Miscellany Strikes Back

Miscellany Strikes Back

This past week, I've been working on a number of projects for Manual Labour. One of them was a rush job and took much of the weekend (and part of yesterday) to complete. But the customer's happy, Bonni is happy and I'll be happy when I receive more paychecks!

I've been reading some new Science Fiction books, as part of my judging for the San Diego Book Awards. I won't go into the titles of the books here, to protect the judging process. It's interesting, however, the way genre novels fall back on old, familiar patterns. These are patterns ranging from the Mad Scientist, to the Thing that Fell from Space, to the Average Joe who surmounts overwhelming odds by evolving into some kind of Uebermensch.

Last Wednesday evening, ABC treated us long-suffering viewers to a new episode of LOST. On the whole, the program was uneven in quality. The Sun/Jin flashbacks were mildly interesting, and the reveal about the miraculous conception was in-line with other miracles on the island, such as Locke's ambulatory recovery. The last few minutes of the episode were great, by contrast to what had gone on earlier. When Henry told Locke and Jack about the map, there was real tension in the air, and the apparently sinister intensions of Henry certainly added a much-needed air of tension to the program.

Is Henry Gale an "Other?" I tend to think so, for the following reasons:

1. "Henry Gale" is the name of Dorothy's uncle in Wizard of Oz


2. "Henry" arrived on the island via balloon, much the same was the Wizard arrived in Oz.


3. "Henry" mentioned that he met his wife at the University of Minnesota--the same university the De Groots (founders of Dharma) originated from.


4. "Henry" seems to be "psyching out" Jack, Locke, and the other Losties who encounter him inside the Hatch. He weaves a web of mistrust among the group, in a Socratic-Freudian, question-answer sort of way. "Henry" may have been one of those young graduate students shown with the De Groots in the Marvin Candle video.

The Final Class

The Final Class

Two weeks ago, on a cold and rainy night, I attended the final Critical Thinking class. It was a continuation of the week before, where we all gave our individual business presentations to Bonni and the class. For some reason, the second week's presentations fared generally much better than the first week's.

For the first week, I would say that about half the students failed to prepare their material. A number of them didn't even bother to make a PowerPoint slide show. PowerPoint was not required, but my suggestion to those who didn't bring it would have been to bring handouts, or at a bare minimum, write on the board.

The second week, people came prepared and used good techniques, like keeping their presentations on point, employing graphics, and injecting some humor into the talks. My talk was the last one of the evening. I deliberately waited to the end, so I wouldn't have to make Bonni rearrange the entire classroom just so I could get up in the front of the class. The aisle was just too narrow for me to easily navigate, especially with the projector in the way.

I think, from what I've seen so far, the Extension classrooms are poorly designed for writing classes. I intend to speak to Tania about it. I'm surprised that the writing instructors have not demanded better!

Anyway, my talk came after a really atrocious, rambling, off-point presentation by a student who had given basically the same awful speech to our Document Design course last summer. I anxiously watched the clock tick down as the speaker sought out her topic, but never quite discovered it. Finally, and thankfully, Bonni cut her off and let me do mine. I enjoyed giving my presentation very much; I kept it to exactly seven minutes (the required limit) and injected enough humor into it that everyone seemed to enjoy it.

An overall weakness of this kind of thing, was the "why we should care" problem. That is, it's hard to keep an audience interested in a topic they know nothing about, especially when it's a dry subject, like the need to add more employees to an unknown company's technical support staff. I can't really say what the solution to that problem is--more's the pity, because giving presentations is indeed a skill anyone in business should cultivate.

The Scales of Death

The Scales of Death

This morning, I turned on CNN to find out the latest news, but was instead treated to a live, non-stop coverage of the sentencing of Joseph Smith, the Florida child murderer. The cameras held an unflinching eye to Smith's grotesque face as the judge laboriously read over every aggravating and mitigating circumstance. His conclusion: Smith should die. Duh!

I tried flipping to MSNBC, but the same story played incessantly there. This is just another example of the media's preference for sensationalism over substance. Where was the useful news in the death sentence of a child killer and rapist? Yes, the girl's death was horrible and tragic, the perpetrator a brutal beast unfit for life.

But, I kept asking myself--What of Iraq? What of Katrina? Some 87 people died in Iraq in a single day this week. Where was the live coverage of that? Instead, after the Florida fatal charade, the network deemed it sufficient to show a 30-second clip of Gen. John Abizaid testifying before Congress that things aren't as bad as they seem in Iraq. They also showed us another short clip of Saddam testifying in his trial. This was the man we spent several hundreds of billions of dollars to bring to justice, yet all his proceedings were worth was a sound bite or two in between the murders of young white girls.

We no longer have a balance in this country between what is real and what is not. What's important? The salacious and violent. What's unimportant? Anything to do with "others" who dwell in a far-off land. That's why we have a former baseball-club owner as president, and a former lousy actor as governor. We lack a sense of proportion, when all information devolves into talking blondes regaling our senses with "infotainment."

A Very Busy Week

A Very Busy Week

This past week just flew by in a flash. Most of the time, I have been working on that remote-control manual for Manual Labour. It's been challenging and fun--I was born to be a writer all along. I only wish I hadn't spent 12 years working in another field--a field that paid well but turned into a dead end.

Much more fun than that damned Barcelona stuff. And just think, soon thousands of people across the country will be reading my splendid prose--not fiction, but a remote-control manual! But, the pay is decent (for an internship) and it's great to work at home. Although the comradeship of the office was one of its pleasant side-effects, not driving back and forth to work is a huge relief. The only commute I have now is to the biweekly staff meetings at the Starbucks in University City (in the Henry's Shopping Center).

I'm almost done with the Critical Thinking class. This Tuesday comes the final session. It's been a lot of fun, even though it was rather silly for me to have to take it. I did put my foot down on taking "Advanced Writing," and have instead talked the department into letting me enroll in an internship with Manual Labour. This will get 6 units out of the way, and let me work and earn credit at the same time. Also, Rehab will pick up the cost of my tuition AND the two expensive programs I need for the job: Framemaker and Illustrator. Framemaker alone goes for about $700, new. I could get the upgrade for $199, thanks to the Framemaker 6.0 I already own, but free is the best discount of all.

On the creative front, I did send off a little humor article I wrote, entitled "How to Talk to a Republican." We'll see if that gets accepted. Once I get paid and can afford stamps, I'll send another couple of stories out into the ether.

Having real money will be a nice change from my life of the past three years. There are a lot of things that I've been putting off--like a new computer and repairs to my van--that I'll be able to afford now.

Tomorrow, I've got to dig in and finish my final project for Critical Thinking, as well as write up the description of my internship. Also, I'm a judge for the San Diego Book Awards again this year, and have three cool books lying on my table right now.

Dubai, or Not Dubai?

Dubai, or Not Dubai?

Well, now that the Dick Chaney fiasco has settled down, the Bush administration has lurched into yet another public-relations disaster. This time, it's the leasing of our five biggest ports to a company from the United Arab Emirates. This has caused a firestorm on both the Right and the Left. This deal has left pretty much every American shaking his or her head about what Jay Leno called last night, "Crazy George's Fire Sale."

My own opinion is that the company's UAE origin doesn't matter a whole lot. While one of the 9/11 hijackers came from there, the vast majority were Saudis, and we don't see any attempts to boycott Saudi business. Even the recent cartoon riots don't seem to have touched Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

The real story here is two-fold. The first is the Bush administration's penchant for secrets. The deal smells fishy. The company in question has dealings with the Bush family. Was the whole thing a quid pro quo for Bush-family private business? The seething firestorm could have been avoided, if the administration had just bothered to seek congressional advice ahead of time. In that respect, it sounds a lot like the NSA wiretap scandal. Second, Bush complained yesterday about the "double standard" in our dealings with port-operating companies. Nobody complained when a British company had the contracts, the President pointed out. This is true, but then again, Britain is our second-oldest ally (after France), and hasn't attacked our soil since 1812. Why shouldn't we play a bit of favoritism with our closest friends? That assumes, of course, that no American company is competent enough to operate our own ports.

It seems to me that the best way to operate our ports--and maintain national security--is not to outsource the operations. But we can't expect much from an administration that has stood idly by while whole native industries are sent packing to India and China. The controversy ultimately devolves into the continuing story of the Wal-Mart-ization of America.

The Torturous Tale of LOST

The Torturous Tale of LOST

Last Wednesday's episode centered around Sayid, and how he became a torturer for the Republican Guard. Just in case we didn't get that point, the writers had Sayid announce, "My name is Sayid Jarrah, and I am a torturer."

As the flashbacks unfolded, it became apparent that the CIA taught Sayid to torture. Clancy Brown, of the late, lamented Carnivale, played the evil American government agent. He tricked Sayid into applying the screws to his commanding officer--although why the agent went through all that trouble was not made apparent.

Anyway, the questions about when and whom to torture were posed with a certain degree of artistic merit. Sayid's decision to torture the captive were not laid out in simple, black-and-white terms, the kind of terms you find in a lesser work, such as 2004's disgusting and depressing Man on Fire. It says a lot about our country today that torture is now the topic du jour. Whatever happened to all that "freedom" and "democracy" that Bush is always touting? Do "free" people torture?

The usual fallacy I hear from people who approve of Guantanamo is that "we have to torture those guys to protect ourselves." Then they pose the argument from fear that if a captured terrorist had information about an atomic bomb hidden in a US city, wouldn't we approve of torture to prevent the bomb's detonation? Worst cases make a bad argument. Evidence has surfaced that most of the captives at Guantanamo were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or--even worse--were brought to the prison based on the delirious testimony of those already out of their minds from torture.

The latest Abu Ghraib photos are even more disgusting than the earlier ones. Rumsfeld says this is old news and that the people responsible have already been punished. I say, the people responsitble--Bush, Rumsfeld, Chaney, Wolfowitz and Bolton--will never face punishment in this world. They have rigged the game so that only the low-born and petty dictators who have garnered their disfavor face the world's tribunals.

Work and Money

Work and Money

This week, I started working part-time for Manual Labour, doing technical writing and editing. Bonni has hired me on under a 1099 to do a contract job--and several more are in the works. So far, I've found the work challenging enough, and the people have been good to work with. I'm hoping this is the start of more employment, and income, in Clementsville.

LOST last Wednesday night was both good and bad. It was entertaining to watch Sawyer's Machiavellian machinations as he pitted Jack against Locke, but I didn't buy into it. It seemed to be a character shift. For months they've been softening up Sawyer to be a bad boy with a heart of gold. Now we're supposed to believe he steals the guns and heroin, disrupts the morale of the camp and weakens their position against the Others, just over an ego trip and some old pain pills? Doesn't seem likely. The Hand of the Writers was clearly too visible here.

The Stupor Bowl

The Stupor Bowl

I drove over to Bill and Vicki's this afternoon for the big game. Really, Mark Johnson drove me, which was very kind of him. I still haven't gotten back into the driving saddle yet.

The game itself was deadly dull. Clearly, Pittsburgh was the anointed team this year. The "all star" officiating crew blew two key calls in the first half--the offensive interference call against Seattle and the bogus touchdown for the Steelers. Still, even though the 21-10 score belied it, the game never really seemed as close as it appeared. Kind of like objects in the rearview mirror.

The companionship at the party was what made the game. My parents came, as did the Cazins, Mark Johnson, Fred Beecher, the Klinzings, Ruben Ruiz, and some of Bill's old buddies from work. The weather was great, and most of us stayed on the back patio after the barbecue, watching the game on a rabbit-eared TV.

Later, we went inside after the sun went down and the weather cooled off. I left for home about 7:40, as the game was over and all else were taking their leave. When we got back to my place, Mark and I said our goodbyes. He's heading back to Sioux Falls on the 6:30 AM flight tomorrow. He really doesn't look different from the old days, except his hair is grayer now. It almost seemed as though he hadn't been away from Mira Mesa for the past 11 years. I did miss Ellen, his late wife, who passed away in 2004.

Certainly the tinge of mortality hung heavy in the air tonight. Admittedly, most of these friends are older than I am (by 2-10 years), but you know you're getting old when one of the main topics of conversation is everybody's illnesses. Two of the people present have deadly cancers, and as Bill joked, "scar night" is just around the corner.

Ann Coulter's Fallacies

For this week's essay, let's look at the latest column by Ann Coulter. It's penned in her usual sweet, elegiac style and she titles it, poetically, "Alito ... Boo!" Certainly, if I cannot find a fallacy or a hundred in a column by the woman who recently called for rat poison in John Paul Stevens's cereal, I cannot find fallacies anywhere.

In her op-ed piece, Coulter's point seems to be that Democrats are wimps--or something. One is never quite sure of Coulter's point, because she strings so much invective together that there's hardly a simple, declarative sentence in any of her essays. Not one to beat around the bush (or the Bush), Coulter starts right off comparing the Democrats in Congress to "Saddam Hussein's vaunted 'Elite Republican Guard'-- the ones who ran like scared schoolgirls...." Further on, she talks about "NARAL ladies running around Capitol Hill with machetes."  And she makes sure to mention Joe Biden's "hair plugs."

Her whole essay is one shoddy, yet juicy morsel--fear and loathing served on a platter of blood and iron (in the Bismarckian sense). There are so many straw men, arguments from outrage and ad hominem accusations in Coulter's essay that it seems she really isn't trying to convince her audience of anything. Hers is a pseudo-essay, no more interested in truth value than were the speeches of Joseph Goebbels in the Reichstag. These scurrilous attacks purvey a pulsing, pounding, prurient form of rhetoric. It's so egregious that I have coined a new name for it: the Ann Coulter Fallac-io.

Works Cited
Coulter, Ann. "Alito ... Boo!" Ann Coulter.com. 2005. <http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/welcome.cgi>.

Why I Hate Republicans

Why I Hate Republicans

http://news.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBQSE7B2JE.html

Writers, Attack!

Writers, Attack!

This weekend, I attended the 23rd Annual SDSU Writers' Conference. The event was staged at the Double Tree Hotel in Mission Valley, from Friday night through Sunday afternoon.

All I accomplished Friday night was to arrive at the hotel, pick up my registration packet, and check on my scheduled appointment time for my meeting with a New York editor of the genre of fiction that I like to write.

I was really excited about the event. My first-ever consultation appointment! Hooray for me! The conference management had scheduled the appointment for 10:42 AM Saturday morning. And, it's not the kind of appointment you can skip or be late to. For those of you who don't know, a consultation appointment is what is referred to in the biz as a "pitch session." Upon entering the huge conference room, with tables lined up in neat rows, I met my editor and had 10 minutes to impress him with my novel synopsis.

I won't go into detail here, to protect the parties involved. But, to summarize, the meeting was a severe disappointment. It turned out that "my" editor doesn't do pitch sessions, so after that small detail was laid to rest, we spent the remaining five minutes discussing the banalities of the publishing game. No longer qualifying as a "newbie," there wasn't much I could take away from my meeting, except the disappointing feeling that either I was a fool, or the conference organizers had misled me. Neither conclusion was a happy one.

On the bright side, I had a lot of fun yesterday. First, I attended a seminar by Judy Reeves on flash fiction. What is flash fiction, and why should I care? Hahaha! Actually, given the public's short attention span these days, flash fiction is a genre worth exploring, for writers and readers.

After lunch, I attended a session by Scott Farrell on medieval arms and armor. It was such fun, Scott kept talking well over his 50-minute schedule and the conference allowed us to continue. He obviously loves talking about weapons and chivalric codes of valor. Harold brought his two boys, six and 10, and they had a great time too. Scott let them handle the weapons and put on some of the armor, which was more than I would have permitted if I had been holding the lecture.

A couple of other interesting sessions I attended were one by an agent, discussing the 10 criteria for a successful screenplay (successful being defined as one that sells). Another screenplay-related talk, by a woman whose name I can't recall, gave a brief overview of screenwriting essentials. One interesting tidbit: it used to be you would put your "inciting incident" at about page 30 of your manuscript. Now, it's down to page 15. What's next? Inciting incident in the opening credits? The prologue? The pre-release trailer?

Occam's Razor

Occam's Razor

I'm not taking a side in what follows; I'm just looking at the issue from both sides.

Today, in a senseless, fiery crash, seven foster children died when their car was hit by a semi driven by a man who "just wasn't paying attention." The youngest child was 21 months old. Children in the school bus also sustained injuries. When the deceased children's grandfather heard of the calamity, he dropped dead from a heart attack on the spot.

Which leads me to ask, given the principle of Occam's Razor, which explanation of the above events is simpler, more reasonable, and thus, more believable? Either:

1. The universe is a cold, indifferent place, where random events occur without regard to human suffering.


2. The universe is ruled by a single, almighty, omniscient Being, who personally cares for every inhabitant who's ever lived, and manipulates events according to an all-good, yet inscrutable plan that often appears evil to us.

It would seem that the only religion with an answer for this sort of dilemma is Buddhism, under the tenets of which "stuff (just) happens." Or there is the possibility of the ancient gods--the Elder Gods--from Baal to Zeus, who ruled capriciously and lustfully. Anger those gods, and they smash you to a pulp. Placate them, and they just might let you live another day. With those gods, there was no straining the brain trying to interpret every event as participating in some greater good, despite its outward appearance of evil.

LOST Sites Update

LOST Sites Update

In answer to the question posted by Anonymous, the Kingcross Web site is currently unavailable, as is the Snowman site. I assume these sites are renovating content, in anticipation of later developments on the TV show.

When Kingcross is up, you need to create a password and user ID to log on. To do this, just click on "Forgot my password" and enter your e-mail address into the form. Your password and user ID will then shortly arrive via e-mail.

Meanwhile, those of us signed up at the Oceanic World Air site received the following e-mail this week:

To all OWA MilesPlus Members:

Take a break this week. You need it. No secret codes to find in this newsletter, or any other kind of hidden messages.

Now that we are really getting to know the characters in LOST (or are we?), this weeks episode ("The Hunting Party") will make us think about Michael's behaviour, among others. Was Walt really talking to Michael, or is something happening to Michael that we don't want to consider?

Walt is nearby and will return, as will Desmond and Danielle.

Oceanic World Air wants to take you on a trip around the world on Flight 213. Flight 213 is a special B777 flight leaving LAX on Monday February 13th for destinations unknown. I can tell you that there will be 9 stops on the trip, and at each stop, there will be an opportunity for someone to discover a real clue to lead the flight onward to the next destination and closer to our ultimate destination and some real answers.

Reservations are limited - but not in the way you think. Anyone is welcome to board, but you will need to be close to the destination to find the real clues. Passengers that are not able to disembark at the stop can help those who can get off to find the clues. You may use a trusted friend or associate to find the clue for you. Everyone will be able to participate and help along the way. Hopefully there will not be any incidents on the way.

Our first goal is to answer the question - "Where is Alex?"  Our first stop will be somewhere in the U.S.A.

It's time to have a little fun. Rest your weary brains until Feb 13th and enjoy our in-flight show of the week - LOST - "The Hunting Party".

Regards,

Vincent D. Madison

Director of Corporate Communications
Oceanic World Airlines

http://oceanicworldairlines.com

Codex Alito Juridicum

Codex Alito Juridicum

It appears that Judge Samuel Alito will soon be appointed, or for the Religious Right, anointed, to the Supreme Court. Women, get your abortions now! Or get your coat hangers later....

Academically, Alito is qualified for the court. Princeton is no National University. And he has fifteen years of Federal judgeship behind him. Granting his intellectual qualifications, I would have preferred--and the country would have been better served--if the judge stood up for his beliefs before the Senate.

We all know he's against abortion and doesn't believe the constitution guarantees a right to it. He clearly stated this in his 1985 application to the Reagan Administration. Even his mother recently said so. So, why deny it now? Would Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and the Looney Toons of the American Family Association be so strident in his support if they did not believe he would turn the nation's civil rights clock back 100 years?

The Bush administration is one of the most incompetent, lying and corrupt administrations in the nation's history. So is Bush's Republican congress. With the conviction of Abramoff, there seems to be no end to the GOP's season of scandal. Even Pat Buchanan believes that the Elephants are on their way out of power, starting in 2006.  Yet, Roberts and Alito are 50 and 55 years of age, respectively. Long after Bush has slouched off toward well-deserved oblivion, the stink of his Supreme Court nominees will linger, like the stomach-turning stench of a clogged toilet in a gas-station men's room.

Critical Thinking Once More

Critical Thinking Once More

Last evening I attended the first session of the Critical Thinking for Technical Communicators course. The class takes place at UCSD Extension's La Jolla Campus and Bonni Graham is the instructor.

I think I will enjoy the class. Last night Bonni explained how an argument is not necessarily intended for persuasion, and how persuasion is not necessarily argumentation. Advertisements, for example, are persuasive yet do not make use of the claims, premises and conclusions of argumentation.

Her example, "Our president is a blithering idiot," illustrated how non-factual claims work. Facts are data about which two (or more) impartial observers agree.

Another point, also brought up in our eponymous textbook, was that although "all people are entitled to their opinions," not all opinions are equal. I think Bill Maher summed this up better on Real Time last year when he said "You don't have to present both sides of an argument if one of the sides is pure crap!" (That's a paraphrase, but you get the idea).

Cable News, as Bill Moyers has decried, consists mainly of talking heads who offer both sides of an issue, often falsely leading the viewer to the notion that both sides have equal merit. News degenerates into a kind of high school debate team formalism. Even worse, Bill O'Reilly frequently states that a guest, like Cindy Sheehan, is "entitled to her opinion," then cuts off her microphone and attacks her personally.

Disturbingly, I'm not even sure why a class like Critical Thinking is part of the curriculum at the University Extension level. As I looked around the crowded classroom last night, I noticed a range of people near my own age--a few in their twenties, many in their thirties and forties. They are of an age where they would have been in the Freshman composition classes I used to teach at the very same university. Have they forgotten what they once learned?

Or, more broadly, perhaps critical thinking should be required of anyone who wishes to exercise their right to vote in this country. The state of our political affairs would seem to warrant such an exigency.

Stereotypes Clichés, and Arrogance

Stereotypes, Clichés, and Arrogance

The other night, I watched a movie titled Rory O'Shea Was Here. The film is an Anglo-Irish production and centers around the lives of two disabled "lads" in Dublin who rent an apartment on their own. It's called "independent living," and is a goal of many programs in Europe and the US that help people with the disabilities lead more fulfilling lives.

I enjoyed the two characters in the film: Michael, a young man with cerebral palsy and Rory, a 21-year-old guy with Duchene MD. The characters were believable and enjoyable, up until the end, which I found rather disappointing. Rory, with an advanced case of DMD, dies during the film's final moments (sorry for the spoiler). While the scenes between the dying Rory and Michael are quite touching, I would have rather seen the movie take another course.

Yes, death is inevitable for DMD patients, but it's inevitable for us all. Our lives--the personal stories of which we each are the hero--are book-ended by two events over which most of us have little control and less knowledge: birth and death. It seems all movies about people with MD end in the inevitable sad death-and-grief scene. Why not, in the case of the Rorys of the world, concentrate more on the living that comes in between birth and death? The stories should be less maudlin and more down-to-earth. It's not that Rory's death didn't bring a tear to the eye, but the writers could have found another, less conventional way to end the film. Then again--maybe that's a task I should tackle.

Another good film is the old William Hurt movie, The Doctor. It's about an arrogant surgeon who discovers how the "other half" lives when he becomes a cancer patient. His self-assurance quickly dissipates in the face of the medical establishment's indifference to human suffering. Why so many doctors become arrogant is beyond my comprehension--after all, eventually they will themselves grow old and infirm and become patients. Medicine would seem to be a prime example of a field in which the Golden Rule should apply.

Finally, Steven Landsburg hasn't replied to my letter. Not too surprising. People like him cannot own up to their own mistakes. Humility and economists do not seem to go together well.

Do the Poor Deserve Life Support?

Do the Poor Deserve Life Support?

That is the question posed by economist Steven Landsburg in an article he posted in Slate Magazine. Below is the letter I wrote to Mr. Landsburg in reply:

Dear Mr. Landsburg,
As a ventilator user for over 23 years, I read with interest your article in Slate Magazine (http://www.slate.com/id/2133518/) regarding whether or not the “poor” have a right to use a ventilator. Not surprisingly, I take exception to your claim that ventilator use is a choice which society should treat like an economic commodity analogous to buying milk.

I am a Muscular Dystrophy patient with weakened chest muscles that require me to use a ventilator to assist my breathing nearly 24 hours a day. I began using a ventilator in 1982, while attending graduate school at the University of California. After becoming ventilator dependent, I continued my education and the university awarded me a Ph.D. in English and American Literature. Since that time, I have worked for 12 years in the software industry. I currently am self-employed as a freelance writer and editor. Without the ventilator, I would not have been capable of accomplishing anything.

The (wrongful) implication of your article is that everyone who uses mechanical ventilation is a cancer patient lingering on the edge of death. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many people like me lead productive, active lives in the community—lives which would be cut short if ventilators were not made available. Do not conflate end-of-life issues with quality-of-life issues. Your article vaguely recalls (in tone if not in substance) the Terri Schiavo controversy. Yet, I must point out to you that Mrs. Schiavo did not use a ventilator.

Many ventilator users require the financial assistance of Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California, where I reside). Ventilators are expensive pieces of equipment, which private medical insurance frequently does not cover. Since Medicaid is a means-tested program, nearly every ventilator user in the country is technically “poor.” As I write this letter, I am a “poor” person breathing with a ventilator supplied through Medi-Cal. I agree with you that few healthy people would voluntarily set aside some of their income for ventilator insurance, yet most of them would spend every dime they have while lying, gasping for breath, in some sterile hospital room.  

Is breathing a commodity? Is the very air we take into our bodies a commodity? Yes, taxpayers subsidize my ventilator use. I “ask someone else to come to the rescue” to the same extent you might if your house were on fire. Have you ever heard of John Locke? I assume you have.... All members of society engage in a social contract, else social Darwinism and an “all-against-all” mentality ensue.

You claim that, with the "house-on-fire" example, society should come to your rescue because it has an interest in protecting a whole class of people--those who live in your neighborhood whose house might catch the flame from yours. But, what if your house resides on 40 isolated acres in the desert? I assume you would still expect the fire department to attempt to extinguish the blaze, though no other class of individuals was in danger. Ventilators--you say--benefit only individuals and not a whole class of ill people. What of the whole class of quadriplegics who need mechanical assistance to breathe? By your logic, doctors shouldn't bother to treat anyone with cancer, since that disease is not contagious and no one else is threatened by it.

You state that “A policy of helping everyone who needs a ventilator is a policy of spending less to help the same class of people in other ways.” Life support is not a zero-sum game. Are you arguing that I should be left to suffocate so that little Tiny Tim can receive a new crutch? Please find me evidence—somewhere—that a hospital is denying service to some patient because I use a ventilator.  

Please, also make your best effort to avoid glittering generalities in your next Slate op-ed piece. Not all ventilator users are the same. We all do, however, have one thing in common—we want to take that next breath. In this respect, we are just like everyone else.
Best regards,
David E. Clements, Ph.D.

PS: For a lighter view on the subject, please refer to my article in the San Diego Union-Tribune of 2004: “A Little Humor Is a Breath of Fresh Air”.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Today begins the year A.D. 2006. Enjoy it while you can! If the Earth has about 5 billion years left before the bloated sun envelops it within its flaming, crimson cloak, then there is one five billionth less of a lifetime for our home planet than there was 365 days ago.

Meanwhile, the weekend has been rainy. The Chargers self-destructed in a meaningless Mudbowl yesterday, losing not only a meaningless game but very possibly their starting quarterback for next year.

My parents came over last night and we watched The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I don't think they "got" it. The books were much funnier. English humor is a tricky thing to translate onto the big screen. I hope, if they do a sequel, that they hire someone who can pull it off, like Terry Gilliam.

The LOST Game

The LOST Game

It seems my intuition about LOST was correct. A few weeks ago, I speculated that LOST is a combination of computer game, like MYST, and a TV show, like Survivor. This idea has been borne out by a CNET article, which you can find here:

http://news.com.com/2100-1026-5918146.html?tag=tb

LOST is a cross-media event. A key feature is the "alternate reality" game, of which LOST is one example. As fans have revealed on many discussion boards, an expanding number of LOST faux Websites sponsored by ABC lead adventurers on a merry chase for clues. I placed a few of these sites below, not because the list isn't available elsewhere in one form or another, but because it's helpful to have them all on a single page. This is good for my own reference, if no one else's.

The LOST sites (official ABC) that I know of follow:

Oceanic Air: http://www.oceanic-air.com/
Oceanic Air was the original LOST site, which I am aware of. It purports to show flight schedules and other data for Oceanic Air, but is really loaded with Easter eggs. You can find a seating chart that shows the castaways' names and where they sat on the plane, a page from a "script" for the show, and some pages of survivors' diaries.

Oceanic World Air: http://oceanicworldair.com/
According to the storyline, the original Oceanic Air went bankrupt after the scandal of the disappearance of Flight 815. Some time later, the airline was revived with a new name: Oceanic World Air. If you sign up for the Miles Plus program, you can get weekly updates from a character named Vincent Madison. The updates contain clues. You can also add your own theories to the Miles Plus bulletin board and earn extra "miles."

The Hanso Foundation: http://www.thehansofoundation.org/index.html
According to the film Locke discovered in the "hatch," Norwegian industrial magnate Alvar Hanso runs a foundation dedicated to furthering human progress. The foundation has active projects, which are listed on this site. Dig a little further, and you can find a message from a mole and some hidden letters. A hidden link under "Active Projects" leads you to the original Dharma Swan film, hosted by Dr. Marvin Candle.

King Cross State Police: http://www.kingcrossstatepolice.com
Once you solve the riddle of the snowman, you gain access to this site, which is run by Dr. Candle (supposedly). There is quite a bit of back story here, and the determined detective can spend hours sorting through clues, Websites and hidden files.

The Snowman: http://www.th3sn0wman.com
Dr. Candle's agent, the Snowman, has his own Website now. You can follow his investigations and even receive text updates from him on your cell phone.

PB Sales: http://pb-sales.com/businesses.htm
The Oceanic World Air site links to PB Sales as its publicity agency. PB Sales also has other clients drawn from fiction, such as Yoyodyne Propulsion. One of the other clients is an company called Merrick Biotech, whose site has been hacked by an organization known as Clonewatch. The gist of all this seems to be that cloning is a key component of the LOST mystery. Another PB Sales client, Geocomtex, has a site with some interesting things on the FAQ page.

The Santa Rosa Institute: http://www.srigenetics.com/srcareers.html
You can find this link under Careers on the Oceanic World Air site. Evidently, Santa Rosa has developed two new, controversial drugs: Genuflex (a life-extension drug), and Envigor (a drug that's supposed to allow people to extend their waking hours throughout the night). Clues indicate that these drugs are derived from zombie and vampire DNA.

From the Santa Rosa site, you can find a link to the Federal Vampire and Zombie Museum. This again hints to the zombie and cloning factor.

Mr. Clucks: http://www.mrclucks.com/
Mr. Clucks Chicken Shack is where Hurley worked before he struck it big in the lottery. His boss, Randy, turned out also to be Locke's boss at the box factory (which Hurley bought after winning the lotto). Clues change frequently: look for the buffalo.

Marvin Candle: http://www.marvincandle.com/
This is a site linked from the King Cross site. There's some code here, which you can figure out.

Globespotter: http://www.globespotter.com/
Check out the map.

Arelai: http://aralai.com/
A satellite photo map (Google) with coordinates (the LOST numbers).

Messing with MySpace

Messing with MySpace


I've spent the last couple of hours scouring the nether corners of MySpace. My curiosity has been piqued, so I decided to see what was available. So far, I've managed to find an old high school friend, as well as search for others. Unfortunately, it seems most people of a certain age are not up with the MySpace scene yet.

I also used the Thomas's MySpace Editor to add some color to the site. This will never replace my own home page on RoadRunner, but it's fun to play around with. I may try duplicate posts between my Blogger blog and MySpace one, if there's enough of an audience here. Or, I could just keep two separate blogs!

A few notes about MySpace. It seems SLOW. Editing and saving changes lags, as does watching videos or listening to music. I tried to find a band whose music I could post there, but the available free songs were--to put it mildly, awful. The music videos give "trash" a bad name also. Bustah Rimes and the Notorious BIG can bite my a**!

If you'd like to see my MySpace profile, here's the URL:


http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=34007287