When I was about five or six, Mom took me on a trip downtown: that is, from suburban Des Plaines, Ill, into the Chicago Loop. On a bus. This was before so many autos, and easier than the commuter train.
We got on the bus, took our seats. Little me was looking around. Suddenly I exclaimed in my piping, piercing little voice, “Mommy, why is that man black?”
A black man was sitting about four rows ahead of us. My mother turned to me and said, quiety., “Well Tommy, that man’s skin is black, just like your skin is white.”
Tommy looks at her, looks down at his own bare arm, and says loudly, “My skin isn’t white–it’s orange!”
Two nesting pairs of Canada Geese, and their gosslings (5 per pair, being a total of 10 goslings)
one nesting pair of Mallard ducks
brown-headed cowbirds
Blue Jays
Mating pair of Rufus Sided Tohees
Cardinals galore
Carolina Wren (2)
Grackles (too mang to count)
sparrows galore
hummingbirds
mocking birds
This I got from “the men who stare at goats” by Jon Ronson:
back in the fifties, pilots would suddenl lose control of their craft; they suddenly were disoriented and became ill. Psychiatrist Dr. Bucha found that the rotor, flashing above the cockpit and causing the sun to blink on and off, was producing a strobelike effect. Called the Bucha effect, amygdala. Helicopter problem solved with tinted windows, visor on helmet, etc.
When you are driving along a road in late fall to early spring, when the sun is low in the sky morning or evening, you get the same effect, and you are well advised to look away, keep your eyes moving, and not get hypnotized by the flassing sun as you pass roadside trees.
Bucha effect; watch out.
Here’s a great talk about security (and lots of other stuff) from TED:
http://www.ted.com/talks/bruce_schneier.html
Okay, so I survived the coronary catheterization. Surgeon agreed to enter through my wrist–although nurses insisted upon prepping my groin–and he found no problem. So, $15,000 paid by Medicare to find nothing.
I was glad to see signs posted in the prep rooms, “It is OK to ask health workers if they have cleaned their hands”. I asked, they said they had. And I found no exceptions, but this: a nurse came in, washed her hands, put on her gloves, then turned to a table and stuck her gloved hand into the pocket of her jacket, and took out a pen to fill out a form. Fortunately, she didn’t touch me after that.
None of them, on being asked, had ever heard of Peter Pronovost,
So I’ m cleared of coronart blockages. So what caused my underlying condition? $15,000 can’t tell.
Next Tuesday I go to the hospital for a coronary catheterization. Below is a report from the Times on a protocol developed by Peter Pronovost, MD:
The intensive care units at nearly every hospital in Michigan participated — 103 I.C.U.’s. What they had to do was use a five-point checklist to prevent infection when inserting the catheters. The steps were: Wash hands. Cover the patient with sterile drapes. Clean the skin with chlorhexidine antiseptic. Do not insert catheters into the groin area. Remove catheters as soon as they are no longer needed*….“Within 3 months after implementation, the median rate of infection was 0, a rate sustained throughout the remaining 15 months of follow-up. All types of participating hospitals realized a similar improvement.”
*I’ll wear this on my chest.
The M1 is closed by a fire near London, and The Ironing Champ takes to the streets.
From The Guardian:
From Mother Jones:
(click for clearer image)
