Evil

Although I tend to believe J.K. Rowling has no hidden meaning of her story, the characters she put up - Riddle, Slughorn, Malfoy, and Snape - are vivid illustration of why evil people could come along and form a party.

• One of them has a complicated background that end up in a crooked mind and strongly believe he is doing good.
• Some are taken in by the initial charm of the leader or the beauty of Utopia.
  
• Others do not have the freedom to choose.
• A few wished to do something and rectify the wrong-doings.

No, hardly any one would want to do bad things. Even Claudius and Macbeth had their own benevolent agenda. Most of the tragedies in human history came from people who tried to do good in a mistaken way.

And, it is the effort to understand why some people do evil things that put a book to a higher level of achievement.

My salute to Shakespeare.

Potter

Watched The Half-Blood Prince with Vivian.

My wife is a fan of Harry Potter; I had an entertaining two-and-a-half hour. To say the least, it brought me warm memory of the year in England.

From the point of view of David Yates, it was not an easy job to put the sixth novel of J.K. Rowling into a movie - many of the details were preparation for the final book. I believe it is for the interest of the box office that substantial length was left for the affair between Ron, Hermione, and Lavender, as well as Harry and Ginny. Yes, those were interesting - and probably successful too. But it lacks substance in depth, which a mature (alas, senile) audience would long for.

For example, how about some little stories of Tom Riddle in Hogwarts - that paved his way to Lord Voldemort ? Or, Professor Slughorn's dinner talks and eternal regret of supporting Riddle in the early days ? Oh, also the internal conflict of Draco Malfoy - who came to realize he was put into a path of no return ?

And, of course, there was Severus Snape.

We need a better dosage of the former Potions master - in every aspect.

Astronomer

You find my grumble on the philosophical (probably metaphysical) question of making choice and the history of Roman Empire irrelevant ? In fact, I have the same feeling.

And the story Astronomer in Aesop's Fables comes to my mind.

Here it goes:

An astronomer used to go out at night to observe the stars. One evening, as he wandered through the suburbs with his whole attention fixed on the sky, he fell accidentally into a deep well. While he lamented and bewailed his sores and bruises, and cried loudly for help, a neighbor ran to the well, and learning what had happened said, "Hark ye, old fellow, why, in striving to pry into what is in heaven, do you not manage to see what is on earth?"

As my neighbour, you may be right. On the other hand, more often than not, we just focus on the earth while walking in the wood (or worse, sailing in an uncharted sea) and soon lose our way ...

... unless we look up to the Polaris for guidance.

Roman

While thinking of Edward Gibbon, it comes to me that the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is not entirely irrelevant to what we are facing.

The original theory of Gibbon was rather simple: The decay in the moral quality of Roman citizens resulted in an increasing reliance of barbarian (Germanic) mercenaries for the defense of the country, leading to "cultural dilution" and the loss of some "core value" of the original Empire.

Sounds familiar, eh ?

If not, maybe you would find the theory of Arnold Toynbee more alarming:

You know what, the Romans had no budgetary system and wasted whatever resource available. The tax system and economy was largely based on a few financial tyrants (who had command on a huge slave labor). Small scale farmers could not survive, and they were forced to move to the over-populated cities - and probably become slaves of those tyrants. There was no middle class with purchasing power. An overspending government means that financial needs continued to increase, but the means of meeting them steadily eroded.

I shouldn't say any more.

Choice

In fact, it has been an eternal problem of me for having the freedom to make whatever comments I like.

Take a glimpse at the morning paper, a few more topics deserve a few paragraphs: the Book Fair, the (secret) run for the new CE, the new proposal on environment protection by our government, and, following the wording of Edward Gibbon, the Decline and Fall of Hong Kong.

And, take another look around, there are even more topics at hand: students, junior colleagues, administrators, educationalists, kings-to-be, and their king-makers.

But, in general I waved off a dozen of ideas before putting one into words. More often than not, when I think twice, I find myself at a lost and am not sure what is right or wrong, or if there are clear definitions of the two.

Unknowingly I feel the Apple inherited from Adam, and once again realize I have left Eden for such a long time.

Freedom

On a second thought, who could be really free ?

Lovers of philosophy would recognize this has been an eternal question. The traditional analogy is: a falling stone would believe it is free to move - although in reality everything it does is because of gravity.

And, for the same reason, I could be blinded and my view could be inadvertently affected by my background, position, knowledge, or ignorance on a particular subject. When I laugh at someone for blindly following Karl Marx or Adolf Hitler, could it be the result of my reading too much Adam Smith and Winston Churchill ?

On this, until very recently, I was head-to-toe against Spinoza, who argued that even human behaviour is fully determined, with freedom being our capacity to know we are determined and to understand why we act as we do. After writing this blog for 18 months or so, I find myself seeing things slightly differently, and become more close to the lens polisher.

Opinion

During a casual conversation, my friend JW asked (rather subtly) if I could have a free hand to write anything I like.

Of course not.

Oh, there is no influence from the extra-terrestrials. But, to say the least, although things could be as clearly written on the face as Inspector Thumm's big red nose, Drury Lane never made a comment (throughout the four Tragedy novels of Barnaby Ross) to hurt the feeling of the police.

And, more often than not, things are not that clear and I am not sure of my own feeling. I dare not make a haphazard description of my idea - but rather presenting merely materials in the sequence that I see it, and leave the audience to form their own opinion.

As Hercule Poirot said to Arthur Hastings (in Murder on the Links): We see the same things. Shouldn't we make the same conclusion ?

Of course not, I know.

Disclaimer

While thinking of what's missing in the book, it suddenly comes to my mind that many medical textbook would have a certain disclaimer on the front page. It should be something like this:

Medical knowledge is constantly changing. The editors and the publisher have taken care to ensure that the information given in this text is accurate and up to date. However, readers are strongly advised to confirm that the information, especially with regard to drug usage and dosage, complies with the latest legislation and standards of practice.

Alas, this very statement is again missing in our textbook.

In fact, I believe an additional disclaimer should have been added to our one:

The editors and the publisher do not guarantee coverage of all important topics of internal medicine. Readers are strongly advised to confirm the scope of knowledge required for real life medical practice as well as public examination.

PS. It is exactly for considerations of this kind I am all against a black-and-white syllabus of a medical school.

The more rules, the more omissions.

Missing

• aortic dissection
• bronchiectasis
• occupational lung disease
• pneumothorax
• pulmonary hypertension
• deep vein thrombosis / pulmonary embolism
• renal artery stenosis
• IgA nephropathy
• vasculitis
• amyloidosis
• scleroderma
• gout
• osteoarthritis
• septic arthritis / osetomyelitis
• osteoporosis
• diabetic ketoacidosis / hyperosmolar coma
  
• thalassemia
• myleoproliferative disorders
• hyperlipidemia
• headache / migraine
  
• typhoid fever
• dermatology
• hemochromatosis, porphyria, and metabolic disorders
• geriatric / rehabilitation / palliative medicine

The list is of course incomplete. As Philo Vance said: Nothing flawless is natural or genuine.

But that's not an excuse to make some shaky product and poison our next generation.

Graduate

Time: 8:30 AM, 2nd July, 2011
Place: General medical ward of certain university hospital

"Good morning, madam. I am Dr. X. What's your problem ?" The first-year medical officer was eager to start his ward round.

"Quite a few," murmured the old woman, "I have a long history of high blood lipid and weak bones, and now it is this ankle pain."

"I see ..." the doctor considered for a while, "But to me you could be classified as having an excellent health; neither hyperlipidemia nor osteoporosis were medical conditions in my textbook."

"What ?" The patient was taken aback. But she continued, "My friend told me that this ankle pain is gout. Do you agree, doctor ?"

"Of course not, the word gout does not appear in my textbook either." This Dr. X found himself sounded like Napoleon.

**************************

That night, the woman died suddenly.

Understandably, a post-mortem was arranged. Her family raised a complaint, and, a few months later, Dr. X was summoned to the coroners court.

"According to the pathologist, this woman actually had a blood clot in her leg - and she died because part of the clot went up to the lung." The judge explained, "What do you have to say, Dr. X ? Have you considered this possibility when treating the patient ?"

"Of course not," the new generation doctor did not concede easily, "In my textbook, there's nothing called deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism. I don't think these conditions exist, and we have to declare this lady could not have died. Can we summon her and check ?"

"Well, maybe you would like to go to where she is now living and see to the problem ..."

For once, I agree with a judge.

和珅

To many people, there seems very little value of knowing the funny languages of some minor tribes.

But, if you are going to run a big country, you've got to understand what the minority groups say.

An excellent example is Qianlong (乾隆) of the Qing (清) Empire. It is commonly cited (partly as a result of some famous TV series) that he put too much confidence on Heshen (和珅) - the richest man on earth in the 18th century, and widely agreed as the most corrupted official in the history of China.

But Heshen had an edge. You know what, this treacherous courtier could speak and write fluent Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan. In an era when Qianlong had to settle all those problems between different regions of a gigantic empire, the capability was more than welcome.

And, by and large, Qianlong was successful - at least he was willing to listen to the voice of those funny languages of the minority.

PS. The linguistic talent brought Heshen to his position, but it was his exceptional financial skill that kept him there. That's another story.

寅恪

When hearing of the obituary of Ji Xianlin, I could not stop thinking of a - to me - greater linguist of modern China: Chen Yinke (陳寅恪).

If you think Ji was amazing for handling so many ancient (and modern) languages, have a look on this list of Chen: Mongolian, Tibetan, Manchu, Japanese, Sanskrit, English, French, German, Tripitaka, Persian, Turkic, Tangut script, Latin, and Greek.

More so, the main subject of his interest was not foreign languages - but the history of China in the Jin (晋) and Tang (唐) dynasty; he learned all those funny languages largely for studying relationship between the Central Kingdom and various western barbarians.

The story of Chen is a classic tragedy of fate. In 1941, he was invited by Xu Dishan (許地山) - at that time the chairman of the Department of Chinese Literature over the other side of the Victoria harbour - as the visiting professor. Two months later, Xu died rather suddenly, and Chen succeeded as the chairman. Later that year, Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese army.

During that time, Chen was very well treated because he could speak fluent Japanese. Nonetheless, that was a hard time for all Chinese; the patriotic professor made an escape and flew back to mainland the next year.

And the rest is history; Chen died in 1969 during the cultural revolution.

Well, who care about those funny things spoken by the ancient - and modern - western barbarians ?

PS. Although often regarded as the most knowledgeable person in modern China, Chen had no university degree - all he got was a diploma from the Fudan School (before it was upgraded to be a university).

羡林

While I was pondering on the history of the Uyghur and Hui people, the obituary of Ji Xianlin (季羡林) appeared on the morning paper.

I shall not join the debate on the significance of the academic contribution of Ji. (He was an expert in some foreign languages, but his contribution to Chinese history and literature was rather subtle. Moreover, most of his scholarly work was done before 1956 - when he joined the Communist Party.) Suffice to say the old professor was no doubt an expert in Indian culture and history, as well as ancient languages such as Tocharian (吐火羅語), Sanskrit (梵語), and Pali (巴利語).

Ji founded the Department of Eastern Languages at Peking University in 1946 - a place that is now well staffed with experts in Mongolian, Hebrew, Prussian, Korean, Thai, Burma, Indian, Philippine, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Sanskrit.

There seems no one interested in the history or language of Uyghur or Hui.

PS. Although Tocharian is usually regarded as an ancient language of India, much of the current knowledge is based on archaeological work in Xinjiang (新疆) - where Uyghur people are now living.

USSR

One hallmark of people of my age group is calling Russia (俄羅斯) USSR (蘇聯).

USSR stands for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which collapsed in 1991.

And the good old Russia came back, together with a number of other countries that we have difficulty to pronounce their names or trace their origin.

Maybe that's the reason they couldn't stay as a single nation.

******************************

When I first read the Animal Farm of George Orwell in the secondary school, I was naive enough to believe it was a story of the modern China - in fact, it was not difficult to find characters corresponding to the Old Major, Napoleon, Snowball, and so forth.

But, of course I was wrong - just that the history of Russia essentially repeated itself in our own country.

The worrying bit is: Would the story after the novel also happen a second time?

Hui

You may wonder isn't the Hui people (回族) descendants of the Uyghur Empire (回纥) ?

On that, you are wrong.

Most of the modern Hui people are descendants of Persian Muslim traders who settled in the Tang Empire. The Han (漢) people mixed them up with other tribes outside the Central Kingdom and gave a discriminating collective term: the Western Barbarians (西域胡人).

This group became even more heterogeneous when there came the Arabic, Mongol, Turkic (which shared the same origin as the Uyghur), Iranian, or other Central Asian settlers - mostly in the Yuan (元) dynasty.

By the way, most of the Hui people live in the Ningxia (寧夏) region now - while the original people from the Western Xia Empire (西夏), a branch of the Qiang tribe (羌族), has essentially disappeared on earth.

PS. You think all these irrelevant ?

May be. But, the eternal question is: What is relevant ?

Uyghur

The Uyghur (維吾爾) people attracted much attention recently. Somehow the incident was implied to be in collaboration with the group that fought for the independence of Tibet (西藏).

While I am no expert in modern politics, it is eye-opening when I review the origin of the two people:

You know what, the Uyghur people originated from the the Uyghur Empire (回纥), which occupied all lands north and west to the Tang (唐) Empire.

How about Tibets ? It came from the Tibetan Empire (吐蕃) at the same time; it sat at the south-west of Tang.

And, why did the Uyghur Empire collapsed ? Largely because of her war with the Tibetan.

By the way, why didn't anyone interview Örkesh Dölet (吾爾開希) ?

PS. The original Uyghur empire collapsed in around 850 A.D. - a remarkable time in history for a medical academic: the first newspaper (pioneer of a journal) was published in the Tang Empire, and, soon afterwards, the Salerna Medical School was established in Europe.

Textbook

While thinking about medical textbooks, my secretary gave me a complimentary copy of the one newly published by our own department.

Thumbing through the pages, I was, as Philo Vance said, so impressed that I lost my nerve.

My colleague CB was particularly critical with the Medieval layout and sordid pages. Well, that didn't really trouble me - we had textbooks of a similar physical appearance when we were students.

But it was the scientific quality.

On a second thought, I should not worry too much. Any student with a measurable (not necessarily normal) visual acuity (take aside intelligence) could see whether a textbook is up to the standard.

PS. One of my colleagues suggested, "Our own textbook is less expensive and more affordable by the students."

My reply, even without thinking, was,"If they could afford a graduation dinner in some exotic hotel, why couldn't they spare some money for a better book ?"

Principle

I must say I am not the best person - and probably not a suitable one - to talk about extrapolating available facts to form new knowledge.

You know what, TS, the other gold medalist of my class, used to study two tiny books (each no more than 300 pages) in his final years - one for medicine and the other surgery. Yes, he gathered much additional facts and pearls from clinical teaching. But, more importantly, he was exceptionally gifted for the ability of seeing the relation between facts and elaborate. In his hands, a 300-page Lecture Notes took the effect of a 3000-page standard text.

Of course, there is another type of learning behaviour. The autistic student (who became a malicious nephrologist later) in the opposite room of TS in the hostel was at the other end of the spectrum: He read gigantic texts, and often more than one for each subject. There was no need for an encyclopedic memory - all he could remember after finishing with those arm-breaking volumes was merely some relation between chapters and sections. To him, the 3000-page Principles was no more than a short Essential PassTest.

I'm not saying which method is better - just that you must decide which method would suite your style.

By the way, Harrison's is called the Principles, not because it describes only principles, but you should only remember the principles after reading it.

Facts

Some of you may be surprised to see me citing the work of Naoko Takeuchi (武内直子).

In fact, I have never read her comics. It is not necessary, however, to have an elaborated study on a certain subject before you could have some understanding.

On this , let me share with you several principles of learning that many of us know but could not follow:

• If you have to read aloud during reading, you can't read very fast. (That's simple. Most speedreading courses teach this.)
• If you have to write down everything you know, you can't know very much. (The implication is: Do not keep making notes on everything you learn.)
• If you always have to learn something by reading it, your knowledge would be very limited. (On this, the analogy is frequently used by the churchgoers: you do not have to see the God before believing.)

Knowledge is: From some available facts, we try to see the relation between them, extrapolate, and, when a new piece of fact appears, note whether our extrapolation holds, or our idea needs to be modified.

And, at the end of the day, we would do away with the facts, and remember only the relations and ideas.

This is what Zhuangzi (莊子) meant: 得魚忘筌.

Princess

The princess Setsuna Meioh visited our unit earlier this week - we were all very impressed.

My friend BK had the honour to show the princess our unit, and shared with her what our life on earth looked like. The questions (or, really, comments) that our young professor received, however, were phenomenal:

• How could you stay for so many years without promotion ?
• Do you (I believe she meant How frequent do you) have a salary rise ?
  
• It's nearly 10 years after graduation, and you still need to do front line work ?
• Is there any specialty that does not need to work hard ?
  

For the last question, I probably know the answer: If she has severe disability but manage to get into a medical school, she may well be exempted from some bedside exposure, the tough clinical examination, the internship - and get straight to a comforting job.

On a second thought, while Li Ka Shing and Warren Buffett have to work hard, wives and children of a billionaire usually do not.

(Of course you cannot choose your father.)

Go find a rich husband.

PS. The daughter of my friend VW certainly has the wisdom and makes such a decision while she is still in a kindergarten. See: vwswong.blogspot.com/2009/04/conversation.html

PPS. Don't you know who Setsuna Meioh is ? Go read Naoko Takeuchi (武内直子) !

Understand

My friend VW commented that not many people would understand my stories.

I think that's a good sign.

Many years ago, when I first tried writing, I was given this advice: Do not try to make it understandable by every people. Imagine you are talking to one person, and the rest of the readers are merely eavesdroppers. You should be satisfied if there is one who know what you mean.

After all, what could everyone understand ? When Albert Einstein presented his work on the general relativity, he was sure that no more than a handful of people on earth could know what he said - it doesn't make the theory wrong.

And, do you really understand everything written in the Bible ?

By the way, disaster would more likely happen if one believes he understands the meaning but in fact misses the whole of another layer of implication.

The unfortunate thing is: It is not always a disaster of the reader - but, equally likely, of the author.

PS. To a large extend I follow that early advice not only for my writing - but more so for my teaching of students. That's not a correct attitude, I know.

Reserve

(the interview of Florentino Perez continue ...)

"But you can't really keep Yao from the football field forever. However unwillingly, you would need to put him for a match or two - as a formality, gesture, or whatever ?" The reporter asked.

"Yes. At one point I think our fans and the public have to accept him as part of our team with a crutch." The president was positive.

"In that case, would your fans complaint if you loss the match ?"

"How could that happen ? Whoever complaint would be regarded as having discrimination against disabled players." The Spanish leader was not moved.

"But the gambling audience would not complaint about Yao," the reporter explained, "They would say your football club did not make the best of effort to win a game, or the other Real players did not put up sufficient extra effort to cover Yao. They would deny the deal if they lose money by betting on the wrong side. That would open a Pandora Box."

"Well ..." Perez began to hesitate, "In that case we'd better keep him on the reserve seat."

Publicity

The media was all excited with the news of Yao Ming joining Real Madrid - more so after Florentino Perez lost his temper in front of that naive journalist.

In that evening, the Real president accepted an interview by another magazine (probably to remedial what he did in the morning):

"We are surprised you accept another interview on this matter. Let me start with this: Does Yao himself knew that he could never join the real game ?" The reporter asked.

"I am sure he could guess that much," the Spanish leader explained. "It is plain enough that one cannot go to a football field with a crutch."

"Then, what's the point of signing him ?"

"What a question !" It is the president's turn to be surprised, "That attracts all the media and publicity ! It doesn't matter what-so-ever whether Yao could function as a football player; the point is, we show to the world that we do not discriminate against disabled people, and we could make him a player - at least on the paper - and that's an awesome achievement of our club."

"I really think we should begin feeling sorry for Yao ..." The reporter said to himself.

Author's declaration again:
This story is entirely fictitious. Any emotional feeling of the author that the audience believe they could observe must be wrong. As our Mr. Tsang emphasized, my saying (and writing) does not represent what I think.

Player

A shocking news appears on the morning paper: The football club Real Madrid (皇家馬德里) announce the signing of Yao Ming (姚明); the great Chinese basketball player would start a new profession.

But, hold on. Isn't Yao having a navicular fracture and couldn't even walk ? In fact, there seems a good possibility that the Chinese giant would not be able to run even if he recovers from the injury. Well, I find the following interview of Florentino Perez, the Real president, in the paper:

"That's not a problem," replied Perez. "We would modify our system of entrance physical examination so that Yao could complete - and pass - even if he sits on a wheelchair."

"If he couldn't walk, how could he join the game ?" A naive journalist asked.

"We may modify certain rules of the game," the president was absolutely confident. "In fact we do not really expect Yao to join any football match - he will just sit there and appear to be playing."

"Like McManaman ? But if Yao cannot run, he couldn't even join the morning training !"

"You shut up," Perez had reached his limits, "or I would file a complaint to the Equal Opportunity Council for your discrimination against disabled players."

PS. For those who are not familiar with football, Steve MaManaman used to be a player in Real Madrid - but he hardly ever appeared in the real match. His main duty, as we could observe, was to accompany Zinedine Zidane for training. MaManaman wasn't even the replacement of Zidane - there was a player called Santiago Solari who took the role of Zidane when the latter was not fit for a match.

Author's declaration:
This story is purely imaginary. There is no hidden meaning that an audience should try to extrapolate - or you must have read too much Kafka.

Budget

For nearly two weeks, I wish to talk about the recent incident on NovoSeven.

But regular audience of this blog would probably know my opinion, and I shall not bore you further. There's just some discussion behind to scene that I could share:

• Head administrator (HA): If it is in emergency situation and the drug is life-saving, it should be offered free of charge.
• Clinician: Does the headquarters have special funding for this item ?
• HA: Don't be silly. The department that gives the treatment needs to cover it with their own budget.
• Clinician: How could that happen ? We are already in a deficit !
• HA: Aren't you going to renew the equipment that you use to treat those cancer patients ? Forget about it and your account would be balanced.
• Clinician: But the care of many patients would be affected ...
• HA: Come on, our priority is to treat the media and our honorable council members. After all, your cancer patients could get a new machine by the time they come to the media.
• Clinician: That's too traumatic to me. (Author's note: I'm sure he is talking about the budget, not the accident.) We've got to prevent it happen again.
• HA: That's easy: Do not tell patients that there is a novel treatment, and do not apply for any new drug.

PS. It is rather uncommon to see my friend VW loses his temper, but, on this matter, you may wish to read http://vwswong.blogspot.com/

Timetable

While describing how a modern medical school design its teaching timetable, I was fortunate enough to have a glimpse on the previous curriculum of our sister medical school across the harbour - the one they used in 1891.

Let me share with you the subjects that they taught:

• Year 1: physics, chemistry, botany, materia medica (i.e. pharmacology), anatomy, physiology, clinical observation
• Year 2 and 3: anatomy, physiology, pathology, principles of medicine, surgery, and midwifery
• Year 4: medical jurisprudence, public health, practical minor surgery
• Year 5: clinical medicine, surgery and midwifery

Impressive, eh ? Let me show you the actual timetable of their didactic lectures for a junior (presumably Year 2 or 3) medical student:

• Monday: 12 noon, surgery; 1 pm, anatomy; 2 pm, materia medica
• Tuesday: 8:30 am, physiology
• Wednesday: 12 noon, surgery, 1 pm, anatomy; 2 pm, materia medica
• Thursday: 8:30 am, physiology; 12 noon, medicine
• Friday: 12 noon, medicine; 1 pm, anatomy; 2 pm, materia medica
• Saturday: 8:30 am, physiology

Alas, I wouldn't say it was perfect, but you find in it most of the modern concepts in curriculum planning, don't you ?

PS. I claim no credit of this timetable; the material is extracted from a recent paper in the Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (2009; volume 39: pp 166-172).

Message

You may think my grumble yesterday excessive and the mishap was an isolated incident.

But no. On a second thought, the problem seems everywhere. A probably good idea comes up. It is conveyed to someone else to do the planning, then to another one to sort out the logistics, then to yet another one to run ... and so forth.

And when the event or policy actually comes out, you could hardly recognize the original idea.

Is it kind of a megaphone game (傳聲筒遊戲) ? May be. But I have a deja vu feeling of reading A message from the emperor by Franz Kafka.

You could read the full story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Message_from_the_Emperor

PS. For lovers of Chinese history, that's also the reason why Wang Anshi (王安石) and the Guangxu Emperor (光緒) failed.

Preparation

(cont'd)

I don't think I have much to say on what happened with an autistic hematologist on Saturn (and his discussion with certain malicious nephrologist). It seems that they might wish to do away with some lectures in the final year in order to free up time for bedside teaching - or simply for pondering and rumination.

They decided to do regular lectures in that two weeks.

Which lectures ? The task was then passed to Jupiter; the administrator there went out and asked each and every division head if they wish to take up some.

Naturally, all of them gave an overly positive reply - that's a knee jerk response but also a primary principle to run an empire !

Our friend on Jupiter then passed the task of fixing up the timetable to a subordinate on Mars. Alas, the only thing that this poor official could do was to squeeze all suggested topics into that 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. (Seriously, do you think you could go and ask some division heads to cut back on their lecture ?)

What's the actual result on earth ? It is not a spoon-feeding, but bowel preparation.

Revision

You think my comment yesterday unbelievable ? Let me tell you a real story:

For some years, our medical students (and their teachers) noted that by the time they start the final year, they have forgotten much of the clinical (medical and surgical, I mean) skill they learned in their third year.

Seeing all these comments, a group outside the solar system decided to arrange some kind of re-training just before the doctors-to-be begin the senior clerkship.

The idea was sent to Pluto; several inhabitants there decided to have a two-week course for the revision of clinical skill (and another two weeks for the surgeons). Their plan was, however, highly innovative (by the definition of Humphrey Appleby): Each morning, the students would be shown how to examine a particular system; in the afternoon, they would go to the ward and practice.

Of course, it was soon realized that our patients would be no different from comfort women (慰安婦) if the whole class of 140 medical students march up all at once to the ward and do, for example, cardiovascular examination.

At that time, the execution of this comforting idea was passed to a group on Saturn ...

Turn

When I learned playing Chinese chess as a child, one favorite twist of the game that we loved was "taking turn".

The rule was simple: a few players, usually of a variable level of skill, formed a group and took charge of one side of the chess board; each player would decide one move (usually by a rota). The opposite side could be another group of players or merely a single individual.

The catch was: Players of the same side were not allowed to talk to each other.

What do you think would happen ? Yes, if the campaign was against a solo player (even an average one), the group almost always lost. On a few occasions the game broke off in the middle because the group started quarreling with each other.

Of course that's the case. How could you guess the purpose of a particular move by the previous hand ?

You think that's silly ? May be. But, let me tell you the inconvenient truth: We plan our medical curriculum (and probably hospital administration) in a similar manner.

遊行

I always find it difficult to understand why Mr. Tsang is so worried about the number of people coming out for a walk on 1st July.

As Agatha Christie said (in the ABC Murders): What is the best place to hide a pin ?

In a pin-cushion.

And, therefore, how to conceal the voice for general election and democracy ?

When there are hundreds of thousands of other people yelling for their own agenda.

More so. If the angry people would turn into quiet peaceful humble obedient tax-paying citizens after sunset and get up to work as usual in the next morning, what's there to worry ?

In fact, I am sure in ten or twenty years, this lovely event would be the same as Da Jiu Festival (太平清醮) of Cheung Chau and be an attraction the tourists.

All Donald has to do is to ask his political alliance (aiya, right, if he has any) to join the walk - and ask for some different things.

PS. A malicious leader would, on the other hand, create a reason to restrict the demonstration next year by secretly inviting both die-hard supporters of the Zheng Sheng College (正生書院) and vigorous representatives of the Mui Wo (梅窩) people to the parade - so that they could meet each other "by chance".

And, if a satisfactory encounter does not happen spontaneously, facilitate them.