With the nasty heat and humidity, the mid-day and afternoons are not ones to be serious in the shop so I’ve been tinkering. After reading this article over at Instructables, I decided I’d give it a try. Here is what happens when you pair a 500mm zoom to a $10 webcam … before and after !

There is no way to see it in the “normal” picture but about a mile and a half away, just to the left of where the lens flare appears, there is the yellow house that is seen in the “zoom” picture.

I’ve been away for a few days at Lotusphere, a large customer conference. For the interested, you can read my "almost done" review over on Communicat.us

For everyone else, I’ll tell about the closing guest speaker – Professor Brian Cox who’s bio reads …

I’m a Royal Society University Research Fellow based in the Particle Physics group at the University of Manchester, where I hold a chair in Particle Physics. I work on the ATLAS experiment at CERN in Geneva.

(ATLAS is a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Starting in late 2009/2010, the ATLAS detector will search for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy.)

It’s hard to describe the combination of energy, wonder, and shear intellect (not to mention memory recall for endless technical and anecdotal detail). Perhaps the best way to get a small taste for his presentation is to check out his 2008 TED Talk or his short 2009 TED U Talk.

"G" is a friend of mine who is very interesting in bugs – all bugs. She can tell you about various butterflies and can even explain the difference between a male and female praying mantis. "G" is not some college professor or a grad student. "G" is still in grade school. What I like about "G" is that she does not fit the stereotype. She is just as likely to be listening to her MP3 player as collecting bugs and she is not shy about it.

So, "G" was the first person I thought of when I caught the picture. It may be difficult judging the size of this specimen. The steel beam a little more than 8" across. I first saw the Praying Mantis as it climbed out of the grass and onto the concrete anchor at the base of the column. It then proceeded to scale the 10′ to the underside of the cap at the top of the beam. It stayed there all afternoon.

So, "S" and "A", please tell "G" that I have now seem a really big Praying Mantis and to keep learning about bugs (I’ll be asking questions) !

Last night I dreamt I was about to perform my first solo surgery. The dream focused on the fact that, prior to the surgery, I went into the OR and reorganized the layout to accommodate the fact I am left handed. I was chastised by the attending doctor for changing the layout and told � in no uncertain terms � �you do not change the arrangement of the OR�.

I had made a few mistake in my changes and missed a few obvious alternatives. I had positioned everything such that I would stand directly in front of the surgical area of the patient. Second, I had moved the tray and thus my assistant from my right side of me to my left. My attending pointed out that for a chest surgery, it would be very crowded for me to be center over the chest and have both an assistant and instrument tray on my left as they would not be up near the patient�s head. It would also mean, if I needed help, my assistant would be too far away from the surgery. Bu standing just off center, such that my primary hand was centered over the surgery, there would be better access for a second set of hand if there was an emergency. What neither of us realized was �the obvious solution�. Unbeknownst to me, word had gotten out about the reprimand and the fall out. Shortly before the surgery, the chief of surgery asked me to meet in the OR. He asked me to take my position as if to start the surgery. He wanted me to visualize how the operation would flow and to note any complications that might arise from my organization of layout. It was clear there would be some additional challenges. The he setup for a right-handed surgery and took my position and asked me to stand across from him. I mirrored his position and then he smiled and paused. It suddenly dawned on my that the solution was not to change the layout but to change the side of the patient such that it was a mirror image. It was so simple.

All of this was, of course, a dream but it got me thinking and so I started to search the internet. It turns out my operating room layout challenge is not the real issue for left-handed doctors. A medical journal study relieved a number of considerations:

• left-handedness is prevalent in 10% of the general population but is more common among surgeons
• only 13% of left handed surgeons were provided with left handed instruments while training
  • a lack of left handed instruments during residency – “basic sets of left-handed instruments (scissors, clamps, and needle holders�
  • a lack of laterality related mentoring for left handed surgical residents
  • only one in 10 programs mentored for laterality predominance
  • one mentor wrote; �as a left-handed surgical mentor, I advise use of �right-handed� instruments by the right hand and that the procedure be learned as a two-handed maneuver� � (Vivian C McAlister, Professor of Surgery University of Western Ontario)
• left handed surgeons preferred an approach that might be different from a right handed surgeon in an invasive procedure: “Mentoring by a right handed surgeon will only leave the left-handed residents to teach themselves a procedure.�
• one in 10 left handed surgeons was also uncomfortable with the idea of being operated on by a left handed surgeon; six per cent also reported concerns by patients about their laterality
• more prone to needle stick injuries than their right handed colleagueSources: �British Medical Journal� 2005;330:10 (1 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7481.10-f� and �Current Surgery (2004:61:587-91)�

Diagram: �In a right-handed surgeon operating on a right-sided kidney, the hand-assisted device is placed in the right lower quadrant for insertion of the left hand and dissection is performed with instruments in the right hand placed through an umbilical trocar. The camera is placed several centimeters above the umbilicus in the midline.� vs �When operating on the right kidney a left-handed surgeon places the hand-assisted port in the periumbilical location for insertion of the right hand. The working port for the left hand is placed lateral to the rectus muscle, in line with or just inferior to the level of the umbilicus. The camera is placed through a lateral trocar in the anterior auxiliary line.�
Source: Wein: Campbell-Walsh Urology, 9th ed., Copyright � 2007 Saunders, An Imprint of Elsevier

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am not writing as an authoritative source. Much of the material I found was restricted to medical persons so I only found abstracts to papers and publications. Everything on the internet should be taken with a degree of skepticism since there is little or no means of verifying authors.