Liar Liar

 - Some Signs of Dishonesty are Hard to Miss -

“A Miami defense attorney is feeling the heat after his pants caught fire Wednesday after he told jurors during arguments in an arson case that his client’s car spontaneously combusted and wasn’t intentionally set. 

As he started speaking to the jury, Stephen Gutierrez, 28, said he noticed his pocket began to feel hot.”

...

“Later in the day his client, Claudy Charles, 48, was convicted of second-degree arson.” **

If only the justice system were that simple. 

It doesn’t seem like a technology that is more reliable than a lie detector would be/should be that far off in the future. 

Game shows had it right all along - we just need to extend these concepts to the courts:  
Any person taking the stand, AND the lawyers making opening/closing statements, would incur a loud bell or buzzer whenever their answers just weren’t good enough. 

And we’d finally get to the bottom of all that:  He said – She said

(Home Use NOT Recommended)

It's Time to Get the Blood Flowing

Great thing, giving blood

• Just 1 pint can save up to 3 lives
• Every 2 seconds someone needs blood

Unfortunately, there's rarely a day that goes by without shortages, some acute, across the nation.
As much as 60% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood yearly, but as little as 5% do it **

So, go do it

...
But here's my beef with this:

00:05:48

(hr:min:sec)

That's how long it took to physically draw the unit of blood out of me (and a glorious unit it was!).

01:08:00

And that's how long the process took from start to finish with only a single person in front of me waiting.

If blood is needed every 2 seconds, the time on the input side needs to be cut.  Let's face it, it's hard to convince potential donors to part with all that nice blood they usually like to keep on the inside, now enhance this with fear of needles and pain.

The Red Cross doesn't need to be wasting their time too.

Some points to consider:

• When a blood drive occurs at a company, they can hit the motherlode.  But over an hour of processing time plus significantly more for waiting cuts people right out.  Not everyone can miss that much time in a work day.
• I waited to register; I waited to get interviewed and finger-pricked (iron test - don't get all worked up); I waited to get on the table...and all four were empty
• The bean-counters prevailed:  In order to save the cost of an unused kit, attendants must now assemble your blood bag, tubes and test tubes after you get up on the table - five more minutes 
• The long and tedious medical screening questioning may be helpful, but if the donor gets inattentive/forgetful over the course of this ever-expanding set of disqualifiers, or he/she lies ^^, it really didn't work. 

So here's the way things Otter Bee at the blood drive...

Overhaul the System

The Goal:  15 minutes of administration, max

• Simplify the Screening - It really shouldn't have to be this complicated.  Screen hard for CJD (mad cow) 'cuz it can't be tested out.  Stop being PC on some questions and just eliminate others.  The risks from some of these disqualifying groups are no greater than others donating freely (like Zika-infested Floridians). 
• Hand Out Worksheets to Newbies Waiting to Start - Disqualifying answer and you're out, without slowing the flow.  Could do on smartphones via wifi in waiting area!  
• Fast Track the Regulars - Even the donut-swilling, time-sinks of TSA have Pre-Check.  I've given maybe a gallon or two; one lady there was on her 36th round.  Just verbally ask them and highlight any new questions while you're cleaning his/her arm.
• Do a Cholesterol Test - At same time as iron test; just takes a drop or two.  BONUS for donating! 
• Prep a Minimal Number of Blood Bag Assemblies - Come on!  The Red Cross has been doing these drives for decades.  They should have a good idea how many people they'll get at a minimum, and if you see ten people in line, prepare eight bags while you drain those on the table.
• And No Waiting - Once you're in, there should be no dead time.  Staff it up appropriately and keep it flowing as if lives depended on it.

The Red Cross should be testing the donors' blood, not their patience.  Bring on some efficiency for the donors, and you'll get more blood.

The Emperor Needs New Clothes

Emperor Norton 1869 on board a boneshaker bicycle around the time of San Francisco's Grand Velocipede Tournament

(Photography, like the bike, was similarly rare to see in that time period.  Pneumatic tires, smooth roads and enjoyment were apparently not top priority.)

In the world of modern cycling, advancements in technology come in fits and starts.  Apart from what some consider an unhealthy fascination with tight spandex, not a lot seems to have changed in clothing.  It's high time we do so, at least on the visibility front.

Where are the kinetic/movement-powered LED's, or glowing fibers in cycling clothes?  

There are patents that doubtless go back quite a ways to rudimentary but impractical designs, and some more modern ones that directly address electronics in clothing.  But frankly, small enough devices either embedded in/on fabric, or more ideally part of the fabric itself, should have made its way to the market by now.

In terms of clothing, the BBC (fabric as battery storage for phones, etc.) and Mashable (7 imaginative but disappointingly vague concepts in clothing to, once again, charge your phone) had articles back in 2012.

When is that solar-powered bra expected to be out in the sun?

(And, more intriguing, if this is all you're wearing,

exactly what electronic device are you powering?)

June 2015

This isn't a new idea, so much as a practical application and plea to get it done.  Maybe they think cyclists would be too shy to wear anything gaudy....

 

If Mickey can blink when a kid moves, why can't I?

After all, toddlers have been running around with LED flashing shoes such as these for a long time.

World Anti-Drug Agency Needs Some Performance Enhancement

W.A.D.A., which had been doing nada for about four years, was finally stoked into action only after the Russian whistle-blower took his story of state-run PED use to the media.  Apparently 200 emails with explicit inside information was not enough to rouse the world's number one agency to launch any kind of investigation.

President Putin and IOC President Bach at Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony

The Russians skated through as host of the 2012 Winter Olympics, casually utilizing military counter-intelligence (FSB) agents to orchestrate the widespread switch-out of Russian athlete urine samples at every event.

Even better, the head of Russia's anti-drug program was tasked with engineering the cocktail of performance enhancing drugs administered to the Russian athletes.  Medal contenders received special consideration, of course, and lo and behold, Russian performance statistics were off the charts that year compared to the prior Olympics.

Smiles everyone, smiles!

Then they invaded Ukraine.

After far too long, Russia's reputation for institutionalized PED use finally caught up with them (again...), in large part due to a continuation of this with track and field athletes competing outside Russia.  They actually risked being totally banned from the summer Olympics, but, of course, that didn't happen.

BTW, two of the three Russian anti-drug directors, who could testify to the institutionalized drug program, somehow met with suspicious and untimely deaths.  The third, the cocktail designer referred to above, got while the gettin' was good and is cooperating.

Having shown what fine sportsmen they are (government included), the Russians are now scheduled to host the 2018 World Cup Soccer Tournament.  I'm sure everything will be on the up-and-up this time, because they've learned their lesson from all this lack of meaningful consequences.  This message is not lost on China and the rest of the world.

W.A.D.A. needs to grow a pair. 

If W.A.D.A. actually did its job right, with what Putin's puppets are doing to all their athletes, Russia would eventually be restricted from all international sports for a long time.

Of course, there's always dog shows....

If You Don't Play Nice, We Take the Ball and Go Elsewhere

In 2018 FIFA plans to hold the World Cup in Russia.

Hosting the World Cup Soccer Tournament yields a number of benefits, as well as considerable costs in preparing to do so.  Actual figures are all across the board.  One example is when the U.S. hosted in 1994 and just one (LA) of the many cities involved calculated the monetary value of the event at $623 million compared to the $182 million profit from the Super Bowl.**  Long term infrastructure benefits, establishment of whole soccer leagues, new tourist revenues, and the inherent advantage the home team always seems to have are a few of the indirect monetary paybacks.

There are other intangibles, most notably a rise in status, and world acceptance of the primacy of the country hosting the world's biggest sporting event. 

So, doesn't it seem like a total impropriety to have Russia host the 2018 World Cup, given:

• Russia's military take-over of Crimea immediately following its hosting of the 2012 Winter Olympics
• Russia's further military subversion and direct participation in destabilizing the Ukrainian republic, including extensive killing in the east
• Russia's being under European and U.S. sanctions for these latter two acts
• Russia's unrepentant role in helping shoot down a civilian airliner
• Rampant PED use in all the prior Olympics
• Russian government/intelligence service facilitation of such when it hosted the Olympics
• Russia's aid to Assad in Syria, participating in such events as the barrel bombing of civilians and overlooking the continued use of chemical weapons such as chlorine gas
• Russia's not-so-subtle military threat to the Baltic States as it steps up exercises on the Lithuania border 
• Russia's election interference in the U.S. that some equate with an act of war
• Russia's upcoming election interference in Europe/elsewhere and continued hacking despite the incredibly harsh punishment imposed by the Obama Administration (sanctioning four people and maybe five institutions that never leave the country anyways)

• And, of course, NO U.N. action on any of this (because they are too busy passing Resolutions against Israel for building condo's) 

Why is it "business as usual" on the economic and sports front between the free world and Russia???

By way of analogy, if some executive at your company is assaulting the administrative staff, stealing from the coffers, and putting viruses in your computer system, you don't make him Employee of the Month AND give him a Citizenship Award.

Do sanctions mean anything at all?

The world should not be such pushovers; let's hit 'em where it hurts

And actually achieve our goal

GMO People: Something We Can All Get Behind

What's First (in the U.S.) When We Get to Optional Mods?

Fast on the heels of the mapping of the human genome, a breakthrough technology called CRISPR/Cas9 was discovered by scientists recently.  It allows the DNA strands to be cut in exact spots and edited by patching in a more desirable sequence (more inquisitive readers can click here).  It's gonna be Yuge.

First we'll do it on animals, of course

Based on the more novel treatments developed in the past, the United States will likely use DNA modifications for humans with incurable diseases first.  After a period of Humanitarian and/or Investigational Device Exemption (HDE/IDE) and suitable testing, other medical applications will be approved.  About that time, China, Russia and the Koreas will have their next generation of Olympic athletes in utero, side effects not withstanding.  

A whole team of Yao Mings

Swimming anyone?

The rich will foster some niche unregulated markets around the world, but it will be an expensive procedure and probably not a particularly safe one in the beginning.

Eventually, however, the practice of genetically modifying humans will become more commonplace and there will be a hue and cry for optional or "elective" applications.  That's not to say it won't be a controversial idea - one could expect discussions on the order of the abortion debate - but once it works safely for, say, cancer and severed spinal cords, we'll already be accelerating down that slippery slope. 

So, here's what I'm thinking:  Given that it may take a lot of early public funds to kick off the work at the NIH, let's develop a cure first for something we can all benefit from - not just those who undergo the procedure, but those around them.  Let's get rid of body odor.

Our Intemperate Russian Buddies

Russians are so desperate for alcohol that they are downing skin lotion clearly labeled hazardous for consumption

Apparently life in Russia promotes some mighty fine habits

Russia is quite literally drinking itself to death.**

“It’s difficult to overstate how serious Russia’s alcohol problem is.

More than 30% of all deaths in Russia in 2012 were attributable to alcohol, according to WHO data crunched by the OECD. That’s by far the highest among the nations it tracked.

Russian drinkers die a variety of deaths. Alcohol poisoning. Cirrhosis. Accidents. Suicide.”

Here's an idea

Russian and Syrian jets bombed Aleppo - at least 100 killed

Russian airmen in Syria

The next time Vladdy and his minions go after a country that happens to lack in natural resources vital to the U.S., instead of imposing another vicious round of sanctions on three Russian generals and their dogs, let's just give their soldiers FREE VODKA.
   

The rounds are on US - Mother Russia's favorite homegrown recipe, which we'll supply to all their ingressing soldiers and airmen.  We'll send in Relief Convoys with cases and cases of vodka (the moderately good stuff), which would likely not get bombed this time, and leave the bottles at strategic locations throughout the country.  We could even supply SKYY "Lotion," if that'll do the trick.

Let's face it, we don't have the stones to get involved just for humanity's sake, so we'll propose toasts to their glorious victory and let it slowly destroy their livers.  It'll cost less than weapons, and their inebriation on the way may lead to an early end to the conflict, or at least some good breaks for naps.