This week’s essay is “On lying in bed” by G. K. Chesterton.
Essay of the Week: 1/11/09-1/17/09
Reply
Monthly Archives: January 2009
They Wash Their Hands But Their Scrubs Are Dirty
From the Wall Street Journal…..
You see them everywhere — nurses, doctors and medical technicians in scrubs or lab coats. They shop in them, take buses and trains in them, go to restaurants in them, and wear them home. What you can’t see on these garments are the bacteria that could kill you.
Dirty scrubs spread bacteria to patients in the hospital and allow hospital superbugs to escape into public places such as restaurants. Some hospitals now prohibit wearing scrubs outside the building, partly in response to the rapid increase in an infection called “C. diff.” A national hospital survey released last November warns that Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections are sickening nearly half a million people a year in the U.S., more than six times previous estimates.
I never stopped to think about this issue before. But it does seem like doctors and nurses are awful lax about how they treat their scrubs.
Everything is Connected
“It is a continuing saga,” he says of the situation. “When this has happened in the past, Russia and Ukraine have figured it out and gas has started to flow again. That’s been the pattern, so we don’t really know if will differ from that or if they’ll get together tomorrow and gas will start flowing again.”
While the event is still unfolding, concern has already been raised on how this will affect U.S. fertilizer availability this spring. Chrislip says it is likely U.S. fertilizer supplies could be affected.
Why is this appearing in print?
President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.
I don’t understand why this article got printed. It is a known fact that the New York Times will print anything and everything without regard to national security. But the article reads like a bunch of Bush supporters were trying to do some legacy enhancement. In the process I think they damaged America’s national interests.
Particularly harmful was the article’s assertion that Israel has decided that it can not effectively attack Iran without US help. I have long suspected that was the case. But leaking an official assessment to that effect (or pretending you are) does not help the cause of halting Iran’s march towards nuclear weapons.
It would have been better had there been strategic ambiguity in regards to Israel’s ability. After all, even though everybody and their brother might suspect that Israel could not do much on their own, nobody can be quite sure given Israel’s past history. And that was useful pressure all the way around.
I suppose the article could be full of disinformation. In which case it is all well and good. But hard experience has taught me never to expect government officials to leak things for the right reasons.
Don't move next to a TVA dam
A waste pond at a coal-burning power plant in northeast Alabama ruptured early Friday, but the spill was quickly contained, utility officials said.
TVA official Gil Francis said the leak at its Widows Creek coal-burning power plant in northeastern Alabama was caused by a break in a pipe that removes water from the 147-acre gypsum pond.
This is the second waste pond run by the Tennessee Valley Authority to rupture this year. The immediate cause is all the rain they have been getting lately. But still, it does not speak very well of the way they are run.
The Grid Is Going To Fail
Damage to power grids and other communications systems could be catastrophic, the scientists conclude, with effects leading to a potential loss of governmental control of the situation.
The prediction is based in part on a major solar storm in 1859 that caused telegraph wires to short out in the United States and Europe, igniting widespread fires.
It was perhaps the worst in the past 200 years, according to the new study, and with the advent of modern power grids and satellites, much more is at risk.
“A contemporary repetition of the [1859] event would cause significantly more extensive (and possibly catastrophic) social and economic disruptions,” the researchers conclude.
Murphy’s law says that what can go wrong will go wrong. In other words, since the grid can go down, it is a mathematical certainty that it will go down given enough time.
Granted, it is theoretically possible that we could make the grid immune to the solar flare effect before next big storm comes along (whenever that will be). But I think it would be more realistic to count on pigs flying.
Score One For The Made In China Brand
Reid said his research indicates at least some drywall imported from China during the homebuilding boom years of 2004 and 2005 was made with waste materials from scrubbers on coal-fired power plants.
Those materials can leak into the air as gases combine with the moisture on an air conditioning coil to create sulfuric acid, which appears to be dissolving solder joints and copper tubing – creating leaks, blackening the coils and even causing the system to fail, Reid said.
From A Different Age
Something Is Wrong With The Little Emperors
China’s horrific pollution has been firmly linked to a staggering increase in birth defects according to a major scientific survey.
The number of Chinese children with birth defects rose by 40 per cent between 2001 and 2006, according to the National Population and Family Planning Commission.
If this is true, that is indeed a staggering increase. But I have to wonder if the increase might also stem from an increased accuracy in statistics. Hard as it is to believe, China has made some improvement in the accuracy of its statistics.
A good deal for those who don't need it
According to Bloomberg, these rates “are for borrowers with excellent credit who put 20 percent down” — but even so, 4.375% is I think unprecedented in living memory.
This is a great deal. I think it is below our likely inflation rate going forward. The only down side is that it is only a great deal if you keep your job. And if you a pretty sure you can keep your job and you have the money to put 20% down, you are not one of the ones who are hurting right now.