More than 400 people will die this year because they need organ transplants.

Shame on you if you’re reading this blog and have not registered your intention to donate organs after your death on the NHS Organ Donor Register.

It’s the least you can do, and I can’t see how any ethical person could object to being on this register. Only 14 million people are on the register, even though opinion polls show that more than 80% of people support organ donation.

But there is more that you can do – if you write a blog then you should post about this today, and if you use facebook or twitter or other social network tools you should tell your friends about it there. Go on, do it now.

A couple of people have asked, after my last post about this, if I’m ill. I’m not – or at least I’m in no worse state than normal…

I propose my first theorem: “In any sufficiently close social group, the aggregate amount of facial hair reaches a certain level and thereafter remains constant.”

The colloquial term for the phenomenon is the ‘zz-top effect’.

The theory is easily tested, and no known evidence of its failure has yet been noted.

Observe a group of work colleagues: if a previously-bearded colleague turns up to work as cleanly-shaven as a child’s balloon, the theorem posits that enough of his colleagues would have neglected to shave that same morning as to maintain the constant level of facial hair in the group. Equally, as one colleague’s beard grows, often beyond his or her control, the rest of the team will become progressively more clean-shaven.

I propose no knowlege of the mechanism by which this happens, but I expect string-theory to validate the theory any day now.

In any case, for those struggling to achieve a convincing beard the best advice is to surround yourself with clean-shaven people and persuade a friendly bearded-one to suffer a quick trim.