Quite Interesting

While I shy away from directly copying direct work (and instead prefer to link), I repost this from another (who was herself doing so), because I think it's quite interesting and raises some good questions.

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

The questions raised:

*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*Do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.

How many other things are we missing?

The source article from the Post can be found here and is worth a read. It includes a video.

Until next time.

The Heart of It All

I can assure you all that a giant sigh of relief and a weekend of nothing medical followed my completion of I2. Now that Inflammation and Immunity is slowly rotting, dead in the cold cold ground, we're moving on to a more meat-and-potatoes-esque med school module.

CardioPulm.

That's right, after 8 weeks of straight science, 4 weeks of genetics and cancer, and 4 weeks of I2, or as I like to call it: 16-weeks-of-occasionally-interesting-but-typically-dreadful-information-on-tiny-molecular/cellular-changes-in-your body (it rolls off the tongue), we're finally digging into an 8 weeks module that will be tiny molecular/cellular changes sprinkled with gross anatomy!

The holiday season splits this module right down the middle, with cardiology falling sooner and pulmonary falling later. The truly exciting part? (Note: I say exciting now and reserve the right to change it to ridiculous once we begin) We start cadaver lab when we get back in January! Woo!

So, in honor of our new module, I shall post one of the many slides we were told to memorize today. Get pumped!



Hah! Get it? Pumped...
Until next time.

Real Med School

That is how our current module, I2, was described to all of us, the wee-little first years, by a few of the M2s. Sadly, three weeks into the module (with the test looming on this coming Wednesday) it seems they are correct. Evidence of this? My lack of blog posts. Inflammation and Immunity, while great for a person's well-being, seems to be decidedly bad for any free time I might have had this month.

That being said, what have I been doing for the past half an hour?

Not I2.

After finishing my review of this morning's lecture and review (that's right, a review...of...a...review...) I felt like a break was in order before a student panel here in a few minutes. As some of you may or may not know, I have one blood sibling, an older sister, who also writes a blog. Now, while she is a great sister, loving mom, and probably caring wife, she also exploits her children for blog-hits. I thought, If she uses my nephews, why can't I?

So! Behold! I present photos that my sister took in an attempt to capture the spirit of her children. Sadly, where she fails, I succeed. She captured their expressions; I have revealed their true thoughts.

*Note*: As my sister was the photographer, the thoughts of the subjects naturally reference her.

Series 1!

Series 2!




This is all. I must study. Again.

Until next time.