Best Affordable Places To Break a Hip, I mean Retire [Source: USNews.com]

South Bend, Ind.: Best Affordable Places To Retire - USNews.com

I'm not going to argue the southern states. Those are a give-me. People of retirement age move south. The climate is better, generally, and the South & Southwest caters to the those that need assisted-living.

The elderly do not really care for cold weather. That is a broad generalization, based on my snowbird father who flies the Kansas City coup to take up his winter residence in the motorhome parks of Florida.

Seeing Eau Claire, WI, Pittsburgh, PA, and South Bend, IN in the list surprised me. Why was I not surprised about Omaha? It's easier to break a prisoner out of Sing-Sing than to get a Nebraskan out of the Cornhusker State.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin features 26-miles of trails along the Chippewa River, which I can see would be of great advantage to those that are in the less ambulatory years of their life. What better place to break a hip? The pleasure of being feasted upon by mosquitos, badgers, or perhaps a black bear waiting for help to arrive is unparalleled.

As for Pittsburgh, PA, who would seriously considering retiring to Pittsburgh? Violent crime is 1.78 above the national average. However, there are a lot of old people that live in Pittsburgh, and apparently they have developed a significant health presence to address the needs of the elderly. Learn something new everyday, I do. Sometimes, I relearn something. Still; Pittsburgh?

And that leaves South Bend, IN. Again, I am having a problem with the selection of South Bend. Home to Notre Dame University, with enrollment according their web site a little under 12,000, is about 1/10th of the population. Not too bad. Not a bunch of kiddies driving around, acting goofy. South Bend is a northern city, the weather gets cold, they have snow. With Pittsburgh, I looked into elderly services, of which Pittsburgh has many. Doing the same for South Bend did not result in the same details. If South Bend is setup for an sizeable elderly population, the facts must be buried several pages deep in Google.

The statistics for the 2010 Census will be interesting to evaluate. From 1990 to 2000, the West and the South saw the greatest increases in the older population. I am guessing that trend continued from 2000 to 2010 (which will actually measure 1999 - 2009).

Source of the Amazon River : Bigger, Better, and Longer!

Source of the Amazon River : Image of the Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wouldn't life be easier if we could rely on things not changing, just being static, same thing, day-in, day-out?

Sounds pretty lame if you ask me. However, textbook publishers would probably love it. Maybe not; that is after all how they make their money. Make a change, an edit, and now everyone has to by a new edition. Same thing with software. Want to write or read new file types, well, buy version 10 because is has all new enhancements we didn't include in version 9 because we need a reason for you to buy version 10! And version 11 will be out in 6 months!

And now we have Brazilian team that has put to bed the question of which river is better, I mean bigger, I mean longer, as obviously the Amazon River has suffered from inadequacy issues stemming from the Nile River being longer ...

Well, now the Amazon is not only the largest river system in the world, but also the longest river system in the world. Sorry, Nile :( I think the Nile is a more confident river system, though, and doesn't need its ego stroked as much.

I think the Nile is feminine, anyway. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Cyber spy network with global reach raises alarms | csmonitor.com

Cyber spy network with global reach raises alarms [Source: Christian Science Monitor]

I'm sorry but to me news like our CSM article here is not news. I am not surprised that China, whether sanctioned or not, is trying to hack computers globally. And the correct term is "crack" and not "hack." Hacking involves coding - programming.

Next thing we know, we will have an expose on "Bears That Crap in the Woods," or exclusive tantalizing photos of "The Pope and His Hat."

The United States attempts to penetrate foreign government servers, and foreign governments, and yes, even our alleged allies try to penetrate our government servers.

Eastern Europe, Romania, Hungaria, Croatia, Belarus, and, oh, yes, Russia. Lots of Russia would like to crack into U.S. computer networks. Just ask Estonia. They are frequently on the receiving end of Russia cyberattacks.

I would not be surprised if a NATO country or two wouldn't be trying to get in to our computer networks. Or Israel.

South Koreans have been implicated in cyber attacks. And North Korea just goes without saying. They probably have people working day and night, eating small bowls of rice, attacking foreign governments.

As for this report being a wake-up call, what group of nitwits is asleep at the switch? (pardon the pun) The U.S. government should be awake and monitoring our networks 24/7/365.

The questions our healthcare debate ignores | Salon

The questions our healthcare debate ignores [Source: Salon]

Joe Conason writes a decent article compared to many I have read regarding the comparison of U.S. health care concerns versus health care concerns abroad.

As the article states, there is no argument that a "gross" discrepancy exists in the value of U.S. health care and the value we receive for that health care. At least I do not know enough to argue the point. I do wonder, though, which OECD members have a health care system that is as robust and mature as ours, that invests in research and development as much as the U.S. does, and that produces as much medical scholarship as we do.

Apparently, quoting the Salon article, the study found that the United States ranks poorly among OECD countries on measures of life expectancy, infant mortality and reductions in "amenable mortality," meaning deaths "from certain causes that should not occur in the presence of timely and effective healthcare." There is not doubt on these points that some health care concerns could be better in the United States. But why should this be? Lets consider the members, first:

Australia - Austria - Belgium - Canada - the Czech Republic - Denmark - Finland - France Germany - Greece - Hungary - Iceland - Ireland - Italy - Japan - South Korea - Luxembourg - the Netherlands - New Zealand - Norway - Poland - Portugal - the Slovak Republic - Spain Sweden - Switzerland - and the United Kingdom

By in large, most of these countries in the list are European countries. Not just any European countries, but the power houses, the most mature - and also the most homogenous, the most educated, and the most wealthy. Noted exceptions to this is South Korea and Japan, obviously not European, though they also qualify as being highly educated and homogenous.

The United States, as happens frequently, then gets compared to countries of a smaller size, both in total area and poopulation, that is not anywhere close to having a population of the same historic, genetic, linguistic, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds - meaning we are anything but homogenous. Though educated, we are not the most highly educated people in the world, regardless of what we would like to think. Furthermore, comparisons like this lump all 50 states into the same pot, thereby diminishing those states that are doing things well, and hiding those states that really need help.

Additionally, many of those countries listed, if not all, have rules about involvement of pharmaceutical companies in the media, lobbying doctors and politicians, and spending unnecesary money on marketing and publicity. Secondly, in most of these countries, the health care workers are state employees. In other words, in the United States we tend to allow free market competition to drive our health care system whereas abroad the governments place strict controls on how much doctors can make, and the cost of medicines and procedures. How many of our doctors would be willing to draw a state salary instead of a quasi-free market salary? Lastly, in many of those countries, and this could actually work in the U.S., insurance involves not only the government, but the individual AND the employer. All contribute to the health care system costs.

Talking all of this into consideration, I can only imagine that anyone who supports universal health care AND is using the above countries as examples can only support SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. That is what I just describe above. All of those countries utilize SOCIALIZED MEDICINE in some form or fashion. And this makes drug companies and health care companies in the United States extremely fearful, as socialized medicine hits their bottom line.

I'm a Cynic. I wonder how many people would still go into health care if they knew they would become a state employee, just like the state trooper or the Fish & Wildlife Officer, an his/her salary would be dictated by the government? I wonder what would happen to the real cost of drugs if pharmaceutical companies were restricted from advertising.

How would the whole calculus of our medical economy change in light of a new paradigm?

Humbling Geography

When Douglas Adams passed away in his literate prime, the world lost a great humorist. One of his best characters, Zaphood Beeblebrox, as punishment, to try to bring him some humilty, was placed in a chamber, the Total Perspective Vortex. While in the chamber, he was placed and scaled in relative position to everything in the known universe. Rather than finding this humbling, Zaphod took this to mean HE was the most important thing in the universe.

I have always found this image to be rather humbing, and have used the mental image to help keep life stresses in perspective.

But the image does communicate geography, as the image communicates both site and situation, therefore meeting the definition of geography. This is not an image of our galaxy, by the way, but a galaxy similar to ours. Obviously, the satellite needed to have taken this picture, had this been our universe, would needed to have been launched millions of years ago, and I don't care what Energizer says, eventually the batteries would have wore out before we ever got here.



Now, the new issue of Scientific American has a new image. The image above is missing the "You Are Here" label [pretend it is in the top-right quadrant]. Again, another humbling image of our universe / space-in-our-general vicinity. Authors of the article set forth the notion that, while Copernicus may have been right about the earth circling the sun (silly early Christians, and some silly contemporary Christians), we may be wrong in thinking that we orbit in a normal bit of space. If we adjust our perspective, and place our position close to a void in space, perhaps near the center of the universe (which, indeed might be special after all) we might be able to explain Dark Energy.

Site and Situation, on a Cosmological scale.

Haute Cuisine: The Guinea Pig

Americans have really weird eating habits. Just ask the rest of the world. They will tell you. What, no grasshoppers on the menu? Horse? Do you have horse? No horse? What kind of place are you running here? I guess that means dog is out of the question, then, huh?

The greater portion of the world has to find protein, in any of its variety of forms. And carbohydrates, those are important, too. Both can be a challenge to find in large and easily domesticated forms around the world.



In smaller forms, though, protein and carbohydrates are pretty accessible, if, you are raised in a culture that is not squeamish about eating creatures that are small and have more than four legs, or, the gag reflex can be surpressed, or, the anthropomorphised cuteness factor can be overcome. Americans, generally, do not fall into any of these categories.

In a recent Salon post, the author quoted a staggering figure: that Peruvians eat 65 million guinea pigs last year. I cannot imagine 65 million guinea pigs, let alone eating 65 million guinea pigs. Supposedly, they taste like chicken, of course.

Americans eat Guinea fowl, hens, so why not pigs?

Ubuntu: Not Done in the Middle

I like Ubuntu. A few months ago, I downloaded a version, made a bootable CD. I have since used my bootable ubuntu to solve a few system issues and remove virus/malware infections. The interface is slick and fast, and it mounted both my USB drive and local hard drive without any issues.

However, I have been a low-level Unix geek for 17 years. Sun Solaris was my first Unix version, followed by IBM's AIX, and a few flavors of Linux. Working on Linux platforms is not my strong suit but I can get around.

Not to disparage my fellow humans but 99.9% of the world's population really have no business dealing with Linux in any flavor. It is okay to learn and mess around and I am not trying to discourage anyone from picking up a Linux version. However, for what I do, GIS/RS, even Unix is being replaced by Windows applications.

Linux is so alien to many, requiring people to alter the paradigm with which they interact with computers. And finding and loading software that compares with Windows-based computers can be extremely challenging and frustrating.

Be careful when buying your next computer. Wal-mart once sold laptops with Ubuntu Linux installed, and the unsuspecting public were buying them and returning them - what the hell software is on my computer? was the reaction. Though the boxes were clearly marked. Dell is marketing laptops and desktops with some form of Linux pre-installed. Just be careful and read the fine print, which these days means read everything.

All Shook Up: Tonga

Lots of seismic activity in the South Pacific. First, we have a volcano erupting. Later, by a few hours, a 7.7 earthquake occurs with an epicenter located at the red dot, in the graphic to the right.

If you want to know where Tonga is located, there is a tiny inset globe illustrating the location of Australia, and the little drop of blood to the east of Australia is Tonga.

The video is funny. Listen to the woman narrating. She says, according to the scientists she interviewed, that there would be no damage to the environment from the eruption. Tell that to all the fish that got blown to smithereens.



Another interesting thing is that the geologists aren't really sure if the two events, the volcano and the earthquake are related. Are you kidding me? The article says the two events are about 200km apart. That's about 160 miles. That is not that far. These events cannot be coincidental. I'm not a geologist, but a geographer - and people confuse these two occupations all the time - but I do have some knowledge of the environment and I have a hard time believing that these two seismic events aren't somehow connected.

Yike! in Tulsa

Ok, this should make us all a little nervous. This little guy to the right hitchhiked his way into the United States, probably on some bananas.

He, or probably she, actually, as the female gender of spiders tend to be the larger of the two, is the deadliest spider on the planet, according to the article. The Brazilian Wandering Spider. Wandering around looking for something to kill, most likely. 25 minutes is all you get in order to administer the antivenom, afterwards you get a chance to meet all of your ancestors.

Why do they end up in the U.S.? Because we like year-round produce. During the winter months when our agricultural industries are in hiatus due to cold weather, we have to go abroad for the tomatoes and lettuce we want on our Big&Tasty burger, or to add a healthy fruit to our diet. And bananas, as well as a few other fruits, are not indigenous to the United States. And if you are thinking about how dangerous it might be to shop your Walmart, consider the worker who put his life on the life to harvest your banana. Those guys get bit by all sorts of creepy-crawlies all the time.

I've heard of spiders hitching rides an produce from overseas. Be careful when picking out your produce, and be careful when stocking produce as the stocker is probably more likely to get bit than a customer.

Historical Tornadoes

The map to the right comes to us from Texas Tech, the Center for Geospatial Technology.

An interesting map, really. Consider "Tornado Alley." Where do you think Tornado Alley falls? Now, look at this map, and tell me where, according the tornado tracks, Tornado Alley can be found.

The perceptual region, Tornado Alley, is not particularly evident. In fact, I might argue that, based on this map, Tornado Alley is a myth.

Before I actually go there, though, a few considerations come to mind. First, the colors of the tornado tracks are problematic. Our eyes are very sensitive to the red, more so than the yellow, giving the map an appearance that mid-part of our nation is covered violent tornados. In fact, the map does seem to indicate a high degree of violent tornadoes. The Great Plains seems to have not only many violent tornadoes but also a great number of weak tornadoes.

Some spatial queries might help highlight Tornado Alley. Knowing the concentration of tornadoes per some unit of area would be interesting to know. Knowing the ration of weak vs. violent tornadoes per unit of area would also be interesting to know, as well.