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[schubertmalbas-blog]

neurofinance in pubmed

in my previous life, i was a day trader, and i enjoyed it. during those days, reading the economist will lead you to topics such as neurofinance and neuroeconomics, which makes you question a few things like, 'do endogenous steroids that are present since birth affect financial decisions?' [link], and so on. that leads me to present day, where articles on neurofinance and neuroeconomics are not discussed in medical school, but are just as equally complex as cancers or lupus. how come? where do most research outputs on neurofinance end up anyway? meanwhile, i have been tinkering with pubmed e-utilities for a week now, to see if i can extract data from the freely available ncbi database; read: data mining for free. so here, then, is a summary of pubmed articles on neurofinance and neuroeconomics published inclusive of 2003 to present, done in R.

a quick glance tells us that only a few research have been published regarding this topic, and it's also fairly recent field. the earliest researches were done in 2003. as you see, frontiers in neuroscience got the lion's share of the most recent articles, but neuroendocrinology letters published the most articles on neurofinance and neuroeconomics prior to 2012. interestingly, biological psychiatry released all its related articles on 2012, but has not produced any related research since. as always, there are limitations to this particular dataset. while most academics will consider pubmed as a reliable source of data, we know that its indexing process is not complete. nonetheless, pubmed is still very useful for data mining health-related researches because it's freely available, unlike scopus or web of science, and it is easily replicable. and since it's like i hit goldmine with this one, i'm tempted to do data mining on lupus, or probably vaccines, while i'm still on vacation; aah, such are the pleasures of curiosity and free time.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

pokedex complete

google maps hit goldmine on april fools day by having joined forces with nintendo and consequently reviving interest in the pokemon genre, in a decade where most casual games are played on smartphones rather than on traditional consoles.

if you haven't yet, you can complete your very own pokedex on your google maps app using the list of places below, which was aggregated by netizens in a wikia page.

The Regular Pokedex

1

Bulbasaur

-

Googleplex; Kalalau Beach, Kauai, Hawaii; Trou aux Cerfs Volcano, Mauritius

2

Ivysaur

-

Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco; Sunpujo Park, Shizuoka, Japan

3

Venusaur

-

Alberta Legislature Building, Edmonton; Muir Woods (South of Chikorita); Parque Nacional dos Campos Amazónicos, Brazil

4

Charmander

-

Sydney Observatory, Australia; Hiroshima City Hall, Japan; Door to Hell, Turkmenistan; Cerro Azul, Galapagos; Talat Yot, Bangkok, Khao San Rd, Thailand; Charles Darwin Research Station

5

Charmeleon

-

Mount Shasta; Galapagos Islands, Fernandina Island volcano; London Fire Brigade Museum

6

Charizard

-

Mount Yasur ; Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park; Heard Island & McDonalds Island; White Island; Trou aux Cerfs Volcano, Mauritius; Ojos del Salado, Copiapo, Chile

7

Squirtle

-

Venice, Italy; Googleplex; Keyakizaka, Roppongi Hills, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Windermere, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos (zoom 200m); Off Shore from Arthur Byrne Reserve, Sydney

8

Wartortle

-

Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy; Isla Santa Cruz (in the water), Galapagos; Hyde Park London; Pagan Island; Christchurch NZ, Pagan Island; Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe; The Serpentine, London, UK

9

Blastoise

-

Great Blue Hole, Belize; Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos (East Coast zoom 200m) ; Meijo Park, Nagoya; east of Sentosa Island (in the water), Singapore

10

Pidgey

-

Toronto (CN Tower); Laguardia Airport, NYC; King Street Wharf, Sydney; King Fahad's Fountain, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport; Isla Santa Cruz (zoom in); southern end of Lambton Quay, Wellington NZ; Rehavia park, Jerusalem, Israel; Minsk, Belarus; London City Airport; Thimphu, Bhutan

11

Pikachu

-

Tokyo Tower; CERN; Kings College Chapel, Cambridge; Taito Station, Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan; Munich, Germany, Psiloritis Crete

12

Raichu

-

CERN, Switzerland; Oxford, Jackson Square New Orleans; Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea; WETA Cave,Google Dublin, Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea.

13

Jigglypuff

-

Tokyo Station, Tokyo; Wynyard Station, Sydney; Detroit, Michigan; Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, PA; (The Rock Shop, Fayetteville, NC, USA (Just West);

14

Meowth

-

Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, WI ; Sydney Observatory; Christmas Island; Maebashi Municipal Fourth Nursery, Gunma, Japan

15

Psyduck

-

Seattle Aquarium; USP, Sao Paulo;

16

Gengar

-

Roswell, NM; Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO; Trades Hall Inn, Sydney; Mystery Spot, St. Ignace, MI; Schönnbrun Palace, Vienna

17

Gyarados

-

Euphrat Museum of Art; Tel Aviv beach, Israel ; De Anza College Swimming Pool; Sao Paulo (Parque do Ibirapuera)

18

Lapras

-

Lake Mendota, WI; Nile, Cairo, Egypt (near Road Al Farag Bridge, go north where the Nile forks), Sports Depot Nagano, Nagano, Japan

19

Eevee

-

Wyandotte & Independence near Googleplex; Yankee Stadium, NYC; Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala; Metrodome, Minnepolis, MN; Toyosu, Tokyo

20

Vaporeon

-

Man Lake (west of Toyomi Co-Op Hospital), Naha, Okinawa, Japan; Atlantis, The Palm Jumeira, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Lake Titicaca, Puno, Peru; Lake Itasca, MN

21

Jolteon

-

St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow; CERN; McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas, NV; Nagasaki, Japan; Vivian St & Cuba St, Wellington, New Zealand; National Taiwan Museum, Taipei; Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA; Bristo Square, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

22

Flareon

-

Epsom Rd, Zetland, Sydney; The Crucible, West Oakland, CA; Miyasaki Prefectural Office, Miyasaki, Japan; Mt. Tongariro, NZ

23

Porygon

-

Iidabashi Station in Tokyo; Charles Darwin Research Station; Taipei 101; redwood circle, Palo Alto, CA; Puerto Ayora (Calle No. 10/Calle No. 61); Copacabana; Fargo, ND

24

Snorlax

-

Vatican City ; Duke University; Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA; Brasília; Pampas Coloradas, Puerto Ayora; Galapagos, Ecuador, Hamilton NZ;Rome; Charles Darwin Research Station

25

Dragonite

-

Loch Ness, United Kingdom; Expedia, Seattle; Strelecky Island, Czech Republic; Cocos Island, Costa Rica; Googleplex ; La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain; Teide, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; Nakamaru Elementary School, Setagaya, Tokyo; Budapest, Hungary; Detroit Metropolitan Airport, MI; Maputo, Mozambique; Khozaima Maqbara, Sana'a, Yemen

26

Chikorita

-

Bedwell Bayfront Park ; Luang Prabang, Laos; Muir Woods, Mill Valley, CA

27

Bayleef

-

CERN, Switzerland; Charles Darwin Research Station; Hermann Park (Houston, TX); Sevilla, Spain

28

Meganium

-

White House; Charles Darwin Research Station; Koyaike Park, Hyogo, Japan

29

Cyndaquil

-

Sakurajima, Kagoshima, Japan (zoom in and go slightly east of Mt Ontake), Pagan Island; Hell, Michigan; Karangetang, Siau Island, NE island chain off Sulawesi; Mount Pico, Portugal

30

Quilava

-

East side of Mt. Fuji; Monaco , Santa Clara University,Kagoshima Monaco

31

Typhlosion

-

Krakatoa (Pulau Sertung), San Jose State University (northeast by Coyote Creek)

32

Totodile

-

Hoover Dam, NV, USA; Monterey Bay Aquarium; Jamestown, Saint Helena; Caspian Sea

33

Croconaw

-

Stanford University, Lake Lagunita, Miyasaki, Japan (Miyasaki City Office~in the water); Iquitos, Peru, in the Amazon River; Lake Baikal, Russia

34

Feraligatr

-

The sea near Naminoue Golf; North of Pulu Blan, near Cocos Island ; Amazon River Estuary, North of Macapa, Directly West of Baia do Vieira Grande; west of Naha Beach Side Hotel, Okinawa, Japan; northeast of Ometepe Island, Lake Nicaragua

35

Hoothoot

-

John F. Kennedy International Airport; Casablanca, Morocco; Sydney Airport; Selectron Ltd, Isla Gran Bermuda, Devonshire, Bermudes ; Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan; Cafe des Deux Moulin, Montmarte, Paris, France ; Stedman, NC, USA; Libreville International Airport, Gabon; Maseru, Lesotho

36

Pichu

-

Kitano Tenman-gu, Kyoto, Japan; CERN Bldg 868, Switzerland ; Kuwait University; The Peak Galleria, Hong Kong; Hongcheng Park, Guangzhou, China

37

Togepi

-

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona SPAIN; Disney World, FL; Tenshi Daigaku, Sapporo, Japan; Tallinn, Estonia

38

Ampharos

-

CERN, Switzerland ; Microsoft Building 18, Redmond, WA; DNA Lounge, San Francisco ; Grand Central Station, New York; near Oriental TV Tower, Shanghai; Leiden University, The Netherlands; Tbilisi, Georgia

39

Marill

-

Crater Lake ; Panama Canal; East of Skinkai Park, Okinawa

40

Sudowoodo

-

Tottori Sakyu (Tottori Sand Dunes); Easter Island, Cork Ireland, Casa del Lago Lodging House; Uluru, Australia; Grand Canyon, USA; Vulcan Point Island, Taal Volcano Crater Lake, Batangas, Philippines; Pristina, Kosovo; Chisinau, Moldova; Sofia, Bulgaria; Astana, Kazakhstan; Izmir, Turkey

41

Espeon

-

CERN, Switzerland; Nagano Himawari Kindergarten; Cambridge, UK; Zurich, Switzerland

42

Umbreon

-

near Sydney Lyric Theatre, Sydney Australia; Manaus, Brazil; near City God Pavilion?, Hangzhou, China; Zanzibar, Tanzania

43

Unown

-

Area 51; Route du Mandement (Satigny, Taboret), CERN; Argentina; North of Vulcan Cerro Azul, Galapagos

44

Wobbuffet

-

Area 51; Switzerland-France border near CERN; Cessnock, Glasgow, United Kingdom; Tokyo University Hospital

45

Steelix

-

Germantown, Ann Arbor, MI ; Sydney Central Station; Downtown Birmingham, AL ; Jakarta, Indonesia; near Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Xuhui Campus), China

46

Scizor

-

Clark Field, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX ; Pampas Coloradas, Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, Ecuador

47

Heracross

-

Bois des Mouilles, Switzerland; Taiwan Cultural Center; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Av Padre Julio Herrera, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands; Sarueonshi Park, Koto, Tokyo, Japan ; West of Barrio El Eden (not confirmed), North of Barrio El Eden; Diammaguen, Dakar, Senegal ; Charles Darwin Research Station

48

Donphan

-

Tottori Sakyu (Sand Dunes), Japan; Stonehenge, United Kingdom; Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro; Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt; The Alamo, San Antonio, TX; Alcedo Volcano, Galapagos; Manneken Pis, Belgium; Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo; Hill St, Leichhardt, Sydney; Braga Municipal Stadium, Braga, Portugal; Southwest edge of Santa Cruz, Galapagos; Tallinn, Estonia; Tirana, Albania; Mt. Elbrus, Russia; Accra, Ghana; Defense Military Complex, Sana'a, Yemen; Aleppo, Syria

49

Miltank

-

Columbus Museum of Art, Shortland Street, Auckland; Kobe, Japan; Tae Chio Cemetery, Bangkok; Arc de Triomphe, Paris

50

Tyranitar

-

Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australia; Zenpukujigawa Ryokuchi Park, Suginami; Naha City Office, Okinawa, Japan; Ohi Racecourse, Shinagawa, Japan; Mount McKinley, Alaska; Santa Cruz Hwy near Villa Laguna Hotel Manta, Galapagos; Genovesa Island, Galapagos; east of El Garrapatero, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos; Twin Peaks, San Francisco, CA; Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa; southeast of Potok Vrapcak, Zagreb, Croatia; Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal; Pompei, Italy; Montreal; Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, CA; Aconcagua, Mendoza Province, Argentina; Mbabane, Swaziland; Krestovsky Island, St. Petersburg, Russia

51

Treecko

-

Gas Works Park, Seattle, Washington; Bunkyo, Tokyo; Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos North/Centre of island, just north of the highway, Maiorca

52

Grovyle

-

Archibald Fountain Sydney; Tokyo, Japan

53

Sceptile

-

Cocos Island, Costa Rica; Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos; Near CERN

54

Torchic

-

Mt. Vesuvius, Italy; (southeast of) Mayon Volcano National Park, Albay, Philippines ; Mt. Kilauea  (Hawaiian Volcano); Ol Doinyo Lengai; Freetown, Sierra Leone

55

Combusken

-

Volcan de Pacaya, Guatemala; Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; Santorini, Greece; Mt St. Helens, Washington; Location of Tunguska Event, Russia

56

Blaziken

-

Mt. Etna, Italy; Tentokuji, Tokyo; Centralia, PA

57

Mudkip

-

Rozelle Bay, Sydney; Imperial Palace, Chiyoda, Japan; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

58

Marshtomp

-

Little Manly Cove, Manly Austraila; Victoria St, Wellington NZ; River bewtween Shanhu Park and Shanhuba, Chongqing, China

59

Swampert

-

Alexandra Canal, Sydney Australia; Alexandria Industrial Estate, near CERN

60

Beautifly

-

Puerto Ayora, Ecuador (Northeast of Pokemon Lab building); Henry W. Seale Park, Palo Alto, CA; Charles Darwin Research Station; Tonerikoen, Tokyo, Japan

61

Lotad

-

Lavender Bay, Sydney; north of Northern Ireland Science Park, Belfast, UK; Imperial Palace (Southwest of Three Palace Sanctuaries), Chiyoda, Tokyo

62

Taillow

-

Newington College, Sydney; Newark Airport, Newark, NJ ; Seattle (ATM Express, Pine & Melrose); Tempelhof, Berlin, Germany; Vancouver Airport ; Punta Arenas, Chile; Barceloneta, Puerto Rico; Nazca Lines, Peru

63

Kirlia

-

Eiffel Tower, Paris; 1804 N Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View, CA 94043; Area 51, Lincoln County, NV; CERN

64

Sableye

-

Magic Kingdom, Orlando, FL; Southernmost Point, Key West, FL; Paris Opera, Paris, France; Astrolabe Park, Sydney; Daxuexi Alley, Xi'an, China; Al-Khorah Park, Basra, Iraq

65

Mawile

-

Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Versailles, France; 730 Guerrero St, San Francisco, USA ; Downtown Winnipeg, MB, Canada (435 Cumberland Av); Bexley, Australia; Trou aux Cerfs Volcano, Mauritius; Forks, WA

66

Aggron

-

Fort Mason, San Francisco; east of Erickson Athletic Complex, Providence, RI; National Food Authority, Manila, Philippines; Brisbane St, Chifley, Sydney; Schönbrunn Zoo, Vienna, Austria; Trou aux Cerfs Volcano, Mauritius; N. Armenia Ave, Tampa, FL

67

Plusle

-

PNC Pavilion, OH, USA; McMurdo Station, Antartica; CERN; Redfern Station, Sydney; Technion – Israel Institute of Technology., Eureka, CA, USA; Nouakchott, Mauritania

68

Minun

-

USAFA Solar Power Plant, Colorado Springs, CO, USA ; Tokyo Skytree; Near CERN, Switzerland; Bedford St, Sydney; Tokyo University Hospital

69

Wailord

-

The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen, Denmark; Imperial Palace, Chiyoda, Tokyo; Rose Bay, New South Wales

70

Milotic

-

Isla Tortuga, Galapagos Islands; Lake Merced, San Franciso , Bondi Beach, Sydney; Hamarikyuteien, Chuo, Tokyo; Elbe, Hamburg, Germany

71

Kecleon

-

Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain; Cook County Jail, Chicago; George Street, Marrickville, Sydney; Trou aux Cerfs, Curepipe, Plaines Wilhems, Mauritius

72

Banette

-

Galapagos island, South Plaza island; Estes Park, CO; Heffron Park, Sydney; Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy; Antwerp, Belgium

73

Absol

-

FDR Park, Philadelphia, PA ; Asakusa Kannon Onsen, Japan; Rokuharamitsu-ji, Kyoto, Japan; Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney; southeast of Plaza Rodriguez Peña, Buenos Aires, Argentina

74

Salamence

-

Shuri Castle, Naha, Okinawa; 15th St & 8th Ave, NYC; southeast of Google HQ ; San Cristóbal Island, Galapagos; National Museum of Saudi Arabia (Riyadh); Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City ; Meijo Park, Nagoya, Japan, Cardiff Bay, Wales; Shaolin Temple, Dengfeng, China; Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany; Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

75

Metagross

-

Googleplex ;CERN; University of São Paulo; Petersham Park, Sydney; Buckingham Palace, London; Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, Turkey

76

Turtwig

-

Parque Nacional do Jau, Brazil , Brandenburg Gate, Germany

77

Grotle

-

Kasai Rinkai Park ; north of Busbys Pond; Centennial Park, Sydney (between Carrington Drive and Hamilton Drive)

78

Torterra

-

slightly up and to the left of West Emerson St., Seattle Washington; Arisugawa Park, Minato, Tokyo ; Victoria Park, Sydney; Charles Darwin National Park, NT, Australia

79

Chimchar

-

Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania; Toyomi Sports Park, Tokyo, Japan; east of Chisun Grand Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan; Du Fu Thatched Cottage, Chengdu, China

80

Monferno

-

East of Nagashio Hospital, Tokyo, Japan; Nishigamo Funeyama, Kyoto, Japan, Mount Ruapehu

81

Infernape

-

Between N. Buchanan St. and Lake Michigan, Gary, IN; Tokyo, Japan; Mount Apo, Philippines; Daimonjiyama, north of Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto, Japan

82

Piplup

-

South Basin, San Francisco; Donghu Lake, Wuhan, China; Lake Alta, Wye Creek, Otago, NZ

83

Prinplup

-

crescent island off east coast of Isla Isabela, Galapagos; North Basin, San Francisco

84

Empoleon

-

San Francisco, Sutro Baths; north of Ichikawashiohama Station, Chiba, Japan; southwest of Conakry, Guinea

85

Staraptor

-

south of Queens Park, Sydney; Baltra Airport, Baltra Island; Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco; Darwin International Airport, Australia; Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, France; Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kitty Hawk; Machu Picchu, Peru; Potala Palace, Tibet

86

Luxray

-

Googleplex; University of Stuttgart, Germany; Renfrew Center of Texas; Battersea Power Station, London; Busan, South Korea; Pago Pago International Airport, American Samoa

87

Combee

-

University of Illinois , Urbana-Champaign; Friends of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney

88

Pachirisu

-

Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, United Kingdom ; Googleplex, Kanazawa, Japan; Museum of Science, Boston; Pago Pago International Airport, American Samoa

89

Buizel

-

Charleston Slough, Mountain View, CA ( in the water north of Google HQ (Zoom in)); Pacific Ocean (zoom 500m); Tama River, Nishigawara Park, Tokyo; east of Pape'ete, Tahiti; Nagle Pl of Carl Anderson Park, Seattle, WA; Tauranga, NZ

90

Buneary

-

Statue of Liberty; Tower Bridge London; Union Road Sydney; Sapporo (north-west of the Pokemon Center); Krakow, Poland; Villa Lobos Park, Sao Paulo

91

Chatot

-

Sydney Opera House; San Francisco Airport; University of São Paulo; Hong Kong International Airport; Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Japan; Demachiyanagi Station, Kyoto, Japan; Nazca Lines, Peru; Felix Houphouet-Boigny Airport, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire; Angel Falls, Venezuela; Dushanbe Airport, Tajikistan; Kingston, Jamaica

92

Spiritomb

-

Embaracadero & Green in San Francisco, Shanghai Street near Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong; Paris, France; Kanmakiyamatecho, Japan (on the Saigoku Highway); National Museum, Monrovia, Liberia

93

Garchomp

-

Eitaiji, Tokyo; south of Kudanzaka Hospital, Tokyo; Fukagawa Park, Tokyo; St. Sava, Belgrade, Serbia; Mutianyu, Beijing, China; Qinglong Temple, Xi'an, China; Charles Darwin Research Station; Ramesseum, Valley of the Kings, Egypt; Dragon's Back, Shek O, Hong Kong; Ataturk Forest Farm and Zoo, Ankara, Turkey; Vilnius, Lithuania; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Bujumbura, Burundi

94

Munchlax

-

Empire State Building, NY; Prince of Wales Private Hospital, Sydney; Dubrovnik, Croatia; south of The Royal Palace, Stockholm, Sweden

95

Lucario

-

Stock Exchange, New York, NY; north of the Taj Mahal, Mehtab Bagh ; West of Harajuku Station, Tokyo, Sakuragaokacho-Japan; Cecilia Ave & Santiago St, San Francisco, California USA; La Paz, Bolivia

96

Croagunk

-

CERN, Switzerland; Barrios El Eden; State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; Pampas Coloradas, Puerto Ayora, Galapagos; Tokyo, Japan ; California St, Mountain View (by San Antonio Caltrain station); Trou aux Cerfs Volcano, Mauritius

97

Leafeon

-

Setagaya Park, Tokyo , Arthur Byrne Reserve, Sydney

98

Glaceon

-

Mount Everest ; Great Slave Lake, NT, Canada; Sochi, Russia; Turku, Finland; South Georgia Island

99

Mamoswine

-

Whistler Mountain, British Columbia, Canada; Sarajevo Olympic Bobsleigh Track, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Kinsmen Park, Saskatoon, SK, Canada; Cape Soya, Hokkaido, Japan; east of Soyamisaki, Hokkaido, Japan; Sakhalin Zoobotanical Park, Yuzhno-Sakhalisnk, Russia; Dunedin, New Zealand; Chemnitz, Germany

100

Rotom

-

Nintendo World, Rockefeller Center, NYC; Cable Car Museum, MIT; San Francisco; Cambridge, Mass.; Imperial College, London

101

Snivy

-

Rockefeller Garden, Jerusalem; Kiyosumi Garden-Japan

102

Servine

-

Royal Observatory Greenwich, Kameido Central Park-Japan

103

Serperior

-

Central Park, NYC; Hibiyakoen, Tokyo

104

Tepig

-

Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica; Bordeaux, France; Popocatepetl, Mexico; Ariake Tennis Nomori, Tokyo

105

Pignite

-

Meteor Crater, AZ, USA; Hachimanyamakamanoukuchi Ryokuchi Park, Tokyo; Glasgow, United Kingdom; Stromboli, Messina, Italy

106

Emboar

-

The Berlin Wall, Germany, Odessa Meteor Crater, TX, USA

107

Oshawott

-

Egret Pond, northwest of Googleplex; Merlion, Singapore

108

Dewott

-

Stevens Creek Shoreline Nature Study Area, Mountain View, CA (in the bay (?) northeast of Google HQ), South West of Goat Island, Niagara Falls, NY

109

Samurott

-

Rhone River, South of CERN ; Circular Quay, Sydney; West Edmonton Mall

110

Munna

-

Stockholm Central Station, Sweden; Area 51, NV; E 53rd St & 2nd Ave, NYC; Vauxhall Bridge, London, UK

111

Pidove

-

Dakhla; Barrios El Eden; Terminal Terrestre de Puerto Ayora, Ecuador; Anchorage, Alaska; Moffett Federal Airfield (east of Googleplex), Mountain View, CA; Ouagadougou Airport, Burkina Faso; Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan

112

Audino

-

Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, London UK; in a mall near the Switzerland-France border; Burj Khalifa ; Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Perth, Australia; San Carlos Caltrain Station, CA; The Dubai Mall; Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake in Utah; Fukudenji, Kyoto, Japan

113

Scraggy

-

Alcatraz Island; City God Temple, Shanghai, China; San Francisco; Santa Cruz Hwy (Go to the coordinate), Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos; Winchester Mystery House

114

Cofagrigus

-

Bran Castle, Romania ; Motomachi Park, Yokohama, Tikal; Yerevan, Armenia

115

Zoroark

-

Santa Fe Island, Galapagos; Mayan Archaelogical Site, Quintana Roo, Mexico; Antalya, Turkey; Rosario, Argentina

116

Minccino

-

Hosokawa Mansion, Kumamoto, Japan; Saint-Gervais Church, Paris, France; Nuremburg, Germany; Bolivar Square, Bogotá, Colombia

117

Deerling

-

Grand Hyatt, Tokyo, Japan ; Castle of S.Jorge, Lisbon, Portugal , Macritchie Reservoir (South of Rifle Range Rd), Singapore; Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, San Jose, CA

118

Emolga

-

CERN; TESLA Motors, Palo Alto, CA; Itaipu Dam, Foz do Igaucu, Brazil; Jurong West Public Library, Singapore; South Carolina State Museum, Columbia; Elephant and Castle, London

119

Joltik

-

Googleplex ; Al Zawra Park (Baghdad)

120

Ferrothorn

-

Asukayama Park, Tokyo; Royal National Park, Sydney

121

Chandelure

-

Area 51; Tower of London; Teotihuacan, Mexico; Taiyangdao Street, Harbin, China

122

Haxorus

-

Taronga Zoo, Mosman, Sydney; Union Square, San Francisco; Yangon, Myanmar; Himeji Castle, Hyogo, Japan; Gazi Baba Park, Skopje, Macedonia; Gasparilla Island State Park, Boca Grande, Florida; Chambord, France; Porto Alegre, Brazil; Asmara, Eritrea; Abou Jarash Gardens, Damascus, Syria

123

Cubchoo

-

Helsingin Ortodoksinen Hautausmaa, Lapinlahti, Helsinki; Point Barrow, Alaska; Lake Louise, AB; Heard Island and McDonald Islands; Mont Blanc, Chamonix-Mont Blanc, France; Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (Northeast)

124

Stunfisk

-

Tortuga Bay, Galapagos; Nose Hill Park, Calgary, Canada; Reusch Ash Pit, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania ; Sofia, Bulgaria; Narodowy Stadium, Warsaw, Poland; Koyaike Park, Hyogo, Japan; Sapporo Excel Hotel Tokyu, Hokkaido, Japan; Cape of Good Hope, South Africa; Angkor Wat, Cambodia; Beirut Horse Track, Lebanon; Ghent, Belgium; Yumenoshima Park, Tokyo; Meiji Jingu Gaien Stadium, Tokyo; Japantown Center, San Francisco; Lusaka, Zambia; Kanchenjunga, Sikkim, India; Mount Roraima, Guyana (south at intersection of Brazil, Venuzuela, & Guyana)

125

Hydreigon

-

Louvre Museum, Paris, France; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, NYC; Roswell, NM; Port Arthur, Tasmania

126

Chespin

-

Kuritsu Kashinomiya Park, Hamadayama, Tokyo; Millennium Parklands, Olympic Park, Sydney ; Santiago Galapagos Island

127

Quilladin

-

Hanegi Park, Setagaya, Tokyo ; Boronia Park, Australia; Santa Fe Island; Battersea Park, London

128

Chesnaught

-

Kokuei Showa Kinen Park, Tachikawa, Tokyo; Macquarie Park Cemetary & Crematorium, Sydney; London Zoo; Le Pouce, Pamplemousses, Maritius

129

Fennekin

-

Ushuaia, Argentina; Piton de la Fournaise, Saint-Pierre, Reunion

130

Braixen

-

Honolulu, Hawaii (Diamond Head); Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park; Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland; Mt Sakurajima, Japan

131

Delphox

-

Saitama City Office, Japan; Kawasaki Daishi, Tokyo; north-east of Mauna Kea, Hawaii

132

Froakie

-

Honolulu, Hawaii [Pacific Beach Hotel] , Charles Darwin Research Station; Pier 39, San Francisco, Puerto Ayora; Harumifuto Park

133

Frogadier

-

Gothenburg Art Museum ; Water off Isla Baltra, Galapagos; Lake Bellagio, Las Vegas; Zurich, Switzerland

134

Greninja

-

Mort Bay, Sydney, Australia; Isla Santa Cruz, Galápagos; La Alhambra, Granada, Spain; The Riverwalk, San Antonio, TX, USA

135

Bunnelby

-

Sacré-Coeur, Paris; Edinburgh Castle; Palmerston North NZ; Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan;University Of New South Wales; Karlsruhe Palace

136

Talonflame

-

Volcán Wolf, Isla Isabela, Galapagos; Daimon Station, Japan

137

Gogoat

-

Minato park, Chiba, Japan ; Großer Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany

138

Pancham

-

Pokemon Center, Osaka, Japan; Bayshore Freeway, Googleplex Ponte 25 de Abril, Lisbon, Portugal The Arch of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Bran Castle, Romania; Oklahoma City, OK (near SE 89th st.)

139

Meowstic (Male)

-

east of St. John's Gardens, London; Googleplex; Riga, Latvia; Nagaa El-shaikh, Egypt

140

Meowstic (Female)

-

Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA; Apple Headquarters, Cupertino; Area 51, NV; Yotsuya Hall, Shinjuku, Tokyo; Nagaa El-shaikh, Egypt; Serra Mall (zoom 100m), Stanford University, CA

141

Aegislash

-

Parkview, Kansas City, MO; Tenpozan Park, Osaka, Japan; Montevideo, Uruguay; Schwab Rd, Bay City, MI

142

Spritzee

-

Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Tokyo; Disneyland Dr, Anaheim CA; Heritage Park, Palo Alto, CA; Vienna, Austria; Manila Film Center, Philippines; Bowness-on-Windermere, UK; Ibiza, Spain; Santiago de Compostela, Spain

143

Swirlix

-

north of Harajuku Station, Yoyogi Park, Tokyo; Dublin, Ireland; Isla Tortuga, Galapagos; Cologne Cathedral, Germany; Petra Treasury, Jordan; Avignon, France; Mohatta Palace, Karachi, Pakistan

144

Inkay

-

Bilbao, Spain; Redwood City CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt; Ibiza, Spain;

145

Helioptile

-

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France; Wardenclyffe Tower, East Shoreham, NY; Sapporo TV Tower, Japan; Apple Headquarters, Cupertino; Facebook Research Center, Willow Road, Menlo Park, California, United States, Tesla Street

146

Sylveon

-

Mont Saint-Michel, France ; Venice, Italy ; Central Park, NYC; Yoyogi Park; Shibuya, Tokyo; Trinity College, Cambridge; Jardim do Infante D. Henrique, Porto, Portugal

147

Dedenne

-

Harvard University; Nintendo Headquarters, Kyoto; Space Needle, Seattle; Shinjuku Station, Tokyo; Fernsehturm, Berlin; Taichung, Taiwan; Parliament West, Ottawa;

148

Goodra

-

La Moneda, Santiago, Chile; Galapagos Island; Osakajo, Japan; southeast of Suginama Hinode Kindergarten, Suginami; Hanoi, Vietnam; Palais du Peuple, Algiers, Algeria; Tripoli, Libya; Iran National Library, Tehran, Iran; Dinosaur National Monument, Dinosaur, CO, USA

149

Pumpkaboo

-

St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow; Pyramids of Giza; Boston, MA; Stanford Dish, Stanford, CA; Cockatoo Island, Sydney (west of Harbour Bridge)

150

Noivern

-

Naha Airport; Portland, Oregon; CERN (Switzerland); Angermeyer Point, Puerto Ayora, Ecuador; NASA Johnson Space Center; Kyiv, Ukraine, Oslo; Howland Island, Cuba Mall, Wellington NZ, Christchurch Willowbank Reserve NZ; Geneve Aeroport, Geneva, Switzerland

Looking for Mew (151st Pokemon)

Mew is the 151st Pokémon to be searched for in the challenge. Mew does not appear until all 150 other pocket monsters are caught.

The difficulty of pinpointing mew arises when you're the impatient type, as the app assigns a specific location per player from a set number of possible locations, as listed by players who have tracked their respective mews.

Amazon River (Near the pin)

-2.98,-58.49 (Near Amazon River)

-11.42, -59.92 (West Brazil)

Nintendo Kyoto" (Near Nintendo HQ)

-0.2257, -65.8120 (NW Brazil)

25, -71 (Bermuda Triangle)

-15.241343,-58.125310 (Brazilian town - Casa de Jao)

-1.41,-61.57 (Lagoa do Tanauau, Brazil)

-1.42,-59.92 (Represa de Balbina, Brazil)

0.23899, -50.411 (NE Brazil)

-4.6703, -69.3479

-3.030, -64.821

-3.074570,-50.44924

-8.059229, -62.116699 (near Humaitá, Amazonas, Brazil)

-7.450073, -66.445283

-5.726010, -53.084793

-3.05, -50.44

-2.965, -68.027

-4.670340, -64.347964

-7.710533, -56.731247

-8.276599,-53.217622

0.856887,-51.372063 

-2.724350,-62.841825

-4.412142,-61.237758

[schubertmalbas-blog]

the would-be intern

an intern is someone who is almost there but not yet, a fluffy cake without the icing, a diamond in the rough. in any field, this means that the intern has the potential to be great, only he or she will need a little more time to get to an acceptable polish. aah, this notion of being accepted, isn't this the root of discrimination? if a person does not act appropriate to social norms, whether in aspects pertaining to socio-economic background, gender, or otherwise, then will he or she not be deemed acceptable? as a thriving civilization, we humans have devised ways and means to provide structure to the wandering lifestyle of the nomads - to the benefit and detriment of human individuality. we built schools, governments, businesses & corporations, laws & constitutions, fastfood chains & malls, banks & sketchy investment funds. this internship, then, is just but a minute construct in the grand scheme of the things, a seemingly inconsequential event in the universe, a blip in Earth's 4.5-billion-year timeline. but for a single medical student who has finished clerkship, this thing called internship is a momentous step towards that M.D. license. so yes, it may just be a machination to provide structure to the medical profession, to obtain a certain polish before acceptance to a respected group in society. but to this wide-eyed medical apprentice, internship is the necessary process to figure out what it wants to do for the rest of his life, while being thrown into the realities of the healthcare system like a hapless child thrown into the sea by his expectant parents thinking that their child has already learned to swim after using salbabida (rubber rings) for that one year called clerkship. welcome to reality: the smell of hot damp air of a resource-limited public hospital in summer weather. why does pgh seeminlgy get more than a thousand consults per day?  why do patients expect lab fees & medicines to be free? if the illness is that bad, then why only now? why do i get patients as far as Samar, Catandanues, or Misamis? why is this ancient-looking suction machine not even working, & why is it even here? outside the hospital, a thousand more questions abound. where do i go from here? will i be a clinician? a teacher? an NGO worker? a researcher? a government employee? is the salary adequate? will i be able to save for my nest egg? a hospital doctor, after all, is just another blue-collared worker in a white coat that lives by the tagline: no work, no pay. of course, one couldn't escape non-medical mysteries as well. why is it called barbers' cut? why is mcdonald's giving away free mcmuffins to rich people? why end #G2B when it has phenomenal tv ratings? where the heck is Malaysian Airlines flight 370? will i ever see snow in the Philippines? seems like most of these questions will find their respective resolutions in time, and so for now i bid myself to commit to patience and perseverance for one more year, to claim that elusive MD title, and to get a real paid job so that i, as kuya (eldest brother), can help with my parents' finances & siblings' education. it hasn't even started, but already i can't wait to end my internship. to my past, present, and future brave colleagues in this healthcare system, may the odds be ever in our favour.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

healthy democracy

in recent months, the college of medicine that i am part of has been abuzz with two controversies, with both student welfare and patient care at stake. while there is a temporary resignation by the studentry towards the inevitable, the underlying issues remain ostensibly unresolved. the first concerns the university-wide calendar shift from june-march to august-may, which decreases the number of medical students able to man the university hospital for several months. the second involves a directive that requires paid hospital staff to do vital signs monitoring, a responsibility that is traditionally the students' duty in the past. let me outline the two policies further. paradigm shift the academic calendar shift was strongly debated among higher education institutions that have declared their intention to implement it, among these the university of the philippines, ateneo de manila university, and university of sto. tomas. to be competitive globally, or at least in the ASEAN region, these universities wish to adjust their calendars supposedly to facilitate student & teacher exchanges, project partnerships, and greater curriculum parallelism, all for the goal of ASEAN integration by 2015. what surprised the students was the swiftness in which this policy change was announced. a lot of criticism stems from the apparently minimal student involvement during the deliberations before the official memorandum has been signed. if the students were surveyed today, likely they will agree with the lack of student referendum / consensus, and majority will possibly express a contrarian view. the move is disappointing, because a school exists because of its students, which comprise the primary stakeholder in any educational system, not the administrative officers, not the security or janitorial staff, and not even the teachers. a school that does not listen to its students is like an institution with no respect for its members, or a company that does not value its customers. of course it can't be helped that this kind of stuff happens in the real world, but it is still disappointing. i am more concerned with the fondness of school officials with the idea of globalization that this shift brings; it seems like the perfect vehicle to obtain more sabbaticals and fellowships abroad. however, i would argue that this will not bring any significant change to our ranking as a university, because all of these measures have been in place for so many years, but our local universities are still sliding in global rankings year after year. our universities are lacking two important things: the culture of research, and publication in international journals. Do relevant research and you provide your countrymen with relevant solutions; but research should not stop there. Indulge me in saying that many of our researches stop at the most crucial point between mediocrity and greatness. We need to publish our research, and we need to submit them to internationally known journals, because sadly, that's how the competition runs. if only we can modify the standards for ranking universities to include research relevance and translatability, then our top universities will likely have stellar marks, but as of yet, international publications serve as proxy markers for many ratings agencies, and we need to be aggressive in publishing our research. thankless job another hospital memorandum has been circulated, with its many variations spread as rumors, that concerns with the burden of responsibility of vital signs monitoring, which arguably tops the list of tiring thankless jobs that also includes doing blood extractions, placing intravenous insertions, and writing interdepartmental referrals. traditionally monitoring has been assigned to medical students, because admittedly it is such as menial job, but is essential for two reasons: it saves patients' lives and it hones the clinical eye. medical students stand to benefit from this repetitive experience in order to gain clinical acumen as well as a sense of purpose. what makes it particularly difficult in a poorly-funded government hospital is that, many times, one medical student is assigned to monitor 20-30 patients in one ward every hour, for several hours in a span of a day, on top of other equally exhausting tasks. the ruckus apparently started when the administrative office issued a directive requiring paid hospital staff, i.e., nurses, residents, & fellows, to be accountable for the vital signs record sheets for legal purposes. then, some nurses started to complain about doing the monitoring themselves, what with the multitude of tasks they already have in hand. some students feel that residents & fellows already had their share of monitoring during their younger days, and expressed ambivalence towards the policy change. meanwhile, residents & fellows feel that the students will be deprived of a necessary skill. overall, this policy seemed to have left many of the staff feel disgruntled, and several have placed the blame on the students for instigating such a proposal. with no clear conclusion at hand, medical students will likely continue to do vital signs monitoring, and personally i have no qualms with it. but as part of the studentry, it hurts when senior people accuse you of complaining about monitoring, when you are not even guilty or even aware of such a complaint, and this blame game is clearly a step backward from what we dream of: harmony and cooperation in a hospital that seems to ask a lot from its members. what is commendable in all of these, despite the negativity, is the unperturbed sense of critical thinking and freedom of expression by the medical students and hospital staff involved. strong criticisms are reflective of a healthy democracy, and despite some parties expressing disappointment, i think this entire exercise is still a good thing for both the university and the hospital because this gauges the health of democratic policy making in our institution. let the discussions continue, and pray that the administration will truly listen to its constituents. hopefully, these debates can bring progressive resolutions to the health delivery system in our university hospital that has been weighed but found wanting.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

2013 as predicted

i still remember how i wrote a set of prophecies in january like it was yesterday. alas! time flies real' swift now that christmas is 'round the bend. it's high time to look at how our predictions stack up with the events of the past twelve months.

1. manny pacquiao will win his congressional seat this coming elections; however he will lose in his next boxing match yet again, and thus quit boxing for good.

pacquiao did win another term as representative of saranggani last may, but he also won against rios last november, so this unfortunately does not count. 0-1

₰  - ₰  - ₰

2. ms philippines will finally win a title in any of the 4 titles: ms universe, ms world, ms international, or ms earth. successes in the first two will be sweeter since there has been significant drought in those two pageants.

i sincerely did not expect this to happen, but this year turned out to be one of the country's most impressive reapings in beauty pageants, if not the best harvest there ever was. 1-1

₰  - ₰  - ₰

3. some medical school will get 100% in the licensure exam this year; I dare not say which school.

in retrospect, this was a bit of a cop out: any school with less than 50 students will have a better likelihood of getting a 100%. Impressively, there were actually big medical schools that nailed a perfect 100%. 2-1

₰  - ₰  - ₰

4. tv5 will gain significant audience share that it will almost overtake the #2 spot in megamanila currently held by abscbn.

  tv5 never had a chance against abscbn, but it did gain ground against gma and overtook the latter in mindanao, gaining significant audience in gensan and cagayan de oro. 2-2

₰  - ₰  - ₰

5. a girl will win american idol season 12 (after a string of guys in the past few seasons).

almost every idol fan hated this season because it was so uninteresting to watch 5 girls shriek out against each other, week after week. this show has gotten old. the award for the best talent show on tv today goes to xfactor and the voice. 3-2

6. Amour (from Austria) will win best foreign language film in the Oscars this year.

this was really a fight between amour, a royal affair, and the intouchables. perhaps the former won because it had the teremity of pushing the plot to a questionable ethos. 4-2

₰  - ₰  - ₰

7. by the end-of-the-year, PSEi will have reached 6000 or more. there is significant resistance at 6500, support at 5500. overall trend is bullish.

the market was remarkably bullish for the first half of the year, compared to the sluggish but solid three previous years. if it were any indication, the index barely hovered the 7000 mark in a span of a month, before quickly descending into massive corrections that never saw the light of day. indeed this bourse was overhyped, and i suspect local buyers were caught in the middle, unable to unload stocks bought at high prices. now it becomes a wait-and-see game, really, as there is no indication that the index will escape this bear territory at 6000 for the next couple of months. 5-2

₰  - ₰  - ₰

8. given the cyclical nature of forex, USDPHP exchange rate will not breach the $1:P40 barrier, but will have strong support at $1:P47.

notice the downhill trend from 2010 to 2012, only to be bucked this year with a 4-peso spread. provided that currency exchange is more volatile than stocks, it's still a shock to see such reversal despite the same country fundamentals as the past 2 years. more likely this was a kneejerk reaction to the fed's decision this year to cut back on the stimulus program. 6-2

₰  - ₰  - ₰

9. nadal will have a strong comeback, my good ol' fed will have a lackluster year, and murray will win wimbledon (after what happened last year).

sometimes i think that tennis players are quite the diva: nadal announced his knee injury last year, and yet he came back this year, winning two grand slams and five world tour masters 1000. murray said he's got back pain, and yet he won the wimbledon versus djokovic. on the other hand, it was djokovic's year to lose, and yes he did. but the biggest letdown was federer. it was as if he might as well have never existed. 7-2

₰  - ₰  - ₰

10. by then there will be more female senators in the 16th Congress than there is now

among the newly-elected are grace poe, nancy binay, and cynthia villar, while miriam santiago, loren legarda, and pia cayetano comprise the three sterling old hags of the senate. hopefully the dose of estrogen brings a more thoughtful perspective to legislation, but more estrogen may also mean more catfights in the senate, but not necessarily among the female species (e.g., santiago v. juan ponce enrile). let's see. 8-2

₰  - ₰  - ₰

11. star trek will hopefully gross higher than man of steel and iron man 3; an animated movie will be in boxofficemojo's annual top 5

star trek only ranked 12th among the top grossers this year: a respectable $400 million haul, but not enough compared to other summer blockbusters like ironman3 and man of steel. among my other favorites this year are catching fire & frozen. oh look, there are actually 2 animated movies in the top 5. so i probably get a half-point, right? well, sadly no. 8-3

₰  - ₰  - ₰

12. there will be at least one storm that will pass through the mindanao landmass again, with maximum winds reaching at least tropical storm status, but hopefully it will be less devastating and the townsfolk will be more prepared by then 

there were four cyclones that hit the mindanao landmass throughout the year, but none was as memorable and heart-breaking as the destruction caused by typhoon yolanda / haiyan in the visayas, dubbed by the us navy weather agency as the strongest typhoon to hit land. no one anticipated such scale of wreckage and sadness, and this on top of the damage done by the magnitude seven earthquake that hit bohol and nearby provinces. it's a terribly sad year for the philippines. 9-3

₰  - ₰  - ₰

13. Ateneo will not win UAAP basketball this year, and fans will mourn 

Ateneo men's basketball team, for the first time in a long while, has ranked outside the top four. as always, UP has a clean sweep, leading the pack with the most number of losses. Congratulations to the Teng brothers of UST and La Salle for claiming the most number of screaming girls this year. 10-3

₰  - ₰  - ₰

14. UP will remain the highest ranking university in the Philippines according to QS and THE, but DLSU and Ateneo will be a few notches up in the Top500 

compared to last year's ranking

Consistently, the premier national university has again fallen short of our expectations. While it can be argued that this is due to so many factors, I believe that this is primarily due to the lack of researches published in internationally renowned journals. I honestly would like to see some genuine effort from university officials into getting local studies published. 10-4

₰  - ₰  - ₰

15. sports dominance in the SEA Games in Myanmar this year will be a toss-up between Thailand and Vietnam; the Philippines will finish lower this time around at a dismal 7th

host country myanmar took second place behind thailand's solid first place finish. sadly, but not unexpectedly, the philippines only took home 29 golds, 34 silvers, and 38 bronzes, the third worst haul and the worst ranking since the country joined the games three decades ago. 11-4

₰  - ₰  - ₰

with a batting average of 73% (11 correct out of 15 guesses), with the rest being nearly correct,  i am definitely more than your average nostradamus from quiapo. now, anyone out there who wants their fortunes to be read?

[schubertmalbas-blog]

er vs or

ER has always been a very dynamic environment, to put it nicely. one minute you're idly sitting on your chair, then by the next minute you find yourself sweating more than a hundred chest pumps in one minute or else the patient expires. by contrast, the OR finds its rhythm in the planned unknown. many times, the surgery plan is drawn days or even weeks ahead. even for emergency cases, materials are prepped neatly before the patient gets inside the operating theatre. still, no one knows for sure which outcome will it be. at the OR, the patient is stripped naked, with only a piece of cloth or two covering the essentials. whether you are under charity or pay, everyone has to be stripped down to their birthday suit up to the post-anesthesia care unit. while there are a few stereotypical telltale signs of income levels, such as skin blemishes or nail hygiene, there's actually little use for us to know whether you have a million pesos in your bank account or you live way below poverty line. we just need you to live through the surgery, and we will do our best to give you that fighting chance.

" ...there's actually little use for us to know whether you have a million pesos in your bank account or you live way below poverty line"

at the ER, especially when in a public hospital, it is easy to discern differences in wealth such as by the kind of garments they wear and by the vehicle they alighted from. although in utopia all patients should be treated nicely regardless of status, in reality pay patients get a much nicer approach from hospital people. i find all of this unsurprising, though. money certainly begets power, but not necessarily respect. in the end, based on christian texts at least, our lives are judged not by how much we have accrued but in how much we have given. blessed are the people at ER and OR who have willingly dedicated their lives to serve the filipino people. this post is dedicated to my recent rotations at the departments of anesthesiology and emergency medicine.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

future of data

from xkcd

[schubertmalbas-blog]

musings of an assist

my whole month of october is dedicated to two things: emergency room (ER) duty and operating room (OR) assists. while at the OR as second assist (or rarely as first assist), i have tons of time thinking about other things: e.g., mulling the prospects of my career after one and a half years, wondering what movie or TV show is on HBO, AXN, or CinemaOne tonight, and looking forward to eating a vanilla sundae with cookies & cream and chocolate fudge after scrubbing out. as student, i have the luxury of sleeping on my own bed when i'm not on duty, which happens every 3 days. in comparison, the amount of time required from surgery residents is quite ridiculous. there was a time when we did a whipple's procedure for an ampullary mass, and the surgery residents that i assisted at the OR were supposed to be post-duty status, but the procedure went well into 3am the next day. one of them called her husband to say, see you nalang in 3 days, and told her spouse to look after their 5-year old son. i feel sorry for her not being able to cuddle her son as often as she's supposed to, but i guess surgeons are tough like that. aside from eavesdropping, er, accidentally overhearing results of pre-residency and being able to staple the skin, i also thought about doing a survey on medical students who are or who have been assists at the OR, such as: which of the following best approximates your feeling about being an assist at the OR?

gusto kong umaakyat para sa OR at gusto ko pang mag-assist sa next case

ayaw ko sana umakyat sa OR kanina, pero since nakascrub-in na, ako na sa next

ayoko talagang magscrub-in kung may choice ako [obviously wala]

none of the above 

please rank these locations of hospital duty in order of preference:

emergency room

operating room

wards

do you think about surgery-related stuff during assists?

yes

no 

do you think about NON-surgery-related stuff during assists?

yes

no

do you intend to train in surgical fields, such as Surg, ORL, ObGyn, Ophtha?

yes

no

Then, after getting enough responses, I can actually do some multivariate logistic regression, and answer basic questions as to whether our atittude towards OR assists translate to career choices. To take it further, someone can probably do a longitudinal survey and see if such choices are actually realized. But, of course, instead of doing such tedious stuff, I might be better off sleeping and conserving energy for the next assist.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

davao regional

after having worked for 3 months already at the philippine general hospital in manila, i decided to compare a major tertiary referral center in davao, in my hometown, and see if the place is at par in terms of health care.

davao regional hospital, or regional as we the locals call it, is an impressive hospital, it turns out. i actually grew up at a stone's throw from the hospital, roughly around 200 steps away, but without really seeing its insides. yes, because there is still that public versus private hospital mentality.

except for one instance where i went to their chapel to attend mass when i was still a child, funnily this was my first time to actually see, hear, smell and feel the place as an authentic medical center. the demographic in regional is almost the same as with my dear pgh: poor helpless citizens of the philippines with no money to pay for private health care, although i feel a little more attached to my fellow dabawenos because they speak my language. from what i gather based on the clusters of happy smiling faces of doctors on the hospital walls, regional has several accredited residency training programs. they have a pretty solid reputation in residencies in internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics & gynecology, anesthesiology, and family medicine. i also heard that they have graduated their first neurology specialist in tandem with davao doctors hospital.

ha! what's amazing with regional is that they seem to have way better infrastructure than what pgh currently has. true, emergency room pa lang, taob na, ang ganda at ang linis kahit madaming patients, parang private hospital. the hospital has a spanking new, shiny lift! pgh's elevators are put to shame. regional also has several ramps where wheelchairs and stretchers can be pushed and pulled to and from the 2nd and 3rd floor. i don't think we will ever have that in pgh. the charity wards have the same feel as that in pgh on any normal day, where all beds are filled to capacity. i went to the pedia wards at the back of the main complex to take a look, where patients and watchers have a small playground outside the department.

the hospital is actually very proud of having been cited by the country's president in his annual state of the nation address as the first public end-referral cancer center in mindanao, with a functional linac machine and several specialists on board, e.g., surg-onco, med-onco, and rad-onco. i was able to write to dr faiqha bagis, one of the few rad-oncologists in davao, although nanghihinayang talaga ako that i wasn't able to meet up with her. i am really happy to see that regional has evolved into a hospital i can be proud of, comparing it to pgh standards of course. here's hoping that more medical centers like this are put up in other parts of mindanao and the philippines as well.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

ted city 2.0

TEDCity2.0 was a day-long event held at the Times Center in New York, in celebration of urban innovation around the globe and in anticipation of emerging issues in population, health, education, architecture, engineering, transportation, environment, and sustainability. Tweets about "#TEDCity2"!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); thankfully the goodies are uploaded on livestream for people like me on the other side of the planet. you can watch all the talks in the TEDCity2.0 archive. session 1 featured redefining what it means to be citizen. i especially liked atlanta mayor kasim reed's speech who was trying to charm the audience into why mayors should rule the world.

session 2 was about reinventing the urban experience.

session 3 was all about reimagining the concept of city.

session 4 discussed how we can redraw geographies and learning from other countries.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

career analysis

having enough time to think about the future is probably not a good thing, largely because it makes me worry too much, when in fact, i should be glad that the thought of earning a degree in medicine will open up several opportunities that might not have been possible if i weren't in my state right now.

below is a mckinsey analysis of my possible career options. a mckinsey or GE matrix is a common marketing strategy tool that plots the strength of a product versus the attractiveness of the market. if two or more products are placed in one matrix, then you have a business portfolio analysis. in an oversimplistic sense, it helps identify products with a competitive edge, although we know the real world is full of variables that we cannot control.

let's just say that biostat, pedia and radio are three options out of the many. now i won't deny nor confirm that these three are my top considerations, but i thought that it'd be easier to contrast the difference between pediatrics and radiology doctors, and as well as someone involved in research. also, i know for a fact that these things tend to change, so i'll just cross the bridge when i get there.

the size of the circle dictates the perceived market size, and the size of the pie is the perceived market share. the arrows indicate the perceived direction of each entity in the future.

doing pedia in my province is a no-brainer; there are a lot of pedia patients, and the current inverted demographic pyramid of our population just tells me that more adults in the future will bear more kids.

doing biostat is a different matter, since there are fewer slots in the academe or government, but being good at a specific skill that only 5% of all current medical students are even considering as their future career will expand the market size considerably.

radio is a rather contentious area; technology will likely push the supply-demand curve forward, but will your personal market size increase? probably not, even in the provinces, where even a small number of radiologists are capable of providing their services to multiple hospitals; they're an efficient lot.

i realized that the mckinsey matrix is useful in plotting the complexity and in elaborating the variables involved, but it does not provide a ready answer. this is also true with regards to other market strategy tools. it is always up to the market strategist to decide whether to divest the concept entirely, to focus on a niche market, to further differentiate the product, or to think out of the box and innovate new ideas.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

return service ala germany

Barbara is a story about, well, Barbara Wolff, a doctor in communist East Germany in 1980. To be able to understand the film, you must first know a little back story. She previously worked at the prestigious Charite at the capital, but after signifying her intent for an exit visa from the German Democratic Republic to work overseas, she was laid off from work and was instead reassigned to a provincial hospital.

One scene includes Barbara on a train with the local security official saying something like "since the people has funded your studies, it is time that you return their favor". It's a familiar phrase that begs a lot of explanation, but I guess, back then, as it is still now, we don't have the courage to question it.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

manila book fair

registration is only 20 pesos. the place is already teeming with people at the opening hour. 

look at those crazy sale tags. books can go as cheap as 5 pesos.

the book fair runs sept 11 to 15 at the smx convention center, and is open from 10am to 8pm.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

doing vaginal repair

during our end of rotation with the obgyn department, we had a skills assessment session aka osce, an objective structural clinical exam. my favorite exam station was doing the episiorrhaphy, primarily because i practiced this at home using sponges, anatomy dissection tools, and of course youtube.

i had to practice a lot because during my first laceration repair on a real postpartum woman, i was being coached by the ever-supportive ob residents and i really did not know what i was doing until i finished my sutures. after that, i knew that i had to practice.

this was my home practice set.

here's one of my favorite practice vids showing an episiotomy repair.

i'm looking forward to the next osce skills stations, especially during my Surgery rotation.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

eats in baguio

baguio is known for their 'gulay' (vegetables) and anything fresh. at the hangar, a walking distance from the maharlika market, one can find heaps of fresh produce at a cheap price, compared to manila at least. i was only able to take photos of strawberries and several wine bottles, but let me tell you that their tomatoes and radishes are ridiculously ginormous.

if you are in baguio but you want someone else to cook for you, the next best thing to a home-cooked meal is finding the right resto. since baguio is a tourist town, expect a lot of foodie places to choose from. i can vouch for the restaurants below because i've had eaten their food and i was not disappointed. Good Taste when in rome, do as the romans do. this restaurant offers the best bang for the buck. a single plate serves 3-4, and costs 100-150 pesos. it's a family foodcourt for both locals and tourists, not a dating place, so please keep your expectations reasonable. it's a stone's throw from the west side of burnham park.

   Ketchup this place right across the wright park is a small community of 5 theme restaurants: Canto, Green Pepper, Rancho Norte, Happy Tummy, and Rumah Sate. filipino food was our first choice so we decided to eat at Rancho. a single plate serves 2-3, and costs 150-250 pesos. their beef bulalo was generously meaty, and the baboy ramo liempo has that distinct savory, smoky taste. as usual, the vegetables are wonderfully crisp and fresh. not bad overall.

and oh, an alfresco branch of Pizza Volante is just beside Ketchup, but you might want to check out the new Volante Technohub branch and the original Volante Session Road branch instead. Glenn 50's Diner the servings are plated with hungry truck drivers in mind. you can choose from a variety of carbo-loaded meals, or you might want to dine light and eat skyflakes instead. yes, i think they have skyflakes in their menu. a plate can serve 2-3, and costs 100-150 pesos. plus the ambiance is unmistakably 50's; go figure. i'd go there again one of these days.

  Solibao the branch nearest to us was at the heritage mansion - contrary to the name, the place is not really intimidating so don't hesitate. this restaurant embraces the antique Spanish-meets-Cordillera woods concept; nothing fancy, maybe a bit pretentious but i guess all restaurants do that. i liked the food. each dish serves 2-3, and costs 200-250 pesos. their special bagoong was a revelation, with a nice contrast to kare-kare. if you can, please ask the waiter where to find the bagoong and do leave a comment here. for now, supermarket bagoong will do. the crispy bagnet dinuguan was also divine, but my friends say the crisy dinuguan at Kanin Club at the Ayala Triangle was a better version.

but before you leave, you must try the puto bumbong, because it's only 50 pesos and it's a decent puto bumbong at that.

Author's note: it seems that baguio has this love affair with bagnet: bagnet pinakbet, bagnet chopsuey, bagnet dinuguan, bagnet, bagnet, bagnet... bagnet equals clogged arteries, hypertension and kidney failure. i'm not complaining. on my next food trip at baguio, i intend to eat at the Cafe by the Ruins for breakfast, Forest House for lunch, and Hill Station for dinner. we passed by Cafe by the Ruins but decided to postpone to another date because we were running out of time for pasalubong duties. in toto, Baguio equals foodie haven.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

cine europa

last week i queued up at the EDSA Shangrila mall for free tickets for cine europa. the first film i was able to watch was 'Almanya - Welcome to Germany', a tale about an overseas Turkish worker in Germany who seeks to return to his roots together with his Deutschified family. the first half was a veritable, laudable comedy, but the second melodramatic half was kind of meh. the second movie i saw was 'O Xenagos', a tale about a young adult working as a tour guide amidst the orderly chaos of contemporary Athens. Set against the backdrop of the Greek crisis and a rowdy group of erasmus architecture students, the character questions his maturity, sexuality, and lifegoals; quite a ride, i should say. the film fest runs from september 5 to 15 at the shang before going to the provinces. i might be able to catch another round of free tickets this week.

[schubertmalbas-blog]

residency options

During benign rotations such as family and community medicine, I preoccupy myself with thoughts of the future. I always say to myself, the future remains uncertain, but I'm pretty inclined to do research again; it seems that an endless sense of inquiry is in my very blood.

Anyway, as I was looking for job vacancies in PCHRD, Philhealth, and PIDS, and several hospitals offering residency training, I came across this website again, which I think I've encountered for the first time three years ago. 

  I answered the 130-item questionnaire that asks about life values, and I was surprised with the results!

PATHOLOGY

I only thought of pathology as an alternative; I never thought that I would fit in. Apparently, my life values are similar to most pathologists.

PSYCHIATRY

When I had psychiatric patients at the outpatient and ambulatory clinics last year, I was seriously considering a future in psychiatry. But recently, someone narrated to me her experience at the national center for mental health, which was quite revealing. There was one pavilion that housed criminal psychos, and I fear that my life will be put in danger if I was their psychiatrist. 'Nough said.

RADIOLOGY

I envy their lifestyle: regular work hours than most on-call doctors. If I were to train in radiology, I would like to apply in big private hospitals because that's where the latest technology is. However I am quite unsure if I can make it big in Davao or elsewhere, likely because radiology works like a monopoly in any hospital in the provinces.

INTERNAL MEDICINE

My batchmates see me as a future internist, but I am not sure about this. Ward work is stressful and the hours are long; I prefer rigid working hours and exploring life outside medicine.

OB-GYNE

I once wanted to become an obstetrician primarily because I want to see mothers give birth to healthy babies and witness God's gift of life in all its wonder and mystery. However, just like IM, you are always on-call, because many pregnant patients get fully dilated at the most unholy hours.

ANESTHESIOLOGY

Among all residency choices, this is my first. It's critical care at its best. I look to Florence Nightingale as my inspiration, among other people of course. She was an intensivist at the height of war, taking care of wounded soldiers, a historic scene that resembles the modern post-anesthesia care unit. She was also a self-taught statistician, taking notes for patient census; not a lot of people know this. Anesthesia as a field is a conglomerate of medicine and other specialties in the perioperative setting. It is 50% brains (drug effects, physiologic changes) and 50% skills (intubation, lining) ; that's why I like it a lot.

FAMILY PRACTICE

One thing that bothers me is that I get easily frustated with geriatric patients. They are stubborn when I give medical advice, or sometimes, I just don't feel like they're listening.

PEDIATRICS

No matter how much I deny it, I like giving advice to parents regarding their children. Also, I like to hear a kid cry during vaccination.