Whoa, re-minisce made me the subject of one of his posts! :P

"In other news, hordes of sex-crazed recalcitrant miscreants have descended upon spacefan's blog, taking her to hithero unimagined heights of ecstacy.

Okay, reality check. Actually she's just been getting a lot of hits from my site (eh? A lot of people read my site?) via the url link on the left (Disturbingly rabid Clay groupie).

After a gentle chiding (pow! biff! bang! etc) re-minisce has decided for the well being of various individuals (himself notwithstanding, kindly left standing) to state explicitly that the Clay in "Clay groupie" refers specifically to Clay Aiken, and not the common garden variety that resembles a small, unintelligent lump of putty. (Recommended read : Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett)

So to you perverts flocking to Spacefan's site : get yer minds outta the gutter and purge from yer nasty little minds those deviant, gooey erotic images of Demi wossname and Patrick whositwhatsit, passionately (but productively) transforming a messy, shapeless lump of clay, into a messy, shapeless lump of clay.

;)"

But... he forgot to add "Aiken". Aargh! :)

Slow Saturday afternoon. Reeeeaaaaalllllllyyyyyyyyy sssssllllllooooooowwwwww. The Chinese New Year festivities must be keeping everyone away. Cool. Nothing better than sitting on your butt and reading magazines, surfing the Net, and earning money for it. :D Too bad the Shift Allowance thingy hasn't begun yet. By March, we'll be back to the crazy hell that this ER is famous for and used to. Darn.

I'm finally catching up with my pile of Time magazines. In the Jan 12 issue, there is an article titled "The Return of SARS?" ( note the question mark ), by Karl Taro Greenfield. Nothing sensational within, just straightforward reporting from a more political viewpoint, but the last paragraph had this:

( With regard to the recent case confirmed only through lab tests, and concerning a patient with no known exposure to the virus ) The pressing question is where did this infection come from?

"If this is SARS," says Huang Wenjie, director of respiratory diseases at Guangzhou General Military Hospital, "that means it is out in the community, and this may be a seasonal disease." One that, in all likelihood, won't be eradicated any time soon.

"Seasonal disease" is a very nice way of putting it. How about "sporadic, unpredictable outbreaks that have the potential to spread like wildfire and wipe out thousands of helpless human beings, with no hope of a cure"? Sorry if this sounds alarming, but it's the truth. Some already postulate that SARS can remain dormant, subsequently reactivating itself when conditions are optimal. Future cases won't be confined to laboratory staff or scientists or medical personnel -- they will very likely be people ensconced in the thick of society, coming into contact with hundreds of others on a daily basis. No-one outside of the hospital wears masks, thus the easy mode of transmission. (And by the way, all that brainwashing about covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze has gone down the drain. Just go to any public place in Singapore and you'll know exactly what I mean. ) The Chinese population is now becoming more mobile, both within and outside their country. And with the incubation period of up to 21 days, you could be sitting next to a SARS patient without even knowing he's already infectious.

Frightening? I hope so. I can understand the need to play this down, and I'm certainly not running around screaming, "We're all gonna die!", but bear in mind the danger of playing this down too much, and letting complacency take root and fester into outright arrogance. One of my registrars did right when she stopped me during a resuscitation, telling me to wear the space suit prior to intubating the guy. I found myself saying, "But he has no risk factors for SARS." Her answer was simple: "Better to be safe than sorry. Just put it on."

Wise words to remember. Stay alert, people. The battle is far from over.

Before I go, here's something to alleviate whatever gloom I may have caused. :)

The Happy P**** Song

[ obviously, the composer hasn't heard of PARAPHIMOSIS -- go check your medical dictionary ]