must be applied with constraint."But as the final decision requires unanimity, taking only one minister to vote against, it is unlikely the Commonwealth troops will retain their perk.. "I'll believe it when I see it," said a member of the bishop's staff. Asked whether Bishop Hardy gave good sermons, Mary Jackson, wife of Dean Jackson, said: "If I said what I thought, I wouldn't want you to print it.". Last week his solicitor said he was negotiating a payoff with Lambeth Palace and that Dr Jackson will probably leave in the new year.