Somewhere in the Golan heights...

a Bride can never go back home, courtesy of politics.

Poem: I love me mudder

I love me mudder and me mudder love me
we come so far from over de sea
we heard dat de streets were paved with gold
sometime it hot sometime it cold,

I love me mudder and me mudder love me
we try fe live in harmony
you might know her as Valerie
but to me she is my mummy.

She shouts at me daddy so loud some time
she stays fit and she don’t drink wine
she always do the best she can
she work damn hard down ina England,

She’s always singing some kind of song
she have big muscles an she very very strong.
she likes pussy cats an she love cashew nuts
she don’t bother with no ifs and buts.

I love me mudder and me mudder love me
we come so far from over de sea
we heard dat de streets were paved with gold
sometime it hot sometime it cold,

I love her and she love me too
and dis is a love I know is true
my family unit extends to you
loving each other is the ting to do

Benjamin Zephaniah

World health check up

Poem: the caged bird in springtime

What can it be,
This curious anxiety?
It is as if I wanted
To fly away from here.
But how absurd!
I have never flown in my life,
And I do not know
What flying means, though I have heard,
Of course, something about it.
Why do I peck the wires of this little cage?
It is the only nest I have ever known.
But I want to build my own,
High in the secret branches of the air.
I cannot quite remember how
It is done, but I know
That what I want to do
Cannot be done here.
I have all I need –
Seed and water, air and light.
Why then, do I weep with anguish,
And beat my head and my wings
Against those sharp wires, while the children
Smile at each other, saying: “Hark how he sings”?

James Kirkup

Poem: War

Cigarette smoking is dangerous
not a good habit at all
climbing unknown walls is hazardous
because the wall might fall.
If you walk down the street be the walk quite brisk
you and I know you’re taking a risk.
And if de same time you feel your belly start to swell
chances are you eat too well.
One could dream about a life of peace
one can try to bring peace to the beast.
Everybody seeking some utopia
what we need is the will to come over.
War is a danger to your health
don’t care if you have much wealth.
War is a dangerous ting,
even if you’re not partaking.

Workin’ on a building site is cruel
you take a risk if you ride on a mule
if you walk on the left and you see one fight
the best ting to do is walk on the right.
Racin’ driving is a serious business.
Be careful of your liver if you drink too much Guinness
and if you live on LSD
blame nobody if your mind don’t free
all we hear is war, more war
I and I know that can’t get far
just because dem live in the West
dat don’t mean dey is de best.

War is badder dan cigarettes
war is worse dan racin’ driving
remember dis and don’t forget
World War Three means no surviving.
Unity is a strong foundation
love is better than fear
what we need now is good relations
as politicians don’t care.
So I talk to the young and old
come take a peaceful stroll
don’t care if you have much wealth
war is a danger to your health.
War is a dangerous ting,
even if you’re not partaking
just smoking
not partaking.

Benjamin Zephaniah

International journal of epidemiology

Published in The Dread Affair. Arrow Books 1985.

Poem: You wake up in the morning

You wake up in the morning, and lo! Your purse is magically filled
with twenty-four hours of the magic tissue of the universe of your life.
No one can take it from you. No one receives either more or less
than you receive. Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be withheld from you.
Moreover, you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt.
You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste
tomorrow; it is kept for you.

Arnold Bennett

a charming new animation

shaun the sheep. Makes me want to be a kid again, just so that I can rush home from school to watch this gem.
But no. I'm grown up now. And come home late. Blah.

CBBC behind the scenes

MTAS and West Midlands deanery pulling out of the system

Picked up from howithappened.com - the formal statement:

"The ST3 Interview Panel for General Surgery in the West Midlands have unanimously come to the conclusion that the MTAS procedure for recruitment to ST3 in General Surgery, has not been implemented according to agreed guidelines.

We have therefore declined to continue with the interviews today.We have come to this conclusion after considerable debate. We feel that this is the right course of action, which has at its heart the best interests of surgical trainees, training and our patients.

A serious procedural flaw, which came to light this morning, has been the complete lack of a longlisting process prior to selecting candidates for interview. This alone is sufficient grounds for postponement or cancellation and makes the entire recruitment process open to criticism and challenge.

Our meeting at 8.00 am today was the first available reasonable opportunity for the panel members to meet, discuss the process and air their concerns and reservations. With the limited information available today on-site, the longlisting process could not be completed satisfactorily. In addition we feel that the recruitment process for ST3 in its current format is in contradiction to equal opportunities legislation and NHS best practice guidelines.

We have in addition, wider concerns about the current MTAS process as follows,

As far as we are aware, the shortlisting application form has not been validated or demonstrated to be suitable for appointments to ST3 in General surgery which in effect is a pre-consultant appointment.

The application form domains available to the shortlisters and its accompanying scoring system have not been shown to select candidates best suited to be surgeons. It fails to distinguish adequately between candidates, giving credibility to creative writing skills rather than hard evidence of competency.

The time-scale imposed nationally has ensured that the whole process has been rushed. The unrealistic deadlines and sheer number of applications caused the MTAS computer system to crash. Changes in process have been implemented in order to meet deadlines. The marking system for shortlisting has been inconsistent throughout the country with forms being marked by a varying combination of members of the medical profession and lay people. There has been a lack of cross validation between markers and different marking methods (horizontal and vertical) have been used in different deaneries. Therefore there has been no standardisation or quality control.

The staff in the West Midlands deanery have worked tirelessly without adequate resources in place to try to meet the deadlines set. This has meant working holidays and weekends repeatedly entering marks onto an unreliable MTAS Website. They have finally provided a shortlist of candidates for ST3 in General surgery on the Friday evening prior to the Monday morning interviews. In all, the deanery has received 11500 applications, well in excess of the projected 8000.

We owe it to our patients and the profession that we are able to select and appoint the best candidates to surgical training posts and felt strongly that this was impossible today.

We have agreed to return to help re-shortlist and interview once the entire process has been proved to be reliable, robust, reproducible and has been validated and agreed upon nationally.

Above all we have carefully considered the plight of the candidates outside today, waiting to be interviewed. We have stayed and spoken to all the candidates about our decision with honesty, openness and integrity. We have been at pains to assure them of our best intentions towards trainees and surgical training as a whole. We share their concerns and the concerns of the hundreds of other young doctors who haven’t been shortlisted for any job. We share their anxieties at a system, which is being described and unjust and unfair. We have been overwhelmed by their positive responses to our action and are humbled by their words of support. We have provided support for all the candidates with the offer of contact email and telephone numbers if they require any further assistance."

BNP stockpiling explosives

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/13022007/344/bnp-candidate-stockpiled-explosives.html

the joys of MTAS

There are alot of very unhappy doctors about at the moment, angry with an application process that doesn't look at academic/clinical ability to any significant degree - but concentrates on the ability to waffle one's way through a series of questions, with a limited number of words. On top of that, certain specialities have set job interviews in different regions of the country, at the same time, and refusing to shift them when interviewees inform them of the clash. 'If you're not committed enough to come to an interview, we don't want you'.
All very reassuring. hrmph.

I am not generally a reader of the telegraph, but here's their story.
a doctor dealing with the system.

the questions for the final year application form for first job (points in brackets). 150 words each. The questions themselves at first glance don't seem so bad. But attempting to answer them was a nightmare. There was also no mark sheet, so you didn't know what was wanted. And the total result was given - not a breakdown - so you can't figure out where you went right, or wrong. Slightly frustrating to say the least.

1 - Give an example of a non-academic achievement explaining both the significance to you and the relevance to foundation training. (6)

2 - List your academic achievements (4)

3 - Describe an example (not necessarily clinical) of a time when you had to deal with pressure OR overcome a setback/challenge. What did you do and what was the outcome? (6)

4 - Describe an example from your clinical experience where your behaviour enhanced the experience of the patient as the central focus of care. What did you do and what was the outcome? (6)

5 - Describe an example from your own experience (either clinical or non clinical) that has increased your understanding of the importance of team working. What was your role and contribution to the team? (6)

6 - Describe an example of how your organisation and planning skills have contributed to a significant personal achievement in the last five years. What did you learn from this which is relevant to foundation training?

6 - Describe an example of a situation where you had to demonstrate your professionalism and/or integrity. What did you do and what was the outcome?

Anyhoo, better get on with some work.

lunar eclipse

including a story of an excited 8 year old in London
Eastern Canada - with pic
another...
and one more

and I'm off to take some photographs...

The autumn windows scene

seen on many a computer - turns out it's a lane in Burlington, Canada. A town not far from Toronto.

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.