Pumpkin Dissection

pumpkin_anatomylab_svw_033, originally uploaded by samwebster.

We thought we'd prepare our own mini Halloween pumpkin this year. In the lab.

Halloweeny

My Mac got Halloweenified. There's a screaming skull too, which hides behind a black screen when the screensaver comes on and jumps out when it hears someone nearby.

(15" MacBook Pro plus 23" Apple monitor)

Blooper reel

I've been finishing up an anatomy elearning project that I will be making available over the next couple of weeks. To give you a taste, here are a couple of bloopers from some of the filming... (Click for video.)

UK iPhone

It looks as though Apple still have quite a bit of work to do in marketing the iPhone to early tech adopters in the UK. We're used to getting our fancy phones for free with new contracts here, and the mobile phone companies know this. They keep us hooked into their network and poach users from other networks by securing the most alluring temptresses to work for them (I'm talking phones here, not ladies in call centres) and offer them up to us for free in return for promising to use them as our only dealer for 18 months. Dammit, I've mixed my metaphors. I've been watching too many 70's blaxploitation movies.

Brand Republic reports that when a YouGov survey asked people if they'd be buying the iPhone and told them a bit about it "25% of respondents expressed a high likelihood of purchasing the product. However, this dropped to only 1% when they were informed that the handset costs £269 and the minimum monthly contract is £35."

See? We want shiny things for free (or at least heavily subsidised). That's also a pretty hefty monthly contract minimum for most people. The iPhone is still aimed at those happy to pay more for excellence, which is fine, but comparing the iPhone's functions with those on most people's existing phones still shows some holes for the iPhone.

"Awareness of Apple and the iPhone is highest among young adults, early technology adopters, men and Sony Ericsson handset owners." Hey, that's me! Except maybe the "young adult" bit.

"Marek Vaygelt, head of technology and telecoms consulting at YouGov, said: "The challenge for Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse is to convince customers to make a significantly higher outlay for the iPhone than they have been used to historically."

Two weeks to release, baby! (Honest, I'm not going to buy one. I love my new Sony Ericsson.)

Brand Republic article link.

Morgan!

Jo and Morgan popped in today to say hi. Morgan is 12 weeks old now. I wonder if he's started to think about his letter to Father Christmas yet.

Autumnal evenings on the beach

We were mucking about on the beach last night. It's great when the evenings start drawing in for this kind of stuff (click for larger).

More on Flickr (particularly if you're in my friends and family group).

Rugby

How close was the England - South Africa game on Saturday night? OK, the scoreboard might say 15-6, but the game was lost by inches (I'm talking about the near-try at the start of the second half of course). The South African's defense was solid and their lineouts were awesome, however. They played superbly, with incredible acceleration and pace in the first 20 minutes. Congratulations to the South African team.

BBC article, post-match.

Now, if only Lewis Hamilton and team hadn't had a Damon Hill moment in the Formula One, it would almost have been a weekend to make up for the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

Baking

Kim has been baking again. This time she baked and iced a Cinderella cake for a friend of a friend's 3-year-old daughter's birthday party.

Saturday mornings

This is what Saturday mornings are for. Spreading lego around the house, watching cartoons and drinking chocolate milk.

Clonetrooper thinks he's found a 42" TV.

Swearing at work can 'cut stress'

Fuck yeah!

The BBC reports that swearing at work can "cut stress", a topic close to the heart of every salmon.

"Swearing at work helps employees cope with stress, academics at a Norfolk university have said.

"A study by Norwich's University of East Anglia (UEA) into leadership styles found the use of "taboo language" boosted team spirit.

"Our study suggested that, in many cases, taboo language serves the needs of people for developing and maintaining solidarity, and as a mechanism to cope with stress. Banning it could backfire."

BBC article.

Driving sucks

Some days I need to drive into work, and I'm reminded of why I cycle. Commuting by car sucks. Even when it's wet it's better by bike (although having a cycle path helps).

Morning in the Bay

A grey panorama, from my cycle in to work this morning. Swansea Bay from Blackpill.

Star Wars Lego

steamlego_swindon_svw_002, originally uploaded by samwebster.

Jack's really into his Star Wars lego at the mo, and has been for ages. We went to visit my sister and brother-in-law in Swindon the other week as she'd mentioned there was a lego show in the Steam railway museum.

Jack was impressed by all of it, not just the Star Wars stuff and when we got home he had some rather large ideas (like recreating the full-size Jango Fett model in our living room). We're gonna need to buy more lego.

Pushing the Dawn

I got some prints back from my favourite processor, and Kim liked some of the dawn ones. I decided the colours and silhouettes needed pushing (click for large):

Big Swing

DSC00847.JPG, originally uploaded by samwebster.

Jack and I could both get onto a huge swing together. He loved it, I felt seasick. And I don't even get seasick at sea....

Running to School

Taken with the new phone. Jack and Ben are racing the girls to the school gate.

New Sony

To make it clear that I will not be buying the first iteration of iPhone due to be released in the UK on November 9th I've signed up for a new contract with 3, and picked up a shiny new Sony Ericsson K770i. My number will get ported across in the next few days.

The iPhone and the O2 contract that goes with it are poor value for money. The potential functionality of the iPhone is crippled, and can't do what I need a mobile phone to do, let alone what I need a PDA for. 3 offer great value for money, to the point where both Kim and I can have new phones and new contracts for the same price as one O2 contract. Since Kim never had any credit on her pay-as-you-go mobile I'll feel happier to know that she'll be able to contact me and vice versa during the last month of her pregnancy.

By the way, I've found one boy's name that I like: "Kane". I feel it goes very well with the name "Jack". Your thoughts? Kim prefers "Max".

Podcasts

I'm not podfading, honest. Rhiannon Fish has agreed to co-host the remaining embryology podcasts, and we're waiting for a second microphone to arrive. As soon as that happens I reckon we'll rattle them out.

UK Pumpkin Shortage!

Oh no! Our bad summer weather has apparently hit the pumpkin harvest this year! The BBC reports that, "Britain's leading pumpkin farmer says wet weather in June and July means that his crop is down by 30% and his pumpkins lack their traditional colour.

"It's a disaster. Everybody knows that pumpkins are orange," said David Bowman, whose Lincolnshire farm normally produces two million a year.

"Mr Bowman said prices will rise and shops could sell out early."

We've already been discussing what we might carve on the pumpkin this year.

BBC article

Photos from The Gambia

I took some snaps of the more touristy things that we saw when in The Gambia, and I've put some of those up on the photos page.

Gambia photos

Laptops in lectures

Holy Moly, our lecture theatres don't look anything like this.... yet:

duggmirror.com/apple/Look_at_them_apples/

Click on the two side-by-side photos to see the full size images.

Swansea gets a full 4-year Medicine Programme

It was very recently announced that the teaching of medicine to Swansea students will be performed entirely within the School of Medicine and the NHS Trust in Swansea. Currently students study for 2 years in Swansea and then another 2 years in clinical placements around Wales as part of the Cardiff University All-Wales Scheme.

The new course will begin in 2009, and from what I've seen will be a fairly radical integrative syllabus. All of the teaching will be moved around, avoiding separate "preclinical" and "clinical" halves to the course.

More work for us then! The Head of School did say that "This is a tribute to the outstanding clinical and medical science teaching we have delivered across School, and to all those clinical and non-clinical teaching, technical and administrative staff involved." He's right, this does make it feel like we've been doing a good job, and that we've been entrusted to do an even better job of training new doctors.

Wish us luck!

UC Berkeley first to post full lectures to YouTube

UC Berkeley are using YouTube to share lectures in a video format.

CNet reports "The school announced on Wednesday that it has begun posting entire course lectures on the Web's No.1 video-sharing site.

"Berkeley officials claimed in a statement that the university is the first to make full course lectures available on YouTube. The school said that over 300 hours of videotaped courses will be available at youtube.com/ucberkeley."

That's funny, I was just thinking about this the other week and discussed the possibility of doing the same thing with a colleague. Not to the scale of 300 hours though...

CNet article

Gambian Medicine

If you would like to find out more about Higher Education and medicine in The Gambia, plus more about the country itself, try these links:

University of The Gambia
The Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital

Article: Experience of Cuban Faculty in Establishing a Medical School in the Republic of The Gambia

UK Gambians
Health The Gambia
CIA Factbook

Home

I'm home! We got back to Swansea around 3.30am this morning. It's a bit of a culture shock, but it's nice. As predicted by the Law of Sod I did develop a bit of Banjul Belly on the last day, but my cast-iron gut seems to be barely troubled by it, luckily.

Jack's very happy to see me and has lots of questions about Africa. He's been keeping up with this blog. I'll try to pull together the photos of all the members of the scoping visit team to distribute to them and to better explain to Jack what I've been up to.

Now I'm home the work with The Gambia is only just beginning.

P.S. The internet speed at home seems blisteringly fast in comparison to what I've been used to!

P.P.S. I saw a Gambian take her first giggling trip on an escalator at Gatwick Airport. It was a very visual reminder of the differences between our two cultures, and emphasised the culture shock I've received returning home.

Leaving The Gambia

The teaching went well yesterday. I had sweat dripping from my nose into the chalk dust almost the whole time - I never realised that I moved around so much. The students understood me and behaved very similarly to students in Swansea. Hopefully I'll see some of them again, but maybe in Swansea in the planned exchange visits.

We fly out today, from the heat of Africa back to the autumnal wind and rain of Wales. Autumnal wind and rain means there will be no mosquitos though, so I welcome it. Our plane is already delayed so I have no idea when we will actually make it home. I'm looking forward to getting back.

sgl.swanih.org news

Bitten

Damnit! I'm covered in mossie spray and yet I've still been bitten. I've been bitten in one of the few places that I didn't treat with insect repellent. Yes, I've been bitten on my arse.