a medical case...

A Previously Healthy Woman with Sepsis

One year of blogging!

Woohoo!

30 days as a Muslim

That documentary by Morgan Spurlock, a really good watch.

Quoth the server, "404!"

This was a little bizarre... Pressed a link, and instead of the usual '404 error, page not found' type of thing staring at me, I get this instead:

'It is said, "To err is human,
"To quote from alt.times.lore,
Alas, you've made an error,
So I must say, "404."

Double-check your URL,
As we all have heard before.
You wanted a file that wasn't there
And I respond, "404."

You may have made a typo--
Your fingers may be sore.
But 'til you get the location right,
You'll just get 404.

Maybe you followed a bad link,
Surfing some foreign shore;
You'll just have to tell that author
About this 404.

I'm just a lowly server
(that speaks in metaphor),
So for a request that I don't know,
I return 404.

Be glad I'm not a mainframe
That might just dump its core,
'Cause then you'd get a ten-meg file
Instead of 404.

I really would like to help you,
But I don't know what you're looking for,
And since I don't know what you want,
I give you 404.

Remember Poe, insane with longing
For his tragically lost Lenore.
Instead, you quest for files.
Quoth the server, "404!"

With apologies to Edgar Allen Poe '

A nice change methinks. Don't know the author...

Pachelbel Rant

comedian/musician Rob Paravonian rants away. tee hee.

Poem: Jabberwocky

(an odd one, i know)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"


He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Lewis Carroll


and a jokey version:

Chemowocky

'Twas Boron, and the Silicon
Did Carbon in the Cadmium;
All Merc'ry were the Lanthanides
And the Molybdenum.

"Beware the Hydrogen, my son!
The teeth that bite! The chops that chum!
Beware the Bismuth bird,
and shunThe dread Beryllium!"

He Gold his Cobalt blade in hand,
Long time the Fluorine foe he Zinc,
Till rested he by a Krypton tree
And Strontiumed to think.

And as in Argon thought he stood,
The Hydrogen, with Iodine,
Came Radon through the Tungsten wood
And Sulfured Astatine!

One two! one two! and through and through
The Cobalt blade went Scandium!
He left it dead, and with its Lead
He went Gallium back.

"And hast thou slain the Hydrogen?
Come to my arms, Antimony!
O Copper morn! Neon! Xenon!"
He Nickeled in his glee.

'Twas Boron, and the Silicon
Did Carbon in the Cadmium;
All Merc'ry were the Lanthanides
And the Molybdenum.

Mark Stewart

How to be Scottish

Apparantly, it'll do wonders for your career.

some good ideas for secondary education from the government

For once - I agree! - if you read down, there is a suggestion that the British slave trade is taught to 11-14 year olds. History is something so important to know - and the best history is stuff that's relevant.

good quote...

The book you don't read won't help.
~ Jim Rohn

Operation healthcare

a brief insight into the US healthcare system

 Saturday, 27 January 2007, 12:03 GMT 

Caring for America's health

By Justin Webb  BBC, Washington Senator Barack Obama, an early frontrunner in the 2008 presidential race, advocates something the US has never had - universal health care, but just how bad a state is America's health care service really in? Senator Barack Obama believes health care is a right for everyone It was the summer of 1981. Mrs Thatcher was only two years into her first term and Ronald Reagan only months into his. I was starting out as well. Writing stories for the Beaver newspaper at the London School of Economics (LSE) about students throwing eggs at government ministers and the iniquities of low-cost coach travel to Greece. I had arrived in London from a boarding school in the West Country and a black and white world had suddenly burst into colour. My room mate in our hall of residence was a cheerful American with lively eyes and a vague resemblance to Bruce Springstein (a resemblance of which he was enormously proud). Bo Nora was exotic. My friends at school had been called Patrick or Adrian, and mostly hailed from Somerset. Bo came from Chicago and studied at the University of California. He was at the LSE for only a few months. Parting company Bo and I never felt the slightest bit mortal. I remember us listening to a programme on the local London radio station where people with emotional problems would call in for counselling. We laughed. We had no problems. I said goodbye to Bo on Great Portland Street tube station and we stayed in touch for a few years. And then life took over and Bo Nora became a memory. I moved to Northern Ireland, back to London, to Brussels and here to the US. Insured but unwanted A few months ago, 25 years after that central London goodbye, I tracked Bo down. I found his e-mail address and sent him a message. His reply talked of marriage and career and children and then came these words: "After several years of increasing physical difficulties, I saw a doctor in 1991 and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I retired due to further disability and incapacity. Presently, I am spastic quadriplegic."  Bo is expensive and the insurers do not want him... and they make it obvious  I went to see Bo the other day in his home on the outskirts of Chicago. We had supper. Bo's eyes flashing with recognition as we talked about London and university and people we had known. His wife fed him. Bo is not a bitter person - funny how happiness is wired into some people whatever life brings - but one subject genuinely pained him. Bo has health insurance, I presume provided by the law firm he worked for when he was diagnosed. This is good news for Bo - bad news for the insurance company. Bo is expensive and the insurers do not want him... and they make it obvious. 'Cut no slack' Every year Bo gets a letter asking him if he is still ill.  The story of American healthcare is one of huge expenditure for little obvious benefit  Someone has to fill in a form for him: "Yes, I am quadriplegic; no, no miracle appears to have happened." He told me recently he had to have a minor procedure associated with the condition. The bill was $78,000 (£40,000). In the end he paid only a small part of it himself but of the various entities that chipped in - the state, the insurer, the hospital - you can bet that no-one wanted to, and everyone would have got out of it if they could. Americans who fall ill are cut no slack. A society which expects everyone to pay their way, expects it of them as well. As a jolly man selling life insurance pointed out to me the other day, most personal bankruptcies in the US are the result of illness. Endless letters The story of American healthcare is one of huge expenditure for little obvious benefit. By head of population America spends twice the amount Britain does on health. But life expectancy here is lower and infant mortality is higher, way higher in some ethnic groups. Most of the money seems to go on overheads and on profits for the many private companies providing care, the hospital groups, the drug manufacturers, and above all the insurance companies which write letters to Bo inquiring about his MS and write incessantly to all their other customers as well, endlessly negotiating, fussing, harassing. As the costs spiral upwards and private employers ditch their health care schemes to stave off bankruptcy, increasing numbers of Americans have reduced their health insurance to the barest minimum, and when something goes wrong they are dependent on the back-up provided by the state. So in a nation where socialised medicine is a phrase to be spat out contemptuously, Americans are on course by the year 2050 to spend every cent the government takes in tax, on health-related claims. Nothing left even for the tiniest war. For the time being, Bo Nora will go on getting his annual letter but all of America is cottoning on to what Bo has known for years: there must be a better way of looking after sick Americans. If Iraq is eventually resolved, the issue waiting next in line for the president, or more likely for his successors, is restoring health to American health care. From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 27 January, 2007 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.

a refreshing med blog

While I blog things I find interesting on my internet trails, I tend to avoid blogging medical matters, or day to day stuff. It's a difficult area to blog well - I always get paranoid about betraying patient confidentiality or something, so avoid the area completely.
Having said this, some people do a brilliant job - like this London medical student:

arachnodactyly

in a tizz

A world in one city

London! Woohoo!
A Guardian newspaper special

London by religion

London by ethnicity

(and Toronto data for comparison)

and totally unrelated:
baby names in 2006 , office of national statistics, and other data

elective memories - eh?

you may have surmised from the title i spent my elective in Canada. and i miss it. a lot.
today i found the coolest site - pictures of Toronto by street in the virtual city.

makes taking a trip down memory ever so much clearer.
thank you virtual city!!!

i googled 'bored medical student'...

(as you do) and found the following:

surprisingly topical article written in 1905 about the state of the new breed of medical student

some very academic letters about how medical students learn - the highlight being: 'Assessing the quality of repeated theatre experience is difficult. We suspect that surface learners are uninterested the first time they see an operation, bored the second time, and do not turn up the third; that deep learners compare and contrast first with second and second with third, and that strategic learners ask what is going on in the theatre next door. That, however, is speculation; it is time someone measured these things properly.' (yup, that was the highlight)

medical students and their career preferences - with the enlightening statement (with regard to choices): 'Students differed from college students, the women differed from the men, and the Asian Americans differed from the other groups. ' .
would never have guessed.

Dylan Wilson , a medical student back in 1999, recommends medical students have experience as an inpatient. He relates his experiences...

So, this is medical school . I read this a few years ago, was quite nice to find it again. (Liam Farrell, GP, relating experiences, and giving advice).

on a different note...

jay-walking - don't even think about it!
a tram in San Francisco in the early 20th century (1905)
what happened to a bunch of people who only ate fresh fruit and veg for 12 days
in pursuit of happiness - not the movie, but what ppl want from a job

a truely brilliant idea...

women only theatre

in places where the staff exist - a bit of reorganisation could do so much for patient comfort and ease. i only hope people see it for the logical idea that it is.

i googled 'last page of the internet'...

... and found more than 1... (606,000,000 to be precise, mmmm)

1
2
somewhat snazzy no. 3
the relief of 4
ta DAA (and a fanfare!! of numero 5)
claiming to be the one true end... no.6
awesome! at no. 7
and even wikipedia has a say on this matter... being very matter of fact 'Strictly speaking, such pages would be the first or last page of the World Wide Web, not the Internet.'

clearly, i have reached a state beyond even ordinary boredom. eugh.

stuff you could try out when it gets *really* cold...

pot of boiling water thrown at -45F

... and from a tall building=

shooting at super-soaker at -45F

never gets that cold round here...

scorpions and cigarettes...

scorpion on a plane

NICOGEL - cigarettes in a hand gel

'Then it dawned on me: Reasonable people of all faiths recognize the common humane values that thread beliefs.'

I didn't find 'them' in Muslim world

By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
P-I COLUMNIST
Saturday, December 30, 2006

Rwandan genocide

'Under an agreement between Britain and Rwanda, revealed in court for the first time on Friday, the men would not be given the death penalty if they were convicted. '

Four men in UK court over Rwandan genocide

Friday December 29, 06:30 PM

LONDON (Reuters) - Four men appeared in a London court on Friday on extradition warrants from Rwanda where they are wanted on charges of taking part in the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 minority Tutsis were slaughtered.
The men, all in their 40s and 50s, were arrested at their homes in coordinated raids in various parts of Britain late on Thursday, police said.
Vincent Bajinya, Charles Munyaneza, Celestin Ugirashebuja and Emmanuel Nteziryayo all face the same charges that between January 1, 1994 and December 12, 1994 they murdered, plotted to murder and aided the murder of Tutsis intending to eradicate them all.
At a hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court, Nteziryayo was remanded in custody until January 5. Bajinya, Munyaneza and Ugirashebuja were remanded until a further court appearance on January 26, a Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman said.
Prosecutors alleged that Munyaneza, 48, Ugirashebuja, 53 and Nteziryayo, 44, had been local mayors with sweeping powers in their areas while Bajinya, 45, was accused of having been a militia co-ordinator in the capital Kigali.
All four men deny the accusations against them.
Under an agreement between Britain and Rwanda, revealed in court for the first time on Friday, the men would not be given the death penalty if they were convicted.
The massacre took place in the spring of 1994 as gangs of machete-wielding Hutus roamed the country slaughtering not only ethnic Tutsis but also moderate members of their own race while the outside world simply stood by.
Rwanda began holding trials 10 years ago in connection with the genocide.
Earlier this month a United Nations court trying leaders of the genocide sentenced a former Catholic priest to 15 years in jail for ordering bulldozers to flatten a church in which 2,000 Tutsis were taking refuge.
Father Athanese Seromba had denied the charges.
He was the 27th person to be convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
The process took on a new twist last month when a French anti-terrorism judge called for Rwandan President Paul Kagame to stand trial for the shooting down of a plane carrying then President Juvenal Habyarimana that triggered the genocide.
Kigali has ridiculed the accusations, cut diplomatic ties and accused France of trying to cover what it says is its own guilt over the massacre.

the definition of ridiculous...

no more cups of tea for nurses

someone needs to find out which financial whizz-kid came up with this idea for saving money, because they clearly do not have a clue, and should probably find a more suitable line of work suited to their intellect.

Daisy the Doctor, Dr Dose, Dr Grizzly, Dr Amelia Bedelia, and colleagues

The Christmas issue of the BMJ, and out come the funny articles!
Doctors: as demonstrated in kiddie literature

"Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those we cannot resemble." reflection on the performance of medicine.

"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people....

The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." Kissenger.



Ask Kissinger about Pinochet's regime
By AMY GOODMAN
Thursday, December 14, 2006


As the world marked International Human Rights Day, one of the century's most notorious dictators, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, died under house arrest in Chile at the age of 91. His 17-year reign left a deep scar on Chilean society. Yet Pinochet's legacy includes an ironic upside: His regime and the U.S. support for it galvanized the modern-day international human rights movement.
On Sept. 11, 2001, as the planes hit the towers of the World Trade Center, on our daily broadcast of "Democracy Now!," we were looking at the connection between terrorism and Sept. 11, 1973. It was on that day that the democratically elected government of Chilean President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a violent coup, and the forces of Pinochet rose to power. The coup was supported by the U.S. government. Henry Kissinger, national security adviser and U.S. secretary of state, summed up the policy this way:
"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves."
As Pinochet seized power, first among the dead was the president himself, Allende. Then there were the thousands rounded up. Among them was Victor Jara, the legendary Chilean folk singer. Jara was beaten, tortured, then executed. His body was dumped on a Santiago street and found by his wife in the morgue.
Charles Horman was a U.S. journalist working in Chile. He, too, disappeared in those days following the coup. His body was found buried in a cement wall. His story was immortalized in the Academy Award-winning Constantin Costa-Gavras film "Missing." His widow, Joyce Horman, sued not only Pinochet for the death of her husband but also Kissinger and others at the U.S. State Department.
Pinochet's reign of terrorism extended beyond Chile's borders. On Sept. 21, 1976, the former foreign minister of Chile, Orlando Letelier, and his American colleague, Ronni Moffit, died in a car bombing, not in Chile, but on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C.
Then there was Chile's current president, Michelle Bachelet. Her father was a general under Allende and opposed the coup. He was arrested and died of a heart attack in prison. She and her mother were detained and tortured at the notorious Villa Grimaldi, a secret torture site in Santiago. Bachelet and her mother survived and went into exile. Her return to Chile and eventual election as president on the Socialist ticket has brought Chilean politics and history full circle. In October 2006, she returned to Villa Grimaldi. In November, Pinochet was placed under house arrest and charged with the kidnap and murder of prisoners there.
This was not the first time Pinochet was arrested. In 1998, while on a medical visit in London, he was put under house arrest after Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon issued a warrant for his arrest for the torture and murder of Spanish nationals. After 18 months, Britain finally allowed Pinochet to return to Chile for health reasons, avoiding extradition to Spain.
Pinochet's death allows him to escape conviction. Kissinger, whose support for the Pinochet regime is increasingly well documented, is still alive and still of interest to those seeking justice. Kissinger has been sought for questioning by Judge Garzon and by French Judge Roger Le Loire, both investigating the death and disappearance of their citizens in Chile. While Kissinger is frequently questioned by the media in this country, he is almost never asked about his own record. Instead, he is treated like royalty.
Questions remain about the brutal regime of Pinochet. Kissinger likely holds many answers. If we are to have a uniform standard of justice, then answers need to be demanded of the genuine terrorism experts such as Henry Kissinger.

In an English mosque

1906

some British Muslim history

yet another way to waste your precious time...

the amazing psychic salmon

Poem: The Jumblies

THEY went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, `You'll all be drowned!'
They called aloud, `Our Sieve ain't big,
But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig!
In a Sieve we'll go to sea!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they sailed so fast,
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a riband by way of a sail,
To a small tobacco-pipe mast;
And every one said, who saw them go,
`O won't they be soon upset, you know!
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,
And happen what may, it's extremely wrong
In a Sieve to sail so fast!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.
The water it soon came in, it did,
The water it soon came in;
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat,
And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,
And each of them said, `How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
While round in our Sieve we spin!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

And all night long they sailed away;
And when the sun went down,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
In the shade of the mountains brown.
`O Timballo! How happy we are,
When we live in a Sieve and a crockery-jar,
And all night long in the moonlight pale,
We sail away with a pea-green sail,
In the shade of the mountains brown!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
And no end of Stilton Cheese.
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

And in twenty years they all came back,
In twenty years or more,
And every one said, `How tall they've grown!
For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And every one said, `If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Edward Lear

MTAS...

... is back up.

wicked.

thoughtful quote of the day:

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." —George Santayana

MTAS...

... seems to be down.

Emily Rigby, the Chair of BMA MedicalStudents Committee:

"I just phoned Derek Gallen (head of COPMED) to make him aware that this has happened.He hadnot been informed of it previously but is going to get on to theMTAS teamto make sure that it is rectified asap. He emphasised that they have done everything to ensure that this wasn't going to happen(didn't they say thatabout the Titanic?!), but hopefully all those backupswill ensure that this will be easily dealt with. No applicants should be disadvantaged by this and it will be sorted out. I will fill you in as and when I hear."

hopefully this will get sorted soon (considering deadline is noon tuesday).

(MTAS is the online application process for final year medical students and their first jobs. i hate computers)

mutts - eating healthy

want to get an overview on the classics, but don't have time to read the books, or even watch the films?

try book-a-minute. for sooth, it does what it says on the tin.

my personal favourite summary... animal farm

some editorial cartoons and other stuff

defining a nation

defining a real Canadian

boy born with fetus in his stomach

possible link between benzocaine and Methemoglobinemia

medical student attire...

dress for the job people, dress for the job.

the slave trade in Britain

abolished in 1807, and most ppl don't about it. neither did i until today.

inside your head

kiddie conversations

distorted beauty

click play film, and ponder... it's all unnatural
and some little girls opinions on their own looks

Training in NHS

some problems... 'University courses hit by NHS cuts in training programme'

SABRA AND SHATILA

Robert Fisk

BBC, Panoroma, Fergal Keane

Chris Tolworthy

funkiness

why can't i do this?

angry chicken
scary cat
elegance=
wow=
another=
more leaps=
and complex jumps=

wierd=


parkour is cool.

mini-documentary with David Belle
interview with David Belle

the freaky facebook phenomenon...

this is an interview with one of the co-founders Chris Hughes. for those who don't know: a bunch of harvard students set up this personal info database type thing - which you can log on to via your official email address from workplace/uni/high school. you then belong to your real life community, but online. you can then read up on the profiles of the ppl who go to your uni/workplace. these are the ppl you may never have spoken to, but just may randomly see in passing. i guess they hope you would then translate your online info finding to eventually talking to each other in 'real life'.

you will not find me on facebook, or bebo, or WAYN. i don't like these things.
i find it freaky when someone has been asking around about me, then talking to me as if they know me. i would find it weirder for people who i may not even notice, but would notice me, pick up a lot of personal info, and what i do, etc from these sites. and just know it. may not approach me or anything. but just know.
call me old fashioned, but i really don't think voyeurism is the way forward for human interaction. you want to know a person? say hello. then take it from there.

the sites seem to apply to several types of ppl:
1 - super shy folk, or people who aren't very good at dealing with people.
2 - stalker type folk
3 - exhibitionist type folk
4 - normal folk who have not thought through the consequences.

i shall leave you with a sesame street sketch, which for some reason is etched into my memory. bert is on a plane, and is sitting next to a guy, who has the same jumper, trousers and socks as him. you hear the thoughts of both characters as they wonder whether they should speak to each other. they then both ask the stewardess for a bowl of hot water for their instant porridge. they eventually get talking only to discover they have many things in common.
as with many sesame street sketch's, the whole plane ends up uniting together in song to the chorus:
'stick out your hand and say hello
you might meet someone that you would really love to know
so stick out your hand and say
isn't it grand today
stick out your hand
and say hello!'

so how would two ppl who 'know' each other from facebook, but never spoken to each other before, begin their conversation? would there be no hint of embarrassment at the voyeurism they had partaken in?

oh sesame street, where are you now? hrmphh.

remember ppl - just say 'hello'. and if you already know them from 'real life', just email them.

a jovial look at the wearing of a stethoscope

(continuing with the stethoscope theme)

the article

and the responses

(and what you can do if a patient is finding it hard to hear you)

Poem: The Stethoscope Song

(A lesson that whatever a stethoscope may find, is only as useful as that thing between the ears that interprets it)

The Stethoscope Song
A PROFESSSIONAL BALLAD
By Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1848)

THERE was a young man in Boston town,
He bought him a stethoscope nice and new,
All mounted and finished and polished down,
With an ivory cap and a stopper too.

It happened a spider within did crawl,
And spun him a web of ample size,
Wherein there chanced one day to fall
A couple of very imprudent flies.

The first was a bottle-fly, big and blue,
The second was smaller, and thin and long;
So there was a concert between the two,
Like an octave flute and a tavern gong.

Now being from Paris but recently,
This fine young man would show his skill;
And so they gave him, his hand to try,
A hospital patient extremely ill.

Some said that his liver was short of bile,
And some that his heart was over size,
While some kept arguing, all the while,
He was crammed with tubercles up to his eyes.

This fine young man then up stepped he,
And all the doctors made a pause;
Said he, The man must die, you see,
By the fifty-seventh of Louis's laws.

But since the case is a desperate one,
To explore his chest it may be well;
For if he should die and it were not done,
You know the autopsy would not tell.

Then out his stethoscope he took,
And on it placed his curious ear;
Mon Dieu! said he, with a knowing look,
Why, here is a sound that's mighty queer!

The bourdonnement is very clear,--
Amphoric buzzing, as I 'm alive!
Five doctors took their turn to hear;
Amphoric buzzing, said all the five.

There's empyema beyond a doubt
We'll plunge a trocar in his side.
The diagnosis was made out,--
They tapped the patient; so he died.

Now such as hate new-fashioned toys
Began to look extremely glum;
They said that rattles were made for boys,
And vowed that his buzzing was all a hum.

There was an old lady had long been sick,
And what was the matter none did know:
Her pulse was slow, though her tongue was quick;
To her this knowing youth must go.

So there the nice old lady sat,
With phials and boxes all in a row;
She asked the young doctor what he was at,
To thump her and tumble her ruffles so.

Now, when the stethoscope came out,
The flies began to buzz and whiz:
Oh, ho! the matter is clear, no doubt;
An aneurism there plainly is.

The bruit de râpe and the bruit de scie
And the bruit de diable are all combined;
How happy Bouillaud would be,
If he a case like this could find!

Now, when the neighboring doctors found
A case so rare had been descried,
They every day her ribs did pound
In squads of twenty; so she died.

Then six young damsels, slight and frail,
Received this kind young doctor's cares;
They all were getting slim and pale,
short of breath on mounting stairs.

They all made rhymes with "sighs" and "skies,"
And loathed their puddings and buttered rolls,
And dieted, much to their friends' surprise,
On pickles and pencils and chalk and coals.

So fast their little hearts did bound,
The frightened insects buzzed the more;
So over all their chests he found
The râle sifflant and the râle sonore.

He shook his head. There's grave disease,--
I greatly fear you all must die;
A slight post-mortem, if you please,
Surviving friends would gratify.

The six young damsels wept aloud,
Which so prevailed on six young men
That each his honest love avowed,
Whereat they all got well again.

This poor young man was all aghast;
The price of stethoscopes came down;
And so he was reduced at last
To practise in a country town.

The doctors being very sore,
A stethoscope they did devise
That had a rammer to clear the bore
With a knob at the end to kill the flies.

Now use your ears, all you that can,
But don't forget to mind your eyes,
Or you may be cheated, like this young man,
By a couple of silly, abnormal flies.


http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/owh/steth.html

war and peace...

as demonstrated by calvin and hobbes

recognition lies in experience

'Updating the Stethoscope with an iPod'

problem based vs traditional teaching structures in medicine

'... analyzing the difference between diagnoses made by McGill and McMaster medical students, she discovered that while problem-based learning helped students to relate science to their clinical activities, it hindered their ability to generalize. "It was too context-based," she explains. Diagnoses were "hypothesis-driven": students were learning, but not asserting their knowledge. In contrast, McGill students could make confident "data-driven" diagnoses in the manner of expert physicians.

"What this means," explains Patel, "is that the problem-based strategy provides a good environment for learning, but doctors also need the professional confidence to come to closure. In medical schools we're certifying competence; patients want diagnoses." '

Poem: What The Doctor Said

He said it doesn't look good
he said it looks bad in fact real bad
he said I counted thirty-two of them on one lung before
I quit counting themI said I'm glad I wouldn't want to know
about any more being there than that
he said are you a religious man do you kneel down
in forest groves and let yourself ask for help
when you come to a waterfall
mist blowing against your face and arms
do you stop and ask for understanding at those moments
I said not yet but I intend to start today
he said I'm real sorry he said
I wish I had some other kind of news to give you
I said Amen and he said something else
I didn't catch and not knowing what else to do
and not wanting him to have to repeat it
and me to have to fully digest it
I just looked at him
for a minute and he looked back it was then
I jumped up and shook hands with this man who'd just given me
something no one else on earth had ever given me
I may have even thanked him habit being so strong

Raymond Carver

a satrical exam

written in the 1970's, so not the most politically correct thing i've come across (with stuff i quite frankly disapprove of), but it is an interesting take on exams.
science/knowledge related sayings.
some of my favourites:

Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before. Steven Wright

In his youth, the born poet often wavers between science and literature; and his choice is determined by the chance attraction of one or other of the alternative modes of expressing his imaginative joy in nature. It is essential to keep in mind that science and poetry have the same root in human nature.
Alfred North Whitehead

Man who says it cannot be done, should not interrupt man doing it. Chinese proverb
Chinese proverb - outside noisy, inside empty

The Parable of the Pebbles

Amoeba

Steve Irwin

can't believe he's gone.

cool

there were penguins flying in the air...

shocking news.

"Pluto is dead," Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology bluntly told reporters on a teleconference.

well there goes my way of remembering the planets (learned at the tender age of 10): many volcanoes erupt mouldy jam sandwiches, usually niffy poo.

oh dear.

i googled 'tired medical student'..

and i got these reassuring words.

"Even the penguins had left," he said.

A Job With Travel but No Vacation

Warren St. John, New York Times

IN March, Thomas Kohnstamm, a 30-year-old Seattle native on assignment in Caracas, Venezuela, for Lonely Planet travel guides, walked out of a bar in a neighborhood called Sabana Grande and quickly found himself in trouble. A group of young men emerged from darkened doorways and set upon him. He was pistol-whipped and knocked to the ground, and the bandits began rifling through his pockets. Angered to learn that Mr. Kohnstamm had the equivalent of just $8, the thieves demanded his belt, his shoes, and eventually his pants.
It was at that point, Mr. Kohnstamm recalled in a telephone conversation last week from the Netherlands, that the police arrived. Armed with submachine guns, they ordered the bandits against a wall and retrieved Mr. Kohnstamm's possessions — including his ATM card. They then explained that for purposes of their investigation, they would need to know Mr. Kohnstamm's PIN. In the end, Mr. Kohnstamm said, the police shook him down for just $25, but in the process, he gained a priceless bit of wisdom about the Sabana Grande neighborhood of Caracas, which he dutifully reported in the "Dangers & Annoyances" section of his Lonely Planet guide: "Caracas has some well-known issues with petty crime, robbery and armed assaults. These problems are not just hype and should be taken very seriously."
In the interview, Mr. Kohnstamm, a travel writer, described the experience as one of "the darker realities of the job." He added that he stared death in the face on an assignment when the brakes of his car failed on an icy road in the Andes. Other realities of the job, he said, were "being broke, spending massive amounts of time staying in fleabag hotels, and there are aspects of the writing that are just data entry."
It's summer now, and countless travelers are fumbling their way around the globe, heads buried in guides published by Let's Go, Lonely Planet, Rough Guides and Frommer's among others. Probably few stop to consider what goes into producing travel guides or even who wrote them. And as it turns out, many of the intrepid young writers scouring the planet doing research for next year's crop of guidebooks never stopped to consider what those jobs would entail, other than the romantic — and often overstated — prospect of being paid to travel.
While the phrase "travel writing" may invoke thoughts of steamer trunks, trains, Isak Dinesen and Graham Greene, or at the very least, well-financed junkets to spas in Rangoon for some glossy magazine or other, writing budget travel guides is most decidedly yeoman's work. Most who do it quickly learn the one hard and fast rule of the trade: travel-guide writing is no vacation.
"Many underestimate exactly how much work goes into making a guide book," said Jay Cooke, an editor for Lonely Planet. "Some potential authors think it would be fun to travel and get paid for it. But they're expected to write tens of thousands of words. It's a big, big job, and it goes far beyond journal keeping on a beach somewhere."
Indeed a day in the life of a guide writer can be wearying. Amelia Atlas, a recent Harvard graduate who is now in Berlin researching a guide to that city for Let's Go, said that last Wednesday she set out early to case a new neighborhood, Prenzlauer Berg, for her Berlin guide. She visited three hostels and three restaurants before collecting the shopping and eating options around a particular square. She visited a section of the Berlin Wall that still stands, made notes about the historical displays there, and set about walking the neighborhood block by block to see what she might find. After a quick dinner, Ms. Atlas went to her apartment to write about the day's findings. Then she planned to go out to sample the night life. "Manic is a good word," she said.
That's when things go well. A colleague of Ms. Atlas's at Let's Go, Margaux McDonald, wasn't having such luck. After a bumpy two-day journey from Ko Chang, Thailand, to Siem Reap, Cambodia, in late June, Ms. McDonald, a 27-year-old graduate student in theology and public policy at Harvard, opened her backpack to find her laptop was broken. She has since been in what Let's Go editors call "dead tree mode," taking down information about guest houses, restaurants, national parks and bus schedules, in an old-fashioned spiral notebook. Ms. McDonald gave her current location as "somewhere between the middle of nowhere and my own private hell."
Let's Go editors were planning to send a new computer to a post office in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, on the hope that Ms. McDonald could pick it up. If she could find the place.
"Have I gotten lost?" Ms. McDonald asked rhetorically. "I'm virtually always lost."
For Saritha Komatireddy, a Let's Go writer currently in Vietnam, the biggest challenge was getting used to the local transportation schedules.
"It's not uncommon for a train to be four hours late," she said. "You can't let it ruin your mood."
Michael Spring, the publisher of Frommer's Travel Guides, said that the tight margins of guide publishing require companies like his to employ younger, less seasoned writers. Experienced editors, he said, vet the work to ensure accuracy.
"There's no question that a younger writer needs more hand-holding, but the editors are here to help them," he said.
It's difficult to generalize about the pay scale for guide writing because it varies so widely, though most guide writers seem to agree that the wages are not enough. A writer working from scratch on a comprehensive guide to a country may get an advance of $100,000, from which a year or more of travel expenses must be deducted. Some companies offer guide writers royalties, like conventional publishers. But most guide writing is decidedly less lucrative, and expenses are almost never covered separately. MTV and Frommer's, for example, are collaborating to publish a budget travel series for Europe for which they are paying writers $1,500 for roughly 150 pages of work.
"None of them are in it for the money," Mr. Spring said. "It's a happy alternative to a 9-to-5 world."
Robert Reid, a professional guide writer who has written for Lonely Planet, said that making a living from guide writing was tough in part because of the number of young people who were willing to do the job for next to nothing.
"Just like a Stones fanatic would probably lug around Keith Richards's amp for free, with guidebooks people are a little bit in awe of the idea," Mr. Reid said.
Leif Pettersen, a struggling 36-year-old guide writer from Minneapolis who details the woes of his profession on his blog, http://www.killingbatteries.com/, said he earned no income for the first year of his career. The temptation to take freebies from publicity-seeking hotel and restaurant owners is strong, Mr. Pettersen said, adding that he resists the urge while on assignment for Lonely Planet, which forbids freebies. Let's Go writers face similar restrictions, and are urged not to identify themselves as guide writers, so as not to invite favorable treatment. Mr. Spring said Frommer's writers are allowed to accept free hotel rooms, but not free meals or tickets.
Mr. Pettersen's advice to aspiring guide writers was: "Start out with a giant wad of savings."
Another factor in determining how enjoyable — or miserable — a guide writing assignment will be is timing. To conform with the academic calendar, Let's Go, which is owned and run by Harvard Student Services and employs Harvard students exclusively, sends its researchers into the field in the summer. There are currently 80 Let's Go researchers on assignment around the globe.
But other guide publishers, like Lonely Planet and Frommer's, are on year-round publishing cycles, and consequently their researchers may find themselves traveling at less than ideal times in certain regions.
To meet his deadline for a Lonely Planet guide to Romania and Moldova, Mr. Pettersen had to do his research during winter, when roads were icy, the sun set at 4 p.m., and fun-loving tourists were nowhere to be seen. Mr. Pettersen said his excursion reached a low point on a darkened, pothole-filled highway between Drobeta-Turnu Severin and Timisoara in Romania. Mr. Pettersen's car, a 16-year-old notoriously delicate Romanian car called a Dacia, had faulty headlights. Unable to see or avoid potholes, he battered his vehicle until the muffler fell off and he lost a critical bolt that fastened the hood shut.
Mr. Pettersen said he stopped for the night at a rural boarding house, and found the place full of drunken industrial workers who seemed none too pleased to see him.
"I just sat in my bed and stared at the ceiling," he said. "I was too terrified to take off my clothes."
Asked to describe the overall experience of traveling in Romania and Moldova during winter, Mr. Pettersen thought for a moment, searching, it seemed, for the precise word.
"Terrible," he said. "There's been a lot quiet weeping into my keyboard."
Mr. Kohnstamm, the writer who was pistol-whipped in Caracas, said he'd once had an assignment to do research in Patagonia during winter.
"Even the penguins had left," he said.
"Why do it? For the lifestyle," added Mr. Kohnstamm, who teaches a seminar on guide writing titled "Travel Writing: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" for MediaBistro, a company that caters to freelance writers. "I didn't make a lot of money last year, but I got my advanced diving certification. I took a course in paragliding. I went out partying in Bogotá and met a lot of cool people. It can be kind of addictive."
Publishers of travel guides say they go out of their way to give new writers a reality check. Laura Martin, the editor in chief of Let's Go, said that researchers are given 20 hours of training in subjects like self-defense and driving and that they're asked to do a dry run in Boston before setting out for more exotic destinations. Lonely Planet writers are schooled in cartography, and encouraged to attend annual seminars on guide writing. And even editors of the on-the-cheap Frommer's and MTV guides said they hired the most well-traveled 20-somethings they could find.
"It's not just an open-eyed American descending on a new destination," said Mr. Spring, the Frommer's publisher.
He had his own advice for new guide writers. First, he said, don't complain. "Nobody is going to feel sorry for you getting six weeks of free travel in Europe," he said.
And second: "Make a list of the places you'd like to come back to when you're not travel writing."

an interesting quote...

'It is often supposed that Ballard's exposure to the atrocities of war at an impressionable age explains the apocalyptic and violent nature of much of his fiction. [4] [5] [6] Martin Amis wrote that Empire of the Sun "gives shape to what shaped him." [7] However, Ballard's own account of the experience is more nuanced: "I don't think you can go through the experience of war without one's perceptions of the world being forever changed. The reassuring stage set that everyday reality in the suburban west presents to us is torn down; you see the ragged scaffolding, and then you see the truth beyond that, and it can be a frightening experience." (Livingstone 1996) But also: "I have—I won't say happy—not unpleasant memories of the camp. [...] I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on—but at the same we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!" (Pringle 1982)'
wikipedia

JG Ballard on the memories that formed 'empire of the sun'

I must have watched that film for the first time when I was about 10 or something. Watching it again now was wierd. It has that deeply uncomfortable feel to it. That fear of losing your parents as a child, when the world is a large, impersonal and scary place. Of dealing with stuff noone should have to deal with. How there are different levels of dealing with people, that the back-drop and dominating giant of war, doesn't stop that human interaction. That senseless violence is inflicted, and people don't think about who they're doing it to - depersonalising and dehumanising the victim makes the violence seem less unacceptable.
I babble, but the deeply uncomfortable thing, is that this story is played out, time, and time again, but with different faces, and in different places. People have not learnt.

closing your eyes doesn't make a problem go away

photography documenting the darker side of humanity.

James Nachtwey

Tom Stoddart: iWitness

Tom Stoddart: eMotion

a brief discussion on a forum on the showing of such photographs

Things are always so much more grand and wonderful when your friends are there to share them. ~Winnie-the-Pooh

A selection of Pooh sayings:

Before beginning a Hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it. ~Winnie-the-Pooh

Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known. ~Winnie-the-Pooh

Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there one day. ~Winnie-the-Pooh

When you are a bear of very little brain, and you think of things, you sometimes find that a thing which seemed very thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it! ~Winnie-the-Pooh

Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. ~Christopher Robin (smart kid, that one (not Pooh, i know)).

improving the beautiful game

While I have rather enjoyed watching the world cup, I can't help but think football needs to evolve.
I suggest the addition of an extra ball.
2 balls could make the game a lot more exciting... or confusing. No matter, would be great to watch!

Zidane

one of the greatest, if not the greatest, player to be seen these days.

Champion's creed drives Zidane along the final straight
Few players bow out at a World Cup final, but then even fewer have Zinedine Zidane's combination of talent and determination, writes Glenn Moore
Published: 08 July 2006
He is recognised as the finest player France has produced, eclipsing Michel Platini, and the world's best since Diego Maradona. But why? What makes Zinedine Zidane so special?
The answer, say the men who should know, is a rare blend of talent and attitude.
"He is is a great player for a variety of reasons, not least pride," said Johnny Giles, himself a high-class midfielder for Leeds United and the Republic of Ireland.
Giles added: "At 34, when you have won so much and earned so much, it is unusual to see a man putting himself on the line as Zidane is. Any old player will tell you that at 34 you still can produce a performance or two, but it is a hell of a lot harder than when you're 24.
"The most remarkable thing about him is that for such a tall man he has quite beautiful balance. This allows him to do the most amazing things in tight situations, always the mark of a great one.
"You can throw in most of the attributes of all-time greats: brilliant vision and tremendous technique, in both passing the ball, and going by defenders. But it is the pride that impresses me most. He wants to win, he wants to go out the right way."
That much has been clear from his demeanour and focus this tournament. Zidane himself has said: "You never get tired of winning. It doesn't matter whether I'm playing football, tennis, or any other competition."
He added: "You have to be naturally competitive at the top. The best players are self-motivated. You cannot teach people this. Titles are not everything. There's also the quality of the game, the play, the joy we can create. Yet a bad 1-0 is better than a nice 2-2."
Craig Brown, the former Scotland manager, noted: "He always seems to have time because his first touch is great. He uses his body brilliantly to screen the ball, he turns well, and he's never caught in a situation when he doesn't know what to do."
That first touch was honed in the Place Tartane amid the neglected public housing estates of Marseilles. Zidane and his friends would do tricks with the ball day after day, with Zidane the most diligent. But when he first went to Cannes - after the scout Jean Varraud told the club: "I have found a boy with hands in place of feet" - he ducked when a ball was thrown at his head. In Place Tartane there had been no heading. He later learned well enough to head two goals in a World Cup final.
Zidane moved on to Bordeaux where Gerry Francis tried to buy him for Tottenham, only to find a deal had already been struck with Juventus. Francis, who captained England from midfield, said yesterday: "Zidane always seems to have plenty of time. When the ball comes he knows exactly where everyone is, so he can play it first time, or let it run knowing no one is behind him.
"He's a bit of a stroller and he reminds me a little of Trevor Brooking. He's not the greatest tackler but he has two great feet, great vision, and in his younger days he was very mobile. He can create goals or score them, he can strike or curl the ball. If you give him the freedom of the pitch, like Brazil did, he can murder you. I'd expect Italy to man-mark him."
That, however, may create room for others, like Thierry Henry. "The whole squad benefits just from him being there," Henry said. "I see the game differently and play in another way when Zidane's in the side. The way he changes the pace of the game at will means that the rest of us are constantly finding ourselves with more space. He makes everything easier."
That said, Henry's matchwinner against Brazil was, incredibly, his first goal from a Zidane assist. This extraordinary fact has been examined for sinister implications, especially as Henry complained, in the wake of France's Euro 2004 débâcle, about the slowness of service from the midfield. One French tabloid asked then if the nation's twin stars disliked each other.
The truth is more prosaic. Henry's ego may be piqued by Zidane's status, the pair may disagree, on occasion, about the tactics France employ, but there is no bitter enmity. Henry is not a close friend, but few are. The French captain is a quiet man who wields huge influence but prefers to be on the fringe of dressing-room events. With Les Bleus he has usually had one or two close confidants, initially his old Bordeaux team-mate, Christophe Dugarry, now Willy Sagnol.
"He has an aura about him, you open the door and someone comes in, other players, you open the door and no one comes in," Brown said. "He can command without shouting the odds. The other players respect Henry's ability but they are not in awe of him the way they are with Zidane. It is great to have someone like that in a club, or team."
The final word comes from one of the new generation in the team. "Zizou is the man who shows us all how to play," said Florent Malouda. "He is our decisive player and our leader. When he plays well, the team plays well."
'He is not artificial like Beckham or Ronaldo'
By Glenn Moore
He adorns the wall, the menu and the staff. He even has a perch at the counter. The café Marcanne, a small corner of Berlin which has remained resolutely Gallic during this World Cup, illustrates just what Zinedine Zidane means to the French.
The house speciality is a Zizou salad. He is the main figure in many of the pictures ripped from the pages of L'Equipe and Libération and pasted on the walls. There is even a lifesize cardboard cut-out of him astride a scooter - named Zizou.
"Zidane," said the café's owner, Anne-Hadia Choukair, sporting a T-shirt with the great playmaker's visage on it, "is the man who began my love of football in 1998. I like the fact he is international. He is from an Algerian background - my own father was from Lebanon - but he is also French. Germans tend to know Germans, the French have friends from many backgrounds."
"He is a very important man but he lives a normal life, he is not artificial like Beckham or Ronaldo. Football needs people like Beckham, but humans need people like Zidane. Everyone would like to be his wife or brother."
This morning Anne and Marc Ortola, her husband, will host a party in which Clément d'Antibes, the fan who smuggles cockerels into football and rugby rounds, will be the star guest. After Zizou's cut-out, of course.
He is recognised as the finest player France has produced, eclipsing Michel Platini, and the world's best since Diego Maradona. But why? What makes Zinedine Zidane so special?
The answer, say the men who should know, is a rare blend of talent and attitude.
"He is is a great player for a variety of reasons, not least pride," said Johnny Giles, himself a high-class midfielder for Leeds United and the Republic of Ireland.
Giles added: "At 34, when you have won so much and earned so much, it is unusual to see a man putting himself on the line as Zidane is. Any old player will tell you that at 34 you still can produce a performance or two, but it is a hell of a lot harder than when you're 24.
"The most remarkable thing about him is that for such a tall man he has quite beautiful balance. This allows him to do the most amazing things in tight situations, always the mark of a great one.
"You can throw in most of the attributes of all-time greats: brilliant vision and tremendous technique, in both passing the ball, and going by defenders. But it is the pride that impresses me most. He wants to win, he wants to go out the right way."
That much has been clear from his demeanour and focus this tournament. Zidane himself has said: "You never get tired of winning. It doesn't matter whether I'm playing football, tennis, or any other competition."
He added: "You have to be naturally competitive at the top. The best players are self-motivated. You cannot teach people this. Titles are not everything. There's also the quality of the game, the play, the joy we can create. Yet a bad 1-0 is better than a nice 2-2."
Craig Brown, the former Scotland manager, noted: "He always seems to have time because his first touch is great. He uses his body brilliantly to screen the ball, he turns well, and he's never caught in a situation when he doesn't know what to do."
That first touch was honed in the Place Tartane amid the neglected public housing estates of Marseilles. Zidane and his friends would do tricks with the ball day after day, with Zidane the most diligent. But when he first went to Cannes - after the scout Jean Varraud told the club: "I have found a boy with hands in place of feet" - he ducked when a ball was thrown at his head. In Place Tartane there had been no heading. He later learned well enough to head two goals in a World Cup final.
Zidane moved on to Bordeaux where Gerry Francis tried to buy him for Tottenham, only to find a deal had already been struck with Juventus. Francis, who captained England from midfield, said yesterday: "Zidane always seems to have plenty of time. When the ball comes he knows exactly where everyone is, so he can play it first time, or let it run knowing no one is behind him.
"He's a bit of a stroller and he reminds me a little of Trevor Brooking. He's not the greatest tackler but he has two great feet, great vision, and in his younger days he was very mobile. He can create goals or score them, he can strike or curl the ball. If you give him the freedom of the pitch, like Brazil did, he can murder you. I'd expect Italy to man-mark him."
That, however, may create room for others, like Thierry Henry. "The whole squad benefits just from him being there," Henry said. "I see the game differently and play in another way when Zidane's in the side. The way he changes the pace of the game at will means that the rest of us are constantly finding ourselves with more space. He makes everything easier."
That said, Henry's matchwinner against Brazil was, incredibly, his first goal from a Zidane assist. This extraordinary fact has been examined for sinister implications, especially as Henry complained, in the wake of France's Euro 2004 débâcle, about the slowness of service from the midfield. One French tabloid asked then if the nation's twin stars disliked each other.
The truth is more prosaic. Henry's ego may be piqued by Zidane's status, the pair may disagree, on occasion, about the tactics France employ, but there is no bitter enmity. Henry is not a close friend, but few are. The French captain is a quiet man who wields huge influence but prefers to be on the fringe of dressing-room events. With Les Bleus he has usually had one or two close confidants, initially his old Bordeaux team-mate, Christophe Dugarry, now Willy Sagnol.
"He has an aura about him, you open the door and someone comes in, other players, you open the door and no one comes in," Brown said. "He can command without shouting the odds. The other players respect Henry's ability but they are not in awe of him the way they are with Zidane. It is great to have someone like that in a club, or team."
The final word comes from one of the new generation in the team. "Zizou is the man who shows us all how to play," said Florent Malouda. "He is our decisive player and our leader. When he plays well, the team plays well."
'He is not artificial like Beckham or Ronaldo'
By Glenn Moore
He adorns the wall, the menu and the staff. He even has a perch at the counter. The café Marcanne, a small corner of Berlin which has remained resolutely Gallic during this World Cup, illustrates just what Zinedine Zidane means to the French.
The house speciality is a Zizou salad. He is the main figure in many of the pictures ripped from the pages of L'Equipe and Libération and pasted on the walls. There is even a lifesize cardboard cut-out of him astride a scooter - named Zizou.
"Zidane," said the café's owner, Anne-Hadia Choukair, sporting a T-shirt with the great playmaker's visage on it, "is the man who began my love of football in 1998. I like the fact he is international. He is from an Algerian background - my own father was from Lebanon - but he is also French. Germans tend to know Germans, the French have friends from many backgrounds."
"He is a very important man but he lives a normal life, he is not artificial like Beckham or Ronaldo. Football needs people like Beckham, but humans need people like Zidane. Everyone would like to be his wife or brother."
This morning Anne and Marc Ortola, her husband, will host a party in which Clément d'Antibes, the fan who smuggles cockerels into football and rugby rounds, will be the star guest. After Zizou's cut-out, of course.

independant

all about the sunrise

so bright, so pretty.
in kenya
another in the Masai Mara
by the sea
sun kissed clouds
dawn of a new millenium
misty purpleyness
a view while fishing
orange skies in New Zealand
sitting by a harbour
a boat in California
dramatic, almost unnerving
those skies
i could just sit back and watch them
simple, but pleasing
mmmm
wow
early morning stillness
feels cooler
nice beach
ooh, lovely
a beautiful expanse, you can almost hear the waves.
just above the clouds
somewhere in Mexico
somewhere in Antarctica
somewhere in Namibia
orange surroundings
more orangeyness
orange skies over New York
makes you want to surf...
over the tops of trees

7/7/05 - london remembers

a year on...

what to do when you are totally freaking out over OSCE's*

... try not to panic.

ha.

*Objective Structured Clinical Examation. A terrifying exam of over 20, 7 minute stations, one straight after the other, covering all sorts of skills.