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Disalienation
Frantz Fanon – Marxist psychoanalyst from Martinique (which suffered under French colonization), whose PhD thesis was rejected so he had it published as a book, "Black Skin; White Masks" in the 50s. Described how the colonized black man has the options of turning white or disappearing. He is alienated from his traditional community, from his…
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The Meaning of Life
I'm such a sucker for these kinds of discussion. The usual answer is that it's whatever meaning you give it. Some people prefer to let others do their thinking for them. Others think they have a meaningful life when it involves harm to others. In general, it is the product of activity and choices, rather…
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Raoul Moat and hate
“You get to a point where happiness to you is like, you know, neither here nor there.” Raoul Moat, seeking psychiatric help before his murder spree and suicide. Moat’s followers are at least some of the following things: angry, bored, unfulfilled, violent, unemployed, injured, abused or abusive, misogynistic, skint, frustrated, in search of affordable psychiatric…
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Best espresso machine in the world?
The Speedster from Kees ven der Westen, Coffeegeek.com think it's the best out there. Will set you back nearly 5000 Euro though…
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Electronic stethoscopes
http://solutions.3m.co.uk/wps/portal/3M/en_GB/Littmann/stethoscope/electronic-auscultation/model-3000-series/ Difficult to believe it has taken so long to develop these. Also hard to believe the cost (£250)
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Frogs
We have a tiny dark brown frog in P's best vase, along with 3 tadpoles who are yet to develop more than 2 limp back legs. Had a mild panic that maybe the frog would drown (not trusting the amphi part of amphibian, clearly) but wikipedia to the rescue. Ton of extra fascinating information about…
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Website stats
Not looked at my website (Paeds.org) stats for a long time. I had 1781 visits in the last month. Most were from the US, else from UK and then Malaysia (!) and Canada. Sadly, the average time spent looking at the site was just 25 seconds!!! The vast majority of visitors, bizarrely, went from Google…
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Professor Field RCGP President speaks…
Trust a well paid professional to make a banal perjorative comment (in the Observer) that completely fails to recognize reality, let alone make any constructive contribution to public health. Shame that professional is a GP, who should know better. Feel free to believe that a "healthy lifestyle" is the be all and end all of…
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Some photography quotes
Cartier-Bresson: "Photography implies the recognition of a rhythm in the world of real things." "Photography is nothing – it's life that interests me", Cartier Bresson once said. Dorothea Lange: "The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera".
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The Sixth great extinction
Is the 6th great extinction already upon us? The rate of species extinction is quicker now than at any point in the last 65 million years, when the cretaceous-tertiary (KT) extinction due to a meteor in Yucatan did for the dinosaurs. 75% of species disappeared. Prev extinctions cleared the way for the dinosaurs (Triassic-Jurassic, 205mya). …