Haiti

I don't quite know how to say this. We've seen the same horrible situation over and over again: disaster strikes a third world country that was already a mess, and massive death and destruction ensue. And we keep making the same inane responses: donate massive amounts of food, medicine, other supplies, and skilled labor to help out these poor people in the aftermath of this horrible event. Time will pass, the tragedy will fade from the news, and Haiti will go back to being the rat hole it's always been.

As near as I can tell no foreign aid has ever made a significant difference in the general level of civilization of a third world country. I for one am all in favor of cutting off all forms of foreign aid except education. If a country is willing to support an education effort, then perhaps we can help them with that, but that is all. No bulldozers, no medicine, no electronics.

I don't suppose we will ever be able to stop people from sending aid to disaster areas, but we should at least be trying to do something to help these places learn to take care of themselves.

Modern Medicine Story

Iowa Man Reports:

D has been battling the hospital administration for two years. They are insisting that she keep two sets of medical records for her psych patients. Many man days have been spent on arguing this issue.

Unlike regular medicine, in Psychiatry there can be two type of notes kept in a psych patients medical record: Progress notes and Process notes.

Progress note is like a regular medical note: example: "patient complains of fatigue and insomnia. Drinks, smokes, takes Haldol."

Process note is a psychotherapy note: example: "this patient fidgets and admits they are confused about who they are. This may be the result of PTSD from witnessing a accident 20 years ago"

D's practice does not do psychotherapy, hence there are no process notes. I as the outside observer noted the possible confusion between the words process and progress. I then googled the words and found HIPAA regulations clearly spelling out the requirement. The hospital administration never bothered to educate themselves about the difference between the two terms. They just kept insisting that D maintain two sets of medical records.

Once the problem was defined to the top executive the two year problem was solved, in 10 minutes. One record for one patient.

It's a small thing really

From a comment left on Steve Sailer's iSteve Blog:

Steve, I'm all in favor of engaging in fantastic reveries about what sort of "Conservativism" will emerge in the post-election period but I think we'd be way overestimating the American populace's ability to reason were we to take such daydreaming seriously.

People are f***ing fools. Even smart people.
...

The average person doesn't reason the way that you do Steve. You see positions and principles that have been tried and that have failed and you figure that something ELSE must fill the void left by such failures.

Nonsense. Human reasoning may or may not exist but if it does it's so small a thing that only the historian can spot it.

mnuez

10/28/2008

Briar Patch

About a month ago darling daughter was out picking blackberries for her food class at U-dub when her brand new and very fancy cell phone fell out of her pocket and into the blackberry bush. She was standing on the top of embankment that was covered with blackberry bushes, so when the phone fell into the bush, it also started sliding down the bank. She made a valiant effort to recover the phone, but each attempt to reach it caused it to become dislodged and slide farther down the bank.

I, being Master Of The Universe and a legend in my own mind, bestirred myself to attempt recovery of this wayward device. I was in Seattle this weekend and my daughter showed me where the unfortunate accident had taken place. She showed me the person sized hole she had made in the top of the briar patch attempting to retrieve the phone, and then she went on her way. She is not big on futility.

I attempted to enlarge the hole and work my way down, but I am trying to work in a very awkward position, sitting crouched over, cutting at my feet. The bank is very steep and about twenty five tall. There is nothing to support me. I go down some stairs to the roadway at the bottom of the bank and attempt to cut a path upwards through the briars. I make better progress this way, but after an hour I am worn down, not to mention having acquired numerous scratches all over my forearms.

So. If you are looking for a Star Trek communicator, or just a treasure hunt, feel free to attempt recovery of this prize. I would recommend an assortment of longish extension ladders, a gasoline powered weed wacker equipped with a brush blade and a suit of kevlar armor. A climbing rope, a stake to attach it to, a pair of clippers and a callous disregard for thorns ripping your flesh might also do the trick.

The briar patch in question is alongside the Burke Gilman trail very near Eastern Avenue North. Alongside the trail, starting from the Northeast, there is a section of tall bushes/trees, then about 100 feet of grass verging on the blackberry bushes, then another section of tall bushes/trees. The stairs to the lower roadway (North Northlake Way) are about 100 yards Southeast along the trail. On the other side of Northlake Way is a boat storage yard with racks for storing small power boats. The spot should be easily recognizable by the person size hole in the bush at the top, and a coffin sized hole at the bottom.


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Should anyone recover this phone I would be willing to shell out a couple of bucks to get it back. Will it even work after being outdoors for all this time? Good question.