Opuscula Pay me now * And * Pay me later

MEDICARE WAS SIGNED INTO LAW on July 30, 1965 by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in Independence MO.¹

I HAVE BEEN WORKING AND PAYING INTO Social Security since 1957, and Medicare since its inception.

Each month, Social Security deducts an ever-increasing amount from my stipend for Medicare.

Why?

Didn’t I pay into Medicare enough from 1965 until I signed up for Medicare in 2008?

Is the government such a bad steward of my money that at almost 77 years old I STILL must pay into Medicare?

Social Security and Medicare were supposed to be inviolate; untouchable.

It is — “sort of.”

Medicare and Social Security funds were put up as collateral by U.S. governments to cover loans from China.

In other words, China owns the Social Security and Medicare I paid into for decades.

The government will tell me the funds are still here and that the money is safe.

I fear I have no faith in the government; not with Democrats in control and not with Republicans in control.

Since the politicians in the House, the Senate, and the White House have special plans for things Medicare supposedly covers and their own retirement plan separate from Social Security, why should “our” elected representatives care about these two funds.

Sometimes I feel like Diogenes of Sinope, looking for a politician who cares.

 

Diogenes looking for honest man (https://tinyurl.com/tkvlw5c)

 

I know not all politicians are self-centered, but given how hard they campaign to stay in office — and complain about the cost of living in the capital, be it D.C. or Montpelier (VT) — there must be some benefit to the job beside “prestige” and a desire to perform a public service. Color me a skeptic.

I won’t say that each year my monthly Medicare contribution has increased, but it seems to have gone up every year recently.

(I have a Medicare Advantage plan, a money-maker or the insurance companies but one that provides better benefits that “original Medicare.” I live in an area heavily populated by “geezers” and, because of competition, I get more benefits than someone who lives in the tulies or boonies — six of one, half dozen of the other. People who live one county south get more benefits; people who live one county north get less. It's all about competition for the shrinking dollar.)

I understand having to pay tax on my Social Security benefit. It was “pre-tax” income. I don’t LIKE pay tax on my Social Security stipend, but I understand why.

As I understand it, Social Security never was intended to replace retirement savings, and the Social Security number was never supposed to be a national ID to be shared with just about everyone.

When I joined the Air Force in 1960, I got a unique Air Force ID number (that I can recite to this day); sometime later, the military decided to make ever soldier, sailor, and airman’s ID the person’s Social Security number. Some states, e.g., Virginia, used a person’s Social Security number as the person’s driver’s license unless the person complained. So much for making identity theft easy.

I’m glad I HAVE Medicare, but in my heart I resent having to continue paying into a fund to which I have been contributing since its inception.

Pay me now AND pay me later.

Somehow that doesn’t seem fair.

Sources

1. Medicare law: https://tinyurl.com/y3mq74x7

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

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Opuscula Google’s “Blogger” Screws up links And changes codes

I WONDER — IS THERE ANY blog host that doesn’t try to change what the blogger keys?

Google’s Blogger insists on changing my coding.

I HAVE BEEN hand coding HTML since the early 1980s. I created documents for commercial clients and I created a framed web site for myself.

I don’t claim to be an expert, but I know what I know.

For example, standard HTML opens and closes commands within < and > brackets.

When I code my blog copy, paragraphs are separated by </P><P>. In truth, the </P> is not needed, but I use it anyway.

Google, in its “wisdom” swaps my code for </br> — a line break.

If I wanted a line break instead of a paragraph, I would have coded <br> where I wanted the break.

What REALLY gets me upset is when Google adds code to a link.

An HTML link is a simple code

<A HTML:”https://tinyurl.com/y6ucta7t”>https://tinyurl.com/y6ucta7t</A>

Google screws things up by adding its OWN code, as shown in the following image.

Above image shows how Google destroys properly coded HTML links.

What is the function of Google’s &#8221; at the beginning and end of my carefully — AND PROPERLY — constructed link code? The Google addition cancels the link (and is the reason I must include the link as plain text so readers can copy and paste the link into a browser.)

By the way, creating this blog entry is a pain in the posterior since I am forced to use code for < > and & in the foregoing examples. (I have no idea Google’s what &#8221; signifies to Blogger; to me, it signifies Google’s heavy hand on my coding. It also prevents my link from working.)

Do other blog hosts do the same?

The copy for this entry was created using LibreOffice Writer (similar to MS Word, but free and offers some different functionality). The copy was “plain text” — that is sans boldface, italics, underscore, etc. These enhancements are implemented using standard HTML codes. I could use a simple text editor (e.g., MS Notepad) but I depend on spell check; most text editors lack that.

I allow Google Blogger to insert images although I have coded images into place when I had a more flexible host.

All I want is a blog host that WON’T MUCK ABOUT WITH MY CODING. Is that too much to ask?

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

Comment Google’s heavy hand on

Opuscula Random thoughts

SOMETIMES THERE ARE TOO MANY RANDOM thoughts to ignore, yet they are too limited to devote the usual word count.

 

I NEVER was a big fan of Goldie Myerson, nee Mabovitch, but the oft-quoted quote attributed to her is one that deserves attention.

Mrs. Myerson or, as she was known after divorcing her husband, Meir, is supposed to have said Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.

According to The Jewish Press and Harvey Rachlin Jun 16, 2015 as picked up by Israel’s leftist HaAretz newspaper¹, she never made that statement. But she could have.

If Muslim parents would cease indoctrinating their children that being a shaid(ah) — martyr — while killing “infidels” — that is, anyone who believes differently, including other Muslims — then maybe — maybe — there would be peace in the Middle East.

As I key this, there are Muslim-Muslim conflicts in Lebanon, Iran, and Syria; there is increasing resistance to despotic governments in Gaza and in PLO-controlled lands; Jordan’s royal house sits on teetering thrones, as do the rulers in many other Muslim countries.

In every case, children are canon fodder. The Iraq-Iran war excellently proved the point.

 

Iranian children off to war (https://tinyurl.com/wk8f8el)

 

Paying Attention – not

The other day I had occasion to call a Humana Advantage Customer Service Representative (CSR).

The CSR asked my name which I provided.

Then he asked if he could address my by my given name.

I replied, firmly, NO! As far as the CSR was concerned, my first name is Mister.

My negative response must have gone in one ear and out the other (there apparently being nothing in between to trap it); he immediately called me by my given name.

Unlike some CSRs, notably those at TIAA, the Humana guy never got the idea.

 

English, please

My Spouse went to a local food store the other day. She was looking for food coloring. Add a few drops to a clear liquid and instant color. Great for party ice cubes.

In addition to coloring food, food coloring also may be used to trace a leak, and we had a leak. (My First Born disassembled a tank from a toilet and with dexterity and strength that I now lack, replaced the failed parts.)

ANYWAY, when the Spouse asked for help, the clerk’s reply was “no English.”

Granted, this is south Florida, and, granted, the U.S. lacks an “official” language, but English IS the common language so customer-”facing” personnel should know basic English.

President Trump wants new immigrants to know some English in order to garner citizenship. Exceptions could be made for the very old who can’t cope with English’s oddities — and there are many.

When my Spouse applied for citizenship c1986 she was questioned in English and required to read and comprehend something written in English.

Ditto when she tested for her first driver’s license.

If she spoke Spanish or Creole she could have asked for a translator, but what happens when she sees a non-pictorial road sign in English; lacking basic English she would be out of luck.

 

Text-only road signs -- not everything is a picture (https://tinyurl.com/w7ymdcv)

 

Made In China & QA/QC

Much of the products imported from China are just “junk.”

Much of the products imported from Japan in the late 40s and early 50s likewise was “junk.”

What made the change in Japanese goods?

U.S. importers such as Honeywell that performed their own QC on incoming products.

I owned a Honeywell H3v 35 mm SLR that served faithfully for a couple of decades.

Toyota and Nissan (nee’ Datsun) cars and trucks are among the most reliable vehicles on U.S. (and other) roads today.

Japanese companies learned that if they expected to sell to the U.S. market, they would have to institute strict QA/QC in their plants. They did.

China needs to learn from the Japanese.

China products sell because they are cheap. Cheap as “inexpensive to buy” and cheap as in “poor quality.”

Other countries also make “cheap” stuff of somewhat higher quality. Honduras and Mexico to name two.

U.S. importers can do much to improve the quality of Chinese goods without greatly increasing the purchase price How? Incoming QA/QC. Any items that fail are headed for the dump — “landfill” if you prefer — since for most Chinese items, it is not worth returning the product to the manufacturer. Besides heading to the landfill, the importer deducts the price of the discarded product from the payment to the Chinese company.

The Chinese are not stupid.

This is NOT an issue of tariffs so there will be no “tariff war.”

 

Impeachments

It’s a funny thing, but only two U.S. presidents have faced impeachment.

Both were Democrats.

Richard Nixon was hounded out of office; he was not impeached. The same tactic is being used against Donald Trump.

Andrew Johnson^{2, 3}, right, and Wm. (I did not have sex with THAT woman) Clinton⁴ were the only two presidents who faced a Senate impeachment vote. Both remained in office.

A simple majority in the House is all that’s needed to formally impeach a president. But that doesn’t mean he or she is out of a job. The final stage is the Senate impeachment trial. Only if two-thirds of the Senate find the president guilty of the crimes laid out in the articles of impeachment is the POTUS removed from office. ⁴

An interesting side note is how a Republican and a Democrat were paired as a marriage of convenience. An articled titled United States presidential election of 1864 by John M. Cunningham⁵ explains how this came to be. The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on June 15, 1804⁶ had the president and vice-president candidates from the same political party. Lincoln and Johnson ran under a National Union Party label cobbled together by Republicans and “War Democrats” to assure Lincoln’s second term.

U.S., Russia, and Iran – the difference

When the U.S. and Russia, nee’ USSR, were the only two nuclear powers, the swords were rattled but neither country was willing to risk “mutual destruction.” The peoples of both countries had, for the most part, a desire to live.

Iran — and China, too — have a different mind set.

If a few million Chinese die from radiation or starvation, the Chinese government won’t shed any tears.

If an Iranian or Iranian proxy, e.g., Hamas and Islamic Brotherhood in Gaza and the PLO-controlled areas, and Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria — dies fighting the “infidels,” that is, anyone who does not think as they think, then the dead will go meet Allah and the men will wed 70 virgins. (What the women get is beyond me.)

Americans and (former) Soviets want to live.

Chinese don’t care.

Iranians and their proxies want to die as martyrs.

The Western mentality of avoiding “collateral damage” rarely is set aside, but it does happen.

It happened in Dresden, Germany when England and the U.S. firebombed the city day and night to punish the nazis for bombing London.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while they at least had some military value, were punished for Japan’s refusal to surrender and, this scrivener suspects, as payback for Pearl Harbor. The U.S. DID warn the Japanese cities of impending doom. Did the Japanese government prevent the cities’ residents from fleeing?

 

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Sources

1. HaAretz: https://tinyurl.com/sy66dvy

2. Johnson: https://tinyurl.com/yd3adfen

3. Johnson: https://tinyurl.com/y79aq7b9

4. Clinton and Impeachment process: https://tinyurl.com/ygclyote

5. 1884 Election: https://tinyurl.com/zh6zwdv
6. 12th Amendment: https://tinyurl.com/h6htfyx
 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comments on Random thoughts

Opuscula Dates forgotten

Quiz:
What happened on 11-11 at 11 a.m.? Hint: The year was 1918.

What happened on the “Day that will live in Infamy”? When was it?

Do you remember what happened on 9-11-2001? Where it happened?

Gen. Lee's estate. Photo from CBN (https://tinyurl.com/wo4futg)

Answers:

11-11-18 was once known as “Armistice Day” and almost ended World War 1, the “war to end all wars.” Not every soldier “got the word” and even have the generals had inked the agreement, soldiers continued to be killed.

“The day of infamy” was how Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) labeled December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Hickham field. It is suspected that FDR knew the Japanese attack was imminent, but elected not to warn U.S. assets in the Islands so that Congress would support a declaration of war against the Axis (Germany, Italy, and Japan).

On September 11, 2001 Muslim terrorists commandeered four commercial jet planes. Two were flown into the Twin Towers in New York City; one was flown into the Pentagon in Arlington County, VA, and one, thanks to passengers’ bravery, was crashed into a Somerset County, PA field.

Never mind that the FBI, due to internal turf wars, failed to prevent the highjackings. About 3,000 men, women, and children died on 9-11; more later. 9-11 had a HIGHER fatality rate then Pearl Harbor.

I’ve often wonder what became of the paper poppies the ladies of the American Legion Auxiliary. In Flanders fields where poppies grow . . .

Veterans organizations stick flags on or near graves of soldiers . The flags are later collected for next year. God and the soldier we adore, in times of danger, not before ...

Citizens born in the mid 1930s might Remember the Maine from history classes. The USS Maine, a cruiser, was sunk in Havana Harbor to officially start the Spanish-American War. According to Wikipedia, “The cause of her sinking remains a subject of debate."

There are other dates that, unless they have a personal connection, are forgotten by most Americans.

How many people remember

Timothy James McVeigh and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995,
Beirut Marine Barracks Bombing that killed 241 US service personnel on October 23, 1983.

Granted, these were not as “dramatic” as Dec. 7 or Sep. 11 where the death toll was about 3,000 people.

Unless you live in Oklahoma City OK, it is unlikely that April 19 has any significance. As for Lebanon, the current civil war is the about the only time the tiny country makes the news.

Memorial Day, Veterans’ (nee’ Armistice) Day, Pearl Harbor — all are days when Americans are expected to take a moment to reflect on history. As a number of people¹ have said in words similar, if we don’t know our history, we are going to repeat it.

Rather than take a moment to recall the deaths of thousands of individuals in defense of America, the days are holidays for bar-be-cuing, getting away from wherever to someplace else. If we pass a cemetery, do we even give a thought to those monuments with flags?

Human nature.

A holiday is a holiday.

But should Veterans’ Day be treated the same as the Fourth of July? Is Memorial Day the same as Flag Day?

On the same token, do we give thanks on Thanksgiving — and to whom or what? Or is it just another day to over-eat?

It is easy to forget WHY the holiday was initiated, especially ones before we were born.

Still, with the Internet available to almost everyone, might looking up the history of these days be appropriate?

December 7 and September 11 should be more than just ringing a bell and reciting names. Memorial Day and Armistice Day should be more than a picnic; take time to remember those who fought this country’s wars; those who failed to return and those who did but wounded in ways that changed their lives forever.

Having a picnic or day at the (wherever) is fine, but take time out to remember WHY the date is marked on the calendar.

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Sources

Remember the Maine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)

1. Edmund Burke, 1729-1797; Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, 1863-1952

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

Comments on Dates forgotten

Enterprise Risk Management, Business Continuity Risks planners Dare not report In executive BIA

THANKS ONCE AGAIN TO ADVISEN FPN, Enterprise Risk management professionals are alerted to several “awkward” risks.

Risks that corporate executives probably don’t want to consider.

ADVISEN FPN for November 6, 2019, listed the following items of interest:

Warned of A Problem, Vale's CEO Lashed Out
Another reminder from Delaware about the duty of oversight
Pirates seize 4 aboard Greek-flagged ship off coast of Togo

 

Warned of a Problem

The article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal; the information below is on the Morningstar.com website.¹ Go to the web site to read the entire article.

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil -- Vale SA's top managers received an anonymous email warning about the state of the miner's dams two weeks before a deadly disaster, a note that prompted the chief executive to pursue the writer's identity and call the person a "cancer," a police document shows.

Authorities said they are focusing on then-CEO Fabio Schvartsman's response as they investigate whether a culture of retaliation at the company contributed to the Jan. 25. mine-dam collapse in Brumadinho that killed 270 people, the world's deadliest mining disaster of its kind in more than 50 years.

Schvartsman came to Vale SA having been named by Fastmarkets RISI ² as Latin American CEO of the Year. The Financial Times ³ headlines Vale turns to experienced Brazilian manager in Schvartsman

Yet, despite the kudos, Schvartsman dismissed a warning that a mine dam was in danger of collapse and, rather than investigating, he allegedly castigated the person who sent the warning and denigrated the person as a “cancer.”

How could a risk management practitioner predict such behavior?

As an enterprise risk management practitioner I listed a number of threats to an organization; the information was disregarded by an IT manager, the threats occurred, the company was effectively out of business for more than a week and the practitioner was sent packing. (Kill the messenger philosophy.) Lesson learned (among many): IT never should control enterprise risk management planning.

The article suggests that Schvartsman was not the only Vale SA manager who knew about contents of an email warning about a dam failure. According to the article,

The Jan. 9 email, which was sent to Mr. Schvartsman, current Chief Executive Eduardo Bartolomeo, Chief Financial Officer Luciano Siani Pires and other executives, said the company's mine-waste dams were "at their limit," according to a 15-page summary of Mr. Schvartsman's recent interrogation by police and prosecutors that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Did Schvartsman’s reputation silence the others who received the email? The CFO at last should have acted to spare the company criminal charges and lawsuits from victims and survivors. (As a practitioner I always suggested that the CFO be the plan sponsor. The CFO’s sole function is to avoid hits to the organization ‘s bottom line.)

 

Another reminder

The JD Supra site⁴ reports that

Following this summer’s much publicized decision by the Delaware Supreme Court in the Marchand v. Barnhill (Blue Bell Creameries) case, the Delaware Court of Chancery’s holding in In re Clovis Oncology, Inc. Derivative Litigation earlier this month serves as a second recent reminder to directors of their duty of oversight obligations.

This time, the case involved the second prong of Caremark, and the court found another well-pleaded Caremark claim where plaintiffs alleged that the board of directors of Clovis Oncology, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical firm focused on acquiring, developing and commercializing cancer treatments, “ignored multiple warning signs” that management was inaccurately reporting the efficacy of a trial drug in violation of internal trial protocols and related Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) regulations with respect to a product that was “intrinsically critical to the [C]ompany’s business operation.

Once again, there is a “smoking gun” that management allegedly elected to ignore.

Enterprise risk management apparently was absent at two organizations:

Caremark and
Clovis Oncology

Someone at Clovis allegedly covered up actual findings to get better results to post to the FDA and to share with a potential customer, Caremark.

Caremark’s executives may have failed to perform “due diligence” when accepting information from Clovis.

Wikipedia⁴ describes Caremark as

(O)ne of the nation's leading pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies, provides comprehensive prescription benefit management services to over 2,000 health plans, including corporations, managed care organizations, insurance companies, unions and government entities. With net revenue of approximately $37 billion (including approximately $5.8 billion of retail copayments) in 2006, they are also one of the largest PBMs. Caremark operates a national retail pharmacy network with over 60,000 participating pharmacies, as well as 56 retail specialty pharmacy stores, 20 specialty mail order pharmacies and 9 mail service pharmacies located in 26 states and the District of Columbia.

Enterprise risk management practitioners are left wondering what they could do to prevent such disasters. There apparently were documents available to shed light on the risks and cover-ups, but the risks were known only to very senior executives; people who review sponsor plans.

Would having a lawyer — captive or otherwise — involved with risk management have prevented either event?

Is “management misbehavior” a risk a risk management practitioner dare list if he or she wants the project to progress?

 

Pirates seize 4

Finally, an “almost” no brainer.

Having worked for ZIM, an Israeli international cargo shipping company in its U.S. headquarters in Norfolk VA, I know a little about ocean cargo ships.

ZIM crews, unlike many carriers, are armed; all Israeli men spend time in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and they are trained in the use of sundry weapons.

However, most trans-ocean shipping companies elect not to arm their crews for reason of their own.

The Guardian⁵ reported that

Cargo ships don't carry weapons because it is feared this would increase the likelihood of crew members getting killed or injured.

Anti-piracy tactics tend to focus on preventing pirates boarding in the first place. In the Alabama's case it fought off the pirates for up to five hours.

"We have ways to push back, but we do not carry arms," said the Maersk chief executive, John Reinhart. In the Alabama's case those ways are thought to involve using fire hoses against the pirates. They may also have made the ship difficult to board by speeding to create a large wash.

The ICS-Shipping site⁶ offers a PDF file listing gun laws for ports of call around the world. Many nations prohibit ships from calling when it is known there are weapons on board.

Forewarned, etc.

There are many websites that warn about pirates activity around the globe. Several areas are pirate playgrounds where shipping companies know there is a better than average change of an encounter with pirates.

Google map at https://tinyurl.com/y6ucta7t

Given that, there appear to be ways to thwart pirates short of using ZIM’s effective methods.

Use the sites below to identify areas where pirates recently have been active.

ICC: https://www.icc-ccs.org/piracy-reporting-centre/live-piracy-map

How Stuff Works: https://people.howstuffworks.com/pirate6.htm

MARAD: https://www.maritime.dot.gov/ports/office-security/office-maritime-security

World Shipping Council: http://www.worldshipping.org/industry-issues/security/piracy

Just common (?) sense

The How Stuff Works site (ibid.) offers what this scrivener considers “common sense” suggestions.

In the end, it is the obligation of the world’s navies to protect shipping in their waters. When the navy of the country being transited fails to provide protection, the navies of the countries whose flag the vessel flies need to escort vessels through the danger zone.

There already is some international cooperation in this area, but since piracy continues, more needs to be done.

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Sources

1. Morningstar.com: https://tinyurl.com/y5mwso24

2. Fastmarkets RSI: https://tinyurl.com/yxz6x3rv

3. Financial Times: https://tinyurl.com/y5e4w9d8

4. Caremark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CVS_Caremark

5. The Guardian: https://tinyurl.com/y4pb73nc

6. ICS-Shipping: https://tinyurl.com/y5tazf8x

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

Comment on Planners’ woes

Opuscula Small children’s Screen time Taking its toll?

I HAVE THREE GRAND CHILDREN; “grand” as the relationship and “grand” as an attribute. They are bright.
(I can’t take credit. Their grandmother is an educator and their mother is a teacher.)

WHEN I SAW on the radio with a picture that too much time in front of a tube — tablets, cell phones, tvs, etc. — I got concerned.

My grand-trio often can’t take time away from the tube to chat with the grandparents. The Spouse “visits” with them almost daily via WhatsApp; I see them less, also via WhatsApp. (Google’s Duo would work as well. Both are free apps; local and international voice and video chats are free.)

Funny enough, the “inexpensive” Redmi 6A smartphone my daughter insisted I have sounds better than the Spouse's LG “smartphone” — ‘course the LG is an older model.

In any event, I sent my daughter a list of sites that I will share with readers of this blog.

To read any article in its entirety, simply “click” on the article's headline.

Source: CNN

YouTube’s dark side could be affecting your child’s mental health

(CNN) Screen time use by infants, toddlers and preschoolers has exploded over the last decade, concerning experts about the impact of television, tablets and smartphones on these critical years of rapid brain development.

Now a new study scanned the brains of children 3 to 5 years old and found those who used screens more than the recommended one hour a day without parental involvement had lower levels of development in the brain's white matter -- an area key to the development of language, literacy and cognitive skills.

Source: Modern Medicine

YouTube’s dark side could be affecting your child’s mental health

* Mental health experts warn that fear-inducing videos affect brain development in young children.

* YouTube is toughening its approach to policing content for children. With 400 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, vetting malicious content is proving difficult.

* The American Academy of Pediatrics warns parents about the importance of limiting screen time.

Source: Great Schools.org

Your child’s brain on technology: video games

“Hi honeys, I’m home!”

You skip into your house after a brutal day at the office, greeting your offspring with a generous smile.

“I’m so happy to see everybody!”

Silence. No one looks at you. Everyone is hunched over, hypnotized by a gizmo.

Teen daughter Tabitha is texting furiously. Tommy, your tween, is blasting video game bad guys. Five-year-old Theresa stares rapturously at an episode of Annoying Orange, a YouTube video on the gleaming screen.

“I’ve lost my kids! They’re brainwashed by mind-gobbling gadgets!”

You sit down. Take a deep breath. To relax, you scroll through Facebook and catch up on your email. Meekly, you join the other mesmerized zombies…

Source: Healthline Parenthood

Is Screen Time Altering the Brains of Children?

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health recently offered a glimpse of the answer, based on preliminary data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.

This study is following more than 11,000 9- and 10-year-olds at 21 sites throughout the United States. The results were presented in December by study director Gaya Dowling, PhD, on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

The two big takeaways from the initial data are:

* MRI scans found significant differences in the brains of some children who reported using smartphones, tablets, and video games more than seven hours a day.

* Children who reported more than two hours a day of screen time got lower scores on thinking and language tests.

Source: Psychology Today

What Screen Time Can Really Do to Kids' Brains

Screen time is an inescapable reality of modern childhood, with kids of every age spending hours upon hours in front of iPads, smartphones and televisions.

That’s not always a bad thing: Educational apps and TV shows are great ways for children to sharpen their developing brains and hone their communication skills—not to mention the break these gadgets provide harried parents. But tread carefully: A number of troubling studies connect delayed cognitive development in kids with extended exposure to electronic media.

 

Sources

In the event the links above fail, you may "copy and paste" the URLs below into your Web browser.

1. CNN: https://tinyurl.com/y6d57x6g

2. Modern Medicine: https://tinyurl.com/y3p22u7k

3. Great Schools: https://tinyurl.com/yxm3rde6

4. Healthline: https://tinyurl.com/y4sfgsmx

5. Psychology Today: https://tinyurl.com/ybqzvujs

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I know there are things on tubes to enhance youngsters’ capabilities, but I also know there are things that, if used to the exclusion of other stimulants — e.g., reading, writing, conversations with adults and peers — that will lead to a child devoid of interpersonal skills and with a limited vocabulary. I don’t want that for MY grandchildren and I am confident that my grandchildren's parents also don't want that.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

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Opuscula How an HOA board Managed to lose After only a decade

THE HOMEOWNERS’ ASSOCIATION board of directors is out and a new board seated.
It was an acrimonious contest and, some suggest, somewhat underhanded by the one of more of the former incumbents.

The fact that the opposition candidates prevailed probably means that no action will be forthcoming to find, and punish, those who may have tried to intimidate the winners.

THERE ARE TWO COMMON PHRASES, slightly modified, that come to mind as I recover from last night’s board meeting:

Shot themselves in their feet ¹
Hoisted by their own patards. (Wm Shakespeare, Hamlet, c. 1602)².

There has for some time been discontent by some residents of the board that, for the most part, was peopled by the same members for a decade. (No term limits for board members. Hopefully that will change.)

However, recently — as in the last 180 days or so — the board and the property management group to which it genuflects, has knowingly or not done almost everything possible to generate ill-will toward themselves.

First, the management group engages a site representative who agrees to be present three days-a-week from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (total 12 hours-a-week) and who will see residents (the people who indirectly pay her wages) by apointment only.

That not sufficient, the management company sends out harsh “violation” letters to residents who need to attend to “beauty” issues such as cleaning roofs and driveways.

The old saw, It’s not WHAT you say but HOW you say it came to the fore. Rather than politely and civilly reminding a property owner that something needed attention —”We notice that the roof and driveway need to be cleaned. Let us know when this will be done." — the first letter is a violation notice that, according to the on-site person, is the way the lawyers want it.

Adding insult to injury, the letters were dated well before being sent, were mailed (as the lawyers insisted) via certified — read “extra expense” — mail, and separate letters were sent for each alleged “violation.”

I was told, by a lawyer, that the management company lawyers are paid $300 per letter! I received two letters and some neighbors received as many as five separate violation letters. Simple math: 5*300=1500; US$1,500 for sending fill-in-the-blank form letters.

One of the candidates for a new board is a forensic accountant.

He took the proposed 2020 budget apart and pointed out what he claims are inaccuracies.

The meeting Monday night was to start with the budget, but when the candidate/accountant started to challenge each line and the management association’s accountant commenced to explain, time flew.

Finally one board member made a motion to table the budget until a later date. The motion was seconded, but no vote was taken. The now-ex president of the board, a lawyer, apparently lacking knowledge of rules of order or the power of her position, allowed the accountants to continue to debate.

FINALLY, since it was pointed out several times that there was a motion to table the budget, the matter was closed. The management accountant walked out of the meeting with the blessings of the audience.

As required, one of the management company lawyers, called for nominations for the board.

She started by polling each current board member if they would be willing to accept a nomination. Four of the seven members of the board, apparently realizing they were sailing on the Titanic, declined to be dominated.

Nominations were then called from the floor.

Just to keep things “interesting,” there were eight people nominated for the seven-member board, causing the State election official to have every proxy counted and verified. Lots of overtime.

Had the election for some reason not happened, the old board would be “rolled over” and in place for another year.

It seems to this scrivener that if incumbents had been “rolled over” the four board members who declined to be nominated should have, at the first opportunity, resigned and their replacements appointed by the board members who DID accept nominations.

As it happened, the election was held and the newly constituted board was seated.

NOW, let us see if the newly elected board will follow up on its promises.

1. Come up with a new, transparent budget

2. Call for bids on all expiring contracts, including the management company

3. Replace the 12 hours-a-week on-site manager with one who is polite, accessible, and knows for whom she, or he, is working

4. Establish term limits for board members — say three years.

Granted, these are this scrivener’s priorities.

I’d also like to see the sub-division web site list each board members’ contact information: name, phone number, email at a minimum. This information also should be on the first sheet of each paper letter and PDF file sent by the board.

Outgoing board members never put their contact information where residents could easily find it. It’s a minor thing, but if you don’t want to be bothered by those nasty people who elected you, . . .

I hope that the new board members will ask the retired board members for their opinions and that the four ex-board members will provide assistance as requested. It would be sad if the subdivision residents behaved as badly as the professional politicians of both parties in Washington DC.

The election was acrimonious, but it is history.

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Sources
1. Shot in foot: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shoot_oneself_in_the_foot
2. Shakespeare: https://tinyurl.com/yc5s86pj

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

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Opuscula What if patients Kept their doctors Waiting for them?

BEFORE I COMMENCE THIS RANT, I want everyone to know that my current Primary Care Physician (PCP) has been more or less on time at every visit.

Image of Salvador Dali melting clock on right.

Of course all my visits are scheduled first thing in the morning or first thing after lunch.

THERE SEEM TO BE TWO PCP types:

One who slavishly follows the clock — in most cases that means a maximum of 15 minutes per patient.
The other ignores the clock and takes whatever time is needed for the patient.

As a patient, I try to be on my way out the door within 15 minutes of the PCP’s entry. I don’t count “prep time”; the weigh-in, blood pressure check, and 20 questions from the sweet young things that populate doctors’ offices.

I show up with a list of “concerns” for my PCP and we usually can check them off fairly quickly.

I have had some PCPs who, no matter how hard I tried to get them on their way to their next patient, insisted on chatting. I admit that in one case such a “chat” may have saved my life.

I don’t particularly mind if a doctor is a few minutes late — a quarter hour normally is acceptable — but if the practitioner is running 30 or more minutes behind schedule and has patients in front of me, someone needs to inform me before MY patience runs out.

Let me reschedule.

Once, years ago, I had an appointment with an ophthalmologist.

I sat in the doctor’s waiting room for more than an hour.

Finally I asked the woman behind the glass “Where’s the doctor?”

“Oh,” she replied, “he had emergency surgery.”

I was losing pay as I sat in his waiting room — as were others — and no one thought to tell us that the doctor was occupied elsewhere for an undetermined time!

This morning my wife had an appointment with a specialist. The person is a great doctor, highly recommended and well respected by peers and patients.

But he frequently is late arriving.

My wife’s appointment was at 8 a.m. She arrived at the office at 7:50 a.m. It takes about 15 minutes for sign-in and prep time.

The doctor arrived about 8:45.

My wife, much younger than I am, is employed and her employer counts every minute she is absent. In any event, she normally enjoys her work. Making her more than an hour late does not make for a happy camper.

I cannot comprehend why some professionals — doctors, lawyers, and petty bureaucrats — seem to think it is OK to treat their clients like Jacob Rodney Cohen.

People with appointments to see these people need to be shown simple courtesies.

If they cannot be on time, alert the person waiting to be seen.

If the delay will be more than, say, 30 minutes, offer, and be agreeable, to reschedule the appointment.

Arrogance is not an attractive trait and, to the best of my limited knowledge, it is not a university course.

I will not be like Jacob Rodney Cohen. He may not have gotten get any respect, but I will demand it or find another vendor

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

Comment on Doctors and Respect