Thursday, September 29, 2005
Smaller is beautifuller
... well, up to (down to?) a point, anyway. I've been noticing that a lot of smaller businesses and companies seem to be able to outperform the larger ones. And some small businesses are also atrocious, but that's another story. The thing is that there are maybe two large companies in any particular field, and my chances of getting the crap one are better than one in two, because let's face it, there are usually more bad companies in any field than good ones. If I pick a smaller company on the other hand, I have more good ones to pick from as well as more bad ones. And since I have a choice I'm more likely to do my research.
Most importantly to me, the smaller company is usually more mobile and can react to changes in their field faster, which means they are usually better.
Okay there are other things that affect that - larger companies have more money and resources to do things, they will be more stable, that sort of thing. And there's the other difference - they have more resources. The only way that can be, given that larger companies usually undercut smaller businesses and have more staff to pay, is if the larger companies are of less value per dollar to you than the smaller companies. They do this by making the product from lower value materials, using processes which cost less, or use less checking.
And what has prompted that? Well, I think I've mentioned that I've had a prostate biopsy and my urologist has recommended certain foods to me. I've also been reading the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet book and found it to be very easy and clear to read. I've also been a bit of a hippy in the way I select my foods, although (obviously) not enough. So I can tell you that, for example, a leading large fast food chain's lettuce which is produced by a large farming conglomerate to "specifications" shows over 14 different pesticides and herbicides in quantities which are large enough to be of concern.
That's because, in order to be able to provide a burger for $3 or whatever and still be profitable, the leading large fast food chain can only pay a few cents per kilo for the lettuce, and in order to be profitable in turn, that farming conglomerate must produce the lettuce for tenths of a cent per kilo. And they can't afford for a large crop of lettuce to fail, because that's a big loss to them. The fast food chain needs something that can be stored for buffer stock so it's invariably forced to maturity after picking, thus gaining no extra nutrients.
So they produce lettuce using chemicals because that way works best for them. Now to my local supermarket. They have lettuces also proiduced by a large farming conglomerate but they pay a little more for a better lettuce, and then charge us a lot more than a few cents a kilo for it. Their farming conglomerate is probably not as big as the fast food chain's farms, and I've never heard of the supermarket lettuce containing concerning quantities of *icides. And the supermarket buys under-ripe lettuces too, stores them in the freezer, and pushes them to maturity to put them on the shelves when it suits them.
And me, I go to my local fresh market and get my lettuces there. The fresh market buys from individual producers, and they have a lot more invested in being seen as suppliers of quality clean produce. So I get a lettuce which is pretty much clean of *icides, I get a much nicer, better flavoured and coloured lettuce, and of course I get a choice of dozens of different lettuce varieties. And they are ripened a lot closer to fully ripe in the ground so that they have been absorbing nutrients for longer, and that's what gives the better colour and flavour., and lastly, generally the small farmer will stick to using fewer *icides in lower quantities.
I'm sure you're aware why I find that appealing: More active ingredients per gram makes the better flavour texture and colour, more of the thing that are good for me. And less chemicals, which is the biggie for me. Fresh and underprocessed is pretty much Heaven to me. Make no mistake, those chemicals are what causes the health problems so to me it's most important to reduce my intake of that, even to the point of growing some of the easier stuff in the garden, tomatoes and capsicums and so forth.
Reduce the chemicals and you reduce one thing the body has to cope with, meaning it can put that effort into something else like sweeping out pre cancerous cells or repairing your liver.
So by buying clean and fresh you are doing one of the best things for your body that you can. By reading the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet you will get an idea of what you should be putting in there, and eventually you'll be picking out your own veges with little *icide, high colour and flavour, and in that way supporting more and more small farms.
And that can only be a good thing.
Categories - ::/:: posted at 12:16 AM Ted
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Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Shady Deals
Car went in for a service today. And proved once again that some big names are not so big when it comes to doing the right thing by their customers. This is a big name dealer whose operation is in Victoria Park, enough said.
When Trish bought her cars, she's always bought from this dealer. Second hand cars but she has been a loyal customer. The Magna was her third car from there, plus she has sent at least two other people his way. So what sort of shits would do what they have done to her so far? First, the car was delivered without half the work done that was promised. Second, it was handed to us without a radiator cap on, so once we noticed that we couldn't even drive it for the rest of the weekend.
Thirdly, Trish asked the guy if there was an expensive timing belt to replace, and Mr Ellis the salesman told her, in front of me, that there was no timing belt to worry about. Now the same company want $400 to replace the timing belt.
And lastly, this is no biggie but it's a sign of a "fuck you" attitude, not even a bunch of flowers. I mean, this is a customer who has given them five sales at least. It would have been a nice gesture.
So here we are, putting the car in for a service. To keep the warranty going. Jaw dropped when they told Trish that it was going to cost $230 for the minor service. "But - I have a fixed-price $99 service" said Trish.
"Oh, that's for a minor service," was the reply. "But... Isn't this a minor service?"
"Well, that fixed price covers only the oil and oilf filter change."
So we asked what *this* minor service did that the $99 one didn't. "Well," sprouted this woman, "the fixed price service covers the oil and oil filter change only. And in this service, we cover the oil, the oil filter, and .. um .. oh yeah, the air filter. And the oil and the oil filter."
After we picked ourselves up off the floor from laughing at the idea of a $120 air filter, we asked how much it would cost to have the air filter replaced separately.
"That will be $40."
So we got the fixed price servie, a separate air filter change, and they rang back to tell us that the throttle butterfly needed cleaning, another $50 or $60. So in the end we got the service, the air filter, the throttle body kit, and the rental of a car for the day, for the same price as the oil/oil filter/air filter would have cost.
I don't know why the company has undergone such a radical change in direction, but it sucks. From a company that cared somewhat about their customers and honesty, they have become a shady dealer whose only interest is your cheque book. Sad isn't it? Now if this had been Skipper Motors things would have been different, but they changed their name a while back so it can't be them, can it?
Categories - ::/:: posted at 10:22 PM Ted More Comments: (2)
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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Vale Jamie Marek
Vale Jamie Marek, erstwhile of the company where I work, and only quite recently moved to another company. Jamie and his brother were rock fishing and got washed off, the brother was fished out alive, Jamie wasn't. He leaves a wife and unborn child, and a lot of mates who knew him as a real bush gentleman and damn good drinking or dinner partner, it didn't matter what Jamie was into it. Good conversationalist, a sense of humour you had to be on the lookout for cos it sometimes came around from the tangent, and dammit he had a black wool coat like mine, which automatically makes him one of the good guys.
Put in a good word for me Jamie, when you get there...
Categories - ::/:: posted at 11:53 PM Ted
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JJJ just fell from grace
Hmmm today was one day where I really found the JJJ arvo show to be puffed up and up itself. And usually I love Chris & Craig. (Or Craig & Chris, I mean, who can tell them apart?)
But they did pick two topics I suddenly discovered I had opinions about, and those opinions differed... I mean, come on guys, taking the piss out of Bob Hawke is just downright wrong! Hawkie is a demigod!
And that wasn't even what I objected to - it was their downright left spin they put on the idea Hawkie had, of accepting nuclear waste. "Oh so we can just spend the money we make accepting nuclear waste to resolve environmental issues" was the comment that basically got me spitting. Geez Chris (or Craig or whoever you were) think about this - a big country, and we are beginning to choke the place on hydrocarbon fuel fumes, cane toads, foxes, and rabbits. *THOSE* are environmental issues you dumb gits!
We actually do have some ideal geology for storing nuclear wastes, and we actually could do what is suggested. We could seal that crap up for long enough, and that means that there will not be a nuclear disaster that will need "environmental issue" management. So we could actually do some good with that income, like finding other power sources that might eventually lead to the demise of the fossil fuel and nuclear power plants.
But that's a bit of a hard concept for a couple of smart-ass kids with a half-assed attitude to understand isn't it? Luckily I don't think I'm your only listener with a brain, so I can only hope that the silent majority dismissed your dribble for what it was - a cheap shot at making yourselves sound controversial and environmentally aware.
In actual fact, I would even advocate that the government uses some of that petrol excise to build and operate that site. Then at least I'd feel somewhat requited for paying all that money for some crushed-dinosaur juice. But think of it - the special haul road from some isolated section of coast to the ranges, probably called something like "The Robert Hawke Memorial Haul Road" and which will colloquially end up called the Glowing Path. The thousand foot deep holes in the rocks, probably drilled with Korean drill rigs powered by a Russian nuclear reactor but at least it's an income stream.
So wrong wrong wrong Craig and Chris, wrong! I expect an apology to Mr Hawke first thing on your next show!
Categories - ::/:: posted at 8:54 PM Ted
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Thursday, September 22, 2005
Kakistrocracy, thy name is Australia
John Howard is a clown. There can be no other explanation for the little bookworm in almost-human form to stand up and say that A) he's impotent against the petrol companies and B) that we should switch to ethanol as an alternative.
Let me get this straight, John "you blithering idiot" Howard - you want us to use ethanol, which costs six energy units to produce ONE energy unit of ethanol, to eke out our fuel supplies? So we should do the equivalent of burning six litres of petrol to produce five litres of ethanol, then add that ethanol to the remaining petrol, reducing the octane rating of the mixture and wrecking our engines as well? Nice one maaate! If one of my friends or acquaintances had come up with such a stupid waste of my time and money I would call them a fuckwit.
Call me a fuckwit in return, John, but I can see that we have a lot of sunlight in Australia, and we have some of the best technology in the world currently to get that sunlight and turn it into useable energy, so how is it that I don't see you putting some of the petrol excise that your government collects into a few plants licensing some of that revolutionary technology for our use? 38c a litre Mr Howard, that's been there for a while hasn't it, in the days when petrol cost 90c a litre that meant that the Government was pocketing around 43% of our hard-earned petrol dollars, at least the price increases have decreased the percentage you get your grubby paws on to 33% or so.
20.5 billion gallons of petroleum per year, John. (Among a myriad other facts on that page, well worth wading through it.) That's around 90 billion litres, or $3.4bn per year. That's a damn good wicket for the Government, right? No wonder you prefer ethanol to solar, petrochemicals to air power. (The engine in that last link was recently featured in "Beyond Tomorrow" on TV.)
Any of that three billion bucks going into air or hydrogen or solar ventures John? Thought not. But Kirribilli House has nice curtains right? Come on Australians get rid of his stupid sorry ass. We deserve better leaders!
Categories - ::/:: Edited on: Thursday, September 22, 2005 11:29 PMposted at 11:28 PM Ted More Comments: (2)
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swear
This is interesting. Researchers say that A) swearing is universal, and B) swearing is something we learn early.
Why is this interesting? Well, to me, this is interesting because you see, all this time I've been thinking I'm really really weird. You see, I had this aunt when we were still in Austria and... Well, read on...
I remember some things from a very early age, I remember for example a picture in my bedroom which my father told me later they'd replaced with a Mickey Mouse scene for my first birthday. I can remember what the back gardens of the apartments where we lived looked like, and we left that place by my fourth birthday. And I can sketch the apartment layout and the relative locations of it and its basement storage area and the back yard and the entrance gate. Even where on the street that apartments were and which apartment was ours. So I trust my memories of those times.
Aunt Paula was, from what I remember, a large woman. She was also fond of me, and made a point of fussing over me every time she came to visit. That bit was fine, I enjoyed that attention as only a one to two year old can. (And yes, I remember this clearly even now.)
Her other habit was to sit me on her knee, bounce me up and down, and singsong some inane repetitive nonsense syllables that sounded like "dilly lee, dilly lee." And I remember, with clarity, that this inevitable exercise made me think some pretty angry thoughts about aunt Paula.
Thing is that as I got older I realised that the feelings that were running around in my head back then could only be expressed in words like "%^$#" and "old 6%$" and "oh no &#%@!"
I also remember how I made those associations. After I'd learnt those four letter words, and something made me so angry that I wanted to vocalise them, I had a flashback to aunt Paula and her irritating habit and it suddenly hit me that those words were exactly imitating what was running around in my brain when my aunt did her party piece on me, only back then I didn't have the words...
And again, when I was almost four my mother said something that showed me that she knew less about a piece of technology than I did and I remember that feeling too - and again, as I got older and my blue vocabulary grew, the memories of those feelings got words attached to them.
So I can state categorically that even as a very small child one has quite strong feelings which can best be expressed as "the spirit of swearing" and now that I've seen that news article well at least I no longer feel like I was a special nasty little horror who thought in four letter words - I was just a normal little horror who thought in four letter words... hehehe...
Categories - ::/:: posted at 12:18 AM Ted Comment made, yay!
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Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Fun pets!
adopt your own virtual pet!
Categories - ::/:: posted at 10:28 PM Ted
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glass houses and name callings
Bit of history: Bit of history: We had a new(ish) manager bloke named Rob. I had a new(ish) co-sysadmin named Dan. This led to a moment of humour.
Here is that short scene from work that day:
Dan and I are having our morning "meeting" - we're standing near my cubicle discussing what the day's jobs are going to be. We're also swapping jokes and bullshit, and generally, the so-called meeting is pretty much derailed already
Rob enters to my stage left, heading for his office which is to my right.)
"Good morning!" Rob says to me as he walks by, and then: "Good morning Dan The Man!"
Dan watches, puzzled, as my face goes red and I struggle to keep my lips pursed and my tongue out of my cheek as I say "Hiya"
The skit ends there.
What do you mean, you don't get it? When I told Dan why I was choking on my response, he almost choked laughing. When I told John the above story an hour later, he did.
Oh come on! --- What sort of person walks by making cheap rhymes like "Dan The Man?" Would that be a person whom I'd nearly called "Rob The Nob?"
Categories - ::/:: Edited on: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 10:15 PMposted at 10:12 PM Ted Comment made, yay!
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Hmmm wipe your face for you? Anyone?
Someone sent me this link quite a while ago. And at the time I remember wondering if it was serious. But(t) today, after my shower, I was for some reason reminded of that towel again.
Just a thought - my towels are usually solid colours, symmetrical patterns. And I realised that I don't give a tinker's toss about which ends of me and the towel have made acquaintance. Because I go to the shower or bath to thoroughly clean myself, and that means that dammit, I come out *clean*. Whether I dry my foot or my shoulder, it is all equally soaped and washed.
Drying the privates, well, if I am honestly expecting my partner to share a rich lovelife with me then it hardly seems sensible that I should cringe from the towel myself on that account should I?
And I have no desire to give myself a terrytowelling enema so drying in that area is generally not, for lack of a more delicate way of expressing it, going to draw mud.
Last of all, my towel goes in the wash after a couple of days, usually two or occasionally three. It doesn't have time to get grotty. So honestly, does anyone ever look suspiciously at their towel wondering if someone turned it around on the rail?
Categories - ::/:: posted at 9:55 PM Ted
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Thursday, September 15, 2005
a lot of asses?
Hmmm is it just me or are there a lot of asses out there in news-story-land?
Categories - ::/:: posted at 10:06 PM Ted
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Updated Unleaded Cat
Hehehe thought there was something a bit skew about that story. Here is the update.
Categories - ::/:: Edited on: Thursday, September 15, 2005 9:37 PMposted at 9:36 PM Ted
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Downtime
Halfway through publishing just after midnight, the server seems to have had a major nervous breakdown. You may not be aware that Arachnet has been sold to Amcom to form part of their ISP service Amnet, and, well, settling-in problems were inevitable for them. As it was I just didn't have time last night to sit up and republish so my blog would have been a bit garbled until just now. Sorry for that, you didn't miss much anyway...
Categories - ::/:: posted at 10:15 AM Ted
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First CAT5 and now...
The Amazing Unleaded Cat... Seems that my four furry freeloaders could help out in more ways than just catching the rats that infest the local palm forests our area seems to have and leaving us the tastiest bits as offerings...
I'm not entirely sure this isn't a joke, by the way - I know April is ages away but maybe it's different in the Northern Hemisphere...
Categories - ::/:: posted at 12:18 AM Ted
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Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Gonads in the balance
I need to modify my recipe for Space Syrup.
Okay - a long time spent on the net has found me a few fun and healthy things to dose up with. One of them is Space Syrup, which is a honey/garlic and other such stuff concoction, and which provides a lot of fun when taken just before a social engagement - there really is quite some garlic in that syrup! - and otherwise it's a pretty harmless foible, can't hurt, and may well help cut down risk of cholesterol, cancer, and colds. Or so it's said.
Now the latest findings in prostate management seem to have indicated that Space Syrup needs to go to the next level, to extend it's range of miracle cures...
And I've just been to my urologist, he of the long rubber glove, to discuss the prostate biopsy results. Which are that there *seems* to be no cancer in any of the 12 painfully (for me, at any rate) gathered samples, so if there is a nasty bit it's extremely small. And there are little cells around that haven't made up their mind yet if they want to be normal or nasty. Space Syrup Version 2 could be my answer.
Until I manage to get a new Space Syrup happening, here's the upshot - drink around 4 standard glasses of red wine a week, eat a lot of foods with tomato paste in them, get plenty of phytoestrogens, and about three other things which I've forgotten but which I've written down. I think these are the most important ones.
By the way I am going to use my dysplasmic (or whatever they're called) cells as a test of this stuff's efficiency - I'll sort out a treatment plan and record it, and then get my results at the end of the six month period. If it works out, I'll make the treatment plan available. Gotta be better than hard medication or chemotherapy, and I am stoked that my urologist shared right up to the latest foods and herbs with me.
I'll also consult a good friend of mine who is into naturopathy and herbal medicine. I mean, if this works it may well turn the tide on prostate cancer.
So stay tuned!
(Blogged in Subi this AM, posted from home PM)
Categories - ::/:: posted at 4:41 PM Ted
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Sunday, September 11, 2005
And personally< I just want to say:
Life sucks:
Today I grabbed the dog by the scruff of the neck and dragged it back inside after it disobeyed a command, and the short bit of exercise left me so winded that I nearly passed out. (Price of smoking kids - give it up now, be smarter than I was.)
And then I helped Trish weed the garden, was kneeling there pulling up weeds when my knee slipped slightly and I heard a little click in the base of my spine. Haven't been able to sit stand lie down or in between since then, without a lot of pain, enough to make me sweat with nausea. Panadol and Nurofen aren't even close to touching it.
Then Life doesn't suxxor:
First took a trip to Bunnings and splashed $160 of my tax cheque on plants for the front garden. Trish and elder daughters will be having fun planting out providing tomorrow's weather change doesn't eventuate. Have a jasmine, lots of alyssum, some daisies, some sweet williams, and got the cats some catnip and catmint. (Also, catmint drives off ants and stuff, it smells like pennyroyal, heck it may even be pennyroyal for all I know.) And some more hedge bushes for the front lawn, too. So it was a good haul of plants.
Then went to Kwinana to see Trish eldest daughter for a while, she was in fine form, then visited two other friends T & N who also live down that way. Seeing her daughter and granddaughter made Trish's day, seeing T & N made mine. Their renovations are also spread all about, with some walls getting painted, some floors getting done, some retaining walls and steps being built. Basically they are having exciting times, with lots of things happening.
And then It sux again:
It's 10:30 at night, can't find any way to not be in so much pain that I can get to sleep, despite taking two half Stilnox tablets and more Panadol and Nurofen. Sucks suckssuckssucks...
Categories - ::/:: posted at 10:44 PM Ted More Comments: (2)
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Norlins
Observed over the last year, in regard to natural disasters: For the tsunami, people all over the world mobilised all kinds of relief and aid, which seem to have been absent for Mumbai, and is now also not happening for New Orleans. You can put that down to numbness, or to the fact that there's not much relief dosh left, or whatever. I have theories.
Then too the tsunami survivors began picking up pieces pretty quickly considering the scale of the damage, and you'd have to agree that Mumbai survived better and returned to normal sooner than New Orleans looks like doing.
Two things I see contributing to those observations:
One is that the world thought the tsunami was shocking and the survivors were genuine battlers who needed help, whereas Mumbai and Norlins are considered to each have a huge country backing them, thus removing the need for foreign aid. Also, I think in the latest case, people are thinking that anyone who voted for Bush, (or who by not voting for someone else let Bush win,) don't deserve aid. That's an opinion, okay? Just an opinion.
The other thing, about being on their feet faster. Hey the tsunami and monsoon victims lived very direct lives, they KNOW that if you don't do something, no-one else will do it for you, and then that undone thing will come back to kill you later on. They experienced that every day of their lives and it's as natural as breathing to them. They knew that if they didn't clean up and start making sure they had some control over diseases, if they didn't hustle and find food and water, they'd die. And they started doing that, because that's what you do.
But in the hurricane Katrina aftermath, the citizens of a reasonably well-off city decided that all the relief work was to be done by "someone else." They left their loved ones floating or laying around, didn't seem to do much to clean up or fend for themselves, and generally it looked to me as if they were all just wallowing in self-pity and waiting for Daddy to come sort it all out for them. Only he's off playing War somewhere else... (Maybe this clarifies it for you like it did for me.)
I said well-off city because while I recognise that there were a lot of people there that the US government considers underprivileged and third-rate citizens, but they'd still had sanitation, clean food, and clean living conditions most of their lives, their food came packaged in styrofoam trays and plastic packs and cardboard cereal boxes. Their garbage got taken away to pollute a landfill somewhere miles from their homes. They therefore had no idea of what fending for oneself really entails, except the few who were into camping and hunting trips, and even they would have been baffled without much of the gear they'd be used to toting around on their trips.
And that's the crux, really. The population of Norlins are over-urbanised, they have no bush survival skills for uncivilised living. The National Guard and the Defenss Forces on the other hand are trained in survival, and are supposed to be there for those underskilled people. But they weren't, for 48 hours or more, more than long enough for the issues to get out of hand.
And of course America is the Land Of Opportunity, where each person can carve out an empire for themself, and looking after a neighbouring county's homeless survivors wasn't on anyone's list of priorities. Anyway - I just find it depressing that one of the most advanced countries in the world has been acting so retarded...
Categories - ::/:: posted at 10:24 PM Ted
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Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Zigbee and me
Look to see Zigbee devices coming to your home sometime soon. But I suspect that one of their major selling points will also become their Achilles Heel, and in a most human-oriented way...
These are devices which form a so-called "mesh network" which is exactly what it sounds like - each Zigbee device will talk to every other Zigbee device in range and they form a network which tends to pass messages on like a bucket brigade among themselves, so if one Zig is removed the messages will just pass around another way.
But that's not what's wrong. What's wrong is the long battery life of these devices, claimed to be from three to seven years per device. Bearing in mind that these devices are slated to do some extremely important things in your house (read the article for some uses, some of these could be critical in certain cases) and the batteries last so long, who is going to remember to change the batteries?
One of the suggested uses is in older peoples' homes to act as guardians, looking after their needs, and warning friends or medical staff about potentially dangerous situations. Now I don't know about you, but my stepmum doesn't even know where the smoke alarm is in her house, much less what batteries it takes or how to change them. So while a Zigbee device might raise a little flag on the house display, and comlain bitterly, it would eventually die and then there would be no more alarms from it.
And that's a dangerous situation, because someone outside the house will be relying on that sensor to report when there's smoke or a person not moving on the floor or whatever, and they'll never get that warning...
So I suggest one improvement to Zigbee gizmos - how about some way of inductively charging the battery that relies on stray EMF around the house wiring, or a small mobile Zigbee that can crawl around the house streaming life-giving EMF at the devices? That would probably be the ultimate Zigbee modification. And then I'd feel happy having them in my house managing it.
Categories - ::/:: posted at 3:51 PM Ted
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Post Biopsy
After the biopsy. It's 10:30, and the anaesthetic is beginning to wear off. They have stuck 12 needles in my prostate to take samples and my prostate is protesting about it... I feel like I've been kicked in the jewels in a pub fight.
I'm sitting in Bethesda's new coffee shop (hey, EVERYTHING is new at Bethesda, it really looks good) and sipping a long black while blogging. I feel very glad to be alive in this era, where such procedures are commonplace and I can have such good health care. I' m also thinking that health care is losing the battle, I am going to have to use my tax refund to pay for this, and I'd actually been looking forward to getting a cheap laptop of my own...
What I mean is - I've just paid the best part of $500 for someone to take 12 samples. About half of that will be going to cover insurance. I've just paid an expert in his field extra money, to cover his costs in case he stuffs up? Is that a crazy system or not? How about I take out PC insurance - if your computer goes down and you lose business data, I'll make sure I'm covered for that. It should take the cost of my visit to your office from around $60 to somewhere in the vicinity of $200 I guess, small price to pay for you to feel like it'll be okay if I stuff up. You won't get your data back but my insurance will pay you...
Something flawed with that isn't there? I do the odd IT job for friends and their businesses because I recognise that I'm good at what I do - if I didn't, why would I choose that line of work? - and if I'm so unsure of my own abilities that I have to double my fees to cover my malpractices I'm pretty sure I'd never see one minute of work in any office IT contract.
(I don't contract, I just do the jobs for my friends in return for a beer or just for the hell of it. But the point remains that if I screwed up they'd want me to fix it, which could conceivably cost me a bomb. So I just make sure I don't stuff up. Now would someone please tell doctors that?)
I trust medical technology, but I'm not sure I trust medical practitioners all that much... If we could develop a doctor on a disk I think I'd prefer to use that. The reason for the high insurance doctors pay is that humans are prone to human errors. And other humans are prone to sueing after human errors because we feel wronged when the doctor removes a leg instead of an ingrown toenail.
Putting the diagnosis and treatment load on a machine would lead to several things:
Cheaper diagnosis and treatment. Machines can do this much more reliably and cheaply than a human doctor.
Less litigation. You can't sue a machine, and you really can't sue the owner/operator of the machine. By choosing the cheaper machine treatment you are tacitly agreeing that you accept that a machine is a machine is a machine and not a legal entity.
That leads directly to the point where the wealthy will be able to afford human medical care if they need the human contact, and people would find that not only are the machiens cheaper, they are more reliable.
I imagine that this would lead to a much better health care system, and far from being depersonalised it would actually mean that your personal health care could be available anywhere. I currently live some 16 kilometres away from my GP, whom I still visit because I want to preserve some medical data integrity, and because he's been my GP for years dammit. Imagine if I could see my "GP" in a clinic nearer to home, and if I go to Sydney, see the same "GP" who knows the same things about me in a clinic there, and if I go to Los Angeles, there that same "GP" is...
Categories - ::/:: posted at 3:51 PM Ted
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Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Prostate Biopsy
I'm sitting at home with quite some trepidation - so would you if you've just taken three (Yi!) tablets of what all the documentation refers to as a "strong" laxative - and waiting for the inevitable fallout. (Pun intended...)
The reason? Some irregularity in PSA levels in my bloodwork, which can indicate prostate cancer. Tomorrow some surgeon is going to want a place to shove an ultrasound, and then insert a needle through my perineum (if you have to ask, use Google) to take tissue samples from that worthy gland.
I'm understandably a bit nervous, but would prefer to know earlier than when it's too late. It's a short procedure done under a local (thus adding to the indignity) so hopefully by tomorrow afternoon I'll be jogging and blogging again.
Just get a bit nervous when they include warnings like "bleeding from the..," "...can continue for up to three or four weeks," and "...is advised that you avoid intercourse for two weeks..." and other delightful bits like that...
Progress Reports:
1410hrs: Well, so far about 20 minutes and nothing's happened yet except that I've burped. I took the afternoon off work for this, because I didn't knwo how long the effects would take, how nasty they would be, and how long they last. At least if you ever have to take Durolax you'll know more about them than I did when I started.
1440hrs: Almost an hour. Suspense is killing me...
1540hrs: Now almost two hours and no movement yet. (Yes, pun intended here too...)
1810hrs: (Roughly) Worked. Until around 1840.
There. People at work sometimes ask me what shit I'm blogging about. Well, I've hit the lowest point, I've just blogged about exactly that...
Categories - ::/:: Edited on: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 6:46 PMposted at 2:56 PM Ted
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Open Letter To The "Half-A-Packet" Sugar Hoarders And Others
Hey we are civilised at work, we have filtered water and sugar sachets. And we have an incessant, immediate, and intractable war of difference over what these things are for...
Firstly, the "halfpack hoarders" who use half a packet only of sugar and then put the opened remaining half back in the sugar bowl: Hey folks! Guess what? I don't want to be the one who fishes out your half a packet of sugar and spills it all over the bench because you opened it!
For some unfathomable reason I have a deep mistrust of an open packet of unidentifiable white powder among my foodstuffs, so I wouldn't use that pack anyway.
And if you knew what was good for you, you should probably not trust an open sugar packet either - who's to say if that's the same packet you put in earlier, or if it's a packet now full of salt or laxative?
Secondly - the filtered water. 75% of people say they can taste the difference between filtered and tap water and prefer filtered water. The other 25% can't taste a difference. So logically, if the kettle gets filled with filtered water only, then the 75% that prefer it will be happy, and the 25% who can't taste a difference, won't care. Capisca? It's only laziness and disregard for your coworkers that has you filling the kettle with chlorine and dihydrogen oxide.
Okay that's my Tuesday Bitch over with, having spilled freaking sugar and then had to make a second cup of coffee cos the first one tasted like tap mudwater.
I've also realised that of the people who get on my bus every day, only about 5 would know who shot JR and maybe 6 would know what that referred to... Sheesh...
Categories - ::/:: Edited on: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 10:28 AMposted at 10:22 AM Ted
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Friday, September 02, 2005
It's Been Ages Since...
... I checked what people have been searching for:
Perc. Search Term
13.95% mongolian leederville
6.98% kakulas brothers bean shop
4.65% tandy m100 flash memory
4.65% west irianjaya fluoride
4.65% kiwi brand knife
2.33% inland surf
2.33% kublai mongolian
2.33% out of memory error has occurred
2.33% npotd
2.33% cino to go perth
2.33% cmot menu pratchett
2.33% brainboy emulator
2.33% pinsites
2.33% pisconeri
2.33% angry almond
2.33% kenny rogers roasters australia store
2.33% small dirigible
2.33% kakulas sister
2.33% kublai mongolian leederville
2.33% the interent bar in frankfurt germany
2.33% wisdom tooth cost price removal
2.33% northbridge guide kakulas
2.33% adultescents
2.33% rocco's cafe
2.33% transperth failures
2.33% mr. smith lounge
2.33% kiwi knives
2.33% sinus infection natural remedy
2.33% ilizaroff frame
2.33% pissing blood clots kidney stones
2.33% kiwi brand knives
2.33% music placecard holders
2.33% canning valevege market
Categories - ::/:: posted at 9:56 PM Ted
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