[bertwert]

A bond that cannot be broken...even by death.

Not really the same thing... but made me think of the last panel in this xkcd:

I can entertain with a couple of medical anecdotes, if you guys enjoy stuff like that?

Love that stuff, keep them coming - that spoon one was good.

[tim60]

Charles Bell's sketches? Yes, rather interesting. I have no idea what 'coileon' means (and Google isn't giving any results), but I assume we're talking about intestines spilling out after sabre wounds?

By the way, I don't have many hilarious Rupert-style stories to tell yet, but I can entertain with a couple of medical anecdotes, if you guys enjoy stuff like that?

You are right about the part of the body. The Greeks saw the intestines as the part that is all coiled up.

[tim60]

Yep, I've heard stories like that. However, since formaldehyde has been classified as a 'possible human carcinogenic', regulations have become very strict. The Bavarian ministry in charge actually tried to close down all dissection classes, but our department head went through a lot of hassle and a costly renovation, including installation of advanced ventilation systems that suck the air right out through little slits running along the rim of the tables, in order to keep the classes going. They also experimented with different formaldehyde contents in order to get the concentration down as much as possible without getting to a point where the bodies start to rot. As a result the smell isn't nearly as bad as stories suggest, and if I smell my clothes afterwards I am never quite sure whether I can actually smell it, or am just imagining it. Certainly haven't got any strange looks in the subway yet

Funny enough, the smell seems to be different for everyone. For me it smells a bit like a Christmas market (alcoholic + sweet smell = mulled wine? ), others smelled bananas, one girl smelled cheeseburgers, and others again just think it smells of alcohol.



Okay, let's start with a good one. This one I call Spoon in the Brain.

The university hospital I did the research for my MSc in is one of only two institutions left in the UK that still do psychosurgery - pretty much neurosurgery for mental disorders. It was a big thing back in the days, but as it became apparent that cutting around in people's brains usually doesn't help much (think 'lobotomy') it has fallen out of favour. It can still be effective in certain cases though (don't ask me how or when, I'm not an expert on that ). So my second supervisor, who happened to be the clinical head of the research division, told me the story of a patient who came in and had this kind of surgery. He was tested again afterwards and it got a bit better. However, he wasn't quite satisfied, so after he got home he took a knife, opened the fresh suture, took out the piece of bone again, grabbed a kitchen spoon (I assume a tea spoon, but he didn't specify) and scrambled around in his brain a bit. Now, that sounds pretty crazy (and it is!), but there are no pain receptors in the brain, so once he was in the scrambling itself wouldn't have hurt. Obviously it bled a lot, so he went back to the hospital where everyone started facepalming and freaking out. They patched him up again and did very extensive testing. The result: he got even better. He did a better job with a spoon than the surgeons did in the OR.

This is the kind of story that I'd safely classify as an urban legend, but given I got it as a first-hand account from a renowned professor, I tend to believe it

And thanks for the wishes Rupert. It sure is a lot of work, but so interesting that I cannot really complain.

So was your professor planning a double blind empirical research study with sufficient participants that 99% level statistically significant results could be achieved on that method?


And on your first part. Some activities are inherently dangerous. Something that concerns me are education institutions, at all levels from trade to universities, stopping practical classes in inherently dangerous things to remove the risk from the college or university. So where do they learn to do the activity for real? When they are doing it on real people. How would you feel if your pilot came on and said "my university closed the real flying school because they were worried about possible insurance claims if a student crashed a plane, so they only taught us in simulators. Today is my first day flying a real plane because [name airline] actually wants real passengers flown around."


I actually worked at a university that had a flying school. The vice chancellor closed it because of the risk and outsourced to a particular private flying school, transferring all students who had already paid for classes. The last action would have increased the risks because if something went wrong in the other provider the students could claim because they had bought from the university who had then made a unilateral transfer to another provider.

[Racer X 69]

We had snow here Friday morning. When I left for work at 4am is was snowing flakes bigger than a silver dollar, so heavily that it was difficult to see anything.

It piled up quickly, but I made it to the Biggest Building In The World before the roads got messy.

You Tube

You Tube

It was gone by noon though.

Today I cleaned the North side of the house and roof. Been almost 10 years. Looked like the North side of a tree. Lichen of many varieties, and some moss had communities all over the place.

Should be cleaner from now on, I placed zinc strips along the ridge and upper portions of the porch roof recently. It was already killing the moss that was taking hold at the lower edges of the shingles.

Now I need to learn carpentry. There is some trim and soffit boards that need attention.

---

Last edited by Racer X 69; 11-05-2017 at 12:16 AM.

[FantasticMrFox]

Love that stuff, keep them coming - that spoon one was good.

Here's another one. I call it ... wait, no, this one isn't getting a name, because the only fitting one would attract the mods

Anyway, back in the day when my primary supervisor, now close to retirement, was still starting out as a junior doctor, he worked in neurology in a hospital in Glasgow. They had a middle-aged woman with a serious lower spine injury. Until they figured out whether it was operable they put her in some kind of wire mesh contraption that was designed to completely keep her from moving, but in order to provide a bit of a change of positions it was attached to two poles at the front and back end, so she could be turned on her belly or her back, a bit like a pig being roasted over a campfire.

Some very important surgeon was being flown in from the US to have a look. Apparently a rather self-important man, he stormed into the ward immediately demanding to see the patient. My supervisor was assigned to take him to the room. As they entered, the surgeon just walked up to the patient, stuck a finger up her ... backside, pulled it out, proclaimed that they'd be operating tomorrow, and left. The patient, turned on her belly and thus unable to see anything, wailed "WHO WAS THAT?!", to which my supervisor, quite the cheeky guy, nonchalantly replied: "I don't know, I thought you knew him?!"



Now, of course there was a medical background to the whole 'sticking a finger up her bum' procedure: the surgeon was assessing the anal sphincter's tone in order to check whether the muscle is still correctly being innervated. If it reacts/constricts, there are still signals getting through the spine all the way down to the anus. However, I believe nowadays you'd immediately lose your job if you just walked up to a patient and wordlessly and unannouncedly stuck a finger up their bum

[Rupert]

However, I believe nowadays you'd immediately lose your job if you just walked up to a patient and wordlessly and unannouncedly stuck a finger up their bum

I bet that mustard jar guy would love that kind of doctor.....you think?

Another good medical story! Good to have a little variety here.

Regards!

[robtcorl]

I'm not normally the squeamish type

I'm not either, but glad I decided to skip that one.
I'll wait until we get back to bacon, beer, bbq, and cheese.
No lutefisk or bagpipes, those do make me squeamish.

[Rupert]

I'm not either, but glad I decided to skip that one.

Here is one I wish I had skipped....and I have a cast iron stomach.
8 Animals Eaten Alive in China - Graphic Content - China Underground

I can never make any sense out of such things as this.....why do people do this when they are not starving? Even starving, I'd have to pass on eating live critters.

Regards!

[bertwert]

We had snow here Friday morning. When I left for work at 4am is was snowing flakes bigger than a silver dollar, so heavily that it was difficult to see anything.

We had snow on Halloween, and all of November it's been below freezing; right now it's -15C (5F).

[robtcorl]

We had snow on Halloween, and all of November it's been below freezing; right now it's -15C (5F).

Currently 72F, going up to 78F, then a high of 54F tomorrow.
Storms later today and night to take down the leaves that finally got colorful.

[gaweidert]

Currently 72F, going up to 78F, then a high of 54F tomorrow.
Storms later today and night to take down the leaves that finally got colorful.

Wow. 20 degrees F lower here in Rochester. Rainy and miserable.

[FantasticMrFox]

Currently 72F, going up to 78F, then a high of 54F tomorrow.

It's around 23 and a half Schwoinks here in Munich, but supposed to go into the negative Kaschwebbels soon.

[Rupert]

Pretty warm today...but cooling off this week.


Cooler and dryer is good for me! Even small changes in the weather affect my breathing. Dry is good ..humid bad!

Regards!

[savoche]

beer

I walked past this scooter yesterday - first one I've seen with this big a fueltank for the driver.




"Not taken with a K-3"™

[Rupert]

We had snow on Halloween, and all of November it's been below freezing; right now it's -15C (5F).

...so what you are saying is it is not skirt weather at your place?