Please Santa, bring me freedom
	Kamran Abbasi
	BMJ  2004;329, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.0-g [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

This week in the BMJ

This week in the BMJ [Full text] [PDF]

	Cones explain mechanism of embolism [Full text] FREE

	Doctors could retrain as Polymeal chefs or wine advisers [Full text] FREE

	Magnetic bracelets may relieve hip and knee pain [Full text] FREE

	Getting to Mars is no picnic [Full text] FREE

	Sources of diagnostic criteria don't withstand scrutiny [Full text] FREE

	Body donors are respected in Thailand [Full text] FREE

Editorials

	New Year's resolutions
	Chris McManus
	BMJ  2004;329:1413-1414, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1413 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Out of body experiences and their neural basis
	Olaf Blanke
	BMJ  2004;329:1414-1415, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1414 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Treatment of homosexuality during apartheid
	Robert M Kaplan
	BMJ  2004;329:1415-1416, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1415 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Climate change and risk to health
	Anthony McMichael, Rosalie Woodruff
	BMJ  2004;329:1416-1417, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1416 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Getting well from water
	Keith J Petrie, Simon Wessely
	BMJ  2004;329:1417-1418, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1417 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	In my chosen doctor I trust
	David Mechanic
	BMJ  2004;329:1418-1419, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1418 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Lifting the fog of uncertainty from the practice of medicine
	Benjamin Djulbegovic
	BMJ  2004;329:1419-1420, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1419 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] [extra: Extra references] FREE

Politics and health

	Effect of democracy on health: ecological study
	Álvaro Franco, Carlos Álvarez-Dardet, Maria Teresa Ruiz
	BMJ  2004;329:1421-1423, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1421 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] [extra: Table] FREE

	Commentary: Politics as a determinant of health
	Christopher Martyn
	BMJ  2004;329:1423-1424, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1423 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Lifestyle, health, and health promotion in Nazi Germany
	George Davey Smith
	BMJ  2004;329:1424-1425, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1424 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Is democracy good for people's health? A South African perspective
	Dan J Ncayiyana
	BMJ  2004;329:1425-1426, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1425 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] [extra: Table] FREE

	Effect of restricted freedom on health in China
	Therese Hesketh, Wei Xing Zhu
	BMJ  2004;329:1427, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1427 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Lessons from health during the transition from communism
	Martin McKee, Ellen Nolte
	BMJ  2004;329:1428-1429, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1428 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Transatlantic divide in publication of content relevant to developing countries
	Asad J Raja, Peter A Singer
	BMJ  2004;329:1429-1430, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1429 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Did the US boycott of French products spread to include scientific output?
	Bernard Bégaud, Hélène Verdoux
	BMJ  2004;329:1430-1431, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1430 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

Taking a leaf out of an old book

	The Poohsticks phenomenon
	Robert Knight
	BMJ  2004;329:1432-1433, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1432 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Commentary: Modelling emboli with floating fir cones
	Stephen E Greenwald
	BMJ  2004;329:1433-1434, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1433 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Commentary: A Fee-Nom-in-Hum and an Expotition
	Julie Morris
	BMJ  2004;329:1434, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1434 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	A precious case from Middle Earth
	Nadia Bashir, Nadia Ahmed, Anushka Singh, Yen Zhi Tang, Maria Young, Amina Abba, Elizabeth L Sampson
	BMJ  2004;329:1435-1436, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1435 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	The Decameron of poor research
	Vance W Berger, John P A Ioannidis
	BMJ  2004;329:1436-1440, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1436 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

The limits of medicine

	The next small step
	Kevin Fong
	BMJ  2004;329:1441-1444, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1441 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Retroactive prayer: lots of history, not much mystery, and no science
	Jeffrey P Bishop, Victor J Stenger
	BMJ  2004;329:1444-1446, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1444 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	The Polymeal: a more natural, safer, and probably tastier (than the Polypill) strategy to reduce cardiovascular disease by more than 75%
	Oscar H Franco, Luc Bonneux, Chris de Laet, Anna Peeters, Ewout W Steyerberg, Johan P Mackenbach
	BMJ  2004;329:1447-1450, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1447 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Randomised controlled trial of magnetic bracelets for relieving pain in osteoarthritis of the hip and knee
	Tim Harlow, Colin Greaves, Adrian White, Liz Brown, Anna Hart, Edzard Ernst
	BMJ  2004;329:1450-1454, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1450 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] [extra: Extra figure] FREE

	Cadavers as teachers: the dissecting room experience in Thailand
	Andreas Winkelmann, Fritz H Güldner
	BMJ  2004;329:1455-1457, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1455 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	The relentless therapeutic imperative
	Charlotte Paul
	BMJ  2004;329:1457-1459, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1457 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

Experts' eye view

	A field guide to experts
	Andrew D Oxman, Iain Chalmers, Alessandro Liberati, on behalf of the World Artifexology Group
	BMJ  2004;329:1460-1463, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1460 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Polymyositis, invasion of non-necrotic muscle fibres, and the art of repetition
	Gerald J D Hengstman, Baziel G M van Engelen
	BMJ  2004;329:1464-1467, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1464 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] [extra: Extra references] FREE

	Meeting mania 2004
	David S Goldbloom
	BMJ  2004;329:1467-1469, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1467 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Can the human eye detect an offside position during a football match?
	Francisco Belda Maruenda
	BMJ  2004;329:1470-1472, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1470 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	An unusual complication of Kocher's manoeuvre
	A Pimpalnerkar, A Datta, D Longhino, N Mohtadi
	BMJ  2004;329:1472-1473, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1472 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Easy ways to resist change in medicine
	Allen F Shaughnessy, David C Slawson
	BMJ  2004;329:1473-1474, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1473 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

Images of health

	The fine art of patient-doctor relationships
	M P Park, R H R Park
	BMJ  2004;329:1475-1480, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1475 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Memories aren't made of this: amnesia at the movies
	Sallie Baxendale
	BMJ  2004;329:1480-1483, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1480 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] [extra: Reference list of films] FREE

	Killing me softly: myth in pharmaceutical advertising
	Tim Scott, Neil Stanford, David R Thompson
	BMJ  2004;329:1484-1487, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1484 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Commentary: Accepting what we can learn from advertising's mirror of desire
	Peter Mansfield
	BMJ  2004;329:1487-1488, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1487 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	"I recognise myself in that situation..." Using photographs to encourage reflection in general practitioners
	Torgeir Gilje Lid, Rune Eraker, Kirsti Malterud
	BMJ  2004;329:1488-1490, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1488 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Data protection gone too far: questionnaire survey of patients' and visitors' views about having their names displayed in hospital
	Ravindra Gudena, Stanley Luwemba, Amy Williams, Lloyd R Jenkinson
	BMJ  2004;329:1491, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1491 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] [extra: Questionnaire] FREE

	The Sick Dürer—a Renaissance prototype pain map
	G D Schott
	BMJ  2004;329:1492, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1492 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Can you tell your clunis from your cubitus? A benchmark for functional imaging
	Alison E Fisher, Gareth R Barnes, Arjan Hillebrand, Caroline Burrow, Paul L Furlong, Ian E Holliday
	BMJ  2004;329:1492-1493, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1492-a [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

My greatest mistake

	Skoda's fool
	D L Sackett
	BMJ  2004;329:1494, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1494 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	A fool such as I
	Richard Smith
	BMJ  2004;329:1494, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1494-a [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Thanks to the experienced patient
	Milind M Deshpande
	BMJ  2004;329:1495, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1495 [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	The fog of expectation
	Edwin P Kirk
	BMJ  2004;329:1495, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1495-a [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	An easy operation gone wrong
	Nayan D Swadia
	BMJ  2004;329:1495, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1495-b [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	A call I never made
	Anil Pandit
	BMJ  2004;329:1496, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1496 [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	No time to talk
	Kamran Abbasi
	BMJ  2004;329:1496, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1496-a [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

Fillers

	Christmas competition: Design a Polymeal
	BMJ  2004;329, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.0-f [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	The Hooper's bed
	Claudio Crisci
	BMJ  2004;329:1426, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1426 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	A conflict of interest?
	James A Patterson, Adrian K Neill, Keith Mulholland, William D Wallace
	BMJ  2004;329:1434, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1434-a [Extract] [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	An awkward patient
	Isidore W Crown
	BMJ  2004;329:1440, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1440 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Colourful new use for a word
	Ian Bickle
	BMJ  2004;329:1454, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1454 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Mind over matter?
	Alastair C McKelvey, James C Dornan
	BMJ  2004;329:1459, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1459 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	A sign of the times
	Riccardo Di Cuffa, Simon Lloyd, Susan Sarangapani
	BMJ  2004;329:1463, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1463 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	How to get your paper rejected
	Horacio Plotkin
	BMJ  2004;329:1469, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1469 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	The doctor and his pheasant
	John Hughes
	BMJ  2004;329:1474, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1474 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	A patient's view of central serous retinopathy
	Victor Hu, Adrian MacFarlane, Eddie Doyle, Mohammed Rifaat
	BMJ  2004;329:1483, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1483 [Extract] [Full text] [PDF] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Festive fare and Christmas competition: Eat healthily, eat well
	BMJ  2004;329:1496, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1496-b [Extract] [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

Career focus

	What are the requirements for an SHO job in urology?
	John Bolton
	BMJ  2004;329:s246, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s246, (Published 18 December 2004) [Abstract] [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	I am a medical doctor from Greece and I am interested in doing paediatrics. I have worked for a year as a rural doctor and for seven months in adult intensive care medicine. I have no previous experience in paediatrics and currently I am working on my thesis. Which is the best position to start from in the United Kingdom?
	Elitham B Turya
	BMJ  2004;329:s246, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s246-a, (Published 18 December 2004) [Abstract] [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	I have passed part 1 of the exam for membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health; is it worth completing the second part, even though I want to be a general practitioner?
	Fiona Jewkes
	BMJ  2004;329:s246, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s246-b, (Published 18 December 2004) [Abstract] [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	A doctor's Christmas
	Graham Easton
	BMJ  2004;329:s247, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s247, (Published 18 December 2004) [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Why an ABC for Change?<$DOWNLINK>
	Susan E Kersley
	BMJ  2004;329:s247-s248, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s247-a, (Published 18 December 2004) [Abstract] [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Managing big clinics
	Andrew Diver
	BMJ  2004;329:s248, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s248, (Published 18 December 2004) [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	An essential guide to life as a basic surgical trainee
	Henk Giele, Emily Williams
	BMJ  2004;329:s249, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s249, (Published 18 December 2004) [Abstract] [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Taking an alcohol history
	Meldon Kahan
	BMJ  2004;329:s249, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s249-a, (Published 18 December 2004) [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Wish you were here? Postcards from doctors around the world
	BMJ  2004;329:s250-s253, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s250, (Published 18 December 2004) [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	The "pre-shortlisting visit"... beware of canvassing
	Gavin R Tait
	BMJ  2004;329:s254, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s254, (Published 18 December 2004) [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	... useful, but the reality is different
	Venkatesh Shanmugam
	BMJ  2004;329:s254, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s254-a, (Published 18 December 2004) [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	... useful, but not practical for international doctors
	Pramod Koyee
	BMJ  2004;329:s254, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s254-b, (Published 18 December 2004) [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	In defence of gynaecological teaching associates
	Jane Dent
	BMJ  2004;329:s254, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s254-c, (Published 18 December 2004) [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	Feedback from competition winner
	Roopa Venktesh
	BMJ  2004;329:s254, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s254-d, (Published 18 December 2004) [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

	All for one
	Anita Damle
	BMJ  2004;329:s254, doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.s254-e, (Published 18 December 2004) [Full text] [Request Permissions] FREE

Career focus

Read this week's articles on http://careers.bmj.com/careers/

To see an article, click its [Full Text] link. To review many abstracts, check the boxes to the left of the titles you want, and click the 'Get All Checked Abstract(s)' button. To see one abstract at a time, click its [Abstract] link.