Writers Elbow

I’ve Become a Different Person.

2008-01-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

I am a product of the rural Midwest. I grew up in central Indiana in a cross road community that was even smaller than TV’s Hooterville. There was a two room school house where I attended first grade, general store, a neighbor who owned a small farm, another who worked as carpenter, the community phone company where the switchboard operator(yes we had crank phones our number was three longs and a short) lived and my parents house with a small mechanics shop my father ran.

Life there was, as you might imagine, very different than the big city. Our house was never locked; there wasn’t even a dead bolt on the doors. I seriously doubt that there even was a key to lock them. I was raised to respect anyone older than me. I didn’t know a single bad person. We were a work all week and church on Sunday family occasionally going to “town” for shopping when Mom dictated.

I retired in June of 2003 and moved away from the Midwest. Since then I have had time to reflect on where I came from and how I got here. I have come to realize than I am completely different person than the one that l grew up in that unbelievable small community in Indiana. No longer do I blindly trust and respect those older than me as I was raised. Frankly I have learned not to trust anyone especially professionals!

Since retiring, a short list of issues contains; an incompetent lawyer I hired to do estate planning, a phone company that can’t figure out how to separate area codes from prefixes, a dentist that over treated, ruined my tooth and lied to the insurance company about the treatment provided. Dentists are number one on my list of not to be trusted. I have to include in my short list the customer service reps that you get when you call for help with an issue you might have with a product or service. Not only can you not understand what they say when you finally do get the information is usually bogus. Hardly a month goes by that I don’t run into total incompetence.

A major concern I have is our healthcare. What if one of us becomes majorly (sic) ill? Will my healthcare professional correctly identify the problem? I do know one thing for certain, no one is going to pick, poke, cut, medicate, drill or fill until I fully understand all about it. I won’t engage the services of any professional before first researching the subject to my complete understanding.

5 years ago I wouldn’t have thought of such things!

So, here I am wondering how I became diametrically opposite of what I used to be. My wife and I have discussed this at great length. We can’t decide if it’s just the place we now live or if it’s something that exists everywhere and we never noticed it during our working days because we were simply too busy to notice.

Is this a side effect of retirement? Is the first stage of senility? I can’t help but wonder if any other retirees have noticed the same things I have?

Is your Dentist a Salesman/Thief in Disguise?

2007-09-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

Apart from drilling, filling and billing it seems the dentists’ creed should be modified to read drill, fill, bill and withhold. Of course withhold doesn’t rhyme so perhaps that makes it easier not to include it. And withhold they do, both from the creed and the patient.

What do they withhold, well almost anything that has to do with bolstering their profit or commission. They always try to pawn off the highest priced treatment they can, they over treat and I have even caught them cheating the insurance company. Most importantly they withhold valuable information that could dramatically improve your dental health.

Has your dentist ever recommended to that you floss daily? Yea it’s too bad it don’t rhyme with drill, fill and bill or we could work that in with the creed. Think about it, how does running a piece of string between your teeth, clean them. Well that doesn’t pass my common sense test so I decided to try a little experiment.

I bought a device called hydro floss; it is a water irrigator that passes the water through a magnet. Now this magnet thingy doesn’t pass my common sense test either but that wasn’t what led me to choose the device. The selling point for me was the very impressive results of a double blind study the manufacturer did.

My experiment was a simple one, I brushed and flossed as I regularly did then followed that with my first ever attempt at irrigation. There was so much junk that came out of my mouth that I immediately followed up with a second irrigation just to be sure I had gotten everything. Conclusion………….well you decide!

Now periodically I use a dental pick to check the effectiveness of the irrigator which helps me to identify area that might be hiding anything nasty. This helps me to guide the irrigator more efficiently around the teeth for an even better cleaning.

What about the tooth brush you use, has the dentist ever made any recommendations as to what you should use, that is aside from giving you one of the many samples he received from the last salesman’s visit?

Well if you are not using an ultra sonic of some kind you aren’t taking advantage of the best dental care you can give yourself. After I was told by my dentist that I had periodontal pockets (gums pulled away from the teeth) deeper than 4mm he suggested that I use a Sonicare brand brush. The results were fantastic, although I incurred some bone loss the pockets returned to almost normal and the bone loss stopped.

In my case I was lucky to get a dentist that did spread the word but I think you will find that a rare instance!

Let’s apply the old common sense test again; which tooth brush has the best opportunity to clean better? The manual one that you move at a rate of 3 or 4 strokes per second or the ultrasonic one which can do 200 or more strokes per second. You do the math!

What tooth paste does your dentist recommend, he hasn’t you say; neither have any that I have ever visited. Why do you suppose that is, their own organization, the ADA, has approved the only tooth paste that the FDA has approved as being effective in killing the bacteria that causes Gingivitis, the first stage of periodontal disease. Common sense test, you bet. Ill let you do this one, there is only one brand that’s FDA tested effective against the bacteria that causes gingivitis. This is a no brainer, right? Oh you want the name…….Colgate Total!

By the time we reach middle age it is said that 70 percent of us will have some level of periodontal disease and it’s no wonder since most of us have never so much as given a thought to this silent and painless disease. To make matters worse most of us have never been schooled nor given the proper training to help avoid the disease.

I really believe the dental profession would like to keep us in the dark about anything that could impact their bottom line. After all there is a lot of money in the treatment of periodontal disease.

I’m convinced that if you invest in the products that I recommend you have an excellent chance of avoiding what 70 or more percent of us have not when you get older. Oh and don’t forget the common sense test it is one of your most valuable tools!

Attention Everyone with an Ounce of Decency

2006-11-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

Let's stop this before it starts.

O. J. Simpson's forthtcoming book "If I did it" is supposed to be his confession of the dirty deeds.

Let's ban together and not buy it, deny him of any monetary gain from his actions!

Global Warming and Greenhouse Gases

2006-10-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

Global warming continues to be a subject of much debate in our society. Many pundits and politicians have agreed and disagreed about what the cause or causes of global warming may be.

Firstly one must agree that global warming exists before embarking on the difficult task of assigning reasons for it.

Therein lies a major conundrum, for if there is no global warming then the hoopla surrounding the speculation that greenhouse gases are the major contributor is all for naught.

The naysayers would have us believe that the notion of greenhouse gases causing global warming is a result of bad science. They suggest that those on that side of the argument have failed to take into account things like the ice age cycles and the varying earth orbits that contribute to the recent warmer earth temperatures.

Then there is the question of measurement of the earth’s temperature. How accurately can that be done and is the data that has been collected truly reflective of any change caused by greenhouse gasses.

The following charts are a compilation of data taken from the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics 73 edition from the CRC press. Although not conclusive there are a number of things that can be supposed from looking at these charts.

If we assume that the data used to create these charts is accurate then we could say that the rising CO2 has no correlation to the earth’s temperature. But suppose that one or the other of the charts is from bad data. I submit that the temperature chart is either from bad data or the data is influenced by something other than the rising CO2. This goes to the previous suggestions that ice age cycles etc and numerous other things have a greater influence on the earth’s temperature than amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

From my personal experience of working in the science of CO2 measurement for 25 years, I can tell you that the instrumentation used to measure CO2 in atmosphere is nearly flawless and that the CO2 chart is probably dead on, atmospheric CO2 is rising.

Then we can safely assume that atmospheric CO2 has risen from 1958 to 1989 as the data suggests. This fits nicely with the theories. But because the temperature chart does not show a clear increase over this period it isn’t possible to reasonably say the earth’s temperature rises with the increasing CO2 for the same period.

So do we rule out CO2 as the cause of global warming? Of course not, the data simply doesn’t cover enough time to do that.

What is obvious is that reliable temperature data may be the weak link in determining if green house gases have any affect on the warming of the earth. Further if reliable temperature data is not available then the mere existence of global warming cannot be determined, much less the causes.
A must read for those, who like me, are suspicious of the magnitude of the greenhouse gas effect. http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils/ice_ages.html

Common Sense

2006-07-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

Alright, before you read any further get a pencil and paper and write down your definition of common sense.

Finished? Then read on!

I thought this would be a good way for us to compare notes about something that frankly I found embarrassingly difficult. That is until I began a search for the meaning of common sense and discovered I may not be the only one having trouble putting into words what common sense is.

This whole thing was spawned by my recent assignment to jury duty when I sat listening to the defense attorney asking prospective jurors to explain common sense. I had already answered some questions and was praying that he wouldn’t get back to asking me that question because, just like the other jurors, I was having trouble coming up with anything meaningful and I didn’t want to be embarrassed as they seemed to be.

One definition of the term as given in Wikipedia is;

Common sense on a strict construction of the term, is what people in common would agree; that which they "sense" in common as their common natural understanding. Some use the phrase to refer to beliefs or propositions that in their opinion they consider would in most people's experience be prudent and of sound judgement, without dependence upon esoteric knowledge or study or research, but based upon what is believed to be knowledge held by people "in common". The knowledge and experience most people have, or are believed to have by the person using the term.

Einstein once defined common sense as the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen, which I think affirms the thinking that common sense is a detriment to logical thinking.

Since we are not born with common sense it must be something that we acquire through life experiences. To say that common sense is learned is only partially correct, although we need learned skills to have common sense we must also apply intuition to the learned in order to deduce what others commonly believe or understand.

So the next time you say to someone it is only common sense, you may have a whole new understanding of what you mean.

I wonder what the attorney would have done if I had laid this on him?

My book - Foreword

2006-07-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

Now Available @ http://www.lulu.com/content/3848493

Foreword

When I first thought about writing this book I thought I would only write about how seven of us bolted from the company to form our own business hoping to be able to control our own destinies. In a way that’s how it turned out but the control we exercised was minimal, we lacked the knowledge and leadership ability that might have made the eventual outcome different.

But then after thinking about it, that is only a part of the story. So I decided it would be more complete and understandable if I started at the time I became involved with the project, several years prior to the breakaway.

This is a story told by someone in a position to know how it really was in the trenches, not by someone in a high place that would bore you with all of the business jargon. If you want to read about how to succeed in business you won’t find it here. If you want to learn about the difficulties and heartburn experienced in bringing a new technology to market and making it a success, I think you will enjoy this story.

There is something for everyone here. If you are in the healthcare industry you should enjoy the insight into the way the first complete mass spectrometer based anesthesia monitoring system came about. If you have manufacturing or engineering experience at any level you can probably identify with the many different problems we had to deal with on a day to day basis. If you have a business or marketing background you may find that the way the business was run goes against your every fiber. If you are the least bit technically inclined it might be interesting to see how we dealt with the technical challenges of the project. If you have entrepreneurial tendencies you may want to check this out before you take the leap. Even the scientist might find the application of a highly scientific instrument to be unusual and interesting.

Throughout the book when ever I introduce things technical I include [an explanation] to keep the non-technical from getting lost. To those that might not require such an explanation skip it if you like.

You will also find that at times I am critical of they way things are done in the organization. During my early involvement it was not easy to recognize our faults. Later, after learning from some of the best, I became a project leader. With my new found knowledge and skills it was easy to look back and see the many things we did wrong. I pull no punches with my criticisms and make no apologies for them. I believe them to all be valid.

In the end we were all better for having had the opportunity to serve the anesthesia community with some of the most exciting breakthrough technology they have ever experienced.
As for controlling our own destinies – well, that is for the reader to decide.

Max Out the 401k – Not!

2006-07-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

We have all heard it before, max out your 401k! What used to be good advice is now out of date. Assuming max out means contribute the maximum possible then perhaps you need to take another look at what that means to you.

I say you need to look at the numbers before you “max out” that 401k. Here’s why.

What part of the contribution does you employer match and up to what limit. Only if your employer matches up to the maximum contribution should you consider contributing the maximum.

Contribute only the amount that your employer will match and put the remainder in a Roth IRA. Yes, I know that you will be losing the tax deferment on the money invested in a Roth, a one time event, but with the Roth you can leave the investment grow tax deferred for as long as you like. Unlike the 401k and the standard IRA there is no MRD (minimum required distribution).

Here are the Roth IRA advantages:

1. It has a tax structure unlike that of any other IRA: contributions are post-tax, but growth is tax-free; once you put your money in, you never pay taxes again.
2. It's more flexible: since you have already paid taxes up front, there are no minimum distribution requirements.
3. Since withdrawals are not reportable income, they won't affect your adjusted gross income during retirement.

Another advantage for a savvy investor is that your choice of investments is not limited to the few that a typical 401k might have. Your investment choices are essentially unlimited and that can mean big dollars in the future.

Some day after you are retired wouldn’t it be nice to take that trip around the world using tax free money that you grew from those excess payments to the 401k you redirected to a Roth and not have to worry that there is any impact to your tax status?

What Did They Say?

2006-07-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

I’m sure everyone that has ever flown has heard these things but maybe you didn’t pay that much attention, so I’m going to examine them in more detail.

You have arrived at the airport early and made it through security with an hour or so to go before your flight leaves. After a brief walk to the gate you scrounge around for a newspaper that a traveler before you might have left. You find one but it’s missing all the good sections. Finally you give up on free reading material and decide to tough out the next 40 minutes without something to read.

After repeated glances at your watch you see that it should be time to begin boarding. Then comes the announcement, ladies and gentlemen flight 123 to the middle of nowhere has been delayed and will be rescheduled!

What you say as you race to the counter to ask about the delay. You can see the airplane sitting at the gate right there at the end of the jet way, a jet way clearly marked with the gate number you are supposed to leave from. How long will the delay be you ask? Here it comes, the attendant says 15 minutes. What you may not know is that the airlines clocks are marked in 15 minute increments. I can’t remember ever being delayed less than 15 minutes. It’s the standard reply for delays.

You don’t feel too bad because, heck you managed to wile away the last 30 minutes doing nothing the next 15 should be a piece of cake! Soon you begin glancing at the old chronometer again thinking the 15 minutes should be up by now. Believing you have correctly identified the passing of at least 15 minutes you return to the counter to ask what’s up. Again you get the 15 minute song and dance but you say 15 minutes have already passed only to hear, oh this is another 15 minutes the first one wasn’t enough!

This process is repeated several times, to the point that you forget how to read your watch. Why didn’t they just say it would be an hour and half delay? I know if they had told us the truth there would have been a passenger uprising, but by milking the 15 minutes delays they figure everyone can make through 6 short delays but not one long one!

Finally pre-boarding is announced. Ladies and gentlemen will begin pre-boarding flight 123 to the middle of nowhere (now 1 ½ hours late). If you need assistance or are traveling with small children please pre-board now.

Ok what is pre-boarding, pre is before and boarding is, in this case, getting on the airplane. So are we to get on the airplane before we get on the airplane.

Once aboard (if you pre boarded I’m not sure exactly how you did it) you settle into your seat, fasten the belt and await departure.

Shortly after take off you are expecting the seatbelt sign to go off but instead they announce the following. Ah, we are experiencing a little turbulence; the captain has asked that you continue to observe the seat belt sign until we are clear this bad spot. Right away you suspect this will take at least 15 minutes!

Now I don’t know about you but I plan to cheat this one, I’m not watching a seatbelt sign for any amount of time! You know I don’t think that’s what they meant. I’m beginning to think that airlines are not good communicators.

The flight progresses nicely and with only a handful of passengers still following the unreasonable instructions, their eyes firmly focused on the seatbelt sign, we are getting ready to land.

Ladies and gentlemen will be landing in approximately 15 minutes; I could have guessed that one, after we have landed please keep your seatbelts fastened until we have come to a complete stop at the jet way. Please continue observing the no smoking sign until you are well into the terminal.

Ok two things here, what is a complete stop, the plane will either stop or not. How am I going to continue to observe the no smoking sign until well into the terminal, I can no longer see it after I get of the plane? Oh and there those few passengers who haven’t yet stopped observing the seatbelt sign.

I think I’ll cheat this one too!

Guess how long I waited for my bags at the baggage carousel!

Are We Obsessed With the Mean?

2006-06-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

We’ve all heard it numerous times, that reference to “the middle of nowhere”. Where the hell is the middle of nowhere anyway? I’ve even caught myself referring to the place and each in reference it has been a different place!

Have you ever heard anyone talk about the edge of nowhere or just plain nowhere – woops, I did mention one time that we were going nowhere.

So why the middle of this place, a place that has somehow reached out an tapped us all on the shoulder as if to remind us that nowhere only has a middle and it can be anywhere – anywhere? - Yikes.

Look at that fool, he is parked in the middle of the street! Arrrgh!

Half of the time half of us we don’t realize that half of what we say can be taken literally, especially those of us that don’t comprehend idioms. Half of the time, oh no, another reference to the mean! Why did I say that? What is it about the mean?

Half would in the middle wouldn't it?

I ran my car off the road because I was half asleep furthermore I was half way home! What???

He stopped me mid sentence! - I was only half finished with my meal when the phone rang! Whew!!

The car broke down half way to work. – After swimming half way across the pool I turned back. Yuk!

I was right in the middle of a good book. You mean you were on page 200 of 400? I’ll bet that’s a half truth! Jeez!

There are many more so listen up, you’ll hear them. Perhaps you can figure out what our obsession with the mean is all about!

Stuck in the middle with you.

Is Spelling Really That Important?

2006-06-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

Let's set the record straight, occasionally I may post a misspelling. Before you send me a nasty gram just remember that you read the following!

O lny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.

cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!

My Book - 0verview

2006-06-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

I have nearly completed my book, I hope to begin distributing the proposal this fall.

It's a nonfiction book about:

The Life and Death of a Technology

Overview

In the late 1970’s a need was arising in the Operating Room for the anesthesiologist to have better and more accurate information about the genre and amount of anesthetic gas being delivering to a patient during surgery. The days of adjusting the mechanical dial on a vaporizer and mixing Nitrous Oxide and Oxygen by adjusting their respective flow meters to achieve the desired concentrations without directly monitoring the downstream result were about to come to an end.

With an ever increasing number of anesthetic gases to choose from it was also important for the anesthesiologist to know that the gas being delivering was the correct one. Not only would this information be clinically valuable but it would provide a significant margin of safety never before available to the patient. Add to this the possibility of reduced insurance rates, a result of the improved safety, for the doctors and the more accurate measurement of delivered gases which could result in usage savings to the hospital and you would have a winning product.

The birth of this technology was a long one. It wasn’t invented overnight; it didn’t grow in a Petri dish by accident and wasn’t commissioned by the company hierarchy. It was the result of the hard work and imagination of a handful of fiercely loyal and dedicated employees, employees that never gave up on their idea of monitoring respired patient gases during anesthesia.

When I came to work for the company in the quality engineering department there was no sign of any such technology. Not long after my arrival the first piece of the needed technology showed up on our door step - acquired from a fledgling medical instrument company in Baltimore. It was a mass spectrometer especially designed for application in the medical market place. The mass spectrometer, it turns out, happens to be the most versatile, accurate and sensitive instrument that can be used for analyzing patient respired gases.

The mass spectrometer acquired from the Baltimore company came with some serious baggage. There was a bevy of problems that needed resolution. Some of the technical problems were so overwhelming that we had to enlist the assistance of the scientists that had designed the original instrument. It was the only way we were going to be able to apply this instrument effectively to the anesthesia monitoring market

The mass spectrometer was just one piece of the system that was envisioned. The associated electronic devices, computer and displays, had to be outsourced. Problems arose with the outside company hired to develop the computer and monitors to be used in the systems. Problems that further slowed the development of our dream.

Eventually I found out that we were not the only company developing such a system. There was a company in California working on a striking similar system. This meant that we would have to redouble our efforts to be sure that the system we would eventually sell would have competitive advantages over the system from California.

Eventually the handful of fiercely loyal prevailed and a system for analyzing respiratory and anesthetic gases was born. It became a big seller and brought in much need revenue to the company. As might be expected with new technology, during its lifetime other problems emerged but with the help of the original designers, a caring general manager, and the loyalists the show stoppers were all corrected.

The company liked to re-invent itself and each re-invention was accompanied by a name change, six in all during the products lifetime. One day we were told that not only would there be another name change but there would also be a new owner. Our division was sold to a large old line company that was attempting to get into the medical device business. Fortunately there was no move involved with the sale; we were staying right where the old company had moved us a few short months before, after one of the re- inventions.

In the beginning everyone was happy with the new owner but it wasn’t long until the new owner decided to consolidate the business in Kansas City and to make matters worse for us we would be consolidating with the company that made the computers and monitors for the system. The fiercely loyal, myself included, weren’t about to go to Kansas City especially since our relationship with them was strained as a result of the many suspect business and product issues that we had experienced. What we did next was going to surprise many; our fierce loyalty didn’t necessarily include the new owner, especially since we felt that the direction of the business had turned away from our vision.

Seven of us set out to start our own business; ideally we wanted to remain in the anesthesia monitoring business if we could. Ultimately that was made possible by partnering with a very successful businessman from Milwaukee already in the medical device business.

With his help we were able to buy, of all things, the anesthesia monitoring business of the competitor from California who had recently decided to get out of the Medical device business. We set up our new business just down the street from the one we had just left and immediately began selling systems in competition with our old company.

I suppose we shouldn’t have been too surprised at the old company’s reaction after all it was a bit of an in your face thing we did. Sure enough we sued by the old company, eight counts in the suit, all groundless. What was surprising to us was the seeming vindictiveness of the charges. We could only assume the whole thing was meant to be a distraction to slow us down. The litigation failed to go beyond the deposition phase, reinforcing our belief that the suit was only meant as a distraction and never believed to be winnable. Possibly even a cover for the failed management of the new division. Relieved and free from the distractions of the suit we forged ahead with the tasks of our start up. After three years the business was not performing up to expectations so the Milwaukee partner decided to buy us out and move us to Milwaukee. We were no longer working for ourselves but had suddenly become ordinary employees again.

It was going to be necessary to put new life into the old business if it was going to survive. There was emerging technologies that had to be considered and the mass spectrometer was growing very long in the tooth.

A new technology was rapidly making its way into the Operating Room, taking market share from the mass spectrometer systems. The sales of mass spectrometer based systems eventually grew so small that the Milwaukee company quit making them.

Even the new mass spectrometer that we developed to compete with the invading new technology couldn’t save the species. It was the end of an era, an era that saw nearly two decades of use from a technology that no doubt had saved lives, reduced insurance premiums and saved hospitals many dollars on their supplies.

We weren’t without a product though, you see, one of the fiercely loyal, unable to resist the temptation, developed a device using a new technology and it turned out to be an even bigger seller!