'So anything new with your fruit bats today?'

Poor Argentina and their poor defense. Maradona has still been my favorite part of this World Cup and that's not going to change. Germany's constantly been a surprise, ever since their first game when they routed the other team 4-0 or 4-1. And now the semifinals! With a faltering Spain! This is fun. I've heard Germany and Holland have a historical rivalry, my European history is not that good, so can someone enlighten me on this subject? Looks like Shapiro, Austin, Dani and I will be in Dublin for the finals. Maybe a picture of us can replace those 'holy fluorescing flavins'. On the topic of sports, I played a couple matches of street cricket the other day and that was a blast. We've got players casually smoking out on the field and you had to have a drink while you're waiting to bat. The wicket was a chair with a plastic ribbon wrapped a couple times around the legs. So you knew the bowler got an out when the ball ruffled the ribbon or hit the back of the chair. I managed to bat a four and get around eight runs for my team! Must be in my genes.

The post title is what my flatmate asks every night. My experiments are going well and I've collected enough data to start analysis. This is harder than I previously thought. Just looking at it all is daunting. I'm giving a lab meeting presentation next thursday on my results thus far. It's like in the cartoons when the boss piles a meter-high stack of papers on your desk and there's no way you'll ever get it all finished in time. I've got to say I'm pretty happy that I chose medicine over research. Hospitals > Microsoft Excel.

I'v been reading a couple good books lately. Ishmael is a fictional story of a man and a gorilla that takes you from the anthropology of pre-historic man, to the beginning of human history, and the spread of man across the continents. Speaks about our current environmental crisis and its historic origins. Italo Calvino's Mr. Palomer is the beautifully written and detailed account of a man's thoughts and perspectives on the country(waves on a beach, leaves of grass) and the city (degenerate pigeons, a cheese shop). It's really great writing on the most accessible subject matters. Then there's this 1965 Lancet article on the 'Purposes of Medicine'. Does a doctor serve science, the human race, life, or nature? I also encourage you to pick up a copy of a new book called The Shallows on the Internet's effects on our brains, it's the first book of its kind containing scientific evidence backing its claims. Not released in the UK yet, but its available in the States.

Lancet Article

IRES gathering at Dublin this weekend! Everyone's invited!

-Logesh