I haven't read all of it, but I've finished one-third, as it's a quick read. A Dose of Sanity by Sydney Walker III, MD (1996) is written by a psychiatrist noting the non-scientific approach too many psychiatrists have for what they-call-medicine. So far, my favorite quote is, "... very little is undiagnosable, but much is not being diagnosed". This is a general theme to the book, noting also misdiagnoses and the theory of labelling that the psychological profession loves to do.
I would recommend this book for whomever find the topic and theme of interest.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
book plug
I thought you were supposed to play dead!
There are a few suburban opposums around, but I have yet to capture one digitally. I saw one last night, but it was not obliging for photography, instead, looked at me with reflective eyes in the night and slowly walked away. I have never really seen one run, only lumber and walk with an alligator-like gait; swagger with hips in action or somewhat gracefully like a chameleon trying to imitate wind on leaves, feigning non-existence.
I'll be good and thankful when I can catch up to one and it fall over, stinking dead -- their skin exuding mucous smelling of rot, cleverly disuading predators from consuming them. Yes ... I'll take one faking death, but real dead ones, stink really foul. I know, last year I helped a neighbor move one with a bloated stomch that we both feared would rupture and explode a mixture of gasses and smells that would make your own fecal matter more appetizing.
Alas, should I ever want photos of the dead, I could drive to a local county park fixed on a growing-heavier traffic road, lined on either side with the dead that didn't make it to the other side, alive. I understand that one naturalist who works at the park, actually uses the dead fauna for count and species to know what kind of critters and some (extrapolated) population densities of species. There are few dead deer on that strip, but several raccoons die every week. They must have a healthy population to sustain such population losses.
One more bit on Dirty Jobs
I haven't seen each and every one, but I have seen a few. A few, chosen, jobs were not very dirty but okay to watch. A, less than really dirty job was crayfish (insert any other term for them) fisherman or really ... gatherer wasn't especially dirty, but mildly funny. The flatboat pilot was about as simple of a man as I've seen. He hard spoke a word, though I wouldn't write him off as dumb. He joke spoke simply and remotely. Simple folk live in the bayous of the Gulf states, simple folk. The crayfish gatherer here used shad, but said only that it's a fish, knowing little else about them because it wasn't important to him. Comedy through conversation.
He spent time with department of natural resources, who are responsible for determining when "shrimping season" opens yearly. The slop in it all was okay, but absent was the concentration of the collection. It wasn't the main focus, but I would have been intrigued by closely examining the haul from bottom-feeders. At its face, the bulk were small fish, too large to escape the hauling process of dragnets. I did see, unaware until that time, that rays (cousins to sharks and kites) have tongues.
Healthy Entertainment
I make no point to knock myself out watching any program, since there are so few that are worth anything, but ... there are a few that can be edutainment. Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, as his "trained" friend said is his favorite show. It isn't completely slapstick or standup humor credits to credits, but worth watching.
I saw last night, his "Casino Food Recycler" episode. He was in Vegas and got Turtle's (a real behind-the-scenes stagehand) job of fowl cleaning. The show was okay, until he met up with Bill, the "recycler" when this simple Nevada pig farmer with ramshackle, piece-it-together-yourself equipment had Mike there to "help" him. What wasn't clear was if Bill, the farmer, had any other person helping him. The daily job -- DAILY, was gruelling and too much for one. Bill, not young, but wily showed Mike the ropes.
It had to be -- the nastiest, grossest, funniest job, I have ever seen. I think they chose to film during Fall/Winter, becuase the Summer heat would make the pig slop far too ripe. Without giving much away, as the episdoe bears watching, Mike was deep in all mixed buffet waste from the casinos in Vegas. Each day, truckloads (tons) arrive for sorting ... I can say nothing more than the grossness is well superceeded by the hilarity of the entire thing.
I nearly cried about the milk. In fact, I think, needing a laugh terribly, I think I did cry or let loose my bladder. Funny, funny, dirty jobs.
Thanks Discovery!
New technology could nip DVD format war in the bud
September 26, 2006 from Reuters
Movie studios save money and consumers don't have to worry about buying the "right" player
The format war around next generation DVDs may be over before it has begun, thanks to a breakthrough from a British media technology company.
Britain-based New Medium Enterprises (NME) said today it had solved a technical production problem that makes it possible to produce a cheap multiple-layer DVD disk containing one film in different, competing formats.
"Current technologies to create multiple layer disks mostly don't work. We've created a technology for mass production of multiple layers that does not suffer from the well known problem of low yields," said NME Chief Technology Officer Eugene Levich.
A low yield means that many DVDs coming off the manufacturing lines are not working and have to be discarded.
The production costs of a multi-layer DVD using the new NME technology are estimated to be around 9 cents, compared with the 6 cents for a standard single-layer play-back DVD, according to Dutch company ODMS, one of the world's leading makers of production lines for optical disks.
This 50% cost increase compares favorably with the current generation of multi-layer recordable DVD disks which cost 3 to 5 times as much to produce than a single layer disk, due to low yields.
The technological breakthrough comes one week after three employees at movie studio Warner Bros. filed a patent for the application of multiple formats on a single DVD disc.
"There's no collision between Warner and us. They patent the application, we are patenting the technology. These are complementary patents. I'm glad it's happened. Warner opened our eyes, because it shows they really want to do this and create multi-format, multi-layer disks," Levich said.
Time Warner is the world's largest media company and owns Warner Bros. Former Warner Home Video President James Cardwell joined NME as a board member last month.
Nipped in the Bud?
Multiple format DVD disks can solve the emerging war between the two new high capacity DVD formats: Blu-Ray, which is backed by Sony Corp., and Toshiba-supported HD-DVD.
High capacity DVD disks are needed to store high definition movies on a single disk. Movies stored in high definition provide five to six times more picture detail than standard definition which is used in normal DVDs.
By putting the same film on a single disk in the two competing formats, movie studios can save money and consumers do not have to worry if they are buying the right disk for their player.
The technological breakthrough by NME was confirmed by ODMS.
"I can confirm this. We were very skeptical when NME approached us. We have experience with producing dual layer recordable DVD discs and the yield is below 50%. But their technology gives a much higher yield and also brings other cost savings," said ODMS Chief Executive Jadranko Dovic.
ODMS said it will have the first prototype production line using NME's technology running by early 2007.
NME said it had also created new technology for the machines which have to read and write the disk, which is another bottleneck with multi-layer disks. The current generation of DVD players can read up to two layers.
NME has created DVD disks with up to 10 different layers that were still readable. It has created its own player, but it is willing to license the technology to mainstream consumer electronics companies, Levich said.
Movies on a DVD are stored at different depths depending on the technology. Blu-ray discs store information only 0.1 millimetre from the surface while HD-DVD discs store it at 0.6 millimeters. Movies longer than two hours would need to be stored on two layers of the same format very close to each other.
little bird
A little bird, flipped by the driver behind me, let me know today that perhaps, just maybe ... I was in the wrong.
prose and cons
Restless, yet ... sober, I'm typing still. My heart and mind are not still and are not right. My awful prose of drinking and attempts at death are just that ... typing. I'm sure, analytically I call pull out many fine points and use experience and history to Fruedian-pull out meaning in relations to my ego and superego battling like Ramos and Rommulus, knowing one survives, the other killed by the survivor. I think, yawning now, I'll finish with a more recent doctor who my say that my shoes were too tight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
