The moment I prepared packing my gears for the Sapporo winter trip tomorrow, I started to worry about the performance of my digital camera in the wake of plummeting mercury and snowy freezing weather.

I must admit I just don't know if I need to go back to my manual Nikon FM2 camera, an old-styled but robust camera that works without batteries. Ever since the user-friendly digital camera gaining popularity, most of the manual cameras (including mine) have been locked up in oblivion. But wait a minute, I start to think about their values.

I bring all this up because of my recent encounter with the use of conventional unfractionated heparin in hospital. This anti-clogging drug, so-called unfractionated heparin that had been the standard for many years, is no longer the recommended first choice ever since the newer low-molecular weight heparin (with its ease of administration and better safety profile) has come to the market. When a lady with prosthetic heart valve required the administration of long-forgotten unfractionated heparin in my hospital last week, alas, the situation ended up in a hopeless mess. Most of us cannot, even if we want to, remember the proper way to use unfractionated heparin anymore.

All these old-fashioned gagdets are simply like ill-fitting overcoats – too awkward to parade but too warm to discard. It is only the frigid temperature that brings us to rethink their values.