National Health Services…

Are good, right? Right???

Well…

From Slashdot…

UPI reports that the British government covered up “a multi-decade tainted blood scandal, leading to thousands of related deaths, a report published Monday found.”Britain’s National Health Service allowed blood tainted with HIV and Hepatitis to be used on patients without their knowledge, leading to 3,000 deaths and more than 30,000 infections, according to the 2,527-page final report by Justice Brian Justice Langstaff, a former judge on the High Court of England and Wales. Langstaff oversaw a five-year investigation into the use of tainted blood and blood products in Britain’s healthcare system between 1970 and 1991. The report blames multiple administrations over the time period for knowingly exposing victims to unacceptable risks…

In several cases, health officials lied about the risks to patients… The NHS also gave patients false reassurances, an attempt to “save face,” failing victims “not once but repeatedly….” The situation could “largely, though not entirely, have been avoided,” Langstaff found…

The British government on Monday began operating a support phone line for people and their families affected by the tainted blood scandal.
The article notes that Langstaff described the coverup as “subtle” but “pervasive” and “chilling in its implications…

“To save face and to save expense, there has been a hiding of much of the truth.”

The full article from UPI is HERE.

I can’t help but wonder how many Americans that were treated in Britain might have been affected by this mess.

Especially since it is obvious this was a long term effort. I wonder how much of this was driven by costs for ‘good’ blood vs. whatever they could get?

I’m just glad ‘I’ never had to get blood over there…

For those sailors…

Who didn’t come back…

Unlike those buried in the cemeteries, Sailors went down at sea, with no markers.

‘In Waters Deep’

In ocean wastes no poppies blow,

No crosses stand in ordered row,

There young hearts sleep…beneath the wave…

The spirited, the good, the brave,

 

But stars a constant vigil keep,

For them who lie beneath the deep.

‘Tis true you cannot kneel in prayer

On certain spot and think, “He’s there.”

 

But you can to the ocean go…

See whitecaps marching row on row;

Know one for him will always ride…

In and out…with every tide.

 

And when your span of life is passed,

He’ll meet you at the “Captain’s Mast.”

And they who mourn on distant shore

For sailors who’ll come home no more,

 

Can dry their tears and pray for these

Who rest beneath the heaving seas…

For stars that shine and winds that blow

And white caps marching row on row.

 

And they can never lonely be

For when they lived…they chose the sea.

 

The poem is called ‘In Waters Deep’ and was written by Eileen Mahoney

Memorial Weekend…

My cousin sent me this, she wrote it for a class she’s taking, she’s about 15 years younger than I am…

As I sit here tonight listening to a show on TV and working on my latest assignment, I realize that Memorial Day weekend is quickly approaching and celebrating the “Greatest Generation” is highlighted everywhere.

The younger people might ask you, isn’t this the greatest generation? I say no way. We all like to think we are but we are not, as a boomer, I am a product of the greatest generation. We still appreciate what their lives were like.

For most of us it was our grandparents’ generation, some of our parents. All of us benefited from this terrible World War. I am not here for a new history lesson. You should already know it. Hate fueled the world then until it just took over and grabbed hold to squeeze until you either conformed to what was dictated or you died. I grew up hearing the stories that my maternal grandfather shared with his three daughters. He was in the Canadian Royal Airforce, and I understood that he photographed all he could when he was in Europe. The photographs were so graphic that it was not until I was in 8th or 9th grade before those photographs could be shared with us, the next generation. So, graphic that it would give you nightmares until you really understood the gravity of the stories that went with those photographs. Those are the stories that have been part of my history, these photos making it so real. These Photographs have been donated to The Holocaust Museum in Houston; they really did not belong to us. They belong to all those they represented. I am grateful my grandfather took the time to take them, to teach us hate has no place in our society or our lives.

Moving forward to today, watching the news (and it does not matter what news you watch) hate is being spread by the media. I believe that most of us are peaceful and respectful of each other. By allowing this slow spread of hate to brew underneath the surface of our communities we will repeat the sins of the past in the present and future. I say it just needs to stop.

Stop and say hello to your neighbor out on your morning walk.

Stop and say hello to your grocery store worker or the worker at the big box store.

Stop and visit a nursing home and see someone that never gets a visitor.

Stop and volunteer at the local school in your neighborhood.

Stop and volunteer at the library or at a shelter.

Stop the hate.

Stop the hate creeping back now. Stop the hate that started this roll back because we became complacent and self-centered and could not be bothered. All this hate did not just start over night, and it will take more than over night to fix it.

So here is your challenge. When will you stop and make a difference? Do I believe this will make a difference? Well it will not unless you at least make the effort to make the change and meet the challenge.

I have to say I pretty much agree with her. What we have today is NOT what I spent over 20 years defending/protecting! Get out and ‘see’ what and whom are around you. Forting up in your house doesn’t do you or anyone else any good!!!

Rules…

For thee and not for me… Version 253…

Navy supply ship was run aground by a junior officer off the coast of Bahrain shortly after the ship’s master — or captain — left the bridge to eat dinner, an investigation revealed.

The USNS Alan Shepard had finished up a maintenance period on July 15 and was on the way to a port in Bahrain when she was directed to an area just off shore to wait on a pilot. The master took the ship there and then went to eat dinner, leaving the ship in the hands of a much more junior third officer.

Less than 30 minutes later, the Alan Shepard was grounded on a shoal.

Full article, HERE from Military.com.

It is noted that an actual Navy CO was relieved last month for running aground in the Pacific, but this guy…not so much.

Why?

Well, USNS ships are run by ‘contract’ seamen, with just a few military folks on there, who, by the way, are NOT allowed to command at sea. They are mostly supply types, who manage the cargo/stores on the ship with their enlisted sailors and provide the same to the various ships during underway replenishments (UNREPS).

And they have a union!

So, the ‘rules’ don’t apply to them like they do for the Navy, even though it’s a Navy ship managed through MSC… sigh…

 

Owie…

Managed to screw up my wrist and hand a bit. Hard to type, so I’m using text to speech from my iPhone for this. 

Go read the folks on the sidebar, I hope I’ll be better in the next day or two.

Sorry.

Posted from my iPhone.

Research follow-up!!!

My friend Stretch sent this as a response to my research post- Some additional search resources you can use to find things!

www.refseek.com – Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org – a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com – access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org – volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.

And if you’re REALLY bored, you can go to this link and hear Lawdog and I get interviewed on BizTV about short stories and anthologies!

Self-driving???

Safe or not so?

The technology behind self-driving cars has been around for quite some time. However, its commercialization – from companies offering and operating ride-share services to those selling self-driving cars – is still rather new. One well-known taxi company is Waymo, which, despite its successes, is now under federal investigation due to traffic safety concerns.

So, what do you need to know about this investigation? Is Waymo still considered safe? What about other self-driving cars? Is it time to get in on this trend now, or is it better to wait until this technology improves before stepping into a self-driving vehicle? Here’s what you need to know.

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

I don’t know what y’all think, but I’m still leary of ANY self driving software, taxi, Telsa, GM, or anybody else!

Edit-

Intarwebz problem- Go read the folks on the sidebar please.

Posted from my iPhone.

Research, writing, and info dumps…

Or how far down the rabbit hole do you go???

TL;DR everyone writes differently! Now that I’ve said that…

I started writing because I hated the perfect characters and how often the weapons were misportrayed (e.g. WRONG). Now I have a reputation for accuracy…sigh

How much research? Well, what are you writing? Alt history? Western? Fantasy? SciFi? Urban Fiction?

Each of those could require some level of research. I’ve been shooting for over 60 years, and an instructor for about 20 years. So I know a good bit, enough to know ‘I’ don’t know what I don’t know. I’ve gone down rabbit holes on guns to make sure I’m accurate, sometimes hours of research on the history or use of a particular weapon.

Alt history? What country, what era, steampunk or realistic? European Hanseatic League? Roman times? You want to talk about rabbit holes, each of those is a massive one! Have you been there? Any idea of how Europeans interact? Videos? etc…

Fantasy? Do you know your fae, your old gods? Who begat whom? Again, what time period?

SciFi? Do you understand math? Can you compute ballistics? Do you understand gravity in space? Orbital mechanics? Are you writing hard SF or Space Opera? Handwavium or reality based?

Urban fiction? Have you lived in a big city? Traveled to cities? Traveled around this or another country? Know the differences between and within cities? Good vs. bad, with all that entails?

Do you have experts you can reach out to? As an example, Jonna Hayden for fabrics vs. historic time period? A doctor if you’re dealing with medical issues? A lawyer? A pilot? A bartender? Whomever can help you make your story better is always good! One of my shorts had forging metal in it, I’d done the ‘book’ research, but lucked into a guy who actually makes things in a real forge and he was an immense help to get those bits I was screwing up correct. Never be afraid to reach out!!!

Now that you’ve done all that research, how much ends up in your book? The western example I used earlier was roughly 6 hours of research, and it ended up a one sentence entry in the book. BUT, I use very sparse descriptions and no info dumps, preferring to let the reader build characters and situations in their heads.

Is the information ‘critical’ to your story? If so, how do you sneak it in? A senior teaching a junior, a flashback, a challenge/response? That is up to you and your style of writing.

Do you ‘have’ to do research? No, you don’t. Should you? I believe so. Regardless of what you write, the more accurate you can make your background and interactions, the better it will be received by readers, especially if they are widely read in that genre.

Lastly, get your ego under control and be willing to accept criticism of your baby! Get alpha and beta readers if you can! You want folks that will honestly critique your work, telling you what they don’t understand or seems to be missing!

We, as authors, ‘know’ what is going on with the story, but those alpha and beta readers don’t, so they WILL find holes where you’ve written past a critical piece of information, changed a character’s name, description, or something really stupid (yes, I’ve done ALL of those)… sigh…

If you’re still here, what did I miss???

Mondaze humor…

Some of y’all will see this…

NEWS FROM THE YEAR 2059

  • Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, Mexifornia, formerly known as California.
  • White minorities still trying to have English recognized as the third language in the USA.
  • Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.
  • Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 100 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.
  • France pleads for global help after being taken over by Jamaica. No other country comes forward to help the beleaguered nation!
  • The Last Castro finally died at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.
  • George Z. Bush says he will run for president in 2060.
  • Postal Service raises the price of first-class stamps to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.
  • Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs. and life expectancy is now at 57.2 yrs.
  • 85-year $375.8 billion study: Diet and exercise are the key to weight loss.
  • Global cooling blamed for citrus crop failure for a third consecutive year in Mexifornia and Floruba.
  • Abortion clinics are now available in every high school in the United States.
  • Senate still blocking drilling in ANWR, even though gas is selling for 4532 Pesos per liter and gas stations are only open Tuesdays and Fridays.
  • Massachusetts executes the last remaining conservative.
  • Supreme Court rules any punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.
  • A Couple Finally Achieved Sexual Harmony. They had simultaneous headaches.
  • Average NBA player is now eight feet seven inches tall, with only 5 illegitimate children.
  • New federal law requires that all assault weapons, i.e.; nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters, and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2060.
  • IRS sets the lowest tax rate at 75 percent.
  • DOJ, FBI, CIA, NSA, IRS, DNC, NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, and NPR  are still searching for something that will posthumously convict Donald J. Trump.

I love this country. It’s The Government That Scares Me!

From the mouths of babes…

NUDITY
I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, “Mommy that lady isn’t wearing a seat belt!”

OPINIONS
On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his mother. It read, ‘The opinions expressed by this child are not necessarily those of his parents…..’

KETCHUP
A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar.. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone….’Mommy can’t come to the phone to talk to you right now, she’s hitting the bottle.

MORE  NUDITY
A little boy got lost at the YMCA and found himself in the women’s locker room. When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little boy watched in amazement and then asked “What’s the matter, haven’t you ever seen a little boy before?”

POLICE #  1
While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted

by a little girl about 6 years old.  Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, “Are you a policeman?”

“Yes” I answered and continued writing the report.

“My mother said if I ever needed help I should as the policeman. Is that right?” “Why yes, that’s right,” I told her. “Well then…..” she said as she extended her foot toward me, …..”would you please tie my shoe?’

POLICE  #2
It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me. ‘Is that a dog you got back there?’ he asked.
‘It sure is,’ I replied.
Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, ‘What’d he do?’

ELDERLY
While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I use to take my 4 old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, ‘The tooth fairy will never believe this!”

DRESS-UP
A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad donning his tuxedo, she warned, “Daddy, you shouldn’t wear that suit.” “And why not, darling?” “You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning.”

DEATH
While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church, our minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently, his 5 year old son and his playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton batting, then dug a hole and made ready for the disposal of the deceased. The minister’s son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his version of what he thought his father always said: ‘Glory be unto the Father, and unto the Son, and into the hole he goes.’(I want this line used at my funeral!)

SCHOOL
A little girl had just finished her first week of school. “I’m just wasting my time” she said to her mother. “I can’t read, I can’t write and they won’t let me talk!”

BIBLE
A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages.

“Mama, look what I found” the boy called out.

“What have you got there dear?” With astonishment in the young boy’s voice he answered,

“I think it’s Adam’s underwear!”

I don’t write ’em, I just send ’em on recycled electrons… 🙂 Enjoy your week!