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[ Monday, August 25, 2008 13:46 ]

Legacy Journal:Trifecta: Olympic Games, Democratic Convention, Quad State visit

Section:
Briefs

Summary:
The 080808 Beijing Olympics Games are history, the Democratic Convention is beginning in Denver, Colorado, and a quick trip to Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut from Rochester, New York is in the books

“To wrest from nature the secrets which have perplexed philosophers in all ages, to track to their sources the caused of disease, to correlate the vast stores of knowledge, that they may be quickly available for the prevention and cure of disease—these are our ambitions.” --- Sir William Osler.

“Geography is destiny” --- John Gilman Coit and many others.

Main:

* The results: Michael Phelps is a swimming phenom; the U.S.A women gymnists are too cute for words; the men’s volleyball team is toughness personified; and the Chinese are on the march to modernity using the serious game rules of economic hardball.

Eastern upstate New York, southern Vermont, mid Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut were on the week long circuit. Ct. is cute, traditional, and Congregational to the core. The Deerfield area, the lower Connecticut River, and the Long Island Sound “Shore” around New London and Groton were cool, clear, correct.

UConn at Avery Point has a Department of Marine Science with a picture window marine view. But, Scripps, Woods Hole, or Bar Harbor it is not. The U.S.C.G. Academy and the Nuclear Submarine facility are small national treasures with free open to the public museums. Shipping, trade, and freedom of the seas are the themes of the area that includes Mystic Sea Port.

The amount of ferry traffic across the sound is impressive. The Native American Indian’s have seized the opportunity of transporting gamblers and gamers directly by water from NYC to their Connecticut reservation casinos. So, the core of the area is culturally mixed.

.

* Meanwhile, the country has yet another opportunity to get to know “ the Obama story”. This time the stage setting is Denver, Colorado. Not too shabby for a man with roots stretching from Kenya, to Indonesia, to Kansas, to Bainbridge Island, WA, to prep school in Hawaii, to Occidental College in California, to to Chicago, to Harvard. The national election is Obama’s to lose. He has the money, the media friendly charismatic presence, the image of a outsider with a photo op family, a wife from central casting, youthful vigor, and the Kennedy family endorsement. Time will tell if he, his staff, his advisers, and his volunteers can sustain their collective post convention momentum.

Further more, the marathon fact squad is in town. No, that team is not led by the certifiably silly members of the 4th estate--- but by the serious and bright Mitt Romney, fresh from the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton stands ready to step onto center stage and continue to make his case for ?---?. Let is be noted that the role of Commander and Chief of the U.S. military is no small matter. President Harry Truman, a WW I combat veteran, desegregated the Armed Forces by executive command in 1948.

The news from Dayton, Ohio is that the McCain choice for the Republican VP slot is Sarah Palin, the 44 y/o tough, straight talking, photogenic first term governor of Alaska. Her policy strengths are energy, ethics, and national security. An athletic, out-of-doors person, hockey Mom, she is the ultimate Washington D.C. outsider. She is now part of the “A-A Maverick team” and is running a deep route pattern for the end zone. BTW, basketball in Alaska qualifies as a contact sport contact sport. The candidate’s husband is a native of the state, a blue collar union oil worker. The couple are gun owners who hunt and fish. The NYC-Wash D. C. set will not be pleased. But, the Twin Cities will be welcoming.

In addition, SFGATE.COM reports that native son, Bernie Ward, former Roman Catholic priest, Cardinal Newman High School theology teacher, KGO God Talk radio host, and 3 year legislative aide to Barbara Boxer, has be sentenced by a federal judge to 7 years of jail time for the crimes related to a long history of events around charges of child pornography. Boxer, the liberal Democratic Bay Area attack dog is one of the most strident first responders to the news of the Sarah Palin selection. Boxer has recently called Palin “arrogant”, “radical” and “dangerous”. Who is the pit bull attack dog here?

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Footnotes:

Posted by: webscribe2 on 08/25 at 01:46 PM
Amazing: • Backgrounder: • Biography: • Black and White: • Calendar: • Monday: • Conventional Wisdom: • Demographics: • Fish Wrap: • IT3 Tech: • Internet Tech: • Google: • Calendar: • Media Watch: • TV Journalism: • Personalities: • SeniorStatesmen: • Travel & Vacations: • Trifecta: • Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:

[ Thursday, June 19, 2008 08:11 ]

Legacy Journal: Would you believe that ----?

Section:
None

Summary:
Amazing, but true, even if it goes against the tide.

For example:

Main:
* George Bush will not be on the ballot in November.

The average age of Congressional Senators is over slightly under 62. The median age is considerably older. 25 Committee Chairmen are older yet. 25% are over 70. Hawaii’s two senators will soon be 84. Yes, there is a Federal Civil Service requirement of forced retirement at age 65. For airline pilots, the retirement age is lower.

* No oil refinery has been built in the United States for more than 30 years.

** A new 351 unit limited access community is proposed for Brighton, NY. Opponents to the project cite “elitism”, impact on local traffic, cost of maintaining lighting alone the Erie Canal tow path, lack of mandated low cost rental units , effect on future property taxes, and possible liability from the public use of a new boat launch facility as informing their worrys and converns .

* The Army Corps of Engineers is reportedly being called to testify under oath as to why they are apparently unable to predict the time and place of breeches along the hundred of miles of Mississippi River levees.

Girth measurements and inadequate exercise correspond significantly to the calcium index scores of heart images, to cardiac enlargement, and to the risk of early death by massive myocardial infarction. Diabetics and metabolic syndrome X patients are at particular risk.

* Q: “When is sex safe after a heart attack?” A: “When was it safe before?”

Obama is a two timing, head faking, levee breeching, lakeside liberal Chicago pol. He has a Fast Eddie side according to Brooks of the nytimes. Obama is taken back his “ Public Financing for the General Election” pledge. His Internet driven small donation drive is said to be both successful and democratic. However, the Obama brand is free of total spending caps and one third comes from those contributing the maximum allowed by law. Party regulars, campaign staffers and the ad media are licking their chops and liking their chances come the fall. In a time of flooding, the following from the Supreme Court is timely. “Money, like water, will always find an outlet.” If campaigning is the outlet, the candidate is the reservoir, and the Internet is the inlet.

A federal government report says that weather extremes measured in terms of frequency, intensity and duration will “probably” increase. However, the average surface temperature in the U.S. will likely remain within its historic norm. Rainfall, snow melt, and river runoff in the Heartland is thought to be part of the process. Meanwhile transportation, agricultural equipment use and carbon emissions in flooded areas are acutely down by the forces of necessity.

More:

Footnotes:

Posted by: webscribe2 on 06/19 at 08:11 AM
Bottom Line: • Bright Lights: • Burden of Proof: • Calendar: • Thursday: • Critical Care: • Features: • Jokes: • Fitness: • Food: • Givens: • Death: • Heartland: • IT3 Tech: • Internet Tech: • Google: • Calendar: • Medicine: • SeniorStatesmen: • Truth Telling: • Voice: • Whine: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:

[ Thursday, April 17, 2008 12:30 ]

Legacy Journal: Steve Chu of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Section:
Briefs

Summary:
Chu is a University of Rochester graduate and trustee. As a major university based research administrator, Nobel Prize winner, national energy policy expert, his lecture today to an overflow crowd was up to date, fast paced, fact filled and well received. Dr. Chu is Director, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has been the formative influence in establishing Helios. Steve is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and professor of Physics and Cellular and Molecular Biology of the University of California, Berkeley

“ We do not do nuclear weapons research.”

Main:
Amount his practical problem points are the following:

* California is a leader in energy efficiency legislation standards, research and capital investment in retrofitting and renewable sources of power generation.

* The industrial production of nitrogen fertilizers from ammonia and the “Green Revolution” prevented the food crisis predicted by the Malthusian popular professor of butterflys at Stanford, Paul Erhlich in his 1969, the Population Bomb..

* Heartland farmers should be putting 35 million acres of farmland back into producing crops for domestic and foreign food consumption, not alcohol for fuel. World price increases and shortages of basics like corn, wheat, rice, and soybean expose weak currency nations to the flame and flood of food riots.

* Diesel and jet fuel can not be biogenerated. Termite power in the form of multiple gut microbes may be a model for converting lignan protected cellulose (wood) into simple sugars.

* The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Helios Project concentrates on renewable fuels Jay Keasling is an colleague.

* Nuclear power production needs to increase. Current nuclear power plants are safe and waste problems are being solved

* The national electrical grid needs a DC upgrade to the tune of $ one Trillion dollars.

* The general approach should be a multi layered, but results oriented.

* Photovoltaic cells, Wind generators, fuel cells and gas turbines,at present, are orders of magnitude more costly than coal, hydro, and geothermal. Klamath, Oregon and the state of Utah are geothermal hot spots.

More:

Footnotes:

Posted by: webscribe2 on 04/17 at 12:30 PM
Cal Water Science: • Calendar: • Friday: • Climate: • Critical Questions: • Forecasting: • Global Warming: • Data: • Numbers: • Energy: • Environment: • Food: • Heartland: • IT3 Tech: • Internet Tech: • Google: • Calendar: • News: • Hot Spot: • Science and Technology: • Physical Sciences: • SeniorStatesmen: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:

[ Tuesday, January 08, 2008 07:29 ]

Legacy Journal: Number Two as Winners: The Rest of the Story.

Section:
Sports

Summary:
We all like to see underdogs win. Avis vs Hertz. The latest example is an impressive performance by the LSU Tigers of Baton Rouge, LA in the BCS Championship win over number one ranked Ohio State University. One unsung hero of the win is first year LSU Offensive Coordinator, 50 year old, father of seven, Gary Crowton from the state of Utah. He was calling plays for the SuperDome sky box and was seldom seen on the TV screen. Mavericks make headlines. Good Mormons quietly do their jobs. That is all you need to know except that he enjoys biking with his family.

Main:
Crowton has lived, played and coached around the country. Orem, Provo, Snow JC, Idaho State, BYU, Oregon, Lousiana Tech, Chicago, Georgia, Boston College, Western Illinois, Colarado State. He is a student of BYU Coach, Dr. LaVell Edwards , the “spread offense”, and he is part of a quarterback tradition that includes former Forty Niner Steve Young and Kellen Clemens, currently with the NY Jets.

He is but one example among many of quiet, competent, and capable team players making a difference over time. Some times that difference is on Mission, sometimes in the class room or on the field, sometimes at home, at church or in the community. Dr. Edwards and his wife did a Mission in NYC after he retired from coaching in 2000 after eighteen years at BYU. Gary Crowton was his replacement.

Meanwhile in New Hampshire, the nytimes video reporters visits the bars and discovers the natives heat their homes with $3 a gallon fuel oil and use wood burning stores. The same voters have yet to hear of an energy plan from the candidates. Perhaps the recent warm weather has influenced the messages and the turnout.

Revkin of GoEarth blog at the nytimes is still hot on melting ice in Greenland. In January yet? So, who has the most compelling worry? BTW, the really good news weather story today is that a a lost snowmobile family was found in the snow blizzard National Forest areas out of Durango, CO. The predicted summer water shortage crisis predicted by earlier Revkin sources for the southern Rockies region seems to be rapidly fading.

More:

Footnotes:

Posted by: webscribe2 on 01/08 at 07:29 AM
Alerts: • Biography: • Boot Camp: • Calendar: • Tuesday: • Community Service: • Culture Clash: • Popular Culture: • Energy: • Oil: • Features: • Video Link: • HardCore: • Heartland: • LaserFocus: • Leap of Faith: • News: • Good News: • Oregon: • Personalities: • R:: • Recognition: • Religion: • Christian: • Roots: • SeniorStatesmen: • Standards: • Voice: • Virtues: • Warriors: • X Factor: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:

[ Friday, December 28, 2007 06:53 ]

Legacy Journal: Three Complex Systems: Genome, Climate, Governance

Section:
Education

Summary:
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Three big things that are important, complex and incompletely understood by experts: As Einstein put it, “explanations should be as simple as possible — but no simpler”. And, “ one fact can demolish a beautiful theory”.

* First, The Genome: It makes you, me, and most of the remaining six billion of us, unique in our appearance and our chemistry. It is the Science story of the year. So, what do SNPs, HapMaps, and copy number variation have to do with the uniqueness of you, me, and the quilt work that contributes variety to the spice of life?

Second, Climate Change: Forecasting is scientifically treacherous ground. Here are ten examples that illustrates that point.

* Third, Governance: Today, the politically fixated media would have us know that the world is in “Disarray” with a regrettable assassination attempt and possible accidental head injury of the “chairwoman for life” of a powerful Pakistan political party who has been compared to Indira Nehru Ghandi and St. Joan . True, politics and governance are frequently messy and even chaotic. However, foreign chaos does not necessarily lead to disorder and confusion on the bridge of the American ship of state

Main:
Facts, Analysis, Conclusions, and Action (Change, Behavior, Adaptation---etc) often change. Change is frequently comfortable and slow, here we go.

: There is far more diversity in the Human Genome than was thought by many active researchers in 2006.

:: So, who is surprised that bad decisions are often rationalized by frail data, faulty logic, and irrational analysis when it comes to predicting the future. The results can be destabilizing, even disorienting. Consider the case of the High School Science guy in Oregon and his < 10 minute You tube explanation of “climate destabilization”. Scary? No. Concerning? Yes. Reportedly, his obsession has been followed by at least one ER visit because of chest pain, a leave of absence from his Chemistry and Physics classes, and a move to Corvallis. Can we assume that this 30 something year old father of two rides a bicycle: to work? to the mall? to his doctor’s appointment?

::: Pakistan is a different place than NYC, Washington, DC, London, Paris, Bonn, the Debating Halls of the EU Parliament, and the UN General Assembly. It has been and will continue to be a threatening, dangerous, and corrupt place. Culture and strategic location make Pakistan one of the world’s PMASS counties. The Western Powers, Islamic leaders, and India have long been aware of Pakistan and concerned about its deployment of nuclear capabilities under military, technocratic civilian, or God Willing theocratic rule.

Finally, there is the evolving story of the young female Siberian Tiger that escaped from her open moated exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo, climbed a wall thought by officials to be 16 ft high, and killing a young man shortly after the dusky zoo closing time of 5:00 P.M. After measuring, the wall is now reported to be closer to 12.5 ft. high. Some say a 20 feet standard is safer. Settling in the sand? Shorting on the concrete? Natural weathering and erosion? Police reported the animal died of bullets they fired after responding to a series of confusing 911 calls.

More:

Footnotes:

Posted by: webscribe2 on 12/28 at 06:53 AM
Alerts: • Basics: • Bottom Line: • Bright Lights: • Burden of Proof: • Calendar: • Friday: • Chances are ---: • Cause & Effect: • Certainty: • Climate: • Forecasting: • Data: • Numbers: • Yard Stick: • By the Numbers: • Environment: • Fact vs Fiction: • Features: • Permalinks: • Quotes: • Q & A: • IT3 Tech: • Internet Tech: • Google: • Calendar: • Language: • Rhetoric: • Metaphors: • Media Watch: • News: • Global: • Personalities: • Politically Potent: • Really? A Reality Check: • Running Scared: • SeniorStatesmen: • Signals: • Noisy: • Top Ten: • Trifecta: • Dooms Day: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:

[ Tuesday, November 27, 2007 06:53 ]

Legacy Journal: Medical Fundamentals: Patient Care, Turf Battles, and Funding

Section:
Health and Medicine

Summary:
Medicine Today: Local, National, and Global: Three Views in the News

* Outliers: A case report from the University of Rochester.

The Texas Tornado and the Outlaw: The Feud ends between reconciled Houston heart surgeons DeBakey and Cooley.

* The Fundamentals: Why the United States is the object of both admiration and envy.

Main:
First, today the University of Rochester, Strong Memorial Hospital Rounds was a case report. The patient was a 83 year old woman who was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit from another hospital for care because of fever and cardiomyopathy. Her DRG code was sepsis, probably secondary to pneumonia . Her hospital stay was over 35 days. Consultations, tests and procedures were numerous and frequent. Hospital charges alone were $90,000; insurance reimbursement was 50 cents on the dollar. She was discharged in stable condition at her request three days after simplifying her medicine regimen. One lesson is that the patient did offer students and residents valuable clinical experience. In addition, she probably was included in a NIH funded, University study on focused on some of the fundamental cellular mechanisms of sepsis.

Second, today the nytimes reports that the long standing Texas sized feud between Dr. Michael DeBakey and Dr. Denton Cooley has ended.

Third, David Brooks, writing for the nntimes and reporting from China, makes the case for sticking to the fundamentals of open, free and fair trade given the financial and economic realities of Global trade and the fluid flow of funds.

In the interest of full disclosure of possible conflicts of interest, I have been a willing reference guinea pig subject for an ongoing sepsis research study at Strong, a CME attendee of one Dr. DeBakey’s lectures, a step-brother is a guy who owns his life saving cardiovascular emergency surgery at the Texas Heart Institute by an Iraqi surgeon in Houston, and a post WW II beneficiary of world travel, trade, and the free exchange of human and financial capital.

BTW, approximately 20% of western upstate New York’s working professionals are estimated to be foreign born according to a recently reported economic and business survey.

More:

Footnotes:

Posted by: webscribe2 on 11/27 at 06:53 AM
Business and Trade: • Calendar: • Corrections and Clarifications: • Demographics: • Diversity: • Family: • Fundamentals: • Heartland: • Immigration: • Life Lines: • Medicine: • Personalities: • Science and Technology: • Social Sciences: • Demography: • Score Card: • SeniorStatesmen: • Signals: • Clear: • Spot On: • Standards: • The Price is Right: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:

[ Tuesday, November 20, 2007 06:35 ]

Legacy Journal:Medical Legacy: George Hoyt Whipple, MD. (1876-1974)

Section:
Education

Summary:

1926: Founding Dean, University of Rochester Medical Schooll. 1936: Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology with Murphy and Minot.

Rule #1: “Remember the value of Work in life and science.”

Rule#2: “Keep your Word.”

Rule#3: “Don’t make Assumptions.”

Rule#4: “Personal Integrity Matters in Medical practice, teaching and research.”

Main:
Personal Recollections of a Victorian and a Patrician Paragon of the Virtues of Key Values:

George Hoyt Whipple, the man is remembered today with a University of Rochester Medical Rounds lecture by former students who are now senior members of the faculty.

Whipple was a product of New England. His father and grandfather were country physicians in New Hampshire. Fatherless at an early age, he was drawn to nature, sports, hunting and fishing. He was athletic, playing baseball and football at Phillips Andover and crewing at Yale. He was thrifty and worked to avoid debt. He was intelligent and good in math and science. He traveled and lived in Baltimore, attended the new Johns Hopkins Medical School where all the disciples were represented by the best and brightest , the Canal Zone, Europe and San Francisco for medical experience at the Hooper Foundation.. His work in Anatomic and microscopic Pathology with Welch and others, was broad and grounded in classic pathophysiology . Diet and nutrition were part of his clinical and research core.

In San Francisco, at the Hooper Foundation, he noted the unfortunate bifurcation of preclinical and clinical medical education between Berkeley and San Francisco. In Rochester, and the influence of Flexner, he united practice, teaching and research under one roof at the Strong Memorial Hospital. Initially, he was also a one man interviewing and admissions committee. One of his lasting legacies is the quality of the young departmental chairmen that he recruited to, live, work and build in upstate New York. George Corner, Willard Allen, and William Masters all left their marks on the clinical study of progestins and reproductive physiology.

Whipple’s office at the Medical School, near the Library in the Pathology Department, is a kind of shrine that remains as he left it. Along with Eastman, Strong, Rees, and the Education Board of New York, a Rockefeller Foundation legacy, he is part of the nostalgia and Victorian legacy that lingers in Rochester.

Finally, two side notes. The tradition of of the Gold Headed Cane Award is a concept that honors the 18th century practice of presenting an actual gold-headed cane to the pre-eminent physician in English society. One such cane was continuously carried from 1689 to 1825 by five distinguished British physicians and now resides in the Royal College of Physicians in London. Second, Murphy is one of those credited with intrinsic factor research and the dietary treatment and cure of pernicious anemia with dietary liver. Murphy attended the University of Oregon before transferring to Harvard Medical School. He is one of three Nobel Prizes with a Condon, Oregon connection.

On this day, one wonders if the dilution effect of awarding Nobel the Peace Prize to large heterogeneous and amorphous groups like the UN IPCC may not tend to devalue the award and blunt its lasting impact. Time and the force of nature and climate will tell the tale. What man will propose, nature will depose. Today, another unsigned Editorial in the nytimes, The Scientists Speak, is startling if not naive in its suggestion that members of congress should try to read and understand the as an Oracle, science and the limitations the report. If Michael Oppenheimer the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University with seven years of experience of being associated with the IPCC framework is to be believed, burnout is a problem. On a recent News Hours interview, he also revealed that the report are not allowed to make specific policy recommendations. Therefore, Congressmen are on their own to translate the state of the science into policy. So far, their individual records are not impressive, Dr.Bill Frist and Dianne Feinstein being notable exceptions on the senate side.

More:

Footnotes:

Posted by: webscribe2 on 11/20 at 06:35 AM
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