Quick Analysis

I would be shocked if the Seahawks didn't beat Tennessee next Sunday.

They have a very real chance of winning on Christmas Eve against Indy because Indy has already locked up homefield advantage and a first round bye. They may not bring their A game. On the other hand, the Hawks may be in a similar position, so it may wind up a game mostly against both B squads.

Playoffs

Seattle has clinched division title. Seattle clinches a first-round bye with: 1) SEA win OR 2) SEA tie + NYG loss or tie + CAR loss or tie + TB loss or tie OR 3) SEA tie + NYG loss or tie + CHI loss OR 4) SEA tie + CHI loss + CAR loss or tie + TB loss or tie OR 5) NYG loss + CAR loss + TB loss Seattle clinches homefield advantage: 1) SEA win + CHI loss or tie OR 2) SEA tie + CHI loss + NYG loss or tie + TB loss or tie + CAR loss or tie

He's lying, or he's stupid: Bush says 30,000 Iraqis killed since war began

Bush says 30,000 Iraqis killed since war began

In answer to a question about the Iraqi death toll, Bush said about 30,000
Iraqis have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Bush's figure for the death toll among Iraqis was in the range given by
Iraq
Body Count, a U.S. British nongovernmental group, which currently says
between 27,383 and 30,892 civilians -- rather than all Iraqi citizens --
have
been killed in Iraq since the invasion.

Its figures are based on
media reports, which often fail to capture all
deaths in the country. Other
estimates, including one done by scientists and
published in the medical
journal Lancet, put the civilian death toll as high as
100,000.

Either he's lying, or he's flat ignorant and stupid. Those are the options. Every day is a new embarrasment for our Mad President George.

He's lying, or he's stupid. He's lying, or he's stupid.

Idea

Maybe I'll add all the items that appear on 3 or 4 or more carts to all of the new carts.

Then I'll sort the remainder items and add some of that stuff too. Some of the current carts are shared, so items on those carts will weigh heavier.

Next question is what to put into the rooms.

Supply Breakdown v1.0

410 different kinds of items.

1 item appears 7 times
20 items appear 6 times
21 items appear 5 times
35 appear 4
53 appear 3
83 appear 2
197 appear 1 time

Supplies

Right now we have about 7 "supermarkets" for clinic supplies. In the new building we'll still have 7, but the configuration will be very different. Different services will share in the future than share now.

I have 7 lists in front of me. When I'm finished, I'll have 7 new lists.

I could go item by item and see what appears on which carts. It would be intereting to know what items appear on all the carts, or most of the carts. It's also good to learn which items are oddballs for specific useage only.

I might put them all in a column in Excel, sort by Item number, then see how many times they appear. I like this idea. Seems pretty efficient. I will then have to cross reference cart numbers with the actual name and location, but that's not so bad.

Warren Ellis stuff to remember

From his recent Bad Signal:

In summer 2006, I'm going to belaunching an ongoing title at Marvelcalled
newuniversal. No capital N,no capital U. We refer to it in-houseas
NU -- and I might have called itNU, if it didn't always suggestnu-metal to
me.The central concept, these days,also looks kind of generic. WildCards
did it, RISING STARS did it,etc etc. Something called The WhiteEvent
occurs, and afterwards ahandful of people are found to havebeen made
superhuman. So far soblah. But, in looking at this stuff ona webpage
one night, it occurred tome that that's not what happened.What actually happened
was thatthere was this huge astronomicalevent where the skies went whiteall over
the world for a minute, andthe aftermath was that the lawsof physics had been
changed.

There's a sf book by a writer calledVernor Vinge where the laws ofphysics
are radically differentdepending on which part of thegalaxy you're in.
Conventionalphysics' dirty little secret is thatthe speed of light appears
tofluctuate.

There is, as I say, a whole libraryof science fiction
aboutsuperhumanity. These are notsuperhero novels. Some lean
closerthan others, of course -- Zelaznyand Saberhagen's COILS comes tomind, and
SLAN was very clearly aprecedent to the X-Men. Butthere's a lot more that
speaks to,if you like, the superhuman condition. Melding that with
thenotion that suddenly the laws ofphysics can go and stay slightlynuts... In
one six-hour session, Igenerated a bunch of notes abouthow and why this could
happen,with some ideas from some oldabandoned projects of mine (fromthe Loose
Ideas folder) fittingthemselves into it...

Sure, it's not exactly cut from wholecloth. Like I said, it's a
writingchallenge. Blows the cobwebs out abit. Makes you focus on the
craft abit. Sometimes it's worth sittingdown and thinking, what *does*
make a Marvel character work?(Answer: tragedy.)

Olerud bows out quietly

John Olerud, who walked straight off the Washington State campus and into the major leagues 17 years ago, is calling it quits.

The veteran first baseman, who spent 4 1/2 seasons with the Mariners before being let go in the middle of the 2004 season, made his wishes known through the Boston Red Sox.

The hit

I ran across Steve Largent's revenge on Mike Harden on December 11, 1988. In their previous meeting earlier that year, Harden knocked out two of Largent's teeth on an illegal hit.

Largent's revenge hit allowed the Seahawks to get the ball back and may have saved that game.

Seahawks.com

Shaun Alexander

Shaun Alexander is having a great year, and is a great running back. These points are obvious and not up for debate.

However, the urgency of signing this great running back is very much a point for debate.

Conventional wisdom argues that he should be signed soon: the sooner the better, and the Hawks are already behind the curve.

I do not agree with this line of thinking. There is no urgency to this signing for some very good reasons.

Alexander's stock is already at its highest point. He's scoring virtually every game, he's on course to win the rushing title, and flirting with a 2000 season. The organization won't save any money by signing him now, unless they can spread any potential signing bonus any further.

Alexander isn't as amazing as his numbers suggest. It's difficult to prove this point, but there are solid indicators. The offensive line is doing an amazing job of controlling the line of scrimmage, opening gaps, and giving Shaun a clear vision. His talent is in finding the cut backs, bursting through the holes and finding the end zone. He is not put in a position to make something from nothing on a regular basis.

Holmgren's pass first offense and the Seahawks relatively easy schedule has also contributed to Alexander's success this season. The Hawks have spent much of this season holding leads and feeding Alexander the ball to run down the clock. Many of these defenses had virtually given up, allowing the Hawks to run up the ground yardage, and the score. The Cowboys proved that when defenses focus on stopping Alexander, his numbers suffer. Hasselbeck and the receiving corps don't permit defenses to do this because the Seahawks are always a threat from the air. In spite of Alexander's numbers, they remain a pass first offense.

Shaun Alexander is an elite running back, and he should be paid as such. He is not, however, inherently greater than the other elite backs of the league, and the success of the Seattle Seahawks is not dependent on his presence.

Colors

Group management

Returns diminish when teams larger than 4 work together. The more people, the more important that the meeting is run strictly (agenda, one person speaks at a time etc...). More people equals more chaos.

Returns diminish when meetings last longer than 1 hour. Some of this can be salvaged with short fresh air / bathroom breaks.

No one actually believes in Democracy. Democracy is primarily viewed as a tool that enables everyone a chance at getting what they want. Watch what happens when people lose a vote on something important to them. They get angry. I'm exagerating a little, but not much.

Arguing with crazy people usually makes them angry, and never makes them less crazy.

Fantasy Football

Mid season update:

I'm tied for #1 in my 12 team league, and I own the tie-breaker because of more accumulated points.

Priest Holmes was my #1 pick, and he's out for the rest of the season with injury. I don't regret my choice; it was a calculated risk. Shaun Alexander, Ladainian Tomlinson, Peyton Manning were all already off the board. What I do regret was not picking up Larry Johnson with a later round pick. I took Pittsburgh, someone then took L. J.. While Pitt was a good pick, defenses are easy to grab later on, and they aren't game breakers.

Early in the season, I dropped Jake Plummer. I probably should have hung on to him. On the other hand, my wide receiver corps needed work and opening up my roster helped me get my WR corps where it is today, and I'm happy with where it is now. Also, I probably swapped Plummer for Griese who had a great early season. These things are hard to predict, and either could have gone either way.

Next year, I may avoid Defenses and kickers altogether in the draft. I'm happy with my overall strategy. I went for Running Backs with my first three picks, and only would have chosen a WR or QB if someone awesome fell. Moss, Manning, etc are worth early picks, but not if you have to reach for them. And actually, from a Fantasy perspective, neither have been that amazing, compared with Alexander, Westbrook and the usual suspects.

I've benefited by my league's punt and kick return rules. Yardage gained there equals yards gained on receptions and rushes. I picked up Dante Hall as a free agent, and he's given me 12-15 points per game, which is good for a receiver.

Wedding

The Men's Wearhouse has been very helpful in setting up outfits for myself and my groomsmen.

I gotta remember that our Group's Number is 853954.

Our fitting deadline is 7/13/06

Our pick up date is 7/25/06.

The cool thing is (yes this sounds like a Men's Wearhouse commercial) is that we can all go to different stores all across the country (one party member is in Minnesota, a few others are in eastern Washington, a third is on the Olympic Penninsula), get measured, then pick up the tuxes at the store here in Seattle, where the wedding will be held.

Much discussion went into the decision of my outfit. I'm very happy with the results; I abdicated the groomsmen's tuxes to Nora. She has a costumer's sense of design and wants a cohesive look to the entire party. Sounds good to me, as long as I get to wear what I think is cool.

Time change

I can't be the only one who was waiting around for the morning's football games to start.

One hour early.

Madden 2006

I bought this for my Xbox the week it came out. I couldn't get it out of my mind, so I gave in quickly. However, the true gaming lust hadn't arrived. I played it briefly, but really had cravings in other directions.

Now that the real NFL season is in mid-swing, the Madden lust has arrived in force.

The Superstar mode is interesting, I suppose, but I don't really get the point. The role-playing elements are okay, but there doesn't really seem to be that much control to exert. For example, to raise your scores mid season, you have to go through practice mode over and over. This gets old quickly, and during the point increases are temporary after training camp, so there isn't much point.

Franchise mode is as engrossing as ever. I built a team from scratch, with a mix of real NFL player, and created rookies based on friends of mine. The salary cap keeps me honest, but the game allows you the freedom to make the team truly your own. I was happy to dispense with the fantasy draft element.

One disadvantage is that the players on my team also apper on their normal teams in the league. The created players appeared as free agents.

I doubt that I'll purchase Madden 2007. While the incremental game play changes and stat updates are positive, the game doesn't change that much from year to year, and my money will be better spent elsewhere. I hear the Blitz is going to be even more interesting now that they've lost the NFL license.

Good news and bad news.

According to The Statesman Examiner, Colville Washington's last bookstore has been evicted from its current location. The article doesn't give reasons behind the eviction and didn't reference an attempt by the reporter to discover those reasons, but there's no reason to think the business itself is in financial jeopardy.

While this comes at a very bad time, this could give Coffee and Books the impetus to fill the gap left when the Book Depot closed earlier this year. I rarely visit my home town, and didn't even know Coffee and Books existed; if they manage to find their own storefront this should increase their visibility, and hopefully generate more business. I would buy a book or two whenever I was in town.

I'll bet Walmart is still doing fabulous business. I wonder what their book sales are like.

In other news, The Statesman Examiner reports that Colville's hospital, Mount Carmel, is somewhat on the technological cutting edge. Good for them. It's hard enough to stay up with current trends in medical technology at the large hospital where I work. I can only imagine how Mount Carmel handles it without the benefit of an IT department.

"Hero"

I wonder if we've gone down the wrong path in our useage of the word 'hero.' I've heard it used as a synonym for protagonist; I've preferred to use it as a personification of virtue, strength and action.

If we peel away the morality and even ethics of individuals, and instead focus on the grandeur of their deeds, a different kind of hero emerges. Consider the Greek heroes such as Hercules and Achilles. These were deeply flawed individuals who were certainly no more moral or ethical than the average man. They were, however, larger than life, and they performed actions to match their personalities and powers.

Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems

The author of this story doesn't get it, and comes off like a jack-ass.

It isn't useful to compare Wikipedia to paper encyclopedias when it comes to discussing the merits of the project. By its very nature, Wikipedia will always have errors, and it will always have quality problems. This is to be expected of an infinitely collaborative project with virtually no system to exclude contributers or contributions. There are certain inherent quality limitations present with this sort of post-modern information collaboration.

What makes Wikipedia special and useful is the assumption that the quality and quantity will increase steadily based on the number of participants. The fundamental belief is that more collaborationw ill lead to faster information on a greater number of topics than paper encyclopedias can replicate. As time passes, the quality and quantity will steadily improve. As long as those two conditions exist, Wikipedia is a success.

Orlowski gets it completely wrong when he persistently compares Wikipedia with a restaurant. Eating at a restaurant is a passive experience. The consumer sits down, orders the food, eats the food, pays and leaves. The food is prepared in accordance with the chef's standards which may or may not match the standards of the restaurant guest. Based on the experience, the guest will choose to return, or not.

Wikipedia is more like a perpetual pot-luck. Everyone participates, and if you don't like a dish, you're welcome to bring your own. If you don't want to bring food, there's plenty to go around, and no one minds. Yes, the quality is variable. After all, the majority has been prepared by amateurs who may or may not be qualified to accept the task.

Participants must remember to beware of the potato salad that's been in the sun too long, just as they must remember that not all Wikipedia entries are created equal. Here, as everywhere, critical thinking is not an option, it's a requirement.

Work stuff

I recently participated in writing and distributing an online survey directed to our physicians relating to their plans and needs of exam room space.

I'm thinking of doing something similar with PCC's aimed at getting their feedback for the various exam room systems I've tinkered with.

I want to know when they run out of rooms. I also want to know when they run out of rooms and have patients waiting. These are not the same thing, though obviously you must have the first to encounter the second.

Right now, daily room assignments have an art and science element. The more science the better, because then one can show arguments and reasoning.