tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60230072011-04-21T23:23:19.424ZT.finally enslaved by the nhsthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comBlogger1141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1092570450101644972004-08-15T11:44:00.000Z2004-08-15T11:47:30.100ZOn confidentiality, anonymity and other sacred tenets
Do you know who might be reading you musings?
Does it matter?
Of course it does. This blog is no more.
Goodnight.
thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1092251796006960422004-08-11T18:59:00.000Z2004-08-11T19:17:54.123ZQuite cathartic
I feel incompetent. Notting Hill keeps saying things like, 'Don't forget to sign that form before you send it off' and 'You probably ought to ring anaesthetics before doing that venflon as it's more urgent.'
Later I get bleeped to 'come and write up some fluids for Mr Mott' but upon arriving I realise that I haven't done that since my medicine block last year, and even then I was thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1092002156013616262004-08-08T21:20:00.000Z2004-08-08T21:55:56.013ZOverload
You know when you've got too much to do and not enough time? That feeling of not knowing where to start, but that you'd better start asap or you'll be in trouble. Well that last thing you need at such moments is people thrusting more jobs at you, making sure all the while, that you know how bloody urgent they all are.
11.30am: Ward round ends.
11.35am: Start writing discharge summaries thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1091557973808442272004-08-03T18:16:00.000Z2004-08-03T18:44:55.090ZThe first day of the rest of my life.
Today was my first day at work. Ever. Way back, whilst slogging through A-levels, med school interviews, preclinical exams, this seemed like the dream. 'It'll all be worth it at the end,' I would tell myself. And in my mind there'd be a picture of me with a stethoscope dangling from my neck on my first day at work. Diagnosing patients, dishing out treatment thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1091362587995705002004-08-01T12:00:00.000Z2004-08-01T12:16:27.996ZSorry about that..
Not posting anything and all but I was in China. Which was great... I should probably write about that at some point. The Karakoram Highway and stuff. All in good time.
Anyway I'm going to give this blog thing another go. However, I start working as a PRHO / intern in about two days time. So if being a junior doctor turns out to be as exciting as my starry eyed colleagues seemthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1086886056063898742004-06-10T16:47:00.000Z2004-06-10T16:47:36.063ZNo one gets out awake
"It would be very odd," said James Fenton in a lecture on poetry a few years ago, "to go to a concert hall and discover that the pianist on offer wasn't any good at all, in the sense that he couldn't actually play the piano. But in poetry this is an experience we've learnt to take in our stride." No wonder there are pleas to hand the whole thing over to the professionals. Ifthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1086433245648251722004-06-05T10:56:00.000Z2004-06-05T11:00:45.650ZRecently spotted
...many reviewers, whose highest endorsement for a translation tends to be that it is “seamless.” If I may attempt to translate the damnation barely concealed in their faint praise, I think they really mean that the translator has, with proper humility, made herself or himself “invisible,” a punishing goal that is desirable only if we are held personally responsible for the Towerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1086376067942435082004-06-04T19:02:00.000Z2004-06-04T19:07:47.943ZI've known professorships lost over that..
Still on the topic of Palestine, Mark at Jews-sans-frontieres isn't happy about academic fraudsters getting free Guardian columns.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1086375289566532142004-06-04T18:54:00.000Z2004-06-04T18:54:49.566ZTragic Rafah
Aziza Abu Ghali is exhausted by her fury and can barely stand. "My husband is 90 years old and has nowhere to sleep. The Jews are just demolishing our houses. I was shouting at the bulldozer driver: 'Don't you have children?' They kill our sons and put us in the morgue. We are praying to Allah to show them the suffering that they show us.
I don't know what good accounts like this dothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1085498494501697852004-05-25T15:21:00.000Z2004-05-25T15:21:34.500ZCartoonists have all the fun
Especially Steve Bellthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1085496936403298992004-05-25T14:47:00.000Z2004-05-25T14:56:48.806ZNot as savage as some..
This brings us back to the weird emptiness at the heart of Huntington’s analysis, according to which conversion to a fundamentalist faith is counted a good thing just because many other people already share that faith. Huntington never explains, in “Who Are We?,” why Protestantism, private enterprise, and the English language are more desirable features of social life or thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1085496437360329642004-05-25T14:44:00.000Z2004-05-25T14:47:17.360ZSontag back on form
A war, an occupation, is inevitably a huge tapestry of actions. What makes some actions representative and others not? The issue is not whether they are done by individuals (ie, not by "everybody"). All acts are done by individuals. The question is not whether the torture was the work of a few individuals but whether it was systematic. Authorised. Condoned. Covered up. It was thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1085410896720081222004-05-24T14:46:00.000Z2004-05-24T15:01:36.720ZPaediatrics
Although I passed this block with relative ease, it doesn't mean that paeds is straightforward or that I'm any good with children.
Station 1: History. A mother whose child has been admitted with acute asthma. Cause: bonfire.
Station 2: Presented history to intense bearded consultant who just stared at me for the whole 8 minutes. When the bell went I just got up and walked out.
thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1085409705455159542004-05-24T14:40:00.000Z2004-05-24T14:41:45.456ZFaeces dementia scale
No it's never really like that. Not in Birmingham anyway.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1085409536703701552004-05-24T14:31:00.000Z2004-05-24T14:38:56.703ZGregory Roberts
That, he says, was the most shocking experience of his entire time on the sub-continent.
He told BBC News Online: "There was something unspeakably grotesque about children killing children in this lush, fecund paradise.
"You would go from one jungle clearing, where there were the most magnificent red and blue blooms - flowers so big you couldn't put your arms around them - to thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1085409025479723452004-05-24T14:27:00.000Z2004-05-24T14:30:25.480ZCo-author for sale
In a society devoted to "reality shows" and rampant commodification, it had to happen some time. Late last month an independent scientist auctioned off his services as a co-author on eBay, with the promise of helping the highest bidder write a scientific paper for publication. The offer even had the added allure of a linkage with the legendary mathematician Paul Erdös.
I know thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1085408170402369702004-05-24T14:16:00.000Z2004-05-24T14:16:10.403ZArabs mind...
According to a recent New Yorker article, Raphael Patai's The Arab Mind was used by some neo-cons to justify the meme that Arabs can only be handled through violence and may have served as a pretext for some of the practices at Abu Ghraib.
MoorishGirl is annoyed. The Indy seems to be alone in keeping the Abu Ghraib issue alive at the moment.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1085049245970774772004-05-20T10:29:00.000Z2004-05-20T10:34:05.970ZCan't do this anymore
What's happened to blogger? This isn't an improvement, it's just rubbish.
Anyway, I passed everything. EVERYTHING. So that's it. I'm free. I should write something more substantial about this, and I will. Soon.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1083253922853141832004-04-29T15:52:00.000Z2004-04-29T15:57:27.403ZThinking about Gmail
So yeah its true that what Gmail is doing is not really anymore intrusive then what other internet email companies are doing when they filter spam. Its just that Google, with their legendary lack of subtle social skills, has made an already existing problem far more visible and apparent to the end user. In a way we should be thankful for them for bring issues to forefront. thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1082748994116350102004-04-23T19:36:00.000Z2004-04-23T19:40:42.936ZMagic indeed
At the moment what happens is that a couple of guys put down a big polythene sheet. Then the executioner arrives. Then the van arrives with the prisoner and his guard. They lead the prisoner to the center of the sheet and make him kneel. If the relatives of his victim want to pardon him, now is the time for them to shout, and he’s released, pays blood money instead. Otherwise the thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1082655706391490192004-04-22T17:41:00.000Z2004-04-22T17:46:50.140Z'Fucking lazy nigger'
The conversation was thought to have been heard on Middle East channels which continued to broadcast the live feed after the final whistle.
And if it hadn't been broadcast? Clearly the word IS part of Ron Atkinson's 'off-air vocabulary' right?thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1082655126497533062004-04-22T17:32:00.000Z2004-04-22T17:36:14.013ZGreat cartoon
The release of Mordechai Vanunuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1082575529968964102004-04-21T19:25:00.000Z2004-04-21T19:29:36.186ZDeserved trashing
Why life would be better because some woman who sounds like her throat is full of phlegm is warbling tunelessly at them, is beyond me. I mean, cough, woman, COUGH. Get it out. Stop sounding like someone took a cheese grater to your throat.
ET takes it out on Dido.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1082047525600621952004-04-15T16:45:00.000Z2004-04-15T16:49:23.310ZNot enough time?
I hope Fudgeit isn't out of action for too long. What does 'for a while' mean?thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1082046992558301932004-04-15T16:36:00.000Z2004-04-15T16:40:30.340ZCrem la tart?
Why won't she smile? Actually I can detect a slight smirk on occasion.. no maybe it's just me.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1082046534679099382004-04-15T16:28:00.000Z2004-04-15T16:37:06.373ZI've no idea what a 'professional book critic' is in the first place
Due to a widely reported technical blooper, the Canadian division of Amazon.com revealed the identities of several thousand of its anonymous reviewers. For just a few days in February, until the company restored their electronic fig leaves, these stealth critics were effectively unmasked. For the most part, of course, this was thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1081975236129785992004-04-14T20:40:00.001Z2004-04-15T16:22:17.700ZGoogle further evidence of anti-Semitism
Krane said the ranking for Jew Watch is largely based on changing vocabulary patterns. "Jew" has been used less and less in mainstream society since Word War II, replaced by less culturally loaded terms such as "Jewish person." Google searches for "Jewish," "Jewish person" and "Jewish people" are all topped by pro-Jewish sites, including a number of Jewishthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1081975205494216292004-04-14T20:40:00.000Z2004-04-14T20:44:01.936ZMusical Key
What's it all about?thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1081952500819361812004-04-14T14:21:00.000Z2004-04-14T14:31:19.920ZSentence meme...
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
And here it is:
The stars were already fading and I noticed the moon sink feebly into the sky as though into troubled waters.
It's from Franz Kafka, Description of a Struggle.
Link via Kitabkhana, but tracing it back thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1081685560475480112004-04-11T12:12:00.000Z2004-04-11T12:17:58.326ZFrom Bemuda beach...
In every country, including our own, the fanatics are preaching their gospel of hate, basing their doctrine on a wilful perversion of the true religion of Islam. At their fringe are groups of young men prepared to conduct terrorist attacks however and whenever they can. Thousands of victims the world over have now died, but the impact is worse than the death of innocent thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1081684283198072982004-04-11T11:51:00.000Z2004-04-11T15:29:42.250ZOh god..
How I hate this time wasting. I ought to do some work, but everything is against me:
1. The weather. Its cold then warm then humid then cold again. No more leaning against a warm radiator with a cup of instant dissappointment/Kenco reading Crash Course.
2. The internet. I blame broadband. It seems impossible not to check the status of all the downloads that should be progressing nicely. thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1081683277416838042004-04-11T11:34:00.000Z2004-04-11T11:39:26.153ZThis morning
It finally dawned on me that my guitar pick must have fallen behind the bookcase against which the guitar had been leaning. The bookcase was far too heavy with books to be moved. I tried to slide a ruler behind the bookcase to wedge out the pick if it was there. No luck. The space was tight and dark. I couldn't even tell of the pick was there for sure. I rumaged thorugh my drawer forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1081680397989618502004-04-11T10:46:00.000Z2004-04-11T10:50:29.670Z
The man who once had a £1.5m bounty on his head ...
This coming weekend the writer who initially came to fame as a firebrand of literary genius, who then dominated news headlines as a fugitive from death, who was then feted as the darling of the jet set and who now plays Scrabble of an evening with the singing Minogue sisters, is to get married for the fourth time. It won't perhaps be a wedding thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1080574214186709622004-03-29T15:30:00.000Z2004-03-29T15:48:03.966ZBut mainly I was busy ok?
I couldn't be bothered to post last week. Mainly because I was busy getting puked on, but also because it just felt pointless. I mean it is actually pointless isn't it? I might give up and write something useful for a change. Or start making up shit like Eurotrash. I think med students have a tendency to think that what happens on the wards is really worth telling. But thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1080573749869510512004-03-29T15:22:00.000Z2004-03-29T15:26:39.123ZPakistani eh?
I think I've lead a somewhat deprived life, having never watched one of these videos. Are they cringeworthy? Cringing was why we watched The Office right?thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1080573502644393762004-03-29T15:18:00.000Z2004-03-29T15:21:57.093ZAuthor's lounge on Amazon UK
Could be pretty cool. Does the American version lack this? I can't be bothered to check.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1080573273849457772004-03-29T15:14:00.000Z2004-03-29T15:18:08.343ZNot bad
But none of them struck me as particularly original. thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1079788703342718262004-03-20T13:18:00.000Z2004-03-20T13:21:45.326ZPaeds
I've spent the week seeing many of the smallprint conditions i've always ignored, hence I ought to get some dreaded reading done. But it's not all bad. At least the patients are cute. thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1079788263023206262004-03-20T13:11:00.000Z2004-03-20T13:14:25.090ZIt's a 25 word limit you understand
EATS SHOOTS AND LEAVES, Lynne Truss
Green grocer's, do not they give you the yip's. I'd like to see them comma cropper. Give them colonic irrigation. I blame the parentheses. Full stop.
METAMORPHOSIS, Franz Kafka
Gregor wakes up, late for work. Even worse, he's a beetle. His family is less than pleased, until finally he drops dead. Free at last!
The bluffer'sthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1079787973723984662004-03-20T13:06:00.000Z2004-03-20T13:10:18.826ZDasani? Cancer?
The water, which was launched two weeks ago, labelled prominently as 'pure' and referred to by Coke executives as 'as pure as bottled water gets', was found to have illegally high levels of bromate, a chemical which the Food Standards Agency said could lead to an increased risk of cancer.
Oops!thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1079374060139400342004-03-15T18:07:00.000Z2004-03-15T18:11:46.466ZSo Oprah Winfrey is Gabo too?
"Book Babe": A book critic who makes crude generalizations and cowers in the face of literature.
"Coetzee": To snarl during an interview. (Ex. The subject prefered to Coetzee rather than answer the stupid question.)
"drowning in Mitchell": Whereby the avid reader obtains the oeuvre of a "difficult" writer, with an overconfident swagger and the vain hope of being thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1079118769459123202004-03-12T19:12:00.000Z2004-03-12T19:16:00.903ZHow to make your pet attractive to other cats..
Yes, they're the cat equivalent of Lee press-on nails. And what's scary is that someone out there thought this was a good enough idea to start manufacturing them.
Let's hope it catches on.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1079106580403524172004-03-12T15:49:00.000Z2004-03-12T15:52:51.153ZMcHebrew
Talila Yodfat, the Israeli chain's human resources director, denies that Zinaty was fired for speaking Arabic but continues: "There is a directive known to all chain employees, that restaurant staff will speak, among themselves and with clients, only in the Hebrew language. This is in order to prevent discomfort felt by clients and staff, who mostly speak Hebrew.
I thought everyone knew thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078945377619792292004-03-10T19:02:00.000Z2004-03-10T19:07:52.123ZThey're not a threat, but they'll still be interrogated, but probably not charged. Look, they're dodgy ok?
Two years of imprisonment, mind you, without having been charged for a crime, save for some vague language about "enemy" this, "combatant" that.
Low Culture has the required linkage.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078675028575793242004-03-07T15:57:00.000Z2004-03-07T16:04:53.216ZAs promised...
Passed Obs and Gynae!
The exam was actually the longest practical / OSCE style exam I've ever had to go through, lasting 3.5 hours in total. You go round the stations in pairs: each station being a double station with two examiners, two sets of equipment etc, seperated by a curtain or a wall. Whoever gets there first gets to pick the nicer examiner!
Station 1: Viva on anaemia in thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078571502924539472004-03-06T11:11:00.000Z2004-03-06T11:15:30.546ZMine really is better than most people
I myself own an iPod, but rarely dance around with it. In part because the earbuds would fall out (Does this happen to you? I think I may have narrow auditory canals) and in part because I'm just not all that prone to solitary rump-shaking. It's a failing on my part. Maybe if I were a silhouette I might dance more.
Isn't that the whole point of advertising?thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078431096146042472004-03-04T20:11:00.000Z2004-03-04T20:14:36.700ZSuicide seemed the only way out - until he discovered Brahms, Elgar and Rachmaninov ...
But thankfully, Hollywood has stopped at three musical devices, saccharine creations of its own, that support the same scenes in all its movies. I recognise them as Sunset Over Cornfields, a passage designed to simulate the wafting of apple-pie fumes across a rustic porch where all is well; Precocious and thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078430885539550682004-03-04T20:08:00.000Z2004-03-04T20:11:06.140ZYou have to subscribe to read it though!
She is moving to New York if she survives the winterJhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake gets a bit of a rough ride too. Good work Jessica Olin?thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078430538141616052004-03-04T20:02:00.000Z2004-03-04T20:05:18.810ZThe new LRB is out...
For one thing, practically by definition, theories traffic in abstractions; they purport to see where the eye does not. Novels, by contrast, tend to be concerned with the surfaces of things; in particular, with how the surface of behaviour can reflect, exhibit, shape, express or stand for an underlying geography of emotions and motivations. So, in one of Henry James's thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078429619764933482004-03-04T19:46:00.000Z2004-03-04T19:49:59.810ZFilm Festival
The Birmingham Screen Festival is underway. I want to see some of these shorts but obviously not all of them. Which ones.. any ideas?
Let's see what Joe's going to see?thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078330274074853472004-03-03T16:11:00.000Z2004-03-03T16:18:32.153ZEXAMS OVER.
For a full 8 weeks. This means I can get up at the usual time again and have the breakfast of my choosing whilst reading a newspaper for example. Then after wasting time in a non-specific kind of way, I can look for something real to do. Visit a friend perhaps, or watch a mid-day movie on Broad Street before shopping for some random item I don't know I need yet. Or maybe even bid for thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078329784729818672004-03-03T16:03:00.000Z2004-03-03T16:06:03.780ZHe also took cocaine
Blair makes no secret about where that led. 'I lied and I lied, and then I lied some more. I lied about where I had been, I lied about where I had found information, I lied about how I wrote the story,' he writes.
The New York Times reporter, sacked for making up stories last year, is at the centre of a new scandal as his tell-all memoir is about to hit bookshops. thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078329438045527252004-03-03T15:57:00.000Z2004-03-03T16:00:16.356ZEasy now..
"Perhaps the secret of getting children to read (or to keep on reading) is simple. It isn't to tell them the books on which to spend their time and energy. It's to give them the choice of what kind of reader - and therefore what kind of person - they want to be. "
Hmm, that doesn't sound quite right. Or healthy even. World Book Day is upon us people.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078329048483556782004-03-03T15:50:00.000Z2004-03-03T15:53:46.920ZThe frontpage photo is worth a look too
It's not that I believe al-Qa'ida incapable of such a bloodbath. But I ask myself why the Americans are rubbing this Sunni-Shia thing so hard.
Robert Fisk in the Indy today. Unfortunately you have to pay to access the full thing but zmag will have it soon. Or spend 60p!thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078328222921306972004-03-03T15:37:00.000Z2004-03-03T16:15:42.623ZAny ideas?
The Treasury Department, which forbids doing 'business' with countries (Iran, Cuba, Libya, Sudan, and North Korea, for instance) who are considered state sponsors of terrorism and are defined as our 'enemies,' notified editors and publishers that if they change one comma, word, or syntactical element in a document that came from a person who lives in a 'forbidden' country, they may be thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1078159541089669142004-03-01T16:45:00.000Z2004-03-01T16:49:28.623ZMel Gibson, Christ, anti-semitism, artistic liberties and so forth..
Before discussing whether the film is anti-Semitic, I want to first define that term as I intend to use it. In the context of movies, I think anti-Semitism can be loosely defined as the uncritical use of negative stereotypes about Jewish people, the advocacy of hatred towards or bigotry against Jews, or, in the case of a film thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1077983125666039072004-02-28T15:45:00.000Z2004-02-28T15:55:33.000ZOsama captured??
The radio's external service, broadcast in Pushtu, said USSecretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's trip to Pakistan on Thursday had been made in connection with the capture.
"The capture of the al-Qaida leader has been made sometime before, but (US President George W.) Bush is intending to announceit when the American presidential election is held," the radiosaid.
thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1077830939589565892004-02-26T21:28:00.000Z2004-02-26T21:31:50.450ZHmm lips..
But otherwise it's why we buy the Guardian.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1077828396560640952004-02-26T20:46:00.000Z2004-02-26T20:49:27.216ZVintage Buruma, this..
Herzl could not possibly have foreseen this, and yet the seeds of tragedy are already buried in his text, which was well meant, deeply idealistic, and in many ways typical of everything that people who feel so victimized by the West that they wish for its destruction find most hateful. We call such people Occidentalists.
How utterly original..thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1077827649371160342004-02-26T20:34:00.000Z2004-02-26T20:39:24.873ZI only knew what Said said about him..
This is the man who thinks that Babur's invasion caused a deep wound from which the country never recovered; the man who got the history of the Vijayanagara Empire wrong; the man who refused to speak out against the Gujarat riots; the man who said that he accepted the Deputy PM's personal assurance that Gujarat would never happen again; the man who has such thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1077643874568411312004-02-24T17:31:00.000Z2004-02-26T20:19:40.390ZPanic!
I can't believe I still haven't got to grips with neonatolgy. The exam's this week! I think my memory atrophied with all that sugary tea. Help me, I might cheat.
And God, this is SO inaccurate. I might be Baywatch fit*, but my colleages are mostly nicotine stained, depressed and suffer delusions of adequacy. Delusions have dopamine in them. (link via oldhag)thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1077468213323011792004-02-22T16:43:00.000Z2004-02-22T16:46:18.280ZDelicious
MoorishGirl has an awesome new look.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1077301794449698772004-02-20T18:29:00.000Z2004-02-20T18:32:36.780ZDeja Vu
Just a few days until the next exam. I'll post when I next take a break. This has the highest failure rate of any final so do help me not to waste time.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1077230545426808302004-02-19T22:42:00.000Z2004-02-19T22:48:15.436ZGuantanamo Brits
The first thing the four 'released' will face upon their arrival in London is arrest under the Terrorism Act 2000 and interrogation at the hands of Special Branch officers. Will they know that they're any nearer freedom? Or will they be left in ignorance to keep up the psychological pressure? In any case a fair trial would surely be impossible now. Wouldn't it?
I felt sad thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1076697202761540832004-02-13T18:33:00.000Z2004-02-13T18:35:55.403ZWorld now safe for all
Terrorism Gone, Everyone Totally Awesome to Each Other Now
How long since you paid him a visit?thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1076496019669269942004-02-11T10:40:00.000Z2004-02-11T10:53:08.860ZDon't care as long as I pass..
Apologies in advance to Fudgeit for this blatant plagiarism of style, but yesterday:
Colleague: What's that on your trousers?
Me: Vaginal discharge.
Colleague: Hehe. I had meconium over my wristwatch yesterday.
Me: My socks are soaked in meconium.
Alas I am at a loose end. I have exams in two weeks and I'm not seeing any patients. I've been kicked off labour ward thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1076494577312258302004-02-11T10:16:00.000Z2004-02-11T10:18:46.936ZWorst read?
THE ALCHEMIST
I nominate these pseudo-philosophic witterings of Paolo Coelho as the worst read of all time. I cannot easily imagine a sadder, more wasteful, end to the life of a tree. For a noble plant to finish up as a lump of coincidence-ridden, idiotic claptrap masquerading as deep thought is truly unnecessarily tragic.
And besmirching the good name of JK Rowling:
As home tutor tothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1076004858083801522004-02-05T18:14:00.000Z2004-02-11T10:12:37.606Zconscienceofahipster
This is funny, apart from the odd nervous lie: Anyway, dudes, I'm just having fun, so chill. It's just satire.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1076003731571181012004-02-05T17:55:00.000Z2004-02-05T17:57:52.826ZThis'll make you feel better!
POOR melancholy bird, that all night long
Tell'st to the moon thy tale of tender woe;
From what sad cause can such sweet sorrow flow,
And whence this mournful melody of song?
This mood matcher can sort you out too if you answer a few questions. I feel great! Obviously.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1076003276547931932004-02-05T17:47:00.000Z2004-02-05T18:04:02.046ZRIP
A political activist for the nationalist cause and a widely travelled oil economist, the breadth of his experience (he did not start writing until he was 40) enabled him to create a richly imaginative body of work. Books are, Mounif believed, an effective vehicle for change. In his words, "the mission of literature is to increase awareness and receptiveness in an attempt to create cases for thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1075919195693711722004-02-04T18:26:00.000Z2004-02-05T11:47:13.513ZAnonybloggers anonyblogging
I've posted about this before and now it has an annoyingly unimaginative name.
Not surprisingly, journalism experts suggest anonybloggers are operating outside of any reasonable ethical line. 'One of the things that's going to have to become a standard for the Internet is, if you want to be taken seriously, you have to be identified,' says Alex Jones, director of thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1075837227075168222004-02-03T19:40:00.000Z2004-02-03T19:43:12.576ZOnce again, if you're about to enjoy your next feed...
You might not feel so hungry after this. Hmmm, that book deal could be quite the thing. thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1075836799057442402004-02-03T19:33:00.000Z2004-02-03T19:35:38.090ZWish I was catalogue-ready
What the maura..thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1075835167555365642004-02-03T19:06:00.000Z2004-02-04T18:30:23.780ZI know its a crap name...
but I can't stop paying visits to Wonkette.
Although this is unfair. Come on, it's obvious that bilateral Bell's palsy is the cause of unblinking eyes. Common things are common, as they say.
I think I should visit shampoo more often
Bees pull weeds out of their minds.
They stop at flowers or bushes,
with or without petals.
And saliva on the dog’s jowls
doesn’thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1075737609238272112004-02-02T16:00:00.000Z2004-02-02T19:13:11.530ZSkip this if you're about to eat something..
At the start of his trial in December, Meiwes said his motive for killing and eating his victim, Bernd Juergen Brandes, was born from a desire for this younger brother he never had - "someone to be part of me".
Shortly after his manslaughter conviction, Meiwes is said to be considering lucrative offers for film / book rights to his story (via Bookslutthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1075638604316318332004-02-01T12:30:00.000Z2004-02-01T12:32:20.123ZHis greatest literary achievement was banning a book
The man who attempted to stop the publication of Spycatcher and has never written a book is an unusual figurehead for the 200-year old Literary Society, a dining club which counts Sir Tom Stoppard, Baroness James of Holland Park and Sir Vidiadhar Naipaul among its current members.
Yesterday, it was confirmed that one of the younger members, thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1075409325941161372004-01-29T20:48:00.000Z2004-01-29T21:05:56.610ZI know I'm wasting time today..
Since it took me far too long to walk home yesterday (through the snow and standstill traffic), I thought I would stay at home today and read something useful. But whilst looking for something useful I came across something a little disturbing, which, I feel I should assure you, does not happen anymore and probably has not happened in the UK for the past ten years.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1075231870335115712004-01-27T19:31:00.000Z2004-01-29T21:07:09.890ZTo be or not to be
As much as I hate Powerpoint, it does have the distinct advantage that the older non-microsoft doctors think we work so hard to produce some of the cut and paste crap we churn out for them. Oh and people like Radosh can amuse us with this Power Point Anthology of Literature, via zickzackly.
My chin feels like sand paper
I looked at each character on the ward round and it thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1075139382800857812004-01-26T17:49:00.000Z2004-01-26T17:51:50.403ZI did this instead of presenting pelvic grips
Just so that you could add comments. Tell me it was worthwhile.
Or teach me pelvic grips I suppose.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1075030377277349572004-01-25T11:32:00.000Z2004-01-26T17:43:32.560ZKeeps happening!
A Moroccan writer awarded his country's top literary prize has rejected it, on the grounds that only a tiny few of his fellow citizens may get to read it.
Ahmed Bouzfour pointed out that his collection of short stories, Qounqous, had had a print run of only 1,000 in a nation of some 30 million.
"The very low literacy rate in Morocco is the main cause of my decision," he said, thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1074885844633547862004-01-23T19:24:00.000Z2004-01-24T17:29:40.780ZStuff I will never get time to read
Some of it anyway. Forget Magazine's Unsolicited Blurbs for Previous Winners of The Booker Prize.
Woe
You know when you listen to music and you inhabit it and music seems to inhere in the world? It's almost a kind of synaesthesia - you start kind of hearing the chair, just as the doorbell is green, the coloratura of music. I've lost that. I hear music as a thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1074628790229693072004-01-20T19:59:00.000Z2004-01-20T20:10:37.950ZCrap day
Ante-natal care clinic was the unlikely stage for my ritual humiliation today. I was interrrogated by the consultant for 2 hours on all manner of obstetric issues. Out of perhaps 30 direct questions I knew 2 answers and guessed a few more. With the rest I just looked at him hoping I could find a clue within his eyebrow. 'Why don't you go home and read a f***ing book?' he wanted to tell thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1074529613649442662004-01-19T16:26:00.000Z2004-01-19T16:31:40.793ZEthnic myths
"Germans - think with your blood!" Bismarck's exhortation goes far to explain why liberal thinkers have often had difficulties with nationalism....
...Nationalists, of course, always held that nations (in particular their own) were primal, natural communities that needed only to be awakened to full consciousness of their historic destiny. Social scientists, on the other hand, thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1074436093289915022004-01-14T14:04:00.000Z2004-01-18T14:30:29.373ZObstetrics is pretty cool
This is one of those experiences that I most definitely underestimated before I did it. I delivered my first baby in the morning. The following upshots are worthy of mention:
1) The baby was normal, no HIV or drug problems as is quite often the case in this part of the city.
2) I only had to be there for 2 hours or so to witness minimum agony. (note to colleagues: ask thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1072890047303931282003-12-31T17:00:00.000Z2003-12-31T17:12:14.413ZWho cares
This reminds me of something I read recently about Newsweeks decision to frontpage the death of Princess Grace instead of the massacres at Sabra and Chatilla on the week of that tragedy. I should also link* to to the article by David Aaronovitch about the domestic failures of the Iranian government highlighted by the death toll. Fair point, but delivered in his trademark, self-righteousthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1072288497422243512003-12-24T17:54:00.000Z2003-12-24T17:56:15.073ZNot always
he lies there clinging to life
walking the corridor to the other side
there's seven doctors spoiling the soup
more are coming to add to its flavour
enticing him with its beautiful aroma
a fragrance of latex and alcohol,
of iodine and lubricant, of sweat and fear
so that life can be fed into him
a broth dragging him back from the antrum
I watch with bemusement
refusing to add my thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1072286843494719532003-12-24T17:27:00.000Z2003-12-24T17:28:42.750ZMcEspresso (might be here soon..)
When I got the drink, sad to say, the espresso was way below par, even by chain coffeehouse standards. Very long, thin-looking, and with almost no crema, I brought it back to my table to taste.
The brewed coffee, on the other hand, was pretty good. Light roasted and pretty complex, the coffee had a trace of the juicy acidity that I commonly identify with thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1072188734122389912003-12-23T14:12:00.000Z2003-12-23T14:18:00.113ZHua Hsu
Here's some more reading for me. What a neat blog. Film, lit and music: Can't really go wrong with that.
Anyway this little reminder of one of my own travel experiences is via Hua Hsu. I will write about it when I feel up to it. "I... I am just a medical student.... " Probably next year. thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1072186882015864192003-12-23T13:41:00.000Z2003-12-23T13:42:20.733Zipod
I thought this would be followed up. Well actually I mentioned G2 but hey, it's early days.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1072130522458065272003-12-22T22:02:00.000Z2003-12-22T22:02:18.173ZLove this guy
Steve Bell on a well-known prisonerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1072130378404384462003-12-22T21:59:00.000Z2003-12-22T21:59:53.300ZAesthetic Objections
Kill Bill—Volume 1, the fourth movie to be written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, is about a number of things, but violence isn't really one of them. This isn't to say that it is not a violent film.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1071782393888764272003-12-18T21:19:00.000Z2003-12-18T21:25:20.550ZStill breathing
So far so good. I passed the dreaded OSCE today. What a complete nightmare. A record number of D grades handed out for ridiculousities* such as 'innaccurate demarcation of enlarged liver edge.' Lots of crying girls. Oh and get this... AORTIC REGURG. and TRICUSPID INCOMPETENCE in successive stations! This isn't MRCP you know.
*I knowthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1070726442221259052003-12-06T16:00:00.000Z2003-12-23T14:20:16.423ZNo secret
Take a look at this little clip exposing the ipod 'battery scam.' Will it make history? I have a feeling we'll hear from the Neistat brothers some more. And while I'm in prediciting mode, I reckon the Guardian (most probably) will do a piece on the video in the not too distant future. Hurry up G2.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1070724249281504482003-12-06T15:24:00.000Z2003-12-06T15:24:20.440ZTachycardia developing
This is the biggest exam so far. Medicine: the final. So I have to work my way through the Oxford clin in the space of a week and a half. Oh well, it'll all be over by Christmas. Now excuse me while I drown..thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1070391651433742562003-12-02T19:00:00.000Z2003-12-02T19:11:01.596ZThe usual type of Chomsky interview
But still worth reading if, unlike me, you haven't read almost everything by and about the man (whilst bored stiff by lab experiments on rat hippocampus). There's the usual point midway where 'Chomsky rejects any suggestion of a link between his political theorising, in which events are subject to a unifying theory of power, and his academic work, which also thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1070214494742505642003-11-30T17:48:00.000Z2003-11-30T17:49:08.276ZCoetzee and interviews
In short, he won't do them.
"In the transports of unrehearsed speech, the subject utters truths unknown to his waking self "
"truth is related to silence, to reflection, to the practice of writing. Speech is not a fount of truth but a pale and provisional version of writing."
The Evening Standard has more. As much as I end up agreeeing with his reasons, part of me still thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1069931536151546552003-11-27T11:12:00.000Z2003-11-29T15:43:35.323ZWhy all bold?
Thanks F! Template was indeed the problem. thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1069769608626967122003-11-25T14:13:00.000Z2003-11-27T11:04:57.500ZTangible all the way
Sharon is a one-man Bullshit Artists, Inc. He is
bullshitting Bush the same way he is
bullshitting the citizens of this country. The
future of the settlements, the outposts, the
fence project and where it is heading - none of
these matters is being addressed in any
tangible way.
I'm not convinced about the chill-wind from Washington. Perhaps Israeli citizens will wake up tothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1069702368383310812003-11-24T19:32:00.000Z2003-11-24T19:38:36.970ZThe 'Seam Zone'
Khalid says that all the sheep owned by the village are going to starve, while their pastures lie across the Israeli security barrier. "Can somebody intervene here?" he asks. "You know when birds get stuck in oil slicks or whales get beached, everybody rushes to help them. Maybe helping the Palestinians is complicated. But the world could help the sheep. That should be simple."
thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023007.post-1069544455313295352003-11-22T23:40:00.000Z2003-11-23T00:03:33.086ZHanri Kunzru
Making an enemy of the Daily Mail is a little like putting your head in a lion's mouth and then inviting it to bite. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday are the most xenophobic mainstream papers in the UK. Which is the reason Hanri Kunzru turned down the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize which The Mail co-sponsors. Here's more on the affair from Hanri Kunzru himself. Best of all he's asked thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150197861484320899noreply@blogger.com