Thursday, April 9, 2026 — Edition No. 54 — The Cornmill Intelligencer

← Past Editions · Edition No. 54 · Thursday, April 9, 2026

Today’s outlook: Breakthroughs in the air, tails wagging on the ground — Thursday is looking up

Health Medical

Relief Without the Risk: A New Painkiller Offers Hope Beyond Opioids

Suzetrigine, the first new class of painkiller in over 20 years, matches opioid-level pain relief without the dangers of addiction — and experts say it could be just the beginning

For decades, doctors treating moderate to severe pain faced an impossible bargain: prescribe opioids that work, but risk addiction, or offer weaker alternatives that leave patients suffering. Now, a quietly revolutionary drug is changing the equation.

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Features

The Computer That Refused to Die: Inside the Amiga's Extraordinary Second Life

Forty years after it launched and thirty-two years after its maker went bankrupt, the Commodore Amiga is thriving — and one enthusiast's upgraded A600 tells the story of why

By Henry Davenport

Douglas Carnegie describes himself as a "lamer." In the Amiga scene, the term refers to someone who uses and admires the machines rather than creating software for them. "I couldn't make music, crack copy protection, create mesmerising graphics routines, games or utilities," he says, "but I could ooh and aah plenty, and still do, when the fruits of these wizards' labours made their way into our hands."

It is, as self-deprecation goes, rather misleading. Carnegie's current setup — a modified Commodore Amiga 600 running a 25MHz 68030 processor, 32MB of fast RAM, an FPGA video scandoubler, and CompactFlash storage, serving as the MIDI nerve centre of a recording studio synced to an eight-track digital tape recorder — suggests someone who has got rather more of a hold on this forty-year-old platform than he lets on.

And that phrase — getting a hold of it — turns out to be the key to understanding why, in 2026, the Commodore Amiga is not merely surviving but actively thriving.

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Audio Equipment

Broadcast Audio Goes Virtual: Calrec Unveils Its Most Ambitious NAB Yet

Hebden Bridge firm debuts 48-fader Argo M console and previews ImPulseV — virtualised DSP that could run a Champions League final from a data centre

By Damien Day

When broadcast audio's DSP engine no longer needs dedicated hardware, something fundamental has changed. At NAB 2026 in Las Vegas, Calrec is making the case that the change is already here.

The Hebden Bridge company — whose consoles underpin live audio at the BBC, Sky Sports, and major OB operations worldwide — arrives at the Las Vegas Convention Center (booth C6907, April 18–22) with a twin-pronged announcement. One is physical: the US debut of the 48-fader Argo M, a compact IP-native console built for tighter outside broadcast truck footprints. The other is philosophical: a preview of ImPulseV running on virtualised commodity server hardware, meaning the DSP engine that processes live broadcast audio can now live in a data centre, on public cloud, or distributed across remote facilities.

Together, they represent what may be the broadcast audio equivalent of video's SDI-to-IP transition.

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Health

A 'Living Drug' That Gives Leukaemia Patients Years More Life Is Now on the NHS — But Not Yet in Scotland

CAR-T therapy obe-cel has been called 'very sci-fi' by its first NHS patient — and Scotland's families are watching closely as the Scottish Medicines Consortium weighs approval

By Helen Cooper

When Oscar Murphy received his cancer diagnosis in March 2025, the prognosis was bleak. B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia — one of the most aggressive blood cancers in adults — typically gives patients six to eight months.

But on 2 January this year, the 28-year-old car salesman from Bury became the first person on the NHS to receive a revolutionary new treatment that could change everything. As a tiny bag containing 100 million genetically reprogrammed immune cells was infused into his bloodstream at Manchester Royal Infirmary, Murphy found himself marvelling at the science.

"It's very sci-fi," he told the BBC, "but if it means it gets rid of the cancer permanently and my own cells can do it, it's just fantastic."

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Dogs & Animals Rescue

'She Was Dying': The Rescue Dog Who Defied the Odds and Stole Hearts Online

A terrified dog dumped in a parking lot was given a death sentence by vets — but one couple refused to give up

By Damien Day

When Matt and Alex spotted a terrified dog cowering in a parking lot, they had no idea they were about to embark on a rescue mission that would take days of patience, a packet of bacon, and a whole lot of love.

The brown dog — covered in fleas and ticks, barely able to stand — had been dumped and left to fend for herself. It took the couple days to coax her close enough to help, with Alex making "every effort" to earn the frightened animal's trust.

But catching her was only the beginning.

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News Scotland

Ryanair Pledges £40m and 450 Jobs in Major Prestwick Expansion

Europe's biggest airline to build its largest maintenance hangar in Ayrshire, creating hundreds of skilled engineering roles and 60 apprenticeships

By Henry Davenport

Ayrshire is about to get a very large new building — and with it, a very large vote of confidence in Scotland's aerospace future.

Ryanair has announced a £40 million expansion of its maintenance facility at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, constructing a state-of-the-art four-bay heavy maintenance hangar and additional component workshops that will make the site the airline's largest in Europe.

The investment will create 450 highly skilled jobs — including aircraft mechanics, avionics specialists, structures technicians, and supervisory engineers — along with 60 apprenticeship places aimed at developing the next generation of aviation talent in the region.

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News Scotland

Scotland's Newborns Now Screened for Rare Muscle-Wasting Condition — A UK First

A simple heel prick test could transform the lives of babies born with spinal muscular atrophy — and one Glasgow family knows exactly what that means

By Helen Cooper

When Grayce Pearson was six months old, she stopped kicking her legs. She stopped reaching for things. Her mother Carrie raised the alarm, only to be told she was "just being an over-anxious mother."

It took until Grayce was 14 months old before she was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) type 2 — a rare genetic condition that causes progressive muscle weakness, affecting movement, swallowing, and breathing. By then, the window for the most effective treatment had closed.

"Grayce's age when she was diagnosed, she couldn't get gene therapy, which would have been a one-off and she probably would have been making her milestones," Carrie said.

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News Clydebank

West Dunbartonshire Community Groups Urged to Apply for Share of £600,000 Fund Before Sunday Deadline

Pride in Place Impact Fund offers grants of up to £100,000 for local projects — deadline extended to midnight on Sunday 12 April

By Damien

Community groups across West Dunbartonshire have just days left to apply for a share of £600,000 in regeneration funding — with grants of up to £100,000 on offer for projects that could transform local neighbourhoods.

The deadline for the Pride in Place Impact Fund's Community Grants scheme has been extended from 23 March to Sunday 12 April at midnight, giving groups a final window to get their applications in. Any submissions received after that date will not be accepted.

West Dunbartonshire Council is inviting not-for-profit community groups and voluntary organisations to bid for capital funding ranging from £10,000 to £100,000. The money is earmarked for projects that improve local facilities, breathe new life into underused buildings, or enhance public spaces.

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