Good news for everybody! We’ve got a 3 days holiday starting from the 2nd of November (Sunday) to 4th of November (Tuesday). However, anybody know what’s these holidays are about?

It is the People’s Unity Day / День народного единство

This holiday is absolutely new in Russia. It was created in the year of 2004 to celebrate the liberation of Moscow from Polish trrops in 1612 (which marks the end of the ‘time of troubles’).

Even Russians themselves had ask for the purpose of this holiday. It was believed that the Duma thought that they need a holiday during the November (if not, it would be no holiday from June to January) after abolishing the Revolution Day (Nov 7th).

The first question I ask myself when something doesn’t seem to be beautiful is why do I think it’s not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.

John Cage (1912 – 1992)

2 years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Germany.

If you are planning to visit Germany this coming holidays, this post might be helpful for you.

Worth highlighting is a visit to a REAL detention camp – Sachsenhausen concentration camp(near Berlin) and BMW factory tour (in Munich).

The camp tour cost us around 16euros for a day trip by an experience guide. There were alot around in fact, you could easily pick up brochures from the place you stay or just ask around

The camp was established in 1936. It was located north of Berlin, which gave it a primary position among the German concentration camps: the administrative centre of all concentration camps was located in Oranienburg, and Sachsenhausen became a training centre for Schutzstaffel (SS) officers (who would often be sent to oversee other camps afterwards). Executions took place at Sachsenhausen, especially of Soviet Prisoner of war and Jewish.

A walk through this living hell made me realized the importance of harmony among races and the terror of war.

When they say the best things in life are free, they are true.

A journey into the Munich plant literally left me in shock. I have never said so many “Wahh!! , Fuiyo!!” within 2 hours , in my life before. Walking through the processing plant,you see how they make their 3 series from raw material to engine manufaction and to car testing. A not to be missed destination for car lovers.

Book early and check out on their timing and pricing ( it was free 2 years ago) from their website

Germany is also famous for its castle. The most famous , and one of the three commissioned by King Ludwig II, overlooks the gorgeous Hohenschwangau valley.

If the architecture looks familiar, you’re right; Walt Disney used the castle as inspiration when designing the Sleeping Beauty Castle for Disney Land. Hundreds of artisans from around the globe took sixteen years to build but a third of the planned castle. Neuschwanstein castle was never finished, its folk tales continue till today.

Another good news is Euro is falling. As of today, its 1Euro= 4.576RM.

Enjoy~

500 just ain’t enough

The Volgo League in its last week, had to take a back sit, people greet each other with “500 cukup ke?” (works for RM and USD), instead of Happy Deepavali.

It has been quite awhile since a topic as juicy as this spiced up our quite boring lives, other than those creatures with perfect legs and bottoms prancing around in heels and colourful boots of course.

I’ve got to admit, it was fun. It was an opportunity to see how people around us are and how willingly they make a joke out of themselves.

Why fun? The Q&A plus commentary session with the MMC turned into a session littered with silly irrelevant questions and it created the mother of all arguments, the topic of the week, the source of quotations, the butt of jokes, all from the matter of scholars’ allowance.

During the session itself, the bickering erupted !

Why? Not hard to understand.

Privates: know how much scholars get and how much it takes to live in Volgograd.
Scholars: want the allowance to cover everything, plus winter holiday’s expenses, new hand phone every year, digicams, and branded clothes.

Face it people, if private students were in scholars’ shoes, and scholars were in privates students’ place, nothing would have changed, not a bit.

We can’t blame scholars for being a little greedy and upset. Some do come from not so rich families. And some were actually ashamed when the issue was brought out too.

Nor we can blame private students for being a little jealous. Some are in fact more qualified than scholars on merit and they are sure to be upset if some scholars deemed unqualified in the first place are still asking for more.

But these are mere peanuts, insignificant, not worth to choke each other for. Because at the end of the day, increased or not, scholars wouldn’t die of hunger and private students don’t get anything after all.

You might have missed out that:

1. There is one MMC representative on the Accreditation Board.
2. He is Dr. Yeoh something something.
3. The board recognizes and derecognizes medical universities by taking cue from MMC.
4. Meaning, the MMC actually, unofficially decides all the medical universities’ fate.
5. And, Dr. Yeoh says that MMC are satisfied with us and dropped clear enough hints that the status isn’t going to change, at least not for now.
6. Plus, to derecognize a university, a trial period lasting years will be given before a final decision is made.
7. Plus, we have 2800 students in Russia by now, no government, pro-Najib or pro-Anwar would be stupid enough to rock the boat and become their opponents’ free punching bags.
8. Big conclusion, we are safe, at least for the near future.

Now for some questions:

Would you private students rather see scholars’ allowance maintained and to sit for the exam?
Or would scholars rather have a raise and willingly sit for the exam?

If you went for the rathers, I am sure you would get a HO extension due to mental health problem or, you are too selfish or, you are too greedy!

So now that the shadow of disaccredition  is gone, the haunting, dreadful possibility of having to sit for and failing the exam and selling pisang goreng by the roadside with a Diplom hanging from the tree fades away, and having our prayers answered, why are we bickering?

Why bicker over some anchovies when we have all landed the largest, most meaningful catch we could?

So, check your rod, be it big or small, make sure the next time, you don’t miss out on the catch.

And stop blaming XzzAT and KoXAn (censored by Editor), humans are humans unless you are enlightened or a saint. Try thinking why they did so, instead of jumping to conclusions and making all sorts of assumptions. Thank you.

“a grateful person is a happier person. “

P.S. Editor’s note: All opinions expressed belong to the author alone. We do not wish to promote unrest among Volgograd students. I think the author meant to advise us to not overlook the more important thing we gained from the meeting with MMC and relevant government representatives and stop bickering due to individual opinions and principles that uniquely define each of us.

A 24-year-old man presented with a 2-day history of redness, photophobia, and blurry vision in the right eye. He reported no medical problems, similar previous episodes, fever, recent illnesses, or recent sexual contact. His vision was 20/50 in the affected right eye and 20/20 in the left eye. The pupils were equal in size and reactive, with no afferent pupillary defect. Corneal sensation was decreased in the right eye. There were no lesions on the face or eyelids.

An anterior ocular examination with the use of fluorescein stain revealed a dendritic ulcer on the cornea that was indicative of a herpes simplex virus infection. There was no surrounding infiltrate or associated inflammation of the anterior chamber. A dilated retinal examination was unremarkable.

He was treated with topical trifluridine (1%) drops, which were applied nine times a day for 1 week. The lesion resolved without any residual scarring; the patient’s vision was not compromised.

Frank’s sign is a diagonal crease in the lobule of the auricle

“The sensitivity of Frank’s sign reaches 75%, its specificity 57.5% and its positive predicting value 80.3%. The prevalence of Frank’s sign increases progressively with age: 42% in the 30-39 age group and 75.8% in the 60-69 age group.

Frank’s sign is considered as a marker of the coronary disease, independent of risk factors but frequently associated with them. If its absence does not permit in any way to exclude the diagnosis of coronary disease, its presence corresponds in three quarters of the cases to an established coronary disease within a symptomatic population.”

Extracted from Darren’s blog

Frank’s sign is a diagonal crease in the lobule of the auricle :

Grade 3 – a deep cleft across the whole earlobe
Grade 2a – crease more than halfway across the lobe
Grade 2b – crease across the lobe, but superficial
Grade 1 – lesser degree of wrinkling

I know most of us do not have the holidays that our fellow Malaysians enjoy at home, but I think the absence of a school holiday would not diminish the spirit of celebrating Deepavali! Happy Deepavali for all and hopefully I got some kuih tomorrow!

To all Volgograd friends, the time has change yesterday midnight. So, remember to reduce one hour on your watches, clock, computer and alarm!

Filariasis (Philariasis) is a parasitic tropical disease, caused by a thread-like parasitic worm of the type of nematode. Some of examples are Wuchereria bancrofti and Brugia malayi. These parasites are transmitted by mosquitoes.

The common presentation of filariasis is elephantiasis. It is the thickening of the skin and tissues due to the present of parasites in the lymphatic system. Elephantiasis mainly affects legs, but also can affect ears and mucus membranes. W. bancrofti can affect legs, arms, breats and vulve.

Life cycle
Life cycle of W. bancrofti (male – around 5cm, female – around 10 cm)
The human being serve as definitive host while the mosquitoes as intermediate hosts. Microfillaria would reside in the lymphatic circulation and constantly migrate between the deep (during the day) and peripheral circulation (at night). And the worm is transferred into a vector (mosquitoes). Inside the mosquitoes, they would mature into motile larvae and be ingested into the blood stream of another human. The larvae will then moves to the lymph nodes (mostly in the legs or genital area) and develop into an adult worm in a year.
Pathogenesis of W.bancrofti

After infection, the worms will mature in 6-8 months. There is an asymptomatic phase and then an inflammatory phase where the antigens of the worms cause inflammatory responses and disrupt the flow which causes lymphedema. There will be symptoms of fever, chills, skin infections, painful lymph nodes and tender skin of lymphedematous extremity. An obstructive phase after that marks the development of lymph varices, hydrocele and elephantiasis.
This disease is endemic in Asia, Africa, Central and South America. A diagnosis can be made by identifying the microfilariae on a Giemsa stained thick blood film. The blood is drawn at night when the parasites circulate. PCR can also be use as a tool for diagnosis.
Treatment
Albendazole, ivermectin and diethylcarbamazine. Doxycycline had been suggested to treat elephantiasis as well.