Health

Monday, April 16, 2007

global warming… its caused by us

You may have seen the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” that was put together by a politician.

In it he claims (and shows a graph to prove it) that the CO2 levels are higher than they have ever been - and not just a little, a LOT. It basically looks like an L on its side (___|).

Michael B. McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies and director of Harvard’s Center for the Environment, has a message: “This is not controversial,” he says. “It’s not just a gentle warming. And it’s caused by us.”

He goes on to say, “There is a close association between climate and the level of gases like CO2 and methane.”

We have raised the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to a point that is higher than at any time over the past 450,000 years,” McElroy says. “Arguably, it’s higher than it’s been for several million years. Concentrations of CO2 will climb to twice what they currently are by the end of the century. That’s a complete change in the atmosphere.”

People like that claim that its because of this or that - too much cars, too much asphalt, too much methane, etc. What it really is is just too much us.

Here is an estimate of how many people were on the planet earth for some different time periods…

Year Millions of people
-10000 4
-8000 5
-7000 5
-6000 5
-5000 5
-4000 7
-3000 14
-2000 27
-1000 50
-750 60
-500 100
-400 160
-200 150
0 170
200 190
400 190
500 190
600 200
700 210
800 220
900 226
1000 310
1100 301
1200 360
1250 400
1300 360
1340 443
1400 350
1500 425
1600 545
1650 470
1700 600
1750 790
1800 980
1850 1260
1900 1650
1910 1750
1920 1860
1930 2070
1940 2300
1950 2400
1960 3020
1970 3700
1974 4000
1980 4430
1987 5000
1990 5260
2000 6070.

Now, pop those numbers in your graph making program and see what kind of graph it makes.

Why, its an L on its side (___|). Why, its us. We keep exhaling that darned CO2.

I have a solution… we have a little over 6Billion people on the earth… lets whack 2/3 of them. This would take us back to the mid-1900’s in population and destroy that darned leg. Or, perhaps we whack 5/6 of them and go back to the mid 1800’s - surely that would take care of it!

I’m not being serious, of course. But, we need to keep the numbers in relation to reality. Politicians are politicians and will always be politicians, even if they can create the internet and show pretty pictures (or not so pretty pictures) and graphs of the CO2 levels - isn’t that what Ross Perot did, and we didn’t elect his big eared head in 1992.

Anyway, things are not as simple as “car emissions” or “power plant emissions” and people (all 6 BILLION of them) need to understand this. What if, for example, instead of whackin’ them all, we got everybody to hold their breath for one minute a day. That in and of itself would cut CO2 emissions by 1/86400 a day. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider that we have about 1000 tonnes of CO2 in the air, it has to help.

And that is provided to you by someone who is not a politician and has no plans of being a politician… so don’t vote for me for nothin… just hold your breath - say, from perhaps 3:05p.m. to 3:06 p.m.?

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Possible Scaphoid Fracture

This is not my arm.  It is a picture I found on the internet.  However, it shows the Scaphoid bone. 

Personally, I think it sounds like a disease. 

“Oh, Charlie, what’s wrong?  You look so pale!”
“It’s okay Martha, I just have Scaphoid.  Just don’t touch me or get my fluids on you and you will be okay.”

Anyway, it hurts “right there”! 

“Sometimes, a broken scaphoid does not show up on an X-ray right away.  When this is the case, the doctor may put your wrist in a splint and wait to take a new X-ray in a week or two, when the fracture may become visible. ”

Yeah, I’m not a doctor, and I don’t play one on the Internet either.  But is seems to me that if it takes a few weeks, then maybe its because it has to break further in order to show up.  Good thing this doctorin’ stuff is a science.  I would hate to think what it would look like if it weren’t!

“Keep the splint on and do not do any heavy lifting during the waiting time. Your doctor might also recommend an MRI (magnetic resonance image) to see the bones and soft tissues. An MRI can sometimes show a fracture of the scaphoid before it can be seen on an X-ray. ”

Yup, I’m in a splint.  I am not supposed to lift more than 10 lbs.

I go back to the doctor on the 25th.  If it is not “better” then they will either X-ray or MRI it depending…

Monday, October 09, 2006

school update

Well, the semester is officially half over.  This week is “fall break”, so no classes.  I have strong A’s in both Accounting and Micro.  Its nice to actually care about a class, put some time in, and get an A.  It is a good feeling.  I haven’t had to put much time in.  It seems that these professors “spoon feed” the material.  Perhaps it is where I am in my career that it feels like “spoon feeding” and that other students would think drasticly different.  I hope that is the case.  For, if it is so, then I am definitely going down the right path by taking these classes. 

Officially, btw, I am taking Accounting 201 and Economics 201.  Next Semester I’ll take Accounting 202 and Economics 202.  Then over the summer I plan to take Statistics and Calculus.  These will be the classes I need to have had before I can begin my MBA. 

What I am not sure of is whether I’ll wait until then to take the Graduate Exams and apply or if I’ll take them this December and apply for next fall.  I would do better on the exams to wait, I think, but I also want to get started on the Master’s classes as soon as possible.

If any of you had like $250,000 I could have, I would go a different path.  I would start the year-long MBA program in July.  It is an 8-5 mon-fri program that lasts a year.  It does not have the requirements of the 6 classes listed above.  I would need the money to cover my living expenses, insurance, etc. plus pay for school.  I can’t go without insurance (cf here and here).  Since I’m not aware of any rich uncles, I will continue down the first plan I mentioned.

This program looks interesting too.

Well, time to go to work.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Eating my Corn Pops and thinking

I was sitting at my desk eating my Corn Pops and thinking… Well, perhaps, wondering is a better word. 

I was wondering about when authors of computer viruses, trojans, etc. would finally be taken serious by the governments of the world and actually have something done about them. 

Then, I was glancing at cnn and I saw the following headline, “Bluetooth device to save stroke victims”.  I have not read it yet.  However, my imagination has doctors installing devices into people - pacemakers, health monitors, drug dispensers, regulators of different types, etc.  These devices are bluetooth enabled to allow the medical people to read information and make adjustments without having to physically touch the equipment.

So, bluetooth virus finds the device, and whamo someone is dead. 

Of course, instead of doing something about the virus makers - who are the true terrorists of this century - they will have the manufaturer of the devices start adding antivirus software.  People will have to plug themselves in every day and get a anti-virus update.  Then, while that is happening a 3-D image will project out of their chest advertising the latest ware - because that would truly be the last great advertising opportunity!

Perhaps I’m just being optimistic that the advertising and marketing companies will wait until someone is ill to use them as a human billboard… sigh…

Well, I have to go to work.  Have a good day all.

--Moose

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Trip to St. Joe

I got a 911 page today around 2:30 p.m.  I NEVER get 911 pages.  I did today.  My wife is having her infustion and her chest started hurting.  So, I got a call, I left work, got her and took her over to St. Joe’s.

They pulled blood from her PICC (nice to have that!), did an x-ray, and an ekg.

With the blood they tested to make sure she was not having nor had had a heart attack.  This came back negative. 

The x-ray was to make sure the PICC was where it was supposed to be.  The doctor said it was perfectly placed, which means that it isn’t inside her heart.  Also a good thing. 

EKG showed no abnormalities.  She has a heart.  It ticks. 

Got home around 7:15 p.m.heart attack