NHS Direct has the following non-answer:

1. It is very important that if you want to take paracetamol you should be careful to check that your cough or cold medicines do not already contain paracetamol as this could lead to an overdose by mistake. Similarly, if you want to take ibuprofen, you should check that your cough or cold medicines do not already contain ibuprofen, so that you do not overdose, and you should also avoid cold preparations containing aspirin. Taking ibuprofen and aspirin together can cause stomach upset, which can be serious, including indigestion, gastritis, and even ulcers.

2. Apart from the above, no-one has studied whether paracetamol or ibuprofen can be safely taken with cough or cold medicines. Cough or cold medicines contain a wide variety of ingredients, so it is not possible to be completely sure that they can be safely taken with paracetamol or ibuprofen. However, when experts have looked at the typical ingredients of cough and cold medicines they have not identified any cause for concern. These medicines have also been available for a long time and so any common major problem would most likely be known by now.

Get well soon.

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Paracetomal & codeine tablets can be taken at the same time as ibuprofen and you can even safely double the dose of ibuprofen if you need to.

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That sounds horrible - do get better!

Brussels above Amsterdam doesn't surprise me at all (because of the effect of the EU/EC) but Milan so far ahead of Rome? And Shanghai lower than Beijing?

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Sure...Shanghai hasn't made its global corporate mark just yet*; and Beijing does have a lot more history going for it, not to mention the Forbidden City.

*My definition: when an indigenous Shanghai business, with the name Shanghai in it, taking over major Western markets...or some similar cultural revelation regarding an economically influential success.

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But I thought the rankings were based not on history or culture but on producing high-level type services? I'm surprised if Shanghai doesn't beat Beijing per capita on those stakes, but Beijing's size might push it ahead. I just think of Shanghai as being far more cosmopolitan a place.

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Apparently the two are equal for banking, accounting and legal, but Beijing outscores Shanghai in advertising. *shrug*

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My knowledge of the Chinese advertising industry obviously let me down :-)

(You're not the Mo who used to share a house with Liz and Geoffrey are you by any chance?)

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I am! -- and peering at your photo, it looks like you're the Juliette who used to visit said house? Small world! -- how are you, what are you up to these days?

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I'm fine, working in Guildford producing interactive teaching type stuff for the maths, physics and computing departments at the university, and still playing lots of board games. How about you?

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Living in Ipswich writing murder mystery party games (of all strange things), and not doing as much boardgaming as I used to... but generally life is good, glad to hear yours is too!

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Just realised that I didn't reply to this. That sounds exciting! I think of Ipswich as being a place covered in snow as the only time I've been there, it was.

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It's not like that all the time, thank goodness! -- or our tomatoes'd never get much of a start.

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Cosmopolitan ... roughly equal I think in terms of international business offices and foreign residents. The other part of the China story that may not be getting much play is how often services of electricity and water are disrupted, with Beijing likely to ensure better urban services of those. Likewise, air pollution has to play a role in pulling down the amenity value of the cities, though I imagine it should hit Beijing slightly worse due to the loess winds.

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I certainly remember Beijing as having much worse pollution.

Maybe Shanghai is just more western. People speak more English and there are more Western chains operating there. It certainly feels like a richer city withs its shops and posh cocktail bars and skyscrapers, and things like public transport are better.

But I've spent more time in Shanghai than in Beijing so maybe I just haven't seen the more upmarket parts of Beijing. Also they've probably both changed significantly the last few years, especially Beijing with the Olympics.

It seems weird comparing them though, they're such different cities.

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I guess you don't count HSBC as 'indigenous' ;-)

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Interesting question. Depends at what point you want to declare it 'Chinese' when PRC yuan dominated their business portfolio.

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San Francisco ahead of Sydney!

Incidentally, guess we won't talk about those bottle-defect Delta cities, eh? ;-)

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This is a wrong reply on my part, but I was most surprised to discover that New Orleans wasn't at least a 1-point Delta city, especially when Leeds was. (Well, perhaps the Leeds-Bradford conurbation together is worth slightly more than half a point, but it has nowhere near the cultural significance.)

Fun game: try to predict the equivalent list 10/20/30/50/100 years down the line, when the Chinese megacities have had a chance to mature.

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Don't forget the Indian megacities, and the African ones too. I suspect that AIDS alone will lead to a significant foreign influx to African cities, not just from the African rural areas as well - over the next 50 years.

I also can't help wondering if we're discounting the Americas as well, especially Brasil.

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Interesting classification of cities there, though it's entirely based around Spending Money, and doesn't attempt to reflect any form of culture. I'm not entirely sure that that would make a terrific amount of difference to the pecking order. Amsterdam might sneak up to the next category, as might Joburg, Rome and Berlin would certainly advance up a place, Edinburgh and/or Glasgow might.

On the money-based criteria they've set, yes, Brussels would rank ahead of Amsterdam. On a purely cultural one, the order would perhaps be reversed.

The greater problem (and one I don't propose to solve here) is how one would construct such a cultural ranking...

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You're broadly correct, but the first and last criteria on the list at the Wikipedia page do suggest there is at least some degree of cultural and fame-based measurement to it. Producing a global cultural ranking would be as subjective as hell, a sure way to start arguments among some of the world's greatest sophisticates and also rather good fun ;-)

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Ah, a little bit of Cross-Purpose Talk here, I fear. I'm referring to the Loughborough study, which is interested only in the following criteria:

* Accountancy
* Advertising
* Banking
* Legal services

And, er, that's it.

As for a cultural aspect to include in that measurement, one might consider:

* Museum (as measured by aggregate patronage per annum as a ratio to inhabitants of the city)
* Live music events (similar ratio, perhaps number of concerts to inhabitants)
* Theatre (ditto)
* Presence of internationally-known university (with a slightly higher mark for having two or more.)
* Presence of internationally-known, or long-established, cultural festival (ditto)
* Sports played professionally in the city.
* Presence of airport offering flights to at least three other continents per week.
* Significant media centre.

I leave the details fairly sketchy, particularly for uni, culture, and media. Maybe I'll come back to this one rainy day...

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Ah, you've evidently been reading things more carefully than I have. Thank you.

The worldliest city is the one with the best underground trains. Oh no, that'd probably be Moscow.

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