INTERESTING: Horse shoe sparks explosion

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irishwoman-seriously-injured-as-horse-shoe-sparks-
explosion-in-Florida-oxygen-chamber-139206739.html

Irishwoman seriously injured as horse shoe sparks explosion in Florida oxygen chamber
ByPATRICK COUNIHAN,IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Monday, February 13, 2012, 7:35 AM
Updated Monday, February 13, 2012, 7:35 AM

*** begin quote ***

An Englishwoman has been killed and an Irish woman seriously injured after a hyperbaric chamber exploded at an equine medical facility in Florida.

Sorcha Moneley was flown by helicopter to the University of Florida hospital in Gainsville and underwent surgery after the accident at a farm in Morriston.

Erica Marshall, a 28-year-old English woman who lived on the farm, died in the accident which also claimed the life of a horse.

*** end quote ***

What a strange accident?

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INTERESTING: Attack at the Heart Attack Grill

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2101399/Customer-suffers-cardiac-arrest-eating-
Triple-Bypass-Burger-restaurant-called-Heart-Attack-Grill.html

Diner suffers cardiac arrest while eating a Triple Bypass Burger in restaurant called the Heart Attack Grill
* Paramedics wheel man in his 40s out of restaurant’s Las Vegas branch   
* He was eating a 6,000-calorie burger when he suffered a heart attack   
* Triple Bypass Burger contains three slabs of meat, 12 bacon rashes, cheese, red onion, sliced tomato and ‘unique special sauce’
By Graham Smith
Last updated at 11:10 AM on 15th February 2012

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There’s something “funny” about the guy having a heart attack at the Heart Attack Grill.

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INTERESTING: Before someone dies, what can you do?

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/28/my-faith-what-people-talk-about-before-they-die/

January 28th, 2012 11:00 PM ET
My Faith: What people talk about before they die

Editor’s Note: Kerry Egan is a hospice chaplain in Massachusetts and the author of “Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago.”

By Kerry Egan, Special to CNN

*** begin quote ***

As a divinity school student, I had just started working as a student chaplain at a cancer hospital when my professor asked me about my work.  I was 26 years old and still learning what a chaplain did.

“I talk to the patients,” I told him.

“You talk to patients?  And tell me, what do people who are sick and dying talk to the student chaplain about?” he asked.

I had never considered the question before.  “Well,” I responded slowly, “Mostly we talk about their families.”

“Do you talk about God?

“Umm, not usually.”

“Or their religion?”

“Not so much.”

“The meaning of their lives?”

“Sometimes.”

“And prayer?  Do you lead them in prayer?  Or ritual?”

“Well,” I hesitated.  “Sometimes.  But not usually, not really.”

I felt derision creeping into the professor’s voice.  “So you just visit people and talk about their families?”

“Well, they talk.  I mostly listen.”

*** end quote ***

That’s a great gift to just listen.

I’m not sure that this “student chaplain” hasn’t hit on the essence of attending a dying person. I’ve only been in this situation a few times and the essence of all that you can do for someone who’s dying is to just listen.

Argh!

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INTERESTING: Paradigm shift — the Praetorian Class

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

http://lewrockwell.com/orig12/kofod2.1.1.html

The Rise of the Praetorian Class
by Pete KofodCasey Research

*** begin quote ***

Legions and Lictors – the Praetorian Class

The Praetorian Class includes members of the Armed Services, federal, state and local law enforcement personnel as well as numerous militarized officials including agents from the DEA, Immigrations, Customs Enforcement, Air Marshalls, US Marshalls, and more. It also includes, although to a lesser extent, various stage actors in the expanding security theater such as TSA personnel. The main mission of the Praetorian Class is to keep the order of the day. This requires displaying an intimidating presence in their interactions with the Economic Class.

*** end quote ***

Hmm, very profound statement of the meme — Political Class oppresses Economic Class with the Praetorian Class.

Certainly, a paradigm shift!

Explains a lot about why us in the Economic Class are losing our freedom.

Argh!

Might be too late to reverse this trends.

Time to nuke the TSA.

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INTERESTING: The Heritage Foundation and OODA

Friday, January 20, 2012

http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/heritage-foundation-then-and-now

The Heritage Foundation Then and Now
Winslow Wheeler

*** begin quote ***

Since then, Heritage has come a long way in defense policy analysis, all of it downward. On December 26, 2012 the Director of Heritage’s Center for Foreign Policy Studies, Dr. James J. Carafano, published a commentary in the Washington Examiner, “What To Do about Obama’s Pound-Foolish Air Force.” Without saying so explicitly, he implied that the legendary Col. John R. Boyd, “a fighter pilot’s fighter pilot” in Dr. Carafano’s words, would favor what the good doctor wants: to reopen production of the $411 million F-22 and to buy more $154 million F-35s.

*** and ***

Not only did Carafano miss the boat on the technical differences between the F-86 and MiG-15, he ignored the even more important Boydian idea that, to win wars, people come first, ideas (i.e., tactics and strategy) are second, and hardware is a distant third. It was perfectly obvious to Boyd why two hundred F-86s achieved air superiority over 1000 MiGs in Korea and shot down 5 to 10 enemies for every American loss. Our pilots were simply far more skilled than the Chinese and Russians by virtue of better selection, more rigorous and realistic training using better tactics and better exploitation of the skills of experienced pilots, and far more flying hours (the much more reliable F-86 flew 40 hours per month to the MiG’s 10 or 12 hours). Had we changed aircraft with the enemy, our lop-sided victory tally in Korea would have been the same—an insight repeated almost verbatim decades later by the Israeli Air Force commanders after the 1973 and 1982 wars, then again by the U.S commander of the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Despite John Boyd’s seminal role in designing the F-15 and F-16, he was always the first to point out that technical differences in friendly versus enemy aircraft are minor compared to differences in people skills—and that applied with equal force to ground and naval weapons.

*** end quote ***

I love when I can find gems in posts.

Here is a “debunking” of the Heritage Foundation. The same Heritage Foundation that has been advertising on Rush and Hannity and pushing their Reagan connection.

And inside it is an excellent about why Boyd was a visionary. “People first. Ideas second. Technology third.”

A lot of businesses could use that insight.

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INTERESTING: Of course, the diktat is the problem

Monday, January 16, 2012

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-13/deaths-show-schools-need-power-of-the-epipen-margaret-carlson.html

Deaths Show Schools Need Power of the EpiPen
By Margaret Carlson
Jan 13, 2012 5:19 PM ET

*** begin quote ***

Proposed Solution

After a 13-year-old in Chicago died from eating Chinese food cooked in peanut oil at a class party, Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk introduced a bill modeled on the defibrillator legislation signed by Clinton. It would allow schools in every state to stock unprescribed EpiPens. In addition, the legislation would remove civil liability for the emergency use of EpiPens and provide incentives for underfunded schools to purchase them.

There no doubt will be legislators who complain about government spending and unfunded mandates. But to save a child like Ammaria isn’t hard. You don’t need to find a cure for a complex disease like cancer. You don’t need to revolutionize an industry, as Ralph Nader did with auto safety. All you need is empathy, common sense and a hundred bucks.

*** end quote ***

Of course, the “law” is the problem. It makes it impossible for intelligent human beings (i.e., principles; teachers; nurses; para-professionals; Mom; Dads; Janitors) to help their fellow man (i.e., the children in their custody).

Of course, the EpiPens, and anything else that’s needed, should be in place, ready for use, legal to use, and covered by appropriate liability relief.

Of course, the biased media has to take a swipe at the Tea Party and Fiscal Conservatives. (“Complain about spending and unfunded mandates”)

Can we point out that Gooferment Skrules, Gooferment diktats, politicians, and bureaucrats are really the root cause of this terrible tragic deaths?

If parents bought education for their children in a competitive market, you can be sure that the Owner of that school would have EpiPens and that the parent would have authorized the Owner of the school to take all actions necessary to protect their child.

Gooferment diktats, what you’d call “laws” — “laws” are like the “Law of Gravity”, the “Law of Supply and Demand”, or even the “Law of Unintended Consequences” — a real misnomer, are the problem and are not adaptable to changing conditions. A child has to die to prompt the Gooferment to do their job.

Politicians and bureaucrats are slow to react. In a free market, if your slow to react, you’re out of busniess.

So, stop the slam on the Tea Party and Fiscal Conservatives and aim at the politicians and bureaucrats who deserve the scorn!

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INTERESTING: What’s “possible”?

Monday, January 16, 2012

http://cafehayek.com/2012/01/two-caplan-gems.html

Two Caplan Gems
by Don Boudreaux on January 8, 2012

*** begin quote ***

I tell my students that time is too short to worry about what’s merely possible.  Nearly everything that is possible will never occur.  The range of the possible is enormously larger than is the range of the plausible; the range of the plausible is larger than is the range of the probable; and the range of the probable is bigger than what (if we’re speaking of the past) has actually occurred or (if we’re speaking of the future) what will actually occur.

*** end quote ***

“Possible”  >  “Plausible”  >  “Probable”  >  ( “actually occurred” | “actually will occur” )

BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt) …

∑( “Possible”  | “Plausible”  |  “Probable” ) = 1

What I’d call: “Someone always wins the Lotto!”

So, perhaps life is too short.

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INTERESTING: Ship disaster brings back a memory

Monday, January 16, 2012

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/story/2012-01-15/Prosecutor-says-captain-left-ship-early/52579406/1

Prosecutor says captain left ship early
By Laura Bly, USA TODAY

*** begin quote ***

In a chaotic scene eerily evocative of the Titanic — which struck an iceberg and sank a century ago this April — at least five people have died and 15 remained missing Sunday after a state-of-the-art cruise ship hit an unidentified reef or rock and toppled over just off Italy’s Tuscan coast on the evening of Friday the 13th.

*** and ***

There was no lifeboat drill after the ship’s departure from Citavecchia (Rome), and passengers complained that the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate and delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many of them to be released.

Some passengers jumped into the sea while others waited to be plucked to safety by helicopters, and some lifeboats had to be cut down with an ax.

Under U.S. Coast Guard and the International Maritime Organization’s Safety of Life at Sea regulations, cruise ships must conduct a safety drill within 24 hours of sailing with instructions on the use of life jackets and how and where to muster in an emergency.

But passengers are not required to attend, and cruise lines vary in how quickly they hold the drill and how stringently they enforce passenger participation.

*** end quote ***

I can only remember being on commercial boats a few times in my life.

One cruise (i.e., “Days Of Our Lives” theme) and two ferry rides in Switzerland.

The NCL ship out of Miami had the required drill as we were leaving the harbor. And, the Captain, who’s name I don’t know was a stickler. The bars would NOT open until all passengers were at their station, verified by their room attendant, and identified by their floor supervisor. The process took ten minutes because as the Captain explained that there were a two non-cooperating passengers and two other discrepancies in the manifest. He apologized and, when he said the non-cooperators would be returning to shore on the pilot boat, the crowd cheered. Then he dismissed us with “The bars are now open. Have fun.” I have no idea if there were any non-cooperators. Nor if there were discrepancies. Nor, it there was anyone kicked off. But the bars did open. And, I felt confident that this guy was running his ship. Maybe it was all show and “theater”.

The two Swiss ferry rides had their drill after every stop. The ferry paused as soon as it pulled away and their was an airline safety briefing. In four languages. Two different “ferry lines”. But it seemed like the were following the same script. And, the crews were serious. No kidding around. Before and after the briefing, they were down right jolly; during, stern.

Maybe this is stuff that consumers have to demand. BEFORE they buy. Self-defense.

Maybe the bad press will make even bigger bargains?

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INTERESTING: Amazon contest

Monday, January 9, 2012

https://www.createspace.com/abna

Amazon Breakthrough Novel AwardThe 2012 Contest is Here!

*** begin quote ***

Do you have an unpublished or self-published novel you know Amazon.comreaders will love? Enter your novel in the 2012 Amazon BreakthroughNovel Award for a chance to win one of two $15,000 publishing contractswith Penguin USA and distribution of your novel on Amazon.com.

*** end quote ***

Maybe next year. I’ll have one or more of the novels ready.

So much to do; so little time. Argh!

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INSPIRATIONAL: A negative lesson

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Video-of-marriage-proposal-gone-wrong-at-UCLA-ba?urn=ncaab-wp7324

Tue Jan 03 04:08pm ESTVideo of marriage proposal gone wrong at UCLA basketball game
By Jeff Eisenberg

*** begin quote ***

The most memorable rejection of the UCLA basketball season happened in the stands rather than on the court.

Midway through a 71-63 victory over Richmond Dec. 23 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, UCLA’s “Mistletoe Cam” cut to a couple seated courtside. The man reaches into his pocket, pulls out a ring and says, “I knew that I was going to do this since the first day that I met you, and I figured now was as good a time as any.” His girlfriend’s response when he gets down on one knee and pops the question? Well, let’s just say it involved an awkward pause and running in the other direction.

*** end quote ***

Hey, I can empathize with that fellow. First time, I proposed the girl said “no”.

I’d never ask where a rejection would be so public.

Maybe, like in my case, the second time will be the charm.

Argh! But you really have to feel for the guy.

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