Red Bull you say?

Well, for a little while I thought that maybe this little can didn't exist in Canada!!! Thanks G for clearing this up though. So ya, it's an "energy" drink with, It think they call it "taurine" (thus the "Bull" part of the name, taurine -> taurus -> bull). It does what it's supposed to, I haven't experienced hot flashes or anything of that nature though. I think that the people that get hot flashes are just weak do to not aclimatizing their body to large doses of garbage. Me on the other hand, cannot say no to a coffee, or in fact, to several coffees... But I have found that a really good combination to keep you awake, should you ever need one, is to have a can of that "Dare Coffee Shot" followed by a can of "V" (it's a green can). I was curious, what can I say! I actually prefer the "V" drink as opposed to the Red Bull as it tastes better, and I fell more awake afterwards... But that's just me...

So what's been happening in the land of 'Oz? Not much really. I have been sitting at a computer for too long now, sent my supervisors drafts of 2 chapters last week which was a good effort considering I had to write one of them from scratch. It's very close to done though I feel. (The chapter from scratch that is). I still have 3 other chapters to go. One of them being a review of the literature which is about 2 thirds done, but a bloody hard one-third left. One chapter which is the last results chapter which I should be able to rip out in under a week, and then the final chapter, which again, I should be able to rip out in about a week. But it's the chapter where you sum up the whole thesis and put forth hypothesis etc, and discuss future work, and just try to conclude while leaving the poor reader thinking that you know what you are doing, and that you did it well, and that you are now ready to join the elite of the academics and be known as Dr.

Side note. Did you know that medical doctors are not called doctors in Germany... And that to be called a doctor, you have to hold a PhD? I think I like it there. The reason is is that a medical Dr has not been trained to further knowledge or think independantly like that. It's hard to become a medical doctor, don't get me wrong, but they basically just play the odds. Person A presents with symptoms x, y, and z. The most likely cause is the flu. So "A" has the flu, regardless of the numerous other conditions that exist for the flu. Watch "House" and see how much independant thought actually occurs. Everything they do has already been seen before, and they are guessing.. Treat them with this because they will be dead if you don't, and if it's wrong, then blah blah blah you get the idea. A PhD on the other hand, is required to show some form of independant thought, and to further the world's knowledge base. To form hypothesis' that may or may not be true, and require severe critical thought to analyze and prove (or disprove as the case may be).

Another way to look at it would be that medical doctors don't come up with treatments, they prescribe them. And they presecribe them based on the work of hard-core scientists (PhD's) who have rationally designed a drug to do a specific thing, tested it in test tubes, then rats, then primates, and finally extesively in human trials under very specific conditions to determine if what they are seeing is a placebo effect (which isn't really bad), it there are human toxicity issues, etc etc. So that the doctors prescribing your medication are doing so based on the work of many PhD doctors, and the literature that Dr. House is reading, comes from PhD doctors.

To defend doctors though, they have a bloody hard job too though. They are stuck playing the odds, because the odds are mostly in their favour. But they have the added stress of being wrong means someone may die, and a whole circle of other people are then affected. Huge stress!! If I screw up, a rat dies. How many rats have you TRIED to kill!!! You buy rat traps at the grocery store!! And medical doctors do need to retain alot of information about a braod variety of things if they are any good. But I guess my biggest endorsement for a medical doctor, is that I would take thier advise concerning the health of my 3 and a half year old son, for my wife, and the chikld that she is carrying. So don't take this as a slamming of the medical profession, as I do believe that they are professionals of the highest stature, I just wanted to give a short, not well thought out commentary on the term Dr.

I think there should be some different term to designate each of them (PhD vs MD), especially since I will be a Dr. in Medicine (my faculty) but in the research area. I will not be a Medical Dr (MD)... A bit confusing ya....

Anyway enough of that.