I had a terrible bio lab today that basically consisted of smearing agar plates with E.coli and Staph bacteria. Tedious, uninteresting and just plain. I suppose cutting up a 82 year old’s back muscles and exposing the spinal column in the morning balanced the day out though.

The one mildly interesting happening during the lab was one of the resident emo’s (I despise that word) in the bay next to me accidently caught his long, stupid fringe on fire, I assume from leaning too close to a lit bunsen burner. When I say ‘on fire’, I don’t mean a bit of singed hair, but head actually flaming – he must have used hairspray or something and it acted as a combustible fuel. The lab smelled rotten for the next twenty minutes, but the collective glee of 150 first year biology students is really something to behold. If only I had a video camera, I could have captured an internet phenomenon.

The great thing about Thursday is that this semester they signal the end of the week for me. Gotta love those 3 day weekends.

Pete

It’s now been over 10 days since Mil was ruthlessly run over by the bastard pizza man.

Being the terrible owners we are, none of us have seen her since surgery last Monday (which apparently went splendidly) but every couple of days the vet’s receptionist rings to give an update, and fortunately for me I was the one who picked up the phone this afternoon. It sounds as though she’s in very good health, quite happy and getting about by herself (although obviously the injured leg can’t weight-bear at the moment) within a fairly limited enclosure. I’m not entirely sure when she can come home, but I do know that for six weeks she needs to be kept in what can only be considered a cat-prison. We’ve been instructed to build ourselves an enclosure that can hold her, food, kittylitter and whatever else she might need, and then assumedly she can return home and continue her recuperation in comfort and more familiar surroundings.

Being the inventive type, I’ve decided to build something using a wooden toddler pen I’ve bought through eBay, reinforced with chicken wire to ensure she can’t escape, and a dowel and chicken wire roof that I’ll attach using a lightweight hinge, so we can access the poor little catvict. Having this little project to do over the next couple of days does mean one very exciting trip is in order, to Bunnings – the other best-store-in-the-world with JB Hifi. For those non-Aussies out there, Bunnings is a massive hardware warehouse, the equivalent of Home Depot in the States or B&Q in Britain, and I have been known to occasionally spend hours in Bunnings, once pissing friends off so intensely that they drove off and left me stranded halfway between Melbourne and Anglesea, where the family’s holiday house is (80 minutes drive down the coast).

Anyway the problem with Bunnings stores is that they are out in the fringes of the city, which means I’ll need to commandeer a car for the drive, perhaps tomorrow after uni finishes. Oh I feel a cunning plan being formed. MWAHAHAHAHAHAH

(NB: No expense was spared in the creation of this cutting edge artist’s rendition of Mildred in her cool-as cat prison. She’s going to be stoked. )

Pete

Too bloody true.

Pete

I woke up this earlyish this morning with a slight hangover and a desire to do nothing at all for the rest of the day – a typical, teenage (besides the fact that I’m now 21) Saturday. For at least an hour I thought I’d have my way: the parental unit had buggered off down the coast to buy some new plants for Anglesea, and they weren’t expected back until late. I had no plans for lunch, and I had a freshly recorded night of rage in the front room ready for my eyes and ears. However, something had it in for me, because after scalding myself on the steamer wand of the coffee machine and finding out that rage didn’t record on account of the hard disk in the recorder being full, my little brother came bounding into the TV room asking if I could drive him down to JB-Hifi so he could buy the new Ash Grunwald CD. So much for a quiet Saturday at home.

In recent months it has become my opinion that JB is actually the devil reincarnated in the form of a music/DVD/games/home theatre/car audio store. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the place – infact ‘hate’ couldn’t be further from the truth. But it is an incredibly frustrating experience going to JB, due to a phenomenon I like to call bloody good marketing. It’s sheer size and very reasonable prices mean that I unfailingly leave the place with 2 or 3 items that I neither came for nor knew I wanted in the first place. In the past month alone I’ve bought the Black Books DVD boxset (brilliant series but haven’t gotten past the 3rd episode) and some weird African CD I haven’t even removed from its packaging, and those are ontop of the actual items I meant to purchase from JB. Somehow, JB-Hifi, with its tacky yellow signage and premises in the old Dan Murphies cellar manages to be the most incredible, lovely and never-want-to-leave kind of store at the same time as it sucks all money from your wallet. The owners must be laughing all the way to the bank.

So I agreed to take Rich to JB as it would at least get me out of the house for an hour or two, and drove in without my wallet so I couldn’t possibly succumb to their everyday low prices and massive range on music. However, even with no money and no cards, I somehow (it still baffles me) managed to buy a CD. Granted, it’s one I’ve been intending on buying for several weeks now, but HOLY CRUDMUFFINS the marketing is good if they can get people that have no money whatsoever to still manage to pay for goods everytime they enter the store (for those left scratching their heads, I got Rich to buy it for me, then paid him back when we got home).

Anyway today’s new purchase is the debut of yet another Western Australian band (they breed ‘em strong out West). The Panda Band has to be one of the less inventive names doing the circuit at the moment, but their music makes up for the boring name. Highly experimental in sound, they have an unmistakably Modest Mousey sound to them, but mix it up instrumentally with a mixture of horns, woodwind, strings, xylophones, Hammond organs, slide guitars, synths and good old fashioned cow bells. Katy Steele, the lead singer from Little Birdy lent some backing vocals on a couple of tracks, and the end product is a happy-go-lucky, diverse and musically deep album, which is a bloody good sign for a debut.

I’ve only listened through twice today, but early standouts include the harmonica driven ‘Lovely Shoulders’, the previously released EP track ‘Sleepy Little Death Toll Town’, my personal favourite ‘Ghosts Have The Best Time’ and todays grannytunes track and most radio-friendly on the entire album ‘Musical Chairs’. Have a listen (EDIT: Sorry – cycled out of playlist 25/5/07) and tell me what you think. Catchy? Shit? Complete rip off of Modest Mouse? Well, I like it.

The Panda Band’s debut album, ‘This Vital Chapter’ is available now in Australia and the US (iTunes, Amazon, Sanity).

Pete

I’ve had a terrible weekend.

Firstly, my computer slowed to a crawl and stopped working due to a shitty power supply. It was getting old anyway, but between Saturday and Sunday I had to spend over $800 to get it back working. I’ve only just got it stable and running. Ok, so I didn’t HAVE to spend a heap of money, but at least now it’s upgrade proof for a little while. As a side note, if you’re thinking of trying your hand with putting a computer together, think really carefully first. It’s simple enough but my frig it takes a long time. There’s also a million things you can break or put on incorrectly. Honestly – I’m just waiting here, bracing for this contraption to eat me or blow up in my face right now.

Secondly, Carlton lost. ‘Nuff said.

Thirdly, Even though my letter was published in the Herald-Scum this morning, it read like a 12-year old down’s syndrome sufferer had written it. Granted, the original was 600 words or so which is far too much to expect to be published – but the editor shaped my argument to suit the paper, truncated sentences everywhere, made several statements completely nonsensical and decided to then give the letter the largest headline of the page ‘I’M PROUD TO BE A HUMAN GUINEA PIG’. Ah well.

Finally, and not at all ‘leastly’ – for this has made me a terribly sad little boy – my beautiful 3 year-old cat Mildred was run over by the pizza man last night. After bringing her inside and observing her for about half an hour in clearly serious discomfort (mobility issues with her hind left leg, serious bleeding from both left hind and forelegs) I drove her to have the injury assessed by the emergency animal clinic in Mount Waverly, where I was told her left hind leg was completely shattered from the hock (the joint half way down a cats leg) down and that amputation or kitty heaven were the only real options.

Having left her sedated and in the care of the emergency vet clinic (at an exhorbitant $500 a day), I went home feeling feeling somewhat less than jovial. The parentals, which had been totally unreachable throughout the ordeal arrived home at about 11pm, and after letting them know what had happened and discussing the situation, we half decided that euthanasia was probably the kindest option as far as Mildred’s comfort and quality of life was concerned.

However, this morning the cat’s regular vet went out to the clinic to have a look for himself, and he seems to think that the fractures are not as serious as the clinic’s vet first alluded. He reckons that reconstruction of the limb is quite possible and that putting her down would almost be criminal. Considering the bloke is a close family friend and an excellent vet to boot his opinion has slightly more weight than the nightshift vet at the emergency clinic, although I can see the bill running into the astronomical figures if this course of action is taken. Currently it’s just over 24 hours since the incident, and she’s stable in the emergency clinic, awaiting transfer to the regular vet’s clinic tomorrow morning.

Oh yeah – if you can beat that for a shitty weekend….. well you must be pretty miserable right now.

Pete

I’m a fairly mellow bloke – I don’t often get angry but when I do, you’ll know about it. This last week has resulted in two instances when my anger has become apparent even to myself, to the point where I’ve taken (hopefully constructive) action. The first of these instances was last Thursday, when I actually ended up yelling at one of the anti-war pinkos trying to blame the jews for all the shit in the middle east. The bastard wouldn’t leave me alone as I tried to walk from the Menzies building to the campus centre, and after several attempts to brush him off, I gave up and let my views on the matter out of their box, at one point raising my voice to a yell. It may not sound like much (compared to fighting off muggers on two separate occasions) but I ended up so fucking angry I could have killed the dickhead.

The second, more recent bout of anger I’ve succumbed to was yesterday – stemming from an article on page 9 of Melbourne’s most widely circulated and full-of-shit newspaper, the Sunday Herald-Sun. It might be a bit of an ask for a blog post, but have a read:

Human guinea pigs
Mary Papadakis
August 13, 2006 12:00am

CASH-strapped university students are risking their health for “quick money” by acting as guinea pigs in medical trials.

Students are earning thousands of dollars to pay for their studies by testing treatments ranging from sunscreen and anaesthetic to heart and anti-depressant drugs.

In return for using their bodies to test for potential side effects, students receive cash, food, shelter, a place to study and access to the internet and DVDs.

National Union of Students president Rose Jackson claimed students were being preyed upon.

Ms Jackson said posters advertising trials and promising needy students “quick money” were regularly put up around Australian universities.

“It’s one of those unseen and unspoken consequences of being a poor student,” she said.

“It’s like an underworld of young people who make a living by putting their bodies on the line.”

She said students had suffered side-effects including rashes, nausea and vision problems.

She said it was only a matter of time before a trial went horribly wrong, as in Britain this year where healthy young men were left fighting for life after testing a new anti-inflammatory drug.

But the incident has failed to deter Monash University arts student Lisa Alexander, 21, who in addition to working three jobs also takes part in trials to make ends meet.

Ms Alexander would not rule out trying drugs never tested on humans.

“If they were offering $2000, it’s very hard to turn down,” she said.

She said her family had been worried about her recent involvement in a local anaesthetic trial in which she spent 18 days in hospital and made $5200.

“Everyone was saying I’d blow up like the elephant man,” she said. “It is a bit of a risk, but I try not to think about it.”

Monash arts/economics student Sam Kastelan, 22, has also spent time in hospital as part of an anti-depressant drug trial.

Mr Kastelan said the $1800 he received would help pay for a trip to a debating event in Canada.

“I’d do future ones. It’s the sort of thing that gives you that huge injection of cash,” he said.

Victorian clinical research centre Nucleus Network is a trial operator popular with students.

Chief operating officer Craig Rogers said students were ideal participants because they were young, healthy and had time to spare.

But he denied students were being sought out. “We do put posters up at uni, but we put them up everywhere,” he said.

He said advertisements, payments and trials were subject to stringent ethics committee approval.

“There’s risks in everything, but it is all approved at a high level,” he said.

Students were also well taken care of, he said.

“They’re well fed, we have X-box, DVDs, we bring pool tables in for long stays and every bed has a TV,” he said.

I know it’s the media sensationalising a topic that is sure to shock the public and spurn interest. I know it’s beat-up. But I got so angry after reading the article that I decided to write to the editor, and to the president of the National Union of Students, even though I had a feeling her words had been ‘interpreted’ somewhat differently to how she meant when she was first interviewed.

Dear Ms Jackson,

I have just read an article published by the Herald Sun group, assumedly appearing in the print form of the paper on Sunday, August 13. It relates to clinical trials, and features your views prominently at the head of the article. Although I am aware that the media often contort sentiments into whatever angle they wish, it does appear that you have voiced a fairly uneducated, closed minded and biased view on the matter.

I am a second year university student studying towards a Bachelor of Science at Melbourne’s Monash University. I have also taken part in two clinical trials over the last 12 months with Nucleus Network – one for an immunosuppressant drug targeting rheumatoid arthritis and another (current) for an anti-depressant, targeting dopamine receptors in the cerebral cortex. As a result of these personal experiences with clinical trials, I feel justified and obliged to defend the methods by which clinical research is carried out in Victoria.

I must first point out that each and every clinical treatment that is developed around the world MUST undergo extensive human testing before it can be accepted for widespread use among the population. Before this stage can even be planned, each treatment has to undergo a similarly exhaustive set of non-human testing, from standard lab-based toxicology screenings to plant and animal testing. These are necessary steps in order for medical treatments to be approved for sale and use to the public. University students are extremely well suited to participate in these clinical trials for several reasons: lack of commitments; relative freedom of time and general age and health of most students as compared with the rest of the population are several of the most important and obvious benefits of using students for trials, but I must state strongly that any accusations of exploitation or unethical recruiting techniques are unjust. I do not feel that universities are targeted for recruitment unfairly or disproportionately, and the level of disclosure and transparency that the trial operators offer is not only satisfactory but almost complete. When contemplating a trial, the centre supplies prospective participants large amounts of documentation disclosing: supposed action of treatment – both clinical and biochemical; complete findings of previous trials; potential risks; potential benefits; proposed study outline; remuneration; responsibilities (for example: no drugs, alcohol, caffeine, citrus fruit or dietary supplements during the trial); ethical procedures relating to the trial; privacy and confidentiality; and legal information. This, in my mind constitutes informed consent.

It must be noted that NONE of the participants legal rights are signed away, and no indemnity is signed. Participants understand that participation is completely voluntary, and complete withdrawal from the trial is possible at any time, along with payment for the services rendered until withdrawal. Nucleus Networks offer to cover the cost of all travel to and from the Alfred Hospital, where the clinical trials ward is located, and remuneration is more than satisfactory.

Of course there is risk involved with medical trials, however the media beat-up and general public image that clinical trials hold is completely out of context and unfair. Without human experimentation, medical science would grind to a halt, resulting in lower general levels of healthcare for the entire population. I suggest you inform yourself and your peers as to the procedures and practices of clinical trials before you next make uninformed and rash statements to an eager and controversy-hungry press.

Yours Sincerely,

Peter Hay

Angry enough? Long enough? Completely futile? Let me know.

Pete

I’m a really big fan of wikipedia. The thought of a living, constantly growing depot for human knowledge, created and maintained by anyone who wishes to contribute appeals to me greatly, and it has become one of my first ports of call for much of my research or niggling queries that occur in day to day life. I even edit articles occasionally – although usually those edits consist of tidying up poor english and knitpicking minute detail, rather than contributing properly to the growth of the encyclopaedia.

Anyway, one of the obvious ‘potential’ drawbacks of a ‘wiki’ based encyclopaedia is the distinct possibility for inaccuracy. Considering experts on individual fields have no more standing in wikipedia terms than laymen, it could be easily assumed that wikipedia is frought with error and opinionated articles written by hacks and schoolkids. However, while flicking through an edition of NewScientist earlier this year, I read of a study published in the Nature journal, which confirmed my experience with wikipedia to be a scientific truth – the accuracy of wikipedia is comparable to that of the most famous traditional encyclopaedia, Britannica.

According to the survey, in 42 matching pairs of science entries on topics from Agent Orange to the West Nile virus, Wikipedia made 162 errors, which “comes close” to its competitor’s 123. (NewScientist, 30 March 2006, pp 7)

This finding suprised me and clearly raised a few eyebrows among the encyclopaedia community, as Britannica published half page advertisements in the UK and US disputing the Nature study. The controversy continues, with Nature standing by their findings and rebutting Britannica’s complaints and arguments, but that’s another story (which can be read about in more detail here, or by reading the relative articles in the Nature journal).

One of the nicer aspects to wikipedia’s philosophy is that nothing is ever deleted. After editing a page, the article changes instantaneously, but the history of revisions is stored not far away, and anyone who visits the article page is able to quickly and easily assess what was changed from the inception of the article to the current version. This means that vandalism can be quickly found and removed, and also provides an interesting insight into how wikipedia has grown through the years, and continues to grow to this day.

However, thanks to Jay and the Doctor from JJJ radio, my confident understanding of wikipedia’s philosophy has been tossed out the window. As far as I was aware, nothing was ever deleted – even vandalism, after being removed could be viewed forever in the hidden history pages behind the current article. However, search for ‘Mini Mammoth‘, the new, genetically enhanced (or dehanced?) pet craze that is sweeping the world right this moment, and you are confronted by a cold, blank page informing you that the article has been deleted and protected. The article itself, it’s history and the discussion pages have all been locked. There is no way to form an opinion about the legitimacy of the article yourself, nor is there a forum to read or discuss what happened. There is nothing.

So much for transparency. So much for ‘openness’. So much for your philosophy, wikipedia.

Pete

So I’ve capitulated and am now using youtube. Bite me.

I’ve already blogged twice about the album, and the song went up on grannytunes over a month ago but this truly deserves another mention. As I said way back then, ‘Knights of Cydonia’ was released in the US as Muse’s first single from their new album, instead of ‘Supermassive Black Hole’, which has barnstormed its way up the Australian and British charts. ‘Starlight’ has been confirmed as being the second single for their native land (and assumedly Australia too), so it begs the question, what is going to happen to this stunning video clip?

Just as the music itself conveys a grand, almost overly dramatic space-opera the video is a pisser, combining robots, laser guns and spaghetti western. AND the protagonist has a lovely Freddie Mercury moustache to accompany the falsetto shrieking in the middle of the song. It’s six minutes long, so it might be worth putting the kettle on or rugging up with some popcorn, but I can promise you’ll be grinning madly like me after you watch it. (livejournal kiddies who can’t see the video, click here)

Pete

I was reading the paper on the way home from university last week when I came across a fairly interesting, if pointless commentary on the human condition buried in the opinion pages. The journalist was lamenting a relationship of his from the previous week that only lasted three or four minutes, but affected him quite deeply. He was talking about his latest experience with the excessively public private phone conversations that people seem to save up for the morning or afternoon commute in front of potentially hundreds of other passengers, and how his involuntary eavesdropping changed his role in the conversation from bystander to passive participant.

The journalist opened by attempting to justify the phenomenon (a little harshly) by stating that perhaps the act was an attempt by individuals to prove to themselves that they have friends, acquaintances or loved ones that actually care for them, or perhaps simply a way for unsettled communters to pass the time in Melbourne’s less-than-extraordinary public transport system. The writer then moved on to compare these talkative, outgoing types with the introverted passengers who will either flip out earphones and iPods or occasionally a laptop to see them through the commute – an equally antisocial act but apparently easier to forgive – assumedly due to the quieter nature of these activities.

Eventually the commentary drifted back to phone users on trains, and the excruciating temptation for other passengers to eavesdrop. This is where the article got particularly interesting, considering the fact that while I was reading how the writer empathised with and almost befriended his eavesdropee, I noticed I had started – completely unconsciously – eavesdropping in on my very own traincon. My bloke was, as far as I could tell from the conversation a builders labourer of some sort, a singer in his local pub’s house band, and recently ‘fucked over’ by centrelink – which I suppose means he was caught taking the dole when he shouldn’t have been. Without the guy realising, and within the space of a few minutes, I had learnt more about this random guy on the train than I had some of my friends – even if his name was not among the plethora of information I had gathered.

Anyway the almost natural ease at which I had become entwined in this guy’s clearly private conversation got me thinking about human nature, and how we are in essence extremely social animals. The recent invasion of personal electronics, computers and telecommunication has in many ways made us better communicators – by bridging cultural (and physical) divides, enabling us to live further from home and sharing the wealth of information that is the collective human intellect. However, this revolution in the way we live and communicate has also shut out so much of our natural person-to-person interaction that was the only method of socialising a few hundred years ago, that we cling to whatever remnants of the ‘old way’ we can find in day to day life. Even if it means listening to one side of a private conversation while on the train to work. What a sad bunch of monkeys we are.

Pete

This morning I finished my barrage of daily blood tests relating to the trial drug I took two weeks ago, and guess what? I’m straight back into hospital again tonight. Tomorrow starts the second of the two trials – after which I’ll spend another fortnight travelling into the centre each morning for bloods. The only real difference in this second trial is that this time it should involve a fryup tomorrow morning just before dosing, whereas last time we were all made to fast.

For any of you actually interested in exactly what it is that I’m doing, you’re welcome to look over the Patient Information & Consent Form. Ahh the things I’ll do for an easy buck.

Pete