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Since 1994, this is the 1592nd issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 15 December 2024: Sea Hunt | Copyright ©2024 https://thisistrue.com |
The Beauty of American Healthcare I: When Victoria Villanueva of Indiana was pregnant with her first child, it was routine to give her drug tests during prenatal care visits. The screenings always came back clean — no drugs in her system, including the day she arrived at a hospital to give birth. But her contractions were so painful, the hospital gave her morphine. The next day, a social worker confronted her: she was being investigated for drugs in her system. You guessed it: themorphine. The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that investigates inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system, found dozens of similar cases in multiple states, including incidents of children being taken away from their mothers for months. In most cases, the hospitals contact child protective services themselves, even though they have full access to all medical records. “It makes me sick to think of all the moms that have come through and said they don’t use [drugs] and wedon’t believe them,” said a nurse at a hospital in Arizona. The Marshall Project notes that mandatory reporting laws protect healthcare workers from liability for reports made “in good faith.” (RC/USA Today) ...Not checking medical records first is bad faith.
A.I. Is For the Birds: OpenAI has released o1, its most advanced model so far. The launch was timed with the start of the company’s “12 Days ofOpenAI” — 12 videos released over 12 days, showing off o1. The first video shows a user uploading a picture of a birdhouse and asking o1 how to build another one. After “thinking” for a bit, the model kicked out a set of instructions that look comprehensive — until you actually read them. It gave dimensions for just the front panel, recommended cutting a piece of sandpaper down for no apparent reason, and told the user quantities of paint, glue, and sealant — in inches. “You would know just asmuch about building the birdhouse from the image as you would the text, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of the A.I. tool,” said James Filus, director of the U.K.’s Institute of Carpenters. “Simply saying ‘install a small hinge’ doesn’t really cover what’s perhaps the most complex part of the design.” (MS/Time) ...Always check your work, especially if a computer did it for you.
Even This Time of Year there are bills to pay (boy are there!), so the rule of thumb that it takes 5 subscription upgrades (or 5 re-upgrades) still figures in to keep ads out of the newsletter. This week there were only 2 upgrade (thanks, Dwayne and Jeff), and 0 re-upgrades. Saved, maybe, by contributions? Just 1 (thanks, Xuan). Unless several of you jump in to help, there will be an ad next week. Think of it as a gift you give yourself. Upgrade here or contribute here and thanks much.
Not: “This is not a drill,” the announcement at a middle school said, according to students’ relatives. “There’s an active shooter in the cafeteria.” It was, in fact, a drill. A class evacuated; police and administrators retrieved the students. “This morning, we had a pre-planned intruder drill that we do quarterly,” said Anthony Johnson of the Clarksville-Montgomery County (Tenn.) School System. “During the drill, an administrator used the incorrect script to activate the drill.”(AC/WTVF Nashville) ...Someone needs some drilling in running drills.
Light Reasoning: Timothy Willis, a Delaware driver for UPS, was injured when he crashed his work truck, and was awarded Worker’s Compensation. Hold on, UPS said, appealing that decision to Delaware’s Superior Court. Judge Kathleen Vavala ruled that the state’s Industrial Accident Board “abused its discretion” and “erred as a matter of law” in awarding Willis benefits. On what grounds? “Voluntary intoxication while working deviates from the ordinary course of employment,” her rulingsays, and the Board’s decision “exceeded the bounds of reason,” even though the Board had concluded it was OK since he had been drinking “light” beer. The court found that “Willis typically packs a cooler of beers to celebrate the end of his shift while driving back home; but on the day of the crash, he started early.” Also, “Willis admitted he usually drinks beer and drives on the way home from work; attended AA meetings to curb his drinking; and was drinking and driving sometime before thecrash.” Troopers investigating the crash reported they found Willis had thrown “several” empty beer cans from the truck, was slurring his speech, smelled of alcohol, and had pooped his pants. Blood alcohol tests taken hours later measured 0.19 and 0.181, more than double the legal limit. Judge Vavala said that “to affirm the board’s decision would set a dangerous precedent that employees can get away with driving impaired on the job — as long as it’s light beer — despite overwhelming evidence tothe contrary.” (RC/AP) ...Regular American beer: 5% alcohol. Most “light” beers: 4.2% alcohol. Judge Vavala’s ruling: 100% pure.
Hindsight is 20/20
Florida Man ‘Should Have Hid His Cocaine’ Before Calling Deputies to Report a Break-In
WTVT Tampa
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This Week’s Contributors: MS-Mike Straw, AC-Alexander Cohen, RC-Randy Cassingham.
Stories This Week were Written/Edited in Colón, Panama, getting ready to head into The Canal. I built the (Premium) newsletter while on the canal, and posted a quickie video about entering the locks on the Caribbean side. The same video is also on my Facebook pages for This is True and Residential Cruising.
It’s That Time of Year: No, not when I say “Merry Christmas” (or even “Happy Holidays”), but to note that this isn’t a happy time for many. For many years as a medic I would volunteer to work holidays so my fellow medics could be home with their families, so I “get” being alone. And I think back on some of the calls I’ve been to during the holidays, like the time a visiting grandfather fell down the (wood) stairs at a home early on asnowy Christmas morning, and what it took to transport him in relative comfort while his family worried about him.
My first Christmas as a medic was spent at a crash that was so bad, I ended up with a relatively mild case of PTSD, so I’ve not been “jolly” at Christmas myself for many, many years. As long-time readers know, I have a vast collection of Christmas Blues music that I often listen to this time of year, and I put many of the songs in my blog for the benefit of those I knew would appreciate it. Even if it is a happy time for you, you mightfind the collection of interest.
Thanks to the magic of Youtube, you can, right on the page, listen to a then-10-year-old Gayla Peevey singing “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” (from 1953); that is more a weird one than a blues song, but you won’t believe that voice is a 10-year-old’s. But there’s also my favorite, “Silent Night, Christmas Blue” — this is the first year I’ve listened to it without semi-sweet tears rolling down my face: it just hits me right in a spot that needed a little massaging.
So, rather than “Merry” or “Happy” or “Joyful” whatever, what I say this time of year is, Have a Peaceful Christmas. We could all use that.
Yes, There Is The Beauty of American Healthcare II. The bad part about removing most of the content from Premium for this “free sampler” edition is ...removing most of the content, and thus losing the flow of the issue. That’s one of the reasons I work so hard to get you to try Premium: in a very real sense, you don’t know what you’re missing, and it’s almost impossible to describe. The easiest way to try it is to choose a quarterly upgrade and let it run for two full months, and then decide whether to let it continue, or pop in and cancel (and you will still get it until the 13th issue, even though you canceled, unless you write me to say stop). The Number-One-by-Far reaction I get from readers who upgrade is, “I should have done this a long time ago!”
And yes, you can start with the full version of this week’s issue: just ask for your subscription to start with the 15 December issue (or 1592), and I’ll Make It So.
Ten Years Ago in True: Be Careful What You Ask For.
New Post on Randy’s Random today: a very cynical take on Marriage.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: The supposed “War on Christmas” has been waging for decades. Here’s my take on it from 21 years ago. As usual, the comments are interesting too. Merry Secularmas, Then?
This Week’s Honorary Unsubscribe goes to Robert Sténuit. Odds are you’ve never heard of Sténuit before, but what he did took huge courage, and he set the stage for much more to follow. Worth 4 minutes of your reading time.
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