My long missing daughter. Between blindness and computer ignorance, I am unable to get the images up, but if you click on the image links below, some of my images from a chessboard about a year ago should appear. Now that I have heard you are alive, we will find each other.
Picasa Web Albums - Anthropositor - Eureka Ideas Unlimited
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Some Medical Dissent
As time goes on and I approach blindness, I am regularly surprised at the new resources that can be brought to bear with a little imagination. I could have had my first operation a couple of years ago. Almost all people in the same position would have. And if the surgeon I ultimately chose had not been seriously deficient on several really important counts, I certainly would have had her do the right eye in February of 2007. A fuller exposition of the details may be found at
http://www.skincell.org/community/index.php/topic,21968.0.html
Now, this surgeon never actually treated the eye in any fashion. Nor did she fully examine and question the information presented to her. Nor did she ever respond to me by phone until, finally, the last working day before the operation, I cancelled it. Then she was on the phone within a quarter hour, wanting to know what was wrong.
Since that relatively useless conversation, I have tried further communications, in the hope that perhaps my expectations had been too high. But I have concluded that my perspective was justified about her, and am thankful to conclude with finality that she will not be my surgeon or provide me with any other services. In essence, I threw a lot of money down a rat hole.
Throughout this process, I have had little success in finding a good candidate to replace her. And I have come to understand that I am not likely to be able to get a surgeon whose track record can be examined, and who is more likely to be receptive to a patient actually wanting to discuss the various elements of the operation in detail. I know this because I have been fairly active for these past two years in trying to actually communicate with other physicians. One particularly interesting candidate never responded in any way to my Emails. One would think I have been “blackballed,” as a patient who actually expects to understand the details of what is going on, and even, heaven forbid, to have some input as to what sort of lens is implanted.
It appears that virtually all of these physicians simply expect patients to pay virtually no attention to anything, but simply to do whatever is ordered.. A cataract is now considered the most routine of surgeries. According to the industry, 19 out of 20 times, vision is improved. Sometimes vastly, sometimes just a bit. Sometimes there are glare and other night vision artifacts which were not expected by the patient If the physician is board certified, the patient has no right whatsoever to understand any of the details of the operation, or even to share in the decision of what characteristics the replacement lens should have. In the case of Dr. Baltz, she never discussed my particular needs from my perspective at all. In spite of the fact that I wrote her quite a few detailed questions and supplied input which was not considered at all.
Had I ignored this, I would have been guilty of patient malpractice. In the past two years, talking to a great many patients who have had cataract surgery, I have spoken to quite a few who did not feel that the outcome was as good as they had hoped.
In many of these cases of moderate to severe dissatisfaction, the fault was not entirely with the surgeon, but stemmed as well from the patient taking no interest in the details, before the operation. In many, if not in most of these operations, you have met the surgeon once. He or she has done all the mysterious and arcane things following up on measurements that his office staff or some optometrist may have made. And if Dr. Baltz is typical, the patient’s individual needs are not touched upon at all.
Now, I should say, my experience with physicians in the past two decades, other than Baltz and the optometrist who verified my own assessment that I was going to need a new lens, is nonexistent. The stroke of several years ago, pretty much took care of itself. When my blood pressure began to skyrocket more recently, I simply studied the subject and brought the pressure back down to the normal range, without beta-blockers or other mechanical aids. Had I gone to a physician, I can safely say, I would have been on the road to a lifetime of daily blood pressure meds, at a buck or two a day, above and beyond physician charges and the tab for frequent tests.
Getting back to the increasing blindness, I have gotten pretty motivated to get at least one of the eyes done, yet still, I cannot find a doctor with whom I would be comfortable. They have all the power. I have virtually none, except refusal to proceed. Not entirely out of the question, the way the profession runs. Next time perhaps I will talk about the industrial side of the business.
http://www.skincell.org/community/index.php/topic,21968.0.html
Now, this surgeon never actually treated the eye in any fashion. Nor did she fully examine and question the information presented to her. Nor did she ever respond to me by phone until, finally, the last working day before the operation, I cancelled it. Then she was on the phone within a quarter hour, wanting to know what was wrong.
Since that relatively useless conversation, I have tried further communications, in the hope that perhaps my expectations had been too high. But I have concluded that my perspective was justified about her, and am thankful to conclude with finality that she will not be my surgeon or provide me with any other services. In essence, I threw a lot of money down a rat hole.
Throughout this process, I have had little success in finding a good candidate to replace her. And I have come to understand that I am not likely to be able to get a surgeon whose track record can be examined, and who is more likely to be receptive to a patient actually wanting to discuss the various elements of the operation in detail. I know this because I have been fairly active for these past two years in trying to actually communicate with other physicians. One particularly interesting candidate never responded in any way to my Emails. One would think I have been “blackballed,” as a patient who actually expects to understand the details of what is going on, and even, heaven forbid, to have some input as to what sort of lens is implanted.
It appears that virtually all of these physicians simply expect patients to pay virtually no attention to anything, but simply to do whatever is ordered.. A cataract is now considered the most routine of surgeries. According to the industry, 19 out of 20 times, vision is improved. Sometimes vastly, sometimes just a bit. Sometimes there are glare and other night vision artifacts which were not expected by the patient If the physician is board certified, the patient has no right whatsoever to understand any of the details of the operation, or even to share in the decision of what characteristics the replacement lens should have. In the case of Dr. Baltz, she never discussed my particular needs from my perspective at all. In spite of the fact that I wrote her quite a few detailed questions and supplied input which was not considered at all.
Had I ignored this, I would have been guilty of patient malpractice. In the past two years, talking to a great many patients who have had cataract surgery, I have spoken to quite a few who did not feel that the outcome was as good as they had hoped.
In many of these cases of moderate to severe dissatisfaction, the fault was not entirely with the surgeon, but stemmed as well from the patient taking no interest in the details, before the operation. In many, if not in most of these operations, you have met the surgeon once. He or she has done all the mysterious and arcane things following up on measurements that his office staff or some optometrist may have made. And if Dr. Baltz is typical, the patient’s individual needs are not touched upon at all.
Now, I should say, my experience with physicians in the past two decades, other than Baltz and the optometrist who verified my own assessment that I was going to need a new lens, is nonexistent. The stroke of several years ago, pretty much took care of itself. When my blood pressure began to skyrocket more recently, I simply studied the subject and brought the pressure back down to the normal range, without beta-blockers or other mechanical aids. Had I gone to a physician, I can safely say, I would have been on the road to a lifetime of daily blood pressure meds, at a buck or two a day, above and beyond physician charges and the tab for frequent tests.
Getting back to the increasing blindness, I have gotten pretty motivated to get at least one of the eyes done, yet still, I cannot find a doctor with whom I would be comfortable. They have all the power. I have virtually none, except refusal to proceed. Not entirely out of the question, the way the profession runs. Next time perhaps I will talk about the industrial side of the business.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
This from a young lady in Malasia.
I'm mathematically challenged
Folks, it is confirmed. I CAN'T do maths to save my life.
I had a few questions thrown my way today and as I attempted them, I realize how much, or rather, how little I know or can remember solving mathematical questions. SIGH. Here are some samples. Can you solve them?
The total cost for five items of repair work on a car was $195. Overhaul of the carburetor cost twice as much as the tune-up, brake pads cost one-third as much as the carburetor overhaul, and alignment and wheel balancing each cost one-third as much as the tune–up. What did the tune-up cost?
A certain preparation consists of liquids x, y, and z in the proportion 5:2:1. How many gallons of the preparation can be made from a stock of materials consisting of 25 gallons of x, 20 gallons of y, and 8 gallons of z?
The normal selling price of a case of soap is $10.00. During a special sale, the price was reduced by 10%. (Note: 10% means 10 percent.) This sale price was 20% greater than the cost to produce a case of soap. How much did it cost to produce a case of soap?
Alice's Action Plan: Borrow younger brother's maths book, start revising and attempt questions! at 9:18 PM Folder(s): Ramblings, Reflection
10 commented:
cleomy said...
You are not alone... you know why? in fact majority of Msians are just like you CAUSE the Questions are all in ENGLISH!!!
If they're in BM like "Satu ayam jantan bersetubuh dengan dua ayam betina, berapakah ayam hampsum yang telah terlepas dari tangan si pencuri?"
See what I mean? suddenly all makes sense if the questions are in BM!!! So blame on our parents for sending us to Malay medium speaking school
Thursday, May 17, 2007 Alice Teh said...
Hmm... that's like blaming the system, Cleomy. However, it does seem like a reasonable explanation.
I don't, for some reason, remember the concept behind all these maths problems. I do, however, understand why most of your thinking, in this case the example you provided in Malay, is adult in nature. I will not put the blame on you for we, after all, are humans. Totally understandable. :P
Friday, May 18, 2007 Anonymous said...
1)$45
2)5
3)$7.50
Friday, May 18, 2007 anthropositor said...
Dear Alice,
I am an unschooled old man who escaped from home very young. While I got most of my education in libraries and used book stores I was, before my stroke unusualy bright. I was once in Mensa and I have taught competitive chess for fifty years.
I am sorry to say I am ignorant of your native language so I am not sure of everything cleomy had to say, but I expect that she is at least in part, wrong.
While Anonymous's answers were technically corect, he, she or it was being a show-off, and was actually destructive to you.
While I cannot tell you anything about the formulaic style your instructor may require, uschooled as I am, I can tell you how to sort these matters out logically and experimentally. To my mind, that is at least as useful as math.
In the first and most complicated problem find out what you know and put it in some sort of logical order. You know the
Total cost=$195.
Carb cost 2x Tune=? (Biggest).
You know the smallest things are the Wheel Bal. and Align. and they are equal to each other.
So the Brakes and the Tune come somewhere in the middle.
Pick some kind of reasonable number for Tune and try to work the problem. Using $40, Carb would be $80 BUT 1/3 of that would give weird numbers with decimals, so you know they are wrong. STOP.
Pick a larger number, say 45 for Tune. Now try it again.
If Tune is $45 Carb must be $90.
Brake is a third of Carb for $30.
And Wheel Bal and Align must be $15 each. And you solved it without any algebraic nonsense. Now it should be fairly easy to put the answer in whatever algebraic form your instrucor requires. But always double check your answer. 45+90+30+15+15=195.
Now we go to the easier ones. You want to know what quantity of a solution of known proportions can be made from known stocks of chemicals. Either X,Y, or Z is going to be the limiting factor and will supply your answer. With unlimited Y and Z you could make five gallons with your known X.
With unlimited X and Z you could make ten gallons with your Y supply.
With unlimited X and Y supply you could make eight gallons with the Z supply.
The smallest number is your limiting number so you can produce 5 galons with your supply on had and you have leftovers of Y and Z when you are done.
And in your last problem you are staring with 10, reducing it to 9 and then saying 1.2 times "what" equals 9.0. Fill in 7.0 for
"what" and the answer is too small. Fill in 8.0 and the answer is too big. Soon you will discover 7.5 hits it on the head.
Learning to think with a certain logical precision may be even more useful than learning the "rules" your math teacher is trying to pump into the class. But do your best to pretend you did it his way. Your grades will be better.
Good luck to you dear. I think you are going to do just fine.
Anthropositor
Alice Teh said...
Dear Anthropositor,
Thanks very much for your comprehensive and detailed answer. Reading it through gives me a much clearer picture, especially using logic to derive at the answers. I have never thought of solving them this way. Plus they were multiple-choice questions and the answers were staring back in one of the choices given! Great thinking! Thanks for sharing. I really, really appreciate your input.
Doing maths is a humbling experience for me but not all is lost because now I have gained a new way of looking at things. It may be there all along, but just wasn't consciously paying attention to it.
Thanks again! You're a great teacher.
I'm mathematically challenged
Folks, it is confirmed. I CAN'T do maths to save my life.
I had a few questions thrown my way today and as I attempted them, I realize how much, or rather, how little I know or can remember solving mathematical questions. SIGH. Here are some samples. Can you solve them?
The total cost for five items of repair work on a car was $195. Overhaul of the carburetor cost twice as much as the tune-up, brake pads cost one-third as much as the carburetor overhaul, and alignment and wheel balancing each cost one-third as much as the tune–up. What did the tune-up cost?
A certain preparation consists of liquids x, y, and z in the proportion 5:2:1. How many gallons of the preparation can be made from a stock of materials consisting of 25 gallons of x, 20 gallons of y, and 8 gallons of z?
The normal selling price of a case of soap is $10.00. During a special sale, the price was reduced by 10%. (Note: 10% means 10 percent.) This sale price was 20% greater than the cost to produce a case of soap. How much did it cost to produce a case of soap?
Alice's Action Plan: Borrow younger brother's maths book, start revising and attempt questions! at 9:18 PM Folder(s): Ramblings, Reflection
10 commented:
cleomy said...
You are not alone... you know why? in fact majority of Msians are just like you CAUSE the Questions are all in ENGLISH!!!
If they're in BM like "Satu ayam jantan bersetubuh dengan dua ayam betina, berapakah ayam hampsum yang telah terlepas dari tangan si pencuri?"
See what I mean? suddenly all makes sense if the questions are in BM!!! So blame on our parents for sending us to Malay medium speaking school
Thursday, May 17, 2007 Alice Teh said...
Hmm... that's like blaming the system, Cleomy. However, it does seem like a reasonable explanation.
I don't, for some reason, remember the concept behind all these maths problems. I do, however, understand why most of your thinking, in this case the example you provided in Malay, is adult in nature. I will not put the blame on you for we, after all, are humans. Totally understandable. :P
Friday, May 18, 2007 Anonymous said...
1)$45
2)5
3)$7.50
Friday, May 18, 2007 anthropositor said...
Dear Alice,
I am an unschooled old man who escaped from home very young. While I got most of my education in libraries and used book stores I was, before my stroke unusualy bright. I was once in Mensa and I have taught competitive chess for fifty years.
I am sorry to say I am ignorant of your native language so I am not sure of everything cleomy had to say, but I expect that she is at least in part, wrong.
While Anonymous's answers were technically corect, he, she or it was being a show-off, and was actually destructive to you.
While I cannot tell you anything about the formulaic style your instructor may require, uschooled as I am, I can tell you how to sort these matters out logically and experimentally. To my mind, that is at least as useful as math.
In the first and most complicated problem find out what you know and put it in some sort of logical order. You know the
Total cost=$195.
Carb cost 2x Tune=? (Biggest).
You know the smallest things are the Wheel Bal. and Align. and they are equal to each other.
So the Brakes and the Tune come somewhere in the middle.
Pick some kind of reasonable number for Tune and try to work the problem. Using $40, Carb would be $80 BUT 1/3 of that would give weird numbers with decimals, so you know they are wrong. STOP.
Pick a larger number, say 45 for Tune. Now try it again.
If Tune is $45 Carb must be $90.
Brake is a third of Carb for $30.
And Wheel Bal and Align must be $15 each. And you solved it without any algebraic nonsense. Now it should be fairly easy to put the answer in whatever algebraic form your instrucor requires. But always double check your answer. 45+90+30+15+15=195.
Now we go to the easier ones. You want to know what quantity of a solution of known proportions can be made from known stocks of chemicals. Either X,Y, or Z is going to be the limiting factor and will supply your answer. With unlimited Y and Z you could make five gallons with your known X.
With unlimited X and Z you could make ten gallons with your Y supply.
With unlimited X and Y supply you could make eight gallons with the Z supply.
The smallest number is your limiting number so you can produce 5 galons with your supply on had and you have leftovers of Y and Z when you are done.
And in your last problem you are staring with 10, reducing it to 9 and then saying 1.2 times "what" equals 9.0. Fill in 7.0 for
"what" and the answer is too small. Fill in 8.0 and the answer is too big. Soon you will discover 7.5 hits it on the head.
Learning to think with a certain logical precision may be even more useful than learning the "rules" your math teacher is trying to pump into the class. But do your best to pretend you did it his way. Your grades will be better.
Good luck to you dear. I think you are going to do just fine.
Anthropositor
Alice Teh said...
Dear Anthropositor,
Thanks very much for your comprehensive and detailed answer. Reading it through gives me a much clearer picture, especially using logic to derive at the answers. I have never thought of solving them this way. Plus they were multiple-choice questions and the answers were staring back in one of the choices given! Great thinking! Thanks for sharing. I really, really appreciate your input.
Doing maths is a humbling experience for me but not all is lost because now I have gained a new way of looking at things. It may be there all along, but just wasn't consciously paying attention to it.
Thanks again! You're a great teacher.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Food For Thought
Along with my No Till Farming pilot studies, utilizing exotic and wild plants, I am working on ecologically sound bioswale methods designed to capture rain more efficiently, reducing runoff which contributes to the potential for flooding.
The crop I have been most successful with, from virtually every perspective is Shmooo. The seeds have been harvested by native peoples for many centuries. There is also some evidence that a certain number of people have also eaten the foliage, both raw and cooked. Because of the ease with which the plant is grown, in the absence of conventional farming equipment and labor, this plant now takes up 2/3 of my research time and effort.
I have worked with other crops that have developed little real potential as a major food source, with only the advantage that they will grow well without painstaking cultivation. The wild Indian strawberries are bland small berries. And it would take an eighth of an acre to provide me with enough for my own household. Wild chives? They are fine, and I use them all the time, but certainly they are not an important main food source. The Taro root? Grows well and without effort, but not really a pleasant tasting vegetable from my perspective. All the other exotic crops I have experimented with have only marginal value from the standpoint of feeding the world.
Only Shmooo could provide excellent nutrition for vast numbers of people without industrial or skilled farming, with the only real labor in the harvesting. Only Shmooo has the culinary characteristics that could easily fit into a wide variety of multicultural diets. And of all the crops I have experimented with, only Shmooo contains such dense and well balanced nutrition that in times of emergency or famine, one could literally survive and thrive on it alone as a feed supply.
My first experiments (two years worth) were hydroponic, seeing how well it thrived grown in conjunction with a great variety of other plants grown with the extremely high overcrowding and density which would be required for a crop that could be grown in a space environment. I cannot think of a better crop with which to feed future space colonists, providing both grain and edible foliage, And although I have not done it yet, there is no doubt that the stalks could be fermented into cellulosic alcohol, a commodity that I expect space people will find useful.
I would not be at all surprised if Shmooo wound up being the main agricultural food crop in space.
But with the New Depression, our attention needs to turn for now to how to better feed the population of Earth. As a food grain, as a vegetable, as a spice, Shmooo has the right stuff to solve the biggest problem facing us all. The inevitability of widespread famine.
The crop I have been most successful with, from virtually every perspective is Shmooo. The seeds have been harvested by native peoples for many centuries. There is also some evidence that a certain number of people have also eaten the foliage, both raw and cooked. Because of the ease with which the plant is grown, in the absence of conventional farming equipment and labor, this plant now takes up 2/3 of my research time and effort.
I have worked with other crops that have developed little real potential as a major food source, with only the advantage that they will grow well without painstaking cultivation. The wild Indian strawberries are bland small berries. And it would take an eighth of an acre to provide me with enough for my own household. Wild chives? They are fine, and I use them all the time, but certainly they are not an important main food source. The Taro root? Grows well and without effort, but not really a pleasant tasting vegetable from my perspective. All the other exotic crops I have experimented with have only marginal value from the standpoint of feeding the world.
Only Shmooo could provide excellent nutrition for vast numbers of people without industrial or skilled farming, with the only real labor in the harvesting. Only Shmooo has the culinary characteristics that could easily fit into a wide variety of multicultural diets. And of all the crops I have experimented with, only Shmooo contains such dense and well balanced nutrition that in times of emergency or famine, one could literally survive and thrive on it alone as a feed supply.
My first experiments (two years worth) were hydroponic, seeing how well it thrived grown in conjunction with a great variety of other plants grown with the extremely high overcrowding and density which would be required for a crop that could be grown in a space environment. I cannot think of a better crop with which to feed future space colonists, providing both grain and edible foliage, And although I have not done it yet, there is no doubt that the stalks could be fermented into cellulosic alcohol, a commodity that I expect space people will find useful.
I would not be at all surprised if Shmooo wound up being the main agricultural food crop in space.
But with the New Depression, our attention needs to turn for now to how to better feed the population of Earth. As a food grain, as a vegetable, as a spice, Shmooo has the right stuff to solve the biggest problem facing us all. The inevitability of widespread famine.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
My own personal perspective about philanthropy is that it is not just about money and the organizations set up to collect it, convert it to other forms and distribute to those in need.
During this conversion, profit-takers step in for a big bite of the apple. A couple of examples:
Little packets of electrolytes and minerals are available to add to clean water to feed babies who are in the process of dying from diarrhia. Millions of babies die each year from this cause. One of the problems is, without the clean, potable water, these babies are still at high risk of dying.
Each of the packets is enough to provide a dying child with a liter of remineralizing fluid (presuming an available source of the clean water) for about a dime. It strikes me that the value of those packets is closer to perhaps a cent and a half. The other 85% is profit. You decide whether that is "excess" profit.
Starvation, also a very big issue involving millions upon millions of children, can also be prevented or reversed for about a dollar a day per child.
Foil packets of peanut butter mixed with powdered milk, other vegetable fats, minerals and vitamins really do the job of saving lives. They do it well. Reliably. The packets keep well, needing no refrigeration. I believe considerable cost savings can be had by tinkering with the design of the product, making it even more useful and effective.
If the costs for these two products were brought down substantially, a great many more children could be saved. But since philanthropic givers do not have too much say in how their money is actually spent and do not pay much attention to this element, there is considerable room for profit-takers to make money. What was originally philanthropy becomes capitalism.
Twenty four years ago, I developed a prophylaxis for viruses like influenza and rhinoviruses (the common cold)and some other airborne infectious and allergic agents. I tested it for six years on myself, my family and my friends. Then, since it worked well, I started to teach others.
Now thousands of people do the same thing. I would, of course, be happier it the numbers were in the millions. With the potential for SARS and Avian Flu pandemics, as well as other evolving and emerging infectious diseases always threatening, I count this as one of the most important successes of my life. I have personally spent many thousands of hours teaching this procedure to others
I personally write no checks to charities. I help the people who need it that are within my reach. Directly. And I help with ideas, which I have in much greater surplus than money.
Admittedly, that doesn't do too much for starving babies on the other side of the world, but at least I know that the bulk of the money I spend charitably is actually doing good rather than enriching profit-takers. Not only that, but actually seeing the results of what I do galvanizes me to further efforts.
I say, find something you can do to help which uses your efforts along with your money. And be prepared to be philanthropic with your ideas as well as with your money. And when you do give money, pay some close attention to what the recipient agency is actually doing with the resources.
Now I am going to return to my work on cataracts, the leading cause of blindess throughout the world.
If your vision is beginning to cloud a bit, you might want to take some prudent actions before surgery is the only remaining option.
With regard to my right eye, with my own diagnosis of cataracts confirmed by an optometrist as requiring surgical intervention, things have improved, at least up to now, with only my own measures. This is something I was told, in no uncertain terms, would not happen (by a surgeon who stood to make several thousands of dollars for a very short operation.)
What is the national annual cost? In the billions. One thing seems pretty clear. There is little apparent philanthropy on the part of the ophthalmic specialty in medicine. Nor is there much cooperation with patients who wish to know in any detail, each of the steps of the operation, and the rationale behind them. To my mind, this is part of real informed consent.
But from the doctors perspective, this is an indicator of an uncooperative patient with expectations which are unrealistic. I note too, that with respect to Dr. Baltz of Little Rock, a physician who I selected with virtually no information availabe about her skills, it was virtually impossible to get her even to return my calls. I got only one return call from her, and only after canceling the scheduled surgery. Then she was on the line in eleven minutes, but our association was by that time no longer repairable. I would not now employ her services.