Google at HIMSS

Ankylosing Spondylitis

Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) is an inflammatory condition affecting the spine and may present with acute uveitis. Patients with AS have been known to have high IgA levels and Klebsiella in their feces.

Low gravity exercise such as swimming and yoga may improve mobility and reduce pain associated with AS.

HLA-B27 is detected in 90% of patients with AS.

Since trauma to the spine can cause AS, maybe there is an association of occupational predisposition especially those who have to maintain their position for long periods eg programmers.

Flashmob: A cool way to demonstrate

Flashmob occurs when someone puts an event meeting tima and place on his social networking channel and invites his friends there, who in turn invite their friends. We should use this technique for a peaceful protest where everone meets at the designated place at the designated time and quickly disperse. You can do cool stuff at the designated time like:

1. Change into the same colored tshirt

2. Lift up a protest banner all at the same time for photographers to snap the event

3. Dance, eg we you've won an election

A great event to get everyone together without being harassed by the authorities for illegal gathering.

Read this or play the video below:

New books to read

Got 6 new books last month. Hope to review them one by one here.

The first is Guide to Health Informatics by Enrico Coiera, which is in its second edition. 

The author has a deep understanding of modeling life and the philosophy behind it. He explains how we form a system based on abstractions, a snapshot of the real thing to better understand it so as to also simplify how we manage the system, be it the respiratory system or the cardiovascular system, or in my case, the health information system. Have a feeling I'm going to enjoy this book.

Thank you Azlina for lending me your copy.

Daddy's sketch

Found a piece of paper under our bed yesterday which we carbon dated to circa 2005-2006 when Tok Daddy came to our house for a visit (you must be wondering how often we clean under our beds... 8-O). It was a sketch of our house which has a glass exterior and is double story. It even has my workshop area. How cool is that? With a large cross on top of the drawing, this must have only been one of his drafts.