Because it's okay to just post a video?

Compressions by an Australian Opium Eater

angry doc has always wondered where drug companies that manufacture opiate-containing drugs got their 'legitimate' opium from - now he knows.


Opium-eating wallabies get high, make crop circles

SYDNEY (AFP) - - Wallabies are getting "as high as a kite" on opium in Australian poppy fields and flattening crops as they hop round in circles, according to a report.

The marsupials, which look like small kangaroos, have been getting into medical opium crops in the southern island state of Tasmania and chewing on the plant's intoxicating heads, state officials said.

"We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," state attorney-general Lara Giddings told a parliamentary estimates hearing.

"Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high," local media reported Ms Giddings as saying.

Tasmania is the world's largest producer of legally-grown opium for the pharmaceutical market, with about 500 farms supplying approximately 50 percent of the raw material for morphine and other opiate drugs.

Livestock and other animals, such as deer and sheep, which eat the plants had also been seen acting "weird," industry spokesman Rick Rockliff said.

"There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles," he said.


Tasmania is beginning to sound like a nice holiday destination...

Because it's okay to cry

Confidence Goods 14

Does this sound familiar?


Website to put up hospital ‘scoreboard’
Cancer support website to collect public feedback on patient services
by Lin Yanqin

FROM time to time, medical professionals may need gentle reminders to show more empathy and care when dealing with patients.

And the founder of a cancer support website hopes to do just that, by helping members of the public send notes to doctors and nurses from public hospitals whom they feel have not carried out their duties well.

So that such feedback does not go unnoticed, the number of such notes - called “Smart Chips” - received by each hospital will be tallied on a “scoreboard” on the website www.cancerstory.com.

Said website founder Lee Soh Hong, 47: “By having members of the public come together to express their concern, I think it will draw the public hospitals’ attention and help them realise that they need to do something about their shortcomings.”

But the idea has drawn criticism from some medical professionals, who doubt the effectiveness of such a feedback mechanism.

Ms Lee, a freelance accountant, started this initiative following the feedback she received on the book she wrote last year about her father’s death and her negative experience with the care he received in a public hospital.

Changi General Hospital chief executive officer T K Udairam felt that the scoreboard created an unfair basis for comparison.

“Some of the public hospitals are large and see a huge volume of patients, so it’s likely they will gather more notes and feedback than other hospitals,” he said. Hence, it would be unfair to draw conclusions based on numbers alone.

The hospital has five different feedback mechanisms, all of which are actively used. “We get emails and calls every day,” said Mr Udairam.

“It’s a complex balance between the patient’s expectations and whether we can meet them as a public hospital, and I don’t know if this (initiative) can address (the complexities).”

A nurse from a public hospital said she did not understand the need for the initiative, since patients can send their feedback to the hospital or the medical personnel themselves.

“I think it’s more sensible to encourage communication between the public and us,” said the 34-year-old nurse, who declined to be named. “This seems roundabout.”

Ms Lee acknowledged that the initiative was not a perfect solution. “I have spoken to doctors and nurses I know, and while they were encouraging, they also said that it’s up to (individuals) whether they take the message to heart,” she said.

“There is no quick fix to influence others, and it will take time for Smart Chips to be successful in reminding doctors and nurses to play their roles professionally. But I think it’s worth a try.”

Ms Dorothy Tan, 46, an accounts and admin manager and a supporter of the initiative, felt it was a good move.

“It’s another outlet for people to make their feelings known and I think it creates a bigger sense of accountability for improvement for the hospitals,” said Ms Tan.


If it does, maybe it's because you read about a similar idea here almost three years ago?

It is difficult to predict how Ms Lee's project will turn out, but angry doc is not optimistic that such a scheme will improve the quality of care delivered by the hospitals. angry doc doesn't care if his patients feel good after seeing him - he just wants them to get better. He eagerly awaits his first "chip".

1.6 billion viewers can't be wrong

How about that?

Libel Laws and Blogging Against Quackery 2

(Posted on the Singapore MD blog.)

Changes 2

(Posted on the Singapore MD blog.)

Family Values

"just being strong for all of us the way Papa was..."

While the world frets over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, angry doc actually find the whole episode rather heart-warming in the light of this news story:

North Korea's Kim picks third son as successor

SEOUL : South Korea's main spy agency believes North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has designated his third and youngest son, Jong-un, as his successor, a lawmaker said.

The South's National Intelligence Service (NIS) informed a closed parliamentary hearing on Monday of the development, Park Jie-Won of the main opposition Democratic Party said in an SBS radio interview.

"I was notified by the government (Monday) that there are such movements, and that (North Koreans) are making pledges of loyalty to Kim Jong-Un," he said.

According to South Korean media reports, Kim is understood to have informed his military, parliament and diplomats abroad of the nomination shortly after the communist North's second nuclear test on May 25.

The NIS and other officials declined to confirm the reports.

"Our ministry has yet to confirm the nomination of Kim Jung-Un as successor," Chun Hae-Sung, spokesman for the unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs, told reporters.

The succession is a subject of intense interest, notably after South Korean and US officials said Kim Jong-Il, 67, suffered a stroke in August last year. He is thought to have since recovered and resumed most of his duties.

Quoting well-informed sources, the Dong-a daily said North Koreans were being taught new songs apparently aimed at instilling loyalty to the next leader, addressing Jong-Un as "General Kim."

Yonhap first reported in January that Kim Jong-Il had nominated Jong-Un as his successor and informed the ruling communist party leadership of his choice but there has been no official announcement from the North.

Jong-Un was born to the leader's third wife, Ko Yong-Hi, who reportedly died of breast cancer in 2004. He was educated at an international school in Switzerland. It is not known whether he holds any official post.

Kim's eldest son -- Jong-Nam, 37, who was born to a different mother -- apparently spoiled his prospects as leader after being deported from Japan in 2001 for trying to enter the country with a forged passport.

Some analysts have seen his second son, 27-year-old Kim Jong-Chul, as the favourite to take over.

But Kenji Fujimoto, a former Japanese sushi chef for the North Korean leader, has said in a memoir that Kim thought of Jong-Chul as too feminine and unfit for leadership.

He described Jong-Un as a "chip off the old block, a spitting image of his father in terms of face, body shape and personality."

- AFP

angry doc believes that if you look beyond all the communist ideology (who believes in that these days anyway?) and the realpolitiks, the whole nuclear thing is just about, to paraphrase Connie Corleone, "papa being strong for all of us" and Kim Jong Il wanting his son to have the power to protect the family, just as his father had wanted his son to. How can anyone fault someone who values family so much?

Once again, "The Godfather" answers all of life's questions...

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Quote of the Week 2

"Religiously informed values, on the other hand, do not shift with the mood prevailing in society, at least in theory. This is the positive contribution which religious conviction can bring to the debate and formulation of policies and laws."

- Mr Melvyn Lim, on why "religiously-informed" values are superior to secular values.