Jet Ski, Fishing and 20 sec Sunset

Today passed by almost too quickly, however, we got a lot done.
We slept at the mothership and woke up early (if you consider 8:30 early that is). After the breakfast we went into harbour to reload groceries and more importantly to get the jet ski.
At first the weather did not look too promising but after a while the sun overtook the clouds and the temperature increased.
Kristyna got her virgin ride and it took her by storm - she really enjoyed the speed, just as I anticipated.
Dinner did not end up at our hooks by lunch time, we had to cheat and use some of the fish my father caught at the oil rig. However, being patient and trying again later proved to be the way to go - four of them ended up in the smoker, and finally in our bellies.
The sun just set in the far west horizon and now we will settle in the mothership, open up a bottle of red, light up some candles and just enjoy the sounds coming from the sea.

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Posted at the deep blue, via iPad.

Finally my mind is set free

After three weeks being more or less locked up in my study room in Lipova the day of the final exam in histology finally arrived.
I'll give a full recap about in due time but at the moment I've relocated myself from dusty city to crystal-clear oceans.
Kristynka are with me and after one day in the west coast paradise we are sure enjoying it to the fullest.
My head is down at rest speed and set on jetski cruising, jumping off cliffs and eating the goods from the sea - the perfect recharge for the second year.
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Posted from the deep blue, via HTC Sense

English stripped Naked

I very much indeed enjoy studying Latin and its marvellously paradoxical two sides; complexity and simplicity.
By the end of the previous sentence I've used at least four strong words in English with non-English origin. Can you guess which of the following belongs to what language? 

Study
Marvellous
Paradox
Complexity
Simplicity

Study actually derives from Old French estudie, but for our sake lets deal with studium from Latin.
What about marvellous? Latin? Greek? Not at all, to my surprise, it actually is from Old French as well in the basic form merveille.
So, Paradox then, sure this could be Latin but by dissecting the word we can get the Ancient Greek prefix para-, and suffix -orthodoxos, indicating that this is of Greek origin. As commonly seen, many Greek words adopted a Latinized form and Paradoxos became Paradoxum meaning: 

"a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth" or "a self-contradictory and false proposition".

Complexity and Simplicity are English words with pure Latin origin; in its naked form rather complexus and simplex.

Latin at first sight is as complex as any new language (except Czech that is, which seem to origin from the green man "a planeta confusa") but as one embrace it and digs deeper it actually makes a lot of sense.
It's a language of great structure, at least if you have the honour to follow Prof. Svobodova's text book, and it can be broken down in an organized matter with, mostly, strict rules that can be applied to whatever sentence you'd like to create. This is the part of simplicity.

To give a brief indication of how a task and its translation might look like I'll give you an example from the book at page 172.
Translate:
- Superficial wounds in the pubic region.
- Bruises of the soft parts of the body.
- In the state after a severebilateral inflammation of the lungs.
- Sufficient doses for children.
And the solutions, in order:
- Vulnera superficialia in regione pubis.
- Contusiones partium mollium corporis.
- In statu post pneumoniam bilateralem gravem.
- Doses pro infantibus sufficientes.

I wish not to seem posh or act as some kind of Smart Aleck, nor will I in any way conceal my gratitude towards the Latin course - gratitude, when from my side expressed, has mostly been getting dull half-witted responses with little or no enthusiasm.
 Anyone that have had Prof. Svobodova, might not share my view - and so be it. You might even think I am vastly exaggerating by saying that she was indeed the best teacher during the first year. Again - so be it.
My opinion might echo alone but I believe that the facts speak for themselves; the structure and discipline of her lectures were always high and, if ever so often threaten, well maintained. She spent time explaining and made us practice in between - to me that is true teaching.
 The fact that she actually wrote the book, covering more than well the medical perspective of Latin, is something not to forget.
 This greatly shows itself in the way the course is built up, step by step until the rope is tightly shutting the sac closed. Unfortunately, for our group but mainly for the professor herself due to some family matters, we missed out on the last two lessons dealing with numericals and verbs but with some set aside motivation that was a part not too demanding, however, using the word "easy" would be a lie.

Why the "DIET" in Diet Coke is a hoax

I think it's great that someone actually explained this properly.
Not only will it give you the answer of the stated premise but also a great insight in the metabolic activity in the body in relation to pH

The Greatest Show on Earth

Today I woke up (early) at 8 am and after a long search for something to eat for breakfast but I soon gave up, took a glass of water and went for grocery hunting. I usually go to Andel, a shopping mall across the river, and decided to do the regular base ware shopping.

It took me a while to get to the tram. The pleasant part was that I crossed paths with a good friend on her way to her Latin exam and the less pleasant part was that I discovered that I didn’t have coins for the tram ticket.
There Is obviously a revolution going on in the commuting traffic, something called “open card” is on its way and it is going to overtake the old “coin-for-ticket”-system. I also discovered that the price for the ticket option got increased, if just slightly. I believe that signing up for the open card is the next right thing to do.

After some walking I managed to change for some coins and got the ticket.
Shopping is fun, as always, but this time I kept the expenses down a bit. With my groceries packed in my rucksack I dashed for the tram but stopped as I saw the bookshop right next to the grocery store. I went inside for a quick look and to my surprise I found three out of a handful books that I’ve, for quite some time now, been searching for.

Two of them I have already “read”, or rather, listened to as audio books. Some people don’t count this as saying that one has actually read the book although to me it is all the same – the content doesn’t change so to speak. Well, I bought them because I admire the authors and would very much like to read it myself at least once.
I was surprised how low the prices were on non-fictional pocket books and I consider it well spent money.

One of them I have yet to read, and it sure looks promising. Richard Dawkins is an amazing author judging from his earlier books that I have read. The title caught my eye at the first glance:
The Greatest Show on Earth
I immediately understood that this was going to be another book dealing with Dawkins favourite thesis; that evolution is fact and not fiction.
During the short way home at the tram I managed to read a couple of pages and this sentence made me smile, especially after passing my Latin exam the other day.
With the risk of being taken out of context, I quote,:

“Yet you find your precious time continually preyed upon, and your class’s attention distracted, by a baying pack of ignoramuses (as a Latin scholar you would know better than to say ‘ignorami’) who, with strong political and especially financial support, scurry about tirelessly attempting to persuade your unfortunate pupils that the Romans never existed.”

This sentence alone shows how beautifully complex and sophisticated Dawkins writing is and his fine ability to compose the text so that it speaks directly to the reader – simply wonderful.

I will end this post by saying that it is post number 200 in this journal - have I really written that many..?

Belief and Behavior

Sleep is great, especially by entering it while listening to Sam Harris as he reads his amazing third book. Moral questions at its best and belief from another perspective. If you are interested in the former I strongly recommend his books. I might put up a link tomorrow.

My Neighbour pt.II

The cat that came to visit outside my bedroom window have returned, frequently. And since I started to throw out some out of date ham and salami she brought two of her friends.
Now I got three small friends meowing at me from the back yard.

RainyMood makes everything better

Whenever my head needs to relax I find this stunningly useful. It is a website that loops a thunderstorm and it is a perfect background loop for classical or ambient music. Try it yourself by opening up RainyMood and play your favourite soundtrack on your preferred website or media player.
If the volume is quite unequal just go to your computers audio mixer, usually in the downright corner of PC, upright corner of MAC and get it to equilibrium.

This, for example, is a neat track to combine to RainyMood.

Sit down and let Richard Bona do his wonders...

The Blessings and Curses of SIS

When I first signed in to the SIS - the student information system of the school - I was impressed. The system seemed like an amazing way to keep track of all the bureaucracy regarding the University. This is where students can virtually go to the Professor's offices to claim exam terms, reflect upon courses and keep records of their grades etc.
It all worked well until today where an error was presented. I had but one fear when I entered this university; that failure would be not due to the lack of knowledge but due to the system. I have heard stories from persons where the system brought them into trouble and I believe this is what is going on for the students struck by this issue.

I had just finished Latin with a not so satisfying exam but with an all the more satisfying final grade and I have now only the final exam in Histology left to conquer.
Today was also the official release of the next exam period in the end of this month. 25 slots were increased to 40 and I understood that this will not be enough in comparison to the amount of students that wanted these terms.
Even if being ready minutes to 14:00, the official release time, the 40 slots was gone in a matter of seconds. Signing up for the term is more of a challenge than actually taking the exam.
The SIS-server somehow got overloaded and a lot of students were not equally able to "compete" for the terms, me among them.
This results in a postponing of the exam to early September, which I however do not find as the most disturbing part, but the fact that I will only have two attempts in total is a more unpleasant and unfair issue.
My intention is of course to conquer the credit in one attempt but if worst comes to worst not having as many attempts as other students makes it quite unequal, in my opinion. You might argue that we should have planned it better but I respond that this is just a grain in the heap.

There are too many students taking histology after anatomy, which I do not argue against, after all I planned my exams the same way. The number of students with histology left and the hope to make it in the month of July is too greatly outnumbering the amount of available slots. Given freedom to decide when to have your exams is a great tool - but only if the options are numerous enough. One choice is not freedom of decision - nor is two or three in this matter.
When there is not enough terms to grant every student three attempts, as policy states, there is something that doesn't add up.

Next term is released on the first of August with a capacity of 35 slots. I hope that this number increase because if not, the competition will look the same. And by taking in to account that a good 10-15% of the 40 that recently signed up might fail their attempt decreases the chances to win the "fastest connection get the sign up"-game even further.

I will continue my studies as planned and see what solution will be the best...

There's Always Someone Bigger

I don't like ants but spiders are fine.
This ant is quite webbed up, until...

The Final Battle

The day before my exam I was still in the roller coaster clinging tight to the seat waiting for the ride to culminate. Kristýna had come return home to Prague a couple of days earlier (oh, how I was happy about that) and we spent the night having a picnic by the river, going over some last topography and finished it off by watching the amazing film Perfume - The story of a Murderer. If you haven't seen it I recommend you to do so.
 I woke up earlier than I had to and got ready to eat and suit up. Eating is the worst thing before exams and even thou Kristýna made me an amazing sandwich with everything you'd ever wish for I was not able to eat even half of it. I turned to my backup plan: smoothie. You can put almost anything in there and it's easy to take in, even when nervousness inhibits your appetite.
 The walk to anatomy department was very hot, it was indeed a god day, so I had to take my jacket off. The atmosphere in the building was really at unease. Most of the students from both the national and international parallel were already there - and I thought I was early with 15 minutes on the safe side. I found three friendly faces outside and we immediately started to share our thoughts about what was about to follow. I honestly cannot recall the great many things we discussed; "what-if"'s, "I-think"'s and "I've-heard"'s. I am, as you might have understood from earlier posts, not a man that speculates - however, even I had a difficult to brace myself.

The announcement finally arrived and we were summoned in the small lecture hall. A division was made and we international students ended up together with what I guess were 1/3 of the national students. We placed ourselves accordingly to the organization made by the exam assistants and after a quick introduction the slides began. I will not give details about the test itself, since a summary can be written in an earlier post.
 It was much more difficult than I anticipated. The slides were often of unknown origin, i.e. they are from an atlas or painter I, and I believe many other international students, did not recognize. With this said, the ability to be able to apply your specific knowledge from one atlas to schemes from another is very much valued. After all, the anatomy, in theory, is almost all the same - with variation of depth of details of course.
After handing in our tests we were sent off to the lobby with time to kill - and anxiety to suppress. We gathered again and started to deal with reason and non-reason. With no certainty of one’s grade, and I should here mention the 21/30 to pass limit, we all compared answers and possible mistakes.

I scored 22 and a sigh of relief, yet slight disappointment, left my lungs. I was through to the next round. Students who did not pass the introduction test had to leave and those left among me, a good 60%, left off into different directions depending on what examiner they got. Of us international student I believe no one got the same examiner. There were two of the examiners I really dreaded; Prof. Elizka and Prof. Druga. They are both amazing anatomists, the former in lymphatics and the later in central nervous system, which is a good reason why one should be humble once facing them.

I was led to the practical part of the exam first and to my surprise the professors were not examining here. It was both organized and held by docents and their assistants which, was sort of a relief at the moment. This part did not present much fear nor problem to pass for me. The knowledge from the studies during the summer dissection course, not too long ago, was still rather fresh and well embedded in my spine. Since I had to wait a good hour to get into the practical I understood that I would be one of the last to go to the oral part – a prediction that later proved to be correct.

Inside Prof. Elizka’s office posters of lymphatic systems were hanging from the walls both high and low and boxes with unidentifiable items were placed into towers in every corner. It was a very comic scene that hit me as a nice mind break in all the stress. Take notice, I would never call a Professor’s office messy so what I describe is a creative chaos much convenient to the person behind it, but certainly not for a confused and stressed out student.

Five national colleagues were already present preparing their presentations by scribbling down as much as their brainpower could afford in the pressing heat from outside streaming in through an open window in the corner. I looked around and nodded politely in a good luck meaning manner to those who met my gaze. The assistant that had showed me the way to the office showed me my seat and I was given a bunch of papers from a stock of what looked like a well written, formal document in Czech. “Not what one expect on an exam…” I thought and followed it up with “…but recycling papers are a great thing…!”.
I prepared my pencils and the assistant approached with a bucket. Inside were the questions and I randomly picked a number coding for this set of questions:
- Muscles and Fascias; of the back.
- Kidney; structure, syntopy and blood supply.
- The Eye; blood supply, ciliary and pupillary reflex.
- CNS; spinothalamic-, spinoreticular- and spinotectal tracts.
 I was at first puzzled by the set of questions and did not know where to start. I began by drawing as much as I could about the kidney since it was, in my opinion, the easier question. After that I sort of jumped from one drawing to another since I didn’t know how much time I had left. I understood from the order of students that I would be the last one which meant that I had four students ahead of me equal to about 20 minutes minimum each. After I had drawn for what felt like 3 hours I was finally done and couldn’t possibly get more out of my head. My six pages were filled with drawing from different angles showing different structures and I began to plan in which order to present them. Since I didn’t write more than one sentence I also had to come up with what to actually say.

This is the actual schemes I drew, however one page is missing:




 All of a sudden my time was up and the last student before me unfortunately for him did not pass but fortunately for me I now thought that this opens up a chance for me to perform better an impress. Because that is what it is about – to impress the examiner with your knowledge and ability to present it.

In a regular fashion Prof. Elizka wanted me to begin with the CNS question about the spinothalamic tract. I presented my scheme, which he was very pleased with, and I just brainstormed as much as I could. He then did an unexpected move and asked me about the reticular formation, a complete different structure within the brain but with connections to the spinoreticular tract. I was at first caught off guard but came back in the game and could move on to the second question. With the nice backup of my schemes (I once again argue in favour of schemes) could rely on always having the knowledge approved in illustration. I have really no idea how long my exam lasted, time is not of the essence as you are getting hit by question after question but I remember that it ended in a neat discussion about Sweden since Prof. Elizka recently visited a congress there.

In risk of being too self confident I can end by saying that I was very satisfied with my performance and I am glad that the grade reflects my ambition. After the even I can say that it is a very good experience to be put in the hot seat in front of someone of great importance and with a level of studies that exceeds your own by a thousandfold.
Gratitude is also to be able to have such an examiner that allows discussion about the subject and lets you correct yourself if proven wrong. Being well prepared is the key retrieved by repetition and practice in presentation of the subjects.

Next challenge is Histology which I fear will be far much worse. For now, good night and may reason strengthen your mind...

Science can be HOT!

You all know how we used to burn ants with magnification glasses when we were kids. Don't scold me if you didn't, I know it was a bad thing to do.
In this amazing video Jem Stansfield melts a rock in the Solar Furnace Research Facility in Southern France with what's got to be one of the most powerful magnification glasses ever created.