We’ve been talking about big dreams here on this blog. For a little lego man, even the sky wasn’t the limit last week.

Two Canadian students filled a weather balloon with helium, built a box out of styrofoam and captured the lego man’s journey with an attached video camera. The cherry on top is that the video quality is amazingly good!

This story proves to me that amazing things are possible when you have a big dream and get creative. The only thing that is missing is some sweet background music in the video!

Here is the complete story.

Ever pulled an all-nighter, walk to class through the oxygen-rich cold, sit down ready to take the dreaded exam, and then all of a sudden the sleep-deprived, brutal crash sets in? Exactly 2 hours too early.

Well, there is a solution to this. A Harvard professor invented a caffeine inhaler called “Aeroshot Pure Energy.” Each inhale is equivalent to up to 50 mg of caffeine, roughly 1/3 of what a good coffee would have. It would take about 3 “puffs” to get you into shape just in time for your exam.

Reviews don’t seem too shiny though. Apparently it’s not a true inhaler, only an imitation that shoots out powder. The taste is supposedly bad and a pill might be more effective. There are also other forms of concentrated caffeine like gum or the mainstream “5 hour energy.” I still see some potential for a true inhaler with some flavoring – maybe even with kopi luvak coffee?

Admittedly, I don’t have a smart phone. At least not one that can browse the web, access a satellite for GPS or utilize powerful medical apps. Come October my current plan is expiring and I am planning on getting either an IPhone or a Droid.

Some of you are probably reading this on your phones right now – I feel so old fashioned. I’m also a bit afraid of such a new acquisition. I remember the day when I got a GPS for my car. It was the day I forgot where I lived. Not literally, but metaphorically. Anyway, with new possibilities come new dependencies. And also bad posture?

According to some articles, neck and shoulders are at particular risk to become hunched from strained, hunched, overuse. And that’s not even considering my already strained eyes looking at a even smaller screen to read my emails.

Ever hear of Tenosynovitis? It’s the inflammation of the fluid-filled sheath (called the synovium) that surrounds a tendon. Symptoms of tenosynovitis include pain, swelling and difficulty moving the particular joint where the inflammation occurs. In medical school we also call it “text message syndrome” because it has happened from texting too much. Here’s a graphic picture of an opened phalange; note the flexor digitorum profundus and flexor digitorum superficialis tendons that reside within the sheath:

Anyway, happy texting everyone!

A “brave” IT specialist successfully billed her doctors for waiting time because of “mutual respect.” In her equation one hour equals $47. My first thought about this was “makes sense because I could get billed for showing up late at some providers too.” I have never been billed anything extra for being late to an appointment with a physician, but my mom had to pay $50 for a no-show at a dentist.

My second thought about this was, “that’s messed up.” I understand that people generally get very frustrated when they have to wait, especially in our fast-paced society. Waiting for the doctor is unfortunately not a rare phenomenon, but what is important is the reason why a doctor is usually late.

Im sure there are plenty of doctors that are just managing their own time badly, but for the vast majority delays in treatment happen because doctors are seeing particularly sick patients (in some cases, like the ER it could be life or death), are understaffed, or forced to admit more patients than they have the capacity for.

In conclusion, not running on-time does not equal disrespect to the patient – there might have a very good reason.

Here is the video: