RIFLE RANGE BOY

Back in medical school, we had the honour of having the first-hand experience of listening to a learned man of stature croak cockamamie. The deputy director of Health then officiated some function. The gist of the speech that left an everlasting impression on me was his stand on allocations of funds for research. From the podcast: Bigger than Bacon, Radiolab. He lamented the idea of students complaining about the lack of grants for research. He insisted that of one is genuinely interested in doing research, he can even do it under the coconut tree! I am sure many findings can be cooked up under the tree - with the help of coconut oil, coconut milk and coconut toddy! Somehow, this thought came to me when I was listening to a podcast recently.  Apparently, the first thing they teach you in underwater surveillance studies is to identify a crackling sound which is not the noise of a advancing naval fleet but a particular type of shrimps. These single clawed crusta...

To all those in my life who think that they know everything about everybody, their own self and matters of the world and the universe... An interesting story of a lady and the malady that struck her that I heard over a podcast over Radiolab should be testimony that nobody can be cocksure about anything and anybody. In 1985, a 36 year old lady (Penny Beernsteen) went for a jog at a beach during a family outing. She was sexually and physically assaulted at a secluded part of the beach. As she could not give a good fight against her assailant, she did the next best thing. She mentally made notes of his short stubby fingers, his mustache, his hair colour etcetera. Penny Beernsteen She survived the ordeal and positively made her cocksure picking out of the suspect without a shadow of doubt during an identification parade. A Steven Avery with petty crime records was picked out. During the trial, his witnesses were weak comprising mostly of family members. Even though he ...