This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. I read that the last roll of Kodachrome film had been processed [1]. A poignant historical milestone.

2. the comeback announced by Ian Thorpe, Australia’s most successful Olympian, was marred by rank commercialism [2]. I’d have been astounded if it hadn’t been.

3. Cyclone Yasi caused Queensland Premier Anna Bligh to label the Port Hinchinbrook development ‘like a war zone’ [3a]. Sorry, but I’ m unsympathetic – for this reason [3b].

4. the Sydney Peace Foundation awarded Julian Asssange its gold medal for ‘Peace with Justice’. He’s only the fourth recipient in the Foundation’s 14-year history [4] And WikiLeaks has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. How WikiLeaks has advanced Peace by even one jot, is beyond my ken.

5. the US government announced a 2010 update of its 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans [5]. There’s nothing unexpected or revolutionary in the update. But it’s worth reading.

6. the journal Gut reported Japanese research concluding that a dog can sniff out bowel cancer in breath and stool samples, with a very high degree of accuracy – even in the early stages of the disease [6]. Well if dogs can sniff out truffles…

7. the Fox family owned transport group Linfox has revealed plans to employ 500 indigenous Australians over the next two years [7]. A win-win plan, hopefully. Good on you for this, Linfox.

8. I read of a new train in China that travels 1,000 km in three hours. It’s the fastest train in the world [8]. Where the bloody hell are you, Australia?

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

Review Tuesday: 'Disgrace'

Today’s ‘Review Tuesday’. The Nobel Prize in Literature [1], inaugurated in 1901, has been awarded to 107 Nobel Laureates [2]. The Booker Prize [3], inaugurated in 1969, has been awarded to 43 writers [4]. Only four writers have won a Nobel and Booker (i.e. V S Naipaul, Nadine Gordimer, William Golding and J M Coetzee) [5]. Further, Coetzee [6] was the first to win the Booker twice [7] (the only other’s Peter Carey). So self-evidently Coetzee’s a top-notch writer. Last 11 December I saw the movie Disgrace and rated it four stars. As it was adapted from Coetzee’s 1999 Booker Prize winning novel of the same name [8, 9], I had to read the book. So I did. And I loved it. I found it more satisfying than the movie. It’s beautifully crafted, as you’d expect from a winner of a Nobel and two Bookers. With minor exceptions, the book’s scenes/dialogue and the film’s are identical. I haven’t seen many movies adapted from books I’ve read. But in Disgrace’s case I preferred the book. The main reason’s because it’s pure Coetzee whereas the movie’s inevitably an interpretation, and thus a distortion, of Coetzee’s ‘blueprint’. Also I have the type of mind that prefers the active process of converting the written word to mental images, to the passive process of watching and listening to a movie. I’ve read a few other works by Nobel Laureates and Booker winners. One of my 2011 resolutions is to read more of them.

The Ig Nobels: Making people laugh and then think

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’. My mother language’s English. I feel profound sympathy for everyone trying to learn English as a second (or subsequent) language. For them, English’s grammatical and constructional idiosyncrasies must be hugely frustrating. An example? The opposite of ‘noble’. It’s ‘ignoble’. I can’t find any other word which converts to its antonym via the prefix ‘ig’. If you want to parody the Nobel Prizes, what would you name the parody prizes? The Ig Nobel Prizes, of course [1]. Ig Nobels are awarded in early October each year by the humorous journal Annals of Improbable Research [2]. The Ig Nobels were inaugurated in 1991 – at that time for discoveries ‘that cannot, or should not, be reproduced’. Ten prizes are awarded each year, in the five Nobel categories (i.e. physics, chemistry, physiology/ medicine, literature and peace) plus others. The Ig Nobels are for genuine achievements ‘that first make people laugh, and then make them think’. The 2010 Ig Nobels were announced last week [3]. The range of its Prize topics is astounding. And wondrous. Every Ig Nobel winner from 1991 to 2010 is here [4]. And I must congratulate Andre Geim [5] who won an Ig Nobel in 2000 and a Nobel in 2010 [6]. Finally I love it that the Ig Nobel ceremony, held at Harvard each year, ends with the admonition: ‘If you didn’t win a prize – and especially if you did – better luck next year!’

farmdoc's blog post number 559

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…
1. Bernie Ecclestone’s resumed bleating about how the Australian F1 Grand Prix should be a night race. As the Herald-Sun editorial says: ‘Butt out, Bernie’ [1].
2. the Lebanese President accused Israel of firing a Katyusha rocket from South Lebanon into Israel [2]. Hopefully his minders won’t forget again to give him his medication.
3. research results reveal that during CPR, focusing on uninterrupted chest compressions nearly doubled the odds of survival [3]. Current best practice in Australia is two breaths after every 30 chest compressions.
4. the Nutrition Diva wrote that the tannins in (green and black) tea inhibit the absorption of iron [4]. To maximize iron absorption, don’t drink tea with or soon after meals.
5. a consumer survey found that to US car buyers, fuel economy is now more important than the number of cup holders [5]. It’s sad it was ever otherwise. In the previous survey, four years ago, it was the other way around.
6. I learnt that in the 56 Islamic nations there’s no university in the top 500 world universities; Israel has six. The Islamic nations spend under 0.02% of GDP on scientific research; Israel spends 2.53%. There are 1.3 billion Muslims and 14 million Jews, i.e. 100 times more. In the last 100 years Jews have won 180 Nobel Prizes; Muslims have won nine. [6] No comment’s needed.
7. Prime Minister Rudd’s wife, Therese Rein, co-led a rally supporting Burma’s detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi [7]. Ms Rein hasn’t been elected to public office. It’s fine for her to do things in the public arena as a private citizen. But she has no right to do so in her role as the Prime Minister’s wife.
8. Sweetheart Vivienne did brilliantly in her radio interviews [8]. I’m biased, so don’t take my word for it. Rather, take heed of the avalanche of congratulations emails and SMSs she’s received.
Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

farmdoc's blog post number 545

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. I learned that a man’s reason for not attending an appointment with me, was that his daughter had changed their clock’s time for daylight saving, and in error she’d changed the clock’s date too. Daylight saving started on Sunday 4.10.09 [1]. His appointment with me was on Wednesday 7.10.09.

2. a US study found that exposure to nature helps people to value community and relationships more, and to be more generous [2]. I’m not surprised. It’s something I’ve intuitively felt for many years.

3. Professor Ada Yonath, an Israeli working at the Weizmann Institute of Science, was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She’s Israel’s ninth Nobel Laureate [3] – which given Israel’s population and economic and military situation, is a remarkable achievement.

4. darling Jarrah celebrated her sixth birthday with a cupcake party [4]. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.

5. GetUp! released its iCoal 2.0 advertisement [5]. Clean coal’s an oxymoron. It’s never going to happen. It’s an abomination that the coal industry will be compensated in the proposed emissions trading scheme.

6. the Australian Grand Prix Corporation announced a loss of A$40M for the 2009 F1 event [6]. Though the 2009 loss is miraculously the same as the 2008 loss, it’s an absolute waste of public money. It’d fund 400 $100,000 p.a. jobs, or 800 $50,000 p.a. jobs.

7. a comparison was published of the administration of Barack Obama, and that of Josiah Bartlet in The West Wing TV series [7]. Let Bartlet be Bartlet.

8. the invitations went out for Sweetheart Vivienne’s book launch [8]. Also the media interviews began. Her excitement and success are mine too. How very wonderful she is.

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

farmdoc's blog post number 429

Today, like last Thursday, I write of an inspiring woman with Holocaust connections. Ashamedly I’d never heard of her until I read pages 79-80 of The Brain That Changes Itself. On 22 April 1909 Rita Levi-Montalcini (pictured) was born in Turin to a Sephardic Jewish family. She graduated in medicine from the Turin medical school in 1936. Two years later, when Mussolini barred Jews from practising medicine and doing scientific research, she fled to Brussels. When the Nazis threatened Belgium, she returned to Turin and did neurological research in a secret laboratory in her bedroom. She fashioned surgical probes from sewing needles. In 1940 when the allies bombed Turin she fled to Piedmont where, on a table in a mountain villa, she experimented with eggs from a local farmer. After each experiment she ate the eggs. After the war, she and biochemist Stanley Cohen isolated a protein that promoted nerve growth. They called it nerve growth factor, or NGF. As a result they were awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Almost three months ago, when Levi-Montalcini turned 100-years-old, she became the first, and only, Nobel Laureate to do so. Since 2001, she’s been an Italian Senator with lifetime tenure. On 22 April 2009 – her 100th birthday – she was feted with a birthday party at Rome’s city hall. Though with impaired vision and hearing, this remarkable woman has vowed to remain a force in Italian politics. I salute her.

farmdoc's blog post number 357

The Swede Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) was the inventor of dynamite and the instigator of the Nobel Prizes. Though he was a keen cyclist, back then there were no helmets for head protection. You’ve probably heard the riddle that goes: What do you call an unhelmeted cyclist riding at night? An organ donor. Organ donation, and thus transplantation, is a wonderful medical advance. But one of its major stumbling blocks is rejection of the transplant by the recipient – because the tissue match wasn’t accurate enough and the immunosuppressant medication wasn’t effective enough. Last weekend I was talking with my friend Maya in Ottawa when, for a reason I can’t recall but maybe had to do with Tasmanian Devil facial tumour disease, she mentioned the angler fish (pictured). When the male angler fish finds a female, he bites into her skin and releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood-vessel level. The male then atrophies into a mere pair of gonads which release sperm to fertilise the female’s egg. This is equivalent to a transplant, yet there’s no rejection. Amazing. Solving this angler fish puzzle would undoubtedly shed light on human transplant rejection. And the person who solves it would be a shoo-in for a Nobel Prize.