Coffee in the Morning

Senate Vote on Heath Care Reform

2009-12-16T10:57:00.006-06:00

We seem to be just days away from a senate vote on the mysterious health care reform bill. Mysterious because as a citizen listening for months to the debate, I'm not sure what's in the bill. Over the last few months the debate has shifted from insurance reform, coverage issues, cost escalation, affordability, single payer issues, government insurance policies, health (medical) care entitlements, complexity of medical services provision and reduction of service.

In many ways all of these issues are related and effect one another. The degree of the effect depends on the priority given to a particular issue (coverage, cost, service, medical need, demand, value to society, so on). The relatedness in part arises from the complex nature of medical care, the technical support needed, the longevity of care required by certain conditions and perhaps most importantly the concentration of medical care that comes at the end of life.

To darken and obscure the debate further is the issue of the right to health care. A divide exists between cultural individualism that is so American and the social concern that pervades the the democracies of the west. Each of these camps has its strong argument but alas peace between them is only accomplished by a willingness to compromise. This has resulted in a cacophony of voices arising from the debate.

From my perspective (health care provider and payer) I have a growing cynicism of (or alienation by) the motives of those involved. The end result is a sense of resignation to whatever comes out of this. Being neither a libertarian nor a social Utopian I have no side that I really wish to join. Being a health care provider I feel a growing sense of enslavement by those who wish to administer medical care. The alienation arises from the sense that my work will no longer be mine by belongs to the owner of the process. As a provider I feel like K, I know I'm guilty but don't know what the charge is. Let's hope it is over quickly.

Perhaps this is my cynicism coming through but I think that our congress people have lost perspective on the whole issue of governing. They are a generation that has grown up on contests and this is just one more contest to win. They have been taught that the contests are fun but trivial. It's a show for the spectators. It's a contest to massage their egos. The lawmakers because of their positions and power can remain detached from their actions. But the sad reality is that what they do is serious. They make law but forthe law to be effective must have teeth. Those teeth will bite someone.

Still Waiting but More Enlightened

2009-11-03T10:44:00.006-06:00

Well no healthcare (or whatever it should be called) bill yet. I understand that the current Pelosi bill is almost 2000 pages long. Although the purposes of this legislation are now beyond comment, this effort at healthcare reform is interesting from a methodological and ideological perspective. As I look at what has happened over the last several months I've been curious to understand why. From my stanpoint what is happening seems to go beyond just reform of the insurance racket (oops I meant industry). I do firmly believe as a patient and physician, that the insurance industry regulations need revamping, but I also believe that there are actually companies that have good intentions that serve in this industry as well and after all I am an American.

I think the passion for reform has cooled in the hearts and minds of many citizens. In the common sense mindset of most Americans 'change' usually means attempts at improvement. Most people are naturally conservative so that change for them doesn't mean throwing resources away but figuring out how to improve their utilization. Even conservatives are paaionate about that type of change. This is what we usually call innovation. I think that the citizens have become more cautious about changes to healthcare that go beyond improvements to the system. The case for completely doing away with healthcare delivery as it is now done has not been proven in the minds of many Americans, hence a cooling of passion for 'change'.

On the other hand this administration may see change as something different. The now famous phrase 'yes we can' which became the slogan of the Obama campaign had its origin in a speech given in weeks following victory in Iowa and leading up to the South Carolina primary. In this speech the original phrase was 'yes we can change'. This was shorten to 'yes we can' which I think was an astute political move on the Obama campaigns' part.

This raises an important ideological and methodological point of view that I've pondered for months during the healthcare debate. When asked what his preference for healthcare reform would be President Obama stated in an Arizona town hall meeting that 'If I were starting from scratch, I’d go single-payer...' So why are the democrats taking this road instead of starting from scratch? The answer of course lies in the conventional understanding of change for most Americans. Most citizens want to improve the system not scrap it.

So how does this monstrosity of a bill help the Democrats and the Obama administration? I think that traditionally minded democrats are now wary of this legislation. However the bill does bring change even if it doesn't prove to be improvement. Furthermore I'm convinced there appears to be an element in the thinking of this administration that sees 'change' a a predicate ('yes we can change') and not as a subject. This is why the bill even if totally flawed is a victory for them if you understand my meaning!

Health Care Reform

2009-09-23T08:25:00.006-05:00

Okay we all know that the Baucus bill that is in committee now is not truly a "Health Care Reform" bill in the sense that it is not trying to change medical decisions for the treatment of a specific disease. The legislation is at its essence a health care delivery bill which may tangentially effect medical decisions. It's really a mixture of public health policy and medical reimbursement as illustrated in the following comment:

I mentioned that I would at sometime talk about utilization and cost and the following is a smattering of what probably constitutes the bulk of the legislation now being secreted through the senate finance committee. I say secreted because it was voted in committee this week to deny public access to the contents of the bill for now. The following comes from the College of American Pathologist research into the committee hearings on the part of the bill that is of interest to the laboratorian.

"The Senate Finance Committee (SFC) mark-up today has yielded some important modifications to the "user fee" that was previously contemplated in Chairman Baucus' "mark" last week. Based on information gleaned from a SFC release and other legislative summary documents, SFC has eliminated the "user fee" in favor of adjustments to the Medicare clinical laboratory fee schedule (CLFS). The legislative summary is as follows: "For providers paid through the clinical laboratory test fee schedule, the Chairman's Mark replaces the scheduled 0.5 percent payment reduction for years 2011 through 2013 with a full productivity adjustment for 2011 and subsequent years. The clinical laboratory productivity adjustment could not reduce the fee schedule update below zero. In addition to the productivity adjustment, for the years 2011 through 2015, the clinical laboratory test fee schedule would be further reduced by 1.75 percentage points." "

As you can see the language in this text is primarily concerned about the structure of reimbursement and hopes to put into position a reduction of fees allowed by the laboratory to control cost to the health care financier (especially a government program). At the risk of being overly clear, the impact of such a system on the provider side is to reduce the profit margin for the laboratory and the impact on the payer side is to reduce cost. (Now that is a fair and balanced statement.)
The production costs of tests in the lab is a complex analysis of reagent cost, utilization rates, labor, reagent shelf life, test frequency and interpretation. Almost every test offered by a laboratory undergoes some sort of cost/profit analysis. I'm sure that the writers of this bill understand this production/cost analysis and have provided a means for the lab to justify the fees set by the lab for each test. Understand that each of these analyses requires research for information, estimation of utilization rates based on order frequency and disease prevalence, calculation of cost based on these finding, documentation and validation. The expenditure of time is considerable and is in addition to the performance of testing, quality management and reporting that is necessary. (The payer may also dictate the methodology used in the analysis.)
So what! You may be thinking aren't these things necessary for good business practice. Well yes and this goes on continuously in the lab for new tests, changes in methodology for old tests, changes in disease surveillance or cost of reagents. Bear in mind though that the analysis consequent to the bill are not driven by improvements to laboratory practice but by constraints imposed on laboratory practice by reimbursement adjustments. Alternatively the lab may just discontinue that test to save cost.
Finally we all know what the language of 'productivity adjustment' means in beaurcatese. The worse case about 'productivity adjustment' is that it is a disincentive to doing things on a large scale which in terms of the laboratory usually means more efficiency. Therefore productivity adjustments run the risk of decreasing efficiency of labs by interfering with the economies of scale. Large labs also provide testing that is cost prohibitive (by cost analysis) in small labs.
Please forgive my obvious bias in this blog, as the debate goes forward

Health Insurance Reform

2009-08-11T08:16:00.013-05:00

Before considering what medical care utilization and efficiency means there is a question that I've been pondering for a couple of weeks that needs an answer. The question is simple: what is medical insurance. The reason for the urgency is that Health insurance reform is the new buzz word this summer and in my opinion really means medical care delivery reform. But that begs the question what is health insurance. It is important to know how health care delivery and insurance are related so we can understand what law makers are trying to reform.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I wish to define the nature of insurance. Insurance is a contract between the insured and the insurer that a payment or services will be provider in the event of a particular events as defined in the contract. It is intended by the purchaser to cover expense and loss in the occurrence of an event (covered in the contract) that produces the loss. The insurer undertakes the coverage and fixes the price for the coverage based on the likelihood of the occurrence and the cost incurred. Insurance relies heavily on probabilities and frequencies of events to assess the risk involved. In circumstances where groups are concern (ie life insurance) the probability of an event (death) is calculated for the group and the cost is spread among the larger pool. For the insured the policy substitutes the uncertainty of the future for a certain outcome regardless of the events that unfold.

Now to the heart of the matter. No one would sell an insurance policy covering the cost of repair of say an automobile that has already been damaged. The policy would exclude prior damages that occurred prior to the policy being in effect. Insurance is meant to cover the unexpected or untimely event in most cases. The greater the likelihood of an event the more expensive the coverage will be for the purchaser. The buyer of insurance is purchasing certainty of outcome for the uncertainty of the event. In most cases the payout by the insurer is monetary. Cases of fraud have been uncovered where the insured tried to pass off an damage that occurred prior to the policy being in force.

There is one caveat that should be considered. If the insured has taken steps to reduce the risk of catastrophe then the insurer might offer a reduced premium for the coverage. An example of this is the cost of car insurance might be reduced to the purchaser for instance if the insured has taken driver's education. In this case the insurance company recalculates the risk involved base on the group of drivers that have taken drivers education which reduces the likelihood of an accident.

Medical insurance has followed this model of risk assessment by pooling groups of insured and excluding preexisting conditions. Payments are made to the insure on an occurrence basis. You rarely find policies that cover routine checkups unless the insurance company hopes to lessen costs of a catastrophic event by early detection of conditions that increase the risk of a poor health outcome (hypertension, glucose intolerance, obesity, colon polyps, etc.). In these cases the policy pays for screening tests that detect conditions that may arise during coverage and need to be managed to reduce the risk to the insurer. The coverage of an existing condition makes no sense to the insurer. The principle of insurance is calculating the risk which in the case of a preexisting condition has a probability of 1. In this case the cost of insurance would be the cost of the condition as a starting point. Uncertainty of outcome does not exist in this set of conditions.

So when lawmakers speak of including everyone in the insurance program and eliminating the exclusion of preexisting conditions this does not really fit an insurance model. If insurance is the delivery system for health care then the proposed changes do not make sense. However insurance is not the only model of health care delivery. It is a model that works in a market system where the insured wishes to obtain a level of certainty in the uncertainty of future health problems.

So to cut to the chase: If the goal of congress is medical care for all then the 'insurance reform model' is a silly euphemism for universal care. I call it silly because medical care for all does not fit into the insurance model in that there will be preexisting conditions with in the population. I think it obstructs useful debate about serious details that need to be clarified to refer to the legislative effort as Health insurance reform instead of universal health coverage. At its heart this is what the obfuscating terminology of health insurance reform does.

Disclaimer: Please see previous post. Although I've received payments from insurance companies I've never worked for an insurance company although at one time I was solicited to consider a course of study to become an actuary as I was making college plans.

Health (Medical) Care Reform

2009-08-06T09:53:00.005-05:00

Okay, by now you all know that it is not Health Care Reform but Medical Insurance Reform that is being debated so most of my comments have been off the mark so to speak. Anyway medical insurance reform is upon us and has simulated much thought and passion in the medical community and public at large. I suppose that medical insurance reform really means health care delivery reform. I think this more clearly marks the nature of the debate. That the subject is very complex is abundantly clear. With the government involved in programs it has a vested interest in the system of medical care delivery. Two issues of late have sparked my interest and I think provoke a wonder at the complexity of any attempt at overhauling the delivery system. One issue is that of costs and utilization and the other about efficiency. Both have to do with behavior and overall cost of care but may be code words with other meanings as well. (Isn't language amazing, we can say things to be understood in one way with not real intention of it being understood that way at all. I think politicians were the original post modernist language critics.)

Cost and Utilization

Medical insurance for consumers is a method of protection against catastrophic expense that may arise from illness. In some instances insurance is a means of obtaining medical care a reduced expense for the consumer. The insurance provider hides the cost to the owner of the policy. In this case the insurer bears the cost of the care provided within the limits of the policy.
For most of us some form of medical insurance provides protection against the cost of catastrophic illness and hope that the care will be there when we need it most. Each month we pay a premium for this protection and the costs of the coverage is a limiting factor in our budgets effecting decisions about cars, homes, furniture, education, recreation and or even business decisions. These costs are very high but most of the time the costs are hidden. We obtain the coverage and the deduction is made pretax or medicare/medicaid tax is withheld and we don't see the bill unless we look at the pay stub. We know how much is deposited and we budget our lives on the remainder of our paycheck. The cost is fairly fixed and doesn't merit our attention. Now this is not true for all of us but for those that work for large firms, businesses or the government it is true. For this type of individual the costs of coverage is hidden but the access to care is not.
In these circumstances the users pool their resources in these programs and the resources look unlimited. Utilization of this pooled resource has some constraints but in many cases there are few or ignored. To you and I, if the desire arises to use medical services, then I let my insurance pay for it. If my care provider suggests a procedure or service, he may say, "Don't worry your insurance will be billed." In such a system the results to the individual are definite and immediate, but the costs are hidden and vague. I receive what I want but the immediate effects of costs are diminished. This goes on day in and day out in our health care system.This system is similar to a credit card method of payment in one aspect. At the time of purchase the cost are hidden but the rewards are immediate. All manner of rationalizations are called upon to justify the purchase, some valid and others less. Now what would be really nice is if someone else would pay for my excessive purchases on my credit card. Then the costs would remain hidden for me forever. Alas that magic credit card does not exist. I will receive the bill on the credit card and have to make the payments. This not so in all respects to the medical care system.The insurance system as constructed allows for behavior that might not be rationally constrained or on the other hand may be irrationally constrained (very excessive deductibles for instance or limited access to procedures or scope of care). Cost as a measure of utilization in the insurance system is hidden from the user who has the good fortune of comprehensive coverage. Such a system has the unintended effect of promoting over utilization. Although raising the premium for coverage is one means of addressing utilization cost, the usual means of controlling cost for the insurance company are limiting reimbursement or exclusions to care.
Any health care (insurance) reform will need to address this utilization problem. The key understanding to be grasped is that the cost are hidden in many forms of insurance delivery systems. My question is how does the public insurance plan that the president endorses do that? This question will have major import into the way the government controls utilization or its costs. The president has said that he would prefer a single payer system if he was designing a system from scratch. Even in a single payer system utilization controls have to be part of the design.

More on efficiency and rewarding the outcome (Greek model ?) later.

Disclaimer: As a practicing physician I must inform you that I have been the recipient of payment for services from both private and government insurance programs. Also I feel obligated to inform you that if any of the above or past comments in these blogs constitute disinformation concerning health insurance reform as promoted by the the government you may report this blog to the Whitehouse at flag@whitehouse.gov .

Medical Care System

2009-05-22T11:01:00.004-05:00

What kind of medical care system would you want to see in the future? The politician frequently speak of multiple urgent issues that need to be address. Some of these issues can be seen in the previous two posts and the references linked within them. However can we reduce these multiple issues to two core problems? The foundation for deciding what kind of medical care system we have revolves around two concerns of society and the practice of medicine. One is ethical and the other is economic.

Finding and implementing an answer to ethical question is more problematic because of the diversity and freedom of thought that is inherent in our western society. It is sometimes harder or less obvious than in other periods to define a dominant tradition in thought. The abstract form of this question is as old as western society and one that has never been universally successfully answered. The ethical question as it pertains to medical practice is what responsibility does society have to the individual for his medical care. Answer that question and you are half way toward deciding the type of medical care system. Be careful how you answer because I will warn you that if you step onto the tract of what 'the greatest good for the society' you have entered into the dark morass of morality and unending debate of the purpose of society verses the individual. I would recommend that you decide on the basis of your concern for the suffering and the helplessness of the individual. Leave aside thoughts of that individual's value to society.

The economic question is more straight forward but not without its conundrums. The question is whether your believe that medicine is a commodity or a right? (How you answer the economic question really only has two faces as long as you think you understand the difference between population variations and disease.)

An example of a conundrum in this area is perhaps important to consider before deciding. I was on the treadmill doing my thirty minute cardio workup (peak heart rate 155 to 160 ). There comes a middle aged women whose skin is dark and leathery appearing. In my judgment she had severely sun damaged skin. She was wearing a tank top and shorts an the dark tan was uniform across her body suggesting to me that this was not a occupational tan (ie she didn't darken because of working on asphalt road paving in the hot Mississippi sun). So here's the problem she faces thousands of dollars in dermatological anti neoplastic creams and plastic surgical excisions for skin cancer. Her 'disease condition' however is self induced. Does she have a right to care or should she purchase her remedies as a commodity?

Workout these two answers as succinctly as possible and then plug them into the grid of four possible choices and the medical care system of your choice will emerge. Listen to the debate in Congress and see if you can hear the variations of these themes in their arguments.

Best Medical Care (cont.)

2009-04-09T14:12:00.003-05:00

As I read the NY Times piece I was curious about the methodology that was used in the WHO report. The influence of methodology on results is well known to social scientists and even among true scientists. A quick search for an analysis of the World Health Report methodology revealed an illuminating article in the Journal of Public Health entitled The World Health Report 2000: Can Health Care Systems Be Compared Using a Single Measure of Performance? This article by J. S.Coyne and P. Hilsenrath looked at five of the main parameters of the Report. One parameter of particular interest was the DALE score. DALE is an acronym for disability adjusted life expectancy. DALE, if I understand the concept correctly expresses the years of life from birth that can be expected to be free of disability. It was this parameter which ranked the United States thirty seventh in comparison to other nations. This is not just lumped life expectancy from birth to death. I think it is very important to understand what DALE is and the factors that go into a DALE score. The most important point to understand is perhaps that a DALE score is influenced by both medical issues and public health issues.

For illustration, motor vehicle accidents are not a medical problem but may result in medical care, even prolonged medical care. Motor vehicle accidents are a big public safety issue and may result in disability. Air bags, seat belts, structural design of the automobile, impairment by alcohol and speed limits are safety issues as well. All of these issues of safety are public health issues. However one cannot segregate medical care of closed head trauma from public health of motor vehicle safety in the DALE system. Motor vehicle accidents are a factor in the DALE score and influence the measure. Yet, to state the obvious MVAs tend to occur prior to medical care for MVAs. So now the question arises what is the inflence of mixing public health issues and medical issues and comparing them across different cultures, levels of industrialization systems of societal organization and wealth. How are the performances in these sectors of public health and medical care related? Or is public health a matter of policy and medical care a matter of the contract between the patient and the care giver?

US Medical Care

2009-04-06T10:11:00.006-05:00

While looking for information on medical care systems I came across a provocative NY Times editorial. In the “World’s Best Medical Care” the writer argues that in spite of the claims of politicians the US has severely flawed medical care and our medical care system ranks a dismal 37th in a comparison to 191 health care systems of other nations. The editorial sites a single source to support this analysis which is the WHO report The World Health Report 2000 on health systems in 191 nations. The piece summarizes the short comings of our medical system in seven categories: insurance coverage, access, fairness, healthy lives, quality, life/death, patient satisfaction, and information technology. I find most interesting the comments in healthy lives, quality and life/death sections. Those issues that concern me most from an medical ethical view are the issues of fairness and access. The information technology comments need some careful thought as well. The writer obviously has a bias but is he accurate in his conclusions?

Red Light Law

2009-03-25T08:29:00.004-05:00

The Mississippi legislature recently passed a bill banning the use of traffic stop light cameras that capture motor vehicles that failed to stop at a red light. The camera would id the vehicle by tag number and issue a traffic violation to the owner of that tag. The fine was for seventy-five dollars. In the article from the Clarion Ledger many municipalities around the state had garnered significant revenue from the devices. Public opinion against the cameras ran very high but police chief Joseph St. John of Columbus said "I don't believe the cameras were the bad thing that a lot of people made them out to be..." I guess it depends on who's receiving the revenue.

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, who signed the bill into law, spoke concerning the constitutionality of the law "I mean, this law we're talking about today is as patently unconstitutional as it can be, however, what people need to know here, there is a right way to do this."

The questions of constitutionality (versus public opinion) certainly did not dissuade the governor from signing the bill. The issue that concerns the state officials is whether the legislature can void multi year contracts signed between cities and the company operating the cameras.

Interestingly the governor was also quoted as saying, "You know, there's all sorts of stuff that comes by my desk that you could challenge the constitutionality (of)." Really Gov!?

My interest lies in this constitutional question. Common law forbids ipso facto type laws but allows for the banning of activities in the future when it is deemed to be not in the public interest (or in this instance convenience). Can contracts for the purpose of commerce that involve activities initially legal (or at least not illegal) be made void. If the premise of the contract rested on preforming a certain activity for the benefit of the other side in the contract and now that activity is illegal, then is the contract now void. You certainly would not ask the contractor to engage in further activity deemed illegal or immoral by the state.

On the other hand can a established contract be used to argue that a law is unconstitutional because it bans an activity that the parties had entered into through the contract? If banning the activity was in the public interest and safety, how can a contract void the interest of the state in the welfare of its citizens. Take for instance the child safety act of 1964. This law forbade the sale and distribution of pyrotechnic materials and supplies through magazines to children under the age of eighteen. In the balance this was a very healthy and responsible thing to do. (I was able to obtain very high grade flash powder by this means at the age of ten. My mother took it away from me after several loud explosions rocked the neighborhood.) But what about the contracts for advertising in magazines that was voided. This commercial activity was now illegal but nowhere have I ever heard that the Child Safety Act of 1964 has been constitutionally challenged.

Perhaps some legal minds can enlighten me as to what our Governor means by "patently unconstitutional".

New Screen Cleaner Technology

2009-03-09T15:39:00.001-05:00

Technology is amazing. Check out this new screen cleaner that works from inside your monitor

Let the Games Begin

2009-02-12T09:04:00.004-06:00

I love eBay. The thrill of the bid war is what makes it so much fun. Even if you lose you know that you always made your competitor pay as dearly as you would have. It's civil to be uncivil. Like basketball the last 60 seconds are the best part of the game.
My interest in items fall into unusual categories but eBay is a place where people with singular interests frequently come across one another. Items that would not interest another person in a hundred or a thousand can be found and those with that singular interest gather to bid. There is is an affirmation of oneself to be seen in a bid war.
You calmly enter your bid just under sixty seconds with a margin you think is reasonable. In case there is another bidder with his finger on the mouse you set up the new max bid. Then comes the counter offer. You hope your dealing with an experienced bidder, and someone who has an interest and knowledge in the item similar to yours, not just another seller looking for inventory. The counter may fall short and you know the sense of urgency that rises in the other bidder. You've been there before. Seconds fly by and there is no margin for a bad keystroke. Every entry has to be perfect. This is the last shot. You smile knowing the desperation that shows in the face of someone somewhere who sits in front of their LCD screen wanting to place that wining bid. Then the game ends. The screen you have in front of you says Congratulations you are the highest bidder but the end of the story has now been written and you don't know for sure if that is the truth. You have to turn the page find out what happen to your competitor in those frantic final seconds. Did he make a hail Mary completion or was the ball dropped in the end zone? You click to see what has happen. The last thought before seeing that page come up is 'please please let it be green letters at the top' because red spells failure. This morning I saw red. Disappointment filled my countenance and somewhere someone smiled with delicious feeling of victory and I fed on the bitterness of failure.

But then the game begins again....

Book Repair

2009-01-27T08:51:00.005-06:00

I have a textbook that is several years old and is in need of repair. A book repair search returns several useful sites. Google searches tend to return commercial sites that offer book repair services and a few site on information (especially wikipedia). AltaVista searches seem to return more instructional sites but also a few service sites as well.

The book does not have a sewn binding but is more like a paperback book with a hardcover. I does however have a cloth spine. Textbooks are expensive and one would think that they would all have a sewn type binding. Even textbooks that have a sewn binding of the pages eventually fail. I have several books that have hundreds of hours of use that are beginning to exhibit failure from the wear that are of the sewn binding type. In general sewn binding in a book will give you many more hours of use than a glue only binding. Whatever the binding a textbook should be able to lie nearly flat and remain open to the desired page without a holding force, such as a paperback book or hardback novel may require.

The book in need of repair is of the glue binding type. Failure of the binding occurred after just about a hundred hours of use. This is a big disappointment because replacement cost is well over one hundred dollars and I am less than a third of the way through the material. This works out to be about a dollar an hour of use for the text if I replace the book.

An alternative is to repair the book. The problem in my book is a hinge failure with separation of the pages. This occurs because the adhesive does not bind well with the paper. Age and abuse are also factors in deterioration. If not repaired quickly the pages will soon begin to fall out.

I have completely taken books apart and bound the pages in a binders of one chapter lengths. This works well but is inconvenient in that all the parts of the book are not accessible at once. It has an advantage in that you can add pertinent notes as needed from other sources including your own notes. This book however has a shorter page length than is optimal for punch hole binding.

That leads me to try to reglue the book hinge. The recommended adhesive is polyvinyl acetate which turns out to be common wood glue. I will need the following materials for this project.

wood glue (polyvinyl acetate)
small rods (knitting needles)
a book press (pipe clamps and plywood boards)
paper towels
water in a bowl
wax paper
bone folder ???

I will be following the advice provided by the Dartmouth Preservation Services as I attempt to salvage my book.

Define: cutover

2009-01-23T10:10:00.003-06:00

I was reading the emails that the company I work for sends me to help me stay current with the corporation changes. In one of the communiques I was reading, I came across the following sentence “The final cutover to the ##### ##### ##### ##### Financial System is scheduled for January 2, 2009. “
I was not familiar with the term cutover except in the context of forestry operations and looked it up in my Webster’s seventh collegiate dictionary that I always keep on my desk side bookshelf. A cutover is indeed the previous removal of salable timber from a land tract and Webster’s did not list any additional meanings. Not satisfied with that limited research I turned to the world wide web and asked cyber space to simply define 'cutover'. Much to my surprise in the world of information technology a new meaning for the word has emerged. A ‘cutover’ is indeed an authentic IT word that means: The physical changing of lines from one system to another, usually at the time of a new system installation(www.telecombooksblog.com/telecom-glossary/). This brings up an interesting point. As a physician I have long been aware that I must translate medical terminology into common language terms. In English this usually means words of Anglo Saxon origin. For instance manus becomes hand or mandible becomes jaw or thorax becomes chest. Hand, jaw and chest are wonderful examples of Old English words that have survived for hundreds of years and there is not an English speaking patient that would not understand my meaning. So if in my profession if it is good practice and respectful to others to speak in the language of the Anglo Saxon peasantry when communicating rather than the ‘the language of merchant guild’ why is it more common today to hear the people communicate in their guild tongues rather than the common language of the people?

2009

2009-01-15T08:40:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year to all. Christmas was wonderful this year. All our children were home at some time or another: Daniel, James, Duff and Anja and Meredith. We had the pleasure of having Anja's delightful sister Sam with us as well. The Gibson's were here for a day and their daughter Christian.

We were sitting in the 'parlor' listening to the piano playing by several different people on the day that Duff, Anja and Sam were leaving for Pittsburgh, when it was decided that the 'parlor' needed painting. In a matter of minutes the room from ceiling to floor was stripped of everything except the piano and the under pad for the rug.

The next week Meredith taped and prepped the walls. Kiltz went on over the dark red that made the 'parlor' look like a New Orleans hotel for women of the night. Finally Melinda and I with the help of James picked a color that goes well with the rug that is in that room. We finished the painting this week.

It turns out that this decision to paint was very timely as well, for the Steinway arrived last night. Now the parlor has two pianos. A beautiful cherry upright Yamaha and a dark mahogany baby grand Steinway. The Steinway is about eighty years old and has been rebuilt by a firm in Detroit. The bridge and hammers have all been replaced. The sound is slightly different (it was still warming up last night when I played) from what I remember as a child but very similar to what you expect from a Steinway.

Now with a little rearrangement we will move all the furniture back into the room. Thanks Meredith for the prep work on the walls. The paint looks beautiful. Thanks Anja, Sam and Duff for the inspiration to redo the room in time for the piano arrival. Everyone needs to come back and see the new addition, play the piano and sit and read your favorite books in the peaceful and quite atmosphere of the 'parlor'.

Happy new year again to everyone.

Grief

2008-12-09T10:10:00.005-06:00

It has been several weeks since we lost Samuel Duff Austin. It is hard to think of Cleveland without him. It's harder to think of 1200 College St. without him. It hard to think of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays, and weekend visits without him. But that is our reality now. We go on with life and now feel the empty part that was once where he was. How long we feel that emptiness I'm sure reflects how big that space is. For some like Rebecca Austin it is to big to imagine.
The words of the Heidelberg catechism tell the Christian believer, "That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ;..." and so it is for us and Samuel Duff Austin his life was a gift from the Lord both to him and to us. Thank you Lord Jesus. Amen.

Weekly Musings

2008-10-31T11:19:00.003-05:00

Favorite quote of the week

Edward G. Murrow said, “If you’re not confused then you must not be thinking straight.”

Favorite idea of the week

Emile Brunner’s idea referred to as the ‘law of the closeness of relation’:

The nearer anything lies to that center of existence where we are concerned with the whole, that is, with man's relation to God and the being of the person, the greater is the disturbance of rational knowledge by sin; the farther away anything lies from this center, the less is the disturbance felt, and the less difference is there between knowing as a believer or as an unbeliever. Hence mathematics and the natural sciences are much less affected by this negative element (sinful blindness) than the humanities, and the latter less than ethics and theology. In the sphere of natural science, for instance--as opposed to natural philosophy-it makes practically no difference whether a scholar is a Christian or not.

This relation does not presuppose that the Christian’s understanding of the subject cannot be affected by sin. It presupposes that the Christian through the activity of the Holy Spirit stands in the light of revelation of scripture as mediated by the One church. This knowledge of faith the Christian possesses is likened to having the ‘mind of Christ’ in scripture. What Brunner has said is that to the extent that a particular knowledge area may be affected by sin will produce differences of understanding in that area between the world and the Christian. The reason for this difference is that the believer stands in a position of deliverance from the effects of sin in this world and in the knowledge of faith.
A note of caution however is to remember that Christians may be immature and slow to learn, as we are warned of by Paul. The extent of the Christian’s deliverance from the effects of sin will be likely less than we can hope for in many instances or the stains of sin may go much deeper than we at first appreciate. The second point is understanding that scripture teaches that the mind of Christ is the origin of all knowledge and that no knowledge exist outside of Jesus Christ. The believer standing in light of revelation of scripture through the Holy Spirit may hope and does see the world through the mind of Christ. This difference of viewpoint is what Brunner is talking about.

Working the Land

2008-10-27T08:55:00.005-05:00

The title is a bit more auspicious than the reality. The weekend brought another opportunity to go to Chapel Hill and work on the park project. Melinda and I burned off some more of the trash from the tractor work last winter. I have begun a selective cut of trees in order to thin the wooded areas. I am trying to leave the pine, red oak, sweet gum and elms in place while removing the honey locust, burr oak, hackberry, etc. At this point the work is mostly with a chain saw and muscle.
We are working at the opposite end of the area that we focused on last winter and two huge trees have fallen from the edge into the clearing zone where we were in the spring. These will have to be cleared but they are dry and can be disposed of rapidly.
We are at a point where I can begin to see the final product of our labor take shape. This is an critical time because doing to much or too little can leave the project wanting. The shape of the area has to emerge in a way that is in keeping with its natural setting. Usually this hard work is done by sitting in my folding chair late in the afternoon when the sun is about an hour from setting. The light is yellow and the leaves glow in the tops of the trees while shadows lay on the ground. The birds talk to one another about their bugs, the cool air and quiet breezes. When the avian conversation dies down the noise of a falling acorn or nut might redirect my attention but I survey and inventory the land, the trees and the light, hoping to see what needs to be done to make them more lovely.

Natural Gas Futures

2008-10-24T09:47:00.004-05:00

Oil and Gas prices have plummeted lately, which means several things to the industry. 1) Most of the sale of this commodity goes to pay the drilling and exploration cost. This is especially true for small companies that don't already have interest in petroleum rich fields. As prices fall the time to pay out for a well increases and the profit margin falls. 2) costs include dry hole cost and each commercial producing well is expected to pay for dry hole cost in the exploration program at large. These costs are relatively fixed ratios in the exploration program. As the value of known reserves falls this cost places a strain on operating capital. Accumulation of cash is much slower and the exploration program must become slower. If you run out of operating capital in the petroleum industry you go out of business. 3) Drilling costs always find a way to go up. You complain about the rise of gasoline prises and the slow fall of pump prices when oil prices fall. Drilling prices go up when the cost of oil rises bu I've never seen them come down. This makes me very suspicious of rig operators. (Helm Payne for instance has a flat fee of thirty thousand dollars a day for a drilling rig.) The effect on exploration is to slow domestic drilling programs while cost remain high and oil and gas prices fall. 4) Lease operation refers to management of a well already producing. One measure that can describe this is the lifting cost. How much does it cost the well to pull a barrel of oil out of the ground or flow a thousand cubic feet of gas from the well head. As a well ages lifting cost goes higher and eventually the well reaches a point where it is considered non commercial and is plugged. Part of management operation is rejuvenating an aging well to maximize production. This is part of all well management programs (and a source of contention for investors I might add). Wells that need a lot of work will increase dramatically the lifting cost. Falling petroleum commodity prices will forces margin wells off line much quicker. An interesting rule of thumb for petroleum commodity prices is that a thousand cubic feet of natural gas usually sells for one tenth the price of a barrel of oil.

What's my point? Well for those who are interested, the falling price of these commodities will quickly slow down domestic drilling programs (most of these guys who are in the business have calculators). In other words domestic production will not increase in today's market. Current supplies of natural gas are at very high levels because of production (entirely domestic at this point for all practical purposes) and decreased demand. So what does one do with the future in these circumstances: Falling commodity price, decrease production (future) and flat demand current). As I look into my crystal ball what I see is a coming spike in demand especially for natural gas which will drive prices up sharply. The price rise will come next spring and summer and users look at reserves in the system and purchase new supplies. But wait you say what makes you think that reserves will be depleted. I think that we are going to have much colder than average winters for the next three years at least. This will deplete the reserves in the pipeline and tanks above ground put pressure on prices. the time to market for new production is several months behind the demand and this one further increase pressure on prices. The climate factor is the most important assumption in this analysis. Local temperatures have been much cooler in Mississippi than the thirty year average (1971 -2000). Days below average have more than double in the since last year which was cooler than the year before. This appears to be a trend so far and I think it will last through the next two years.
I wonder if ten thousand dollars placed on natural gas futures could be doubled by this time next year! I will continue to filter data and let you know over the next month or so. Don't place any bets on my reading though.

The bench, the easel and the land

2008-10-20T10:04:00.007-05:00

I now have three variations of an electrocardiogram machine (uses the sound card on the computer to display the cardiac pulse). Meredith and James have been connected as guinea pigs to the machine and have a good cardiac rhythm. James suggested hooking up Dexter but that would require special electrodes that the ASPCA would frown upon. Meredith's pulse has a good deal of 120 Hz background signal and I still have some work to do on cleaning up the signal. Evidently she couples efficiently through her natural capacitance to the electromagnetic field in the world around her.
Along the way and much to my delight I've become proficient in producing good quality printed circuit boards (unlike the debacle from the summer of 2007 tube preamp circuit board board). In addition the ECG machine has shifted my interest from pure audio electronics to digital/signal processing realm of microelectronics.
I have a couple of projects line up for the fall. One is a digital thermometer that logs a temperature every eight hours with a date/time stamp. If the temperature exceeds or fall below a defined range, an alarm will signal and a cell phone will be called with the text message 'too warm' or 'too cold'. The purpose of this device is to comply with lab regulations on monitoring temperatures when no one will be in the lab on certain days for 24 hours.
The second project is also a monitor that can be used in children's bedrooms but no more details will be given at this time. Except to say that it will be based on a microcontroller circuit and most children would be delighted to have this device.
Melinda continues to paint and has several projects that are in process. I really am glad to see her painting and hope that she will not be distracted through the fall. I've observed how much an artist must know in order to paint portraits and landscapes. The work is full of obstacles that mere mortals such as myself cannot fathom. The work is very planned and deliberately executed. For instance just considering how to overcome the problem that the image that lies on a flat canvas and will portray a three dimensional scene. This is only a small fraction of the problems that a painter must have skills in overcoming. Also consider the effects of light and how it changes color, shade and textures. The artist must know the end before the beginning. Reminds you of Someone else doesn't it.
Now that fall has arrived we will spend more time at Chapel Hill. Our focus is on a two acre area that lies next to a very small pond. Much more clearing needs to be done and will require several Saturday afternoons. Then the soil will need to be tested and treated to promote grass growth and suppress the nasty honey locust trees. I would estimate that we are one third through the project now. The outcome hopefully will be an park like area that people and small animals will find a refreshing and peaceful habitat.

The Blame Game

2008-10-06T08:38:00.009-05:00

Following the trail of responsibility for the financial crisis will lead to a giant blame game. What will be most evident will be the attempt by participants to blame one group or another. In my mind this is a false dichotomy.

Close scrutiny of the issues will show even from the evidence already available that responsibility will fall on everybody because they all were responsible for different jobs: regulatory control, counsel, oversight, legislation action, policy review, fiduciary responsibility, corporate honesty, political neutrality, contract obligations, etc. Politicians fingerprints will be all over this mess when the story is sorted out. Believe me that right now shredders are busy and many are standing in front of the mirror practicing the phrase "I don't recall that specifically". The sad part is that many of the congressman who will be asking the questions in the hearings should be the ones testifying before the committee. You could just imagine the ranking member of the committee standing up on the dais and walking around to the table in order to be sworn under oath. Not likely! I'm afraid the true picture will come at a time long after their eulogies of praise have been sung. My grandchildren will study a clear picture of what happen in some upper level economics course in undergraduate school.

Two thing are evident: 1) People contracted mortgages that they should not have entered into at their income level. 2) Lenders took advantage of a relaxation of credit rules to offer loans to a market that inherently was risky in order to make a profit. On the one hand people put themselves in jeopardy by borrowing to much for homes of over inflated value and on the other hand financial institutions directed loans to a market that was risky and put the whole banking system in jeopardy. One concerns the policies that operate on a micro economic level and the other deals with policies that operate on a macroeconomic level.

In the current crisis well intended politicians promoted policies in a financial system in order to serve the dreams and improve the life of people often neglected in our American life. To do so meant relaxing the rules of credit. Rules that were meant to control the risk involved in the credit market. One way of justifying these action was to rationalize that the success of progressive social policy could be transferred to progressive financial policy. The result is the current financial crisis.

You may object to this simplistic analysis but the course of the events support this interpretation even though much more complicated issues are at the heart of the credit freeze. The more complicated issues are derivatives of the underlying structures. When individuals in this mortgage market began to default on homes and the value of residential real estate began to fall the financial market had to come to grip with the huge risks taken. As it turns out the magnitude of the problem was by then beyond the capacity of people, capital markets and as it may turn out the behemoth government to stabilize. Just how unstable we are I don't think anybody can say with any degree of precision.

It is the social or societal issues that make this blame game hard and ugly. The well intentioned politicians that wanted to improve the life of the least advantaged seemed to have not considered that life and the way people live it is risky. Our society has sought to find the balance between opportunity, fairness and equity but risk is always present. On the other hand financial systems have always had to deal with risk and to a large measure understand risk. Their tendency is to minimize the risk but this may mean neglecting the welfare of some segments of our society. Regulations should force an open system because of this desire to minimize the risk. But risk has to be assessed and assigned to someone each step of the way.

The current crisis is due to the lack of restraint that led to neglect of these risks (people and market fluctuations). Sadly this is not the first time we have been in this type of mortgage crisis and for the same reasons as today. Where can you find information about real estate crashes: The Motley Fool has an insightful discussion in this article, The Heritage Foundation presents a conservative view of the origins of the current crisis, The farm crisis of the 1980's bear similar marks to the current real estate crash and related to the farm crisis but close to home is a humorous book "How to Lose your Farm in Ten easy Steps and Cope with It" by Robert Hitt Neill.

Mississippi Senators vote nay on HR1424

2008-10-02T09:46:00.003-05:00

Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker voted against HR1424, the financial industry bailout package. Both cited the need to pursue other means of dealing with the troubled financial industry. I'm in agreement with their positions. This is not to say the bailout package might not work, but that it is tampering with the market, favoring corporations and individuals and appropriating an unconstitutional authority to our government. If memory serves me correctly, the constitution does not grant to the congress the authority to make laws that allow our government to engage in private commerce. I may be mistaken but the buying marketing and selling of real estate mortgages sounds like commerce.

J Alfred Prufrock is at the top of the stairs

2008-10-01T08:15:00.005-05:00

Amidst all this economic turmoil I find great comfort in J Alfred Prufrock. Here is a man after my own heart. Instead of just telling you the big question he wants to show you. I think of him as a bit like me, medium in stature, conservatively dressed, and thinning hair especially on the back of his head. He's engaged in a stream of consciousness type of thought, the day is one of business but largely indecision or endless revisions. The evening however is different, a time for the action he never takes. An action that would have defined his greatness or his insignificance, but an action that during the day underwent endless revisions and deferrals. Oh it's time for tea and cakes and in the end he understands that he is not meant to be a prince of greatness or insignificance just good old j alfred prufrock. Who like the crab that scurries randomly about the ocean floor, he awaits another day of indecision and revision.

Well that my interpretation of Prufrock but the evenings for me are not like alfred's. He didn't have MSNBC, FOX NEWS and CNN with a host of talking heads that keep you stirred up about the economic crisis (read credit crisis). Well today my advise to you is not to engage in endless revisions but let your senator know what you think of the bill they will vote on tonight after they have had their tea and cakes. Should they descend the stair or go forward? I think I know what alfred would do.

Final Election Comment

2008-09-28T11:26:00.002-05:00

This will be my final comment on the election this year. I believe now that the first debate is behind us that Senator Obama will win the election. His style and youth cannot be matched by Senator McCain. Senator McCain came across as to patronizing and denigrating and Senator Obama came across as gentler and softer (more likely to "reach across the aisle"). For a significant number of voters these characteristics weigh heavily on their vote decision in this election. Senator Obama's style is perceived by voters as compassion, empathy and bringing about change (diplomacy). McCain is perceived as strong in experience and capable of being a commander in chief (self assured and firm). This is a style that is more closely associated with President Bush and therefore ties him to a very unpopular president. I think that the mood in the country is leaning toward the style of Senator Obama and not Senator McCain. In the areas of peoples daily lives Senator Obama is perceived as stronger on domestic issues and this as well is the most important issue with voters. So in the immediate analysis even though the polls are close Senator Obama will take this election. I suspect that he will win by a slim margin in the electoral college, maybe even just by a few electoral votes over 270 needed to win. The popular vote given New York, California and Florida will go to him as well.

Financial crisis

2008-09-26T08:14:00.004-05:00

The media and politicians have not been encouraging in this process of working out a plan to deal with the ailing financial system of our country. The rhetoric has been divisive much to often and now is not the time for pointing fingers but seeking an understanding of how to facilitate the credit market functions.
The political leaders most importantly need to convince the public and the markets that a plan will be worked out. It doesn't matter if it takes one week or longer. A plan must be worked out to make sure the credit markets work at a level that allows commerce and business to function. Rhetoric from our leaders even if they disagree on details needs to reflect that commitment. They are now sounding impatient, rude and at times uncivil. I believe there are enough congressional men and women with level heads to formulate a good plan. They should reflect this confidence also not pointing fingers and playing politics. The goal seems simple enough, make sure the credit markets work. They also need to know that any plan must be revisited and adjusted (or even scrapped) at a later date. These are the actions and type of leadership that will restore the confidence in out system, not bombastic rhetoric (please save that for the closed door committee and conference meeting).
Oh yeah you can help also, go to your bank and deposit ten dollars in savings. The banks need the reserve to provide credit. Hey if everybody deposited one hundred dollars per person in savings or a cd each month that would generate 30 billion dollars of usable credit reserve each month and in ten months we would have 300 billion dollars in reserve for credit purposes. In three years I bet we wouldn't even need foriegn credit. Imagine that a nation of savers!

Who do you turn to in a Financial crisis

2008-09-19T13:38:00.003-05:00

The Gallop poll is my favorite polling site for the presidential election. Its predictive ability in the last four week before the November election is uncanny. It looks like Senator Obama has appreciatively benefited from the financial crisis.

On a side note: To bad that Mr. Jim Johnson is so close to Mr. Obama since he help mold the policies that have guided Fannie Mae into the middle of the mortgage securities crisis.

The Electronics Bench

2008-09-17T11:04:00.006-05:00

I've spent a great deal of time at the electronics bench this summer. I now have three variations of an electrocardiogram machine (uses the sound card on the computer to display the cardiac pulse). Meredith and James have been connected as guinea pigs to the machine and have a good cardiac rhythm. James suggested hooking up Dexter but that would require special electrodes that the ASPCA would frown upon. Meredith's pulse has a good deal of 120 Hz background signal and I still have some work to do on cleaning up the signal. Evidently she is well coupled through her natural capacitance to the electromagnetic field in the world around her.
Along the way and much to my delight I've become proficient in producing good quality printed circuit boards (unlike the debacle from the summer of 2007 tube preamp circuit board board). I've shifted interest from pure audio electronics to digital/signal processing realm of microelectronics.
I have a couple of projects line up for the fall. One is a digital thermometer that logs a temperature every eight hours with a date/time stamp. If the temperature exceeds or fall below a defined range, an alarm will signal and a cell phone will be called with the text message 'too warm' or 'too cold'. The purpose of this device is to comply with lab regulations on monitoring temperatures when no one will be in the lab on certain days for 24 hours.
The second project is also a monitor that can be used in children's bedrooms but no more details will can be given at this time. Except to say that it will be based on a microcontroller circuit and most children would be delighted to have this device.

Oldest Candidate for the Office of President

2008-09-05T10:09:00.003-05:00

That is one of John McCain's distinctions. It is also one of his liabilities. The office is stressful on whoever sits in the position. But McCain's candidacy adds a new urgency to the choice for VP. President Bush had the same problem in opposite. I think that we all thought (and some hoped) that Dick Cheney's health would become a factor during his term in office. The secession in that case of the loss of the President and VP would have at least landed us with a fairly interesting person in Sec. Rice. Which brings me to the main point of this blog.
I like Sarah Palin. She's a natural politician. I saw her speech along with 37 million other viewers Wednesday night. She lived up to and exceeded my expectations. However since Thursday there has been some nagging question about her in my mind. The nature of that question was not clear to me until I was driving to work this morning. The best way to see the problem is to ask yourself the question, a month ago who would I have liked to see John McCain pick as his running mate? We all had an opinion? Mitt Romney, Sec. Condoleezzaa Rice, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Gov. Charlie Crist (Florida), Rep. Eric Cantor (VA) , ?Newt Gingrich, etc. Some we knew were not available but all had a similar characteristic. They had developed policy or legislated policies. We were comfortable with them as executives in reserve. This is what I don't know concerning Gov. Palin. Her performance Wednesday night was not calculated to address this either. She did come across as capable of being 'the pit bull with lipstick'.
Now we have divided the run to the White House into two segments that require different skill sets that may not be present in the politician. One skill set demands that they be well spoken, quick thinking on their feet and have some personal charisma in the public eye. The other skill set is that their ability to make decisions and formulate workable policy (lead). The first is required on the campaign trail, the second is essential in the office. In Sarah Palin I think you have the first skill set pretty well established. It is the second set that leaves a big question mark. I'm not just talking about her social conservatism which I whole heartily concur with so far. I'm talking about her ability to receive analysis and formulate policy on issues to be decided in the future (a pattern that your other pick a month ago probably fit really well). Issues that right now you and I and the next president don't even know exists. One bright light in her corner is the fact that she doesn't seem to abide corruption and influence pedaling. We've got sixty days more or less to find out.

Accepted

2008-08-29T09:24:00.003-05:00

Well, of the five people I usually see in the morning at coffee, no one watched Barak Obama give his acceptance speech last night. So far today only one out of fifteen watched the show last night. The setting was spectacular. The presentation was flawless. But the content was standard the democrat agenda with little that was truly new. The repubs have not kept their promises, business is mean, government can help you, McCain is out of touch, the programs will cost money but taxes will pay for them, etc. He is easy to listen to and doesn't antagonize his audience. One note he worked hard to put his opponent in a bad light. As usual the logical fallacies abounded in his political speech, as all good sophists (dem or repub) are prone to do. The fallacies pretty much ran the gamut, begging the question, ignoring the exceptions, arguing from popular sentiment, non sequitor, etc. Of course all of them were meant to strengthen his position and so as political speech are standard fare. Did the dems make a mistake in choosing BO instead of HRC? Hard to say. I think the party feels like Barak Obama gives them the image they are looking for and HRC didn't fill the bill. But in terms of drive and intellectual acumen, I think HRC beats him out.

This Morning

2008-08-28T09:27:00.006-05:00

Coffee was good this morning both at home and work. I just drink mine black, but Melinda likes to have chocolate and creme mixed with hers. I suppose this could be considered some variant of the cafe mocha. So far I've watched much more of the DNC than I did of the Olympics. I pity those poor people in Denver whose lives have been disrupted by this event. I guess that some of them probably enjoy the excitement, but for working Joes in Denver that just must be at work on time and without hassle , this has to be a nightmare. I listened to Hillary Rhodham Clinton's speech Tuesday night. I'm not an analyst by any means but I was very impressed by her theme and delivery. She has learned a lot about making speeches and reminded me of her husband's oratorical skills. If Barak Obama doesn't outshine her tonight in the acceptance speech he gives, I think the demes nominated the wrong person to win this election. As far as the impact that the convention has had on voters the Gallup Poll has some interesting articles. Some relate to the issues between Clinton and Obama. Of note the standing between Obama and McCain hasn't changed much since the start of the DNC.
The thought just struck me. McCain sounds like a brand name of coffee. Such as in "Melinda we're out of coffee can you pick up some McCain's at Rameys tonight". McCain could work this into his political campaign. Try McCain its good to the last drop. Bring out the McCain and bring out the best. Fill it to the rim with McCain. McCain: M'm, M'm, Good! The best part of waking up is McCain in your cup. Just food for thought.

August Statistics

2008-08-25T11:00:00.003-05:00

Books read: 2
Textbook chapters (non medical) read: 3
Medical articles reviewed: 25
Completed EKG Circuits: 1
Completed circuit analysis problems: 25
Dates with Melinda: 0
Workouts at Gym: 4
Quiet Times: (I'll try to do better)
Blogs: 3
Hours watching the Olympics: 1.5
House guests: 10
Children off to school: 2
Oh yeah, Sons married: 1

Of course the highlight of the month was the wedding of Anja and Duff. We love you both and wish you the best.

Must See

2008-08-25T10:45:00.001-05:00

If you missed my last post you must see this.

Some things are just funny

2008-08-25T10:41:00.003-05:00

With the Olympic games over on sunday the post event news stories are beginning to emerge. Here is one about Micheal Phelps.

Newlyweds

2008-08-11T09:19:00.003-05:00

Hooray for Anja and Duff. The wedding was a joy. The groom was hansome and the bride was beautiful. Everybody was joyful. Thanks to everyone who came and helped. They are off to Nova Scotia and a start of a new life. Duff and Anja we love you much!

Covenant of Redemption

2008-07-28T22:44:00.004-05:00

The Gospel is the key to understanding the entire Bible. Perhaps that is stating things a little simplistically but at least this is the perspective of the redemptive historical model of proclaiming God's word. So how ancient is the idea of the Gospel? Does it predate the fall? Does it predate Adam? Does it predate creation? Does it predate the rebellion of Satan? Certainly the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were in communion before the words of creation were spoken. Does scripture tells us when the triune God first discussed the plan of redemption? Or perhaps we should say where in eternity did this idea have its origin? I read about the covenant of redemption as a concept in Berkhof's systematic theology under a discussion of covenants. Berkhof wrote that not all of reformed Christian theologians subscribe to a division between the covenant of redemption and the covenant of grace. And even when they do not all agree on who are exactly the parties in each covenant.
Over the last several months I've mulled these thoughts over in my mind. As I've read certain passages of scripture the concept of an Trinitarian covenant of redemption has startled me. The words of Christ (John 17), the inspiration of Paul (Ephesians 1), Jesus as he spoke of His relationship to the Father and the Spirit, John as he spoke of the nature of God's love not just of for us but the love between the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
Why is this important? Is it not enough to know that Christ died to redeem his people and that this act shows His love. Why is the trinitarian covenant of redemption important? Besides sending chills up my spine to think that They prepared the Gospel before hand knowing the sacrifice, the horrors and sadness that its execution would entail, besides the confidence that such love within the triune Godhead gives to my faith that my salvation is secure because They planned it before time and space existed and besides the knowledge that such a covenant assures me that nothing (even eternity past) will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, I think it is important because if helps us understand Scripture. Perhaps some day I'll hear this topic preached and then I will say so be it.

Heat

2008-06-24T22:04:00.002-05:00

How much can you sweat in Mississippi in June? Last night I weighed myself and crawled in the bed with plans to go to Mule Jail and clean up for the Fourth of July picnic. This meant chain sawing and moving a tree, cutting bamboo forest with a bushhog and cleaning the second story outside windows in the cabin. As the temperatures moved into the nineties we pushed through the day and seven hours later Melinda and I came home tired, dirty and very hot. As I was cleaning up I stepped on the scale and there was the answer. Even after eighty plus ounces of cool fluid I weighed five pounds less than the night before. We call it the purge.

Power is compelling

2008-06-16T10:52:00.004-05:00

Power is a compelling desire. Obama and Clinton strove mightily for the Democrat nomination for the powerful office of President. The Dems and the Repubs both want the power of the office of president. Money is portrayed as power in newspaper stories, movies and television. As a wrestler in high school physical power was an essential ingredient to winning. Sports contests are frequently about who is most powerful in the physical realm. The myths of ancient Greeks involve issues of who controls or steals power.
Yesterday I heard a wonderful sermon about power by Rev. John Dawson. It was based on the story of Elisha and the Shunammite women from 2 Kings 4. The story is a story about helplessness in the face of certain situations (in this case infertility and death). The story reminds me that in this life we are frequently confronted with situations in which we are powerless to make a change or even explain the problem. This was true for the Shunammite women and for Elisha. In this story the a child is born, dies and is raised to life. Who did wield the power? The Lord was the third character in this tale that truely wielded the power of life to give, life to lose and life to restore.

The story reveals to us this simple truth about God: He is the wielder of power and in this story the power used for restoration. A truth that is repeated in its greatest unfolding in the Gospel. The power of God in life given, life taken and life restored through Jesus Christ. We are like the Shunammite woman and Elisha who were powerless in the face of this situation, we are confronted with our own lack of power time and time again. The story of the gospel is the story of God's power that is greater than ours and is the power for restoration. God graciously showed this to the Shunammite woman of Shunem and Elisha. I suspect that she lived the rest of her life in the understanding that the Lord could one day restore all things by his power. We who live on this side of the cross now know that to be true.

Thank you John for your sermon.

Sudoku

2008-06-13T10:44:00.003-05:00

Ahhh! Time on my hands! Having finished up other commitments recently I have time on my hands to pursue other interests. I'm sure that all you have tried a Sudoku puzzle. Some of the harder puzzles require techniques of number exclusion that are quite subtle and the details require remembering a several list of numbers as you move around the puzzle. Well I've discovered another type of sudoku that is equally challenging: Reverse software engineering.

For reasons that I will not go into now I've been trying to learn low level windows API calls for waveform audio. If you know the general goals behind a programming task, sometimes the fastest way to learn a skill is to take apart someones program code that already does the job you are interested in coding. However some people code in ways (make functions with multiple purposes, calls with obscure variable names in the lists, layered on top of windows event messaging that signal the control of the program flow from different threads) is a lot like a very hard sudoku. Sometimes I have a missing part and I'm trying to find it in the program code but the obscure variable names and function purpose make tracing what I'm looking for very hard. Sometimes you recognize it only after staring at a section for hours. Then you think wouldn't it have been easier to just try it myself!

Well in spite of the challenges, I've made progress learning and sometimes you run into people whose minds are neatly organized and sequential in their processes. These are the ones you learn the fastest from but not necessarily the most.

2008-06-09T10:05:00.002-05:00

Life moves into a slower pace as the summer warms up in Mississippi. We look forward to Duff and Anja's wedding date. It reminds me of my wedding as a young man. I hope that each of my children find a wonderful wife/husband and will learn well the crafts of familihood.

In the meantime in the course of searching for something else, I found this amusing list of modern classical rock composers. I think Duff will like this.

Cool ideas

2008-04-28T10:37:00.002-05:00

This is a cool idea. Have you ever wondered where your dog goes to when your out in the woods and he just disappears for five minutes. Here's the solution. Of course this is far to expensive for an individual to buy but what if you could rent it from a pet store or some sort of kennel club. What fun!

Network news

2008-04-25T09:01:00.006-05:00

No not MSNBC! Computer network in my house. In truth my wiring project is not really for networking the computers in my house but to provide data ports in rooms so that one can connect to the Internet. It's about entertainment and game playing not data and resource sharing. That said however, it is a peer to peer type of network without a server. Some resources will be available.
It turns out the Melinda is a mac women (no not the 'macdaddy' type, Mac OS type). I'm a pc guy like in the commercials. I don't think you can peer to peer network Mac (Tiger OS) to Windows XP workstations. That's too bad because I would like to have access to her wonderful photograph files and to back it up on a dedicated file server (then it would be a network in the deeper sense). As it is we can't see each other (except across the upstairs den) on the network.
The cable wiring is 66% complete (well maybe 57% if I install seven data jacks instead of six). After installing the first three wall outlets in the upstairs den, the initial test showed only one out of three working (33% success rate). It turned out as usual to be a cable problem. The cable guy (that's me) installed the plug on one of the cables in reverse sequence (note the the similarity to the circuit board problem he had last summer). After the problem was identified all went well. Meredith's study room has cable and wall jack installed now (cable is untested however and there is only a 33% chance that it is working properly according to compiled statistics).
Over the weekend the other upstairs bedrooms should be completed. The cables are already in the walls and only the boxes for the wall jacks need to be cut and installed (wallboard dust is one of the most unpleasant by products of this whole project). The final decision is whether to install a jack in the downstairs den/TV room. I think yes, but it means I exceed the number of ports on my hub and I will need to have a bigger hub. I could always just switch out one of the bedroom cables that are unused for the den jack. Anyway I'll be glad the project is over this weekend. The temperatures in the attic are beginning to go up sharply as April warms up in Mississippi. It's time to finish up before I become an attic heat statistic.

Blogapenia

2008-04-17T10:07:00.002-05:00

There seems to be a blogapenia or or maybe a postaphobia that is the result of a blogathenia. Hillary has noticed it. Ryan recently posted and Daniel commented on the passing of his in classroom educational experience. I have a theory to explain the postapenia. Alex announced that he was going to create a crawler program to monitor and compile statistics on the blogging activity of individuals. Subconsciously everyone has altered their behavior in order to skew Alex's data. A sort of Heisenberg principle on a macro level.

Tapping into my resources

2008-04-14T08:58:00.004-05:00

For about a year now I've wanted to hard wire the house for the computer network. Not a difficult project but something that requires design, crawling into attics, pulling wire into walls, adding AC outlet and tapping into the phone service. Part of the design was to install a utility box that encloses the DSL modem, router box, telephone input and the cables to the various rooms for the RJ45 jack terminus. The box makes the service of the router box and modem convenient but it requires a AC outlet. No problem though I had nearby AC wires and tapping into one is an easy job. With a splice you also don't require any new copper service cable. Copper is frightfully expensive these days. So I proceed to tap into the wires. Selecting a nearby cable I first followed it to an area to determine what circuit the cable supplies. Having satisfactorily concluded that this particular wire supplied an appropriate circuit (with available load headroom to add an outlet) I next switched off the circuit and was satisfied the circuit was no longer energized (lights and outlets were dead on the presumed circuit). I climbed into the attic to access the wire and at the precise point where the tap was to take place I cut the wire. Just as a precaution at this point I used an insulated wire clippers by the way. The wire was cut without incidence. I even checked the wire with a volt ohm meter (VOM) to make sure it was dead. After twenty minutes I had the wire tapped and the new AC outlet installed up to code in the panel box. Everything looked in order. I ran downstairs and flipped the circuits back to their on positions. The lights came back on and the circuit breakers stayed in position (no faults or overloads). I ran back up stairs to test the outlet and the VOM showed the outlet was not energized. I was crushed. Then it struck me, was the cable I chose really the circuit I thought it was? I ran back down stairs an flipped the switches to the outside lights in the driveway and retested the circuit. Voila! The AC outlet was now energized! I had just tapped into the switch wire for the outside lights! Making the outlet vulnerable to being turned on and off at a whim. I'll now have to go back, undo the tap, slice the cable together again and redo the whole circuit again. But only after taxes are completed.

Do you know this person?

2008-03-23T19:18:00.005-05:00

After reading an article by Meir Soloveichik, No Friend in Jesus in First Things on the dialogue between Pope Benedict and Rabbi Jacob Neusner. I looked up the academic credentials of Rabbi Soloveichik and found he had studied at Yale Divinity School. By the way one of the people pictured on the Yale Divinity School home page vaguely looks like one of Duff's friends but has different hair style.

Pronunciation of Appalachia

2008-02-25T09:49:00.008-06:00

James and I had a discussion over the weekend of the correct pronunciation of Appalachia. He corrected me when I pronounced the name with a soft a vowel in the third syllable with syllabication to include the 'ch'. He informed me that in Michigan he was corrected by his teacher in the sixth grade and told that Appalachia is pronounced with a long a vowel in the third syllable with syllabication by the preceding consonant 'l'. I've always been interested in variant pronunciations as they reflect regional differences as well as language and ethnic influences upon speech.

In Webster's ninth new collegiate dictionary edition both pronunciations are listed as variants (soft a in 'lach' and long a in 'la'). The pronunciation guide indicates that "not all educated speakers pronounce words the same way and that a second place variant is not to be regarded as less acceptable than the first variant".

I was raised in the deep south and had caretaker (they were not called nannies), Hannibel for the first few years of my life. Hannibel was a delightful person and I had fond memories of watching 'I Love Lucy', eating sweet potatoes for lunch, helping her wash clothes, clean string beans and generally following her around during her domestic duties until I was carted off to kindergarten. I'm sure that Hannibel probably influenced my speech patterns although I must admit that I do not recall discussing Appalachia with her during these early years unless it was during the Andy Griffith Show.

My point is that I've found plenty of variant pronunciations over the years and find my life enriched by them even if others find them odd. I usually will verify the acceptability of the variant but over the years I've seldom found myself in error. I admit however that occasionally I've been guilty of wholesale slaughter of the English language. My most recent faux pas was the mispronunciation of 'potable'. I learned this word has no variants and has an odd pronunciation and syllabication at least to me. For this reason one of my favorite books is a fine dictionary. I recommend that everyone keep one close at hand. Particularly if you are like me and are weak in linguistics.

A certain level of tolerance in pronunciation is needed. I don't expect teachers to be informed about speech variants in the many cases that abound. I've met plenty of doctorates that are not informed and have been vary intolerant. The teacher's goal by their training is to shape, correct and inform young people so that the students may become articulate and reasonable men and women. A certain propensity toward correcting students is natural. In the opposite camp a certain forbearance by the speech deviants like myself is needed to deal with the speech police as they patrol the corridors of elocution.

A Grove

2008-02-20T13:22:00.002-06:00

A small wood without underbrush

This is what I would hope will come from the labors at Chapel Hill.

What is a frozen section?

2008-02-14T08:55:00.008-06:00

The work this morning is slow. I'm waiting on my cases to arrive, but I've already done a frozen section for a plastic surgeon. The surgeon removed a piece of skin that had a tumor that was growing on the inner ridge (antihelix) of the auricle (external ear). The lesion was small, 0.5 cm so not much of the pinna was removed. I inked the specimen and serially sectioned the tissue and submitted it entirely for frozen section. The surgeon wanted to know the answer to two questions by requesting I perform this procedure. First question was simply: what is the tumor? The second question is: are the margins free of tumor? The answer to the first was squamous cell carcinoma. The answer to the second question was that the tumor is completely excised. The actual frozen section involves embedding the tissue in a clear viscous liquid called OCT and then quickly freezing the block. Thin section are cut from the surface of this block and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The section are 5 microns thick and this allows the stain to react with various parts of the tissue. Under the microscope I can then see these as distinct regions and identify the elements of the tissue to which they correspond. The pattern and characteristics suggest to me whether they are malignant, benign or normal tissue. After I am satisfied that I understand what is the nature of the pathologic process I call the surgeon in the OR and give my report to them. The surgeon can then finish the operation appropriately. I move on to the next case or because today is slow I had coffee and fruit (pineapple, grapefruit and tangerines slices) for breakfast. I washed my hands of course.
Oh, By the way ask Meredith about frozen sections. She's done one when she was a little girl.

An Idea for its time?

2008-02-01T10:32:00.000-06:00

…Reformed Churches have done a great disservice to genuine Christianity by moving the focus from Christ to man - from God's Word to man's reaction to it.

Chapel Hill Restoration Project

2008-01-23T11:30:00.000-06:00

Actually it was massive destruction. I rendered habitat that was perfectly suitable for small mammals and perhaps some birds a wasteland. Using a 33hp diesel New Holland Tractor and a bushhog attachment I mowed down small trees up to 2 inches and ate brush like cotton candy. The tractor sustained minor damage to the exhaust pipe on a low hanging vine and the grill on the right side of the engine cowl was knocked off and eaten by the bushhog. The tractor stalled on a few stumps which was probably not good but I tried to maintain a constant rotary speed on the bushhog of 540 RPM for most of the morning. By the afternoon great swathes of clear brush and trees lay all around me. Next week will be a cleanup day to cut some stumps and small trees that were to big for the bushhog.
A lot of progress was made and I hope to have the tractor repaired by next week. Melinda is a coworker in this project. She wants to buy a ladies chain saw to help with the cleanup. I wonder if the have one in that Hello Kitty motif that is so popular. It was very therapeutic and I highly recommend a tractor work as one of the most relaxing activities. It will be even nicer when all there is to do is actually mow to maintain the fields.

On the life of Foucault

2008-01-17T08:51:00.000-06:00

"The limit-experiences of anonymous erotic games, drugs, and madness have no verifiable role in self-transcendence."

(My name is James Neill and I endorse that staement. Paid for by myself who isn't running for any office)

'Limit experiences' fall outside the collective of my life but in a deep sense the concept seems to carry with it the possibility of self extinction rather than self transcendence.

Some have said the Foucault wanted to live the life of philosophy. Sometime in his life he happened upon the concept of 'limit experiences' and incorporated them into his quest for living the life of philosophy. In his reflective and academic life he seems to have mostly explored the themes of struggle and power. In this vein he also embraced the idea of complete freedom as meaning that one did just what he damn well pleased, pardon my french. In the moment of exercising this freedom, a struggle developed. This struggle was the relationship of power and arises in the exercise of absolute freedom. The consequence of this struggle is domination of the weaker. Thus history is set in motion according to Foucault. By the way Foucault offers no escape from this predicament. My question then is simply this, does he really have something to say to his fellow man or was he just speaking all the while to himself? And we sit and listen like a good talk show host generation.

Foucault says of the historical discourse that the subject of history becomes the its on historian. Is Foucault a historian or a critic of history? Beware a hasty answer may neglect what he has to say about himself.

I really cannot distill what Foucault says for several reasons, myself being foremost. Foucault however is worth reading if only to cause one to examined his thoughts in light of ones own beliefs. However his immense intellect will quickly over power you if you are not well grounded in your beliefs and the historical material he plumbs. The greater the familiarity with his sources would no doubt produce a clearer understanding of his themes. Foucault does tirelessly try to explain himself while he writes and for that I am grateful to him. He speaks and writes with decided authority, without apology and without menace. (I am glad that I encountered him at my age rather than in my twenties. It would take the prodigious teenager to read him with appreciation.) Not withstanding, the pattern his life with the idea of 'limit experiences' if infused into the norm of the general public would quickly cull the gene pool.

Health care

2007-12-21T09:45:00.000-06:00

I know this is not a Christmas topic but I just read about a policy change in medicare reimbursement rules that I found very interesting. First let me say that frequently today policy changes that deal with epidemiological issues can be driven by cost considerations and not necessarily evidence based medicine (EBM). However this change takes the position that it is driven by evidence based medical practice but here's the twist, not EBM that is driven to improve patient care but EBM that assigns guilt for complications!
Medical cost have been a growing health care issue since I began medical school (1974). As a bit of historical prospective let me give you my overview. Way back in the day, cost containment was a physician driven issue that was large voluntary. This was driven by the evolving concept of evidence based medicine as a practice guide and improved labor saving medical technology. Doctors were suppose to do things and order tests because there was a true need. This worked well if you were intelligent, honest, hard working and thoughtful. But as all good Calvinists know someone needed to check up on things just in case some one's old nature got the better of them. So by time I went into practice hospital had utilization committees. At the first hospital where I practiced, I served on a utilization committee that looked at hospital stay length and broke it down by physician. I saw every bodies good and bad habits. By the early eighties however DRG's had become the standard and third party payers had gotten serious about run away medical cost. Next came prequalification for certain procedures. This obviously was an extension of the evidenced based criteria of medical practice on a prospective basis. Tissue committee use to police things in this regard retrospectively, but what good was that except to learn who was a good diagnostician and who wasn't. Still health care cost have escalated and remained an issue especially for the politicians.
Now medicine for some people is a vocation with a mission, to care for the sick, and for some others it is a business, margins to be optimized by procedures type. A different method of cost concerns have arisen because of these two groups of people in medicine. Patients become clients, surgery becomes a service and health monitoring becomes a product, nurses, technologists and physicians become resources, etc. Medicine as an industry (we have our on investment sector now) has emerged in the nineties. HMOs, PPOs, Hospital corporations and suppliers control the money. The free market factors will work to keep cost down and efficiency up. The judgment of its success is faulted by the realization that medical care has very little to do with real supply and demand economies. However this is the current state of affairs nationwide. It is easier to regulate an industry than a profession however.
So what was this article that I read that triggered this tirade and a sentimentalist stroll down memory lane. Simply this, medicare has announced that it will no longer allow reimbursement modifications for infectious complications from vascular procedures during hospital stays. In other words if you get MRSA (AKA super bug) infection after your invasive vascular procedure then everybody is going to resent you. Not only you but your physician and the OR/ICU staff that is caring for you. Why? because the complication is resulting in as extended hospital stay, expensive antibiotics (some make gold look cheap) and additional procedures. This is something that medicare sees as not justifying the reimbursement change. How you may ask? Evidence based medicine of course! It seems that because a)bacteria can be transferred from unwashed hands, b)infections arise from these bacteria when they are pathogens, c)health care workers are the one in contact with these vulnerable patients, therefore the quilt by EBM falls on the staff and physicians. If guilty then they should be punished. (This is not to diminish the importance of washing hands in fact if your would like to know the proper procedure I will post it on request.) We should have known, especially as good Calvinist, that this metaphor for improving care was going to bite us some day. I'm tired of writing about this so if you have comments please keep them in the bounds of EBM.

I wonder what Foucault would have to say about this (except for the fact that he was all in favor of transmitting germs which may disqualify him from unbiased opinion).

Christmas Confession

2007-12-17T10:07:00.000-06:00

Christmas is a stressful time of year for me. The reason for this is that psychologically I have always labored under the pressure that giving of gifts must live up to some expectation and to fail causes disappointment. The stress of course is internally generated and therefore no reasoning to the otherwise can resolve my fears. This runs contrary to the spirit of Christman as embodied in themes found in songs and stories. But however the conflict is see even in the little drummer boy lyrics:

Come they told me, pa rum pum pum pum
A new born King to see, pa rum pum pum pum
Our finest gifts we bring, pa rum pum pum pum
To lay before the King, pa rum pum pum pum,
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,

So to honor Him, pa rum pum pum pum,
When we come.

Little Baby, pa rum pum pum pum
I am a poor boy too, pa rum pum pum pum
I have no gift to bring, pa rum pum pum pum
That's fit to give the King, pa rum pum pum pum,
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,

Shall I play for you, pa rum pum pum pum,
On my drum?

Mary nodded, pa rum pum pum pum
The ox and lamb kept time, pa rum pum pum pum
I played my drum for Him, pa rum pum pum pum
I played my best for Him, pa rum pum pum pum,
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,

Then He smiled at me, pa rum pum pum pum
Me and my drum.

Now this is not meant to imply that I'm as poor as the drummer boy but just the opposite with therefore greater expectations. The question is will the someone smile when they recieve my gift like the one the drummer boy gave to the newborn king. Alas in some ways Christmas has far to much of our culture associated with it. Or is it that I just am at odds with the culture? It is not hard to dissect cultural expectation from the eschatologic meaning of Christmas to the waiting church. This is best embodied in Simeon at the temple when he beheld the Christ child for the first time (Luke 2:22-35).

Deforestation

2007-11-30T10:11:00.000-06:00

Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forest land for use such as arable land, pasture, urban use, logged area, or wasteland. Now it has occurred to me that what I am planning for a small part of Chapel Hill is by wikipedia standards a deforestation project. I will be reducing habitat for some birds, and small mammals, but on the other hand, I will be increasing the forage area for some larger mammals and providing a better target area for larger birds of prey. I don't know whether I should be concerned about tipping the balance of nature in the wrong direction or not. On the pro side, it is an established fact that more land is in forest than one hundred years ago. In fact there has been a doubling of forest acreage. Chapel Hill was once a farm but in now 99 percent heavily wooded. So I could claim that the prior use as farm land legitimizes the conversion of a small part to less forested use. In reality though the planned project for Chapel Hill property falls far short of severe deforestation. An area of ten to fifteen acres will be converted to a park like atmosphere. Small lush pastures will flow between stands of deciduous shade trees and pine. The thinly wooded areas will provide quiet respite for the forest creatures during long hot periods of July and August. A pecan and fruit tree orchard (organic of course) will augment the food supply as well as provide a lovely sense of order for the more sentient creatures who might roam the acreage. Perhaps I should draw my inspiration from Thoreau (Though I've never read a page of his work, he is one of those American icons that we can use without thought whenever it suits us and everybody, who is perhaps as ignorant as I, will approve).

geometry

2007-11-12T18:16:00.000-06:00

Sometimes little surprises are the most fun. This image is of a parallelogram formed by connecting the midpoints of the four unequal sides of the larger figure. In fact you will always find a parallelogram by connecting the midpoints of any four sided figure even if the figure is not in the same plane.

I am so easily entertained! The answer to why this is always true is exquisitely simple. The answer is the line segment that connects the two vertices of the irregular four sided figure.

Roads: Tractor adventure 2

2007-11-07T10:59:00.000-06:00

We went to Chapel Hill again this weekend and tuesday afternoon. This time to work on the entrance road. This short driveway has three large potholes that would swallow an ordinary vehicle. The first hole was repaired fairly well but the worst and largest hole proved to be tougher than my skill set could tackle. Using a box blade on the tractor I pushed dirt from the surounding road until the ruts were filled in level to the surface. Then using the box blade we smoothed the surface. This technique worked well on the first pothole but the second turned the dirt into a sticky gumbo that almost swallowed the tractor. Anyway I was much encouraged by Melinda and the acheivement was again very satisfying. I would recommend a tractor over a sports car any day of the week.
On our second trip down to CH tuesday afternoon to finish the road work, we had a flat tire. Turns out that I picked up a 3/4 inch screw in the right front truck tire. Next saturday will be partially devoted to hooking up the running lights on the trailer.
One piece of advice though, never overbook your tractor days with too many other obligations. When your're working on the farm you never know what will break next and the ability to work is limited to the presence of the sun as opposed to pathology.

Chapel Hill

2007-10-23T12:25:00.000-05:00

It took two weeks but we did it! I towed the tractor and bush hog down to Chapel Hill. After several false starts and unforeseen glitches, we hitched her up and brought her down to Chapel Hill. The rest of the day was mowing heaven. This week while surfing the net, I learned that our president is fond of clearing his farm land in Texas when he goes to the Western White House. I learned first hand just why he enjoys this diversion so much.

While Melinda sketched, I drove the tractor. The sense of empowerment and the immediate gratification of seeing something accomplished combined to become a powerful euphoric tonic stimulating the release of endorphins and serotonin. In other words I had a great time. We stopped for lunch about two in the afternoon. A bag of chips and a can of Vienna sausage washed down with a fruit poweraid drink. Then it was back to the trails and roads.

Since then I've read some encouraging articles about clearing land and building roads which have expanded my vision for the property. Next trip will be to clear an area that used to be more open when I was a lad. I understand the limits of the bush hog equipment better and think that I will be able to fully utilize its potential. Hopefully that will be in two weeks providing we have good weather.

The Wedding

2007-10-08T09:10:00.000-05:00

The wedding was a grand event. Hilary and Trey are married. The ceremony was everything that you would want a wedding to be. A reflection of the purpose and significance of marriage as given to us by God. Perhaps the one aspect that I saw afresh in the ceremony was that marriage is deemed good by God like the rest of his creation. Having been created in the image of God I therefore emulate my Father in heaven and declare as a witness, Trey and Hilary's marriage good as well. Amen.

2001 Space Odyssey

2007-10-01T08:41:00.000-05:00

I watched this film last night and I confess I don't understand what Kubrick is saying in this film. Kubrick said in an interview "You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film" and others certainly have. One even suggested that the film was an analogy of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" among other things. One of the film's writers has written the book as well. I've not read either of these works. The common threads of the monolith, its mystical power, its mysterious origin and the curiosity found in man (and apes) run throughout the movie. Two sequences are portrayed: the progress of apes and the progress of man into old age. Is the story about man and machines or machines and man? HAL is the product of man but is man the product of the monolith? Or does man's curiosity produce the predicament that he finds himself in (or leads him out of)? Does he protect himself by continuing in ignorance (not revealing the monolith to mankind) or confronting it and setting himself free? Is it Dostoevsky or Nietzsche? I don't understand. I need some coffee.

Chapel Hill Sandpit

2007-09-19T21:42:00.000-05:00

This is a topographic map of chapel hill. In the northeast corner is a 'white blotch' the is known as the sand pit. The sand pit is about 300' off the east side of the property. The number 358 in the center of the map is the entrance to the property. Daniel and I rediscovered this sand pit last weekend. The last time Duff, James, and Daniel visited the sandpit, they were still 'grasshoppers'.

9/16

2007-09-16T17:15:00.000-05:00

Well it doesn't have the ring that 9/11 does but diaster nearly visited our house this morning. The coffee pot malfunctioned. Most of the coffee was bubbling onto the kitchen counter top instead of the coffee carafe. For a brief moment it looked like it was going to be no coffee in the morning. Alas Melinda and I working together wrenched victory from the jaws of defeat. I was able to enjoy a tasty cup of coffee in bed before church this morning.

End of Summer

2007-09-05T09:29:00.000-05:00

We mark off ours days in seasons, months or weeks. For me seasons seem to work the best. Summer is almost over and fall approaches in three weeks. This summer was the adventure of the tube amp. Ah, the smoke of solder flux filling the air. I'm not at all satisfied with my preamp though and that is a slight disappointment. But next summer I will build the Neill modification of the Randall SE amplifier which will be called the Detroit Amp. So named because of the unique chassis that will be designed for the amp this winter. Of course the unique and special events of this summer were Meredith's high school graduation and subsequent matriculation at Wheaton College. This fall brings a quiet house and a slower pace for Melinda and me.
Melinda has returned to teaching her art classes at FPDS. She loves it. She just delights in teaching these kids something as simple as drawing a cylinder. She turns the whole process into this incredible story about aliens and meteors and cone mountains, just to teach them how to draw a cylinder. The kids can't wait to the next class. Art for me in grade school was crayons and a large sheet of paper with the instruction to draw the shopping center across the street. Needless to say the result was something I was ashamed of more often than something I ever wanted to let anybody see. Her kids in the second grade are far more advanced in their art skills than I was in the fifth. It surprises me now as an adult how often I need drawing skills. Melinda is truly giving them a skill they will use for the rest of their lives.
I will teach a sunday school this fall that finishes a study of eschatology (Hoekema) and looks at the book of Revelation very briefly. This kind of assignment tends to really occupy my time. Years ago I heard that one should spend at least four to eight hours of study to prepare for a one hour presentation. If the subject is relatively new then I have to double that time it seems.
I'm reading a book about Biblical interpretation from a narrative point of view. It was given to me years ago by my pastor in Michigan. It has reminded me of the great effort that should go into the interpretation of bible texts in order to see the meaning for us today. Great reward is to be found in such effort. (Speaking of such, Nate I would draw your attention to the posting of the report by the interim committee of the general assembly on the federal vision.)

Telephones

2007-08-28T21:38:00.000-05:00

I have a long standing irritation with the current telephone dialing system. Many local phone calls require the area code plus the seven digit phone number. I dial many different phone numbers during the course of my workday. Phone numbers that I do not have memorized because I infrequently need to call the particular party. As a result I might need to pause to check the number before completing the sequence. The irritation arises because the phone switching system will detect the pause and ring a recorded message such as "when dialing this number you must first Dial 1 or 0 to complete the call. Please hangup and try again..." or " the number you have dialed is ...". First these messages provide no assistance to me whatsoever. I'm just trying to verify the phone before completing the call. I suspect the phone company really wants you to use information so that after the system gives you the number, they can prompt you with "... for a charge of 45 cents we can connect you to this number." In this manner the weaker minded people like myself will be tempted to use this service because the connection is automatic and I don't have to worry about being cut off and instructed on the proper use of the telephone system. All I really need is just an extra few seconds to verify the correct sequence, not a reprimand on improper dialing. I long for the predigital age of mechanical switching circuits when you could take up to ten minutes to finish dialing your party if the need arose. Those were the good old days of rotary phones and seven digit (or less) phone numbers.

Oh and by the way coffee doesn't help.

Truth

2007-08-18T09:13:00.000-05:00

Journalists want a reputation of striving to be factual. Indeed when I listen to Morning Edition, Weekend Edition or All Things Considered I believe the reporters and editors intend to report the story that reflects the facts it rests upon. In the simplest model, a journalist gathers the facts, verifies the sources, constructs the story and then reports it. Journalists are usually careful to not exceed the constraints imposed by their facts as verified. That is the truth of the story rests upon the reality of the state of affairs being reported and is limited by them as well. Working within these guidelines they report the news or tell their stories. You will recognize of course that for the journalist, they work (for the most part) by the correspondence theory of truth. If I disagree with a story I'm really disagreeing with their statement of the truth.
Editorialists however are a different breed. They frequently write their pieces observing the positions that people or events have in relation to particular scheme, paradigm or moral code. They observe the facts but cast them in relation to other facts. In so doing they are able to show the consistency or inconsistency of the facts in relation to one another. Editorialists may carefully pick out the supportive facts that illustrate the relationship they are presenting in their work. In doing so they try to take us to an understanding larger than the story itself. The editorialist reminds us that stories take place in other stories as well. You will recognize of course that for the editorialist, they work (almost exclusively) by the coherence theory of truth. If I disagree with the piece I'm really disagreeing with their view of the truth.
Propagandists are yet another... but I defer comment on that to perhaps later.
I bring this up because of a story I heard this morning on the way to the hospital. An artist who grew up in Prague during the communists regime told the story of taking his Americanized children back to the Chec Republic eighteen years after the collapse of the soviet block. His children saw a vibrant busy city with lovely areas and interesting people. Their father however as a child grew up during a very different era and culture. He told a story from his childhood that illustrated both the coherence theory of truth and correspondence theory of truth. As a child he was invited to join the young pioneers at school, a club that sounded like a training and recruiting organization for future party members (I belonged to the Patriot American Youth group as a child). In the young pioneers the children learned of the virtues of citizenship within the regime. However even as a child, art held sway over his passions. He was thus allowed by his parents to draw whatever he liked at home, but he must draw only what was acceptable at school. His parent warned him that his drawing could get him in trouble (Violation of the Theory of Coherence). The party expected him to conform his idea of reality to the doctrines of the party. His parents knew life presented many varied facies and allowed him to draw whatever he saw in his world (Theory of correspondence). In the end his parents fled the communist country and came to Britain to start a new life. His story illustrated how the two ideas of truth theory can and do clash. I was enchanted by this story because the irony of the important function of the press and the content that was being reported. The content of the report was a commentary on the nature of reporting.

Geography Quiz

2007-08-11T13:01:00.000-05:00

Which of the states in the united states has greatest number of boarders with other states?

Satie, Hank and Sibelius: Reflections on a tube amp

2007-08-08T08:25:00.000-05:00

As warm tones filled the air, Jim reflected on the last few days. His inclination in life was always to try to gain a proper perspective and understand its nuances. What was clear to him was that he had made a mistake in his initial circuit that resulted in absolute failure of the amplifier...

Jim listen to Satie's 'trois gymnopedies' in the background.

What was unclear is how. Everything had been worked through with careful attention. However he had assumed the pin rotation was correct. But he also knew that he had never checked the direction of rotation just the sequence.

Now Jim heard Satie's Gnossiennes 1.

But the mistake was not sinister. Obscure forces were not controlling his actions as was suggested by gnossiennes 1. The mistake was oversight at worse. Josef K could surely empathize with his plea. Okay Jim thought Satie has to go, his reflections were becoming downright kafkaesque.

Jim pressed skip disc button on the cd exchanger.

Well he was just a victim then? Not a conspiracy just fate. He had succeded before and his amplifiers were proof of his abilities. Was this mistake was just by chance alone and he was the victim. As a victim he required no explanation.

Jim reflected as Hank Williams crooned in the background. "Why don't you love me like you used to do?" is Hank Williams in his victim mode best. Hank was whining about another women who just scorned him. This isn't helping either as he pressed the cd exchanger button again.

Perhaps the key was his lack of experience. This was after all the first time he had used circuit board as the wiring platform for a tube socket. He had always used point to point wiring for tube amplifiers. He was so focused on the printed circuit he overlooked the socket orientation. The bottom view of the tube would have been his orientation normally if he had been using point to point wiring. That was it he thought at last...

Jean Sibelius now played in the background. 'Finlandia' had always been one of Jim's favorite melodies. He had enjoyed the beautiful hymns of the church set to this melody. Finlandia was the answer. He thought perhaps he would go downstairs to play the piano now. He had gained perspective on his tube amp journey. 'Be Still My Soul' would be an appropriate finish. Later he would return to enjoy some more music and his thoughts...

The Empty Nest

2007-08-06T12:23:00.000-05:00

Melinda and I have arrived at the dawn of a new stage in our lives. For 28+ years we have had a child or have been expecting a child into our home. As of August 4 all of our children have moved out into the world. Meredith is off to begin her college years at Wheaton College. She will start her adventure first in HoneyRock Resort, oops I meant camp. She already knows one of the incoming freshman, Drew Melby from her years at CLA. We will join her for matriculation on August 23 at Wheaton. She has seen the campus and says it is beautiful (wait till January and say that again). We know that she will be safe and well cared. Melinda and I meanwhile have to plan our new life together without children. This is both exciting and new for us. Our first goal is modest, but we will resume our exercise program together that we used to follow years ago. Of course we plan to have our own adventures also, but that will have to wait until funding sources obtain more distribution flexibility. In the meantime we look forward to the children hopefully being home for Hilary's wedding in October, then we hope for a longer visit at Christmas. For those children of mine who might read this, we have also discussed a possible beach vacation for the summer of 2008 (It never hurts to put the carrot out there).

Breaking News

2007-08-03T10:52:00.000-05:00

No it's not about the bridge in Minnesota. Daniel is stuck in Selma AL. Last night he was driving on US 80 headed to Jackson when his front right wheel came off his truck. He called home to locate a towing service who might pick him up . The first guy he called in Selma told him that he couldn't come because he had been fighting with his wife all evening. The second guy he called told him all his tow service drivers were drunk. Finally he found someone reasonable and sober. It looks like the front end of his truck is beyond repair. What he really needed last night was a whitchaditja. Then he could have asked "you didn't bring a spare car whitchaditja?"

Some days later...Closed head trauma

2007-08-02T15:31:00.000-05:00

Where was I? The question seemed to be frequent in Jim's mind since the tube preamp debacle. The whole incident had left him feeling like he had suffered a closed head injury with subsequent memory problems and inability to focus. It reminded him of the time his 'friends' decided to stand on the back side of the ramp that they used to ride bicycles down a three foot brick wall in the back yard driveway. The idea was to ride onto the sheet of plywood with your bicycle then the board would tilt over as you moved to the front edge. Those holding the board down as you approached would step off allowing the board's rear end to rise and result in a dramatic acceleration down the ramp. The 'friends' thought it would be funny to not step off. At the end of the board the bicycle flipped forwarded and the Jim landed on his forehead from the wall height plus bicycle. That was to be one of many closed head injuries in his lifetime. Like now that evening he remembered having a hard time focusing as well.

Jim redrew the circuit pattern now armed with the correct geometric interpretation of the pin layout. The frugal side lead him to remove and clean all the soldered resistors and capacitors from the useless board. Remarkably every part was reusable in spite of having been clipped to a shorter length. The pattern was transferred to the new board with the improvement of having been reduced in size by 60%. This feat was accomplished by flipping one of the channels so that more efficient tracing between the stages could be accomplished. Jim thought why not improve it since he had made the effort twice the work it should have been by his mistake.
After the board had been etched, drilled and the sockets mounted. He had to know if the tubes would glow this time. So before any other parts were installed he put the power to the pins of the heaters in the tubes. Like the New York skyline from Staton Island the tubes emitted the beautiful orange glow that warmed the cockles of his heart.

Once again he stuffed the board. Each part fitting nicely into the new board as he had redrawn it. In a matter of a few hours his board was done and ready for the first test.

Over the years Jim had collected a set of antique electronic test grear. Purchases made from Ebay with dubious quality. Yet he had been lucky enough to find that most of it worked even if it was older than he was. The first test was to put an audio signal in the input and see if the sine wave appeared on the oscilloscope at his output. Like his amplifier the gear was vacuum tube equipment and usually worked best after warming up for several minutes. The moment arrived and as he connect the scope lead much to his delight the beautiful flicking green beam on the CRT settled down into a smoothly contoured sine wave. He had before him a working preamplifier!

Reinvigorated by his success, Jim pressed forward to build the chassis. Working late into the night shearing through sheet aluminum, he patterned the holes that would hold fuses, phono jacks, switches and volume controls. Sleep was sweet that night. Peace enveloped his soul as he rested knowing that tomorrow he would have a complete amplifier. The success was like a tonic to his closed head injury of just a few days before.

The next morning brought the building and routing of the cables and wires from the inputs to switches, to boards and back to output jacks. Jim was so engrossed that time seemed to stand still. By mid afternoon he heard a strange rumbling sound while working at the bench with his almost completed unit. He paused to wonder what could have made that deep vibration. In the quietness of the moment the sound return and he realized that he had not eaten since the day before and his stomach was gently prodding him for nourishment. But he was only minutes from attaching the system to his 300B power amplifier and hearing the beautiful sound of music through vintage audio equipment. His stomach could wait, his ears couldn't...

Day 2 NASA Revisited

2007-07-21T17:02:00.000-05:00

The warm glow of the filaments did not appear. This was a certain sign that something was amiss. Trouble shooting was his forte however and Jim knew he would have the answer quickly. He almost relished the idea of pitting his analytic skills against the problem that brought the project to a grinding halt. No, not a grinding halt , more like wrapping his SUV around the 20 inch pine tree at 60 mph but he was still sure he would walk away unscathed.
Methodically he worked through each possibility; power supply, faulty tubes, failed solder points, wiring rechecks. It checked out with no errors; voltages perfect, tubes glowed in other sockets, wires replaced and continuity verified. He was baffled. Six times he had verified the pattern and there was no error.
He was reminded of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's axiom the guided Holmes through even the most difficult cases. When all the likely possibilities have been excluded, whatever possibility remains however improbable had to be right. There could be only one possible explanation as he knew. Slowly he opened and reviewed the data sheets for the tube pin outs. Pin 1 plate, pin 2 grid, pin 3 cathode, pin 4 heater filament, pin 5 heater filament... he knew them by heart. Like his faithful childhood dogs, he knew where they were waiting for him each day he came home from school. Ready to play and follow him wherever he led. It still looked the same, he had not deviated from the pin out. Then he noticed in small print just below the diagram the crucial words that made his heart freeze in his chest...'bottom view'
Just like NASA and the ill fated Hubble telescope which had been perfectly ground to optical purity the mistake was now obvious. The bottom view meant the pins rotated counter clockwise instead of clockwise when viewed from above. He had drawn his pin out pattern perfectly from above instead of below. He grabbed the tubes and applied the voltage to the pins now counted in a counter clockwise pin out and the soft orange glow appeared in the filaments. He had solved the mystery, but he was not going to walk away from the SUV. He would have to wait for the ambulance...

Day 1

2007-07-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

It was the pain in his back that first told him to take a break. Jim already knew he couldn't finish the board tonight so why not let up and relax. Stopping work on the project was disappointing to him and working on what he had in hand helped ease his frustration. The company had sent all but one part he needed to finish the circuit. Like going to the store Saturday morning with his allowance only to find that the one comic book he wanted was already sold out. What good was the dollar in hand now. It was like giving a starving man seeds to plant and telling him to go feed himself. The pain in the back reminded him that he needed to rest.
He leaned back in the chair under the dim fluorescent light and admired the work he had done so far. The circuit board was a beautiful thing. A mysterious pattern with a purpose. Seemingly random order fixed on the surface of the board. He knew better though. Hours had been spent translating the circuit into the most economical pattern for the components. There was actually nothing random there. It was all a part of a design. To interpret it one only needed to know the language. He knew the language. He was reading the story he had spent many hours writing.
The actual installing the components was the easy and relaxing part. Like the surgery that follows after the hard work of diagnosing the pathologic process is done. What needs to be done is already laid out you just follow the steps. What he loved most was the smoke that rose as the hot soldering iron welded each piece to the board. Methodically placing and welding each part in its place. He could put his mind in neutral and just followed the diagram. He knew the diagram was perfect. He had drawn and redrawn it at least six times to make sure. This was not the time to be exploring new paths. There was only this way to go. As he worked he wondered what Soloman Kane would have done...

Fatal Attraction

2007-07-16T10:27:00.000-05:00

As Melinda and Meredith will testify, most of my time in the evenings has been spent working on a tube preamplifier project. I'm endeavoring to build a modified line amplifier that is based on the Conrad Johnson PV6 tube preamplifier. This project when completed will have consumed hours of time and hundreds of dollars. This weekend saw the completion of the design phase. Next to come is the actual assembly of the components and the completion of the chassis for the unit. This is the really fun part. After hours sorting, drawing, testing, researching, modifying, compiling and purchasing, I will be able to assemble the pieces together into a working unit according to my specifications. This should take only a three or four uninterrupted evenings of work. Then the moment will arrive. The plug will be inserted in to the wall, a source will be connected, the output will be hooked up and the switch ready to flip. Will it work? Who knows? Sometimes the first try is a failure in spite of my planning. The cause of the trouble can usually be isolated fairly rapidly. The most frequent reason for failure is a wiring mistake. Eventually it will work. The end result may leave me questioning the value of my time spent on such a self absorbing project. Yet like a moth drawn toward the deadly light, I find it very satisfying. I just hope my outcome is better the bug’s.

Vacation

2007-07-02T08:52:00.000-05:00

We've been on the road for two weeks. Melinda, Meredith and I have logged 3330 miles of driving together and covered eight states. Every thing was planned and went smoothly but we all are glad to be home again. The first week seven of us drove down to Disney World. Melinda and I had been to DW 29 years ago on our honeymoon. Then there was only the magic kingdom. It's changed alot.
Meredith brought two friends, Taylor and Katherine. They all agreed that it was magical! One of my favorite parts of the trip was driving while the girls in the back watched Disney movies. Whenever a song would start, they would join in and a chorus would fill the car with Disney music. Melinda's parents also went with us and enjoyed the trip. They enjoyed being with the girls and were wonderful when it came time to pay for gasoline. They generally helped make everything go smoothly. On our way down we had lunch with Nathan at one of those high end lawyer lunch places in Gainsville. I had the Chic Fillet sandwich I believe.
After DW we drove to Pittsburgh. Duff had been living in a dungeon for the last year and had been able to find a new apartment. After seeing his old apartment I'm surprised he doesn't have a chronic respiratory condition. His new apartment is very nice. Melinda and I made our first visit to Ikea. Thanks to Meredith though we were able to negotiate the store and efficiently purchase the things Duff needs to really make his life in the Pitts nicer.
Duff is busy this summer. His TA responsibilities are at times very consuming of his time. He is also working with a professor in the physics department and learning effective field theory and hoping to apply this to quantum particle interactions to predict the final state within a given degree of error. This will be of benefit to experimentalist who will generate data from these interactions using the new particle colliders machines (really big cyclotron accelerators is the proper term I believe but we all know them in the colloquial as atom smashers which sound so much cooler). He is also studying for the Qual which in more proper terms is also known as the graduate physics qualifying examination.
In Pittsburgh we met Ryan. He is known as the physics Ryan to distinguish him from the divine Ryan (he will be in divinity school in the fall). Emily came into town and she and her friend Sarah helped us set up Duff's new apartment. Emily and Sarah built a table and a counter top. The drawer on the counter top didn't quite fit but we decided that when you're paying Ikea prices you get Ikea grade engineering. Meredith put together Ikea chairs. Melinda and I were the muscle for the most part since the kids have all the brains.
We stayed at the William Penn Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh. This is a ninety one year old hotel built by Henry Clay Frick for his beloved city. I think Pittsburgh is one of the friendliest cities I've ever visited. The architecture is wonderful and the old churches are beautiful.

Beer Foam

2007-06-11T09:05:00.000-05:00

I know this will be of some interest to most of you. This study looks at factors influencing the half life of beer foam stand. I found this article while searching for Physnet articles. One interesting conclusion reached in this study was that the collapse of the beer foam was accomplanied by an increase in beer volume. I've observed this before as I think many others have. However it could be overlooked by those who continuely sip their beer immediately after pouring. Although not addressed in this article, it also shows that there is a fundamental difference in the foam found in abandoned McDonald's milk shakes and beer.

For those of you interested in serious study of beer making the Scientific Societies who published this study, has a collection of web sites that may have all the information you every dreamed of knowing concerning beer.

What's your direction?

2007-06-08T09:57:00.000-05:00

Vectors have come up several times in the last month. N8's father is curious about vectors and wants to talk to Duff to learn more (good choice). Duff mentioned that vector math is one of his favorite subjects and so it should be given that a tremendous amount of physics today depends on vector analysis. As I understand vector analysis it greatly simplifies many of descriptions important to physicists even if the subject itself may seem very abstract.
This prompted me to ask a question. Are vectors important to me in every day life apart from the world of theoretical physics? Where would I find the use of vectors as I go through my day? Most of you will remember that a vector is a quantity that has both magnitude and direction. One might add to this the idea of sense which just means that if one direction is positive then the other is considered negative. In algebra and analysis there is a whole system of symbols used as shorthand to conveniently write out vector equations and perform algebraic procedures, but here we are only concerned with how we encounter them in concept.
Now comes the fun part. As I thought about vector quantities it became obvious that we use them all the time. For instance if I said the barometric pressure is 30 in Hg you might change your mind about going to the coast if you also knew that it was falling .1 in every hour (because of the approaching hurricane). In other words the direction of the barometric pressure changes of 0.1 inch is what is important to know. In the same way the stock market is another example if I told you that the Dow hit 12500 today you might feel entirely different if you knew from which direction it approached that level and by how much. For instance if it dropped 1000 points you might put off retirement for awhile. Now these are simple vector quantities that only have an up or down direction (sense) and you might say big deal.
Okay let’s get personal then. When you put on those pants or (skirt) this morning you used a vector to button them didn’t you! I know that that vector made you think twice about what your going to eat today didn’t it? Or is it so bad you used a non vector article of clothing like sweat pants today?
The direction came be continuously variable in our use of vectors every day also. You use vectors to drive at a steady speed to work everyday (unless you live in the Mississippi delta). Every time you approach a hill you judge the angle of incline (decline) which alters the force acting on your car (force is a vector) and you adjust the throttle to maintain your speed.
Duff can appreciate vectors more than us, but not just because he is a physics guru. He rides a bicycle to work each day. We should envy him because he uses one of the most eloquent vector products known to man: the cross product. The vector cross product is one of those things God created that you just stand in awe of. Every time Duff makes a turn on his bicycle he is making use of the vector cross product. If you don’t believe me then this afternoon get on your bike and after you get up to speed, let go of the handle bars. You’ll travel in a straight line right? Well now lean to the right or left and you find that you mysteriously turn! Well don’t be so mystified, you’ve just applied torque. Torque (again a vector) is the result of a vector cross product and that is the reason you turned. It was this very cross product that inspired Duff to pursue physics as a career!
So you see that vectors and our use of them is everywhere and you encounter them even before you can get to work. Since pathology is largely a sequence of static images I seldom use vectors at work but I do think about them a lot. Maybe someday I'll find a use for vectors in pathology that will simplify my job. I know that static images require more coffee to sustain processing of them than vectors.

Wiping up the problem of Global Warming

2007-05-25T23:56:00.000-05:00

NPR has recently been promoting a series on the common man and gobal warming in the afternoon show 'all things considered'. I wonder is they have considered this idea for fighting global warming. My question is to which eleven universities did these two go?

LCD Screens and polarized light

2007-05-25T09:44:00.000-05:00

Did you know that the screen on Dell LCD monitors are covered by a clear plastic that polarizes light? Polarized light is simply light that vibrates in one plane. If you take a polarizing filter (camera lens filter, expensive sunglasses, microscope light polarizing filter) for instance and rotate the filter while holding it between your eye and the computer LCD screen, the screen as seen through the filter will go dark and then bright again as the filter rotates. You can entertain yourself at least five minutes while doing this just hope no one comes in the room.

What value is there in this exercise? Well none except perhaps the obvious metaphor of platonic cycles that is revealed in the activity, illustrating the we continually to pass through historical periods of darkness followed by enlightenment.

Time for more coffee.

My Work

2007-05-18T10:12:00.001-05:00

This is inspired by Duff of course. This is how I do most of my work. By that I mean the coffee is close at hand. My microscope is an Olympus BX41 with a teaching head attachment. The optics are excellent. If you asked me what is hardest about being a surgical pathologist, I would tell you it is staying focused. Yuck, yuck, yuck!

Elementary Thoughts

2007-05-04T10:54:00.000-05:00

I’m currently reading Emile Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of Religious Life and currently I’m on section 6 of Chapter 7, which I gather is one of the key chapters (among several others) of his text/study. I have found the book most enlightening and informative and can see why it is one of the key texts of the Self, Society and Culture Course at the University of Chicago. It stands as an exemplary model of logical thought and the older form of scholarly writing. For that reason alone students of the text benefit from the standard he sets before them. Perhaps the most fun part of the text is the academic argument he is having with contemporary and former scholars on the subject of the science of religion and its theories. You sense that he has had personal discussions or at least correspondence with these men and women. His familiarity with their work and their arguments leads to discussions in the book that sound like former disagreements with them whether real or imagined. Yet he maintains a respectful dignity in his writing. At my current pace I will be another two weeks before finishing the book. I can afford a leisurely pace that former students of the SSC course might only have dreamed about. Besides I don’t have any papers due. Although Dr. Durkheim is so thought provoking it would seem easy to generate several ideas.
One last note: Because this work is a scientific treatise on the origin of religion, one might think that it is inimical to Christian faith. First of all this is a study of religion not Christianity and there are distinctions to be made at the point. Second, man is a religious creature as Durkheim recognizes, so his study is a fascinating look at that impulse in us and helps us to recognize its expression whether Christian or non-Christian (God created us all). Thirdly Calvin said “Whenever we come upon these matters in secular writers, let that admirable light of truth shining in them teach us that the mind of man, though fallen and perverted from its wholeness, is nevertheless clothed and ornamented with God’s excellent gifts”. Dr. Durkheim is certainly ornamented with God’s excellent gifts. Finally I think his work dovetails nicely in some respects with Paul’s discussion of evolution of natural religion in the "Letter of Paul to the Romans" but more on that perhaps later. Besides he goes real well with coffee.

College Admissions

2007-04-27T09:15:00.000-05:00

Having recently witnessed the relief on my daughter's face as she received her acceptance notice at the college she was excited about attending, I find this article about the MIT-Dean of admissions amusing.

NPR

2007-04-25T09:09:00.000-05:00

Good Morning American are you ready to be diminished?

Let’s start with an interview with pro-choice woman bemoaning the increased difficulties imposed on women seeking abortion. She reminds us that abortion is an issue only about women’s health. More controls on abortion means less concern for women’s health. Our loss is the diminished concern for Women’s health issues.

Next up, Mr. Deford talks about the death of David Halberstam. A very entertaining journalist turned book writer in the journalist genre (recommend his book of the fifties/civil rights issues). Our loss is a great journalist/writer and the world is once again diminished.

Next the segway music is updated genre of America/Eagles style music for nineties. Both bands epitomized the sense of loss of meaning to a whole generation coming of age in the sixties and seventies. The world is once again reminded of its diminished status.

I arrive at work and as I come into the door of the hospital I sense the magnitude of what I must accomplish today and my tasks are as yet not even fully defined. I feel diminished by the demands on my time.

NPR has certainly captured the moment.

My first task will be to get a cup of Jo to fortify my resolve.

Java Music

2007-04-21T19:31:00.000-05:00

Hope you enjoy N8

Black Coffee

Java Jive

Mississippi John Hurt-Coffee Blues

Assimilation

2007-04-16T10:12:00.001-05:00

Duff’s recent post and clarifying comments (Thursday, April 12, 2007) has started me musing over the sociological concepts of immigrant assimilation. I know very little about the topic or its history. I’ve never read a study about assimilation. I would say that my current knowledge is largely that of current opinion and modern myths regarding all aspects of cultural assimilation.
From historical knowledge an example of assimilation is that of Ruth the Moabitess. You all know the story well. Ruth is a Moabite woman who marries one of the sons of Naomi and Elimelech (means My God is King). Naomi and Elimelech were Ephrathites sojourning in Moab during a famine in Canaan. Naomi is widowed and loses her two sons while in Moab. The famine abates and she decides to return to her home but informs her daughters-in-law that they are free to remain in Moab. In her famous reply to Naomi Ruth says,

וַתֹּ אמֶר רוּת אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִ י לְעָזְבֵ ךְ לָשׁ וּב מֵאַחֲרָ יִךְ כִּ י אֶל־אֲשֶׁ ר תֵּלְכִ י אֵלֵ ךְ וּבַאֲשֶׁ ר תָּלִ ינִי אָלִ ין עַמֵּ ךְ עַמִּ י וֵאלֹהַ יִךְ 16אֱלֹהָֽי׃
17 בַּאֲשֶׁ ר תָּמ וּתִי אָמ וּת וְשָׁ ם אֶקָּבֵ ר כֹּה יַעֲשֶׂ ה יְהוָ ה לִי וְכ ֹה יֹסִ יף כִּ י הַמָּ וֶת יַפְרִ יד בֵּינִ י וּבֵינֵֽךְ׃

Or if you like me can't read Hebrew then in English,

"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."

One of many interesting aspects of this story and it ties this back to assimilation, is that Ruth marries her kinsman, Boaz and becomes the ancestor of David. I suspect that this was not an issue for the people of Israel at the time, however later according to the Halakha, the offspring (uterine descent) of a gentile woman is not recognized as being Jewish. That is Obed would have only non-Jewish (Moabite) mitochondrial DNA. To address this glaring problem Orthodox Judaism maintains that Ruth was a proselyte and therefore her offspring would be Jewish. Given what is recorded of Ruth’s confession to Naomi this seems to be a reasonable position.

In this story assimilation of an individual occurs in an earnest and thoughtful manner. The story of Ruth has been celebrated throughout history as illustrating the virtue and purity of desires in this young Moabite woman. Certainly Naomi’s kindness to Ruth could have been a significant factor in winning Ruth’s loyalty. It is in dealing with people-groups that I think we have a problem of a different nature. The position of Orthodox Jewish law regarding matrilineality illustrates what happens when the problem of assimilation moves from the individual to a people-group. How do people-groups within national boundaries assimilate into one another? How do they fair in this process assimilation? Duff proposed that acceptance and kindness facilitates assimilation. Do European nations possess this cultural elements? Does the US for that matter? More bluntly could the French really become nice?

Addendum: This is a interesting review of a pertinent book by Philip Jenkins. Perhaps I should go see what professor Jenkins has to say.

Taxes and Coffee

2007-04-12T22:21:00.000-05:00

This ones for you N8sensei. Tax returns are due on Tuesday, but Denny's has decided to help ease the pain: Denny's To Celebrate Tax Day

Flower passion

2007-04-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

Okay sometimes it helps to just put a name on it. We all know that Daniel loves to take pictures of flowers. His pictures are beautiful, awe inspiring , breathe taking and wonder striking. Anyway you get the picture. But what do you call something that he is so passionate about? I think the best description for his passion is digital angiospermatography.

By the way this is a coffee flower. This would be an example of digital angiospermatography. You all know that you can find better examples at Ondines Curse

6:45 AM

2007-04-04T09:05:00.000-05:00

My day usually starts in the same way each morning. I wake up to my alarm, go make a pot of coffee, let the dogs out and return to bed while the coffee brews. This takes about ten minutes. Any variation on that pattern is usually due to my activity the previous night. This reminds me that my past is always with me. It would be interesting to speculate the difference between 'my past is always with me' and 'your past always catches up with you' but that is for another post.

I live with my beautiful wife and lovely daughter so the my mornings are not always the same. Sometimes I wake up and find the coffee already made like this morning. That is always a delight. I've been told by members of our family that they delight to find the coffee made for them. This must be a universal source of happiness for humans if I may infer from my experience with this small sampling of mankind. This also points out the presence of community in my life even if it is on such a small scale.
I like my coffee black. The experience of a good warm rich robust cup of coffee after a refreshing night of sleep really can't be matched by many things. I use to think that perhaps the reason I like to go to sleep was because I looked forward to my cup of coffee in the morning. I know that life is more complex than that but it just seemed to simplify things to think it was so. This reminds me that the simple things are frequently what make us happy.

Coffee I've learned is our latest health food. After years of attacks from the medical establishment trying to link disease to coffee consumption, we come to learn of all of its health benefits. Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee will provide you with a world of information that you have always wanted to know about coffee.

What do I do in the morning with my cup of java. Well some days are spent talking to my wife solving the world's problems, unravelling the Gordian knot of philosophical issues, resolving political crises, exploring theological mysteries or understanding complex interpersonal relationships. Sometimes I just sit on the back porch and watch the morning open up, but frequently I go straight to getting ready for work because I've got a lot to do. However it goes my coffee makes it nicer.