The Future of America

A hospital in St. Louis, Missouri is going to such lengths to accomodate their growing clientele as "replacing beds and wheelchairs with bigger models, widening doorways, buying larger CT scan machines, even replacing slippers and gowns."

The same hospital reported that roughly 1/3 of the 900 patients they saw that year weighed more than 350 pounds.

Nursing unions are now demanding that hospitals get portable hoists because the nurses cannot physically move their patients anymore without risking or suffering from physical injuries themselves.

Some doors at the St. Louis hospital have been widened from 36 inches to 52 (that is 4 feet, 4 inches). A Cooper Mini is only 14.5 inches wider than these new doors (66.5 inches).

"A special chair for obese patients is large enough to accommodate physical therapists Dawn Caplan, right and Natasha Miriani." (see image above)

In some cases, syringe needles with a length of 4.5 inches could not reach through the fat in order to get the injectable solution where it needed to be.

Even specially made body bags had to be ordered.

The hospital says that it is seeking ways to ensure that all of its patients are treated with dignity.

Are the hospital's practices and facilities stripping these people of their dignity or is there something else doing it? How far are we willing to go to accomodate such a condition that can hardly be said to be any less damaging than alcoholism, smoking, or doing illicit drugs?

What Evolution Cannot Explain

I was reading through some blogs and news one day and came across a post on the blog The Panda's Thumb. The post was commenting on an article, from a South Carolina newspaper, describing the defects in evolution.

The following is an excerpt of the anti-evolutionist's argument:

The theory of evolution does not and cannot explain so much about the universe that we know. For instance, when and how did water evolve? How does it happen that gravity can hold us to the Earth, and at the same time allow us to step up without any trouble? How did it happen that the Earth is spinning at the exact rate that keeps us from feeling that movement?

After I stopped laughing, I did have to ask myself, did water really evolve from apes? And how is it that the Earth does spin at the "exact rate that keeps us from feeling that movement" and yet, when men walked on the moon, which spins (rotates) at a different rate, that rate too was the exact rate that kept them from feeling the movement?

We may never know these answers.

Does the US Torture Enough?

If you are interested in the absurd, FoxNews never fails. Covering the Moussaoui trial, FoxNews speculated that our torture policy was too late in coming.

Notice the specialty of FoxNews, their leading caption.

"Could 9/11 have been avoided if Moussaoui was tortured?"

There is a disconnect in the logic of the right when they assert that our "unalienable rights" are God given and not merely created by the laws of a government, and yet they refuse to respect those rights unless you are a citizen, and a friendly one at that, to this government. If these rights are given by God by virtue of merely being created in his image, do they not apply to citizens and non-citizens alike? On the other hand, were these rights to merely be gifts from the benevolent state, such a policy of selective application would have better support.

Half Man, Half Machine

Scientists have successfully fused neurons (brain cells) to computer chips. This fusion is not merely a physical bond but also a functional one. The microchip was able to record signals sent from the neurons and capacitors on the microchip in turn, stimulated the neurons.

This work is fascinating. The possibilities that immediately come to mind are the possible uses of this technology for people with spinal cord injuries (re-establishing severed neuronal pathways) and alzheimers (substituting for dead or non-functional dopamanine producing neuronal cells in the region of the brain called the substantia nigra).

Regressive Environmental Policy

EPA policy which demands that refineries, power plants, and factories, when they modernize install up to date emission controls. A priority of the Bush administration has been to change change these policies to allow these factories, refineries, and power plants to upgrade their facilities without having to comply with modern emission rules and requirements.

A federal appeals court this week issued a ruling stating that such a change in policy requires Congressional action and cannot simply be enacted by a change in agency policy.

The fear among those who favor protection of the environment is that an enormous loophole will simply be created allowing industry to circumvent EPA regulations and environmental protection laws. So long as expansion or development of new facilities can be piggy-backed on or masked as renovation of an older facility, those improvements need not meet modern environmental standards.

A Supreme Court that is growing more and more conservative may or may not hear this case on a subsequent (and what would be final) appeal. Traditionally, an agency's position receives considerable deference and their policy would be overturned only if found to be clearly contradictory to the legislature's intent in enacting the statute. It is uncertain how they might decide this case were they to elect to hear it.

The lawsuit was filed by New York, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Movie Quote in Court Opinion

A Bankruptcy court, two weeks ago, denied a Defendant's motion for "Incomprehensibility."

The Defendant's motion was titled: "Defendant's Motion to Discharge Response to Plaintiff's Response to Defendant's Response Opposing Objection to Discharge."

In an eight sentence opinion, the court denied the motion stating "the court cannot determine the substance, if any, of the Defendant's legal argument, nor can the court even ascertain the relief the Defendant is requesting."

Best of all, the court quoted, in a footnote, the movie "Billy Madison:"

"Mr. Madison, what you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response was there anything that could even be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul."

Ports Deal Folding?

President Bush may miss an opportunity to exercise the veto power with Dubai Ports World announcing that "DP World has decided to transfer fully the U.S. operation of P&O Operations North America to a United States entity."

What exactly that announcement means and whether any legislation will proceed through Congress is unclear at this time.

Dubai's Opulence

There has been much news on Dubai recently (one of several emirates in the UAE). However, there is some fascinating news on the region regarding tourism and architecture.

By 2011, Dubai expects to have the following tourists sites completed:

- An underwater hotel (scheduled completion date, 2007)

- The tallest building in the world (at the time of completion, estimated at 2009)

- A spaceport for an American Space Tourism Company

- An indoor ski slope including bobsled runs (already in operation)

- The largest mall in the world, including 15 submalls, an aquarium, and a skating rink

- An ecotourism site reminiscent of the biodome

- A 3 billion square foot attraction known as "Dubialand" including "Sports City" which has facilities for golf, auto racing, polo, indoor rock climbing, skateboarding, other extreme sports, and various athletic stadia.

- A cluster of man-made island resorts shaped like the continents on a world map

- A series of island resorts (currently the largest man-made islands in the world) shaped like a palm tree.

For an amazing slideshow of photographs and concept drawings see here, and click on the slide show link, under the photo.