Scientific Discovery and Cloud Computing

I'm thinking I might need to create another blog (or two).

Originally, I started doing this blog mainly for spouting off random opinions about things that tend to bug me. If you are hugely patient and maybe slightly insane you can go back to when I first started and most of my postings are political opinions mixed with some subtle and not so subtle bashing of the religious industry.

Occasionally, I'd throw in something regarding computers. I spend a lot of time with computers and I tend to solve a lot of problems because of it. I'm always surprised at how ignorant people are about computers.

I've also seen that themed blogs seem to do better than non-themed blogs. Random blogs are attractively challenged. People follow blogs because they are interested in the topic. Random blogs have no topic.

I've been watching SciQ Sunday sporadically on the Science Channel. It always gives me interesting ideas that I could blather on about in a blog. But I normally ignore the temptation until it goes away. I think last week or maybe the week before last they were talking about "Cloud Computing" which I've heard of before.

Instead of writing up a small post about it, it got me to thinking about how much I could write about computers. So maybe I need to create a blog dedicated to computers. It might lead into my authoring career. But I can't think of anyone that admits to reading this blog who would be the least bit entertained by a technical computer blog.

Then, yesterday, SciQ had a show on about (and I am paraphrasing big time) wavering interdimensional membranes and how they can be used to explain the unexplained. Without reading up on it and realizing that I don't have a physics degree, there were some oddities about the whole SciQ explanation that I found unpalatable. Here again, I thought it would be interesting to explore my ignorance in a public forum, but I decided it was not fit for my random blog. My random blog, although called random, has probably disintegrated into more of a random opinionated brain candy forum.I said something last week about advertising my ignorance by way of sharing something I've learned that probably everyone and their dog already knows. A couple of weeks ago, it was brought to my attention that hen eggs are not fertilized. I always thought there was a rooster and a hen. The rooster does his business and the hen lays eggs which undisturbed will turn into chickens. It took me until I was an old man to find out that hens lay eggs with or without a rooster. But only eggs after being fertilized by a rooster can become chickens. It's quite sad. I remember being scared of cracking open an egg for fear of finding half of a chicken.

My Irritation Knows No Bounds

Because my creativity is lacking the motivation to come up with anything blogworthy, I've decided to just write about my day. It's an attempt to irritate my plethora of readers.

Today, I woke up tired. I hate waking up tired, but I seem to do it a lot lately. I think it has to do with my wife's new job and the strange hours. It may also have something to do with the new monotony that has invaded my daily routine. That was redundant. Just in case you weren't paying attention.

Work was dull. I had to interview someone. I wasn't impressed. Sometimes I think I am too hard on interviewees. I expect intelligent semi-perfection and I hardly ever see it. The ability to think would probably be adequate. It's alarming how many people lack the ability to think. Even college graduates can give you text book answers to questions, but when you ask them a question that requires creative thought, they fall flat. Book smarts may be adequate to get a degree, but they are not adequate to pass one of my interviews.

After work, my always entertaining buddy called me and asked me to join him for happy hour. I met him at Buffalo Wild Wings. We had some entertaining conversation and some good drinks. He was worried that when his girlfriend arrived, it might dampen the fun. In hindsight, I think he was preparing me for his ineptitude and trying to pass the buck.

She was all for going out. He, on the other hand, was one big whiny baby. He forced us to go back to his house where he said he needed to take a nap. His girlfriend and I made plans to go to an improv comedy club in Fort Worth. He said he ate too much and needed to take a nap before heading out. I could see it was a ploy for him to be a low qualified party pooper, but I gave him the benefit of a doubt and allowed him to take a 30 minute nap.

He finally said, "You guys can go without me." This doesn't seem like such a big deal, but for some reason it was very disheartening. It's the first time we had been out in several weeks. It was like the end of an era. I feel that things will never be the same. We didn't go without him.

While he was sleeping, this camp where my oldest daughter is hiding out kept calling me. Well, they called me twice. The first time they called, it was to ask if they could give her Tamiflu because one of the kids at camp had come down with Type A Flu. Type A flu is a big category. Swine Flu is Type A. It's the most common and most serious.

After my buddy had been passed out for about 15 minutes they called me again to let me know my daughter was running a temp of 102 and they figured she had the flu. This time they were calling to administer Tamiflu not as a precautionary measure but as a treatment. They also advised me that I needed to come pick her up.

I don't really know where she's at. I know it's some place called Skyranch but her mom took her there. She was scheduled to go pick her up tomorrow morning anyway. I guess now she'll be making a midnight rendezvous. They said they tried to call her first and couldn't get her on the phone and my number was listed as backup. Luckily, I guess, my youngest daughter had her phone so I was able to get in touch with the woman.

It was stressful. A comedy club would have been a nice respite.

As it is now, I am at home writing on this boring blog while my youngest daughter watches TV. She would rather come stay with me than ride with her mom to flu camp. Smart girl.

Idiot Psychiatrist Update

Last year (well May of 2008), I wrote this post.

I wrote it just after having to visit my daughter in the emergency room after she was prescribed medication from a supposed "ADD specialist" by the name of Dr Neil Jacobson.

I don't care how smart you are or how smart you think you are, you can't prescribe a 13 year old girl drugs of any kind after a 15 minute consultation. Actually, you probably shouldn't be prescribing anyone drugs after a 15 minute consultation unless it's a harmless antibiotic or pain killer.

Since the incident with Neil Jacobson I have talked to other psychiatrists. One woman told me that she never prescribes drugs on the first visit and the first visit will last a minimum of one hour so she can get to know her patients.

I think I missed my opportunity to take Neil Jacobson to small claims court. I don't know that it would have been worth it. It might have been an interesting experience though. In my optimistic mind, I feel I did everyone a public service via my blog posting.

People who are interested in getting references about Neil Jacobson can go to www.google.com and do a search for Dr Neil Jacobson and my blog posting almost always comes on the first page. Bing, not so much. I even put up a one star review on maps.google.com.

To this day I still get random visitors form the DFW area that are searching for references for the good doctor. I also still get an occasional comment which brings me to the reason for this post. I have anonymous confirmation of my suspicions.

Here it is:
Just found this post. Wish I would have seen it before I visited Dr. Jacobson. Visited him twice now and am not going back. He randomly prescribed me meds without really listening to my issues at all. I tried it and it made my problems worse, so I went back and he prescribed me two more meds. He said to try one and if it didn't work, try the other one. One of the meds is for a condition that I don't even have. All this guy does is write scrips in hopes that he will hit the right one eventually.
I'm really frustrated that guys like this have the power to give medical advise and drugs so irresponsibly. Dr. Jacobson gets my douchebag of the month award.

Weeklies are Over

My Alliteration list officially ended this week and I've been thinking of something to follow it up with.

I kind of wanted to come up with something that was finite (like the alphabet list). It should have a specific end in site.

However, the only thing that keeps coming to me is a weekly edition of something I learned recently that you'd think I should have known many many years ago. Sadly, it appears to be an infinite list.

Like Durango is fond of mentioning that I did not know that the city of Fort Worth used to be an actual fort. Perhaps I didn't care. Or it just never occurred to me to ask the questions. But when Durango and I were pedaling from the stockyards to downtown Fort Worth, he enlightened me after I probably finally asked the stupid question like, "What is this doing here?"

I used to be scared of showing my ignorance. It made for a very quiet Gar. I never said anything or asked any questions for fear of seeming ignorant. If I didn't know something I'd just sit back and listen quietly figuring the answer would eventually come to me. I had to pay a counselor to learn that it's okay to ask questions.

Maybe every Friday or Saturday I could come up with a list of seemingly obvious things I learned this week. I've had some real winners over the past few weeks that would amuse some. I can use them as filler for my smart weeks. Like the chickens.

Alliterator Animal Sh*t List: The Letter 'V'

I left out the V's and no one told me. I must tell you that it makes me a bit disheartened that no one brought this blatant omission to my attention.


Vomitous Vat of Vociferous Viper Vile

Alliterator Animal Sh*t List: The Index

The index, as promised last week...
Atrocious Amounts of Alligator Anal Algae
Boatloads of Baleful Brown Buffalo Butt Boogers
Boundless Buckets of Buzzard Bowel Bullets
Chewy Cheesy Cheetah Chocolate Cheek Chunks
Dark Dank Dingy Dump of Dog Diarrhea
Elegant Elephant Entrails Earp
Freshly Fermented Fish Fecal Farts
Great Grimy Gooey Gobs of Greasy Grungy Gorilla Grunt
Humongous Hunks of Hyena Hiney Hockey
Icky Iguana Intestinal Ice
Juicy Jot of Jaguar Jowl Jelly
Kantankerous Krumblings of Kangaroo Krap
Loathsome Loads of Llama Loafs
Massive Mound of Musty Moose Manure
Nauseatingly Nasty Newt Nuggets
Overwhelming Oodles of Odiferous Orangutan Offal
Powerfully Pungent Penguin Poo-Poo Pellets
Quite Queasy Quail Quap
Randomly Ricocheting Rancid Rhinoceros Rectum Rounds
Soft Stinky Stallion Stool
Tough Tiny Turkey Turds
Unsavory Undulating Urchin Under Uglies
Vomitous Vat of Vociferous Viper Vile
Wicked Woozy Walrus Waste Wafers
Sh*t
Xylocarpous Xenopus Xenocrystic Xylan
Yesterdays Yellowing Yowling Yak Yuk
Zangy Zesty Zebra Zingers

Insurance Might Be the Root of All Evil

We've all heard that the love of money is the root of all evil. I believe that's in the Bible somewhere, but I'm going to skip that lesson today.

I've opined before that I think religion might be the root of all evil. Well, actually here, here and here. I guess I opined that a lot.

Today I discuss insurance. You could argue that religion is nothing more than insurance against eternal death (or something). Seems like a stretch unless you write it down and think about it.

Obama and his congress have started talking in earnest about the health care system. I've even heard reports that we'll see stuff as early as this year. They might even roll out a new health care system before Microsoft rolls out Windows 7!

I like the idea of the government taking a bit more of an active role in health care. Like it or not it is one of those things that we are all going to need at one time or another. I have Type I Diabetes and therefore my medical bills are a lot higher than the average Joe. Health insurance for me simply levels the financial playing field a bit. I'm the one that uses the portion of Joe's monthly insurance dues that he pays even though he's not sick (yet).

However, I hate what insurance stands for. Insurance has become a tool for living dangerously. It has removed the necessity of thinking ahead in our day to day lives. We can act rashly without fear of financial consequences.

Not all insurance is evil. Insurance against unavoidable disasters is necessary. You never know when a storm is going to blow your roof off or Mr. Dumbass is going to break into your house and alleviate you of all your possessions. However, if we couldn't get insurance against theft, it would probably encourage us to lock up the doors and perhaps buy an alarm system.

I believe health insurance is a bad idea. In fact, I believe it's a very bad idea. No one wants to get sick. All health insurance does is make it a little easier to eat that blood thickening cheeseburger or smoke that lung polluting cigarette. If you didn't have health insurance you'd strive to stay healthy.

They should pass a law that says you can only get insurance for something you physically possess. You can get insurance on your house. You can get insurance on your car. But health insurance? This is insurance on what? Shouldn't your creator insure your body? Maybe we should quit giving money to religions until we get a better warranty.

However, if you get sick, you should be able to go to the doctor without worrying about breaking the bank. The government should supply guaranteed loans like student loans to pay for these things at a low interest rate. This would require you to shop around. When you have a cold, you'll go to the clinic that's offering the special, "unclog your nose for $5". You'll go in, they'll check your vitals, unclog your nose and charge you $5.

Would it not be more economical for the government to make sure everyone has some form of access to a health facility without having to worry about finances than by giving everyone health insurance? Why do they keep harping on "affordable health insurance for everyone". Maybe I am taking the term "insurance" more literal than what they a meaning.

Purely from an economics point of view when you buy health insurance you are paying for the insurance and you are paying for the health care. Everyone is going to need health care anyway so why do we add the extra layer. Just pay for the health care.

You still have to keep the health care market open though so you somehow have to make the medical profession compete to keep costs down. There are several ways to do this. Imagine if the most the government would allow a doctor to charge for cold type symptoms was $100 for the evaluation. Would you go to the doctor where you have to wait in line at their clinic or call the doctor that makes house calls?

Malpractice Insurance is an abomination. The first thing I'd do if I were to overhaul the health care industry would be to do away with malpractice insurance. The gives unsympathetic doctors the ability to do whatever they want without fear of financial consequences.