Going All The Way

Fuck. That was close. And the expletive is necessary.

My train home got delayed part way. I didn't hear why, but we were slow by about half an hour. It's Friday. Unusually, I started to doze off listening to a Dawn & Drew Show podcast (it was probably Drew's melodious tones that did it). I woke up, and we're in Cardiff Central & everyone's getting off the train. Oh shit - iPod gets lobbed into my bag, get up, quick check (agh! fuck! my phone), grab, & I'm off the train & hauling my bike out of the bike bit.

What's so bad about that? Because of the delay & a parallel service they'd altered the train to run non-stop to London Paddington. Fuck.

Open Source Beer

Students from the Information Technology University in Copenhagen have created Our Beer, version 1.0. No, it's not software, it really is beer. It was created as an example of intellectual property management concerns, hinting that the open source concept (that the "recipe" is made publicly available for anyone to use or alter as long as they also publish the recipe and credit the authors) can apply outside the digital world.

BBC link.

Port Talbot

A "suspicious package" at Port Talbot's train station has evacuated it & prevented our train from passing through. This has left me with this view for some time. I don't know when I'll get to work this morning.

I actually quite like the view. They've been dismantling this (whatever it was) for over a year now.

Modern Mapping - for free

There are a couple of free mapping services under development and available for use, which, if you haven't heard about them, you should take a look at.

Now these aren't your typical maps. This is a new style of doing things, and the maps are of the whole world. So, if you want to improve your geography, this is the way to do it. Going on holiday this summer? Do you know exactly where in the world it is? What's near it?

Google and Microsoft are the pioneers. Google are developing a downloadable software package called "Google Earth", and an online source called "Google Maps". You can use both right now. Google Earth requires a fairly fast computer and a broadband connection, and doesn't support Apple or Linux computers yet. Microsoft are developing "MSN Virtual Earth", which works from within a web browser. Both use traditional mapping views plus aerial photographs, taken from a mix of satellites and aeroplanes. Microsoft, for example, have hired their own mini-fleet to upgrade the aerial images of the USA.

To be honest, I've had a look at MSN Virtual Earth, but I didn't really get sucked into it. It feels awkward and counter-intuitive to use, and I can't find what I want quickly. Google Earth, on the other hand, is something else. You do need a fair bit of power to run it (any PC less than 2 years old should be OK), but spinning the globe around, and zooming from location to location around the world is superb. The built-in search engine is excellent (as you'd expect), and you can keep a history of recent places visited. Once you're looking at a location, you can then search for places within that location: restaurants, tourist info offices, parks, places to stay, banks, coffee houses, pharmacies - you name it, it's probably there.

The image can be terrain mapped, meaning you can change the angle at which you view the map from top down to somewhere lower, and see the shapes of hills, valleys and mountains. You can see roads and borders on the map if you wish, and in recently updated areas (for example, Manhattan, NY) you can even see buildings as 3D structures and get a shape of the place. Stunning.

I'm going on holiday to Nerja, Spain in a few weeks. I know where it is already, but I want to know more. In Google Earth's search bar, I choose the "fly to" tab, enter "Nerja, Spain", and hit search. It finds the town instantly, and offers to fly me there. The Earth spins, and slowly zooms in on Europe, and then Spain, filling in city names and increasing the resolution of the aerial map as we get closer. I can see the shape of the coast, the inlet to the Mediterranean Sea, even the relief of the seabed itself. I can see the mountains, and recognise the snowy peaks. By changing my angle of view to look from the sea into Nerja I can recognise the peaks and find out their names: Laguna del Caballo, Laguna la Mosca. Top.

I can slide back to the coast by dragging the mouse, and zoom back in on the town by pressing the "+" key or double-clicking on the town's name. There's a link to search Google and to get directions to or from here. I'll use that later for the airport. The satellite images here are pretty crap, so I'll overlay the roads so I can get my bearings. The roads fade in, with names. Right I'll have a mooch around.

Honestly, this is a superb piece of work, and it's going to get better and better. You can interact with the maps, placing markers for points of interest with weblinks to websites and webcams. Many already have. You can measure routes (I use it to accurately measure running routes). You can hook it up to a GPS receiver (Google Earth Plus: $20 version) and download routes you've travelled.

Currently this is a Beta version of the software, at Beta Version 3.0, but you wouldn't know it. Try it out today. The aerial mapping of Swansea and the Gower is pretty good. I should add the University and its webcam as a point of interest.

Nostril Vomit

Jack's been feeling a bit poorly over the last day or so. He woke up last night, so Kim gave him some milk to help him go back to sleep, causing a nasty reaction in his stomach. I haven't seen anyone puke through their nose for years, and I've never seen anyone pass chunks through both nostrils at speed. Poor fella had the sneezes for a while after we'd cleaned him up.

He's feeling much better this morning.

High Tide

Train Bridge

Birko

The Picture Editors' Awards

Go and see some of this year's greatest photographic images at The Picture Editor's Awards.

Link.

Cardiff: Work in Progress

Sea view helps cut stress levels

According to the BBC, "The sight of the sea is the quickest and most effective way to reduce high stress levels for many people, a survey has found."

So I get stressed by my daily commute, but destressed (not distressed) by my cycle by the sea each morning, then stressed by work, then destressed by the sea, then stressed by my commute. Hmmm. Moving to Swansea would help then.

Karaoke

Be thankful you can't hear them.

Fixed

Fixed! Thanks to Dave and Cyclopaedia.

Mechanical

My rear mech fell apart cycling to the train this morning. I almost made it! Since I have to go into the lab tomorrow anyway, I'll work at home today. My dealer is sorting replacement parts for me.

This is the best thing about working from home: coffee breaks in the park!

Cooling Down

Trying to cool off again after runnning. And this was in the evening!

Rhi + Rob World Tour Photos

Rhiannon and Robin have posted some photos to their gallery.

Link.

Battlefield 2 Statistics

My online ranking for my current game of choice.

Blogs on the Bombs (BBC link)

As usual, on the day of the bombs in London, the bloggers were pretty much ahead of the rest of the news networks, and providing localised information from personal perspectives.

Read the link.

A survivor's account, now hosted on BBC. Tough stuff.

Anatomy at Swansea

How do we teach anatomy to medical students at Swansea University? This is what I was speaking to prospective applicants about on Friday:

Every Monday morning, most weeks of the first year, we teach anatomy in the Anatomy & Clinical Skills labs for about 3 hours. So the first subject you learn that week is anatomy, and the rest of the week's topics often relate back to this.

We split the students up into small groups; about 5 groups of 14. The anatomy of the week (for example, the forearm and the hand) is divided up into smaller chunks taught by different specialists, mostly clinicians. There may be anatomists (scientists like me), surgeons, radiologists, pathologists, or even physiotherapists taking part. Each teaches from their own perspective.

Radiologists teach via medical imaging, such as x-rays, CT scans or MRI scans. In our example they'd teach the bones of the forearm and hand. Medical imaging and surface anatomy are the ways in which most doctors will view and work with anatomy in patients, so this is important to see from the start.

Surgeons teach from an invasive, repair perspective, usually with several eye-opening stories of relevant patients & cases. They'll often teach important structures they commonly deal with (in the example of the arm, they would teach the paths & functions of nerves, major blood vessels, & muscles).

Pathologists deal with anatomy at a cellular scale for much of the time. Understanding this, the histology, gives a solid understanding of the differences between tissues & how their structure relates to their function. This is important in understanding both normal function and disease. The pathologists will teach both the normal histology & the pathology of various tissues, subjects crucial to medicine. We have a microscope and a digital camera connected to some display equipment for this purpose.

We all use our collection of very detailed, multi-piece plastic models to teach with, alongside medical imaging & videos, elearning material (e.g. www.anatomy.tv),prosections (dissected human material) & traditional presentations. We cover the whole human body in a number of different styles, as students' brains work in quite different ways to understand & remember the 3D nature of the body & the inter-relations of the different organs & tissues. It really is a very stimulating, modern way of learning. Students interact weekly with a number of clinicians specialising in a range of areas.

The learning is very much up to the students. As teachers we introduce topics & explain concepts, but learning is a time-linked task. Students must put time into the study of anatomy to get the most from the teaching, and to give themselves an important knowledge base for their future careers in medicine. The resources in Swansea give you the best opportunity to do that, and we make these resources as open to you as possible. Our aim is to teach you the anatomy that you will remember throughout your career.

Mail Problems

Are you getting mail bounced back from my Swansea University address? Don't worry, I've not been sacked. The Microsoft Exchange server has been down for over a week now, so email is mullered. Send it to one of my other addresses instead.

See the Sea

Working on a Monday doesn't seem so bad after cycling in beside this. There's a nice cool headwind too (this is the only time I don't complain about a headwind).

Curvy Women Are Healthier

"For good looks and good health, the feminine ideal really should be an hourglass figure with well-defined hips."

"Hip fat appears to contain a beneficial natural anti-inflammatory protein hormone called adiponectin that actually prevents arteries from swelling up and becoming blocked."

"Compared to the group of women with the smallest hip circumferences, women with the biggest were found to have an 87 percent reduction in deaths, reports the BBC News. The curvier women also had an 86 percent reduced risk of developing coronary heart disease and a 46 percent reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease."

Link.

BBC.

Backstedt

This fella got 2nd in today's Tour de France stage. Here he is in the local Cardiff bike shop showing off his new frame for the prologue, just before he left for the Tour (his missus is Welsh).

Open Day

We have an open day today at the School of Medicine in Swansea, for graduates (or future graduates) interested in taking our 4 year course in medicine.

So it's me and the coloured skeleton today, explaining how we teach anatomy, and why it's good that we do it in this way (i.e. small group, clinically-led teaching using mostly models and medical images). How good is it? Ask our students in 3 years time.

Trains on July 8th

The increased security spread at least as far as Cardiff yesterday. Kim & Jack got caught up in cancelled & delayed trains yesterday afternoon, trying to get home from the city centre. They were only delayed by about an hour. This morning everything appears to be running fine (although at least one of the high speed London-Swansea services is seriously delayed by a "technical problem").

None of this is any great problem though. After I saw what was happening to most services last night I decided to have a lie in this morning and check the Cardiff Central departure boards on my laptop at 7.45. By the looks of it most of London is doing likewise.

As I write this the train I'm on has been rerouted off the main line (there's a broken down train stuck on it) and onto the Vale of Glamorgan line, so I'm off on a magical mystery tour of South Wales. I should get to work by about lunchtime.

Bomb Blasts and Bomb Scares

As soon as the news began arriving about the bomb blasts in London this morning, a bomb scare was called into Swansea University, evacuating at least 2 buildings and closing entry to the site.

Are we the only University or are there others affected similarly?

Nobody seems to have much information yet.

By the way, I'm off work today (ill) so I'm getting this secondhand.

MOT

Holy crap, my car went through the MOT no problemo. Lucky me, no £500 bill this year.

Scales

Love this balance. Bloo. (Back in the lab).

BBC Tree

This huge tree fell either this morning or last night, closing a very wide, busy road. You should see it on BBC Wales today, because this is right opposite them.

And the trains are on slow running today. Late, late, late.

Cosmeston Triathlon

I was the photographer for Cardiff Triathletes' Cosmeston Triathlon again today.

Marshall

2 hours with this view, waiting for a bike race.