October » 2009 » Randys Blog

A Video Clip from Louis CK on how amazing everything is around us, and how everyone has an instant expectation that they deserve it. This is why it bothers me when people complain about their 3G coverage, or a slow Internet connection or any number of ways in which some new technology could be better.

Shut up and be appreciative for once. We live in Amazing, Interesting Times with technology that’s improving faster than we can even learn about it.

Illegal Alien Costume

October 19, 2009 Found on the Intarwebs

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Someone came up with an Illegal Alien Costume that’s pure genius. Some people seem to be offended by these illegal alien costumes (it IS America, aka the PC nation). I say who cares!? Who’s offended, Illegal Immigrants? Oh No! What are they gonna do to protest? Crawl back across the border? That’s a shame, yeah we should definitely ban these costumes. Wait, you’ll leave if we wear these? Sweet! I’m ordering mine right now…

For the record, nobody is saying you can’t come into our country. We’re just saying you need to come in legally like everybody else.

Seriously though… I’m really considering the costume. We do have a couple costume parties to go to.

Religion in the Courtroom

October 17, 2009 Current Events

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bible The recent story of a Texas jury who consulted the Bible before sentencing a man to death got me thinking.

DISCLAIMER: I AM COMPLETELY FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

I agree when people complain about the 10 commandments in the courtroom and when they demand ‘in god we trust’ be removed from our money or ‘under god’ be removed from the pledge of allegiance. All of that stuff creates a direct tie between our government and a specific religion which I don’t agree with, regardless of my political or religious beliefs. I just don’t think a country founded mostly due to religious discrimination has any right to associate itself with a specific religion when it claims it’s open to all people regardless of belief. That’s like saying “Sure come on in, but we’re better than you.” It just doesn’t jive.

Religion is a moral guidance tool. People lean on it when something happens they don’t understand or if they don’t know what to do about a situation. Whether it’s the Christian Bible or the Muslim Qur’an, It defines right and wrong and the consequences for those who believe its lessons.

To me, this Jury story is different. The people in the JURY consulted the bible, not the JUDGE. They were looking for moral guidance. I don’t have a problem with this. A jury should be made up of your peers. It’s pretty safe to assume that a certain percentage of your peers are going to be Christians or have at least grown up in a Christian household.

The Jury would be leaning on its’ teachings whether they actual read a passage during deliberation or not.

United States Health Care vs The Swine Flu

October 9, 2009 Current Events

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A discussion I had recently with some family and friends about the Flu and the Flu Shot along with Swine Flu prompted me to do a little bit of research. I learned a few things that might be common knowledge to others, but I had no idea so I thought I’d share.

The biggest shock to me was that H1N1 has no direct correlation to the so called Swine Flu. H1N1 is just a sub type of Influenza named Influenza A (H1N1). H1N1 is the most common form of the Flu and in fact the Flu Vaccine usually contains a variation of H1N1 and a variation of H3N2 as well as a B type virus.

Mainstream Media Fail.

The World Health Organization keeps track of all sorts of information regarding outbreaks and diseases and the Swine Flu is no exception. They’ve been tracking it from the beginning and have a ton of data on the spread and what climates it’s most active in.

I’ve heard the media claim this is going to be horrible and it will kill tons of people etc etc. I’ve also heard others mention it’s fatality rate is no worse than a typical Flu virus. Unfortunately everywhere I look I get different numbers on what a typical Flu Virus fatality rate is. Usually it’s somewhere in the ball park of .5% to 1% so we’ll use .75% as a baseline.

Everything I read said the fatality rate will likely rise over time. Through my analysis of the WHO numbers I found this to be true, to a point.

What became quite apparent is there may be a plateau. That is, the system might be flooded with enough people now that we may have reached the point at which the system always contains a constant percentage of the number of people who are sick, and therefor a relatively constant percentage of those will be fatalities. The Good thing is that constant seems to be somewhere around only 1.2%.

This number is roughly 60% larger than our assumed baseline standard seasonal flu fatality rate of .75%. What does this mean?

Well, figuring 10,000 people are infected with the Swine flu and 10,000 people are affected with a standard seasonal flu. Keep in mind though, that this IS a variation of the standard seasonal flu. Of those infected with Swine Flu approximately 120 people would die. Of those affected with the seasonal flu approximately 75 would die. A difference of 45 people or only .45% of the population.

Simply put, the Swine Flu is only .45% more riskier than the Standard Seasonal Flu. Still Worried?

ALL of the information I used can be obtained on the World Health Organization website which has a detailed archive of the Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009

What I DID find extremely interesting and alarming is that the Rate in the Americas (The United States is located within the Americas) is much higher. Over 2.2%, essentially doubling the rate of the rest of the world. Assuming our baseline is accurate that puts the risk for Americans at somewhere like 1.5% more than the standard seasonal flu.