Friday, December 26, 2014

modern medicine

my biggest issue with trusting modern medicine is i've worked in health care since i was a teenager and it is not the caring compassionate life saving experience it should be... it is a business, quite cutthroat, and an industry... medical science is mostly about manufacturing and selling product from drugs to equipment to machines... that is not to say there is no value in the drugs or equipment or machines, but i know first hand, second hand, and in too many ways that the priority is the budget, like most aspects of our world from religion to breakfast cereal, it's all about the money... increasing revenue... it is done by minimizing insurance risks, reducing time spent with each patient, and selling product... we are heading for online computerize diagnoses and treatment, warehousing the old, and assembly line medicine... there is no profit in cures, the profit is in continued treatment which is why the system is design to treat symptoms and not cure diseases... take this pill you'll feel better and better yet, you'll be back again real soon cuz you're gonna need more of those pills... and more treatments... forever until you die... we'll charge you after that too... have i started ranting yet?... (see Dr. Robert Kehoe, General Motors, lead (the metal), and gasoline... and let's not even get started on cigarettes, alcohol, and you name it... trust industry?... not even close)...

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Friday, December 12, 2014

waiting for brighthouse again

while i wait for a brighthouse internet technical support voice to come on the phone, i grumble here with you hoping the magical moments that would have been tonight are not stolen by my so called friends at brighthouse... to depend on the internet connection for sharing these words truly brings the reality of how powerless we are to actually communicate across cyberspace whenever and however we want to we truly are... beyond the power to sit across from each other and have a conversation, we are completely dependant on others, in this day and age mostly out of control corporations, to grant us the means to communicate any other way... the phone company, the cable company, the internet service providers... they have the power to, at the flick of a switch, send us back into the stone ages (or at least the 19th century) in terms of how we communicate with each other... pony express, anyone?...

it has been eight minutes and forty two seconds, approximately, and there has been no sound from the phone since the voice said it was connecting me to an internet support technician and the phone says the call is still connected...

so i ate a peach yogurt that i would not have eaten and finally a tech support person comes on and asks for the same information that the recorded voice already had (are automated recorded voices really more intelligent than humans?) and after sending a series of signals the allegedly human voice claimed to have found a note about some maintenance work being done on the internet in my area and that is likely causing my outage and the note the human voice found said it is anticipated the work will continue until 6am, or at least five hours, and the voice apologized for the inconvenience and asked if there was anything else my friends at brighthouse could do and i asked for a credit for my inconvenience and whil waiting for the credit to process i suggested that brighthouse offer an option that other companies (like banks) do that send an automated text to a customer cell phone when service interruptions occur, especially when they are scheduled maintenance... the human voice said she put that in a suggestions box with a bit of a chuckle which suggested the whole finding of the note about maintenance might have been a lie just to say the internet will be back up and running any time now, or at least by morning, so stop trying to use it and leave us alone, friend...

i get a tech message from my bank every time i use my credit card as any random gas pump (among other reasons), so cn it be so challenging to write a program that sends a text message to selected telephone numbers (customer's wh've requested such notifications) whenever internet service is interrupted in an area?... apparently it's beyond the technical savvy (or customer service) of brighthouse... they may be not so bright, alas...

so anyway, the human voice reads me the suggestion she allegedly put into some sort of customer suggestion box (i picture a waste paper basket or toilet icon on their screen, if it exists) and then asks if there is anything else she can help me with tonight... i reminded her about the credit for my inconvenience and she tells me they upgraded all the cable in the area to fiber optics which will increase my internet speed at no charge, rambles on a bit more, apologizes for my inconvenience once again, and then asks me again if there is anything else she can do for me tonight... i resisted the opening and asked once again about the credit and she said she gave me two days credit... she's lucky i was in a good mood...

alternatives welcome...

Sunday, December 7, 2014

ncaa follies

first year of the new playoff system by select committee and it is a clear failure... it is set up for easy failure since there are four spits in the playoffs and there are five power conferences so without a doubt one of the power conferences will be out of the playoffs... and this first year it is worse than that as the only conference without a conference championship has two viable teams deserving a shot and not having a conference championship means they can back their way in... tcu plays a 10 loss team in their final game and win big as expected, but their one loss comes to baylor who beats a 10 win team who is ranked ninth in the country... baylor beat tcu head to head... the conference rules state the winner of a head to head game represents the conference if two teams finish with the same record... yet the committee ignores the written rules and places tcu thirds... meanwhile, the current national champions are still undefeated, have a 20+ game winning streak, and they are ranked fourth... so an undefeated national champion is ranked 4th, a team who lost to #6 is ranked 3rd against the conference rules, and two one loss teams are ranked one and two... winning definitely isn't everything...

they need an eight team playoff... every conference needs a conference championship game... the conference champions get five of the eight spots... then the "special committee" can choose the three best teams from the rest... by the 8-9 spots the debated will not be nearly as harsh and the unfairness will not be nearly as clear...

Rankings as the "special committee" had it going into this week (and what each team did this week):

1. Alabama 12-1 beat #16 Missouri (10-3) 42-13 in SEC Championship game
2. Oregon 12-1 beat #7 Arizona (10-3) 51-13 in PAC 12 Championship game
3. TCU 11-1 beat unranked Iowa St (2-10 season record) 55-3 in last game
4. Florida St 13-0 Current National Champions, undefeated, beat #11 Georgia Tech 37-35 in ACC Championship game
5. Ohio State 12-1 beat #13 Wisconsin (10-3) 59-0 in Big 10 Championship game
6. Baylor 11-1 beat TCU during season, beat #9 Kansas St (10-3) 38-27 in last game

Rankings as I see it:

1. Florida St 13-0 respect the champions and the championship. Current National Champions, undefeated, beat #11 Georgia Tech (10-3) 37-35 in ACC Championship game
2. Oregon 12-1 beat #7 Arizona (10-3) 51-13 in PAC 12 Championship game
3. Alabama 12-1 beat #11 Missouri (10-3) 42-13 in SEC Championship game
4. Ohio State 12-1 beat #13 Wisconsin (10-3) 59-0 in Big 10 Championship game SOS 45
5. Baylor 11-1 beat TCU during season, beat #9 Kansas St (10-3) 38-27 in last game (tied TCUr for conference lead) SOS 54
6. TCU 11-1 beat unranked Iowa St (2-10 season record) in last game (tied Baylor for conference lead) SOS 59

deciding 4, 5, and 6 went like this... the SOS (strength of schedule) puts Ohio State ahead of Baylor and TCU even without the Championship week results... Baylor and TCU chose to play no challenging games in non-conference games... their conference chooses to avoid a championship game... for the record, the Big 12 conference rules state that when two teams finish with the same record, the conference representative as champion is the decided by a head to head game. live with that tcu fans, or change your conference rules...

best teams?... that is decided on the field, not in a conference room... in a conference room or any voting system, too much politics, favoritism, commercialism, money, and pressures unrelated to the game on the field influence decisions... unfortunately, one of the five big conferences must be left out of a four team playoff... it is a set up for failure... eight team playoff is the only option to decide who is best... otherwise, it's all too influenced by conference room opinion as it has been for many many years...

I say, short of an eight team playoff (my first preference) that would include all six and two others, Baylor should play TCU again to decide the conference championship, then with winner, Alabama, Oregon, and Ohio State play a four game playoff with the winner playing the current undefeated national chamionship... that way the national championship itself is respected and the best team is decided on the field...