Recently, I had an enjoyable visit to the 25th birthday party of the Ladies Probus Club of Hawthorn – which Rotary Hawthorn founded. They told how the key people had been John Carre-Riddell and Charles Morrison; and I was pleased to tell Probus that both these gentlemen were still definitely, actively, with us!
Lunch on Tuesday was busy and buzzy – one of the best, I thought. Good to welcome Jill Vaughan, president of Probus Hawthorn Glen – which we founded some 23 years ago.
The mock interviews at Auburn HS were fun – simple for us to do, and greatly appreciated by the staff and pupils.
Appropriately our own medical club member Tilak Dissanayake introduced and chaired the address/discussion presented by Professor Clive May.
Clive is a research professor at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and Head of the Neuro-cardiovascular laboratory. Originally from the UK with a BSc and PhD from Southampton University, and a mix of medical research experience in industry and St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London, about 20 years ago he joined the Howard Florey Institute. Clive commented that he was attracted by that institutes reputation for being one of the world leaders in medical research (and he noted it still is) and opportunity to participate.
Nowadays his major research interest is how the brain and nervous system interacts with the cardiovascular system.
We got a quick lesson and example in how the brain controls heart rhythms, and where a damaged heart (after a heart attack say) can be over stimulated in response to the brains role to sustain blood flow to other organs and be further damaged. Intervention at the brain level, be it by electrical means or creating impeding lesions on key nerves can reduce thisover stimulation.
It opened the way to two other topics invoking research linking instrumentation to the body. Clive joked that many thought of him as a hybrid medico/electronic engineer .
Cleverly keeping the address at a high level to not lose the audience we learnt of research into establishing bio-markers (looking at oxygen levels in the kidneys) to identify the early onset of septic shock ( a major issue after surgery …at present 30% mortality) and then the use of electrodes in the brain by which paralyzed individuals may control external aids. A new advance here involved “stentrodes” a means of inserting electrodes into the blood vessels of the brain thus overcoming the brains usual response to ultimately scar and block an electrode.
After answering the usual personal medical queries from the audience, Clive discussed how such research needs huge funding to go beyond the conceptual stage and so often by necessity leads to overseas relationships (mostly the USA) and the devolution of Australian property rights. The audience was left pondering on the Australian attitude to research, and how its research dollars are allocated.
The Rotary Hawthorn Team had a great evening at the Friends of Baguia Trivia Night: President Lawrence won a litre of Bombay Sapphire Gin, and a $325 voucher for a studio photo-shoot!
But how did we do in the Trivia?
Ummmm....some improvement still possible, no doubt all those modern music questions were challenging.
Following the event the club received the following thank you note. Recall Derarca O'Mahony from that group has attended our club meetings and we have established a major link with it in support of the people of Baguia.
Dear 'Trivia Table Organiser',
The committee wish to thank you for supporting the Friends of Baguia Trivia Night.
With your great generosity and that of your friends we have raised just over $12,000 to fund our education projects in Baguia. That is a fantastic effort!
Thanks also from the people of Baguia - the parents, the teachers and the scholarship students are always asking me to "Thank all the Friends in Australia!"
They may not know you - but they deeply grateful for your support.
Ah, The Shadow has just seen the proof yet again: Rotary Hawthorn can have fun even when not actually winning – a great, positive attribute.
Where? FriendsofBaguiaTriviaNight was a huge extravaganza of fun, shared by Meredith & Geoff, Lawrence, Gordon, Katrina & Mick, and Chris. Out of 24 tables, our hero representatives were mostly running at about 21; but climbing up to 15 when Meredith took control of the electronic response device.
TheShadow understands that, near the end (when it was mathematically impossible), Gordon was heard to say “We really need to win this!” What attitude!
TheShadow’s “Our most knowledgeable member on the history of pop songs” award was silently awarded to Chris.
The most surprising happening, early in the evening, was our PresidentLawrence winning the tense and noisy TrueorFalse competition from a field of some 200 contestants. Lawrence was heard to explain, still shaking from the excitement, that he didn’t know the answer to any of the questions (which all related to Baguia and Timor Leste) and just had to guess which
To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine and those who don't and are always seen with a bottle of water in their hand, Ben Franklin said: "In wine there is wisdom, In beer there is freedom, In water there is bacteria."
In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 litre of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. Coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop annually.
However, We do NOT run that risk when drinking wine and beer because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and fermenting.
Remember: Water = Poop, Wine = Health
Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid,than to drink water and be full of shit.
VERIFICATION:
BOTH THE HOUSE AND SENATE DRINK A LOT OF WATER WHILE IN SESSION.
THIS EXPLAINS THE RESULTS THEREIN . . . .
There is no need to thank me for this valuable information:
.jpg)
