CLOates
13 Sept 2009
Norman, Okla., USA
How to Tawk Texan
Texas: it's like a whole other ... planet. Here's your guide to speaking Ang-lish like a native when you visit.
Enjoy!
Prof. Oates
10 October 2009
May We Debate the ISSUES, Please? 2009-08-15
CLOates
15 AUG 2009
Last Rev.: 19 Aug 2009
Norman, Oklahoma, USA
May We Debate the ISSUES, Please?
The crazies and the propagandists have, as usual, come crawling out of the woodwork in an effort to derail the overhaul of the current U.S. (non-)health care system, a bizarre aggregation of practices that will soon leave virtually anyone who needs medical care in the U.S. unable to obtain it--unless, of course, they happen to spend an entire career working for an unbroken string of Fortune 500 corporations, a pattern that seldom occurs for most of us.
More or less as expected, we have the Democrats trying to provide everyone with health care and having trouble finding the funding, while the Republicans try to scare the hell out of everyone by dragging out the fear phrase book containing old standards like "socialized medicine," "government take-over," and "health care rationing" (what on earth do you call the current system when it effectively throws about 1/6th of the U.S. population under the bus when they need care--that's a pretty severe form of rationing, I'd say, but I digress).
The level of discussion reached a new height of irrelevance recently, however, when those trying to create fear and panic dreamed up Federal "Death Panels" to decide who should live and who should die in medical contexts. (See, for example, http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090813/pl_politico/26078 .) This horror fantasy is purported to be somehow based on Section 1233, Advance Care Planning Consultation, of H.R. 3200, the comprehensive health care bill currently before the House of Representatives. (See http://frwebgate.access.gp..o.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?d..bname=111_cong_bills&docid..=f:h3200ih.pdf , a large .pdf file, starting on page 424 for the text of the bill and its Section 1233. BTW, official copies of all legislation pending in Congress can be accessed through the search facilities athttp://www.gpoaccess.gov/bills/index.html . Try it with "comprehensive health care" for the search phrase.)
It takes a few minutes to read the text of Section 1233, but even a cursory inspection reveals that it is aimed at permitting the health care system to pay physicians for a periodic medical consultation with patients on use of advance health care directives like living wills and durable powers of attorney that express the PATIENT'S desires for end-of-life care, should they become unable to express those wishes for themselves, as sometimes happens in cases of head injury, dementia, Alzheimer's, and many terminal illnesses.
These health care directives have been in use for decades--Sue and I made ours in 1993--and give the patient the CHOICE of, for instance, whether they want feeding tubes used if they enter a persistent vegetative state and other such horrendous situations. No one is or will be required to make such directives, and the directives can be revoked at any time while one is competent. If no directive exists, the default action is to do absolutely everything to keep the patient alive as long as possible without much, if any, regard to quality of life issues. If this is what the patient wants, they need do nothing with respect to health care directives and nothing in the proposed legislation requires it. If the patient considers the all-out approach a form of medical torture, and I certainly have seen it become just that, the patient MAY choose to direct physicians to use less than all-out means in the situations THEY (the patient) designate. It's the PATIENT'S choice, not that of some non-existent and non-proposed Federal "Death Panel."
With hundreds of millions of people's lives, economic fortunes, and physical well-being at stake, it is time to formulate a working U.S. health care system to replace the non-sustainable, non-working, citizen-bankrupting mess that now exists. Reasonable people can certainly disagree over how that is to be accomplished, and well-thought-out debate can result in a better system than any one individual can create alone. However, use of propaganda techniques like the "Death Panel" straw-man is decidedly un-helpful, is likely to backfire, and has no legitimate place in the workings of a democracy.
Can we behave like grown-ups and conduct a serious debate about a very serious topic, rather than engage in antics more often associated with high schoolers at Boys'/Girls' State? It remains to be seen. (http://www.txlegion.org/boys_state.htm)
-------------------
You can help. Visit sites such as http://www.propagandacritic.com/ to arm yourself with information about propaganda techniques, and learn to recognize their use in political debate. Use critical thinking skills when listening and reading the pronouncements of stakeholders in the health care debate. Get the facts about what's being proposed from the original sources, the U.S. Congress in this case, using the links supplied earlier. Talk with others about the ISSUES, not fear-mongers' fantasies, and contribute to the long over-due creation of a workable, sustainable U.S. health system. I wish you good luck for all our sakes!
Prof. Oates
P.S. Since I gave Sara Palin's views a plug earlier, I'll put a link to the views of Pres. Obama here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/ . --CLO
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Retrospective: How to Become a Medication-Math Instructor without Really Trying (To) (repost) 2009-07-15
The following is essentially the same story told in Fourth Quarter (see blog entry of 02 May 2008), but from a considerably different perspective. Enjoy! --CLO
There are those who are goal-driven with highly focused goals who say things like, "I'm going to be a neurosurgeon by age 30." There are also those with more broadly focused goals who, like World War II P-51 pilots, arm themselves with all the fuel and ammunition they can find and then go out to shoot at targets of opportunity. Here's a step-by-step road map for those of you who prefer highly focused goals and whose fervent wish and life goal is to teach Math for Health Careers.
o Obtain a bachelor's degree in an engineering field. Industrial or manufacturing engineering works well.
o Spend "the seven lean years" fresh out of college working for the US Air Force automating the testing of everything from jet engines to get engine fuel injectors (fuel controls) to large materials handling systems.
o While you're at it, piece together a master's degree in computing science or some other math- or engineering-related area while you're working full time.
o Take a year off and work full-time on a Ph. D. while you teach half-time as a GA (graduate teaching "assistant"--but you don't assist anyone, you teach the assembly language programming courses by yourself). See if you can get your spouse to work full-time while you do this, since your whole GA salary won't quite make your house payment. This step is not required, but it will definitely make you appreciate your previous job.
o Oh, be sure to come down with appendicitis just before school starts, stay in the hospital for three weeks, and come close to dying because of incompetent surgery and post-op treatment. That'll make it more interesting.
o Finish the year. Return to sanity--or what passes for it in software engineering--and full-time engineering employment for another 25 years or so.
o Wake up one fine morning (July 9, 2002) to a call that your birth mom, who broke her hip a month ago, has unexpectedly and suddenly died at an Amarillo, TX hospital. Shed some tears, get yourself together enough to drive to Amarillo, decide to stop by your office on the way for an "important plant-wide 9:00 a.m. meeting." Listen to the announcement that your new company, who has bought out your old company, is closing the plant in OKC and moving all operations to St. Louis, MO. Leave the meeting, try to find your office, sit in amazement as company officials come in and offer you a substantial raise, moving expenses, etc., etc. to move to St. Louis. Eventually, decide, along with all the other engineers, to stay in OKC and hope for the best. Sit in further amazement as, unprompted, the company issues an even bigger raise and promises a hefty retention bonus (a.k.a.: golden handcuffs) if you'll stay on board until six months after the plant closes. Accept the offer and stay until you're there to take the company signs down and turn the keys to the plant over to the Airport Authority.
o Look for jobs, business opportunities, teaching opportunities.
o Apply for full-time engineering professor job at OCCC and get turned down flat. Look at a business in small metro area suburb/exurb that's closing. Consider buying the business and moving it to Norman. Interview for several jobs around town, be even further amazed that there are some jobs and a few employers are interested in hiring 55 year old software engineers.
o Sit in big lounge chair in your den. Evaluate opportunities. Look up to see your daughter, who's helping clean out the garage, approach with two-inch stack of letters. Listen as daughter asks, "Is this the 'Susan' that you dated in college, who looks like me?" Observe familiar scrawl of long-ago girlfriend--she of the long blonde hair, curvy figure, and Einsteinian intellect--on a couple of dozen letters postmarked 1966 and 1967. "Yep, sure is. Wonder how these survived multiple moves and thirty-some years?" Remember trips to Palo Duro Canyon. On a whim, open a letter and read. Open a second, third, and fourth. Observe the critical role of physics, chemistry, calculus, and English teachers in your then-17 year old girlfriend's life. Notice how the good done by the excellent teachers is very nearly undone by one teacher with bull-in-the-china-shop syndrome.
o Startle back from long-ago-in-galaxy-far-awa..y into present when $%*# telephone rings. Listen for a few moments. Tell caller, "er, uh, yeah ... I'd guess I'd be interested in teaching engineering courses as an adjunct faculty member." Schedule interview. Hang up. Continue to read letters. Teachers, teachers, and more teachers. Get the uneasy feeling you're being set up. Look at the den wall. Verify that no handwriting is spontaneously appearing on it. Go outside briefly. Inspect front and back yard for burning bushes, strange bright lights in the sky, and/or winged apparitions with herald trumpets. (None observed. No one out there whispering, "If you build it, they will come," either.)
o Go to interview and talk. Find that you really like engineering faculty and division dean. They offer job. Tell 'em you'll get back to them. Consider alternatives. Hate the oil field: pay is good, jobs--even software jobs--often terrible, marathon working hours, boom then bust. Small businesses: very risky, make a bundle or lose your shirt, much more often the latter. Teaching adjunct:: pays nuthin', but you always wanted to do that; intro. engineering course tough to teach, very important to start students' engineering study well. Can you do it?
o Can't put down those #$%^ letters!
o Throw caution, secure retirement, and sanity to the wind and accept teaching job. Teach two Intro. to Engineering classes. You're hooked. Most students are very interested. Some are both interested and hard-working. A few are surprisingly advanced. Two can actually program rings around you(!). Next semester, teach the two Intro. courses again, but also accept assignment teaching Math for Health Careers, also known as Medication Math or Med-Math. "You'll like it, engineers think it's fun to teach, and we're having trouble finding someone." Okay, okay.
o The Med-Math folks are a different set of students. They're mostly nursing wannabes. They're often bright, hardworking, driven to do whatever it takes to get into nursing, but math--even arithmetic--often isn't their thing. Some are outright mathophobes. A few turn pale and shake visibly as they sit down to take tests, but even these are often so driven that they make solid "B"s and occasionally "A"s in the course, despite the difficulties. Now you ARE hooked. If people are willing to put forth this sort of effort, do whatever it takes to give them a hand.
o The engineering course goes away. It's no longer required in senior college curriculum, and all other engineering courses are being taught by full-time faculty. What the heck, take on a couple more Med-Math sections. Go sign up for next semester. You'll never enjoy a job more or be compensated less--monetarily, anyway--for doing it.
And that is how you, too, through careful planning and narrowly focused goal-directed behavior, can achieve your life-long goal of teaching Med-Math.
Sure. This is exactly what I planned to be doing in semi-retirement. :^)
Chuck Oates
21-October-2006
Norman, Oklahoma, USA
How to Become a Medication-Math Instructor without Really Trying (To)
There are those who are goal-driven with highly focused goals who say things like, "I'm going to be a neurosurgeon by age 30." There are also those with more broadly focused goals who, like World War II P-51 pilots, arm themselves with all the fuel and ammunition they can find and then go out to shoot at targets of opportunity. Here's a step-by-step road map for those of you who prefer highly focused goals and whose fervent wish and life goal is to teach Math for Health Careers.
o Obtain a bachelor's degree in an engineering field. Industrial or manufacturing engineering works well.
o Spend "the seven lean years" fresh out of college working for the US Air Force automating the testing of everything from jet engines to get engine fuel injectors (fuel controls) to large materials handling systems.
o While you're at it, piece together a master's degree in computing science or some other math- or engineering-related area while you're working full time.
o Take a year off and work full-time on a Ph. D. while you teach half-time as a GA (graduate teaching "assistant"--but you don't assist anyone, you teach the assembly language programming courses by yourself). See if you can get your spouse to work full-time while you do this, since your whole GA salary won't quite make your house payment. This step is not required, but it will definitely make you appreciate your previous job.
o Oh, be sure to come down with appendicitis just before school starts, stay in the hospital for three weeks, and come close to dying because of incompetent surgery and post-op treatment. That'll make it more interesting.
o Finish the year. Return to sanity--or what passes for it in software engineering--and full-time engineering employment for another 25 years or so.
o Wake up one fine morning (July 9, 2002) to a call that your birth mom, who broke her hip a month ago, has unexpectedly and suddenly died at an Amarillo, TX hospital. Shed some tears, get yourself together enough to drive to Amarillo, decide to stop by your office on the way for an "important plant-wide 9:00 a.m. meeting." Listen to the announcement that your new company, who has bought out your old company, is closing the plant in OKC and moving all operations to St. Louis, MO. Leave the meeting, try to find your office, sit in amazement as company officials come in and offer you a substantial raise, moving expenses, etc., etc. to move to St. Louis. Eventually, decide, along with all the other engineers, to stay in OKC and hope for the best. Sit in further amazement as, unprompted, the company issues an even bigger raise and promises a hefty retention bonus (a.k.a.: golden handcuffs) if you'll stay on board until six months after the plant closes. Accept the offer and stay until you're there to take the company signs down and turn the keys to the plant over to the Airport Authority.
o Look for jobs, business opportunities, teaching opportunities.
o Apply for full-time engineering professor job at OCCC and get turned down flat. Look at a business in small metro area suburb/exurb that's closing. Consider buying the business and moving it to Norman. Interview for several jobs around town, be even further amazed that there are some jobs and a few employers are interested in hiring 55 year old software engineers.
o Sit in big lounge chair in your den. Evaluate opportunities. Look up to see your daughter, who's helping clean out the garage, approach with two-inch stack of letters. Listen as daughter asks, "Is this the 'Susan' that you dated in college, who looks like me?" Observe familiar scrawl of long-ago girlfriend--she of the long blonde hair, curvy figure, and Einsteinian intellect--on a couple of dozen letters postmarked 1966 and 1967. "Yep, sure is. Wonder how these survived multiple moves and thirty-some years?" Remember trips to Palo Duro Canyon. On a whim, open a letter and read. Open a second, third, and fourth. Observe the critical role of physics, chemistry, calculus, and English teachers in your then-17 year old girlfriend's life. Notice how the good done by the excellent teachers is very nearly undone by one teacher with bull-in-the-china-shop syndrome.
o Startle back from long-ago-in-galaxy-far-awa..y into present when $%*# telephone rings. Listen for a few moments. Tell caller, "er, uh, yeah ... I'd guess I'd be interested in teaching engineering courses as an adjunct faculty member." Schedule interview. Hang up. Continue to read letters. Teachers, teachers, and more teachers. Get the uneasy feeling you're being set up. Look at the den wall. Verify that no handwriting is spontaneously appearing on it. Go outside briefly. Inspect front and back yard for burning bushes, strange bright lights in the sky, and/or winged apparitions with herald trumpets. (None observed. No one out there whispering, "If you build it, they will come," either.)
o Go to interview and talk. Find that you really like engineering faculty and division dean. They offer job. Tell 'em you'll get back to them. Consider alternatives. Hate the oil field: pay is good, jobs--even software jobs--often terrible, marathon working hours, boom then bust. Small businesses: very risky, make a bundle or lose your shirt, much more often the latter. Teaching adjunct:: pays nuthin', but you always wanted to do that; intro. engineering course tough to teach, very important to start students' engineering study well. Can you do it?
o Can't put down those #$%^ letters!
o Throw caution, secure retirement, and sanity to the wind and accept teaching job. Teach two Intro. to Engineering classes. You're hooked. Most students are very interested. Some are both interested and hard-working. A few are surprisingly advanced. Two can actually program rings around you(!). Next semester, teach the two Intro. courses again, but also accept assignment teaching Math for Health Careers, also known as Medication Math or Med-Math. "You'll like it, engineers think it's fun to teach, and we're having trouble finding someone." Okay, okay.
o The Med-Math folks are a different set of students. They're mostly nursing wannabes. They're often bright, hardworking, driven to do whatever it takes to get into nursing, but math--even arithmetic--often isn't their thing. Some are outright mathophobes. A few turn pale and shake visibly as they sit down to take tests, but even these are often so driven that they make solid "B"s and occasionally "A"s in the course, despite the difficulties. Now you ARE hooked. If people are willing to put forth this sort of effort, do whatever it takes to give them a hand.
o The engineering course goes away. It's no longer required in senior college curriculum, and all other engineering courses are being taught by full-time faculty. What the heck, take on a couple more Med-Math sections. Go sign up for next semester. You'll never enjoy a job more or be compensated less--monetarily, anyway--for doing it.
And that is how you, too, through careful planning and narrowly focused goal-directed behavior, can achieve your life-long goal of teaching Med-Math.
Sure. This is exactly what I planned to be doing in semi-retirement. :^)
Rivet, Redeep! 2009-07-13
Chuck Oates
13 July 2009
Norman, OK, USA
Rivet, Redeep!
See this editorial .
If our political system can't begin to solve obvious problems when a fairly solid majority of progressives is in control, is there any hope?
We could sit here and do nothing or simply act to serve the immediate needs of all the entrenched interests. That appears to be what the original Easter Islanders and the Mayans did. It worked pretty well for them (assuming their goal was to disappear from the planet).
Has anybody ever heard the phrase, "adapt or die." Ask the folks at Chrysler and GM if you're unsure of the meaning.
Why don't we try something different?
Prof. Oates
Can You Spell "H-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y"? 2009-07-13
Chuck Oates
13 July 2009
Norman, OK, USA
Can You Spell "H-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y"?
“I want to be clear: I will not vote for and no senator should vote for an individual nominated by any president who is not fully committed to fairness and impartiality toward every person who appears before them.” --quoted on a CNN tweet
Being from Alabama, Senator Sessions certainly knows something about fairness and impartiality. Ask any African-American resident of that state.
Can you spell "h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y"?
See Sessions: Judicial Empathy Is Not the Law for the full text.
Baby Steps 2009-07-13
Chuck Oates
13 July 2009
Norman, OK, USA
Baby Steps
The first small steps toward a smart power grid are finally being taken. 'Bout time!
Kingston Trio: Desert Pete 2009-06-12
This song, about considerably more than a watering hole in the desert, keeps resurfacing.
Kingston Trio: Desert Pete
Billy Edd Wheeler
'cross a little cactus desert under a hard bargaining sun.
Thirsty down to my toenails, I stopped to rest me on a stump,
but I tell you I just couldn't believe it when I saw that water pump.
I took it to be a mirage at first. It'll fool a thirsty man.
Then I saw a note stuck in a bakin' powder can.
"This pump is old," the note began, "but she works. So give'er a try.
I put a new sucker washer in 'er. You may find the leather dry."
Chorus:
You've got to prime the pump. You must have faith and believe.
Chorus:
You've got to prime the pump. You must have faith and believe.
You've got to give of yourself 'fore you're worthy to receive.
Drink all the water you can hold. Wash your face cool your feet.
Drink all the water you can hold. Wash your face cool your feet.
Leave the bottle full for others. Thank you kindly, Desert Pete.
Yeah, you'll have to prime the pump, work that handle like there's a fire [pronounced "fahr" in Texan].
Yeah, you'll have to prime the pump, work that handle like there's a fire [pronounced "fahr" in Texan].
Under the rock you'll find some water left there in a bitters jar.
Now there's just enough to prime it with, so don't you go drinkin' first.
Just pour it in and pump like mad and, buddy, you'll quench your thirst.
Chorus:
You've got to prime the pump. You must have faith and believe.
You've got to prime the pump. You must have faith and believe.
You've got to give of yourself 'fore you're worthy to receive.
Drink all the water you can hold. Wash your face cool your feet.
Drink all the water you can hold. Wash your face cool your feet.
Leave the bottle full for others. Thank you kindly, Desert Pete.
Well, I found the jar, and I tell you, nothin' was ever prettier to my eye and I was tempted strong to drink it because that pump looked mighty dry,
but the note went on, "Have faith, my friend, there's water down below.
You've got to give to really get. I'm the one who ought to know."
So I poured in the jar and started pumpin' and I heard a beautiful sound
So I poured in the jar and started pumpin' and I heard a beautiful sound
of water bubblin' 'n' splashin' up out of that hole in the ground.
Then I took off my shoes and drunk my fill of that cold refreshin' treat.
Then I thanked the Lord, and I thanked the pump, and I thanked old Desert Pete.
Chorus:
You've got to prime the pump. You must have faith and believe.
You've got to prime the pump. You must have faith and believe.
You've got to give of yourself 'fore you're worthy to receive.
Drink all the water you can hold. Wash your face cool your feet.
Drink all the water you can hold. Wash your face cool your feet.
Leave the bottle full for others. Thank you kindly, Desert Pete.
Think about it.
Prof. Oates
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