Archives
March 31, 2008
Podcast episode 9
A new embryology podcast is up on iTunes (with diagrams) and on the medicine page. We natter about the development of the male and female reproductive systems for about half an hour.
March 29, 2008
The boys sign the cast
The boys all wanted to sign Jack's cast. I think it was mostly Liverpool FC graffiti.
Easter Wilbur
Poor Wilbur. He was dressed up as bloody Batman at Christmas.
March 25, 2008
Easter break
Jack fell off a window sill in his bedroom at Mum and Dad's yesterday (what the hell was he doing on the window sill?), and complained of a sore left wrist. He was very tired anyway, and his wrist was bothering him and he was protecting it, but it wasn't excruciating. He slept very well last night.
This morning he was still unable to supinate his left forearm (painful to try), had a weak grip, and felt pain trying to dorsiflex his wrist. He was still very protective of his wrist, and wouldn't let his left arm drop to his side. Oh dear. Time for a trip to casualty at Cheltenham General Hospital.
Sore wrist.
A+E waiting room. Lots, and lots of waiting.
X-Ray!
The medic gave me a printout. It was a very nice X-ray on PACS, but you can't see much detail here. There's a good break at the distal radius. Do you see it? Follow the edges of the bone on the right and look for the bumps.
Plastered! By this point Jack was quite chuffed. He could go home after lots of hanging around, the scary stuff had turned out to not be scary at all, and he had a cast and a sling to show to Uncle Nick (who is also recovering, from a broken clavicle)!
March 20, 2008
March 17, 2008
Timmeh!
Jack drew this self-portrait at school. Is it just me, or does this look like Jimmy from South Park?
(from www.southparkstudios.com)
March 16, 2008
Day of the Dead?
We went to a shopping centre while the rugby was on yesterday buy some things we've been putting off (I hate shopping centres on a weekend). I felt like a survivor in a zombie movie - it was eerily quiet. The only other survivors of the zombie plaque were people behind tills.
Saturday afternoon!
Where is everyone?
I can hear zombies!
It was the opposite of Christmas Eve, when I couldn't even get out of my parking space for 25 minutes, let alone get out of the car park.
March 15, 2008
Grand Slam
Good luck Wales! It should be an awesome day in Cardiff today!
BBC article - Thousands to watch Grand Slam bid.
March 12, 2008
Embryology podcast no. 8
The 8th embryology podcast from me and Rhiannon, in which we talk about the development of the urinary system, is up in iTunes (enhanced AAC) and on the Medicine page (MP3).
I know, we said we were going to talk about cardiovascular embryology, but Geraint Morris was very keen to take part in some of that. We think that he's worth waiting for, so we did the urinary system first. Rhi has drawn up lots of images if you're listening to/looking at the enhanced podcast from iTunes.
I'm thinking we might have to change the name of the podcast stream, as we're going to run out of embryology topics soon. We've had so many positive comments (thank you all very much) that we're keen to continue this somehow, and probably with some anatomical topics, I guess.
March 11, 2008
Desk stuff
I was amazed by the weird stuff that was accumulating on my desk at home, so felt the need to blog a photo. Helicopter, Halloween skull candle, dinosaur, balls, scorecards, hard disks, cables, cables, cables...
March Weather
Hail falling at sea. We realised it was hail when it came to get us.
March 07, 2008
James Cracknell completes swim to Africa
James Cracknell has completed his massive Sport Relief challenge and made it to Africa. He travelled from the UK to Africa using his own power, covering 1,460 miles in 10 days by rowing, cycling and swimming. His aim was to show that Africa isn't as far from the UK as we often feel it is, as well as to raise as much money as he could for charity. He completed the 12 mile swim across the Straits of Gibraltar with David Walliams.
Cracknell's blog.
BBC News article.
March 06, 2008
Brighton
Travelling to Brighton today. Photos going to Flickr.
March 05, 2008
Respiratory embryology podcast
A new podcast, "the embryology of the respiratory system" has gone up on iTunes (enhanced AAC) and on the Medicine page (MP3). Dr Geraint Morris, a consultant neonatologist from Singleton Hospital adds much interest to our usual whittering on.
Rhi and I did intend to follow it up with a cardiovascular podcast, but instead have recorded a renal system development one. Geraint was keen to take part in the cardiovascular development podcasts (likely to be split into two separate discussions now), so we thought we'd bash out another while waiting. It should be up in the next couple of days.
March 03, 2008
iPod Touch
Sweeeeeet. For testing video podcasts....
Japanese robots enter daily life
An AP article in USA Today is suggesting that robots that are already taken for granted in Japanese factories are starting to become accepted in other parts of life. The Japanese government is predicting that the robotics industry could be worth almost $70 billion by 2025, and says that an aging population pushes this need.
USA Today - Japanese robots enter daily life.
I'm struggling just to get Kim to buy a robot hoover.
March 02, 2008
A history of kidney study
Fascinating to me, but maybe less so to medical students, is "The Kidney Through the Ages".
Members of the Italian Society of Neonatology have summarised the major discoveries over the last 2400 years leading to our modern day understanding of kidney structure and function. It's a great list of tales of precocious genius, logical reasoning and occasional plagiarism.
Cracknell's Cross-Continent Challenge
Have you been following any of the Sport Relief activities? James Cracknell is on his way to North Africa, and at the moment he's in Northern Spain. How's he getting there?
First he rowed across the English Channel. Which is impressive enough, even giving his Olympic heritage in this sport. He's now cycling from there, through France, over the Pyrenees and down through Spain and covering around 1400 miles. His final stage will be to swim the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco (12 miles). Absolutely nuts. So he's traveling from England to Africa using his own power, and his aim is to do all this within one week. Right now he's cycling around 300 miles every day.
What an awesome thing to be able to attempt, although I can't imagine how he'll be feeling by the time he gets crawling in the sea (David Walliams will be joining him for the swim).
You can keep up on his progress with his blog:
Now that's a proper blog with some worthy content! You can sponsor him from his website, and see where the money that he hopes to raise will go.
Keep it up, Cracknell!