Instagramming right along.

Dear Farmdoc's Blog followers and readers

My holiday from blogging continues. I'm having trouble getting back to it. I don't know when, or even if, I'll make a comeback. Time will tell.

In the meantime, I'm starting out with Instagram - which, according to its blurb [1], is a 'fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures'.

I'll be posting at least one photo each day. (I loaded my first two earlier this morning.)

If you have a smartphone, you can download the free Instagram app and then search for Farmdoc to find my photos.

Or on your computer, click here for big pics (scroll left for the newest ones), or here for littlies (no scrolling required).

If you have trouble with any of this, please email me and I'll do my best to sort it out.

Finally I hope you have a happy holiday - whether it's Hanukah or Christmas or something else.

I'll be having one. That's for certain.

With love and best wishes

Farmdoc.

List: Libraries in Japan after the earthquake

Today’s ‘List Friday’. Last Wednesday I visited the Deloraine branch of the State Library of Tasmania, to collect books I’d ordered. The duty librarian was Russell. He’s a terrific bloke: softly- spoken, courteous, affable, knowledgeable, thoughtful. We fell, as usual, into conversation. This time about how the Tasmanian Library service will deal with the e-book issue. For example if it’ll loan out e-readers with e-books preloaded. Or if you’ll download e-books from a library server to your own e-reader. Time will tell. Libraries are more than book repositories. Much more. Arguably they’re community hubs. And when hubs break, wheels fall off. In the week – yes, only a week – since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we media consumers’ve been bombarded with statistics about it: The equal fourth most severe quake in history [1], a quake that changed the angle of Earth’s rotation and thus shortened each day by a millionth of a second [2]. Et cetera. The official toll of dead and missing’s over 13,000 – and still climbing [3]. These raw numbers obscure the enormity of the human tragedy. But today’s list sheets it home. Back to libraries. Last Monday darling Meg sent me this email: ‘Would you consider including a pictorial list on a Friday? Mobile phone photos of Japanese libraries after the earthquake. All of them quite eerie, I think’. Here it is [4]. Not a conventional list, but a reminder of what people in Japan are facing. ‘When hubs break…’

H/t darling Meg. xxx

The islamic culture of submission

The Gulf War was in 1989-90. My most enduring memory of it’s an interview with Yasser Arafat. Interviewer: ‘Who do you support in this War?’ Arafat: ‘Saddam’. Interviewer: ‘Why do you support Saddam?’ Arafat: ‘I don’t support Saddam’. I thought to myself ‘How can Israel negotiate anything with this man?’ The 1.2-1.6B Muslims in the world comprise 20% of the world’s population [1, 2]. Yet Islamic cultural and religious tenets are largely unknown beyond the Ummah. I’m unsure why. Probably to know and interpret Islam requires an insider’s experience and understanding. Ayaan Hirsi Ali (pictured) [3] is an amazing woman. Born in Somalia in 1969, she was a Muslim until 2002 (when at age 32 she became an atheist). A Dutch citizen and former Dutch parliamentarian, she’s written and spoken extensively about Islam – honestly, thus controversially, thus bravely. Last week the FT ran an important essay she’d written. (Here’s the full version [4] and a short one [5].) She explained the Islamic culture of submission: ‘In this culture submission is instilled early on. If you are not allowed to talk back to your father, or teacher, or clergyman, submission to state tyranny becomes almost second nature. In such a setting, the methods to empower oneself – indeed to survive – are conspiracy, manipulation, intrigue and bribery’. I accept this concept. Do the Western media? No – given their unbridled optimistic reporting of recent Egyptian developments. If the Islamic culture of submission’s real, this optimism’s unfounded. Who’s right and who’s wrong? Time will tell.

Post title change, Petey's prize, State election

This is Farmdoc’s Blog 700th post. Until today, I’ve titled the posts numerically, e.g. farmdoc’s blog post number 699. Seemingly due to a Blogger idiosyncrasy, this titling prevents Farmdoc’s Blog appearing in blogrolls, and also in the Reading List on the Dashboard page of the blogs that are followers of Farmdoc’s Blog. So starting today, I’m giving each post a unique title. I hope this cures the mischief. Time will tell.

Last 25 February on her (non public) blog, darling Indigo ran a random giveaway. The prizes were hair jewels and Hama bead items. There were 22 entries. On 28 February Indi announced four winners. Numero uno was Petey Boy. Last week in Daylesford Indi gave me Petey’s prize. Yesterday I affixed it to his enclosure’s gatepost. As the photograph shows, he was mildly interested. I think he’d have been more pleased if the prize was edible, though.

Yesterday an election was held for the lower house of the Tasmanian parliament. With a population of only 0.5M, Tasmania’s self-evidently over-governed via national, state and local/municipal governments. Anyway in my electorate of Lyons there were no candidates I felt able to vote for. So I cast an informal ballot. I’m unsure if this was a copout. I appreciate suffrage is a privilege that shouldn’t be abused. But as an ethical man, I can only be guided by my principles and conscience. (As I write, a hung parliament’s the certain outcome. So political fun times lie ahead, methinks. Ho hum.)

farmdoc's blog post number 665

I’ve just finished a non-fiction book whose content’s as fascinating as its title: The Men Who Killed Qantas [1, 2]. In 263 readable pages Matthew Benns catalogues Qantas’s biggest downsides – starting at its birth soon after WWI, and ending in September 2009 with the Airbus A380’s woes. As his book’s title and subtitle suggest, Benns’s theme is that in recent years and decades, Qantas’s quest to maximise profits has compromised safety. The 16 chapters are cutely numbered QF1 to QF16. The standout chapter is QF9: ‘Toxic air’. It’s an expose of ‘aerotoxic syndrome’ [3, 4, 5] – which I’d never heard of before. Aerotoxic syndrome causes debility, and even death, of aircrew and passengers after exposure to toxic fumes during flight. The fumes’ pungent odour’s reminiscent of vomit or blue cheese. Apparently, to cut costs, air is taken superheated from inside the jet engines, cooled by aircon, and pumped unfiltered into the cockpit and cabin. This system works almost all the time. Indeed unless there’s an engine oil leak, in which case the oil when superheated breaks down into various chemicals including carcinogens and organo-phosphates. Oil leaks are much more likely in older planes. Pretty scary, eh. Conspiratorially, Benns suggests airlines worldwide are covering up aerotoxic syndrome. I’ve written before of ‘disease mongering’ [6, 7]. I’ve no idea if aerotoxic syndrome’s a covered-up real disease, or a mongered disease. Time will tell.

farmdoc's blog post number 654

Wikipedia says Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004) was a Swiss-born psychiatrist, and the author of the 1969 groundbreaking book On Death and Dying in which she first discussed what’s now known as the Kübler-Ross model. This model sets out, in five discrete sequential stages, a process by which people deal with grief and tragedy. Twelve days ago, on Friday 22 January, I traded in my Peugeot for a 2010 Mitsubishi Triton GLS 4WD diesel dual cab flat-tray ute (pictured). I’ve been unable to write about it until now because I’ve been grieving for my Peugeot – which I owned for a bit over 2½ years. Among its many features I’m missing are its miserly fuel consumption, superb sound system, trip computer, automatic headlights, automatic wipers, automatic door locking, climate control and digital cruise control. The Triton has none of these. Its fuel consumption’s about double the Peugeot’s, and it goes like a truck. But it has all the safety gear;its 4WD enables access to lots more bushwalks; and my bike fits on the flat tray. Why did I change vehicles now? I can’t tell you. I can’t think about it. I’m too grief-stricken. The Kübler-Ross model’s been debunked – mainly because the five stages are no longer considered to be sequential. True, as currently I have elements of four of them. Of course the Peugeot and the Triton are only vehicles. And Sweetheart Vivienne thinks I’ll grow to love the Triton. But I doubt it. Anyway time will tell. Stay tuned. Ho hum.

farmdoc's blog post number 481

I’ve been registered with the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria since 1969. I can’t recall when I was first registered with the Medical Council of Tasmania, but I think it was in 1992. Each Australian state has its own medical registration body. So a doctor working in two or more states needs to register, and pay an annual re-registration fee, in each. A few years ago, some bureaucrat had a bright idea – that nationwide medical registration would be more efficient. Loads of people were seduced by this trumpeted efficiency. Thus a national registration scheme will start on 1 July 2010. But state medical boards will still exist, to handle complaints against doctors, among other functions. So the new regulatory machine will be bigger – and more cumbersome – than the status quo. To date, the promise has been that the annual re-registration fees won’t rise. But I’ll bet they will, because the total cost will be much higher, and governments won’t pay the extra if they can compel Muggins doctors to. In this world you get nothing for nothing, especially from bureaucrats and governments. Here their quid pro quo is the right to put their grasping fingers into the pie of medical undergraduate and specialist training, and continuing education – where their fingers don’t belong. This new juggernaut may hasten my retirement from active medical work. Time will tell.