DMC helping abuse the emergency system

I heard a radio advertisement for the DMC this morning touting their “29 Minute Guarantee”. I couldn’t believe that a hospital created a commercial that reinforces everything that Marie and I see constantly in the ER… that people have no concept of prioritizing or triage or limited resources, and think that whatever their complaint is, it warrants immediate attention. Basically, it’s that people have forgotten that an “emergency” in the hospital setting is an immediate threat to life or limb. (See Marie’s post about it here.) The DMC commercial (“putting the urgency back in emergency”) talks about how patients shouldn’t have to wait hours to see a doctor, and gives the impression that any ER that doesn’t immediately treat waiting room patients is understaffed and poorly managed. I think that it’s incredibly irresponsible of the DMC to try to sell their business by reinforcing people’s misconceptions about the ER instead of educating people about what constitutes an appropriate emergency, and counseling them to seek treatment at an urgent care or primary care physician’s office. It would be nice to be able give each of those demanding persons a tour of the ER to show them that each bed is full, each doctor is busy, and the folks with true priority emergencies are actually in much more need of care than their own non-acute, non-critical complaints.

Alternatively, we could stop being such a whiny, weak, demanding, self-centered society. If our Revolutionary War ancestors were alive today, they’d probably grab us all by the scruff of the neck, drag us out to the woodshed, and beat some reality back into us.

iRony

Yesterday we sent an ambulance to Google’s Ann Arbor office. The problem was that all of the maps were wrong for that area, showing roads connecting that didn’t connect and missing connections that were supposed to be there. So after going online to check Google Maps, I discovered that not only were their maps also wrong, but they still haven’t updated their satellite photos of this side of the state (Yahoo has very nice high-res sat photos of the entire state on their mapping site, BTW) so I couldn’t actually get a good-enough picture of the area to verify the roads. So our ambulance was delayed in getting to their office while, but finally managed to figure out where it was, no thanks to Google.

In other news… Google has an Ann Arbor office!

New JCats CD!

Although the Cats are playing our last gig in two weeks, we’re going out in style with a new album. Sunday, September 3 will be a combination of goodbye and album-release party, and as a thank-you to all our fans, friends, and family, we’ll be giving away the CDs. In the same spirit, here are the album tracks, free for the taking and sharing. Enjoy “One for the Road”!

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Lurching versus scampering

I have always been fascinated by robots and while industrial/autonomous/miniature robotics do figure into my future plans for my developing geology career, the current popularity of humanoid entertainment robotics is what sparked this particular post. It occurs to me that while manufacturers have made robots more mobile overall, they have yet to breach the barrier between lurching mechanical movement and fluid natural movement. Granted, there are some technologies which allow for more continuous motion (memory alloy and electro-active polymers), there is still the problem of high-level coordination of these “muscles” to create a natural-looking stride. While the new breed of toys are a fun improvement (Robosapien 2), I can’t imagine one actually being able to navigate through our house without at least the fine motor control and balance of the simplest of insects. So I’ll reserve my purchase for a time when robots can learn to scamper around rather than lurch from position to position like the animatronic figures in a Disneyland ride.

(As an aside, I expect I’ll be posting more about AI and machine learning in days to come, as I’ve already found that just watching Victoria develop, learn, and grow has provided quite a bit of insight and inspiration about these topics.)

Birthday bartending

So I got home tonight after working a particularly brutal shift and being held over, and I figured that I should have a drink in honor of my birthday. So I whipped up this concoction:
4 parts vodka (use only good vodka!)
2 parts Triple Sec
2 parts Malibu
1 part Sprite

I’m not sure what to name this yet, but it’s oh-so tasty, and makes a great nightcap!

In other news, our thoughts go out to Ken and Janet Priebe as they were admitted to the hospital yesterday to be induced for Ariel’s delivery. Could it be that Ariel and I will share the same birthday?

Vendetta and Netflix

A little entertainment update: I watched “V for Vendetta” yesterday and enjoyed it as much as some of my friends had. It was obvious that it was intended for a post-9/11, Iraq-war audience and that aside from being simply entertaining, had some very poignant things to say about the choice of security over freedom.

In other entertainment news, I see that Netflix is going to be hosting events in August where they will be showing classic films at the shooting locations, or at least, the locations that inspired the movies. I think this is a brilliant way to create a kind of immersive experience that is far beyond what could be achieved in a theater.