Horizontal Perspective 横顾天下

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*I’m not dead yet

Sometime ago Alice, my regular nurse from Hospice Care Association, had upgraded her mobile phone with a newer one. She was here visiting and taking my blood pressure when the phone went off with an unusual ring-tone. To be specific, it went dit-dit-dit dah-dah dit-dit-dit (that’s 3 short-2 long-3 short, or … – - … ). She did not stop to answer and I was not surprised. After all it was merely an incoming text message. How do I know ? That was because I recognize that the tone was in Morse code, and the message was ‘SMS’ (Short Message Service). It easy to spot due to its close resemblance to the International Distress Call ‘SOS’ (that one has the distinctive 3 short-3 long-3 short beeps).

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In the new Vatican of Pope Benedict XVI, Latin is once again “in”

BBC 22 Apr 2005 – Latin makes Vatican City comeback

Forty years ago the Vatican decided to drop Latin as the official language of the mass and switch to the vernacular. When he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI originally supported the idea of dropping the Latin mass. Now he is Pope, he has apparently had a rethink and Italians are struggling to keep up. Latin language courses at the Papal University are already oversubscribed. Italian schools dropped Latin as a compulsory language many years ago and classics pundits are being called in to explain the terminology on television.

The last Latin mass I attended was the Easter early morning (6a.m.) mass at St. Michael’s church in Ipoh back when I was a Form 3 student in Sam Tet High School. To me, there were not much difference when the priest switched to English because I wasn’t all that much interested in what was going on. However, Latin did not fade away in my daily life. Quite the contrary, it popped up every now and then, sometimes in the most unlikely circumstances. It would not be wrong if I were to say, from my perspective, Latin can be found everywhere. For example, one day during second year of Pharmacy class Prof. Lucy Wan nearly knocked me to the floor when she quoted “Fiat Lux” (that’s “Send light”, or in a more well-known version,  “Let there be light” from the opening chapter of Genesis).

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Lately the TV had been showing episodes of Star Wars and the animation ‘The Clone War’, and so the familiar musical score by John William is getting frequent airing. While I really enjoy listening to John William’s compositions, I am reminded of a less well known French composer: Francis Lai. While his music had made a big splash in my high school days, I was not aware of him until early 1981. (more…)

Five years after technical experts said hospital-wide bans on mobile phones were not needed, UK hospitals are set to allow a more liberal use of mobile phones.

While acknowledging that patients wanted access to their phones, NHS managers stressed patients’ rights to peace and quiet should not be violated by ring tones and text alerts.

The British Medical Association said there were also strong arguments for doctors to have mobiles and other devices, to improve communication and care.

Areas where phones should not be used would be clearly indicated so that patients and staff are fully aware. These include areas with sensitive medical equipment, as in intensive care and specialist baby units.

Doctors and nurses doing their rounds should not have to constantly wait for patients to finish phone calls and night-times on wards should not be disturbed by the chirruping of text messages.

Original report in BBC

UK scientists are working on a new stethoscope that picks us a wider range of heart sounds. Researchers say they believe the device will lead to more rapid diagnosis of coronary artery disease. They hope such diagnoses will be eventually carried out in GPs’ surgeries.

This should be in every GP’s office, you go in to the GP with a cold and they should just stick this little multi-channel stethoscope to your chest.

They have designed and built a new “super” stereo stethoscope that uses six microphones instead of one. “It is essentially just six little round microphones about the size of a US quarter, connected to a computer.  On the screen you can see the lub, dub sounds of your heart, a little peak for the lub and a little peak for the dub evolve across the screen. Hidden between these peaks are the sounds that can tell a great deal about heart disease.”

The device is now being used by a team of cardiologists at St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin. The research team are collecting data to bolster the scientific credentials of the new stethoscope.

What needs to be understood is that many of these heart conditions can be treated, once you diagnose them accurately.  For the moment we do have the treatment – but we don’t have the technology to do a proper diagnosis.

Original Report from BBC

Humans could be protected from dengue fever by infecting the mosquitoes carrying it with a parasite which halves their lifespan, say researchers. Australian scientists, writing in the journal Science, found that Wolbachia bacteria spread well through laboratory-bred mosquitoes. Only older mosquitoes pass on dengue – so killing them could cut disease. Experts said it remained to be seen how well the bacteria would spread outside the laboratory.  The virus might also adapt to survive, they added.

Original report on BBC